Whispering Verse

"Luvia, give me a towel, what happened?"

"Still can't see clearly."

The hair on her forehead was wet and stuck to her skin. Luvia shook her head:

"This is no longer interference from the miraculous element. I suspect it has the ability to counter divination itself."

"You take a rest first, and I'll try to channel it."

For souls who have not yet reached the end, channeling is usually simple and effective, but that is limited to ordinary souls. But this time, Shade's "soul echo" didn't work at all for the first time. He didn't know that he failed to communicate with Mr. Thomas Granger at all, or that the other party rejected Shade's "invitation."

"It doesn't matter, there is a way."

Luvia thought carefully for a while:

"Use a Ouija board."

“But what’s the use of a Ouija board if you can’t communicate with spirits?”

"No, no, it's not a Ouija board for communicating with souls, it's communicating with corpses."

She rummaged through the suitcase she brought and found the oak board, which was not very large. Twenty-nine Kasenrik letters were engraved on the board, and the etching marks were painted with red paint. Matching the Ouija board is a wooden pointer with a round glass ball in the center. With the combination of the two, you can play simple psychic games.

"I learned a new skill from the Seer Association in Randall Valley, and it's time to give it a try. Shade, don't you know how to do puppetry? Now let the skeleton sit up."

So Shade controlled the skeleton to sit up, stretched out the skeleton's right arm, and pressed the index finger bone and Luvia's finger on the Ouija board. Shade lit Luvia's special spice on the side, and the dark green smoke immediately filled the inside of the skeleton, as if filling it with muscles.

As the soothsayer recited the incantation, the skeleton controlled by Shade started to tremble. Then the skeleton's head was raised, and a gray mist appeared in the eye sockets.

"Are you Thomas Granger?"

Luvia asked immediately, and the small pointer of the Ouija board, which was pressed by both the dead and the living at the same time, quickly pointed to three letters, which together meant "yes".

"Where has your soul gone?"

Luvia asked again, and the pointer quickly changed its position again, spelling out the word "I don't know."

"Expected."

Luvia whispered softly and asked her real question:

"Where are the clues to the location of your soul?"

This time the small pointer of the Ouija board did not move immediately. It took half a minute before the fingers of the dead and the living were slowly moved to different letters.

Shade put those letters together to mean:

【I-guard-protect-this-big-land, I-will-appear-in-the-crazy-place-of-the-big-land. 】

"In other words, are we still looking for the local Crazy Land?"

Shade asked:

"Miss Benenice's manor, the petrified area in the creek forest outside the city, and St. Perry's Cemetery. I encountered three crazy lands in the Randall Valley, but I didn't run into Mr. Granger in any of them. "

The purple-eyed girl raised her eyebrows:

"This is easy to explain, because the problems in these three places are not serious. In the first place, Miss Lassers often cleans up the evil spirits caused by the land, so the pollution is constantly weakened. The performance of the petrified forest in the second place is The weakest one, it seems that the problem has just arisen, and even the petrified corpse will take a long time to be swallowed. Although the third place is dangerous, it is still restricted and sealed by St. Perry, so it is theoretically the safest."

"It makes sense. The problem I encountered in the Emerald Dream was serious enough, so Mr. Granger took the initiative to show up. Next, I still have to find the craziest land that already exists locally? "

As Xia De was talking, he suddenly felt that the trembling force of the bones became stronger, and he almost couldn't control it:

"We can't ask any more. If we continue to ask, this skeleton will turn into an undead creature. Mr. Thomas Granger most likely died for a noble reason, and we cannot desecrate his body."

Luvia nodded, and Shade controlled the bones that were about to lose control and lay back in the coffin. He quickly closed the lid of the coffin, and then placed the round emblem on his chest on the lid. The round emblem is used to detect witches, and the surrounding bone white border is a top-level alchemical magical item made by Priest August, which can effectively inhibit the generation of undead creatures.

"Can you divine the location of the Crazy Land within the Randall Valley?"

"Oh, Shade, I've said it many times, don't think that divination is omnipotent. Besides, Crazy Earth is the influence of the deviation of the earth's essence. Why do you think that my divination can predict this? It should be possible to use special coins for divination, but now we don’t have any coins.”

"Then just wait. At least the final goal has been determined. Just wait for Mr. Granger to show up."

Shade sighed slightly, and the clue was interrupted, but the interruption was not complete.

While talking, he looked at the middle-aged stone statue next to little Mia from the corner of his eye:

"Louvia, what do you think of this stone statue?"

