Deep within the laboratory of the Brilliant Starship, Lucresia had completed a rudintary examination of Taran El.
With the cooperation of the Academy of Truth, transferring the great scholar aboard the ship had been no difficult task. However, understanding what had happened to him proved far less straightforward, even for Lucresia, the "Witch of the Seas," renowned in the realms of mysticism and curses, who had never before encountered such a case.
Taran El was clearly trapped deep within so Dreamscape, yet he showed no reaction typical of a "Curse," nor any signs of ntal contamination.
Lucresia lit the three candelabras in the corner of the laboratory and sprinkled a powder of herbs she had personally prepared into the incense burner before them. She then moved to Taran El’s side, arranging Crystal Stones, bone fragnts, and other such items around him.
The wind-up doll "Luny" with a ceramic shell and the stuffed rabbit "Rabi" offered assistance within the laboratory. Noticing the gravity on their mistress’s face, Luny could not help but ask, "Is the situation dire? Is this elf’s life in danger?"
"The situation is unclear—that is even worse than being dire," Lucresia responded seriously, "Taran El fell into a deep slumber after attempting to observe the sun. If the two are related, it may imply that this type of slumber could affect many others. During the period when the sun extinguished itself, how many people looked up at it? To what extent must one ’observe’ to trigger such a slumber? How many have taken bold asures similar to those of our elven scholar?"
Saying this, she slowly shook her head.
"Taran El was bold, but on the vast Endless Sea, there are more than a few scholars as courageous as he."
"Do you need anything else from us?" The stuffed rabbit Rabi hopped over, looking up and speaking in a thin, delicate voice.
"Next, I will attempt to link into Taran El’s Dreamscape to help him open a path back to the real world from the other side. Given the Dreamscape’s potentially complex state, I want you to watch over the candelabras. If I have not awakened after three hours, you are to extinguish all the candles in order from tallest to shortest, which will forcibly wake ."
"Yes," Luny bowed her head, "Three hours, from tallest to shortest, I will rember."
"Rabi can dream with the mistress!" The stuffed rabbit hopped over, clutching Lucresia’s leg with anticipation, "Rabi can dream too!"
"One nightmare is enough," Lucresia promptly refused the stuffed rabbit’s offer, "I certainly do not wish for such a great scholar to die suddenly on my ship."
"Alright, alright, Rabi understands~" The rabbit doll lowered its head, sounding dejected, and toddled over to the corner of the room. With a "plop," it sat down on the floor.
Lucresia glanced at the toy without further interaction. She ensured all the ritual components were prepared before seating herself in a high-backed chair across from Taran El and casually snapped her fingers.
In an instant, a gossar veil seed to cloak the quietly burning candelabras in the corner. The myriad items in the entire laboratory took on a hazy, illusory gleam as if glazed with shadows. The "Witch of the Seas" slowly bowed her head, and within the next second, she had entered the Dreamscape.
...
Onboard the Holoss, in the captain’s quarters, Morris and Duncan were seated at the navigation table, while behind them, Agatha’s hazy figure erged in an antique, oval mirror on the wall.
"Ai Yi has flown over to confirm, and the large island ahead is indeed Light Breeze Harbor," Duncan said, "Holoss is currently hidden deep in the Spirit Realm. We will contact Lucresia before landing on the island to check the condition within the City-State. As for now... the problem that remains before us is the mysterious transition of Holoss."
"To be frank, I’m completely baffled," Morris said, biting on his pipe with brows furrowed like several crevasses, "I’ve heard of various ’teleportation’ incidents. So are the effects of specific anomalies; others are the results of anomalous curses, like the ’Sailor’s.’ However, the event that occurred to Holoss seems different from those... As it stands, the ’extinguishing of the sun’ is the most likely cause of Holoss’s abrupt transition, yet all of us on board failed to perceive how or when this change occurred..."
"So, I always felt that the problem lies not with Holoss, but with the ’entire world’ outside of Holoss," Duncan spoke gravely, "The ssage from Captain Lawrence also hints at this—that after the sun extinguished, beyond where our gaze reached, the seas underwent incomprehensible changes. The report from Tyrian also confirms this."
"Has there been any further news from Mr. Tyrian?" Agatha suddenly asked from the mirror, "Is there any response from Cold Harbor?"
