Chapter 223.
Chapter 223: Shaken
As usual, Vanna calmed down and mentally recited the sacred passages from the Storm Primer, then she took another carved candle from a nearby drawer that had been mostly burned out, placed it at her side, and lit the candlestick.
A bright little flame jumped at the top of the candle, the calming aroma spreading slowly as the essential oils evaporated, and Vanna inhaled gently before slashing the dagger across her arm without hesitation.
The blood soaked into the fine lines on the dagger as if absorbed by it, while a brief pain coursed through her arm – a pain that didn’t even have time to last more than a few seconds before it had dissolved into a vague tingling as the wound healed.
Vanna could even hear the slight sound of cells regenerating and blood clotting as she saw the wounds on her arm rapidly recovering, while the sound of waves softly crashing faintly came from her ears.
She looked again to the ceremonial dagger in her hand, and after a slight hesitation, she placed the dagger, stained with her own blood, on top of the burning candlestick, letting the flames lick the tip of the dagger.
“Listen, Lord of Storms, Gospel of the Deep, Maiden of the Still Sea, listen, your followers need guidance ……”
The flames splintered, the blood on the dagger igniting in the blink of an eye and turning into a dense layer of glow floating on the blade.
It was a sign that the passage had been established.
A saint, using blood as a guide, using a special prayer format, following a special ritual process, can establish a far more stable and more direct communication channel between themselves and the gods than ordinary clergymen praying, this special power and “favor”, which is precisely the “Saints This special power and “favor” is precisely what sets “saints” apart from ordinary clergy.
As for how solid and direct this special “channel” is,……, to some extent, it can even be regarded as a channel of communication.
To a certain extent, this can even be regarded as talking directly with God.
The soft sound of the waves sounded, as if echoing directly in her mind, more and more obvious, Vanna felt the air around her gradually become moist, and even the nostrils seemed to float in the fishy salty breath, and then, she suddenly felt a trance, and the scene in front of her eyes then changed.
Familiar bedroom disappeared, surrounded by endless, slightly surging blue sea water, and there is a weak blue light in the depths of the undulating sea water, as if the deep sea hidden hundreds of thousands of mysterious light sources, Vanna felt as if she was in the center of a vast unknown deep sea, and in the shimmering light in front of her eyes, and gradually there is a fuzzy image emerges.
It seemed to be a lady in a long dress, behind which there were large hazy shadows spreading in all directions, the lady’s face was hidden behind a veil, and the shadows behind her were winding and intertwining, as if they were countless intertwining chains, and as if they were outlining some kind of “body” that was even bigger and beyond the sanity of the mortals, while the figure in the long dress was just a figure in the center of a deep sea that did not know how wide it was. The figure in the long dress is only a small part of this huge body – a small part that can be understood by mortals.
Vanna inhaled softly, calming her heartbeat.
As an acolyte, it wasn’t uncommon to catch a glimpse of a vision or incarnation of the storm goddess Gemona during special ceremonies, but she still couldn’t help but tense up at the thought of her wavering day after day and the questionable thoughts in her mind that bordered on the unorthodox.
The mysterious and blurred shadowy figure seemed to move a little closer to this side, “He” did not speak, but Vanna felt a “thought” floating directly in her mind.
The vision of the goddess was signaling herself to speak.
“I ……” said Vanna, hesitating a little, but finally, as if she had made up her mind, she said bluntly, “Why have you chosen me as a saint and blessed me, when I have survived so far because of subspace? ”
That hazy and blurred figure did not make any movement, but Vanna did not dare to rush, she knew that even though what she saw was only a projection, this projection did point directly to Gemona, and the question that she had just asked was a great risk –
It was beyond the call of duty as a believer, but she really wanted to know the answer.
After waiting like this for who knows how long in apprehension, suddenly an idea entered her thoughts as if it had been implanted directly into her brain-
“…… doesn’t make a difference ……”
“Doesn’t make a difference?” Vanna was stunned, the answer was even more difficult to understand than the obscure and broken prophecies and revelations, she instinctively felt that there should be some other “context” for this answer, but she failed to understand the information and therefore didn’t hear it, which made her subconsciously follow up with, “What doesn’t make a difference? I don’t understand. I don’t understand how you chose …… despite knowing that I was blessed by subspace.”
However, Vanna couldn’t finish her sentence, because the illusion of the deep sea around her suddenly shook violently, and the soft and bright lights in the depths of the waves dimmed and faded one by one, the illusion of the goddess was on the verge of collapsing in the blink of an eye. vaguely perceived a few words before the connection was completely broken:
“…… time is limited …… about to …… critical …… “
The connection was completely broken.
