Amulet?
Upon hearing the words of the subspace shadow before her, Heidy’s first reaction was confusion, followed closely by her looking down at the "athyst" pendant from a certain glass workshop hanging around her neck. In the next second, everything about this pendant surged into her mind—
The peculiar antique shop owner, the pendant her father brought back from the antique shop, its miraculous protection during the Black Sun incident, the second pendant, Fenna’s inconclusive investigation into the antique shop, and now... the appearance and words of Duncan Ebnomal...
The ntal health counselor Miss finally began to open her eyes wide, her wild speculations slowly morphing into a concrete fact, and she suddenly felt... like she might be in need of so psychological assistance herself.
"Relax a bit and control where you’re looking, don’t gaze at things you shouldn’t," Duncan said to Heidy with a smile, calmly reminding her, "Your father specifically wanted to tell you that."
Heidy felt a buzzing in her head, unable to tell if it was mild ntal contamination causing the noise or simply auditory hallucinations due to nervous tension. She pressed her forehead, finally managing to keep her rationality and impulse in check, though her thoughts were still sluggish and intermittent: "My father... where is he now...?"
"He’s serving as a consultant on the Holoss—we didn’t tell you because he was afraid you’d worry, but none of us expected you to get caught up in the incident in such a bewildered way."
"Is he alright?! On your ship..." Heidy instinctively asked, but upon looking at the imposing "captain" before her, the tail of her sentence hesitated suddenly, feeling that no matter how she asked, it seed impolitic and rash at this mont.
Duncan didn’t seem to mind, casually replying: "He’s fine, maintaining the healthiest routine on the team and playing a trendous role on the ship—is there anything else you want to know?"
Heidy opened her mouth, her mind scrambling for words before another matter—one that was as rife with suspicion as her father’s departure from ho—suddenly ca to mind. Her conjecture was crazy, she thought, but she couldn’t help but ask: "Then... is Fenna also on your..."
Duncan did not answer directly, but his sideways affirmation confird her guess: "Would you like to see them?"
Heidy paused for a brief mont, suddenly unsure how to respond to this simple question. After two or three seconds, she finally snapped out of her daze, and her first instinct was to retract the multitude of unnerving personality clones she’d displayed, while hurriedly speaking: "Can I? Are you really allowing this? Ah, sorry, I didn’t an anything by it, but I’ve heard so much about you and...I should..."
Her frantic speech abruptly stopped.
For, accompanied by a revolving door of pale green fire, two extrely familiar figures had already appeared before her—
Morris with a smile, and Fenna’s expression sowhat awkward.
"So, uh... long ti no see," Fenna greeted Heidy, touching her nose, "Sorry for keeping it hidden for quite a while, my new position was a bit sensitive, mainly confidentiality concerns, and it’s only because the captain allowed it that we could... Are you upset?"
Heidy, however, did not respond, simply staring with wide eyes at her long-ti friend before her, then turning her wide-eyed gaze to Morris beside her, stifling for so ti before finally managing to blurt out: "Can either of you explain to precisely what the situation is now?!"
"Take your ti talking," Duncan said, noticing they had started to converse, he quickly and perceptive waved his hand and turned to leave, "I’ll talk with Lucy."
Leaving two "crew" mbers and one Heidy staring at each other in awkward silence, overflowing with embarrassnt.
Duncan didn’t pay attention to the subtle atmosphere of resentnt between Fenna and Morris behind him; he had already calmly approached Lucresia, only to see the "Sea Witch" avoiding his gaze, her expression quite embarrassed.
Lucresia had been brainstorming for a long ti—since her father suddenly entered this dreamscape, she had been in a state of confusion and disarray. Just now, while her father was communicating with the "ntal health counselor," she had been trying hard to think about how to talk to this long-absent "relative," how to adjust her attitude like Teriana had, and...
How to explain the incident with the scythe not long ago.
However, when her father truly started walking towards her, she realized she hadn’t prepared at all—the "witch" feared by many on the Endless Sea was actually not very good at dealing with such emotional scenarios. Instead, due to her jumbled thoughts in this short ti, she beca even more helpless.
Lucresia opened her mouth: "I...."
"Don’t rush," Duncan suddenly gestured to stop Lucresia from continuing, then turned to look at the trio of Heidy not far away, "Let’s watch for a bit."
Lucresia: "...?"
She was sowhat at a loss, not understanding what her father ant by "let’s watch for a bit," even subconsciously associating it with completely irrelevant concepts like "planning" or "scheming." But the next second, she realized that the familiar yet long-separated figure beside her was rely watching the nearby group of three, wearing a humanized, spectator-like expression on his face.