"Yes, the situation has developed in the most peculiar direction," Duncan nodded, "Tyrian has re-confird with the City-States that had lost contact before. According to various responses... Other City-States, including Cold Harbor, are not only unaware of the sun’s extinguishnt, but they also seem unaware that their communication with Frost had ever been interrupted."
Agatha’s expression shifted subtly.
She opened her mouth: "So that ans..."
"So that ans they didn’t experience the twelve hours when the sun extinguished," Duncan slowly began, "In their eyes, the world was always running normally, Frost, Prand, and Light Breeze Harbor were all normal, and then suddenly Frost sent a bunch of incomprehensible and anxious ssages, talking about ’the sun extinguishing’ and ’communication disruption’—the tense atmosphere is now spreading between several City-States. To use Tyrion’s words, ’they urgently need to figure out which side is abnormal’."
Morris pondered as he listened, then slowly set down his pipe: "Then it could also be understood that—after the sun extinguished, the entire world’s ti stagnated for twelve hours, and including Holoss and the three City-States, they were actually ’erroneously maintaining normality’ during these twelve hours. It’s as if in a nightmare everyone had slept through, we... accidentally opened our eyes, and saw that truth situated in the cracks of ti."
Duncan showed a thoughtful expression.
One must admit, a great scholar is truly a great scholar. Although Morris couldn’t explain the principles behind all this, he had proposed a very enlightening conjecture.
Could this conjecture be further extended? In that world after the sun extinguished, could there be even more bizarre changes that have never been noticed by anyone? To take this speculation even more extre...
Was it really the first ti the sun had extinguished?
These contemplations wafted through everyone’s minds, leaving the captain’s room silent for a mont, when suddenly Duncan seed to perceive sothing, furrowing his brows with confusion: "Hmm?"
"Captain?" Agatha imdiately inquired, "Did you think of sothing?"
"...No, it’s sothing else," Duncan waved his hand while maintaining his sensing, listening posture, his eyes seemingly unfocused, or gazing at soplace not within the room, "There’s a presence..."
He suddenly raised his head, looking directly at Morris across from him.
"What is Heidi doing right now?"
"Heidi?" Morris was taken aback, not understanding why the captain would suddenly bring this up, "Heidi stayed in Prand, right? Over there, they should still be in chaos because of the sun’s extinguishnt. The town hall would most likely call her to... Did sothing happen to Heidi?!"
The great scholar eventually caught on, his expression turning tense in a flash.
"She shouldn’t be in any great danger, but the charm I gave her is behaving a bit oddly," Duncan frowned, then waved his hand through the air. Accompanied by a green fla rising up, Ai Yi’s figure materialized in the air beside him, "I need a pathway to the Dreamscape."
...
"So what you’re saying is, you were ’treating’ soone else, and sohow, you ended up in my dream—and then you thought I was an intruder, so you stabbed in the neck with that spike?"
The elf scholar who claid to be "Taran El" spoke earnestly, looking at the "golden cone" in Heidi’s hand and elaborating calmly.
"I feel like there’s quite a bit wrong with what you’re saying," Taran El noted.
"Actually...," Heidi said, her face flushed with embarrassnt. If there was anything worse than accidently harming a patient with a golden cone and being caught on the spot, it surely was not being caught imdiately, but having the patient realize what had happened only after a long while, and then have them analyze the incident with such earnestness. This elf scholar’s reaction was truly off the beaten path; Heidi had seen many odd patients over the years, but this was the first of this type, "I also feel sothing is off... but everything I’ve said is true."
"Everything you’ve said is true, hmm," Taran El nodded, then continued questioning, "What about this ’other patient’ you ntioned?"
Instantly, Heidi turned and pointed towards the direction from which she had co earlier: "That building over there is her dream... scape..."
Her words gradually halted, her expression stiffening.
In the direction she was pointing, amid the lush, towering trees and vines, the dical facility that had been so large... had disappeared without a trace at so point.
"Gone..." Heidi murmured to herself, slowly turning her head, "But it was really over there before, a very large... "
"Miss Psychiatric Healer," Taran El interrupted Heidi’s mutterings, the elf scholar spreading his hands in an exasperated gesture, "It’s very hard for to believe you like this."
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