The Next Life (?? ?? ???)

The Artefact

"Hey, you good?" I asked Wendy, who sat across the table from me, as I swallowed a mouthful of my carbonara pasta. Her own fork in hand, she was picking at her pasta, having barely touched it in the past ten minutes.

She looked up from her plate as though she'd been waiting for me to ask. "It's the second sighting of a Rasetsu we've seen in less than a month. This is after years, decades of me thinking they weren't real, just a scary story to tell kids. I have a really bad feeling about this."

I reached over to her hand, stopping her mid-twirl of her fork. "I'm sure it'll be fine. Did any of the stories mention how to stop one?"

Shaking her head, her gaze returned to her plate. "Like I said, we were told there was no hope once one sets its sights on you."

"And what about what the victim said before the attack?" Ildo brought up, sitting a couple of seats to my right. "Who was she referring to?"

'It's not like we knew her personally to know who she was close to," Yerim said.

"Didn't sound like she was close to this person, either," Seulgi commented.

"It could've been a cover up."

Seulgi shrugged. "Whoever it is, he's probably already gone by now. That's not even considering the very real possibility of us mishearing what she said."

"Seems the monster left a calling card." Sooyoung lifted the locket, holding the chain between her fingers. "Do we think Somi had some sort of connection to the ghost prince? Or to whatever was behind the tent bar?"

"Maybe the sigil belongs to a cult that worships the Rasetsu," Yerim suggested.

"Again with the cults," Ildo groaned. "They're not as common as your video games make you think, you know." His comment earned him a scowl from the youngest girl.

"What about you, Y/N?" Joohyun questioned. "You know anything about the sigil?"

"I don't, but I know someone who might."

"Oh?" Wendy's voice dripped with curiosity. "And who might that be?"

"Just... a colleague who's interested in historic artefacts."

I'd been internally battling with myself on whether or not I should ask Jisoo about the sigil, but it seemed that this was a much more urgent matter than I'd initially thought. Both times the sigil had been involved, Jisoo had reacted negatively, but maybe this time would be different. Yes, she was unpredictable, but would it be so naive of me to believe that, going off of how much more passive she'd been in my room the other night?

"Okay, then..." Wendy dropped the matter, albeit with a raised eyebrow.

~~~

I stood in the library of the mansion, completely still, in anticipation of a reaction. Jisoo, in front of me, held the locket close to her face, examining the finer details, including the main reason I'd brought it to her in the first place.

"Intriguing," she finally said, and I breathed a sigh of relief. "You say this was in the possession of a Rasetsu?"

"Probably. The Rasetsu and the victim were nowhere to be found. This thing was found on the counter where the attack happened."

She remained silent for a few more moments as she continued to scan the artefact. "It is curious, why a lowly creature such as itself would be carrying an item this valuable."

"Any clue on how old it is?"

"I admit, my capabilities do not go that far as to be able to determine that, but I would assume it came from a good millennium ago."