"That wasn't right, and this wasn't right... In your eyes, was the whole world somehow wrong? The way you thought made me suspect you had persecutory delusions, always thinking everyone was out to get you."
"That wasn't what I meant..."
"No, it was. You looked up and saw crows and thought something was wrong with them, that they were bad omens; you drew a Tarot Card and thought something was wrong with it, that it was a bad omen; you went to see an Archwizard and still thought something was wrong with her... Bury your head in a snowdrift and think about it. Were there really that many things wrong with this world?"
"There wasn't any snow this season..."
"That has nothing to do with whether there's snow! It's a metaphor! To use Marlowe's words, twisted people saw the world in a twisted way... What I mean is, could it be that the one who wasn't right was you?"
Xiao Xiao and Fatty Xin walked on either side of Zheng Qing, taking turns criticizing the wild new idea he had just come up with—after leaving the Sakura Tavern, he had immediately told his two companions about the unease in his heart.
Yet both Doctor and the Fat Wizard dismissed his anxiety with contempt.
Zheng Qing could understand that—putting himself in Fatty Xin's shoes, if he heard all the weird muttering Zheng Qing had been doing these past few days, he would probably think Zheng Qing had some serious illness too.
"I never said there was any connection between Senior Colmar being off and those crows," Zheng Qing said, trying to sort out his thoughts. He emphasized, "I just think her current state is a little strange, a little unlike how she used to be..."
"Of course she isn't like before."