Chapter 101 “Open-minded Alice”
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Duncan stared at Alice with a blank, almost vacant expression on his face as if he were looking at a creature devoid of any thought or reason. This was in stark contrast to the indelible image of the Frost Queen he had encountered fifty years earlier. That haunting, calm gaze had left an indelible mark on his memory. What was once a vivid and intimidating image was now replaced by the sight of Alice, who resembled a marionette with cognitive impairments. The surreal nature of it all was impossible to ignore. Alice’s peculiar habit of frequently detaching her head and reattaching it could unnerve even the most patient person.
Eventually, Duncan’s composure shattered. “What are you doing?” he demanded.
Startled, Alice answered belatedly, “Ah! Captain!” Hurriedly reattaching her head, she explained, “I think some hairs got stuck in my neck joint, so…”
With a stoic look, Duncan snapped back, “If you continue to decapitate yourself in this manner, you should at least come up with names for the hairs you’re losing.”
“I’ve already thought of some! If they fall, they’ll be called Williams and…” Alice chirped.
Suppressing a rising tide of frustration, Duncan exerted considerable effort to keep from throwing the doll out of the ship’s cabin. He took a deep breath, attempting to regain his composure. Admittedly, Alice’s quirky nature did introduce an element of humor into the otherwise gloomy atmosphere of the haunted ship. However, her over-the-top silliness was often too much to bear. Even the ship’s mounted goat head seemed to struggle to keep pace with the doll’s whimsical antics, and Duncan himself found it difficult to understand the logic—or lack thereof—behind her actions.
He wondered if the doll’s head was simply filled with solid wood, and this thought led him back to another, more disturbing vision. He was sure that he had seen the legendary Frost Queen Ray Nora, and he believed that this vision had originated from the mysterious object known as the Doll Coffin.
But what was the nature of these visions? Was the “coffin” actively communicating with him, or were these merely passive memories imprinted on it? Could they be reflections of Anomaly 099? Were they authentic snapshots of history, or were they distorted illusions altered to some extent?
He recalled the serene expression on the young queen’s face when they met and her subsequent plea: “Whoever you are, please don’t pollute history…” Who was she addressing with these words? Were they meant for him? Did her message transcend the boundaries of space and time, or was it merely a component of the deceptive echo that reverberated when he delved into these mysteries?
He also questioned the identity of the voice that had questioned the queen about her audience. Who was that mysterious interlocutor? The chain of events felt unnervingly real, enough to send a chill down anyone’s spine.
And as for the conclusion of that echoing vision—the ominous sounds that emanated from the darkness—they left Duncan feeling profoundly uneasy.
The Frost Queen had met her end at the hands of the rebels, who had accused her of a series of crimes that were hard for Duncan to comprehend. She was charged with the “vain attempt to reintegrate the Vanished into the real world” and the creation of a “second Vanished.” The rebels also spoke of something called the “hidden abyss” plan, which seemed to be the catalyst for the uprising. What struck Duncan as odd was that the goat head statue that adorned his mapping table had never mentioned any of these things.
That loquacious statue frequently regaled Duncan with stories about the “great deeds of the Vanished,” like the number of ships they had sunk on various routes or the devastation they had inflicted on different city-states. Most of the tales were questionable at best. However, if a ruler of a city-state had truly conspired with the Vanished, the goat head, who never missed an opportunity for gossip, would surely have brought it up. So the thought crossed Duncan’s mind: What if these accusations were fabricated, invented by the rebels to defame the queen?
“Captain? Are you okay, Captain?” His thoughts were interrupted by Alice’s voice.
Exhaling softly, Duncan pushed aside his swirling thoughts and turned to face the doll. Though Alice bore an uncanny physical resemblance to the Frost Queen, their demeanors couldn’t have been more different.
“I’m fine. I was just reliving a ‘record’ stored in the coffin,” he said, deliberately shifting the focus of the conversation.
“A record?” Alice’s eyes widened with interest. “What sort of record?”
“It showed the execution of the Frost Queen fifty years ago,” Duncan responded matter-of-factly. “She looked exactly like you.”
Alice’s hands instinctively went to her neck. A torrent of conflicting emotions filled her, and after a moment of internal debate, she voiced a theory: “Is it possible that I am the Frost Queen? That after my beheading, some supernatural forces intervened, allowing me to live on as I am now?”
