Only ten days had passed since Halloween Night. By the hunting calendar, the next season was the twelve nights of Yule, still more than a month away.
"I've made the arrangements you asked for."
The Hunt Lord's voice was full of the impatience of someone dragged into discussing serious business. He even coughed at the end.
Richard replied in his mind, About catching a Messenger?
The Hunt Lord answered, "...Yes. I'll catch one for you while I'm there. I have other business in the Spirit Realm."
With that, the connection ended.
A Virtuoso would never make a special trip to the Spirit Realm just for him. Richard had expected that answer from the Hunt Lord.
He felt a little unsettled, unable to shake the sense that his trip to the Spirit Realm would not go smoothly.
Back at the inn, his room received no sunlight during the day and was quiet at night.
Two thumps came through the wall as Mortimer took off his shoes and tossed them beside the bed.
The old professor had walked halfway across the city with him that day. After returning, he had drunk a cup of tea and gone straight to his room. Before leaving, he had offered only one remark: "Have a go at those cursed objects you bought yourself. Just don't set the inn on fire."
Richard turned up the lamp on his desk and arranged the four antiques in a row:
The Red Coral, the Lead Scroll, the Twin-Bellied Whistling Jar, and the Smoke Mirror, covered with burlap and lying facedown.
He started with the coral branch, which required the least trouble.
It was not a cursed object, so he could skip purification.
As soon as he spread Still Water over it, the coral revealed its form within.
The locals called