Chapter 582

Chapter 582: Gradually Gathering Intelligence

As he listened to the lines Morris had recorded from a passage of an ancient elven narrative poem, Duncan’s expression grew thoughtful.

“Because of how long ago it was, crossing from the Age of Darkness to the time before the Age of City-States, these lines went through translation from ancient tongues and later repair and additions by scholars. They probably don’t restore the original record one hundred percent, but I believe they still have a great deal of meaning,” Morris went on. “They should be very helpful for our understanding of the Dream of Creation, and of the current phenomenon of the ‘Nameless One’s Dream’.”

Duncan rubbed his chin, thinking as he said: “Saslokar created all things within dreams, yet did not know what a dream was… How do you think we should understand this line?”

Morris thought for a moment: “In my view, it may refer to the difference between a deity’s perspective on the world and that of mortals, or perhaps to some special quality of Saslokar, the ‘first Dreamwalking one’ in the elven creation myth. For a deity who wandered in dreams, the boundary between dreams and the Mortal Realm might not have had any meaning at all. To Him, the Mortal Realm might have been nothing more than a dream that could be altered at any time, while dreams could at any moment be used to replace the Mortal Realm. That is why He ‘did not know what a dream was’…”

“That is… a fairly reasonable explanation,” Duncan nodded slowly. “What about the later lines?”

“As for the last two lines, elven scholars actually have their own interpretations,” Morris answered. “They believe they refer to the day the Great Demon God Saslokar came to understand that the ‘elves’ He had created held a different understanding of the dreamscape. For the first time, He began to doubt the boundary between the Mortal Realm and dreams. That may have been a kind of ‘crisis’. In the midst of it, Saslokar almost ‘woke up’, and in that unstable state He created the group among the elves known as ‘the Dreamless’.”

“The Dreamless…” Duncan nodded slightly. “I remember the elves regard that as an inborn defect.”

“Yes. That fits the legends exactly. The Dreamless were born at a time when Saslokar was in an unstable state. They were the result of the Creator’s ‘daze’, and so they were flawed, doomed never to enter the ‘paradise of dreams’. However…”

Morris paused there, thought for a moment, then went on: “But precisely because of this, in a very small number of legends there is also a claim that Saslokar is in fact the patron god of the Dreamless. That reading has very little acceptance in elven society. It is somewhat better in modern times; in the ancient era it was basically considered heresy.”

“Saslokar as the patron of the Dreamless…” Vanna muttered nearby. “If I am not wrong, that must have been put forward when the Dreamless were suffering social discrimination and oppression and huddling together for warmth. Maybe at first it was only meant to give their own group some spiritual support.”

“Exactly so,” Morris nodded. “That idea first appeared in the Dark Age, and spread on certain ‘exile islands’ under the control of the elven city-states. At that time the elves believed the Dreamless were people afflicted by the curse. Their innate defect would cause ‘Great Hollows’ to appear in the dreamscape, which in turn drew nightmares and Shadows that devoured the heart. So they exiled their flawed kin to isolated islands on the edge of the civilized world…

“In those settlements far from the core of civilization, the first claims that ‘Saslokar is the patron of the Dreamless’ appeared. The exiles used that belief as a support to help them endure the hard and endless Long Night.

“Later, as the times changed and the influence of the faith in the Four Gods grew, and as the exile lands themselves gradually rose in power, this practice of exile was slowly abolished. The ‘special cultures’ that had arisen in those exile lands also flowed back into mainstream elven society. But clearly, although the mainstream could accept the kin who had once been exiled, it could not accept those ‘heretical’ cultures of theirs…”

Duncan listened in silence. In his mind he could not help linking this information with the recent Anomaly incident in Lightwind Harbor and the scattered clues. The pieces of information rearranged themselves in his head, and faintly he felt as if he was about to touch that most crucial chain of logic.

But he still lacked some more effective points of reference, some more useful intelligence…

While he was thinking, a familiar presence suddenly appeared within his senses.

From the direction of the entrance hall came the sound of a servant opening the door and offering a greeting, followed by approaching footsteps. A moment later, Lucretia’s figure appeared in the sitting room.

The clockwork doll Lunie followed behind Lucretia. The doll, dressed as a maid, held in her arms an especially large cloth stuffed rabbit doll with a bizarre and unsettling look.

In the next second, that bizarre, creepy stuffed rabbit doll suddenly twitched. Then it quickly jumped down from Lunie’s arms to the floor, bouncing as it let out a shrill voice: “Finally here, finally here! Rabby has finally come into the city! Today Rabby is going to make a big—”

Duncan silently watched the stuffed rabbit doll, and the other gazes in the room also fell one after another on that eerie rabbit.