The "Sea Witch" hesitated for a mont, then followed his gaze towards that direction, a strange feeling rising to her heart. She didn’t know how to describe this weird and awkward unfolding—it was nothing like the reunions with her father she had imagined over the many years past.
She had imagined that, one day in the future, she might, like Taran El, encounter the "Holoss" returning from the Subspace. She had envisioned a fierce clash between the "Brilliant Starship" and the "Holoss," where that fiend from the Subspace would destroy all the betrayers, just as he had once annihilated the thirteen islands of Vesran at the border...
And in so gentler Dreamscape, in so fantasy wholly untethered from logic, she had also imagined another scene—
Her father really would co back, perhaps on a peaceful afternoon or in the twilight before dusk; they might stand atop the sea cliffs, just like that place from her childhood—she could no longer rember which City-State it was, only the gentle sea breeze and the white flowers everywhere—she and her family would stand on the highest boulder, her father recounting all the far-off events to her, while she would show off her "Brilliant Starship," along with all her laboratories and books...
But those fragnted dreams eventually lted away in the sunlight, like a sigh dissolving into the wind.
She had never thought that when the day of reunion really arrived, it would unfold like this—she and her father standing in this Dreamscape that seed as if it would never end, together...
Watching others’ gossip.
But gradually, Lucresia seed to understand her father’s intentions.
She too watched in that direction, observing the psychiatrist Miss and her relatives and friends. There, too, was a daughter full of worries, a father awkwardly trying to explain everything, and an additional friend who was at a loss.
Perhaps, this was what her father wanted her to "take a look at" first.
Lucresia felt like she understood.
Then she heard Duncan break the silence next to her, "Actually, I had initially advised Morris to take the opportunity to talk to Heidi, but we never found the chance—though this is also good; if he had clarified everything earlier, I wouldn’t have anything to watch now."
Lucresia felt she had understood too soon.
In the brief bewildernt that followed, she suddenly rembered a phrase Taran El had said during a previous communication—
"Father has regained his humanity."
But it seems he regained too much.
At the ti, she couldn’t grasp the aning of her brother’s words, but now she was beginning to vaguely understand—this being who had returned from Subspace could indeed be her father, but he was no longer entirely the sa.
"Lucy, what do you think?"
Duncan’s voice suddenly ca from the side, interrupting Lucresia’s muddled thoughts, snapping her back to reality. She looked toward her father, who was casting an inquiring glance at her.
The clamor in her mind settled down quickly, and mories of ancient pasts and the disjunction of the present mont were pushed to the back of her mind. The "Witch of the Endless Sea" suddenly felt that all those confusing issues didn’t seem to matter anymore; the man before her... this was quite alright.
After all, living isn’t like conducting scholarly research; not every question must have an answer.
"Miss Heidi will handle all the issues well; despite the limited contact, I know she is a sensible person. Mr. Morris doesn’t need to worry either; he is an advisor recognized by you..."
"Oh, I’m not talking about those few; I an this ’place’," Duncan gestured, referring to the forest that had fallen into "twilight," yet showed not the slightest sign of crumbling or disintegrating, "This should be a Dreamscape, right? But it looks a bit bizarre, different from any Dreamscape I’ve seen before..."
Lucresia was montarily disoriented, as her father’s trains of thought now seed quite erratic, a significant departure from the man she rembered. But quickly she caught on, rapidly organizing her thoughts while shifting her attention away from the distant gossip, and began to explain, "The ’entrance’ to this Dreamscape is Scholar Taran El, that ntal entity over there in a stagnant state. His ’self’ has not yet awakened, and the cause of everything is as follows..."
Lucresia conveyed the intelligence she had to Duncan as succinctly as possible. He listened carefully and then wore a contemplative expression.
"...So you’re saying, this forest is just a barrier that covers the ’surface’ of the Dreamscape, the true nature of this Dreamscape is hidden deeper within—but the one controlling all of this is not the elf nad Taran El but the ’third drear.’"
"The third, but not ruling out the possibility of a fourth or a fifth," Lucresia said seriously, "Heidi’s experiences suggest that this Dreamscape is ’connected’ to other places; hence it could potentially be linked to even more drears, but all of this has been concealed. The ’Self-Healing’ and ’concealnt’ capabilities of this forest... far exceed our imagination."
Duncan didn’t speak; he furrowed his brow and fell into thought.
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the "Scholar Taran El" not far away suddenly blink.
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