At the previous Tarot Club gathering, when Abner had asked Derrick the Sun to "demonstrate" his value, he had already been considering how to "teach" the City of Silver's leaders Vaolit's Perfect Restoration. That was when the idea of a video lesson occurred to him.
In truth, there was no great technological gap between still cameras and movie cameras. Even without a "scientific" approach, Abner could temporarily endow a camera with the Lawyer Pathway's Distortion ability, twisting the intervals between shots so it could take pictures "continuously"...
It would only last about eight months, though... Abner handed Helene the proposal he had written and left her to study it. Then he put on his coat, hat, and copper-rimmed glasses and left the villa.
Not long after he left, a girl in a black-and-white maid's uniform rang the bell at 28 Kinster Street. It was Wendy, Emma's personal maid.
Once Wendy reached the sitting room, she cast a few discreet but suspicious glances at Helene, who sat reading documents on the other side of the room. Only then did she hand Emma's handwritten letter to Mrs. Scudder.
In the corner of the sitting room, Leon the Lion wrinkled his nose and sniffed. He looked at the maid who had come to deliver the letter, pulled a strand from the "mane" around his neck with his right paw, and flicked it at her.
A tiny transparent worm appeared in his paw.
At the same time, in Viscount Horatio's villa in Empress Borough, Emma was having afternoon tea when a pained groan suddenly sounded beside her ear.
"What's wrong?" Emma set down her teacup and asked without betraying any emotion.
"Who exactly did you send your maid to find?" Flora asked weakly.
Emma raised an eyebrow and chuckled softly. "You did something to