Shade and Miss Winslet conducted no further investigations. During the latter half of the banquet, they danced several more times, and Shade was even praised for his impressive dancing skills.
"By the way, when you and Daniste went out today, were you hiding something from me?"
"Why would you say that?"
Shade held the hand she had placed in his palm as they moved with the music, while those golden eyes before him carried a teasing gleam:
"Before we set out this evening, the atmosphere between you and her was obviously strange. I don't believe you merely went to investigate graves and contact the Hermit Order. Something else must have happened!"
She received no answer from Shade, but fortunately, she did not continue pressing the matter. Instead, she asked where Shade had learned to dance, claiming that she was gathering material in advance for the six oil paintings she had promised him.
As the March High Banquet came to an end, its guests stepped out into the deep autumn night. Faint accordion music still drifted through the city at night, though no one knew where it came from.
The two people who had been watching from the rooftop of the building opposite the earl's mansion waited until the Bennett Family left by carriage before turning and disappearing into the darkness as well.
They did not speak to one another, silently leaving the city from the southeast and heading deep into the woodland. After circling around and confirming that no one was following them, they entered the accelerated state of the Rapid Spell and continued onward into the depths of the woodland.
Half an hour later, the panting pair crossed the warning ritual and entered an unnamed temple ruin within the woodland. At least twenty Ring Arcanists were active there, arranging