Deep Sea Embers

After listening to Vanna's story, Tirian fell into silence for a short time.

Without seeing it with his own eyes, he was still unable to analyze from these few words what plan the ghost who returned from the subspace had at the moment, and how he had undergone these changes, but one thing was certain - what Vanna described That "Captain Duncan" was definitely not the frenzied monster that the Sea Fog encountered on the cold sea half a century ago.

But he didn't quite look like the great explorer father he remembered a century ago.

"Captain Tirian," Vanna's voice suddenly sounded after a long period of silence in the living room, interrupting Tirian's thinking, "What do you think?"

"I...can't believe this is really happening, but since it has already happened, I can only admit this fact for the time being," Tirian frowned slowly and said while thinking, "Judging from your description, He does seem to be in a state of clear thinking, rationality and humanity, but his power...that curse-like flame has become correspondingly stronger."

Fanna nodded: "I don't know if that green flame is a curse, but that thing is indeed very powerful."

"That flame is related to the subspace," Tirian said. "He gained this weird power after falling into the subspace, so there is no problem in calling it a curse."

"...So, the flame is more powerful than what you saw half a century ago, which means that Captain Duncan's connection with the subspace has been deeper than before," the old bishop Valentine said thoughtfully, "Therefore He did not escape the influence of subspace, but fell deeper into it - but in contrast, he recovered in the process? "

"...This is not consistent with our understanding of subspace." Tirian shook his head.

"The followers of Lachem often say," said Valentine, "that the only thing we know about the Warp is that we can never understand it enough - for thousands of years, there has been no ship from People or objects in the real dimension can return to this world after entering the subspace, and except for some indirect observation records and a few words written by crazy scholars in the ancient Kingdom of Crete, no one knows that in the subspace What exactly is there... Our 'law summary' of that place is actually meaningless. "

Speaking of this, the knowledgeable old man paused and sighed: "We are not even sure whether subspace is a 'place' or not -

"Sixteen hundred years ago, the mad scholar Bailmin was devoured by invisible things in full view of the public because he was reading an ancient scroll. Before disappearing, he shouted, 'The subspace is the shadow on the back of the world.' At that time, he This sentence made one hundred and forty-two witnesses crazy, but using the madness of those one hundred and forty-two witnesses as a 'sacrifice', this information has also become a step forward in our understanding of subspace over thousands of years. The biggest step forward.

"Until now, scholars are still trying to construct a theoretical model of subspace based on Bailmin's dying cry... But your father not only really entered that place, he has even returned to our world in a conscious state."

"Yes, people are researched every year, and people die every year. The dead people are quickly replaced, and the research continues... So I really admire those scholars at the Academy of Truth who don't care about their lives. I admire them in a full sense of praise," Tirian He sighed and shook his head, then said in a slightly lower voice, "So, may my 'father' have become a precious sample now? A sample that has really been to subspace and is sane and can communicate?"

"This is just wishful thinking," Valentine spread his hands, "We can't expect 'Captain Duncan' to cooperate with mortal research. What's more, although he is rational now, we can't rashly assume that he is rational. It's on the human side - if he is a rational subspace invader, it will be far more terrifying than those chaotic projections that cannot think. "

Tirian didn't speak for a while, as if he was immersed in deep memories and thoughts. After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly spoke: "Before the last expedition, he was anxious for a while... No, strictly speaking "Since I don't know when, he seems to have been anxious about something and made many... chilling preparations for it."

Valentin and Vanna immediately looked at each other, and their expressions became serious at the same time.

This may be the first time in a century that anyone has heard these vital secrets from Captain Duncan's descendants!

Fanna couldn't help but ask: "What is he anxious about? And what is he preparing for?"

"The end of the world." Tirian raised his head and said calmly.

Valentine frowned slightly: "Doomsday?"

"I know this sounds a bit cheesy, just like the crazy talk of doomsdayers that pop up every year, but this is indeed what the world's greatest explorer was thinking day and night a hundred years ago. one thing.”

Tirian sighed softly and continued.

“From the day Lucrecia and I took over the command of the Sea Mist and the Brilliant Star, he would occasionally mention this matter.

