Deep Sea Embers

In the first few minutes, Heidi did not get up from the hospital bed hastily, but carefully observed the situation around her, listening to the movement outside the room, and then raised her wrist to check the number and color arrangement of colored stones on the bracelet.

After doing this, she subconsciously reached out and touched the "Amethyst" pendant on her chest - the slightly cold touch came from her fingertips, transmitting reassuring power.

Thinking of the real origin of this pendant and the source of this protective power in her mind, Miss Psychiatrist's face was a little weird, but soon, she suppressed this strange feeling, leaving only a helpless sigh— —

"Fate, it's really incredible..." She couldn't help muttering softly.

"Yeah, in your eyes, fate is really incredible."

A strange and deep voice suddenly came from the side, which woke Heidi up instantly, and the muscles all over her body tensed suddenly.

She suddenly turned her head to look in the direction of the sound, but saw a figure wearing a dark brown old robe sitting there at some time near the window of the ward. The old robe covered almost all of the other person's body. The outline details, and the thick and wide hood shrouded all his facial features in the shadows. It can only be judged from the crooked figure, low voice, and a few wrinkles on the edge of the hood shadow that this seems to be an old man.

The sunlight is pouring into the room obliquely, and some dust slowly floats and moves in the light of the setting sun, and the light leaves mottled and intermittent projections between the folds of this mysterious man's robe. Suddenly, the figure looks like a phantom Translucent texture.

who is this When did it appear here? Could it be that he was there just now?

A series of horrifying questions instantly appeared in Heidi's mind, and at the same time, her hand subconsciously stretched out to the suitcase next to the bed.

But before her hand touched the suitcase, the low, hoarse voice came from the window again: "There is no need to be so hostile, Miss Heidi, I am not your enemy today—and your gold cone and pistol I can't kill a temporary traveler, sit down, I'm just here to chat with you, and it's just to help you relieve your boredom."

Heidi still took the pistol out of the hidden compartment of the suitcase with a blank expression, and quietly pointed the gun at the other party while asking in a deep voice: "... who are you?"

The figure in the robe didn't answer Heidi, but slowly raised his arms, carefully inspecting his hands in the sunlight coming in from the window, as if he suddenly discovered some interesting phenomenon, he put his hands Put your arm in the sun and watch it repeatedly.

The sleeves of the old robe slipped down, and the arm was as dry as a branch, wrinkled and cracked.

Heidi looked at the other party's weird behavior with vigilance, and suddenly noticed the strange state of the arm in the sun-it really became transparent from time to time, and for a few moments, she could even see it. The sunlight penetrates the arm and shines directly to this side.

"It's unbelievable... I've almost forgotten what sunlight looks like..."

The man in the robe was amazed, with incomprehensible emotion in his tone, and then he turned his head suddenly, as if he was talking to Heidi, and he seemed to be muttering to himself: "...in the fourth Before the beginning of the second long night, things will change, the sun will become milder, and the "border" established by the sun will blur, and the once exiled, forgotten, and erased , what has been changed, will be allowed to return to this world for a short time - we bathe in this evening together, waiting for the moment when the sun goes down..."

The voice of the uninvited guest was low and slow, not so much telling someone, but more like facing a written chapter, and slowly reciting the ancient words on it.

Like a preacher, he is proclaiming his destiny to the world.

Heidi listened to the other party's chanting that seemed to have mysterious and bewitching power, and suddenly she vaguely thought of something, and her eyes instantly became sharp: "Finally a preacher?!"

The figure in the robe finally raised his head, and in the hazy shadow cast by the hood, a pair of strange golden eyes stared at him calmly: "Miss Heidi, you have established contact with the promised ark, Have you seen the end of that journey?"

"I'm not interested in the bewitching of the cultists." Heidi's voice was cold and hard, her fingers slightly exerted force on the trigger, while the other hand subconsciously grabbed the amethyst pendant on her chest, a sense of tension gradually spread in her heart .

She had no idea—although she had dealt with mental patients and their mental illnesses, as well as monsters and shadows that appeared in nightmares, she had never dealt with the "rare enemy" of the final missionary. There are very few records of space lunatics, and there is no targeted training for these cultists in the body protection course of the martial arts school affiliated to the Academy of Truth. efficient.

