Whispering Verse

Tonight Dorothy will hold a ceremony in Shade's attic to be promoted from the fourth ring of the low ring to the fifth ring of the middle ring, so Shade does not plan to go to Fort Midhill this Sunday.

But after breakfast, Shade went to Old John's pawn shop first. Because he arrived so early, Father John had just opened the door and didn’t even take out the small sign outside:

"You came to my place so early. Do you want to buy something?"

The gray-haired old man finished greeting his neighbors, then yawned and stood at the door of the store to ask Shade, who was walking along the street. Tobesk is so peaceful in the early morning, especially for those who don't have to work hard for a living:

"Detective, help me get the padlock from the door to the counter."

"Okay, but Father John, is the steam pipe at your door leaking? Why do you put a basin here to collect water?"

Shade asked curiously.

"The pipeline company has been notified to come and repair it. We can't delay this, otherwise it will freeze and crack when winter comes. Speaking of which, what are you here for?"

The two of them walked into the store together. The light was not very good in the morning and the gas lamp was turned on in the store.

"Do you have a moonstone?"

"Of course, today's first business is so small? Detective, how much do you want?"

As he spoke, the old man rummaged through the goods list under the counter to check how many goods he still had. . .

"Just a small piece is enough. One of my magic arts requires casting materials, but only a very small amount is lost each time. Therefore, a small piece of moonstone can last me a long time."

"It must be inconvenient to always carry stones in your pocket, right? And it's easy to lose them."

Old John raised his eyes and looked at Shade.

"So what do you mean?"

"I happen to have a ring made of moonstone here, and it has runes written on it using the moon script of the ancestors of the Fourth Age that can enhance the effect of thaumaturgy. Not only that, it"

"You can just make an offer."

Shade smiled and said:

"So early, you are really interested in making money from me."

"For the sake of you introducing Luosha to me and placing a big order, I plan to sell it to you at cost price this time!"

Old John raised his neck and said, and finally took Shade's 1 pound 8 shillings and handed him the ring that looked like it was made of gray stone.

The surface of the ring is relatively smooth, and is engraved with a circle of small and elongated inscriptions. The letters look like a missing moon.

The translated meaning is quite normal:

【May the moon be with you. 】

After returning home, Shade did not wait for the blond female writer. Instead, a strange carriage stopped at the door of his home.

Then a middle-aged woman who called herself "the owner of Aikedi Clothing Store" asked the clerks to carefully take down the twenty sets of clothes from the carriage and send them to the second floor for Shade.

"Miss Princess ordered it for you. She gave us the size information."

The confused Shade took the order from the female shopkeeper and was about to sign for it, when he realized that it was the clothes sent by Lesia:

"How many gold pounds did these clothes cost?"

The inventory only contains information about these hand-made clothes, and there is no price.

"Miss Prince's servant asked us not to tell you the price. It was the lady who asked for it."

Shade nodded and signed his name on the receipt. This way, he won't be short of clothes this fall.

Shade was at home all day long, and Dorothy did not come until ten o'clock in the morning. She looked a little nervous and kept checking the documents she got from the academy to see if there were any gaps in her ritual.

Shade suggested that he invite Luvia and Dr. Schneider to help out in the evening, but Dorothy refused. Her ceremony requires as few people as possible, otherwise it may affect the success rate of the ceremony.

In order to make Dorothy feel more relaxed, after dinner in the evening, Shadra took Dorothy with her to walk the cat in the university area. Afterwards, they did not go home, but sat together on the lawn of the Terrarel River embankment through the university district to watch the stars.

The two talked about many things, and this conversation under the stars was very relaxing for Dorothy. Anyway, when they got home at nine o'clock in the evening, the blonde looked completely fine.

The time chosen for the ceremony was ten o'clock that night. In order to prevent Mia from causing trouble, Shade locked Mia on the second floor in advance and prepared the cat food she liked and the two rings she liked so that the cat would not mess with them. There was too much movement.

At nine-fifty in the evening, Shade and Dorothy came to the attic together. Shade raised his head and glanced at the star map drawn in chalk on the sloping ceiling of the attic:

"If it goes well, the ceremony will be over in twenty minutes. But I'm curious, when you get promoted, will there be any reaction from Lesia a few blocks away?"

"When Lecia was promoted to the fifth ring, I just felt a little warm in my body, and there were no other abnormal phenomena. But once I am promoted this time, we will be on the same level again, and our connection will be strengthened. So, Lecia said an hour ago, Just hide in her room in advance to prevent any accidents."

Dorothy stood in the middle of the floor filled with ritual items, looking at the floor-to-ceiling mirror in the center of the ritual array. This mirror is an antique, said to have been used by the Cavendish princesses three hundred years ago. Dorothy borrowed it from Old John.

Although Papa John is a bit stingy, the products in his hands are absolutely authentic.

Dorothy's core spiritual rune is [Writer] [Play] [Another Princess]. When she is in a low level, she uses [Writer] as the core of the system, uses fairy tales as a means of power, and draws strength from enlightenment until Characters in fairy tales can be summoned as summons to assist in battle.

