Duncan noticed sothing unusual about the elven elder before him, noticing that his body appeared translucent, as if he might vanish from the world at any mont.
Duncan’s changing gaze had evidently caught the attention of the other.
"As you can see, Captain, so interesting changes are taking place in ," Rune said, smiling openly, even lifting his hand to show off the most severely transparent part—his palm, "A powerful force is trying to take to ’Its’ side."
A slight change flickered across Duncan’s expression, "The power of Silantis—I didn’t expect you, the ’Pope,’ to be affected too."
"After all, I am an elf, and it seems that sothing rooted deep in our racial soul does not care whether I am a ’Pope’ or not," Rune said calmly, "I have felt that powerful summons—Silantis is calling all elves back to the Mother Tree."
Duncan frowned, he had spotted sothing amiss, "But you are lucid—this doesn’t quite match what I’ve learned about other elves."
"That’s because I am not going," Rune said with a gentle smile.
Duncan: "...?"
"As a ’Pope,’ there should be so advantages. At the very least, for a ti, I can still refuse the ’invitation’ from Silantis," Rune said, looking up at Duncan, "Captain, do you mind if I co aboard to discuss the current situation? I do know so information."
Duncan did not refuse, only after a few seconds of silence did he nod his head, while calmly stepping aside and watching the eyes of the old man: "If your doctrine does not mind you stepping aboard a ship of Subspace Shadow."
"Doctrine cos from the gods," Rune began unhurriedly, walking past the end of the pier and stepping aboard the Holoss without a care, "but interpretation is by people—I’ll just need to smooth things over with the bishops at the next eting."
A twitch played at the corner of Duncan’s mouth, suddenly realizing that this ’Pope’ was a bit different from what he had imagined. Then, he noticed that the followers Rune had brought with him all stopped on the pier, seemingly with no intention of boarding the ship, which surprised him, "Aren’t these followers and guards coming with you? Are you boarding alone?"
By this ti, Rune had already walked several steps ahead on his own and, upon hearing the question, looked back, "They won’t follow because it’s better to have fewer people know about certain things."
The old man appeared utterly unconcerned, and seeing his candid attitude, of course, Duncan had no objections. He waved to the people left on the pier and turned to walk beside Rune—yet as they crossed the deck, he couldn’t help but ask, "Aren’t you worried about safety, coming here all by yourself without any guards?"
Rune looked up at Duncan, "If you truly harbored malice, could a few guards ensure my safety aboard the Holoss?"
Duncan thought about it seriously and replied frankly, "They would likely have difficulty ensuring their own safety."
"Well, there you have it—I’m a practical person; that’s the most basic integrity of a scholar," Rune said casually, then followed Duncan’s lead towards the captain’s quarters.
Along the way, Duncan briefly explained to the ’Pope’ the current situation, including the disappearance of Light Breeze Harbor and the state of affairs within the City-States.
As they neared the stern deck, Rune stopped. He raised his head, his gaze crossing over the Holoss’s gunwale to the vast sea on the other side of the ship.
That was where Light Breeze Harbor used to be.
But now, there was only the sea water glinting gold in the setting sun and the Luminous Geotric Bodies quietly floating in the distance.
Duncan could still see the dense, hair-like invisible threads floating above that section of the sea, but to Rune, there appeared to be absolutely nothing above the water.
"It was already like this when I arrived," Duncan said, noting Rune’s gaze and added offhandedly, "I hope you don’t think I had anything to do with its disappearance."
"...When we first reached this area, indeed, so did think so. If Banster were here, he would be even more likely to think that," Rune hesitated briefly, his tone sowhat strange as he continued, "But please understand, a City-State vanishing into thin air is too bizarre to comprehend, and the presence of the Holoss at the scene—despite our knowledge that this has to do with ’The Dream of the Naless,’ there will inevitably be those who entertain wild imaginings."
Duncan said nothing, just stepped forward to open the door to the captain’s quarters, making a gesture of invitation.
With a distinctly curious expression, Rune followed Duncan into this place, to the world at large a setting of countless strange tales, wrapped in terror, unknown and mysterious.
"The captain’s back!" Alice, who had been waiting in the captain’s cabin, was the first to greet him. She happily ran towards Duncan but then stopped abruptly, "...Who’s this old man?"
Rune looked at the doll that had suddenly appeared before him with so astonishnt.
