Aside from his two utterly emotionless eyes, Old Neil's face was piled with wrinkles, his hair sparse. He seemed to have aged more than a decade in an instant. His fingernails were long, as if they had not been trimmed for years, making him look like a zombie that had crawled out of a graveyard.
Old Neil did not notice Klein entering at all. He was still circling the altar, muttering under his breath as though chanting some obscure, incomprehensible spell.
A large blood jar sat on the altar. At its center was a symbol Klein had never seen before: an eye surrounded by several indicator symbols and a ring of polygonal shapes.
Driven by Old Neil's incantation, the eye at the center of the altar seemed to become animated. It stared coldly at Klein, the intruder.
This was not Klein's first time handling an Extraordinary incident. He forced himself to remain calm. Old Neil seemed only one step away from complete Loss of Control. He could not provoke him now, and it was already too late to return and ask the captain for help.
He had to immediately perform a Ritual to beseech the Goddess of the Night's power. This was Old Neil's last chance of salvation.
Thus, Klein approached Old Neil as quietly as possible. After seeing that Old Neil still had not noticed him, he began making the arrangement for the altar.
Everything went smoothly. Just as the altar was ready and Klein was about to pray for the Goddess's power, the eye on Old Neil's cheek suddenly turned, as though it had noticed the newly completed altar.
"Little Klein, please don't disturb me." Old Neil suddenly looked at Klein and said in a hoarse voice, "I'm about to succeed. I'll succeed soon."
Klein took a deep