Lord of The Mysterious Realms Chapter 1046

At Miss Audrey's home, both Jenkins and his cat craned their necks, peering curiously at the purple crystal.

It was a stunning object, radiating an opulent gleam under the gaslight. The crystal was carefully nestled in a brand-new wooden box. After its creation, the stone had undergone a series of complex treatments—demagnetization, blessing, and enchanting—and was now so sensitive it couldn't even be touched with bare hands.

While Miss Audrey and her teacher prepared the ritual, she quietly explained the fundamentals of pendulum dowsing to Jenkins, though he was far more curious about how the beautiful crystal had been made.

"I wonder if Hathaway or Briny would like something ... On second thought, not Briny. It's best she stays away from these peculiar objects."

Pendulum dowsing was simpler than card divination, which required constant shuffling and cutting. Jenkins had assumed Miss Audrey would lead the ritual, with him only participating in the key steps. To his surprise, after she and Miss Brolignans finished drawing a complex pendulum chart on the surface of the round table with ritual chalk, they pushed the box containing the pendulum over to him.

The chart, drawn entirely in blue ritual chalk, covered most of the table, leaving only a narrow strip around the edge untouched. The perfectly circular diagram was divided into various sections by straight lines, curved lines like water ripples, and an assortment of symbols, some of which Jenkins didn't even recognize. Read full story at novel·fire.net

But that didn't stop him from appreciating the chart's mysterious beauty. It was truly exquisite.

"You want me to do it? But I haven't even mastered the most basic inspiration divination."

Inspiration divination, as he understood it, was little more than closing your eyes to feel the future—in other words, guessing blindly, without the aid of any rituals or objects.

Miss Audrey gently coerced Jenkins into picking up the string holding the pendulum. The three of them sat around the table, spaced equally apart. Chocolate, of course, was on Jenkins's lap, but the cat was restless. It stood on its hind legs, propped its front paws on the table's edge, and stretched its neck to get a better view.

"Now, relax your mind and breathe slowly."

Miss Audrey snapped her fingers, and the gas lamp in the living room went out instantly. Miss Brolignans gestured toward the window, and with a swish, the curtains slid shut, blocking out the morning light and the thick fog outside.

Jenkins hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep last night, and he felt drowsy. He glanced at the dim surroundings, feeling the air in the room grow colder.

"Lift the pendulum. Remember the technique I just showed you. Your movements should be slow, as slow as possible. Breakfast won't be ready for another twenty minutes, so we have plenty of time."

As she spoke, Miss Audrey opened her palm, and the All-Seeing Card—The Arsonist—materialized. A moment later, seven or eight small flames flickered to life around the edge of the table, casting a crimson glow on the faces of the three humans and one cat.

"As slow as possible... as slow as possible..."

Jenkins repeated to himself, extending his right hand so the pendulum hung suspended over the exact center of the chart.

He tried his best to relax, meditating on the fickle nature of destiny as Miss Audrey had instructed. It wasn't easy; after all, who really knew what destiny looked like?

The preparations for the dowsing weren't complicated. When Miss Audrey signaled for him to begin, he followed the prompt on the paper beside him and asked the first question:

"What will be the gender of my spouse?"

He didn't need a divination to know the answer to that. If the future dared to play a joke on him, he swore he'd punch it in the face. But pendulum dowsing always began with simple questions, so he had no choice but to ask.

As he posed the question, he let his spirit flow slowly toward his fingertips. The moment he finished speaking, his hand remained perfectly still, but the pendulum began to swing on its own.

The two women and the cat instinctively leaned forward to look at the tabletop. The cat's eyes seemed to glow as the pendulum swung without hesitation toward an ancient character at Jenkins's three o'clock position.

Jenkins recognized it. The character represented concepts like 'feminine,' 'negative,' and 'female.' In short, the first divination was a success.

However, this didn't mean he had mastered divination. Any Benefactor could make a pendulum swing by infusing it with spirit. A true diviner could guide its movement to reveal omens of the future, whereas for a novice, the result was left entirely to chance.

"Alright, time for the second one..."

Jenkins thought to himself. No one spoke; any unnecessary sound or movement could disrupt the spiritual integrity of the divination space.

"Will my love life be smooth?"

It was a very broad question, placed second to determine if Jenkins's divination was actually effective. In the hands of a skilled diviner like Miss Audrey or Miss Brolignans, such a general query could yield a surprisingly precise answer. A failed attempt, however, would point to something completely irrelevant.

The moment Jenkins finished speaking, the pendulum began to swing again. For a split second, the purple crystal seemed to flash with light, a detail only the cat noticed.

This time, the pendulum spun much faster. Jenkins expected it to stop precisely over a symbol or rune on the chart, just as it had before. Instead, after a full 360-degree rotation, it pointed directly at him.

The cat's eyes widened, larger than usual, as it waited expectantly to see what the pendulum would indicate. But it pointed at nothing. After completing its rotation, it simply returned to its natural, motionless state.

"I knew it. A failure, just as I expected."

Jenkins grumbled internally. Then, at a glance from Miss Audrey, he began the third attempt, which he was sure was doomed to fail:

"When will I get married?"

It was a very practical question with a highly specific aim—the answer was just a number. The school of pendulum dowsing passed down by Miss Audrey and Miss Brolignans typically involved three divinations per ritual. The first, a simple query, allowed the diviner to adjust their state and grasp their inspiration. The second, a broader question, served to confirm the diviner's condition. The third and most critical question's validity depended entirely on the outcome of the second.

And now, it was obvious that whatever the third result showed, it couldn't possibly be valid.