Deep Sea Embers

In the age of sailing battleships a century ago, shipbuilders in various city-states had a rule when building ships - they had to cut a square of wood from the original wood when processing the keel.

They will carbonize, soak, and oil the wood in the same way as the keel, and put it on the slipway together with the unfinished ship. After the ship is built, this "keel wood square" will be Leave it in the shipyard and keep it permanently on land - usually, the ship owners will pay an extra sum of money to ask the priests in the city-state to perform blessing ceremonies for the piece of wood on a regular basis, or simply send it to the church for advice. It will be kept and cared for on your behalf.

In the beginning, this behavior of retaining "keel samples" was part of the quality specifications, and ship owners used it to check whether the material selection and preliminary treatment process of the keel could meet the technical requirements of a ship. Later, this became a A symbol of praying for peace——

People believe that ships have souls, and the keels left on land will bring good luck to ships on long voyages. They are like lighthouses, allowing stray ships to find their way back to the coast. The clergy believe that ships have souls. The blessings exerted by the keel wood can also befall the sailing ships at the same time, and if something unfortunate happens - the keel left on the shore will be turned into a ferry boat in the world of the dead, taking the souls of the sailors back to their hometown. .

In the past, when a ship was confirmed to have been wrecked, the priests of the God of Death would even take out the keel wood cubes left on the shore to hold a "funeral". The families of the wrecked crew members would pay tribute to the pieces of wood as if they were the remains of their loved ones. Mu Fang saw it off and watched it being sent into the incinerator.

Out of interest, Agatha once described to Duncan in great detail the scene where the death priests "sent off" to the dragon bone samples a hundred years ago.

In fact, this custom is still retained today, but with the development of the times, people may not necessarily choose to retain the keel samples of the ship. Many times, young captains prefer to cut the steam core during installation. Parts of the pipes that came down are kept in shipyards or churches.

Duncan stared at the piece of wood in the box quietly.

The Lost Home was a ship built a hundred years ago - no matter how special it is now, when it was in the shipyard, it was constructed according to the norms and habits of ordinary ships.

Craftsmen a hundred years ago preserved samples of its keel.

It's not the ancient god's spine now, but the original... "little branch" of the Lost Home that was found by Duncan Abnomar in the fog near the border.

Duncan reached out and carefully picked up the ordinary-looking piece of wood.

He suddenly opened his eyes slightly: "No weight?!"

The "weight" of this keel sample surprised him. It was so light... Even "light" was far beyond description. As he blurted out, this piece of wood seemed to have no weight at all. Even lighter than a grain of dust when held in the hand!

However, Duncan clearly saw that there were obvious indentations on the surface of the black satin that was originally used to place the wooden cubes in the box, which were traces of being pressed out by the wood.

"Yes, it has no weight - but only when it is held in someone's hand," Bishop Valentine's voice came from the side. "When it is placed on the weighing platform, it weighs 0.7 kilograms. When a person holds it in his hand, it weighs 0 milligrams, but initially it doesn't - for the record, it's just like regular wood when it's cut from the keel timber, I mean' weight' aspect."

Duncan frowned. Although he already had the answer in his heart, he couldn't help but ask: "...When did the change happen?"

"On the day the Lost Home crashed into subspace," Valentine replied, "many things happened on that day, and many of the situations were only investigated and confirmed after people recovered from the chaos. Except for this In addition to the fact that the keel sample lost its 'weight' in the hands of a living person, we also discovered that with the exception of this sample, all other pieces of wood cut from the original keel of the Lost Home were missing."

The old bishop paused for a moment before further explaining: "The 'raw material' you brought to Plande was a very huge piece of wood. After it was processed into a keel, a large amount of remaining wood was cut. It is still enough to be used for many other purposes. According to records, some of them were processed into various items on the Lost Home, and the rest were stored by you in the warehouse of the shipyard, and some of the rest were It was taken away by you a few years later and used to make the bows and steering wheels of the "Sea Mist" and "Brilliant Star". The remaining wood was not of much use and remained in the warehouse until...'something happened' that day."

As he spoke, the old man took a step forward and pointed at the big box in front of Duncan.

"These relevant records are also included here."

"The Seamist and the Brilliant Star were also built in Pland? And the remaining keel materials of the Lost Home were used? Are their construction records still there?"

