"I don't know exactly what happened. It wanted to find you, so it rushed into the night, and then it glowed."
Fiona continued to speak, and Shad looked at his cat with suspicion. However, before he could think of anything else, Fiona explained:
"Since you said it has a bloodline other than that of an ordinary cat, I think it must have actively activated the power of its ancient ancestor's bloodline when it was facing a life-threatening situation. This is not uncommon. Even if the bloodline is very thin, it is still considered an inheritance of the ancestral power. In addition, when its tail touched my tail just now, I seemed to have some special feelings, which should explain what happened just now."
Fiona herself is a hybrid of human, elf and dragon, so her statement is very credible.
There is not much time left now. Even if one wants to find out the truth behind Mia's sudden glow, now is not the time.
"Maybe that's the case. Let's take a look at what's going on here first. Oh, Fiona, what we're looking for this time is..."
"A golden needle."
The lobby of the art gallery is large, but there are lights only at the door and above the reception counter. This results in a large area of the interior being a mixture of light and dark, and it does not have the warmth and comfort of the previous two stores.
There was no one at the reception desk. On the wall behind the counter hung a large portrait of a man with a black background. The man with a hooked nose looked like he was looking at someone outside the painting no matter from which direction he looked.
On the counter was an art booklet with a hard cover, which looked quite formal. The name of Midnight Art Gallery was written in white letters on the cover, and the rest was black.
When I opened the manual, the first page was not an introduction to the museum’s collection of artworks, but a warning written in black on white paper:
Don't make loud noises in the museum!
Do not damage the museum's collection!
Do not make eye contact with any object in the museum for more than ten seconds!
"It seems that this place is more dangerous than the previous two places."
Shad said to Fiona, and the red dragon girl nodded and watched Shad quickly flipping through the collection manual.
Although this collection manual has more pages than the watch shop's product catalog, Shade was lucky enough to see the last key item to piece together the compass in Fiona's hand on page 103:
The God of Labyrinth - the golden needle of "Lost Goddess", a magical item. When the sunlight or moonlight shines on the upright golden needle, its shadow will guide you.
The museum's collection brochure is a full-color picture, and the picture on the left is the golden needle. But it is not a sewing needle because Xia De can't see the hole.
The "Lost Goddess" is keen on building mazes, and it is rumored that the architecture of the City of Eternal Night is also related to her.
You have to pay to buy the paint that can be used to paint on the night.
The texts here are all from the current era of the Fifth Age, and judging by the grammar, the "paint" that needs to be paid can be used to paint directly on the "night" itself, that is, using the empty night as the canvas.
"What kind of weird request is this?"
Xia De muttered, but he was not too embarrassed:
"Fiona, do you have anything similar on you right now?"
The Red Dragon girl reached behind her and took out the small package she had brought from the cafe. She searched for it briefly:
“Maybe there was, but not now.”
"Okay, I'll go find it."
"So, you're leaving again?"
She asked rather pitifully. It was indeed a bit cruel to leave her here alone, but Xia De couldn't decide whether to stay or go:
"Continue to wait for me in your dreams. May the moon bless you, Miss Fiona Drago."
Shad said seriously, then found a wall without any paintings and together with Fiona, he set up a camp with tents as the center again.
This time he brought more mattresses and quilts, and made the tent quite soft. Then, Shade used short stone pillars to surround the tent, and then tied each stone pillar with thick hemp ropes. Standing outside the tent, inside the stone pillar fence, Shade released his new magic:
"Thorns of the Moon!"
After casting the spell three times in succession, holy silver, bright yellow and bloody red thorn bushes densely clung to the stone pillars and hemp ropes.
Fiona held Shad's coat and sat in the tent, watching Shad cast a spell. After he bent down and sat on the ground so that his vision was level with hers, she said in a low voice:
"You must come back as soon as possible... In my dream, I will try my best to recall the things I have forgotten... You must come back."
"It's agreed that I will walk with you to the end of this city and then send you out safely."
Xia De repeated what he had said. The time was almost up, and white mist was already rising around him. Mia, who was squatting on his shoulder, curiously stretched out her claws to grab the white mist. Xia De quickly turned it into a toy and put it in his pocket:
"Hmm? Little Mia can see the fog too... Oh, it doesn't belong to this time either."
Thinking in my heart, I said softly:
"Well, I should go now."
