"Shad, I need to take you to a town. We'll take a steam train from Coldwater Harbor Station and arrive at our destination in three hours. If we can reach our goal before dusk, we'll be back the same day. If not, I'm afraid we'll have to spend the night in a country town."
It seems that in order to obtain the Vibration Spirit Rune, one needs to touch something that cannot be moved.
"Okay, Miss Aurora, when do we leave?"
Shade asked. He happened to be free in the past few weeks. Detective Sparrow's commission could be postponed for a while. The spirit rune was the most important thing.
"If it's convenient for you, we'll leave at nine tomorrow morning."
Xia De calculated the time:
"Sure. But where exactly is it located? Do I need to prepare anything in advance?"
Shade asked again.
Miss Aurora pointed to the map of Coldwater Harbor on the wall of the study:
"It's in the rural town of Klein City, east of Coldwater Harbor, the town of Herkils. You just need to prepare the spell materials in advance, nothing else is needed... But you need to do me a favor."
Witches all like to make conditions like this.
"Please go ahead."
"I want to invite you to a ceremony, right here at the manor, right now. All you have to do is stand behind me."
She said this, looking Shad up and down, as if judging whether he was qualified to participate in the ceremony.
"Will there be any danger?"
"There will be absolutely no danger. How about I swear on the reputation of the Aurora family?"
The witch asked with a smile, and Shade felt a little relieved.
But Miss Aurora is not Miss Carina after all, and Shade does not completely trust her:
"So what do we need to do?"
He just thought that Miss Aurora wanted to experiment with some rituals that required an assistant.
"It's simple. Follow me and leave your lovely cat here. The servants will take care of it."
So Xia De followed the lady out of the study, passed through the corridor inside the third floor of the manor house, and came to the outermost corridor near the edge of the mansion.
On one side of the corridor are rooms with closed doors, and on the other side are windows that let in the warm breeze.
They did not move further. Miss Aurora hesitated for a moment before she whispered to Shade:
"Follow me through the corridor ahead."
There was nothing strange about the corridor in front of him. Shade had walked here three or four times. He let the voice in his heart feel it, but he didn't find any trace of any element.
"Is it all right if I just follow you?"
"Of course, this ceremony is very simple."
Miss Aurora nodded:
"But remember, you must follow me and don't get lost."
"get lost?"
Shade asked in surprise, but Miss Aurora was not going to answer him.
"So are you ready, Mr. Hamilton? Please follow me."
She coughed to clear her throat:
"Be sure to follow me, I'm about to start."
The witch took a deep breath, and she actually began to sing:
"The princess in the castle will never understand that the freedom to walk in the world is what we pursue."
"If you meet a witch at a road crossing covered with lavender, where will you go to pick a handful of herbs?"
A sudden breeze blew in from the window, causing the blue hand-woven curtains on one side of the corridor to flutter up and down. Miss Xiwei Aurora, wearing a red dress, walked forward, crossed the floor, and entered the sunlight from the shadow area at the corner of the corridor. Xia De immediately followed.
The sunlight poured from the window onto the cleaned corridor floor, causing the clean floor to reflect dazzling light. The shadow of the window frame divided the sunlight into irregular blocks on the floor, while Shade and the witch walked in the fluttering curtains. The wind made the witch's skirt sway. Standing behind her, Shade could smell the scent of the witch's hair.
It was a special perfume called "the scent of witches", which only a very few people could detect. But unlike Miss Carina and Miss Servet's perfume, Miss Aurora's perfume seemed to have other spices mixed in it.
"Hold the snow on the top of the mountain and watch the sun in the depths of the desert."
"If you could meet us, dear girl~~"
She continued to sing. This was not the common language of the Sixth Epoch, but Shade had heard this song before and remembered the lyrics. Under the giant tree in the Thousand Tree Forest, Miss Felena once sang this song in loneliness. (Note)
The song was gentle and soothing, yet with a hint of melancholy. In the fluttering curtains, Shade saw that the light in front of the corridor suddenly dimmed. As they moved forward, the light around them gradually disappeared, and even the appearance of the corridor changed:
“Please call our names softly and ask any questions you have.”
"Where the lilies are in bloom, or, westward where the sunflowers are."
This was not an illusion. At some point, they entered a narrow brick corridor from the sunlit corridor of the mansion. There was no clear boundary between the corridor and the corridor. In a certain area, the windows and bricks seemed to be completely integrated together, and going forward, they completely entered the corridor.
Xia De wanted to turn around and look behind him to confirm how the two merged, but he was worried about getting "lost", so he could only stare at the back of the witch in front of him and follow her forward step by step.
The ground was covered with white ash, and the two people left clear footprints. Torches were stuck on the wall, illuminating the narrow and dilapidated brick and stone corridor. This place seemed like an ancient relic that had gone through a long time. But Xia De felt that this place was inexplicably familiar:
"It's not the temple of the murlocs. Although the style is similar, it's obviously not the temple. It's not damp here. It's not the corridor of the Dreadfort either. There are spaces in the walls for oil lamps there. Here are torches."
And when his eyes looked over Miss Aurora's shoulder and forward, he finally understood the familiar feeling.
"Please wear your beautiful dress and hold the purple thyme."
"The people who love you and the people you love are all here, in this palace filled with sunshine."
The song came to an end, and the corridor came to an end. In front of them, white mist floated out from the very familiar white mist door like silk. Miss Aurora stopped, sighed softly, and then turned to look at Xia De.
The moment their eyes met, Xia De was very sure that he saw surprise in her eyes.
"Good, you're not lost."
The witch said, looking up and down at Shade. Suddenly she reached out and tried to touch his face.
"Oh, ma'am, that's not polite."
Shade grabbed the witch's wrist. The latter must have been willing to be caught by him.
"Yes, it is a bit rude."
She suddenly moved closer to Xia De, and when their eyes met, Xia De could smell the strange perfume more clearly:
"I'm just glad you're not actually lost."
As he spoke, he pulled his wrist out of Xia De's hand, then smiled and made a gesture of invitation towards the white mist door:
"Now, knight, please come in with me."