Drowsiness surged over Shade again. He forced himself not to close his eyes and bade farewell to the three Witches. Then, unable to endure the sleepiness any longer, he had no choice but to return to the "balance" position, lean over there, and close his eyes once more.
He had thought that closing his eyes this time would completely end this strange and magnificent dream. But before he could sink too deeply into that extreme fatigue, a startling explosion rang out, and a sudden gale woke Shade again.
"Wait, how could there be such strong wind in a sealed space like the Witch Council?"
Though his head ached, Shade still forced himself to raise it through the drowsiness, trying to open his eyes.
Ahead was an intensely blinding light, while the wind made it nearly impossible for Shade to open his eyes. Even seated, the gale still forced his body backward. Squinting, he tried to see what had happened here—whether Poems Card had suddenly gone out of control—but all he saw were the Rhodes Cards that had originally been at his side, now dancing wildly through the gale and light beneath the Council's beam of heavenly radiance.
He raised a hand before his face, trying to see what was inside the ball of light above the Council Round Table. And Shade did see it. Within that burst of light, the gale was tearing at the blurry figure of a woman, trying to drag her back into the light.
She was a beautiful young woman with long golden hair, appearing to be twenty-five or twenty-six, with a tear mole beneath her right eye. Only her upper body appeared within the light. Every motion that seemed like a step forward created a new afterimage, and the many afterimages were as blurry as