The Red Dragon girl nodded slightly, then asked with a slightly red face:
"Can you give me a kiss? Just a gentle kiss."
The boy looked at Shade, who hesitated for a moment, then leaned forward and lightly touched Fiona's red lips as she knelt in the tent and closed her eyes. Although they had kissed in the watch shop and in the Gaddis Library a long time ago, the soft feeling was still surprising:
"Goodnight, Fiona."
He said softly.
"Goodnight, Shad."
The red-haired girl responded, and when she opened her eyes again, Shade was no longer in front of her.
(Little Mia is running...)
Stranger, you have returned to the present time.
Stumbling out of the door of the side bedroom, Xia De touched his lips, and the melancholy feeling made him sigh unconsciously:
"Now is not the time to be sad...Mia~"
He took the cat out of his pocket, restored it, and held it in his palm. He looked into the cat's big eyes, and Shade also stared at it with wide eyes:
"Mia, when did you learn to shine?"
"Meow~"
The cat meowed softly.
"You mean, when you came into close contact with the flame on the tip of Fiona's tail in the watch shop, you felt the power... Hmm? When did I learn cat language?"
She chuckled and said:
It just meowed, and you can guess what it means.
"I see... Can you say the onomatopeia 'meow~' again?"
Xia De asked, and "she" naturally ignored Xia De's request.
"So Mia, can you still shine?"
Xia De asked expectantly, and the silly cat looked at him without any reaction.
"So, what else do you have? Don't tell me, you still don't know anything."
Xia De said again, putting Mia on the dining table. The squatting cat stood up, and then tensed all the muscles in its body - if it really had any, the hair on its back would have exploded, and it looked like it was trying very hard.
After a moment, an extremely faint, almost invisible light appeared on the cat's tail. Xia De's eyes widened:
“That’s it!”
"Meow!"
The light gradually became stronger, of course, only relative to just now.
"It's coming! It's coming!"
"Meow!"
The light gathered on Xiaomia's tail.
"Yes! Yes!"
"Meow!"
In Xia De's expectant eyes—
puff!
A small cluster of dazzling golden flames appeared at the tip of the cat's tail, but it flickered and disappeared. If Shade had blinked just now, he might not have seen the flames.
"You can really emit flames?!"
Looking at Xiaomia again, the cat was spinning in circles excitedly, chasing its tail, and seemed very satisfied with its own "strength".
"But even though it's considered an extraordinary power, what is this? A small flame that charges?"
So Shade picked up the cat with his left hand, held its tail with his right hand, and came to the stove while Mia was struggling violently. After turning on the gas stove, he ordered Mia to show her skills.
It took a lot of effort to make the silly cat understand what he wanted to do. After Mia "accumulated energy" again, the small flame that appeared for the second time from the cat's tail held by Shade successfully ignited the gas stove in front of him.
"Well... I can save money on matches by cooking at home... No, I can also summon fire myself. This is a basic spell..."
He didn't know how to describe the cat's ability. If you don't count the cat's ability to transform from a toy into a cat, this was the first extraordinary ability the cat had shown, and it was also something Shade had always wanted to prove. But when this really happened, Shade felt that it was nothing at all, and it didn't meet his expectations at all. The uniqueness of this ability couldn't even be compared with Mia's own super intelligence.
What did you expect to see
"How about Mia turning into the sun and dispelling the darkness of Evernight City?"
"She" had no intention of responding to this sentence at all.
Although Xia De had done a lot of things this morning, it was only a little before eight o'clock.
Seeing that it was still early, Shade packed up and prepared to go out. Winter was coming to an end, and the weather in Tobysk was really good a few days ago. But today, the familiar fog enveloped the city again. Although the sun had risen, the city still looked gloomy.
Outside the window, the sound of a carriage passing by and a newsboy shouting out the news could be heard. At this moment, the doorbell downstairs rang. Xia De curiously went to open the door, only to find that it was Yin Luna who came to visit so early:
"There's new news!"
The 17-year-old girl said excitedly as soon as she entered the door. Xia De invited her to go upstairs to talk, but Yin Luna had other things to do and was about to leave:
"Last Thursday morning, after you told me about the feast of the Earth Mother at the Three Cats Inn, I told the church about it. As expected, the church began to arrange for me to go on a business trip to the Randall Valley, but the specific time is uncertain. In addition, I saw more poems about the chosen ones of the earth!"