Deep Sea Embers

"The situation is like this, Fanna, what do you think about it?"

On the deck of the Lost Home, Duncan said to Vanna who was holding a carved talisman of sea breath wood.

Fan Na listened in a daze as Duncan relayed the current problems encountered by the White Oak and the captain's plans for the future. It took her a long time to react. She threw the newly carved talisman into the barrel and raised her head: "You It means that I will vouch for the White Oak as a saint, and then issue a pass allowing the mutated ship to return to its legal status as a judge?"

"The process seems to be feasible," Duncan said with a serious face. "After all, you are indeed the saint of the Storm Goddess—and you are also the judge of Purand."

"But my position of judge has been removed..."

Duncan waved his hand: "Didn't your Pope arrange this in private, and your official status in public has not changed."

Fan Na froze for a moment again—this straightforward lady seemed to be a bit uncomfortable with Duncan's way of thinking. The matter of "exploiting loopholes in the rules" was a brand new thing that she had never considered in her many years of career as a judge. Instinctively feel that there is something wrong, but can't say it, so I can only hesitate to say: "The process... I don't know if the process is right, but..."

Duncan interrupted Fanna's hesitation with a serious face: "The White Oak needs to return to its legal status, and the lost fleet needs to reconnect with the civilized world, and you probably don't want us to be forever a shadow over the world—let us once threaten the world." It is a good thing to make the lost fleet harmless, but as a saint of the Goddess of Storms, you should take the initiative to promote this matter, what do you think?"

Fanna froze all of a sudden, and fell into thinking with her calm expression. After a long time, she raised her head and looked into Duncan's eyes: "Your tone is like when you are usually fooling Alice."

"You're not Alice—Alice believed me the first time I said it."

Fanna: "..."

"But the reason is the same, the White Oak really needs your help now," Duncan continued calmly, "and from a practical point of view, it is not good for the city-states to have one more controllable and powerful extraordinary expedition ship." Bad things—better than literally turning the ship into a wandering shadow on the great sea."

"I……"

Fan Na opened her mouth, as if she was about to say something, at this moment, an illusory and distant bell suddenly sounded in her mind, interrupting her movements.

She raised her head and subconsciously listened to the direction from which the bell was ringing, listening to the ringing of the bell with a special rhythm seemed to echo in her soul, while Duncan's concerned voice seemed to come from the other side of the heavy curtain: "What happened?" matter?"

"Xunzhong... The cathedral is calling saints from all over the place, it seems to be news from the tomb of the unknown king..." Fan Na muttered to herself in a daze, with a hint of disbelief in her tone, "Why can I still hear this call……"

Duncan raised his eyebrows: "Is this strange? You are still a saint of the Deep Sea Church."

"But I thought..." Fan Na frowned, "I thought they wouldn't call me after boarding the Lost Home."

The corners of Duncan's eyes trembled, and he could hear the tone of "boarding a thief ship" from the other party's tone, but soon he concealed the change in his expression, and said calmly: "Don't think so much, since you are a big The calling of the church, then go to the prayer room, and if you have a chance to meet the Pope Helena, ask her about issuing a pass to the White Oak."

A strange look appeared on Fanna's expression, but she managed to control the urge to question this time. Hearing the bell in her mind ringing over and over again, she quickly nodded to Duncan, then turned and walked towards the cabin. walk.

There are many empty cabins on the Lost Home, and with the captain's permission, one of the cabins has been converted into a prayer room by her—although I haven't tried it before, in theory, it should be possible to respond to psionic communication through that cabin , go to the "meeting place".

Fanna left, and it wasn't until her figure disappeared from the cabin door that Duncan withdrew his gaze.

He looked at the direction where Fanna disappeared, then turned his head and glanced at Alice, who followed him back to the Lost Country, and was dragging a large bucket not far away to wash the deck. After a long time, he sighed softly: " Hey...it's much harder to fool."

After sighing, he bent down, and picked up the sea-breath wood amulet carved by Fan Na just now from the wooden barrel beside him.

The talisman wasn't too delicate, but it was clearly thoughtful. Duncan was standing on the edge of the deck, fiddling with the little piece of wood, waiting for Fanna to come back.

In theory, this shouldn't take too long.

While waiting for nothing to do, he was also slowly sorting out the information during this period, especially the information he had just obtained on the White Oak.

The huge shadow under the deep sea, the "hybrid body" named Martha, and... the changes that occurred in that hybrid body.

In Duncan's mind, the scene where the shrinking shadow re-condensed and stabilized into "Martha", and... before that scene appeared, the vision of "fish" in front of him.

He turned his head and looked at the slightly undulating sea in the distance.

The sea is deep and the waves are like a curtain.

The surface of the sea seemed to be a curtain covering all the secrets, hiding the truth below the surface of the sea. When the fishing rod was thrown out, no one knew what would be hooked.

