It was already eight o'clock when Shade returned to Saint Derain Square with the cat. Having returned home, Mia happily wandered about. Like Shade, she loved this place.
Shade did not rest either. He took out the materials for learning Laguerre's Leap, which he had obtained last week, and placed them on the study desk alongside the bundle of Weather Vane Bluegrass he had brought back from Coldwater Port City. There were twelve stalks in total.
Although Weather Vane Bluegrass was also an herbaceous plant, it seemed more like a fern. The portions usable for Shade's thaumaturgy accounted for only about one-fifth of the plant.
He simply processed two of the stalks with scissors, cutting away the useful portions. Then, using a fine needle to puncture the surface, he engraved a long string of Ancient Incantation whose meaning was to guide one's direction onto the plants.
The process was terribly straining on the eyes. The light from a gas lamp was far inferior to the lighting back in his hometown.
After finally finishing the plants themselves as though embroidering them, he went to the window and looked towards the rainy night sky. Once he confirmed there were no unusual celestial signs tonight, he drew the curtains, shut the cat outside the door, extinguished the gas lamp on the study's side wall, and left only the desk lamp burning.
According to the thaumaturgy learning method Professor Garcia had provided, he first ground obsidian into stone dust and mixed it with Bone Powder from a Hass Hound's leg bone. After grinding them finely, he dampened the powder with a mixture of his own blood and water.
Once the powder's color changed from black to white, he placed it in a metal vessel and heated it from below with a match until all