"Ashe?" he shouted, "is that you?"
The stairs are as old as they come, but solid. Uriel took off a candle and climbed up the steps. The firelight illuminated a distance of about three yards in front of him, revealing the mottled marks of the wooden ladder.
There was no way anyone could have climbed up there before me, the apprentice concluded. I didn't notice any footsteps here. It wasn't that he was confident in his hearing, but it was simply unthinkable for a broken, old wooden staircase to remain silent when someone passed by.
Bang bang bang bang!
Footsteps. Uriel was not deaf, and crawling insects and rats could not escape his perception, let alone such rapid, powerful, and heart-stopping heavy footsteps. It was completely silent at the moment, and it could only be the sound of ghosts.
I'll catch you, he thought, and figure out all the secrets.
He climbed the steps lightly. Uriel knew no more about ghosts than Della Cinsenado. He once thought that this was a kind of undead spirit transformed from the soul of a mortal after death, which could penetrate matter freely and hide its whereabouts. The last time the apprentice saw ghosts was in Yotsuba City. They were not smart at all.
But Ms. Ash is no ordinary ghost, even if she was only a mortal in life.
This is all due to de la Cincena. Miss Psychic's mysterious path has been going on for at least two years. During the Year of the Lamp, she had hoped to become a witch, but the whereabouts of her chosen mentor, Magdalena, were unknown, so she had to continue to delve into souls. Now, the Highland Witch has been assassinated by a demon, and the news has spread throughout the seven fulcrums. Della's plan is completely shattered, and she has to deal with ghosts. Uriel would not be surprised at all if she could change some of the ghost's characteristics.
At the end of the stairs was a doorless room with no chandeliers or candles, just a circular glass skylight. The moonlight shines through the stretched frame and onto the thick, musty carpet.
Other than that, there was nothing in the room. Uriel stopped and looked around, slightly surprised by the emptiness. He rarely sees vacant attics. In Yotsuba City, people like to pile up clutter here.
"Is there anyone?" the apprentice shouted hopelessly, "or a ghost? Hello?"
The mansion listened quietly to his reply. The air was filled with the strange smell of dampness and decay, as well as the smoke from burning candles. Somehow, there are very few mosquitoes here, and most of the walls are well preserved, with only cracks visible in the corners.
The apprentice searched carefully and found nothing unusual. Maybe it was just a prank. There is no trace of the screaming ghost. It seems that it either only exists in imagination, or it is very wise and knows the consequences of scaring people. "Please come out."
He continued to wait for a while, but nothing happened. Outside the skylight, the stars and the broken moon were moving, making waiting more and more meaningless. Compared with the simple adventure, the waiting at this moment is more difficult: the Silent School is chasing after him like a wild dog, and Uriel himself is also in a depressed state. Finally, he lost patience.
"I'm leaving, hello?" Uriel took out the fateful card. "anyone there?"
The apprentice sighed. "If you don't come out, stop talking to me, and this house won't be saved." Shania is not a fool. After the battle on the school field, she will never be tricked into having a fair fight with an apprentice in a narrow space again. ...If it were me, I would use witchcraft to tear the building into pieces. "By the gods, I'm telling the truth. Is anyone here?"
No one responded. Maybe his truth didn't impress the other party, maybe it had already escaped. Even if it was Essie, he didn't know if she would respond, she had fled in a rage ever since Della had revealed her as the villain in the "Lugger the Locksmith" story. In any case, Uriel didn't have time to chase. He sat down against the railing and tore up the card.
"Evocation of the Holy Word" gives the spell of witchcraft, but obviously, this is a sky realm magic and the apprentice cannot use it smoothly. As the witchcraft is lifted, the power of destiny breaks free and gradually merges into the atmosphere, becoming a hidden factor that cannot be sensed by fire.
But at this moment, Uriel suddenly noticed a little fluorescence appearing in the corner of the room. This is not light that can be observed with the naked eye, but a bright little star point in the fire's tactile vision. It shimmered in the cracks in the wall.
The power of destiny. He immediately recognized the nature of the "fluorescence". After the witchcraft was lifted, part of the mystery did not disappear, but abnormally gathered together and adhered to a gap. what?
Uriel thought he had caught the clue. The magic caused a mysterious light that quickly scanned the entire wall. Disappointingly, however, there are no imaginary mechanisms inside. The apprentice groped the depths unwillingly, only to find dust in his hands. He began to think about prying the floor along the cracks or scraping the surface of the wood.