Luvia turned around and looked at the sitting stone statue:

"this?"

She put her hands on the shoulders of the stone statue, waited for a moment and said to Shade:

"It's just an ordinary stone statue."

"Is it possible that this is also a corpse, and that it is an innocent person who died because of the curse of the crazy earth?"

Shade asked, making sure that the coffin was no longer shaking before he came to the stone statue:

"The first time I saw this sitting stone statue, I felt that something was wrong with it. After all, the wrinkles on the face, the details of the hair, and the marks on the clothes due to sitting were all too realistic, and the shape of the stone statue's face was too lifelike. The expression was too real. I couldn’t even imagine this expression of regret, relief, and pilgrimage. When I first came to Randall Valley, I didn’t know about Crazy Land, so I didn’t guess that this was A stone statue of a living person.”

"I can't divine it. It's not a body at all. It's just a stone."

Luvia frowned:

"If you directly divine the source of the stone, the only result you can get is the earth. Your guess may be correct, but I am more inclined to investigate it as a real statue."

"You mean, Randall Valley Masons?"

Luvia nodded:

"Investigate it as a corpse. We have no clues for the next step. If you are interested in this, it is better to go to the local masons' association to find out the information. Such a lifelike and perfect stone statue, if it is the work of local masons, it will definitely not be without records. of."

Shade also agreed with this view, and he had plans to go to the Masons' Guild. Margaret was dealing with a decades-long debt dispute between the Masons and the Anjou family. There was also a strange local legend that the Masons could make "movable stone figures". Since the clues about "Thomas Granger" have been temporarily suspended, it is better to go to the Masons' Guild to investigate. At least this will not be a complete waste of time.

The seated stone statue was almost completely integrated with the stone chair under the body. Shade did not want to damage either of them, nor did he want to move the stone statue, which might be a corpse, out of the church. So he suggested renting a camera, taking photos of the stone statues, and then taking the photos to the Stonemasons Association to inquire.

The use of cameras in this era was far more complicated than the "point-and-shoot" cameras used by outsiders in their hometown. Not only are the flash bulbs of magnesium lamps disposable, but you also have to consider bulb replacement when setting up a flash. The most troublesome thing is actually focusing the lens.

There is no automatic focusing technology now. The camera operators need to sit behind a black cloth and squint at the lens to adjust the focus. This requires quite professional skills.

To ensure safety and concealment, Shade planned to rent a camera from Tobesk. He took the photos himself, and he didn't need to be very skilled, as long as he could capture the general appearance of the statue.

So Shade took Mia back to Tobesk, and agreed to meet Luvia at two o'clock in the afternoon.

After returning to Tobesk, I originally planned to go directly to the photo studio to inquire about the rental, but after I left home, I thought of another way, so I went to Quill Street to find Dorothy.

"You want to rent a camera from Steambird Daily?"

Miss Writer's "Hamilton Detective Stories" was serialized and distributed through the channel of "Steambird Daily", not to mention that her father, Professor Louisa, is also one of the shareholders of "Steambird Daily".

She originally planned to finish writing the manuscript for next week's serialization at home this morning. Since Shade rarely came to ask for help, Dorothy was happy to take Shade to the "Steambird Daily" newspaper office.

Now she is the most important contributor in the "Steam Bird Daily" newspaper. After coming to the door, she took Shade directly to find the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, Mr. Newcastleman, a middle-aged man with half-bald hair who looked to be in his forties. .

After explaining his purpose, Mr. Newcastleman behind the desk enthusiastically said that he could help:

"Detective Hamilton, instead of renting a camera, it is better to buy one. The newspaper office has some old cameras that have been eliminated. Although they can still be used, they are disliked by our reporters because they are too old. Since Mr. Hamilton is renting a camera for investigation , maybe it will be used in the future. Why not buy an old one from us, I can give you a very cheap price."

Although it was suspected of clearing inventory for the newspaper company, Xia De felt that this proposal was not bad. He and Dorothy then went to the warehouse to check on the old cameras. Although they are old models, there is no problem in using them.

Shade then made up his mind to buy it, but developing the film still required a darkroom and chemicals. So after negotiating the price, Shade bought the York II camera produced in 1845 at the lowest price of 15 pounds, and got three additional rolls of film and a box of replacement spotlight bulbs.

In addition, he can go to the "Steam Bird Daily" newspaper office to purchase camera supplies at any time in the future, and he can learn camera technology and film development technology here today. The latter was a skill that photographers used to earn a living, but for Dorothy's sake, Shade was allowed to learn it.