Lord of Mysteries:The Good Witch

In the basement of 6 Daffodil Street, Tingen City, Angel carefully descended the stairs carrying a plate of fettuccine Alfredo. She wore a simple black robe. The basement was brightly lit by several candles and an oil lamp. Maneuvering past the clutter near the stairs, she approached the center where a square wooden table stood, brought down earlier from the living room.

Seafood paella, white bread, and Dixie pie were already placed at three corners of the table. The Feneport pasta in her hands was the final required dish for the ritual, freshly delivered from the Silver Crown Restaurant around the corner. Its enticing aroma tempted Angel, despite having just eaten lunch.

"This is an offering for the ritual, I can't eat it..." she reminded herself, resisting the urge to slurp up the sauce-covered noodles. Angel placed the dish in the remaining corner and double-checked the positioning of all four foods against her parchment.

"Clockwise order: seafood paella... white bread... Feneport pasta..." she confirmed each item's placement. Though the Dixie pie had cooled and the bread's crust had slightly dried, it shouldn't affect the ritual's efficacy.

"Next, the essential oils... moonflower, golden mint, deep sleep flower, bergamot, and rock rose."

Unable to verify the mixed oils individually, she mentally reviewed her purchases to ensure no mistakes. She set aside the small bottle of pale blue mixed oil.

Sandalwood candles were pre-arranged at the table's corners, next to each food item. To prevent accidental tipping, she had secured them with melted wax from another candle.

After lighting the four sandalwood candles with a match, she used coarse salt and pure water to consecrate the carving knife. Circling the makeshift altar while holding the knife, she created an invisible spiritual wall to repel impurities.

Within this barrier, the area around the table seemed to become an enclosed space, shutting out all disturbances and impure forces.

Angel carefully dripped the mixed essential oils onto each candle flame. As the liquid vaporized with a sizzle, a faint fragrance permeated the basement, blending with the sandalwood scent and adding to the ritual's mystique.

Licking her lips, the black-robed and hooded Angel lowered her head and recited the incantation in Hermetic language, which she had memorized thoroughly:

"The Fool that doesn't belong to this era;

The Mysterious Ruler above the Gray Fog;

The King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck."

"I pray for your help, I pray for your favor..."

"…Please pass on the power to my spell."

After completing the full incantation taught by the Fool, Angel felt a slight breeze stir around her. The candle flames flickered briefly before settling.

Focusing her thoughts, she raised her right hand and looked at her palm. The teardrop-shaped mark that had appeared after the first Tarot gathering, now invisible, reappeared with a deep red glow pulsing within.

Had the ritual succeeded?

Angel quickly closed her eyes, clasped her hands together, and whispered a prayer: "Respected Mr. Fool, I have completed the ritual as you instructed. Do you have any further directions?"

After a moment of silence, she opened her eyes, puzzled. The makeshift altar of food and candles remained unchanged, the breeze had dissipated, and everything seemed normal.

"Is this it? Should I wait for His response?"

Angel dared not move, continuing to stand before the altar until the candles had burned halfway down, filling the basement with an increasingly strong sandalwood aroma.

"Perhaps Mr. Fool is too busy to reply to such minor matters..."

She shook her head, extinguished the candles, and began clearing away the now-cold food.

[...]

This morning, the elite squad of Nighthawks in Tingen City set out for the underground market at the Evil Dragon Bar in the Dock Area to apprehend the wanted criminal "Instigator" Tris. After accompanying Seeka Tron to the police station to reassign a team of plainclothes officers, Angel returned to the Blackthorn Security Company as ordered by Captain Dunn Smith, awaiting good news from the others.

Unexpectedly, the first to return was the dejected "Midnight Poet" Leonard Mitchell. Through his explanation, Angel and the others on standby learned that the arrest operation had failed from the start.

The reason, of course, lay in the delicate relationship of cooperation and competition between the various churches.

Overall, the three official Beyonder forces in Tingen City - the Nighthawks, the Punishers, and the Machinery Hivemind - were in a state of cooperation. They belonged to the three major orthodox churches of the Loen Kingdom: the Goddess of Night, the Lord of Storms, and the God of Steam and Machinery respectively. They handled Beyonder cases within their jurisdictions based on the principle of follower affiliation, rarely interfering with each other.

However, the "Clover Tragedy" involved dozens of victims, with many followers from all three churches involved. In such complex situations, the usual rule was to divide management by jurisdiction. The Nighthawks were responsible for the Golden Indus, West, and North districts of Tingen; the Machinery Hivemind managed the University district and Tingen suburbs; while the Punishers handled cases in the East, South, and port districts.

