The next day was Thursday. Early in the morning, Shade received a letter from Miss Galina as soon as he woke up. The witch told him that he absolutely, under no circumstances, was to refuse to visit her estate that afternoon.
Shade knew she wanted to ask about Coldwater Port, so he yawned, casually set the letter aside, and enjoyed a quiet breakfast at home with his cat.
After breakfast, Shade changed clothes and prepared to head out. He picked up a towel and gestured to the cat, who was standing excitedly on the windowsill watching the doves.
"Mia, want to go see the sea and a lighthouse?"
"Meow?"
This cat probably still could not understand the words "sea" and "lighthouse" in Delarion Common Language. But seeing Shade calling to it, it happily scampered over anyway.
Thus, two hours later, Shade stood before the lighthouse watched over by old Mr. Edmund, holding the cat as he and wide-eyed Mia gazed out at the glittering, rolling sea beyond the cliff.
The orange cat's open-mouthed, wide-eyed expression was truly hilarious.
The weather was lovely today. Beneath the azure sky, though the sea was not calm, its sparkling waves were far friendlier than the Red Sea. Standing atop the cliff in the sea breeze at the end of summer, basking in the warm sunlight and listening to the deafening roar of the crashing waves, Shade truly felt as though this trip to Coldwater Port was a vacation.
Mia, a pet cat born in Tobesk, was probably seeing the sea for the first time. When Shade changed it back from a plush toy into a real cat by the cliff behind the lighthouse, its fur stood on end as it huddled in his arms.
But after confirming that the sound of the waves would