Chapter 466

Chapter 466: Summons

“That’s how things stand, Vanna. What do you think?”

On the deck of the Vanished, Duncan spoke to Vanna, who was carving a charm amulet out of a piece of Sea-Breath Wood.

Vanna listened in a daze as Duncan passed on the problems the White Oak now faced and the captain’s plans for the future. It took her a long moment to react. She tossed the newly carved charm amulet into the wooden bucket, lifted her head, and said: “You mean I should vouch for the White Oak as the Saint, and then, as an Inquisitor, issue a pass that allows an aberrant ship to regain legal status?”

“It seems workable on paper,” Duncan said with a serious face. “After all, you really are the Saint of the Storm Goddess, and you’re still the Inquisitor of Pland.”

“But my Inquisitor post has already been revoked…”

Duncan waved his hand: “Wasn’t that something your Pope arranged in private? Your official status in public hasn’t changed.”

Vanna froze again. This straightforward lady still was not used to Duncan’s way of thinking. The idea of “picking loopholes in the rules” was something she had never even considered in all her years as an Inquisitor. She instinctively felt that something about it was wrong, but she could not say what. She could only speak in hesitation: “The procedure… I don’t even know if the procedure is proper, but…”

Duncan cut off Vanna’s hesitation with a solemn look: “The White Oak needs to regain legal status. The Vanished Fleet needs to reconnect with the civilized world. You don’t want us to remain shadows hanging over the world forever. Turning the Vanished Fleet, which once threatened the world, into something harmless is a good thing. And as the Saint of the Storm Goddess, you should be the one to push this forward. Don’t you think so?”

Vanna froze. Her expression grew calm as she sank into thought. After a long time, she raised her head and looked into Duncan’s eyes: “You sound just like you do when you’re fooling Alice.”

“But you are not Alice—Alice believed me as soon as I said the first sentence.”

Vanna: “…”

“But the reasoning is the same. The White Oak really does need your help now,” Duncan went on calmly. “And from a practical point of view, having one more controllable and powerful extraordinary exploration vessel is not a bad thing for the city-states. It’s better than letting this ship truly become a wandering shadow on the Boundless Sea.”

“I…”

Vanna opened her mouth, as if about to say something, when a faint, distant chime suddenly rang in her mind and cut her off.

She lifted her head and, by instinct, began the Listening Rite, turning toward the direction the bell came from. The bell’s special rhythm seemed to echo inside her soul, while Duncan’s worried voice sounded as if it came from the far side of some heavy Veil: “What happened?”

“The swift bell… the Great Cathedral is summoning Saints from everywhere. It sounds like news about the Nameless King’s tomb…” Vanna muttered in confusion, her tone tinged with disbelief. “Why can I still hear this summons…”

Duncan raised his eyebrows: “Is that strange? You’re still the Saint of the Deep Sea Church.”

“But I thought…” Vanna frowned. “I thought once I boarded the Vanished, they wouldn’t summon me again.”

Duncan’s eye twitched. From her tone he could hear that “getting on this ship” sounded a lot like “boarding a pirate ship.” But he quickly smoothed his expression and said calmly: “Don’t overthink it. Since it’s a summons from the Great Cathedral, go to the prayer room at once. And if you get the chance to meet Pope Helena, ask her about issuing a pass for the White Oak.”

A strange look flashed across Vanna’s face, but this time she managed to hold back her questions. With the bell in her mind tolling again and again like an urgent knock, she gave Duncan a quick nod, then turned and hurried toward the cabin.

There were many empty cabins on the Vanished. With the captain’s permission, she had already turned one of them into a prayer room. She had never tried it before, but in theory she should be able to answer psychic communications there and travel to the “assembly ground.”

Vanna left. Duncan did not look away until her figure vanished behind the cabin door.

He stared a moment longer at the direction Vanna had gone, then turned his head to glance at Alice, who had come back to the Vanished with him and was now dragging a big water bucket not far away, getting ready to scrub the deck. After a long pause, he sighed softly: “Sigh… so much harder to talk her around.”

After he sighed, he bent down and picked up the Sea-Breath Wood charm amulet that Vanna had carved, which lay in the bucket beside him.

The charm amulet was not very exquisite, but it was made with care. Duncan stood at the edge of the deck, idly playing with the small wooden piece as he waited for Vanna to return.

In theory, it should not take long.

As he waited with nothing else to do, he slowly sorted through the information from this period, especially what he had just learned aboard the White Oak.

The vast shadows beneath the Deep Sea, the “hybrid” called Martha, and… the changes that had taken place in that hybrid.

In Duncan’s mind, he saw again the scene of that pulsing, swelling mass of shadow gathering and stabilizing back into “Martha,” and… the vision of the “fish” that had appeared before that moment.

He turned his head and looked toward the gently rolling sea in the distance.

The sea was deep, and the waves rose and fell like a curtain.

