The next day was Saturday.
Richard woke up half an hour later than usual.
The Divination last night had been draining. Sleep had cleared his mind upon waking, but his body was honest and demanded a little more rest.
When he went downstairs, the kitchen was already bustling with activity.
Evelyn, wearing her checkered apron, was on her tiptoes, pulling a baking sheet out of the oven.
On the sheet was a row of rabbit-shaped gingerbread cookies, each with a round belly and crooked eyes dotted with frosting.
"Brother! You’re finally up." She didn’t turn around. "Come be my taste-tester. It’s a new recipe I’ve been working on."
Richard leaned in to look at the tray of crooked-eyed rabbits.
"This one... why is it cross-eyed?"
"That’s because it’s thinking." Evelyn moved the cross-eyed rabbit to the very center.
"It’s the smartest one of the litter. I’ve granted it a title. It’s called Mr. Rabbit."
"A gingerbread cookie has a title?"
"Of course it does. Look how scholarly its expression is."
Richard picked up "Mr. Rabbit" and took a bite.
The spice of the ginger, the sweetness of the sugar, and the richness of the butter melted in his mouth. The edges were perfectly crisp.
"...Mmm, this is really good."
This single bite of homemade sweetness was deeply comforting.
Evelyn’s eyes immediately curved into crescents.
"Right? Right?! I used brown sugar this time, and I added a tiny bit of cinnamon, measured with those silver spoons our aunt sent..."
She suddenly leaned in conspiratorially. "Brother, if we sold Mr. Rabbit, how many pence do you think we could get for one?"
"You’re asking the wrong person. I don’t even know how many cousins Mr. Rabbit has."
"He has eleven cousins."
Evelyn counted on her fingers.
"It’s a shame one got burnt, so now there are ten. I renamed the burnt one ’the Rabbit Knight Who Died in Service.’"
Richard chuckled at that.
His mother, Margaret, walked in from the living room, holding an empty teacup.
She glanced at the laughing siblings, then at the tray of crooked-eyed rabbits, and said nothing.
When Richard came out of the kitchen, a bowl of oatmeal had already been placed before him.
"Finish your oatmeal before you eat those sweets." She set the bowl on the table. "Eating nothing but sugar first thing in the morning will ruin your teeth."
"I know, Mom."
Richard sat down and cradled the warm bowl of oatmeal.
Evelyn was still over there, sorting her gingerbread rabbits into categories and muttering to herself.
His mother sat nearby, preparing vegetables for lunch, occasionally correcting her daughter, "Too much cinnamon will make it bitter."
Outside the window, the snow had stopped. The faint, warm sunlight of a spring day streamed in, falling on the tray of crooked-eyed gingerbread cookies.
Richard ate his oatmeal, one spoonful at a time.
’The things behind the Curtain have their own way of life.’
’The high-Tiers are making their moves on a chessboard I cannot see.’
’But this moment is more precious than anything.’
’That’s exactly why I have to protect them.’
He finished the last spoonful of oatmeal in his bowl and reached for the "Rabbit Knight Who Died in Service."
"Hey... that one’s burnt!" Evelyn slapped the back of his hand.
"The burnt ones are more flavorful."
"I was saving that one to study the cause of failure!"
"It has already died in service. It’s time to be laid to rest."
Richard popped the charred gingerbread knight into his mouth with a perfectly straight face.
"I’ll be the one to see it off on its final journey."
Evelyn stomped her foot in frustration, while their mother, watching from the side, finally couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.
After breakfast, Richard returned to his room. He still had important business to attend to on Saturday.
First, there was his tutoring job with the Dawn family; second, he had an appointment in the afternoon to go to the backyard of Coleman’s house to give him that injection.
He first took inventory of the items he had acquired last night.
Nemesis’s Eagle Hook, the Moon Bathing Silk, and the Silver Marrow Water.
He examined the Eagle Hook again with his Spiritual Vision. The Ether was indeed depleted, so he couldn’t squeeze any more Points out of it. However, its Protective Talisman effect of causing "misidentification" and the silver ring on his neck from Lady Mary were two parallel paths.
One made his Tier unreadable, while the other made people mistake him for a dead man.
Using both together would make moving about outside much safer.
From Aries, he had gotten an ebony box and a Copper Mirror, plus three canine teeth from a Soul-Devouring Beast and two Shadow Eater Scales.
The teeth and scales both radiated Ether. Last night, he had already wrapped them in wax paper and sealed them separately in a small cloth pouch filled with salt.
Both were excellent Casting Mediums.
He already had some ideas for crafting them into equipment.
Prometheus... Richard added a line to the "Character Profiles" section of his notebook:
Very likely backed by an Alchemy Craftsman from the Furnace Fire Tradition, and has connections to the New Continent.
After finishing his inventory, he packed his schoolbag and went out to wait for the Dawn family’s carriage.
The air after the snow was crisp and clean.
At both ends of the alley, a few neighborhood children were building a lopsided snowman.
An old coal seller pushed his cart around the street corner, its wheels pressing shallow ruts into the thin snow.
By day, the city of Brighton showed its industrial face of smokestacks and wheels;
but at night, in the unnoticed old alleys, abandoned mines, and along the canals, it slowly revealed another face.
At half past nine in the morning, the Dawn family’s carriage stopped precisely at the entrance to the alley.
The coachman pulled the door open and inclined his head toward the interior.
The road was slippery after the snow. The horse’s hooves made a series of crisp, cracking sounds as they stepped on the thin ice.
Charlotte met him at the door, dressed today in a simple, grey woolen dress, her hair loosely pinned up.
"Tom is already waiting for you in the study." She stepped aside to let him in.
"Regarding the manuscript, the editor-in-chief has sent a reply."

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