Wrong attempt. Uriel could only watch helplessly as the fluorescence dimmed, unable to do anything.
There must be some reason here. The apprentice stared intently at the light, rubbing his knuckles with his fingers. After all, why did the change occur here? He picked up the remains of the card.
Uriel was not the first person to discover something strange in the mansion. In fact, there was another witch who specially spent the night here. And she has extremely clear similarities with the owner of this card, Her Excellency Helen. Now, the answer is obvious.
"You were not born to die..." Uriel chanted the spell as slowly as possible. He wanted the power of fate to appear here, but he avoided performing the spell completely to avoid overdrawing the fire.
Even so, he didn't think it through enough. The remaining magic power quickly ran out, and a feeling of exhaustion and exhaustion came to my mind. Uriel was about to raise his head to observe, but there was severe pain from the wound on his back. I should have treated the wound first.
Fortunately, the mystery succeeded, and his fire sensed a wonderful, invisible binding force. Vaguely, the apprentice could see countless rune strings running through the attic, and they were lingering like morning smoke.
Under his nervous gaze, the witchcraft on the edge separated from the main body and poured into the gap.
Well, as expected, the Harp Witchcraft really works. Uriel stared at it without blinking so as not to miss any changes. Della's guess was correct. Magdalena had been here before her death, which meant that she could also use witchcraft to detect clues.
"What did you find?" the apprentice said to himself, "a fragment?"
What glows is a patch brick as big as the palm of your hand. Uriel carefully removed it and looked at it in the moonlight. The moment he came into contact with natural light, he noticed a sudden loss of magic power.
"You need to know the shortcut" quickly dissipated, and the witchcraft power was exhausted. But the gravel still had an otherworldly presence that felt familiar to Uriel. Holy and pure magic is full of temptation and danger, just like the boundary between life and death...
"Broken Moon." He remembered.
According to legend, the Harp Witch, the White Moon Witch, and the Ice Witch have a common inheritance source. No wonder Magdalena and Helen were aware of the witchcraft, and Uriel suddenly realized it. In fact, because of their superior skills and advanced realm, they probably didn't need to fumble for clues like apprentices, so they left the stones behind.
Uriel does not have the skills of the Harp Witch. Fortunately, he was born in Croita and has learned some basic knowledge. His Excellency Osvid Sidney, the "Silver Cross", personally taught his apprentices astrology and how to use physical divination. Uriel was very grateful for his seriousness. I never thought I would one day rely on astrology to solve mysteries.
When a fire is lit, the stone melts in the flames and emits light like another candle. But compared with the feeling of fire, this light was nothing. Uriel "saw" a cloud of sparks rushing up into the air, spraying out half a person's height. It was the strange magic power contained in the stone that was gradually causing mysterious phenomena.
"Things, objects and people all have trajectories." "Silver Cross" told him, "and these trajectories can all be revealed by star trails. Yes, strictly speaking, there are no specific rules for the movement of the stars above our heads. They do not change in the same way from epoch to epoch...In fact, the rotation of the stars depends on the development of the world, that is, the fate of the order.”
He reached out to touch it, and the flame had only color but no temperature, just as Mr. Oswide taught him, because the stone did not really burn. What astrology ignites is its past trajectory.
Immediately afterwards, the particles drawn by the witchcraft of the Harp Seat were also thrown into the flames.
A wonderful and shocking scene, Uriel thought as he looked at the illusory bonfire. "The phenomena of fire and light are not exclusive to the Holy Council of Glory." This is what is recorded in the textbook. "The reason why we use it to show destiny is because it has no shape... It is constantly changing and is undoubtedly a good carrier for prophecies... Similar to it, there are natural wind, ripples and clouds... etc., but Croita The most in-depth study is still the trajectory of the stars... because it is difficult to be disturbed and the results obtained are accurate and reliable. But is astrology without interference the best? Here we give a counterexample: prophetic dreams."
The memory of the following articles is no longer testable. As a member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Uriel didn't need to know much about astrology. He waited for the results of his attempt, which in fact proved something in itself. For example, Magdalena's departure is indeed related to the mansion.
Her experience deserves reflection. The fire was blazing, and suddenly there was a bang somewhere downstairs, waking Uriel up. He stood up suddenly and looked behind him cautiously. Did I succeed? Or are the Cross Knights coming?
