The small knife Shade found in Miss Norma's home had been used to draw blood for making those potted plants, which she gave to men who favored her so that, after her death, she could continue drawing power from their souls for that land. Having the three men who loved her bury her was the land's final call to her. It was a very ancient ritual of "love": willing sacrifice, mad yet pure love, and ritual participants who had been deceived.
Together, these had given birth to the terrifying undead Shade had just seen. Though that undead was not powerful to him, he was no ordinary Fifth-Ring Arcanist, not to mention that most of his abilities were highly effective against such creatures.
As Shade released his left hand from the soul, the Thaumaturgy Guiding Death ceased to take effect, and some of the resentment entwined around Miss Norma's soul weakened. Yet she still looked utterly mad. Even pinned to the ground by the Moonbeam Greatsword, she struggled to tear into Shade with her teeth.
"Answer me, Lady. What exactly is in this land?"
Shade asked in a low voice. He truly had not sensed anything wrong with the ground beneath his feet. But Miss Norma's strange appearance after death could not possibly be explained merely by mental illness and auditory hallucinations.
"You cannot hear the pulse of the earth. You cannot hear the earth's final cry. I have become one with this land. I will seek more blood offerings for it, until the very end."
She struggled constantly, but the more often she came into contact with the Moonbeam Greatsword, the more the pitch-black things on her soul were reduced.
"Don't pretend you've gone mad. You knocked those three unconscious and erased their memories of meeting me because you wanted