"He seems to think that there is some kind of...countdown-like thing in our world, or some kind of time limit. Although the world seems stable and peaceful on the surface, this countdown is actually approaching the end, and as long as the time comes, it will quickly Entering collapse and ending, no one can reverse or stop this process, and he believes that... our era is the last step of the countdown. "

Valentine frowned: "Frankly speaking, I don't think our world can be considered 'stable'..."

"But in my father's words, he called this earthly world 'the last pastoral age.'"

Fanna thought for a while and asked: "So, he fell into the subspace in order to find a way to stop this 'countdown'?"

"No, he wanted to find Anomaly 000 - he believed that Anomaly 000 could end the distortion of the world and block the countdown. For this reason, he passed through the 'Eternal Veil' at the end of the world."

Valentine was startled: "He passed through the eternal veil?!"

"Yes...but I can only confirm that he did enter the fog, but I don't know whether he really succeeded in 'penetrating' it," Tirian said. "He refused to follow all the frigates at the time. I can What is certain is that he did return from there alive - in a state of madness... As for falling into the subspace... it happened after that."

Valentin and Vanna fell silent at the same time. After a while, Vanna took the initiative to break the silence: "Then has he found the so-called anomaly 000? You know, theoretically..."

"Theoretically, there is no anomaly or anomaly numbered zero. I know that, and he did return without success," Tirian said calmly, "So I always thought that when he decided to look for anomaly 000, he might have It’s not normal anymore.”

Fanna thought for a while and asked: "Do you know why your father initially believed that there is a 'countdown' in the world? When did he come up with this knowledge? Was he exposed to some inducement, or... discovered What?"

Tirian recalled carefully for a moment and said with some uncertainty: "I... I'm not sure, it was too long ago, but I vaguely remember that he once received a few people on the Lost Home and talked with them all night long - —The first time he mentioned the end of the world to us was after that day.”

"How many people have you received?" Valentine immediately became serious, "What kind of people were they? What was the situation at that time?"

"They were all wearing gray and white coarse robes and were barefoot. In my impression... they were very thin, the kind of skinny people who seemed to have gone through ascetic training, as if they had gone through a long journey. They suddenly appeared during the voyage of the Lost Home. Those on the ship boarded the ship as guests as if they had already made an appointment with their father," Tirian said slowly, "and after talking all night long, my father said that the guests had left, but I did not see them leave the ship. It’s like people disappeared out of thin air.”

Valentine's expression was a little strange: "Preacher of the End? This sounds very similar..."

"Your Excellency, Bishop, do you think that after I have lived for a hundred years, I will not know the Evangelist of the End?" Tirian shook his head gently, "I have doubted this too, but those people are definitely not the End of the World that you and I are familiar with. Preachers—they’re sensible and friendly, and they don’t have anything crazy about them.”

"Sane and friendly?" Valentine blinked and said thoughtfully, "I have never heard of the existence of rational preachers... Do those people have any other characteristics?"

This time Tirian recalled for a longer time. After several minutes, he suddenly raised his head: "At that time, one of them said a few words to me. I can't remember the specific content. It was just a very ordinary greeting, but I remember they called themselves 'humble seekers' and..."

Tirian paused and looked around: "Is there a pen?"

"Yes," Fanna immediately took the pen and paper from the side, "Here you go."

Tirian took the pen and paper, lowered his head and drew a pattern on the coffee table. Valentin and Vanna both moved forward curiously.

They saw a hexagonal emblem, and in the center of the emblem there was a fragmented, crisscross pattern. When Tirian painted the cross, the lines were obviously hesitant, as if his memory had been blurred.

"It's roughly like this pattern - one of the people is wearing a talisman like this. The talisman seems to be very important. He doesn't allow me to touch it. He only says that it is for guidance and protection on the road."

Fanna frowned and looked at the pattern for a long time, then turned back to look at Valentine: "You have more experience. Do you know this thing?"

"...I've never seen it before," Valentin looked at it carefully for a long time and shook his head hesitantly. "It doesn't look like any known religious symbol, nor does it look like something used by classical city-states."

"Is that so..."

Vanna murmured softly, her eyes still fixed on the piece of paper.

The strange patterns on the paper reflected in her eyes.

Also reflected in her eyes was a cluster of faint green sparks that were almost imperceptible to the naked eye.