Let's find out. He thought to himself, and just as he was about to take a look, a sudden scream sounded in his ears: "Cohen!" The apprentice staggered, but the other person shouted again: "Stop! Oh my God."
Uriel calmed himself. "Axi?" It was the ghost woman's voice. She was really up to something. "Where are you?" he called, and suddenly he saw a strange man coming through the door.
The apprentice was startled. A local who wandered in by mistake? Or a homeless homeless person? Anyway, this person's appearance was quite unexpected, and I remember locking the door.
At this moment, the man raised his head, revealing a completely unfamiliar and nervous face. Uriel and his eyes met, no one had time to hide themselves, they stared at each other until the man lowered his head.
He didn't see me, Uriel realized. The stairs are too dark, and perhaps mortals cannot see the mysterious brilliance. So, this person really broke in by mistake?
At the moment of thinking, the man ran into the room. When he reappeared, he already had a hammer in his hand.
It was just a study room. Uriel frowned. "Sir," he said, "Excuse me..."
The man turned a deaf ear and walked out the door.
The second half of Uriel's words was stuck in his throat. He opened his eyes wide and realized that the other party had directly penetrated the door panel. How ingenious. Now we don't need to wonder where the hammer comes from.
He rushed down the stairs to chase the man with the hammer, but there was no one on the street. This once again confirmed his belief that such speed was impossible for a mere mortal. The apprentice turned back and broke into the study. There was nothing here that was inconsistent with his impression, but when he emerged from the dust-covered study, Uriel found new writing on the loom at the end of the corridor.
"Did you hear that"
One sentence of characters is sewn with silk thread, with bright colors and smooth touch. It was definitely not the handiwork of a brown elf. In fact, the entire loom has a new look, unlike the real thing.
Uriel read the sentence and felt a chill rising from the soles of his feet. It is not as intuitive a threat as the law wizard Shania, but it is darker, like the footsteps coming from behind in the middle of the night.
The apprentice gasped sharply. Something is going to happen, he thought, or rather, it happened a long time ago...
"Did you see that?"
A whisper came from behind.
Uriel turned around suddenly, waved his arm, and the sword blade passed behind him with a gleaming light. Ai Xi looked down and saw that the body that had been cut off at the waist was slowly joining together. She grinned exaggeratedly.
"Ma'am." He recognized her. "You scared me. I'm sorry."
"No. It's nothing. I died worse than this. In the story, my body was chopped into pieces by the killer, and when the Sheriff found them, they were scattered on the hall floor."
Uriel's throat was dry and he didn't want to discuss the circumstances of her death. "You said you saw it?"
"Cohen," the ghost lady told him, "you saw my husband, didn't you?"
"I did see a man. Is he a ghost too? Your husband?"
"No one else."
"Don't be so sure." I've never met him, Uriel thought, and I'm not Luger the locksmith. "What's going on? I mean..."
"He came back here and found me." She pointed to the top of her head.
"Were you summoned by Sinsena?" Uriel understood.
"I don't know. Cohen...unlike me, he was very friendly to the girl. They seemed to have been familiar with each other before." Ashe hesitated for a moment, "It seems that someone had been here before her and summoned Cohen with some mysterious power. . Later, the Silver Song Knight—oh, the Paladin—came to the mansion to search, so he had to leave the house first and hide outside."
Is there such a thing? Uriel raised his eyebrows, thinking it was probably Magdalena. Della wasn't lying when she said her secret ritual hadn't worked before awakening Ash. "Did your husband just come back, ma'am?"
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"I didn't see him, at least not just now, that's why I asked you. Cohen came back only after you left."
Three days ago? "I saw a man take a hammer from the study and go out." Uriel glanced at the loom as he spoke. The line of writing was gone, and what remained on it was "Letter to Darash." He looked away. "What are your thoughts on this?"
"What do you think?" The ghost frowned, "Cohen? No. I don't know. In fact, I didn't see him coming home. He always stayed out at night when he was alive." She twitched the corner of her mouth in annoyance. "We had a lot of enemies to worry about back then."
In the story of the locksmith Luger, Luger is the protagonist, so the writer's narrative has an obvious tendency. But after listening to the details in this "supporting actor"'s words, Uriel began to believe in the author's impartiality. Judging from experience, ordinary people are unlikely to make enemies everywhere, and Ashe did not deny her husband's misdeeds of trying to seize other people's ancestral homes.
