Deep Sea Embers

The sun was lit again.

After being extinguished for a full twelve hours, the dark sphere hanging high and still in the sky once again became the "sun" that brought warmth and light to this world, and resumed its movement.

In Prand, in Frost, and in Qingfeng Harbor, everyone who has witnessed the extinction of the sun has seen the scene of vision 001 recovering again.

However, the panic caused by the extinguishment of the sun did not subside so easily - the residents of the city-state were still anxious, and the scholars and priests looked at the re-lit sun, just as confused and nervous as when they saw it extinguished before. , The managers of the city are still trying to find a way to confirm the situation in other cities, and everyone is eager to know-what happened?

The flying colorful paper rolled across the deck like a gust of wind, passed through the window, and fell into the captain's cabin. Lucrezia's figure condensed out of the paper, and she stepped to her own crystal ball. Impatiently waiting for the reply from the other side.

As soon as Tirian's figure appeared, she quickly said, "I see that the sun has been relit from my side, how is the situation on your side?"

"Of course it is on my side, at least for now, we are still seeing the same sun," Tirian said with a trace of fatigue in his eyes, but he seemed to be in good spirits, "It may take me a while to let the atmosphere of the city-state relax down, and now everyone is worried about whether the sky overhead will go dark again..."

"...the sun is a symbol of safety, and it protects our daytime for thousands of years. In other words, as long as it goes out once, the most basic and stable 'sense of security' in everyone's mind will be hit hard. Lucrezia sighed, and casually said what she felt in her heart, "No one is not worried about this, even me."

"Did you collect any useful information during the extinction of the sun?" Tirian asked. "You have all kinds of equipment..."

Lucrezia nodded immediately: "Yes, after the sun went out, a set of observation devices I set up on the Bright Star received a strange signal from the 'luminous geometry', after I sort out the data Give me a copy, and you can see if the scholars on the Frost side have any clues. I will go to Qingfeng Harbor again later to see if the monitoring devices set up by the Academy of Truth in various places in the city have found anything... ..."

"Okay, I'll wait for your news."

Lucrezia hummed, and then hesitated for a few seconds before she hesitated to speak: "How is the situation with father? When the sun went out, he was still at sea..."

"I have been in touch with him before, and everything is normal on the Lost Homeland, even...maybe better than the situation in the city," Tirian exhaled, "I will contact him again later, don't worry, if you notice If something is wrong...I will tell you as soon as possible."

Lucrezia nodded lightly, and after saying goodbye to her brother, she extinguished the crystal ball in front of her.

...

Homeless, in the captain's room, in the oval mirror in front of Duncan's eyes, there is the figure of the captain of the White Oak, Lawrence, who is reporting the latest situation:

"The sea area around the White Oak has returned to normal, and the weird phenomenon before has not reappeared. It seems that with the sun re-lighting, everything is back on track..."

"How's the navigation going?"

"You can see the 'starry sky' again in the stargazing room," Lawrence nodded immediately. "However, it will take some time for the spirit world lens to be recalibrated. At present, it is roughly judged that the White Oak has not deviated too much from its course."

"Okay, report to me in time if there is any follow-up situation."

The illusory spiritual body flames on the edge of the mirror expanded and shrunk, and Lawrence's figure in the mirror gradually dissipated, but Duncan still stood in front of the restored mirror, frowning and lost in thought.

The sun has recovered, and the situation is actually similar to what he expected at the beginning-although the anomaly 001 is indeed having problems, this huge ancient "device" will not completely collapse in a short period of time, and it may continue to malfunction Persisting in restoration for a long time, today's extinction is only temporary—but correspondingly, its rekindling is also temporary.

Compared with the brief extinction of the sun, Duncan is actually more concerned about other things at this moment: those strange phenomena that happened after the sun extinguished.

The first strange phenomenon is the interruption of communication in other city-states except Prand, Qingfeng Harbor and Frost.

If it is true that all communications on the Boundless Sea have been cut off, it will not be troublesome, but there are three city-states that have no problems. If Prand and Frost have become "visions" Some kind of particularity, so what about Qingfeng Harbor?

The second strange phenomenon is even more puzzling than the "communication interruption"-what is the "boundary" observed by the White Oak?

The burning cloth balls are thrown into the sea from the ship. Theoretically, they will continue to drift in the opposite direction to the ship's course due to the driving of the ship. "Around a certain "boundary"...

