Deep Sea Embers

Duncan knew that his idea was bold and bizarre, even to the point that even in this weird and unpredictable deep-sea age, it seemed too outrageous—to transform a real celestial body into this "stone ball" with a diameter of ten meters in front of him, And let it float on the sea, this can no longer be described as delusional.

But once this idea surfaced, it was difficult for him to completely expel it from his mind. No matter how unbelievable he felt, he couldn't help thinking about it.

Because...it is really too similar, not only the appearance, but also a strong... "intuition", and even a kind of "intimacy" that seems to have crossed time and crossed the dimension of the world. His mind was racing.

Duncan looked at the pale sphere in front of him, and for a moment, he even felt that he had returned to that familiar world, staring at the moon in his hometown.

He just stared at the moon floating beside the side of the Bright Star, his expression remained frozen for a long time, until the sound of footsteps came from beside him, until Lucrezia's voice reached his ears : "Father, this is it."

Duncan turned his head. At this moment, he didn't realize how strange his face was: "Ah... yes, that's it..."

Of course, Lucrecia noticed the strangeness in Duncan's expression and tone. She seemed to be slightly nervous, and then said with concern in her tone: "Are you okay? Your face doesn't look very good... it's the stone ball What's wrong?"

"It's... very good, thank you for your concern, Lucy," Duncan waved his hand, trying to adjust his expression, then turned his head and pointed to the stone ball, "It..."

He stopped.

He couldn't think of how to explain this to Lucrecia, couldn't think of how to describe the concept of "moon", how to explain another world, and his reaction at this moment, just like what he did in front of Tirian—he even I don't know how to explain what a "planet" is.

So he could only open his mouth, and then changed the subject abruptly: "After it fell, has anything changed? Was it like this from the beginning?"

"Yes, it was like this from the beginning," Lucrezia nodded immediately, and then recounted the general process of discovering the fallen object, and added some details about the process of transferring it to Light Wind Harbor. The details, "...it floats in the air at a certain height from the sea surface by an unknown mechanism. It will stay in place completely without interference, but it can be dragged by the external force of the ship. Its interior is solid and dense. Sampling proves that its internal texture is similar to that of stone, but so far we have only collected relatively shallow components-the deeper the layer, the harder it is, and the drill bit can't drill it at all..."

Duncan listened quietly, and asked again: "What else? What else did you find?"

"We are also trying to unravel the mysteries of these 'lights' around us," Lucrezia continued, "The huge geometric light wrapped around the 'stone ball' will continuously release the 'sunshine' outward, and the scale of the sun can illuminate the entire world." city-state, however these lights do not emanate from 'stone balls', or at least not 'shine' in the way we understand it - the light is 'generated' directly in the nearby space and then spreads out evenly spread.

"To verify this, we built a large sunshade that completely enveloped the stone sphere, and it turned out that this had no effect on the glowing geometry and the 'sunlight' on the nearby sea area...

"In addition, we have also confirmed that the surface of the stone ball is covered with a layer of very fine 'dust', which is 'attached' to the stone ball by unknown forces. Although it can be scraped off for sampling, if there is no external force, they will not It 'falls' from the sphere, even the dust at the bottom of the sphere, as if there is some invisible force 'absorbing' them..."

Lucrecia tried her best to explain to Duncan the various tests that scholars have done on this "stone ball", and explained the information she knew so far.

During this process, she has been paying attention to the changes in Duncan's expression, trying to guess what kind of mood her father is hiding under the overly serious expression at the moment.

However, she couldn't see through it. All her father's thoughts seemed to be shrouded in a thick layer of clouds, shrouded in the depths of that familiar yet unfamiliar majestic face. The only thing she could be sure of was that her father really, really cared about this matter. A "stone ball" -- more than she and Tirian thought.

After a long silence, Duncan finally spoke: "Have you done a lot of sampling?"

"Yes, samples of its surface were scraped from various parts of the stone ball, and this sampling is still going on now," Lucrezia nodded, "The depth of the stone ball is very hard, and it is difficult to sample, but its surface layer Relatively 'loose', gray-white debris can be scraped off, and the properties of those debris are no different from stone powder..."