This time, "Instigator" Tris, who had triggered the mutual slaughter of passengers on the Clover, appeared in the port district. Logically, this should have been the responsibility of the Punishers of the Church of the Lord of Storms. However, the Machinery Hivemind also had a reason - most of the casualties on the Clover were followers of the God of Steam and Machinery, and the informant who spotted Tris again was developed by the Machinery Hivemind.

Thus, upon receiving the tip, the Machinery Hivemind quickly dispatched a team of extraordinaries, even bringing along a squad armed with high-pressure steam rifles, vowing to capture the wild Beyonder who dared to harm their followers.

Unexpectedly, "Instigator" Tris was extremely vigilant and left the scene before the encirclement could form, leaving the large Machinery Hivemind force empty-handed. They could only vent their anger on the ordinary people at the Evil Dragon Bar, repeatedly comparing appearances and inquiring about clues.

According to Leonard, by the time he returned, the underground market had not resumed normal trading. Dunn Smith, who arrived at the scene with him, was also pulled in to assist in investigating several key suspects and couldn't get away for the time being.

"Why not try divination?" suggested "Seer" Klein, who was also on standby at the company. He had assisted Angel in resolving a commission to find a ring last week, earning a reward of 30 pounds, and had also helped Leonard Mitchell rescue a kidnapped boy using divination rods, receiving another substantial additional income. He was now quite adept at using divination techniques.

Leonard shook his head, rejecting this method: "There were members from both the Machinery Hivemind and the Punishers on the scene, including experienced extraordinaries skilled in divination. Two people tried divination separately, but unfortunately both failed. Perhaps the clues were too few, or maybe other extraordinaries interfered with the divination results."

Another case of interference with divination...

Angel found this somewhat troublesome. She had originally thought that divination was a very useful means of obtaining information in mysticism, but it seemed that various wild extraordinaries all had methods to interfere with divination results. So far, apart from the two commissions completed by Klein, she hadn't seen any successful examples of divination.

In any case, after this false alarm, the plan of official extraordinaries to capture Tris before the wanted notice was posted everywhere, taking advantage of the time difference, had completely failed. The next step would simply be to conduct extensive patrols and searches based on the wanted notice. With good luck, they might find clues to Tris's whereabouts; with bad luck, he would vanish without a trace, like his predecessors who had been on wanted lists for years.

Since capturing Tris was now unlikely, Angel lost interest in continuing to wait. As she wasn't yet a formal member, she didn't need to arrange overnight guard duty at Chanis Gate. Her current work hours were quite flexible. Remembering that she still had to complete the task assigned by the "Fool" today, she found an excuse to leave the Blackthorn Security Company. Taking advantage of the lull before the lunch rush, she purchased all the necessary food items and successfully completed the ritual in the basement.

Unfortunately, the "Fool" did not immediately respond to her prayer. Whether this was because the other two members of the Tarot Club had not yet completed the ritual, or because the "Fool" simply disdained to reply, Angel believed she had successfully completed the task He had assigned. She contentedly cleaned up the ritual site and packed up the long-coveted Feinapot noodles to fill her stomach.

This is economical... and many places have customs of consuming sacrificial offerings... Angel found an excuse.

In the afternoon, since she wasn't yet a formal member, she didn't return to the Blackthorn Security Company to play cards or idle away time with the other Nighthawks who had nothing to do. She also wasn't sure if the underground market at the Evil Dragon Bar had reopened. She could only spend her time making charms she had learned from Old Neil. After wasting several sets of materials, she finally succeeded in creating a "Slumber Charm."

This charm, derived from the power of the Goddess of Night's "domain," had an effect similar to the sleep-inducing power of Leonard's poetry recitation during the battle with Madam Sharon. Because it overlapped with the powers of the Nighthawks in the "Sleepless" sequence, it was rarely used within the Nighthawks.

However, for Angel of the "Assassin" sequence, who lacked this type of Beyonder ability, it was a good supplement to her combat power.

The silver plate, about the size of a playing card, was engraved on both sides with mystical symbols representing the Goddess of Night and complex Hermetic incantations. This was one of the difficulties in making charms; the discarded silver plates nearby, with various puncture marks, were the best proof of this.

On this successfully crafted charm, Angel could feel the calm, profound power representing the Goddess of Night contained within. As long as she infused her own spirituality into it and recited the activation incantation, the charm would unleash a power that would put surrounding creatures to sleep within seconds.

Glancing at her pocket watch and seeing there was still some time before dinner, she carefully put away the successfully crafted "Slumber Charm" and picked up a new silver plate, preparing to attempt another charm from the Goddess of Night's domain - the "Dream Charm."