And what I caught in the first place was "fish".

Duncan's eyes gradually became solemn. He lowered his head and glanced at the wave amulet in his hand. After a little hesitation, he threw the amulet back into the barrel and picked up an uncarved piece from the side. Unremarkable looking wood chips.

He looked at the piece of wood seriously, and it took a long time before he spoke in a slow and serious tone: "This is a piece of bread."

Wood is still wood, nothing has changed.

Duncan stared at the piece of wood for a long time, twitched the corners of his mouth, raised his head to make sure there was no one around, and threw the piece of wood back to the place.

"It seems that it's not that simple...so what is the principle..."

...

At the same time, in a private cabin below the deck of the Lost Home, Fan Na has quickly arranged the "venue" for the ceremony.

She locked the cabin door and turned to look at the ceremony hall she had arranged.

Under normal circumstances, in order to respond to the rally call, one would have to use the specially built "tide chamber" in the church to construct a psionic channel, but this is obviously not realistic on a ship with limited conditions—she can only place herself on the ground nearby. He placed his usual prayer book as the anchor of the "holy place", lit a large candlestick in the center of the room, and used it as a brazier for ceremonies, and then found holy oils and essences purchased from the city-state to act as a "sacred place" to enhance the effect of the ceremony. Sacrifice", barely enough elements to open the channel of spiritual energy.

To be honest, the conditions are very good, even a bit disrespectful to the goddess-but there is no better substitute.

The bell in her mind was still ringing, urging it over and over again, as if as long as she didn't respond, the bell would keep ringing.

"...I hope the goddess will not blame me... If I knew earlier, I should at least prepare some holy oil of better quality."

Fan Na muttered, and finally made up her mind, took out the holy oil and essence and dripped them into the candlestick.

In the suddenly rising flames, she took a light breath to calm her mind...

It seems that the ancient dark sky shrouded the huge meeting place, and the chaotic stream of light emerged and wandered on the top of countless simple and solemn pillars. On the dilapidated square between the pillars, hazy figures were emerging one after another.

After all the figures were in place, Fan Na's soul projection was long overdue.

Slight dizziness and sensory deprivation made her stand in place for a few seconds. After getting used to it, she lowered her head to confirm her state and the outlines of the figures around her.

"It turned out to be quite smooth..."

She muttered in surprise.

Instead of going through the tidal chamber, she used the limited temporary altar on the Lost Homes and the candles used as the ritual brazier to perform the ceremony. She didn't have much hope for the success rate of this set of operations, but she didn't expect that it would happen once. It worked.

A figure approached from the side, interrupting Fan Na's thinking.

She raised her head, and from the familiar outline and breath, she recognized the owner of that figure—the Bishop Valentine whom she had not seen for a long time.

"Fan Na, you're finally here!" The old bishop's voice was filled with the joy of reunion after a long absence, "I didn't expect you to really come..."

"I also... didn't expect that," Fan Na said with a slight embarrassment in her tone, "Have everyone been waiting for a long time? I have limited conditions here, so I prepared the ceremony in a hurry. It took a long time..."

"It's okay, I don't know why the Pope came very late today, and he hasn't arrived yet," Valentine said immediately, and then he leaned over and lowered his voice, "Where are you now? Are you still on the 'boat'?"

"...Well, on the 'boat', I just left Frost." Fan Na glanced around, then lowered her voice, "I was still talking to the 'captain' ten minutes ago."

"...Did he actually ask you to build a prayer room on the ship?" Bishop Valentine's tone was full of disbelief, "And you can even open the spiritual channel from the ship? You found a powerful holy relics?"

"It's just a crude ceremony hall," Fan Na said with a bit of embarrassment in her tone, "I didn't expect it to be successful..."

"A simple ritual hall?" Valentine wondered, but then, a roar from the center of the square interrupted what he wanted to say later.

Accompanied by a loud bang, the quaint and majestic Tomb of the Unknown King slowly rose to the ground from the center of the square, and the saints gathered in the assembly hall also fell silent, and their eyes fell on the gray-white tomb in unison. Pyramid-shaped building.

Fan Na also subconsciously looked at that building, at the heavy door in front of the pyramid.

The gate opened slowly, and the mausoleum guard, who was wrapped in bandages as if between life and death, stepped out of it.

Fan Na's heart moved, and then she saw the tall guard walking straight towards her.

There was a small commotion in the assembly hall.

For the third time, the tomb guard chose the same "listener" three times in a row.

However, for some reason, Fan Na actually had a kind of expected...relief, she turned her head, spread her hands helplessly at Valentine's phantom, and took a step forward, waiting for the guards to approach.

The giant between life and death came in front of Fanna with big strides, his cloudy yellow eyes lowered his gaze.

"Good afternoon, please come with me."