Speaking of this, she paused, looked at Duncan with some hesitation, and pointed to the floating platform not far away for studying the stone ball: "Would you like to go over there with me?"

"……good."

Duncan and Lucrezia came to the "research station" built by the elves, and passed the connecting bridge on the upper floor of the research station to a platform directly connected to the surface of the stone ball.

A diameter of ten meters is insignificant for a celestial body, but as an object that is close in front of you, it is still a colossal object. Even if its height floating on the sea is not counted, the diameter of the sphere itself actually exceeds As high as three floors.

The elves fixed a platform at the "waist" of this behemoth, and fixed it with a hoop around the sphere, a series of anchor bolts, and diagonal braces. The platform is small, only a few square meters square, but it is enough for a foothold.

Duncan stood on the platform, stretched out his hand, and lightly touched the... moon.

The rough, cold touch came from the fingertips, like stroking a stone.

He withdrew his hand, looked at the little gray-white dust stained on his fingertips, rubbed his fingers, and let the gray-white dust slowly fall down.

Some dust drifted slowly towards the sphere and landed on its surface again.

"This phenomenon is also very puzzling to us," Lucrezia's voice came from the side, "The dust scraped from the sphere seems to be attracted by the sphere itself, and when the distance is close enough, those debris Will actively return to the surface of the sphere, but this 'attraction' only exists between the materials of the stone sphere itself, we have tested it with other light powders..."

Duncan hummed, but didn't say much.

"I heard from my brother that you called this strange stone ball 'the moon,'" said Lucrezia, carefully watching Duncan's reaction, "and that you were very excited when you saw it." ...do you know anything about this stone ball?"

"It..." Duncan hesitated, and then finally spoke slowly, "It looks different from what I know, it should be bigger, far bigger than it is now..."

"Big?" Lucrezia blinked, "Is it bigger than the Lost Country?"

"Much bigger than that."

"Bigger than the pilgrimage ark of the Four Gods Church? Or bigger than the city-state?"

Duncan shook his head: "It's bigger, it's bigger than you can imagine."

"...Could it be bigger than the boundless sea?"

"I haven't measured the Boundless Sea, but...maybe," Duncan said softly as if talking to himself, "maybe it's bigger than the Boundless Sea, because the sea named 'Boundless' is actually only It's nothing but a cage surrounded by mist."

Lucrecia's eyes widened.

For some reason, at this moment, she suddenly thought of when she was a child. The few questions and answers just now seemed to suddenly turn back a century, and triggered those memories that had long been dormant in the deepest part of her mind—she vaguely remembered that in many Many years ago, I asked my father similar questions.

At that time, she asked her father how big this endless sea was.

Her father told her that this sea is very big, bigger than the Lost Country, bigger than a city-state—it is vast and boundless as its name suggests, and it can accommodate a person's lifelong curiosity and urge to explore.

She remembered it firmly, and followed in her father's footsteps to become an explorer, a "frontier scholar". As a member of the Lost Fleet, she followed her father to many places, including the remote and unpredictable She felt that her father did not deceive her when she was a child—this sea is really big.

But now her father told her that the "Boundless Sea" was just a cage surrounded by mist.

The "stone ball" with a diameter of only ten meters in front of him should have been bigger than the boundless sea.

Lucrezia squinted her eyes, raised her head and looked up at the "moon" in front of her, trying to imagine how it looked bigger than the boundless sea, but for the first time she felt that her imagination was so limited—not only could she not understand her father's You can't even imagine what you're saying.

"Such a big 'moon'... How much space does it need to accommodate it?" She couldn't help asking, "As you said, it's even bigger than this world..."

The Great Sea is not the whole world.

The words came to Duncan instinctively, but he resisted the urge to blurt them out.

Because he really has never measured this world, let alone passed through the fog called "border".

He wasn't sure if this boundless sea was really the whole of this world.

And Lucrezia is also doomed to be unable to understand what a universe that can hold billions of stars would look like.

Even if she owns a ship, and the name of that ship is "Bright Star".

"...Sorry, Lucy," Duncan finally sighed softly. He turned his head and looked into the eyes of the "Sea Witch". "I have no way to explain this to you."