Chapter 48 The Ceremony is Successful
In the basement of No. 6 Daffodil Street, Tingen City.
Angel, dressed in a simple black robe, walked down the stairs carefully, holding a plate of Feneport noodles. The basement was already brightly lit by several candles and an oil lamp. She walked around the debris beside the stairs and came to the center of the basement, where there was a square wooden table that had been moved down from the living room in advance.
Seafood rice, white bread and Dulcie pie were placed in three corners of the table. The Fenapote noodles in her hand were the last meal needed for the ceremony. They had just been delivered from the Silver Crown Restaurant on the corner of the street. They were still steaming hot and exuding a rich aroma, tempting Angel's taste buds and making her appetite whet after just having lunch.
"This is a tribute required for the ceremony, you can't eat it..."
Resisting the urge to slurp the juicy noodles, Angel placed the plate on the remaining corner of the table and picked up the parchment in his hand again to confirm that the four foods were placed correctly.
"In clockwise order, it's paella... white bread... Feynaporte..."
After confirming that the four types of food had been placed one by one, although the Dipsy pie was no longer as hot as when it was freshly baked, and the crust of the white bread bought first was a little dehydrated and wrinkled, it should not affect the effect of the ceremony.
“Then there are the essential oils…moonflower, golden mint, deep sleep flower, golden hand orange, and rock rose.”
Of course, she couldn't confirm the mixed essential oils, so she could only recall in her mind whether the essential oil she bought was wrong, and then put the small bottle of light blue mixed essential oil aside for future use.
Sandalwood candles had been placed in advance at the four corners of the table, next to the four kinds of food. In order to prevent the candles from falling over due to accidental disturbance, she fixed them in advance with the wax from another burning candle.
She lit four sandalwood candles with a match. Under the faint flame, she simply used coarse salt and clean water to sanctify the carving knife. She held the knife in a circle around the square table that had become the altar, and used the invisible power gushing out from the tip of the knife to create a spiritual wall around the altar that could isolate unclean things.
Under the isolation of the spiritual wall, the area around the square table seemed to have become an enclosed space, as if all interference and unclean forces were excluded.
Angel dripped the mixed essential oil onto the flames of four candles in turn. As the liquid evaporated instantly, a faint fragrance filled the basement, mixing with the existing sandalwood scent, adding a touch of mystery to the ceremony.
Angel, dressed in a black robe and a hood, like a cultist, licked her lips and lowered her head, reciting the spell in Hermetic language that she had already memorized.
"A fool who does not belong to this era, a mysterious ruler above the gray fog, the yellow and black king who controls good luck."
"I pray for your help, I pray for your favor..."
"...Please transfer your power to my spell."
After reciting the entire spell taught by the Fool, Angel felt as if a breeze was blowing around him. The flames of the four candles burning on the table trembled slightly for a moment, and then quieted down again.
With a thought, she raised her right hand and looked at her palm. The teardrop-shaped mark that had become invisible on her palm after the first Tarot meeting reappeared, and a deep red light flickered in it.
Was the ceremony successful?
Angel quickly closed his eyes, clasped his hands together, and prayed softly, "Respected Mr. Fool, I have completed the ritual you instructed. Do you have any other instructions?"
After waiting for a moment, she opened her eyes in confusion and looked at the simple altar made of wooden table, food and candles. Everything was the same as before. The breeze around had disappeared and nothing seemed to have changed.
"That's it? Do I need to continue waiting for His response?"
Angel didn't dare to move, but continued to stand in front of the altar until the four candles were half burned and the scent of sandalwood in the basement became stronger.
"Perhaps Mr. Fool is too busy to respond to these trivial matters..."
She shook her head, blew out the candle, and began to clean up the food that was already getting cold.
————
This morning, the elite Nighthawks of Tingen City went to the underground trading market of the Dragon Bar in the dock area to arrest the wanted criminal "instigator" Tris who appeared there. Angel followed Xijia Teon to the police station to transfer a team of plainclothes patrolmen, and then returned to the Blackthorn Security Company according to the order of Captain Dunn Smith, waiting for good news from others.
Unexpectedly, the first person to come back was the dejected "Midnight Poet" Leonard Mitchell. After his explanation, Angel and others who stayed behind realized that the arrest operation had failed from the beginning.
The reason naturally lies in the delicate relationship between the major churches, which are both cooperative and competitive.
Generally speaking, the three official Beyonder factions in Tingen City—the Nighthawks, the Mandated Punishers, and the Mechanical Heart—are in a state of cooperation. They belong to the three major Orthodox churches of the Kingdom of Loen: the Goddess of Night, the Lord of Storms, and the God of Steam and Machinery. They handle cases involving Beyonder factors within their respective jurisdictions according to the principle of their followers' affiliation, rarely interfering with each other.