Duncan considered this for a moment before responding, “If you were motionless, mute, and just lying in this coffin, I might entertain that theory. But…”
Understanding the implication, Alice raised an eyebrow but quickly redirected her attention to the coffin. “So did anything change when you set it on fire? Have you managed to gain control over it?”
Duncan glanced at the wooden box. The intense psychic connection he had felt with it had dimmed, although traces of his mystical flame still lingered. The relationship was akin to the one he had with his sun amulet but more complex and less straightforward. To put it simply, he had no idea how to control this artifact associated with Alice. He even doubted whether such control was possible.
However, one thing had become clear – now that it’s integrated with the Vanished, the coffin seemed remarkably stable and, for lack of a better term, “tamed.”
“I can’t be entirely sure at the moment. It might be wise to conduct further tests to establish whether the ‘beheading’ effect you experienced originates from the coffin or from some intrinsic quality of yours,” Duncan advised, his tone heavy with caution. “For the time being, it seems prudent to treat the coffin as we do other items aboard the ship—by leaving it be.”
He then shifted his gaze to Alice, his eyes locking onto hers with deep seriousness. “The focal point of my concern now is you. Have you sensed any alterations in yourself?”
Alice looked puzzled, pointing a finger at herself as if to ask, “Me? What could possibly change about me?”
“Look,” Duncan began, taking care to speak slowly and deliberately for the sake of clarity, “you and your wooden box together form Anomaly 099. I imposed my control over the coffin using my mystical flames, and in doing so, there’s a possibility I might have inadvertently influenced you as well. Try moving around; let me know if something feels out of place.”
Taking his words to heart, Alice sprang into action, darting around the cabin with frenetic energy. After completing several laps and a few jumping jacks, she gestured toward her wooden coffin.
Nothing happened.
The box remained firmly rooted in place.
“It’s not reacting!” Alice exclaimed, her face contorting into an expression of genuine concern. “Usually, a mere flick of my finger is sufficient to make it levitate!”
This was a worrying development. Duncan had indeed sensed some form of response from the coffin when Alice gestured, but it felt as though the object was awaiting his directives rather than obeying Alice.
“Perhaps my flames have altered its allegiance,” Duncan hypothesized, a slight flush of embarrassment coloring his cheeks. “The coffin might now recognize me as a higher authority over it.”
Alice’s eyes widened as she processed this information. A look of profound disappointment washed over her face, reminiscent of a child whose favorite toy had just been snatched away.
“Don’t worry, I can retract my influence,” Duncan assured her, hastily moving to assuage her evident distress. “It will then revert to responding to your commands.”
Alice hesitated before gesturing once more toward the coffin. This time, it obeyed, lifting slightly off the ground before settling back down.
A wave of relief crashed over Alice as she practically lunged at the coffin, embracing it tightly. “Oh, thank goodness! I was so worried you wouldn’t listen to me anymore!”
Duncan took a deep breath, struggling to maintain his composure in the face of her whimsicality. “Sometimes, Alice, I find myself envious of your seemingly carefree outlook.”
Alice looked up, clearly puzzled by his statement.
“Forget it. Just continue being your joyful self,” Duncan sighed, returning to the pressing matter at hand. “Are you absolutely certain you feel no adverse effects?”
“No, not at all,” Alice responded after a moment of introspection. “Actually, I feel more comfortable—more peaceful than before.”
“Peaceful?”
“Yes, it’s hard to explain,” she mused, her eyes slightly narrowed in contemplation. “It’s similar to the feeling of comfort I’d experience lying inside the coffin. But now, it’s as if that same sense of comfort envelops me even when I’m standing outside it.”
Before Duncan could delve deeper into the implications of her newfound state, Alice shrugged off any lingering concerns. “It’s fine. Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem bad, so why worry?”
Maybe the box is the seal of Alice power?
Could it be mr ghost captain was the cause of history distortion, he was able to enter fragment of history and could possible change it from the words of frost queen. Its still a theory but its possible that Duncan can shatter history to fragments and rejoin them. Since he can enter those fragments and change it.
what if that is why the time before GA is so vague and has conflicting accounts
That’s not exactly true. If we remember correctly, goathead was particularly fond of the doll. Insisting that is was a good soul and asking duncan to treat it better. This is contrary to its unabashed requests for unimpeded violence towards the city states.