By 2:30 PM that day, Shard had not received a reply from Miss Galina. Instead, someone was knocking on the downstairs door.
Upon opening the door, he saw a four-wheeled carriage parked outside. There was no one inside the carriage, but the cigarette-smoking carriage driver handed Shard a note. It bore Miss Galina's elegant handwritten script, instructing Shard to get in the carriage and meet her.
It seemed that the Grand Witch took Shard's request to visit very seriously.
The carriage carried Shard through the sweltering city, following a route he had once walked, and headed for Miss Galina's manor outside the city. His previous visit had been at night, and the abnormal heavy fog had made Shard speculate whether this place was some "witch's home," yet during the day, nothing seemed amiss.
