Chapter 47

Chapter 47: Before the Sacred Icon

Nina was very happy, because it had been a long time since she had sat down for a normal meal like this with Uncle Duncan and talked about what was happening at school. It had been even longer since she had seen a smile on Uncle Duncan’s face.

It even made her think of the past, of the time before her uncle fell ill. She had lost her parents when she was six. Since then, this man who was like a father to her had become her only family in the world. But four years ago, a sickness whose cause even the doctors could not find had turned her uncle into someone else. The days since then… to be honest, had been very hard to endure.

Her uncle still paid for her schooling and kept up her basic living expenses, but Nina could feel that every bit of color that had once belonged to the “future” had slowly faded from this small, familiar, cozy shop. It had been washed away by the hard liquor, the pills, and those gloomy, oppressive gatherings with the shady “friends” who dealt with her uncle.

She no longer dared to hope that life could go back to how it had been a few years ago, but even a small improvement was something worth being happy about.

Duncan was happy too, because he had finally come into contact with more information about this world and finally touched the threads of its history. Even if it was only a part of it, it gave him the joy of having the fog briefly pushed aside.

The completely lost prehistoric “Age of Order”, the “Great Annihilation” that reshaped the order of all things, the Deep Sea Age that had lasted to this day, the Anomalies and Visions spread across the world… all these things that he had once not known at all, or only half understood, now finally had clearer outlines.

Breakfast ended. Nina stood up to clear the dishes. Her movements were quick and practiced, and it was easy to see that she did this kind of housework often. Without a doubt, she was the one who cleaned the upstairs bedroom too.

A man weighed down by serious illness, sunk in decay, and pouring most of his energy and passion into cult activities clearly would not be doing these things.

But as he watched the girl busy herself, Duncan still could not hold back in the end. He stood up and took the large tray from Nina’s hands: “Let me carry this. You look like you have trouble going up the stairs with it.”

Nina stared at Duncan in surprise. She had just opened her mouth to say something more when he was already striding toward the stairs.

The girl could only hurry after him, following behind while she reminded him: “Uncle Duncan, be careful. The doctor said your condition is still unstable…”

“The doctor… Doctor Albert?” Duncan did not look back. He went up the stairs while he searched his broken memories for a matching image, but only caught a few brief flashes. “It doesn’t matter. He still can’t figure out the cause of the illness anyway. The most effective medicine he prescribed was just painkillers.”

“…You should still listen to the doctor’s advice,” Nina muttered as she followed Duncan up to the second floor and walked toward the kitchen. “At least he knows how to keep you healthy…”

Before Nina could finish, the sudden sound of flapping wings cut her off.

She and Duncan looked toward the source of the sound at the same time and saw a shadow flash past the crack of the half?closed master bedroom door.

“Uncle Duncan, something just flashed past inside your room!” Nina said in surprise, then stepped forward and grabbed the doorknob. “Could it be the cat from next door…”

“Hey, don’t…”

Duncan only had time to get out half a warning before Nina pushed open the half?closed door. The pigeon hiding in the room then appeared before the two of them.

AI was standing on top of the cabinet, one claw holding a French fry halfway to its beak. The sudden opening of the door froze the entire bird in place. It stayed there with one claw still pushing the fry toward its mouth, its two little pea?green eyes staring blankly at Nina and, with the other eye, at the wall on the other side.

Then it saw Duncan. Its wings flapped twice with a loud noise: “Ah… coo?”

The corner of Duncan’s eye twitched. Not far away, the window stood wide open. That was clearly AI’s escape route. In the distance, straight out from the window, he could vaguely see a pier bathing in the sunlight.

This pigeon had gone to the docks to score some fries and flown back with them…

“A pigeon?” Nina finally reacted. She stared in surprise at AI on the cabinet. “Uncle Duncan! There’s a pigeon in your room!”

“I see it,” Duncan said with a blank face. “I don’t know it.”

AI instantly threw away the fry, flapped over with a fluttering sound, and landed on Duncan’s shoulder, bobbing its head.

“Fine. It flew in this morning,” Duncan sighed. “It might be someone’s tame pigeon, but it isn’t very bright. I gave it something to eat and then it refused to leave.”