Vanna felt as if she had been roughly thrown back into the real world, her heart thumping, a certain feeling of being on the verge of suffocation making her subconsciously gasp for air, she raised her head and looked around her, seeing that all of the illusions had dissipated as much as they could, and the dagger in her hand had fallen onto the table at some point, the only thing that was left was the sculpted candle that was still burning silently, the fire pulsing and swaying uneasily.
After an unknown amount of time, Vanna’s gaze finally retracted from the candle flame, and she picked up the fallen dagger, slowly placing it back into the drawer. Her mind swirled with the only information that had surfaced in her thoughts during that brief exchange.
“It makes no difference” and “Time is limited, it’s coming to a close”.
The former, she still couldn’t understand what it meant, while the latter …… seemed to have a clearer meaning, but only confused her more.
Was the goddess telling herself that something was about to happen? Was she warning herself that she had limited time to prepare for something? And what did critical mean? What was on the brink? Another crisis? Another reality invasion level disaster?
Something to do with the crisis Prender just survived?
Vanna’s thoughts were in a whirlwind, and instead of calming her down, this prayer made her more apprehensive than she had been during the day.
But suddenly, a flash of a different color surfaced out of the corner of her eye, bringing an instant halt to her tangled and disorganized thoughts.
The flames jumping on that carved candle were somehow colored with a layer of ghostly green.
In the next second, she then jerked her head up to the dresser in front of her, to the oval mirror.
Captain Duncan’s figure floated in the frame, gazing calmly this way.
“Are you all right?”
The brooding, imposing figure spoke, a very abrupt inquiry.
“It’s you?” Vanna stood up with a jolt of excitement, followed by what seemed to come to mind, “Were you the one who disrupted my ritual just now?”
“Ritual? I think you have misunderstood,” Duncan shook his head in the mirror, his tone was very frank, “I just suddenly sensed that your aura was extremely chaotic, and thought that there was still some kind of tricky enemy remaining in the city of Planders, so I came over to check out the situation……. But now it seems that I was the one who was reckless.”
Sensing that the aura was chaotic …… so I came over to check the situation?
Vanna a brain of question marks, a little doubt that he was not misheard, but soon, she remembered the first time she saw the other side in the mirror, suddenly subconsciously revealed a vigilant look: “You pulled me into the dream world again?”
“You’re still in the real world, there’s no need to worry about that,” Duncan said casually, “so I’d strongly suggest you don’t just come over here with a jumping splat like you did last time – you’ll really make a mess of your room. ”
“…… I’m not just a brute who does jumping chops,” Vanna said, suddenly feeling that interacting with this spectral captain was just mind-numbingly exhausting; the other woman’s words and actions would always go beyond what was written in the material, and she was always unconsciously sparing the other woman from these unexpected exchanges of Guards, “What else do you want to do besides ‘coming over to see what’s going on’? I thought …… you were gone for good.”
Duncan in the mirror frowned, seeming to have a bit of a headache with the overly wary and hostile attitude of the young inquisitor before him, “You could have relaxed a bit, and preferably been a bit more polite, I have indeed left, but distance in space and time doesn’t mean much to me, and besides – in any case, I just protected your city-state, don’t you think you should at least say thank you?”
Vanna stared intently at the spectral captain in the mirror, and after a few seconds, she suddenly took a step forward, going so far as to actually bow her head, “Thank you very much for your help, at least from this matter, Prandemonium you sheltered.”
This blunt thanks was beyond Duncan’s expectation, he originally thought that this girl’s brain would be as rock solid as her muscles, and was instead embarrassed under the surprise: “Rather …… no need to be so serious, I just casually mentioned it.”
“We may have different positions, but your act of sheltering Prand is undeniable,” Vanna raised her head with a serious face, “Countless people survived the disaster today, putting aside my position as an Inquisitor, I should thank you.”
At that she paused, and followed it up with a tightly boarded face, “But that doesn’t mean I’m letting my guard down about you and the Lost Country, we’re still not sure exactly what you’re up to against the civilized world …… At least not until I can confirm that… …”
“That’s fine, I see your point,” Duncan interrupted Vanna, looking at the young Inquisitor with a wry smile; the other man’s words and attitude were actually far from polite, but the somewhat too straight-laced nature of the character made it impossible to dislike, “Then let’s talk about something else …… You seem to be in trouble?”
Vanna met Duncan’s gaze for a few seconds before taking a soft breath, “I’m sorry, it has nothing to do with you.”
“…… Unrelated, but I’m curious,” Duncan said lightly, “Whether you want to admit it or not, you can’t dislodge the brand I left on you, Vanna, and I can sense the terrible state you’re in at the moment –and perhaps I can help you.”
(End of chapter)