Flora Winslet stood there holding a wineglass, watching Shade in the dance floor with that somewhat naïve eighteen-year-old girl. As Shade turned again and again, she vaguely caught a glimpse of one corner of the banquet from thirty-three years ago.
The halo obscured the crowd in the background. Once she focused her attention on Shade, her powerful artistic inspiration allowed her to sketch out his possible movements and dance steps during the periods when he had "vanished," based on his actions.
As imagination and judgment filled in those blanks, the slight talent for time awakened by the Time Curse gradually made the vanished man's figure clearer and clearer.
Until, like an audience beneath a stage, she watched that man stitch together the classical and modern wedding banquets, watching him dance and speak with two ladies separated by thirty-three years as he continuously turned.
At that moment, she suddenly felt something strange. It was not Envy toward that immature eighteen-year-old girl or the old woman in the black dress, but delight that she could witness such a bizarre scene.
On the path of pursuing art, she had already crossed peaks that most people could only gaze up at. Yet she still wanted to see more and gain more. Perhaps her initial curiosity toward Shade had merely stemmed from a witch's primal instincts and her longing for the warmth of that blazing soul. But at this very moment, she suddenly understood completely—
"I have to stay by his side. Only then can I see more scenery in this world, see the stories and images I yearn for. His soul draws me in like candlelight draws moths, and his life is the most beautiful jewel, drawing me in as it draws thieves.
"Now that I have seen this jewel, I absolutely cannot let