AI listened and let out a loud coo.

If there had not been an outsider present, and if Duncan had not given an order earlier, it would surely already be loudly crying out “ah, yes, yes, yes” by now.

Nina did not doubt her uncle’s words at all. She only looked at the pigeon with shining eyes, then slowly came closer, watching its reaction while she asked Duncan: “Then… are you going to keep it? Can I keep it?”

The girl’s thoughts were written all over her face. In her eyes, AI was clearly just a pretty and cute white dove. AI tilted its head to look at Duncan and gave a questioning coo from its throat.

Duncan suddenly felt that this bird was easier to understand when it did not talk…

After a moment, he pretended to hesitate, then nodded: “You can—but only if this pigeon is willing to stay. It might fly away at any time. You can’t complain when that happens.”

Nina’s face lit up at once. “Great! I knew it, Uncle Duncan, you really are reasonable deep down!”

…

In the central prayer room of the great Deep Sea Cathedral, the city?state Bishop Valentine, wearing a black priest’s robe embroidered with gold, stood with a solemn face before the holy image of the storm goddess.

He was tall and thin, with sparse white hair and eyes as calm as deep water.

The great candelabrum in the prayer room burned quietly. The sacred flames lit the chamber. The holy statue of Gamona towered on the dais. This goddess had no face; her head was covered by a black veil, and a long dress patterned with many waves fell from her body down to the edge of the platform. Though it was only a stone statue, the power of divinity still showed itself here. The whole image gave off a strong sense of presence. Anyone standing near it could feel a faint sense of being watched by a gaze and being sheltered.

That feeling of being under a gaze and under protection was real. It was under that gaze and that shelter that Vanna, who had come to discuss a matter with the Bishop, could calmly and openly speak of all the scenes she had seen in her dreams.

“…If what you saw in your dream was accurate, then that truly was the Vanished.”

Bishop Valentine of the city?state turned around and looked at the young Inquisitor who had come to him early in the morning. In terms of Church ranks, the battle?focused Inquisitors and the ceremony?focused city?state Bishops were on the same level. But when it came to judging supernatural events, it was completely normal for an Inquisitor to seek advice, or even guidance, from a Bishop.

“So it really was the Vanished?” Even though she already had an answer in her heart, Vanna still could not help widening her eyes after hearing the Bishop’s judgment. “I thought that…”

“You thought that ship was now just a legend, like all those ghost?ship tales the jumpy sailors brag about in taverns?” Valentine knew what Vanna wanted to say. The old man with sparse white hair shook his head, his voice deep. “The existence of the Vanished is a fact recognized by all the city?states and the Church. It is not a legend. You can find records of it in the Church archives.”

“I know that. The Vanished did truly exist. In Pland’s City?State Archive you can even find some of the construction blueprints and launch records for that ship from more than a century ago. But all of that solid, verifiable material only covers the time when the Vanished was still a ship sailing in the Mortal Realm, and when Captain Duncan was still human…”

Vanna spoke in a serious tone. She glanced at the holy statue behind the Bishop, and her expression grew even more careful when she mentioned certain words.

“The key point is that the records clearly state that the ship fell into Subspace. A century ago, thousands of fleeing dead from the Viseran Thirteen Isles saw with their own eyes as that ship and their homeland were swallowed by a Border Collapse and plunged straight into the shadows of Subspace. In the decades after that, there were always reports claiming that the Vanished had appeared again in the Mortal Realm, but all of them lacked real proof. Quite a few scholars doubted that the ship had ever truly ‘returned’…”

The young Inquisitor spoke as she looked at the old man before her.

“Is it really possible for something swallowed by Subspace to appear again in the Mortal Realm?”

“…So far, nothing except the Vanished has ever returned to the Mortal Realm after falling into Subspace. Even for the Vanished, only later sighting reports exist, and scholars in every field doubt whether that ship truly came back. That is indeed the truth. But that is not the key point…” As the old man spoke, his gaze suddenly fell on Vanna, and a strange kind of seriousness appeared on his face. “The key point is, Inquisitor, are you afraid of something?”