After Professor Garcia left, Shard continued to sprawl in his chair with his eyes closed. It was several minutes before he quietly squinted around the silent living room, making sure the other person had really gone, before he sat up straight.
He touched the sweat on his forehead and, under the light of the gas lamp, his face betrayed the expression of someone who had just woken from a deep dream. Of course, the act he had just put on was deliberate; it seemed his intentional performance had been the right decision. To the professors at Saint Byrons, even just witnessing the abode of a god shouldn't have been taken lightly.
Looking down at the basin again, under the brass gas lamp light on the living room wall, there wasn't a drop of water left. Only the dry elective course parchment roll lay quietly inside, with no text on the back.
"What just happened?"