"Unfortunately, the construction records of those two ships have been burned to ashes with the fire in the shipyard that year, along with their 'keel samples'," Valentine shook his head, "People It is said that this was the beginning of the curse on the two ships - the storm caused by the Homeless Ship in the subspace destroyed the "anchors" left by the Sea Mist and the Brilliant Star on the land. From now on, the two ships will be cursed. The ship gradually became what it is now."

Speaking of this, the old bishop seemed to suddenly feel that something was wrong, and he quickly coughed twice: "Ahem, I hope you don't mind, these are..."

"It doesn't matter, you are just stating what happened - I took the initiative to inquire about it," Duncan shook his head and said, "And now I have a good relationship with the children, and that is all in the past."

As he spoke, he focused his attention again on the weightless "keel bone sample" in his hand.

There are many things that I finally figured out today.

Everything went round and round, seemingly a chaotic mess, but it turned out to be just a thread connected end to end, and now, the end of the thread finally reached his hand.

"If you still want to know more about what happened back then, I can find a way to find the elven craftsmen who participated in the construction of the Lost Home...but it may not be easy," Valentine noted the change in Duncan's face. He spoke cautiously, "After all... the situation with the elves is not good now."

"I know, I just want to solve this matter," Duncan exhaled softly, put down his thoughts for the time being, and nodded to Valentine, "This is enough, I have got what I want, I’ll take this box with me.”

"Of course," Valentine nodded immediately, "It would be better if... you can take it away."

Of course Duncan knew why the other person said that. He just smiled, then put the piece of wood properly back into the box and closed the box again.

But just when he was about to summon Ai to return the box to the Lost Home, he noticed Valentine's hesitant expression.

"Anything else?"

"Um..." Valentine was visibly nervous, and then hesitated for a few seconds before speaking, "Actually, I have been thinking about a question since just now, but I was afraid that you would be offended..."

"you say."

"...Fanna is on your ship, hasn't there been any trouble?"

"Trouble? Why do you say that?" Duncan felt confused. "She is a mature and steady person. She is very worry-free on the ship. What trouble could there be?"

Valentin was stunned for a moment, then suddenly said: "She didn't break anything? She has a very straightforward personality, is not easy to get along with others, is very strong, and has few friends in the city..."

Duncan didn't speak for a while. He first thought about Nina, who was shocked and shocked, then Shirley, who was making a fuss all day because of a few papers, and Ally, who would make herself stewed every now and then. Silk, as well as the pile of pots, pans, mops, buckets and even gunpowder cannons on the ship that are noisy day and night...

"She's pretty good," he said to the old bishop with great seriousness. "She's already one of the quiet ones on the ship. She only makes a little noise when she's running and exercising on the deck in the morning..."

Valentine: "...?"

The old bishop still seemed unable to imagine what it was like for Vanna to live on the Lost Home.

But Duncan had no intention of further explanation - he quickly summoned Ai and sent the large wooden box directly to the distant Lost Home. Then he said goodbye to the old bishop and left the cathedral in a swaggering manner.

In the brightly lit inner chapel, Valentine stood in front of the icon of the Storm Goddess and was in a daze for a while. In a daze, he suddenly felt that what happened this morning had a sense of unreality.

This sacred place really received a shadow from the subspace - and now, the shadow has left so peacefully.

It's like a dream.

"...Fana."

"I'm here," Vanna's voice reached Valentine's ears before the psychic channel was closed, "Has the captain left?"

"...He just left." Valentine said.

Perhaps the hesitation and subtle emotions in the old bishop's tone were too obvious, and Fanna was keenly aware of the strangeness: "What's wrong? Is something going wrong?"

"That's not the case, I just feel a little weird..." Valentine said hesitantly, "Do you think... does this count as an invasion of the cathedral by subspace?"

Fanna obviously didn't expect that the old bishop would say such a thing. There was silence on her side for a few seconds, and then an uncertain response came: "I... don't know either."

Valentin turned back and glanced at the statue of Gemona standing quietly in the candlelight: "The goddess doesn't seem to blame her."

"I don't think the goddess will blame her," Vanna said with certainty. "After all, the captain just went to visit. If this really counts as an invasion, the Death Cathedral on the other side of the frost will be invaded by Ya every Friday. Even though there was a space invasion... I didn’t see any movement over there.”

Valentine: "...?"