The surface of the water seemed like a Veil that hid all secrets, blocking the truth beneath. When a fishing rod was cast, no one knew what would bite the hook.

And what he had pulled up back then was a “fish.”

Duncan’s eyes grew a little more solemn. He lowered his head to look at the little wave charm amulet in his hand. After a brief pause, he tossed the amulet back into the bucket and picked up a plain, uncarved piece of wood lying nearby.

He stared at the wood very seriously. After a long time, he spoke in a slow and solemn tone: “This is a piece of bread.”

The wood was still wood. Nothing changed.

Duncan stared at the piece of wood for quite a while, then tugged at the corner of his mouth. He lifted his head to make sure no one was around, then casually tossed the wood back where it had been.

“Looks like it’s not that simple… so what is the principle behind it, anyway…”

…

At the same time, in a private cabin beneath the deck of the Vanished, Vanna had already finished setting up the space for the ritual.

She locked the cabin door, then turned to look at the ritual field she had prepared.

Under normal conditions, answering the assembly summons required using the special “tide chamber” built inside the Cathedral to construct a psychic channel. On a ship with such limited conditions, that was obviously not realistic. So she had to place her usual prayer books on the floor nearby to serve as anchors for the “holy ground,” light a large candelabrum in the center of the room to act as the ritual brazier, then dig out the holy oil and incense she had bought in the city-states to serve as “sacrificial offerings” that would boost the ritual. It barely added up to the elements needed to open a psychic channel.

To be honest, the setup was very rough, even a little disrespectful to the Goddess—but there was no better option.

The bell in her mind kept ringing, echoing again and again like a constant urge, as if it would keep tolling forever if she did not answer.

“…I hope the Goddess won’t blame me for this… If I’d known, I should at least have prepared some better-quality holy oil.”

Vanna muttered under her breath, then finally made up her mind. She took the holy oil and the incense and let a few drops fall into the candelabrum.

As the flames suddenly leapt higher, she drew in a soft breath and let her mind sink into calm…

It was as if an ancient dark sky hung over a vast assembly ground. Chaotic streams of light flowed and flickered at the tops of countless old and solemn pillars. On the broken plaza between the pillars, one hazy figure after another began to appear.

Only after all the other figures had taken their places did Vanna’s spirit projection arrive, a little late.

A slight dizziness and the feeling of her senses being peeled away made her stand in place for a few seconds. Once she had roughly adjusted, she lowered her head to check her own condition and the outlines of the figures around her.

“It actually went fairly smoothly…”

She muttered in some surprise.

She had not used a tide chamber. She had performed the ritual with only a makeshift altar on the Vanished and a candle standing in for the ritual brazier. She had not expected this method to have a high chance of success, yet it had worked on the first try.

A figure came up beside her, cutting off Vanna’s thoughts.

She lifted her head. From the familiar outline and presence, she recognized who it was—Bishop Valentine, whom she had not seen for a long time.

“Vanna, you finally made it!” The old Bishop’s voice held the joy of a long-awaited reunion. “I didn’t think you would really be able to come…”

“I also… didn’t expect it,” Vanna said, a little embarrassed. “Have you all been waiting long? Conditions here are limited. I had to prepare the ritual in a hurry. It took a long time…”

“It’s all right. For some reason, Her Eminence the Pope is also very late today. She still hasn’t arrived,” Valentine said at once. Then he leaned closer and lowered his voice: “Where are you now? Still ‘on the ship’?”

“…Yes, on the ship. I just left Frostholm,” Vanna replied. She glanced around and also lowered her voice. “I was talking with the ‘captain’ only ten minutes ago.”

“…He actually let you set up a prayer room on the ship?” Bishop Valentine sounded deeply amazed. “And you can even open a psychic channel from there? Did you find a powerful sacred relic?”

“It’s just a simple ritual field,” Vanna said, a bit embarrassed. “I didn’t think it would work either…”

“A simple ritual field?” Valentine said in puzzlement. But before he could go on, a rumble rose from the center of the plaza and cut him off.

With a deep booming sound, the ancient and solemn tomb of the Nameless King slowly rose from the center of the plaza. The Saints gathered all over the assembly ground fell silent in turn, and one gaze after another fixed on the gray-white pyramid-shaped structure.

Vanna also looked up at the structure, at the heavy gate before the pyramid.

The gate slowly opened, and the Tomb Guardian stepped out, wrapped in bandages and seeming to exist somewhere between life and death.

Vanna felt a jolt in her heart, then saw the tall guardian walk straight toward her.

A small stir swept through the assembly ground.

This was the third time in a row that the Tomb Guardian had chosen the same Listener.

Yet for some reason, Vanna felt a strange sense of… acceptance, almost as if she had expected this. She turned her head, spread her hands helplessly at Valentine’s shadowy figure, then stepped forward to wait for the guardian to approach.

The giant being, caught between life and death, strode up to Vanna and lowered his gaze from his clouded yellow eyes.

“Good afternoon. Please follow me.”