Ma Qianle was drifting, in that strange state between asleep and awake where one is beginning to become aware but hasn't quite shaken off slumber yet.  Two people were arguing about something he couldn't quite catch.  Something about not caring and jurisdiction from one — Wei Wei Yaling?  And then a response, calm, low, male.  The voice seemed somehow familiar, but Ma Qianle couldn't place it.

What was going on?  Where was he?  He remembered being in that oppressive penthouse, fighting a possessed woman, but in his sleep-hazed state he couldn't remember what had happened next.  Had he lost?  He certainly felt as if he might have.  Every limb felt drained, limp as noodles, and his head threatened to split in two.

He struggled to draw the memories out of his aching brain.  He had managed to separate the ghost from the woman and then…

A pendant.  Wei Yaling had told him to get a pendant from the woman.  He didn't know what it was, but from Wei Yaling's tone it seemed like it had been something important, so he'd grabbed it.  And then the woman had done...something to him.  He had collapsed, the pendant in one hand.  Wait, where was the pendant?  It wasn't in his hand anymore.

Ma Qianle pried his eyes open with no small difficulty.  He found himself staring at the ceiling, flat on his back on the couch in his living room.  He only looked for a moment before closing his eyes again, the overhead light stabbing like an icepick into his left eye socket.  He rubbed briefly at his temple with the heel of his hand before levering himself up into a seated position with a groan.  The arguing stopped.

"Ma Qianle!  It's about time!" Wei Yaling exclaimed.  She rushed over from where she was seated in Ma Qianle's small dining room and came to squat in front of him on the coffee table.  A man followed her, presumably the owner of the other voice Ma Qianle had heard.  He sat on the couch next to Ma Qianle, finally allowing the still groggy man a better look at his face.

Ah.

Ruan Ye.

The previous time they'd met, while he'd thought the other handsome, Ma Qianle hadn't gotten a particularly good view of him due to the darkness of the night.  In the bright light of Ma Qianle's living room he was downright striking.  His long hair was deepest black, pulled back casually into a loose half bun atop his head.  A few strands had come loose and were hanging around his face, contrasting starkly with his fair skin.  His eyes were so dark as to be almost indistinguishable from the pupil, seeming as vast and endless as the lake at night.  Like Wei Yaling, he wore old fashioned clothing, though of a different style, and in shades of deepest blue over white rather than bright and colorful.  Ma Qianle was on the tall side, but he estimated Ruan Ye was even taller by at least a few centimeters.

Ruan Ye reached out to take Ma Qianle's wrist, placing three fingers lightly on the inside to check his pulse.  "How are you feeling?"  he asked with a smile.

Ma Qianle stared at him for a moment.  Then, with the hand that Ruan Ye was not currently holding, Ma Qianle wound up and punched the other in the stomach.

'What the hell is he doing here?!' Ma Qianle thought indignantly.  'He dumps me in the lake to drown and then disappears. Does he think he can show up here and act like nothing happened?  He hasn't even apologized!'

Ruan Ye, to his credit, took the punch well.  He only curled around his middle slightly, letting out a shocked oof, and didn't even lose his gentle but firm grip on Ma Qianle's wrist.  He took a second to catch his breath, then looked at Ma Qianle with a slight tilt to his head and one eyebrow lifted.

"You have a very curious way of thanking someone for saving your life, Ma Ma Qianle," he said, his tone tolerant but rebuking.

Ma Qianle exploded.  "Saving my life?  From what I've been told I wouldn't have even been there if not for you!  I was living just fine until you showed up, and now I'm dealing with ghosts and risking my life just because you decided I should!  The last time we met you tried to kill me!"

He couldn't help shouting.  He had been angry with Ruan Ye from the beginning, since the day the other had seemed to attempt to drown him for some arbitrary reason Ma Qianle didn't understand. That anger had only simmered into a deep resentment of the other man over the months that had passed since the incident at the lakeside.  He had come to blame Ruan Ye for every bruise and moment of exhaustion he had suffered at the hands of the dead since his training had begun, for every moment that he couldn't devote to his friends and hobbies because he had had other duties thrust upon him without so much as a by-your-leave.