The strange toy that had been hopping around the sitting room a heartbeat earlier, loudly declaring it was going to cause a commotion, instantly froze. It slowly lifted its head, the button-sewn eyes checking the situation in the room. After two or three seconds it finally shivered, then slowly walked over to the corner farthest from Duncan. With a soft plop it sat down and began pretending to be a real little doll.

It all happened very quickly. Nina and Shirley, sitting across from Duncan, did not even understand what had just happened.

Two seconds later, Lucretia’s voice finally broke the silence in the sitting room: “Don’t mind it. It is sometimes not very well-behaved, so I rarely bring it into the city.”

Then she turned to Duncan and nodded with a slight smile: “But with you here, Rabby should be better behaved than ever before.”

The doll Lunie also stepped forward and bowed to Duncan: “Good day, Old Master.”

After greeting him, the clockwork doll lifted her head, as if searching for something nearby.

“Alice is in the kitchen,” Duncan could not help but laugh. “If you want to find her, go ahead.”

Lunie turned her head to confirm once more with her mistress. After receiving permission, she happily left the sitting room.

Duncan’s gaze then fell on Lucretia: “Did everything go smoothly?”

“Everything went smoothly. I have already met with Sara Mell, then went back to the Radiant Star once more and mentioned to Tyrian what happened here…”

Listening to Lucretia recount her actions for the day, Duncan nodded slightly, then let out a long breath.

“Good. I understand the general situation. Since everyone is here now… it is time I told you what I have found on my side.”

Everyone in the sitting room instinctively adjusted their posture at once. Even Shirley, who had been nodding off a little just now, instantly perked up.

They had heard something different in the captain’s tone.

Duncan did not keep them in suspense. He quickly told them what he knew so far, especially his guesses concerning “Goathead”.

However, he did not speak much about the odd “details” aboard the Vanished. That part would only heighten everyone else’s unease and would be of no real help at this stage in dealing with the anomaly in Lightwind Harbor.

The mere conjecture that there might be a connection between Goathead and Saslokar was already enough to plunge the entire room into dead silence.

For a long time after Duncan finished outlining the situation, no one spoke.

Everyone stared at one another in bewilderment, until Nina broke the silence: “That Goathead who nags all day long… could be connected to the ‘Great Demon God Saslokar’ from elven legends? Isn’t that a bit…”

“It is an outlandish conjecture, but at present several clues seem to point in that direction,” Duncan said seriously. “Goathead himself does not know his own origin. That eerie ship, the Vanished, which sails through the mist, just happened to appear at midnight, when the influence of the Nameless One’s Dream is at its strongest. On the door of the captain’s cabin of that ship are written the words ‘May He wander in dreams’—a phrase that clearly connects to ancient elven legends. Add to that the suspicious Goathead aboard that ship, his strange condition, and his odd reaction when Atlantis was mentioned… All of this cannot be a coincidence.”

Lucretia’s expression shifted rapidly, an unusual, heavy unease appearing in her eyes. She could not help glancing at her father several times before she finally spoke, hesitant: “Goathead… I remember you said it was a being from Subspace. Leaving aside why the ‘god of creation’ from ancient elven legends would have become like that, even if Goathead really is connected to ‘Saslokar’, then how would the Vanished…”

She stopped, as if unable to find suitable words to go on. After several seconds she finally continued: “How did the Vanished end up entangled with all of this?”

Duncan noticed the source of Lucretia’s unease.

She was speaking about the Vanished—yet all of her tension seemed to fall upon herself.

“Don’t be afraid, Lucy. Nothing has entered a runaway state,” Duncan said slowly. His voice was steady, carrying a reassuring strength. “Subspace holds too many secrets. Even I cannot say clearly how much it has affected the Vanished. But one thing is certain: as long as I still possess my humanity, that ship will not enter a runaway state again. And right now, I am very clear?headed.”

“Right, right, right,” Shirley hurried to speak. The shocking news she had just heard had made her whole body tense. Hearing Duncan’s words now, she seemed to be bolstering her own courage as she blurted out: “With the captain around, that ship can’t go wrong. The captain, he even has human nature…”

Duncan was speechless: “…?”

Several gazes around them instantly focused on Shirley, but she still had not realized it and kept talking: “the Vanished does have some odd places about it normally, but…”

Dog finally emerged from the Shadows beside the sofa and slapped a paw down on Shirley’s head: “Shut up!”