Chapter 76

　　Crystella mixes herbs in a single mortar and pestle and presses the contents together. When she is satisfied, she starts drawing the patterns on the floor. The powder is white this time, and smells kind of funky at the first but later starts giving off a fruity scent. Her precision is not there as the lines turn out to be shaky but Crystella doesn’t seem bothered by that so niya remains silent. Something nudges at the back of her mind, a detail she had tucked inside her heart but now cannot understand for what and why. She ignores the tug and concentrates on the task at hand of which she knows absolutely nothing. When Crystella is done, she stands up straight to look at her work while dusting her hands of the excess powder. Next she uncorks a small bottle and takes a pinch of the herb inside it.

　　“We will sit inside that circle.” She tells Niya. “Come. We must not waste any more time.”