Deep Sea Embers

The sound of hurried footsteps broke the tranquility of the cathedral. Bishop Valentine, who was assigning affairs to the deacon beside him, raised his head when he heard the sound, and saw the figure of Fanna walking towards him.

The bishop waved his hand to make the deacon and attendants stand aside temporarily, and his eyes fell on Fan Na: "I thought you would rest at home for two more days."

"Unfortunately, it seems that I don't have the leeway." Fan Na shook her head with a slightly serious expression, "What happened? I saw many priests hurrying, and I heard that a group of ascetic monks were sent to the Is the stargazing well... related to today's sunrise?"

"Yes," Valentine nodded with a solemn expression, "Today's sunrise was fifteen minutes later than usual—and it wasn't due to the delay of dawn caused by local abnormal weather conditions. I received a message from other city-states and sea contact nodes. Psychic transmissions have come, and this anomaly has been observed in all parts of the world."

"...The world was illuminated by the 'Creation of the World' for an extra fifteen minutes..." Fan Na frowned a little bit, "Is there any damage report now?"

"No, just one postponement of dawn will not cause any problems. Fifteen minutes of night is still within the redundancy range of the city-state's protection," the old bishop shook his head, "What is really disturbing is that the whole world observes the same phenomenon, which shows that the problem does not lie in the surface and sea."

"...The operation of vision 001 itself has changed." Of course, Fan Na knew what the old bishop was worried about. "There is no announcement from the Tomb of the Unknown King?"

Valentine shook his head slightly.

"There is no movement, so this may be just a small...'change', which does not involve the essential change of Vision 001, but...I am afraid that most people will not be relieved. We must at least see what happened today. The sun set normally, and I dared to breathe a little sigh of relief when I saw the sun rise normally the next day."

Fan Na was silent for a while, and asked after a while: "Are the ordinary people in the city not affected?"

"There hasn't been much fluctuation for the time being - some people haven't noticed the 15-minute delay, and some citizens who have noticed it probably haven't realized the seriousness of this matter. I have already sent a letter to the Government Affairs Office to let them Over there, evaluate whether it is necessary to issue a soothing and guiding announcement in the future. Now this incident has not had such a big impact, and the official's overly positive explanation may cause the public to feel uneasy—especially after we have just experienced such a large disaster. "

Fan Na silently listened to the old bishop's analysis, and didn't intervene. As a judge who put most of her energy into combat missions, she knew that she was not professional in this area, but she showed signs of confusion from time to time. The thoughtful expression showed that her mood was not as calm as it seemed on the surface.

Valentine looked at Fanna who had a worried look on her face: "What are you thinking?"

"I'm just a little emotional," Fan Na sighed softly and shook her head, "Every time there is an extraordinary disaster, you will become more aware of how fragile the world we live in today is... City-states, the Holy See, ocean-going ships, we lead Everything we are proud of seems to be built on a thin and fragile layer of ice, if any crack is not discovered in time, we will disappear in this world..."

"This is exactly the meaning of our eternal vigilance and tenacity," Valentine said in a deep voice, looking into the eyes of the young judge, "Vanna, you rarely feel like this... What happened? ?”

Fanna fell silent, and after a few seconds, she seemed to have made up her mind, and said to Bishop Valentine: "There are two things, the first... I saw that 'Captain Duncan' again yesterday. "

Valentine's eyes became serious at first, but after a while, he sighed again: "It's actually expected."

He paused, then continued: "So far we have nothing to do with the imprint left by the ghost captain on you, even now the entire city-state of Purand may have established contact with that captain, he came Find you... sooner or later. What did he tell you?"

"...Mostly chatting." Fan Na said with a slightly strange tone.

"...chatting?" Valentine finally raised his eyebrows in surprise this time, "You mean, the captain of the Lost Home, the shadow returned from the subspace, the 'Duncan' who reversed the pollution of history and took away the sun fragments , just to find you, just to chat with you?"

"I knew you would have this reaction—I can't believe it, to be honest, if he told me that he had a plan to conquer the world, I would believe it, but..." Fan Na sighed, and then continued Within ten minutes, she told the old man in front of her in detail about her conversation with Duncan last night.

Valentin rubbed his forehead and listened to Fan Na's report. This old bishop who never wavered in the face of the crisis of the doomsday had trouble and exhaustion that could not be concealed on his face.