However, the uninvited guest did not respond when he saw Heidi's obvious hostile behavior.

He seemed to be very different from the final missionary Heidi had learned about in textbooks.

"We smell something unusual, Miss Heidi, just after the promised ark came," he said leisurely, even politely, "a huge, boundless void, it appeared after the end, there There is nothing... We are looking for a way to avoid the doomsday, but now it seems that outside the doomsday is a vast void that is more terrifying than the doomsday... You have touched Him, and now, you have also become a part of this void, this void Made us wonder...what the hell happened?"

The uninvited guest's words sounded like gods and gods, obscure and incomprehensible, and it sounded like riddles one after another, as if although he was sane, he had lost the ability to communicate with ordinary people in a long and chaotic time. In this way, Heidi still caught some specious information from the other party's few words, and couldn't help feeling emotional.

She frowned slightly.

"Are you talking about... Duncan Abu Normar? You mean, he brings some kind of 'hole'?"

The old preacher slowly stood up from the chair. Under the sun, his figure was much taller than Heidi imagined. Even though he was stooped, he was still like a giant: "I don't know, we only know A void has been created and is expanding, and perhaps one day it will cover the entire night sky of this fourth long night..."

Heidi became nervous because of the other party's sudden action, and raised the muzzle of the gun a little bit: "Heretic, what do you want from me?"

"...We are eager to know the essence of this emptiness," the other party actually answered her question seriously, but soon, he shook his head, "Unfortunately, it seems that I came at an untimely time."

Heidi was taken aback when she heard the words, and subconsciously said, "What does this mean?"

The other party did not answer, but slowly turned around and looked at the sunshine outside the window.

"What do you mean by the fourth long night you just mentioned?" Heidi asked again.

The uninvited guest just waved his hand.

"During this window period, we can only have limited communication—it's time to leave," the missionary finally said softly, and walked towards the sunshine, "We may meet in the next window period, or we may not, It depends on how fast the void grows...but whether or not the next window appears, we'll meet again sooner or later...dusk is near."

His figure finally became completely transparent, and instantly melted into the sunlight.

Heidi froze.

If it wasn't for the clear and stable memory in her mind, if it wasn't for the distinct touch from the pistol and the amethyst pendant, she would almost think that she had just had another dream.

Then, as the aura of the final missionary disappeared completely, she suddenly felt a subtle change in the "atmosphere" in the room.

It seemed that some kind of blocking force had receded from the room.

There were slightly hurried footsteps in the corridor outside the ward.

...

In the captain's cabin of the Lost Home, Duncan sat quietly at the navigating table, still recalling the information he saw and perceived in the strange dream before.

After some time, Morris' voice suddenly sounded from the side, interrupting his thinking: "I thought you would consider letting Heidi join this ship."

Duncan raised his head, smiled and glanced at the old gentleman: "Didn't you say before that you didn't want her to get too close to the Lost Home?"

"At that time... I was a little nervous about this ship," Morris smiled awkwardly, then shook his head, "And Heidi didn't know anything about us at that time, but now that she already knows, it's There is no need to hide any more."

Duncan thought for a while, and said seriously: "Indeed, but after thinking about it carefully, it seems that there is no need for a psychiatrist on this ship."

Then he turned his head, glanced out of the window, and said casually: "Who here needs psychological counseling? You don't need it, Agatha doesn't need it, and I don't need it. Fanna's tenacity is so strong that even I am shocked, Shirley Agou is a deep demon, Nina is a fragment of the sun, Alice...Alice has no mind at all, is there anything else? Goat head?"

The goat head on the nautical table turned his neck when he heard his name: "Ah, great captain, your first mate is always tough and reliable, and will not be defeated by so-called psychological problems, and I have taught myself many psychology courses , fully capable of self..."

"Shut up."

"oh."

"So, you see." Duncan turned to Morris and spread his hands, "If Heidi comes, then the person on this ship who is most likely to need a psychiatrist is probably herself."

Morris thought for a while, silently picked up the pipe, and muttered before putting it in his mouth: "It seems to be..."