"It's conceivable." I am also in a situation where everyone is shouting and beating me. We are all in the same boat. "I heard you screaming before. What happened?"
"Scream?" Ash repeated doubtfully.
"It's for Cohen. You want him to stop."
The ghost stared at him. "There's something really wrong with you, kid. I bet there's something wrong with you." She waved her hand. "Yes, I'll tell you the truth. I've just been praying in the garden, and you're running up and down. , it was so noisy that I had to come back and have a look.”
Uriel nodded thoughtfully.
"As for Cohen, this guy didn't show up in front of me, but you said he came back? I am his wife, and I will know as soon as he comes home. Do you understand? I had this ability when I was alive, and it will be no exception after I die."
"Maybe I'm hallucinating," he said. "Your husband is a businessman?" Uriel asked instead.
"Not a repairman, a carpenter, or any other profession with a hammer." The ghost sneered.
"Of course, ordinary people will also have relevant tools. There is nothing surprising."
Ash stared at him unhappily.
"What about the stonemason?" Uriel opened his palm to show the strange stone that was still burning. "Is your husband's business related to stonemasonry?"
Ms. Ghost was very angry: "I've had enough! Could it be that you can't understand me? You are just like that woman, both..."
Her voice disappeared.
"I knew it." Uriel said softly. He watched as the ghost's figure gradually faded until it turned into transparent air. Astrology relies on physical phenomena, and at the same time, it also borrows the "physical phenomena" that exist in the mansion. Ash remembers certain events from her life, but when the murder happened, she didn't actually know what was going on.
So the "past" of the stone overwrites the "past" that Ghost Ash remembers. She was not present in this scene, so after he activated his magic, Ashe disappeared from the mysterious phenomenon caused by astrology. From this point of view, ghosts are too unstable as a carrier of destiny.
But having said that, since the "past" of the stone can cover the memory of the ghost lady, it may mean that it knows more than the last hostess of the mansion... Someone came through the door.
"Mr. Cohen?" Uriel asked. He didn't expect the other party to respond, but the man raised his head blankly, seeming to hear his voice. The apprentice's heart skipped a beat and he hurried to look at the loom.
The handwriting on it changed again: "Are you Cohen?"
It wasn't asking me, Uriel understood. Here's my problem...by the gods, this thing represents my "past"!
The apprentice took a step back, feeling utterly ridiculous. I haven't been here a thousand years ago, there's no doubt about that, so why does astrology treat me as a "sign"? He couldn't figure it out.
After hesitating, the man found the hammer and walked out of the mansion. Uriel instinctively followed him and opened the door to look for traces of him. This time he was very close. After opening the door, the apprentice immediately saw a pair of feet dangling in the air.
Uriel was startled and looked up quickly. I saw a woman with white hair hanging from the balcony on the second floor, her feet hanging from the eaves of the main entrance. Her face was gray and wrinkled, and her eyes were staring forward. The hem of her skirt was torn, but her clothes were intact, except for her hair, which was tangled in sheer panic. A leather belt protruded from the tangled hair and went straight into the dark attic window.
For a moment, the apprentice thought of the "Biography of the Witch of the Inverted Tower" collected by Della, but this person was obviously not a witch. Her face was old, and her brows gave people a sense of familiarity, but Uriel was sure that he had never seen her before. But the man with the hammer showed up not long ago, which gave him a hint.
They have a blood-like resemblance, Uriel thought to himself. Of course, I could be wrong.
But just as he was carefully observing the body, a hand suddenly reached out from the attic and pulled up the rope. The female corpse shook and rose.
Someone is inside. Uriel just turned away from this idea. The next moment, a scream rang through the mansion: "No!" He couldn't help but froze for a moment, frightened and sharp, but it was obviously a man's voice.
Immediately afterwards, a dull, continuous loud noise broke out in the attic. At the same time, the female corpse shook for a moment and hovered on the top of the second floor.
A strange thing happened. But at this moment he couldn't help but think slowly. Uriel turned and rushed into the house, the wound on his back aching as he climbed the steps. But I couldn't care less about the pain, the things that belonged to me in astrology, the screams in the attic...
"Cohen?" The door was locked and he had to force it open.
