Deep Sea Embers

The man who manages the archives is an elderly priest with stooped waist and disheveled thin white hair. He wears a set of complicated lens sets made of brass cranks and crystal lenses on his head, and his body still emits engine oil. the taste of.

The old priest was sitting behind a dark circular table, using a lens group to concentrate on studying a mechanical creation that looked like a Rubik's cube. With the help of some exquisite tools, he disassembled the Rubik's cube into a pile of parts, gas The light from the lamp shines on those parts, making them glow.

When Fanna approached, her tall body blocked the light from the side, and then the old priest raised his head, moved the lens in front of his eyes with his fingers, and smiled after seeing the person: "Oh, it is Your Excellency the Judge—— What help do you need today?"

"Where are the records of various disasters and accidents in the city-state around 1889?" Fan Na nodded to the old priest and asked.

"Records of disasters in 1889?" the old priest muttered, knocking on a tabletop on the wide circular table, and there was a slight mechanical friction sound immediately under the tabletop, and then one table board retreated downwards, and one spread all over the table. A mechanical table of cranks, number discs, and paddles rose from within.

Accompanied by the creaking sound of the mechanical operation, the old priest began to operate this exquisite machine with the help of those paddles and digital dials. After inputting the necessary information, Fanna heard the characteristic low sound of large-scale mechanical operation. Roaring, she felt the floor under her feet vibrate slightly, and countless gears and connecting rods were happily running under the impetus of the steam core, and then she heard the crisp "ding" from the mechanical device in front of the old priest "With a sound, a printed tape was then spit out from the machine.

"Going forward from this road, turn left on the third row of bookshelves, and turn right at the end. A bookshelf has been lit up, and the row with the lights is on. The content is very complicated, and all events that can be called disasters are recorded in case, including the smallest steam injury, and ring the bell if help is needed."

As the old priest spoke, he handed over the note—he was holding the note with a prosthetic hand. The palm and forearm made of brass had exquisite mechanical structures. Through a transparent window on the back of the hand, , you can also see the gear train ticking inside.

Fan Na thought that this might be a guard veteran who retired from the front line—this kind of veteran is not uncommon in the civilian department of the Church of Storms.

Their bodies have been damaged, and they have proved their faith and loyalty with blood and sacrifices. The assistance of steam engines or magical prosthetic limbs allows them to continue to serve the Holy See, and various positions that deal with archives are some of the veterans. destination.

In a certain sense, this is of course preferential treatment for soldiers. The relatively leisurely and well-off archives departments are suitable for "retirement", but from another perspective, this is actually an excellent "use according to their talents"-these veterans Their bodies may no longer be fit to continue fighting heresy, but their wills are still strong, and the work of guarding books and archives... always requires a strong will.

A trace of respect emerged in Fan Na's heart, she took the paper tape with both hands, lowered her head slightly: "Thank you."

"Remember to pack the books after reading, and don't touch those books that are not in the list," the old priest waved his hand. "There are many books here that have been placed for a long time, so don't disturb them casually."

After speaking, he returned to his "work" and ignored Fan Na.

Fan Na didn't care, just took the paper tape printed with the book list and walked to the depths of the archives. Bookshelves that were tall enough to be described as "majestic" were neatly arranged on both sides of her, one after another connected to the top of the archives. The dome looks like ancient guards lined up, overlooking the small figures below. Bright electric lights and precisely calculated gas lamps are alternately arranged between the bookshelves, making this place brightly lit, even the deepest and deepest bookshelves. In between, there is no dark shadow left.

Fan Na found the bookshelf mentioned by the old priest - a row of small light bulbs lit up on the bookshelf, indicating those files that she could read.

Those files were not placed low, but fortunately, Fan Na was tall, so she could take the books down without using a ladder, which made her feel relieved.

Pushing a ladder around such a huge library is no easy job.

She took a light breath, found the beginning of the file on the bookshelf, pulled out the numbered file, and began to flip through it quickly.

What she was looking for was very simple. It was the fire eleven years ago, or the fire that was packaged as a factory leak.

In fact, this is not the first time she has investigated this matter—as a judge, she is already three-point sensitive to all "unusual phenomena", including what happened to herself. Only she remembered that after the fire in her childhood, she had investigated some information of that year in private, but those preliminary investigations did not yield much.

At the time, she quickly put the matter behind her.

Because no matter what, she was only twelve years old when she encountered the accident. She was neither a believer in the goddess nor had any outstanding brains. It is nothing to have some false memories in the mind of a child who panicked and inhaled poisonous smoke Impossible, she really didn't need to be too fussy about this matter, so after consulting some public files, she put it down.

But now, she suddenly discovered that there are still people in the Puland city-state who have experienced the fire in her memory.

Doubts and countless speculations that had been put behind her head surged up in an instant, and her "professional vigilance" as a judge rang wildly in her mind.

It is precisely because of this professional vigilance that she rejected Heidi's suggestion of "turning back to the antique shop" at the time, and waited until today without compromising, and went directly to the archives favored by the goddess to investigate those who are not open to the public. of the original data.

The reason is very simple, there is a dangerous atmosphere in this incident-it sounds easy to wipe out a fire, but in fact it involves the cognition and memory of thousands of people, and this incident also involved a large number of cultists In the sabotage activities that year, if all this was really done by a "behind the scenes", then this behind-the-scenes man would never sit back and watch someone discover the truth.

The memories left in my mind, the memories left in the girl's mind named Nina... These "remnants" are most likely the omissions of the mastermind behind the scenes, and the "person" behind the scenes may not have discovered these omissions , but if he finds out... I am not afraid, Nina, her uncle, and the girl named Shirley are all ordinary people.

So she rejected Heidi's suggestion at the time, and asked Heidi not to mention this matter in the future. Compromise the innocent.

Before you have certain information, you must not show any more attention to that antique shop than necessary.

Slowly flipping through the file in her hand, Fan Na's mood kept fluctuating.

For some reason, when she noticed a shadow, she had the illusion of being spied on and followed by ubiquitous eyes. The terrible feeling of being watched in the dark was really overwhelming, which made her feel a little annoyed.

She put down the file and went to pick up another one next to it.

At the same time, she was also thinking about what happened in the city-state recently.

At present, many sun heresies active in the city have been arrested. It seems that the resolute actions of the city-state have effectively deterred those heresies, or it may be that the channels through which they infiltrated have really been completely destroyed. However, the prisons for heresy underground in the cathedrals were filled to the brim.

And the purpose of those sun heresies operating in the city-state has long been ascertained.

Look for the "shard of the sun" that briefly appeared eleven years ago and may still be hiding somewhere.

Shards of the sun...the fire of eleven years ago...

The "vision" that Heidi saw in the museum before.

Fanna stopped flipping through the files, and some clues that she hadn't paid enough attention to before suddenly connected together, and became more prominent as she began to examine the fire in her memory again.

"There is a connection behind these events... The fire eleven years ago is definitely real..." The young judge took a light breath, and at the same time, her eyes glanced at some of the files on the file. Word:

"...On X month X, in XX block, there was a vicious incident of heresy worship. Residents of three households built altars at home, sacrificed blood and prayed to some kind of evil thing that had never appeared in the records, which caused panic and panic among a large number of nearby residents. Nightmare, the post-sacrifice ceremony was reported and destroyed, but the clues left at the scene could not point to any known evil gods or evil spirits...

"Theoretically, the sacrificial ceremony could not have any effect, and it should be a blind attempt by ignorant fools for their own selfish desires, but the panic and nightmares of local residents did occur. Follow-up investigations confirmed that the area was indeed suffering from extraordinary Power affects..."