Chapter 58: An Idea

Chapter Fifty-EightAn Idea

The next day, Monday morning.

Klein, who was on rotation and had the day off, did not go out. Instead, he handed the letter written to his mentor, Cohen Quentin, along with more than enough postage, to Melissa, asking his sister to mail it at the post office near Tingen Technical School.

After breakfast, he leisurely made up for the sleep he had missed during his days of “work.” It was almost noon, and only when his stomach began to growl did he finally get out of bed again.

He reheated last night’s leftovers, gnawed through a strip of oat bread, then took a newspaper and entered the toilet inside the second-floor washroom.

At times like this, he could not help sighing over the lack of a cellphone.

Seven or eight minutes later, refreshed in body and mind, he came out, washed his hands clean, returned to his bedroom, and locked the door behind him.

After that, Klein drew the curtains, lit the gas lamp, meditated for half an hour, then practiced spirit vision, pendulum divination, and dowsing for another half hour. He spent the following hour reviewing mysticism knowledge through recollection.

Once he had finished these tasks, he tore some old newspapers into a dozen-odd paper balls and wrote material names on them, such as “moon flower candle” and “full moon essence oil.” Then he followed the proper sequence and simulated the steps of ritual magic, working to master the details. Before he became truly familiar with it and learned more, he had no intention of rashly attempting real ritual magic. That would both waste materials and easily invite danger.

After repeating the process over and over, Klein took out the silver-white pocket watch with vine patterns, snapped it open, and glanced at the time. It was just past two forty-five.

He considered for several seconds, then took the old newspaper scraps to the first-floor kitchen and burned them. He used this chance to adjust his condition and prepare for the Tarot Gathering.

Having locked his bedroom door once more, Klein did not wait for three o’clock to arrive. He planned to enter above the gray fog ahead of time.

He wanted to use this opportunity to properly investigate that place.

Just as Klein stood in the open space of the room and was about to begin walking counterclockwise, his worry over whether Justice and the Hanged Man had entered suitable surroundings, whether they might be disturbed or discovered by others, suddenly led him to another thought.

He had said he would come up with a method allowing Justice and the Hanged Man to “ask for leave” in advance, to miss a gathering if they truly could not get away or encountered some other situation.

For the old Klein, this had been an almost unsolvable problem. He could hardly handcraft an otherworldly instant-messaging network, and wired telegrams would expose him.

But now, inspiration came to him from ritual magic.

“Ritual magic that borrows external forces all involves praying to different existences for help. The beginning of the corresponding incantation must clearly indicate the target, such as the God of Night, the Lord of Crimson, or descriptions of those unknown and hidden existences.

“Then could I alter the incantation so that the opening description points to me?

“Points to me…”

Klein’s spirits lifted at once, and he began analyzing the feasibility of this method.

“There are two difficulties. First, I am not a high-sequence Beyonder powerful to a certain extent. Even if the incantation’s description really points to me, I am unlikely to receive the ‘request.’

“Second, how do I make sure the incantation’s description accurately points to me, and does not miss or go astray, striking some other unknown existence that fits the description? That would bring enormous danger.”

Klein paced back and forth, thinking through possible solutions.

His footsteps were soundless. He circled once, then again, naturally connecting the matter to that mysterious world above the gray…