Deep Sea Embers

As the night faded and the pale scar that occupied the sky dissipated, Duncan stood on the aft of the deck and stared upwards to not miss a single detail about the exchanging night-day cycle.

From what he observed, the scar first became transparent and illusory like a gradually waking dream, followed by the gray-white light merging into the horizon until the entire thing faded away. During the process, the “scar’s” position never changed.

Is this an indication that the scar up there is not some distant astronomical object? But instead, an “imprinted” illusion projected upwards from the Boundless Sea?

Or is it because the planet (if this really is a planet) running in sync with the scar? Or the scar actually moves but only appears stagnant because I’m looking at it with only my eyes?

All kinds of conjectures came and went inside his head. Still, Duncan wouldn’t be foolish enough to believe any of his conjectures as fact. Until there’s sufficient evidence and reliable experimental verification, it’s just his own speculation.

Then the “sun” rose.

First, the golden radiance emerged from the sea, followed by the huge luminous structure that gradually surfaced from the water line.

The sun rose majestically under the gentle movement of the circling runes, and this majestic process seemed to carry some kind of noise in the air— it was a low, powerful, echoing murmur inside Duncan’s mind. But when he wanted to concentrate and listen, the sound suddenly vanished.

He frowned, somewhat baffled if he had just an auditory hallucination. Yet the memory of the sound was so vivid that he could not deny it.

No one could answer Duncan’s doubts, and the vast and Boundless Sea kept all its secrets as always.

The dove squatted comfortably on Duncan’s shoulder as usual, and then it stood up very suddenly to flap its wings vigorously. “French fries! French fries!”

Duncan couldn’t help but laugh as he glanced at this strange dove. For once after their meeting, he found comfort in having such a bird around him because it reminded Zhou Ming of home.

“It’s a pity there are no fries on board,” he casually stroked the dove’s beak before turning for the captain’s quarter, “but you are right about one thing, we have to get something to eat.”

Moments later, the captain of the Vanished had prepared a traditional breakfast suitable for what a ghost ship should expect.

Duncan didn’t have a dining table so he converted the mapping table for the task. On the menu tonight was the usual jerky and cheese with water. This had served him well for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the past few days.

Carefully draping a dining napkin around his neck while the goat head sat across from himself, Duncan made sure to do this ritualistically. Of course, let’s not forget Alice, who sat to his left and had come early this morning to greet him. As for Ai, the dove was roosting atop of the table to his right.

This arrangement pleasantly pleased Duncan inside despite how adamant he was about being a ghost captain. The goat head represented his evil side, and the dove acted as his knowledge. As for the cursed doll, he would eventually think of something to describe her status here. Regardless, it’s nice having companions for once….

Now that leaves one itsy bitsy problem – the food on the Vanished.

Duncan sighed and stared down at his plate. Unlike in the great pirate movies of Hollywood, the real-life dining experience of a ghost ship could only be described as deplorable.

Picking up the cheese with his kitchen knife and cutting it, he nearly puked at the texture of sand grinding against his tongue. Then he poked the dried jerky with his fork, finding it near impossible to chew since it was harder than anything he’s ever eaten.

Alice stared at this scene curiously and finally asked, “Captain, today is the same as yesterday’s meal?”

“Tomorrow’s too,” Duncan glanced up at the cursed doll, “You want to try?”

Alice thought about it and picked up one of the dried jerky meat. But after a quick chew and some crunching sound, she immediately spat it back out in disgust: “It’s not delicious at all!”

“It’s not like you can eat it anyways. Do you even have a stomach?” Duncan raised an eyebrow and glanced towards her stomach, “I’m more surprised you actually dared to try the food.”

That said, he stared down at the unappealing food on his plate and grew more depressed.

The only edible items that could be found on the ship was this, the taste of the dried meat that’s as tough as firewood with a lot of salt. The cheese was easier to chew, but it fell apart like sand and needed water to rehydrate in his mouth. Of course, he tried boiling the meat and cheese together with water, but none of that helped in the flavor department.

The good news was that these foods are not poisonous or mutated in any weird way, but the bad news was that they’re still very much undesirable to eat. In fact, Duncan had every reason to believe this cheese and jerky had an age span far older than himself. For one thing, he never tried a cheese that’s as nasty as eating sand nor a jerky that could be used as a weapon.

Sure, he didn’t need to worry about catching scurvy on this ghost ship, but Duncan still wanted to lean on a healthy diet. At the very least, the food being as young as him would work too!

It’s then the plan of resupplying the ship and exploring the world resurfaced in his mind again. Sadly, these two goals are not achievable in the near future.

Duncan sighed and continued to cut the “firewood” on his plate using the posture of someone seeking revenge.

“Insufficient crystal ore reserve?” Ai suddenly poked her head over and pecked the jerky to make a metallic sound.

Pricking an eye up, Duncan glanced at the dove and casually crumbled up a cheese corner and threw it over. With another peck of the beak and a swallow, Ai abruptly went stiff and dropped dead like she’s been poisoned.

This clown show lasted for no more than five seconds, but it was this five-second of delay that the dove went crazy over. Flapping her wings wildly, Ai made a jolt for the nearest shelf before speaking in a depraved and outraged voice: “I would rather starve today before eating that…”

That actually hurt a bit since it’s so true. Perhaps the statement offended the goat head, who had remained quiet throughout, but the statue had clearly reached its limit and started making that creaking wood sound.

“Go ahead and say it,” Duncan gives in and lifts the ban with his order.

“Yes Captain,” said the goat head, who finally got to talk from the gag order. “I have wanted to ask this since yesterday. This bird you brought back is called Ai, right? How come I can’t understand what she’s saying? Like that phrase about charging Q coins, what does it mean?”

Duncan immediately raised an eyebrow because he didn’t expect the goat head to hold back until now to vent this question. Talk about restraints!

“You don’t have to care; her thinking is weird so there’s no need to understand.” Duncan did not stop the carpentry work in his hand and spelled out the excuse he had made up during the night. “It seems to communicate with people in a language that only it can understand. If you listen to her more often, it’s possible to make a good guess approximately.”

“Is that so?” The goat head pondered the idea, “But I always feel as if there’s some kind of logic hidden in her words… It is as if there is a complete, self-consistent set of patterns hidden behind the language… Did you discover Ai during your walk in the spirit world? Could it be some kind of projection from the depths? You know it too. The deeper you go, the more likely it is to see a projection from some misplaced time and space. This may include some a lost civilization, or a fragment of the future, and even a world entirely somewhere else from our own.”

The cutting work in Duncan’s hand paused for a moment in a magnitude that was imperceptible to the naked eye, and then everything went as usual while he spoke in a flat voice: “Then I pray for you to summarize the logic behind Ai’s language soon.”

The words of the goat head may be a casual guess, but the information revealed in it inevitably made waves in Duncan’s mind!

My soul got closer to the depths of this world… The deeper I go, the more likely I will encounter projections from space and time. Some could even be from different timelines.

Duncan didn’t see any “scenery in different timelines” when he spirit walked, but the goat had guessed one part right – Ai had come from a different place.

So…… did “Zhou Ming” of Earth bring this dove into the world, or was she from the deeper parts of this world to begin with like the goat head said?