But after a short period of distress, he still raised his head and said in a somewhat complicated tone: "Fan Na, I have actually been thinking about a problem since last night."

"what is the problem?"

"...You have had two direct exchanges with Captain Duncan. In your opinion, does that 'ghost captain'... seem like an invader from the warp?"

"You...what do you mean?" Fan Na's complexion changed slightly, and she asked cautiously, "It is a definite thing that the Lost Land crashed into the subspace and returned..."

"I don't doubt this. Of course I know the records of the Lost Homelander's return from the subspace. It's just that if you recall carefully, what should be the state of a person who is completely affected by the subspace, and... the real subspace invaders, Is it possible to talk to people sensibly without creating uncontrolled pollution in the process?"

This time, Fanna hesitated. She couldn't respond without thinking like she did just now, and hesitated for a few seconds before speaking: "Judging from all the cases and basic cognition of the subspace...it's impossible."

"When conducting mental examinations on people who have suffered from 'deep' pollution, there is the simplest and most effective criterion for judging—those who can speak rationally are saved, at least those who have not been fully transformed," Bishop Valentine pointed out Nodded, "The pollution of the subspace is very deadly, and because of this, there have never been any polluters or invaders of the subspace who can maintain consciousness in history. Crazy is their indelible characteristic, and we... Maybe we can also put This simple criterion applies to the Lost Country and its captain."

"...You mean, that 'Captain Duncan' is very likely to retain his humanity?"

"Or regained humanity," Bishop Valentine corrected this nuance, "In the early records, there are clear reports of indiscriminate attacks by the Lost Homelander and Captain Duncan's insanity. At that time, he obviously Fits Warp invaders."

Fan Na thought about it, and the more she thought about it, the more unbelievable the expression on her face became: "Is this possible? After being completely transformed by the pollution of the subspace...they can still regain their humanity, this..."

"If this is impossible, how do you explain that Captain Duncan who 'chatted' with you?" Bishop Valentine interrupted Vanna softly, and then he paused, reminding, "Don't forget the 'zeroth law' '."

Fan Na was startled, and then realized: "There are always abnormalities and visions that do not conform to cognition or exceed the definition..."

There was a moment of silence in the Great Cathedral, and the silence lasted for an unknown amount of time before Valentine suddenly said: "But we still can't treat the Lost Homelander and its captain as harmless, do you understand?

"After all, it is returning from the subspace. Even if the captain regains his humanity, it is hard to say what kind of perspective he is looking at us...'mortals' at this moment.

"And we can't make a judgment on our own. We have to report all the information we have to the Pope to see how she views this matter."

Fan Na's expression changed, and she immediately nodded seriously: "Of course, I'm still very clear about this."

Then she paused, with a weird expression on her face: "Talking about this kind of thing in this holy church is really... stressful. If it was in the past, I'm afraid I would have to create a heresy for myself." ' is defined."

Valentine just sighed noncommittally, and then asked: "You just said that there are two things. Besides meeting the ghost captain, what is the second thing?"

This time, Fan Na was silent for a longer period of time. She seemed to be struggling for a while, and finally, under the gaze of the icon of the storm goddess Gamona, she mustered up great courage and said solemnly to the old bishop: "I...should repent."

"Repentance?" Valentine looked at her in surprise. "Why do you repent?"

"I've wavered—even though I'm still devout, I can't avoid my wavering," Vanna confessed bluntly, taking a deep breath, "After that fire, I questioned my faith .”

She spoke out about her doubts about the goddess and her wavering in her belief, except for hiding the secret that her uncle told her, she did not hide anything.

The old bishop did not speak for a long time.

Fanna looked at the old man's face with some anxiety, but she found that she couldn't judge Valentine's attitude this time.

The old bishop seemed to be in deep thought, and he hesitated to speak, but he didn't blame him.

After an unknown amount of time, Fan Na heard the other party's voice enter her ears.

"Fan Na, you came to confess to me...then who should I confess to?"

A hint of surprise finally appeared in Fan Na's eyes.

"Now, there are two wavers of faith in the Great Cathedral," the old bishop turned around, quietly staring at the icon of the Storm Goddess, with a strangely calm voice, "Vanna, can you feel ?"

"What?"

"...the goddess is still blessing us."