According to Lawrence's report just now, after the sun was relit, this weird phenomenon disappeared -- the mummy "sailor" did several tests to confirm this.

Duncan frowned.

The phenomenon observed by the White Oak is actually very small in scale. Compared with the "disconnection" of all the city-states in the entire boundless sea, the "boundary" is only limited to one ship, but what is hidden behind the phenomenon... ...but it seems far beyond imagination.

Duncan vaguely felt that he seemed to have touched a very crucial "secret" in this boundless sea. The "true side" of the whole world seemed to be hidden in the twelve hours after the sun went out.

At this moment, a call from afar suddenly interrupted his thinking.

Duncan immediately came back to his senses, his eyes swept over the mirror in front of him.

In the next second, the illusory and transparent fire of the spirit enveloped the mirror again, and the depths of the mirror quickly became pitch black, and Tirian's figure emerged from it.

"Father, over there..."

"Everything is fine here, the sun has recovered, right?" Duncan asked without waiting for the other party to finish, "How is the situation of Frost?"

"Everything is fine here in Frost," Tirian replied immediately, "You are 'watching' over the cemetery, which greatly reduces the pressure on the church and the city hall. At present, the order in the city has been brought under control, but The panic of the citizens probably needs to be appeased slowly, and I will call a meeting later to discuss how to explain the extinction of the sun to ordinary people..."

Duncan noticed that Tirian seemed to be secretly looking at this side while speaking, as if... carefully observing the changes in his expression.

He immediately figured out why.

"Don't worry, I'm still me, and I haven't been replaced by something in the subspace because of the short extinction of the sun," Duncan laughed, and said the truth calmly, "If you don't believe me, go to the cemetery Confirm with my 'avatar' face to face?"

"Ah, no, I don't mean anything else!" Tirian hurriedly explained, "It's just... Lucy is a little worried about you..."

"I know," Duncan interrupted and waved his hand indifferently, "but you can rest assured that my mental health is very good--rather than worrying about me, let's talk about the situation in the city. Communication with other city-states recovered?"

"We can now receive the signal from Cold Harbor, and the psychic communication with other distant city-states has also been restored," Tirian nodded. "I have arranged for people to inquire about the situation of each city-state, and it should be soon..."

He stopped suddenly when he said this, and then looked away.

It seemed that someone had walked into the dome office and was reporting something to him.

Duncan didn't speak, and retracted his "gaze" immediately, while hiding the connection between the mirrors - this was to avoid scaring the "ordinary people" over there.

After a few minutes, the flames on the edge of the mirror rekindled, and Duncan heard Tirian's call, and looked at the mirror again.

Tirian's figure appeared in the mirror again, and this time there was an expression of consternation clearly on his face.

Duncan noticed the change in the other party's expression, and frowned slightly: "What happened?"

"We... established contact with Cold Harbor just now, and asked about the situation of their city-state during the extinction of the sun," Tirian hesitated, as if he was trying to figure out how to express every word, "they were surprised—they were completely I don’t know about the extinguishing of the sun!”

Duncan's expression froze for a moment.

After more than ten seconds, he seemed to suddenly think of something, and broke the silence with an unusually serious voice: "Clarify, is it because the side of Cold Harbor has never observed the phenomenon of the sun going out, or is it because they have never experienced the previous 12 years?" Hours?"

Tirian was taken aback when he heard the words, and quickly understood the meaning of Duncan's words.

"You mean..."

"Go and confirm again, see if there is any record of interruption of communication with Frost in Cold Harbor. If in their eyes, the whole world is always as usual, and the communication with Frost has never been interrupted... then this matter may be It's more complicated than we thought."

"Yes, I will confirm it immediately," Tirian said quickly, "There are other city-states, and I will confirm them one by one!"

Duncan nodded, waved his hand to disperse the flames floating around the mirror, but just when he was about to think about this matter, a goat's head exclaimed not far away: "Captain! The situation is not good Yes! Come and have a look at the chart!"

charts?

Duncan was puzzled, and quickly turned around and came to the navigation table, his eyes swept over the weird sea chart surrounded by fog.

In the next second, he saw the projection of the Lost Home on the chart, and... the city-state mark slowly emerging beside the projection.

"We...are near Qingfeng Harbor?"