Ruan Ye sighed as he rubbed his stomach with his free hand.  "I suppose if you put it that way you do have a valid point.  Still, I cannot apologize for involving you in this world.  Also, I did genuinely mean you no harm the last time we met."

Ma Qianle jerked his wrist back from Ruan Ye's hand.  "You could've fooled me," he said, scowling.

"It is the truth,"  Ruan Ye replied, the picture of forbearance.  "It is necessary for a mortal to have a brush with death before they can become an agent of the hells.  Even had I meant you ill, I could not have caused you any lasting harm.  The heavens would have prevented it."  

He explained everything calmly, patiently, and Ma Qianle found it all the more infuriating.  He had sucker punched him, and the fucker didn't even seem to bothered in the least!

"It's true, you know," Wei Yaling interjected, startling Ma Qianle.  In his anger he had almost forgotten she was even there.  "Keepers are the guardians appointed by the heavens to protect mortals from the supernatural world.  They literally can't harm mortals that aren't actively trying to harm them."  She gestured at Ma Qianle's chest, making a gun with one hand.  "He could shoot you, bang, straight through the heart from this distance. As long as he wasn't defending himself, the Heavenly Law would intervene and you'd survive it with no permanent harm."

"Hrmph," Ma Qianle grunted, crossing his arms.  "That's no reason to dump someone in a lake to drown and then walk away," he muttered under his breath, but he dropped it.  He was far from ready to let go of his anger at Ruan Ye, but he didn't have the energy to keep fighting.  What he really wanted right now was a hot cup of tea, a hefty dose of painkillers, and a long, long nap.

Wanting to move things along so he could get these two eyesores out of his apartment, Ma Qianle changed the subject.  "What was that pendant you had me grab, anyway?"  he asked Wei Yaling.  "And what the hell did she do to me? I don't recognize it as any spell that was in that jade slip you gave me."

Wei Yaling shifted her position on the coffee table from a crouch to sitting cross legged and frowned.  "I'm not certain about the pendant yet, but if it is what I think it is, it's something she shouldn't have been able to get her hands on.  It shouldn't even be in the mortal realms.."

Ma Qianle didn't like the sound of that.  "So if it shouldn't be here, how did she get it?" he asked.

Wei Yaling shook her head.  "I don't know.  I need to do a little digging first, make some inquiries down in the underworld.  I'll tell you more about it once I've confirmed it.  As for how you ended up passed out on the couch, well…" she scratched her head a bit sheepishly.  "I suppose it's my turn to apologize, for going into that fight without complete information. I'm sorry."

"What?"  Ma Qianle was confused at the sudden apology.

"She was not a mortal," Ruan Ye chimed in.  "She was a plague demon.  They have the ability to inflict sickness on a person with even the smallest touch.  I sensed her using her powers and when I arrived you were barely conscious."

"Ah," Ma Qianle said.  No wonder he felt so unwell right now.  He knew of the existence of the various demons and spirits that inhabited the mortal realm alongside humans, but his training hadn't included more than the barest minimum of knowledge about the various types, and even less on their respective abilities.  The dead were the responsibility of the Impermanents and the Mortal Agents, and the rest were the responsibility of the Keeper.  Their jurisdictions seldom overlapped.

"So, what happened to her after I passed out?"  Ma Qianle asked.  "And what about the ghost she was working with?"

"We've got them both right here," Wei Yaling said, gesturing to a pair of small stoppered jars sitting next to her on the coffee table.

Ma Qianle looked at them and cocked an eyebrow. "You can seal a living creature in one of those things?"

"Ehhhh, not exactly…" Wei Yaling said, looking sheepish again.

"You cannot," Ruan Ye said matter of factly.  "After you fell unconscious, I killed her."Ma Qianle turned on Ruan Ye, his fury kindled anew. 

"You did what?"