However, the "Alfalfa Tragedy" involved double-digit victims, and many believers from the three major churches were implicated. When faced with such a complex situation, the usual rules are to divide management according to jurisdiction. The Night Watchmen are responsible for the Golden Sycamore District, West District, and North District of Tingen City, the Mechanical Heart manages the University District and the outskirts of Tingen, and the Punishers handle cases in the East District, South District, and Dock District.
Tris, the "instigator" who caused the passengers of the Clover to kill each other this time, appeared in the dock area. Logically, the Punishers of the Church of the Lord of Storms should be responsible, but the Mechanical Heart also has a reason - the most casualties on the Clover were the believers of the God of Steam and Machinery, and the informant who witnessed Tris's reappearance was a subordinate developed by the Mechanical Heart.
So, after receiving the tip-off, the Mechanical Heart quickly dispatched a team of Beyonders, and even brought a team of armed forces equipped with high-pressure steam rifles, vowing to capture the wild Beyonders who dared to attack the believers.
Unexpectedly, the "instigator" Tris was extremely vigilant and left the scene before the encirclement was formed, leaving the Mechanical Heart's large group empty-handed. They could only vent their anger on the ordinary people in the Dragon Bar, comparing their appearances and asking for clues over and over again.
According to Leonard, the underground market had not resumed normal trading until he returned. Dunn Smith, who rushed to the scene with him, was also dragged away to assist in the investigation of several key suspects and was unable to escape for a while.
"Why not try divination?"
Klein, the fortune teller who also stayed at the company, was eager to try. Last week, he helped Angel solve a ring recovery commission and received a 30-pound bounty. He also rescued a kidnapped boy with Leonard Mitchell through the divining rod and received another generous extra income. Now he has become proficient in the use of divination.
Leonard shook his head, dismissing this method. "Members of the Mechanical Heart and Mandated Punisher teams were present, including experienced Beyonders skilled in divination. Two of them attempted divination separately, but both failed. Perhaps there were too few clues, or perhaps other Beyonders interfered with the results."
Interference with divination again...
Angel was troubled by this. She had originally thought that divination was a very useful means of obtaining intelligence in the mysticism, but she had not expected that various wild Beyonders seemed to have methods to interfere with the divination results. Apart from the two commissions completed by Klein, she had not seen any successful examples of divination.
Regardless, after this incident, the Beyonders' plan to seize the opportunity before the wanted posters were posted everywhere and capture Tris, who hadn't yet realized he was wanted, completely failed. The next step was to conduct extensive patrols and searches based on the wanted posters. With luck, they might find clues to Tris's whereabouts, but with bad luck, like his predecessors who had been on wanted posters for years, they would disappear without a trace.
Since capturing Tris was hopeless, Angel lost interest in waiting. Before becoming a full member, she wasn't required to guard Chanis Gate all night, and her work schedule was quite flexible. Remembering she still had to complete the task assigned by The Fool today, she found an excuse to leave Blackthorn Security Company. Before the lunch rush, she bought all the necessary food and successfully completed the ceremony in the basement.
Unfortunately, The Fool did not respond to her prayer on the spot. It was not known whether it was because the other two Tarot Club members had not yet completed the ritual, or because The Fool simply did not bother to respond. In any case, Angel believed that he had successfully completed the task assigned by Him. He cleaned up the ritual site with peace of mind and packed up the Fenapotent noodles he had been craving for.
This is a way of saving... and it seems that many places have the custom of eating sacrificial offerings... Angel made an excuse.
In the afternoon, since she was not yet an official member, she did not return to the Blackthorn Security Company. She played cards and slacked off with other idle Nighthawks. She was not sure whether the underground market of the Dragon Bar would reopen. She could only spend her time making the talismans she learned from Old Neil. After wasting several sets of making materials, she finally succeeded in completing a "Sleeping Talisman".
This is a spell derived from the power of the "domain" of the Goddess of Night. Its effect is similar to the power that made people fall asleep after Leonard chanted a poem in the battle with Lady Sharon. Because it overlaps with the power of the Night Watchmen in the "Sleepless" sequence, almost no one in the Night Watchmen uses it.
But for Angel, who is in the "Assassin" sequence and lacks this kind of extraordinary ability, it is a good supplement to his combat power.
Both sides of the silver square, the size of a playing card, are engraved with mystical symbols representing the goddess of night, as well as complex Hermetic spells. This is also one of the difficulties in making talismans. The various traces of holes on the discarded silver pieces nearby are the best proof of this.
In this successfully crafted talisman, Angel could feel the tranquil and profound power of the Goddess of Night. As long as he infused his own spirituality into it and recited the activation spell, the talisman would burst out with power to put surrounding creatures to sleep in a few seconds.
Glancing at her pocket watch, she realized there was still some time before dinner, so she carefully put away the "Sleeping Spell" she had successfully made, picked up a new piece of silver, and prepared to try another talisman from the realm of the Goddess of Night, the "Dream Spell."
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