Lesia's low level also uses this method, while the two ladies plan to use "acting" in the middle level. In addition to continuing to connect the sublimated words of fairy tales and calling out the characters in the stories, try to "play" the characters in those stories by yourself, so that you can have the power of fairy tales.

Therefore, in this promotion, in addition to completely connecting the words of the lower fourth level of sublimation - [Besides the dream of matches, the writer feels compassion for those who freeze to death], she also needs to activate the power of the core spiritual runes as much as possible, and do a good job after the middle level system construction.

This resulted in Dorothy dressing up as a "Match Girl" at this time. That is to say, he was barefoot, wearing patched coarse cloth clothes, his head was wrapped in a turban, his face was smeared with pot ashes, and he was carrying a small basket with matches in the basket.

Probably in order to show the "under-clothed" feeling, some of Dorothy's clothes are not suitable for wearing on autumn nights, but the four-ring warlock will not catch a cold easily, so there is no need to worry about her health.

Now on the ground, in addition to the ritual traces drawn with special chalk, the precious metal charms bought from the academy, the potion bottles on the cabinets on the wall, and the ritual symbols made of antiques, there are also upright matches. . The matches are glued to the clay and fixed on the floor without tipping. Fixing these matches is the most troublesome step in arranging the entire ceremony.

"Attention, there are still ten seconds!"

Shade, who can sense time accurately, said, quickly walking to the attic window and opening it. Tonight's sky is still shrouded in mist, but the moon can still be seen.

The light of the moon shone on Shade. He stood at the window and turned around:

"Five seconds! Call out the life ring!"

Stretching out both hands, huge brass rings appeared simultaneously behind the two of them, and four-colored auras immediately overflowed in the attic.

"Three seconds! Silent Moonlight!"

The moonlight slanted in from the window and shrouded Shade's body, helping him speed up his spiritual recovery. Of course, only he can see this beam of light.

"Two seconds! Misuo, the little match girl!"

Of course, Shade, who only had three rings, could not fully use this thaumaturgy.

But in the first ring, he can summon snowflakes. In the second ring, he can vaguely summon the moon above his head. In the third ring state, while his spirit is rapidly consumed, his body and life ring resonate with the moonlight outside the window. , then the starry sky vaguely overlapped with the star map on the attic ceiling, and it was as if the ceiling had become transparent, allowing the bright galaxy to hang directly above their heads.

Large-scale rituals can also use myth locks. Dorothy spent the winnings from betting on players in the big city some time ago to arrange myth lock rituals in order to allow Shade to use [The Little Match Girl] as fully as possible at this moment.

"One! Dorothy, it's time!"

Dorothy stood in the middle of the loft, eyes closed, facing the huge copper-framed floor-to-ceiling mirror. The moonlight outside the window and the starlight above her head shone on her body at the same time. At the same time, snowflakes fell on her head and shoulders, and then slowly melted.

She carries a basket on her left arm and holds in her right hand the story of "The Little Match Girl" written in her own hand. This is the original version of the story provided by the creator of the story, Shad, and symbolizes the source of sublimated words.

The parchment roll automatically flew into the sky, and the curled paper roll unfolded little by little under the illumination of Dorothy's spiritual light. Then the flame ignited from the tail of the parchment paper, and then spread upward.

The ceremonial array on the ground lit up, and the 365 matches that were not originally lit lit up together under the snow-covered ceiling.

In the swaying light of the fire, the surface of the floor-to-ceiling mirror that originally reflected this strange scene in the attic gradually became blurred. A strange white mist covered the mirror after the parchment roll was completely burned out. Dorothy still kept her eyes closed, her right hand swung gracefully in front of her, and then a match appeared between her fingers.

Shake the match slightly, and the flame appears on the head of the match. She opened her eyes and lightly threw the burning match towards the mirror.

Surrounded by hundreds of matches, surrounded by the ritual matrix that lit up on the ground, surrounded by moonlight, starlight and spiritual light, the match ignited the white mist on the mirror. After the fire, a street scene with falling snow appeared in the mirror.

Shade, who struggled to maintain the starlight and falling snow, breathed a sigh of relief, which meant that the ceremony went very smoothly.

Dorothy held the basket and stared at herself in the mirror on the streets of the snow-falling town. In the mirror, she was huddled on the side of the street, with obvious traces of frostbite on her fair skin, and her face was pale as she looked at the snow-falling town.

"The Fantasy of Matches."

She said softly, and Dorothy's reflection in the mirror seemed to be looking at the "other Dorothy" in the mirror, trembling and standing up.

Dorothy drank the potions prepared in advance, and then evenly sprinkled the dust at her feet with the [Forged Philosopher's Stone] as the material.

The spiritual light on the life ring behind him shone brighter and brighter, and the matches burning on the ground did not shrink, nor did they gradually extinguish. The fire light became brighter and brighter, until the entire attic was illuminated like daylight.