Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Communication Was Hard

The pigeon kept its head tilted, as if it felt Duncan had not heard clearly. Very soon it repeated itself, even louder: “AI!”

Duncan finally understood what the bird meant. “You mean your name is AI?”

The pigeon nodded proudly and paced back and forth on the desk. “Coo!”

Duncan rubbed his brow. He felt that talking with this bird was even stranger than talking with Goathead, mostly because of the pigeon’s odd, slippery way of speaking. “Do you know how you were born? Or… how you appeared here?”

The pigeon thought for a moment. Its two eyes drifted and stared in different directions at the same time. “Ah, the page is gone. Try refreshing it?”

Duncan: “…”

He found that he could not understand what was going on in this bird’s head at all. He could not even be sure if the strange lines it suddenly blurted out had anything to do with the topic.

But he was certain of one thing: the bird was thinking. It was seriously trying to talk with him.

It just clearly had its own idea of what “communication” meant.

Duncan spoke with the pigeon that called itself “AI” a little longer. Their talk always stayed like two parallel lines. They each said their own things. If he said it was related, he could not see where the lines met. If he said it was unrelated, the pigeon answered every question… and sometimes even gave a line or two that actually seemed to fit his questions.

In the end, the talk did not lead very far. Duncan could only frown and mutter, “What kind of cursed thing are you this time…”

He felt it would take a very long time to build normal communication with this bird. That process might even be harder than getting used to Goathead’s endless chatter.

The pigeon squatted on the desk across from him, blinking its small eyes innocently and, from time to time, muttering that he should send her 50.

Duncan ignored the bird’s murmurs. He rubbed his fingers together, watching the green flame of spirit form jump at his fingertips. At least he could be sure of one thing: even though the brass spirit compass had merged with the pigeon in front of him, at its core it was still an Anomalous item that he could control.

Ghostly green spirit form fire rose up. At almost the same time, emerald flame rose between AI’s feathers. The brass spirit compass hanging on her chest sprang open with a snap. Under the clear glass cover, the faint pointer slowly steadied under Duncan’s will, and the dial full of strange symbols was gradually filled with flame.

AI did not react at all. She simply bathed in the spirit form fire as if it were the most natural thing in the world, as though she were waiting for Duncan’s order.

Before the brass spirit compass was fully activated, Duncan took the initiative to disperse the flame.

In the process, Duncan also summed things up silently in his heart:

[The spirit compass still worked… it just had a strange “medium” added to it. For now he could not tell what role this pigeon would play. It might even be some kind of help…]

[He still did not know the details of this spirit compass. Before he was ready, he had better not attempt a second “traversal”… During the next test he had to keep a close eye on any changes in the spirit compass and the pigeon.]

[There was a link between the pigeon and himself. When he roused the spirit form fire, that link became clearer. He could even control, to some degree, where the pigeon appeared… but that was as far as his control went.]

[AI clearly had her own will. She acted according to her own thoughts, and any orders he gave her might not be obeyed. In this, she was different from the other “items” on the Vanished.]

[She could talk, had some thinking ability, and judged problems on her own… Compared with ordinary Anomalous items, this pigeon seemed closer in nature to Goathead.]

After summing up what he knew so far, Duncan finally turned his gaze to the Obsidian Dagger.

Its blade looked like a dry, twisted finger, with a black surface that gleamed faintly.

This was the very thing the black-robed priest with the golden mask of the Sun had held when he presided over the evil sacrificial rite in the underground gathering place of the sewers. Judging by how it had been used, it should be a ritual blade.

Duncan had reached that gathering place, which was probably beneath the city-state of Pland, by using mental projection, and had returned in the same way. He had thought the whole process was purely at the level of spirit or soul, but now this ritual dagger sat in front of him, very real.

After a short pause, Duncan reached out and picked up the dagger.

A cold, hard feeling spread from his palm. This was a real object.

Duncan released a trace of spirit form fire and let the flame coil around the blade. From the empty, hollow feedback, he could tell that the supernatural power that had once filled the ritual dagger had already faded away.

Just as he had judged back at the sacrificial rite site, this thing was not a true Anomaly. It was more like an extension of some supernatural power, or a temporary item “poured” full of power by artificial means.

Duncan still did not know what kind of system this world’s Anomalies followed, but he guessed this dagger was not especially rare. At the very least… it looked like something that could be produced in batches.

“Did you bring this back?” he asked, raising his head to look at AI resting on the desk. He lifted the Obsidian Dagger a little. “And you brought it especially for me?”

The pigeon stared at Duncan with its red eyes, its whole body motionless, giving no reaction at all.

Duncan: “…?”

He asked the question again. The pigeon still did not move, like a lifeless statue.

The sudden Anomalous change made Duncan frown. Just as he was about to use spirit form fire to prod AI and see if he could force her awake, the bird suddenly “came to life”. She hopped twice in place and shouted loudly: “Pick up the Solar Axe, pick up this the Sun war axe, pick up this the Sun war axe…”

“Alright, alright, I get it. You don’t have to answer every single time I asked,” Duncan quickly waved his hand, forcing the pigeon to quiet down while he searched for the right words. “Then do you know how you brought this dagger over? Or, can you carry physical objects when you traverse? Is that it?”

The pigeon thought for a moment, then lowered its head and pecked Duncan’s finger. “Storewide discounts, free shipping on every item.”

“I’ll… just pretend I understood that,” Duncan said.

He sighed. It seemed that this was the limit of what he could communicate with the bird.

Then he rose from the desk and looked toward the enchanted sea chart room.

Goathead and Alice were still outside, locked in warm, friendly “conversation”. The doll had not made a sound for a long time, while Goathead had just started explaining the seventeenth way to cook kelp stew.

Duncan felt he had to go rescue his only current crew member out there—and the one whose “style” was actually the most normal.

On the other hand, he had been in his cabin for quite a while, and had stirred up some Anomalous movement in the meantime. He felt he should go out and show himself, just to put Goathead’s mind at ease.

But before he left, he hesitated and glanced at AI, who was running around on the desk.

Should he take the pigeon out as well? If he did, how was he supposed to explain it?

Duncan hesitated for only two seconds, then decisively grabbed the pigeon and set her on his shoulder.

He was going to operate on the Vanished for a long time, and in the foreseeable future this pigeon would surely follow him as well. He did not yet know what habits the bird had, but as an Anomalous being that could think and talk, it would be very hard to hide her away somewhere like a dead object.

Having one more “crew member” on the ship was something he could not really hide. If he tried to hide her now and she was exposed later, it would actually harm the image of “Captain Duncan” far more.

So he might as well bring the pigeon out openly and say she was his new “trophy”. He did not need to explain anything to Goathead. A captain did not owe explanations to his first mate.

The first mate would fill in the blanks himself.

As for the strange phrases the pigeon blurted out from time to time—words that would surely make no sense to the people of this world—he did not have to explain those either.

He would just let Goathead and Alice imagine it in their own way.

With the fat pigeon perched on his shoulder, Duncan straightened his clothes and his posture, then walked calmly toward the enchanted sea chart room.

The pigeon puffed out her chest proudly and cried, as if making an announcement: “Authentic Herbal Tea, the true good voice, welcome to our show, brought to you by…”