But when the apprentice burst into the room, what he saw was surprising. There was no bloody scene and no traces of murder. Uriel saw a stone platform.
It's hard to imagine anyone building this thing in their attic. The stone platform is round in shape, nearly half a person tall, and occupies most of the room. Every inch of the surface is covered with patterns - to be precise, they are cracks, but they are also decorative patterns that are carefully crafted to look like cracks. It is quietly exposed under the skylight of the attic, and the moonlight flows through the gaps.
This scene finally awakened his memory. Kamaria. The apprentice's heart was beating wildly. Rite of the Moon.
Am I dreaming? he thought. How is this possible? For the gods' sake, Joey and Parsour's trip to Alanvor was a later event...the Black City hadn't been attacked by the free men yet...it's crazy! During the time of Morkin Hesser, Kamaria had no connection with Mortus. Look, how could it be possible?
He forced himself to stop thinking. He almost realized that the messenger was strange during the Moon Ceremony. Some details can be connected together spontaneously without recall, and the speculation has weight.
"That's ridiculous," Uriel said loudly, as if trying to drive away something. He realized that he had found what he was looking for, and he had come all the way to the Black City just for this moment! Gods forgive me, people should respect secrets.
A hammer lay on the floor, and Uriel reached out to pick it up, but his fingers went through the wooden handle. A phantom of the past. certainly. What else could it be? This happened a thousand years ago. The past happened in Mortus, not the Black City.
Standing in the attic of the Ghost Mansion, the cold wind and moon can be seen outside the window. Uriel shuddered.
"I'm looking for your past, Joey." He whispered to the moonlight. "I know you won't respond. Yes, how can one change the past? It's part of you." And I don't accept lies...
The Scroll of Oath gives him the power to see through lies. It has saved Uriel many times, allowing him to distinguish friends from enemies and gain insight into people's hearts. So far, no one has been able to deceive the contractor of the Scroll of Oath, so people had to keep silent in order to hide the secret.
"You hate this city and almost destroyed it." The envoy once led the free men to sack Mortus, but fortunately the Knights of Silversong arrived in time. "The tower sent a messenger about the doctrine of eternal life and witches. They are all believers of the Broken Moon...the Moon Sacrifice placed in the mansion...and the story of Luger."
Finally he remembered Sauron's warning. "Maybe I should ask you myself."
Uriel did not climb up the stone platform. The stone in his hand that resonated with the strange particles was part of the altar back then, but it has now been burned away. Astrology is over.
Ghost Ashe reappeared, frowning and looking at the apprentice. It seems she never left. "What's wrong with you?" asked the last hostess of the mansion. "Have you forgotten how to speak?"
"Ms. Ash." Uriel said. She took a step back, seemingly frightened.
"Are you just waking up, kid? Were you sleeping with your eyes open?"
"No. I have a question, please tell me the answer." Uriel stared at her closely, "Is your husband Cohen..." A believer in eternal life? A believer in the Broken Moon? I'm afraid asking is in vain.
"...Built a stone platform in the attic? I think that's why he got the hammer." was all he could say.
"Ah! That's true." Ai Xi seemed to have just remembered this. "Well, it won't cost you anything, my husband loves sculpture."
"Is this his business?"
"No. Hobby." She replied without hesitation, "It's just a hobby. He never sells it. You see, you can't make a penny and it's a waste of time - I won't remember such boring things."
No wonder you died confused. Thinking of Luger's story, Uriel couldn't help but feel emotional. "Thank you for your help." He thanked him sincerely, "So I have to say that there is another way of trading in the world than calculating gains and losses, Ms. Ashe."
"You don't mean that good people are rewarded, right?" The ghost snorted, "Look at how unlucky Luger was."
"No, good things will happen when you meet good people." Uriel told her, "And people are time-sensitive. I can't tell whether people are good or bad most of the time."
The ghost flinched.
"Hide first, Ms. Ashe, someone will be here soon."
She was startled: "Is there anyone?"
"Your death, my savior." There was a window on the north side of the corridor, and Uriel had already seen him. "Your Excellency Lemons of the Holy Knights."
The ghost was so frightened that he turned and ran away. When passing by the door, she reluctantly turned her head: "Is this your reward?"
Uriel blinked.
"What you said makes sense. It would be great if I could understand before I was alive." After finishing speaking, Ashe disappeared into the bushes.
