"I don't know exactly what happened either. It wanted to find you, so it plunged into the darkness, and then it started glowing."
Fiona spoke again, while Shade eyed his cat suspiciously. But before he could form any other thoughts, Fiona explained:
"Since you said it has blood other than that of an ordinary cat, I think it must have actively awakened the power of its ancient ancestors' bloodline when its life was in danger. This isn't uncommon. No matter how diluted the bloodline is, it still counts as an inheritance of ancestral power. And when its tail touched mine just now, I seemed to feel something special. That should explain what happened."
Fiona herself was a human-elf-dragon hybrid, so her explanation was quite convincing.
There was not much time left. Even if they wanted to investigate why Mia had suddenly started glowing, now was not the time.
"Maybe that's it. Let's first see what's going on here. Oh, Fiona, this time we're looking for—"
"A golden needle."
The art gallery's front hall was large, but only the entrance and the area above the reception counter were lit. This left large portions of the interior shrouded in interwoven light and darkness, without the warmth and reassurance of the previous two shops.
No one was at the reception desk. On the wall behind the counter hung an enormous portrait of a man against a black background. The hooked-nosed man's eyes seemed to be watching whoever stood outside the painting, no matter from which direction it was viewed.
A hardbound art catalog lay on the counter, looking quite official. The name Midnight Art Gallery was written on the cover in white letters, while everything else was black.
When he opened the catalog, the first page was not an introduction to the gallery's