However, he quickly recovered and ntally checked the information he had: "If I’m not mistaken, this must be Miss Alice?"
"Yes," Alice nodded slightly, a look of curiosity on her face as she regarded the strange old man who had just walked in, "who are you?"
"A servant of the deity of wisdom," Rune replied with a polite smile, "you can call Rune."
"He’s Morris’s teacher." Duncan added casually on the side—he knew Alice would understand that better.
"Oh! Morris’s teacher! Then he must be quite impressive," Alice imdiately caught on and darted expertly to the small tea stove, "Then I’ll go make so tea!"
Rune watched in surprise as the doll, labeled as "out of control" in official files, busily hustled about the room. He also curiously surveyed the various furnishings of the captain’s cabin, but suddenly, an odd sensation of being watched caught his attention. He subconsciously turned his gaze but saw a black wooden carving of a goat’s head quietly sitting on the navigation table in the center of the room—the eerie "sculpture" was watching him, its eyes hollow and profound as if carved from obsidian, reflecting a strange, faint light as it observed.
Rune seed to freeze for a mont as he stood there, unblinkingly staring at the bizarre black "wood carving."
After an unknown amount of ti, the goat’s head finally moved—it suddenly spoke, "What are you looking at? Haven’t seen a piece of craftsmanship before?"
Rune, as though jolted awake from a dreamscape, emitted a low cry of alarm the instant the goat’s head finished speaking. He quickly averted his gaze and, while avoiding further eye contact with the "carving" on the table, steadied himself by leaning on it, then looked up at Duncan: "She saw it!"
Duncan imdiately grasped the significance: "Silantis?"
"Yes, Silantis saw it. I... I don’t know how to describe the feeling, but just now, I felt Silantis’s ’gaze’ suddenly focus here. She looked through my eyes at this place, she... I don’t understand what she’s trying to convey, confusion, fear, anger... a maelstrom of chaotic emotions..."
He suddenly stopped, waved his hand in front of his face as if trying to dispel so invisible interference from his mind. Duncan noticed that his body had beco a bit more transparent in the past few seconds, but soon, the elf elder regained his "stability"—he lifted his head, the chaos in his eyes slowly clearing: "She’s left for now, but I don’t know how much longer I can hold her off—Captain Duncan, ti is more limited than I anticipated, listen to first."
It seed that Rune, with a willpower unimaginable to mortals, had forcibly expelled the part of Silantis from his mind. Then, he took a seat by the navigation table and swiftly began to speak—
"Silantis is calling to all the elves of the world. This call is rooted deep within our souls, and while being influenced by this force, I also brushed against a fragnt of her thoughts.
"I saw... an apocalypse, sothing that erases everything etched deeply in her mory, leading to her gradual loss of control... Fear, anger, a sense of powerlessness about her own destruction, these long dormant emotions in her consciousness are now slowly awakening. With her awakening, the dormant fears and mories of the apocalypse are also stirring. But this is not the only reason..."
He paused, seemingly needing much effort to stabilize his thoughts again. After a few seconds of rest, he continued: "Within her anger, I also felt a strange, chaotic sentint towards us ’elves,’ accompanied by an intense sensation of being torn... I felt a strong protective impulse. She’s ordering the elves to return to the World Tree to receive so kind of ’shelter,’ but she feels a huge resistance to this ’protection’ at the sa ti, even... terror, as though she views us as so kind of..."
Rune paused even longer this ti, as if struggling to find the right words to describe the intense emotions he "touched" from Silantis. After a few attempts to speak, he finally resud: "So kind of... dubious monster..."
He slowly turned his head to look out the window, towards a place where Light Breeze Harbor had vanished into the sea.
Theoretically, he shouldn’t be able to see Light Breeze Harbor, let alone the invisible threads floating above the sea.
Yet, he still gazed fixedly in that direction, as if a call, imperceptible to the mind, beckoned the elf elder to look towards the "World Tree," existing only in the racial mory.
"I can feel..." Rune murmured as if in a daze, softly beginning, "she’s mad with this feeling of being torn apart, but there’s more...
"It seems there is sothing else on the ’other side’ of that apocalypse, another existence falling into madness... sending out a vague call to ..."
A "clatter" sound ca from the direction of the tea stove, indicating sothing had fallen to the ground.
Alice lifted her head and stared out the window in alarm.
"Captain! The threads are moving!"
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