Shade's purpose in visiting Mr. Bernhardt so late at night was certainly not to boast about what he had done at the banquet. Rather, he wanted to ask Mr. Bernhardt's priest friend at the Peace Church to use the church's connections to investigate whether anything strange had happened in the city around the time Professor Drake had gone searching for the Goddess in the Lake over a decade ago.
This was quite easy for the church's Ring Arcanists, since such basic records had no access restrictions. Mr. Bernhardt readily agreed and promised that Shade would have the results by Sunday:
"Still, are you investigating the Goddess in the Lake? I heard that legend as a child, but our family has lived here for generations, and no one has ever noticed any proof that the story was real."
As they said goodbye at the manor gates, the gentleman asked again. Shade shook his head and swung himself onto the horse.
"It's something else. Some things happened in Huntington, some things are happening there now, and some things will happen there in the future."
With that, he waved and rode away into the night. The middle-aged Bloodkin watched Shade's retreating back suspiciously, then recalled everything they had experienced in Middlesburg during the autumn:
"Could something major happen in Huntington too? Oh, My Lord above, should I go elsewhere to hide for a while?"
After returning home from Huntington, Shade went from his house to Saint Byron's Library through projection at the agreed time. He met Miss Danist and told her that he had already met the "Guiding Moon."
Miss Danist took the matter very seriously. Upon learning that Shade had made contact with the other party and confirmed that she had connected with the Serkses Correspondence Ring Arcanist Group in Tobesk, the