Chapter 238 – Insomniacs
Chapter 238 – The People Who Lost Sleep
The flames in the mirror receded and the imposing figure faded into the darkness, but the mysterious symbol that Captain Duncan had shown himself remained clearly in his mind.
Maurice left the utility room, glanced at his wife, who was sleeping, and went to the writing desk under the window, where he took out a pen and paper, and by the cool glow of the night outside the window, while his memory was still very clear, he traced the mysterious and strange symbol.
Afterwards, this knowledgeable old scholar frowned at the pattern on the paper and fell into a short period of contemplation.
Even the scholar who was able to pass the most stringent exams of the Truth Academy was also confused when he saw the symbol – the only thing he could be sure of was that it was by no means a mark that had been used by any city gang, church or official organization, nor did it conform to the runic norms of occult symbolism.
According to the captain, it was an emblem carried by several ascetics who had visited the Lost Country a hundred years ago, and he was suddenly interested in it now.
As the captain’s “dependent”, Morris did not intend to pry into the captain’s secrets, but he was extremely curious about those mysterious ascetics – what kind of “people” would carry such an odd talisman? What kind of “person” would carry such a strange talisman and suddenly attract Captain Duncan’s attention after a hundred years?
After a long moment’s reflection, Maurice breathed a sigh of relief, folded the piece of paper properly, and put it away in the drawer of his writing desk, carefully locked.
He was going to wait for the sun to rise tomorrow before going to his study to rummage through the tomes on ancient city-states and secret society organizations – although the God of Wisdom had granted his followers excellent memories, even the best memories had loopholes, so perhaps there was a record of this symbol in his own collection?
If you can’t find clues in your own collection of books …… then go to the several big libraries in the city-state and the archives of the Upper City University to investigate, although you have already left the university post for many years, but the contacts and influence from the beginning are still there, and borrowing some precious canonical books is still not a problem.
If the whole of Prand could not find records in this regard, then we can only write letters and telegrams to the old friends in Lunsar and other places – there are a few old fellows who have quite a lot of research in the field of history and the occult may be able to help, and even if they can’t help, the universities and research institutes behind them will be able to help.
In any case, this was the first task the Captain had given himself – he had bestowed the miracle of coming back from the dead, and now he finally had a chance to be of some help himself.
Morris silently so calculating in his mind, because of insomnia and restlessness of the mind also unconsciously completely calm down, he seems to have found when he first entered the academy of that kind of exuberance, for a certain goal full of fighting spirit, and along with this fighting spirit along with the surge of ……
Along with this fighting spirit, there was also a long-lost drowsiness.
……
Tirion had been tossing and turning in bed for hours and still had no sleepiness.
He couldn’t remember how many years it had been since he’d suffered from such severe insomnia; as commander of the Sea Mist fleet and captain of the Sea Mist, he’d always had great self-control and a good routine, going to sleep and waking up with the precision and control of a machine – except for today.
All sorts of thoughts and images continued to rise and fall in his mind, interspersed with countless yellowed and trivial memories, the flames emerging in the mirror, his brooding and majestic father, the expedition ship that once set sail amidst cheers and acclaim, the shadow of the ship returning from subspace ……
Even the encounter with the Lost Country in the Frost Sea, and the words the Frost Queen said to herself at the beginning of the Subterranean Abyss Project…
“There are horrors beneath the depths, but there must also be answers to everything beneath the depths.”
Tirion rolled over and sat up from the bed.
He looked to the wall not far away, the mirror that had been hanging on the wall had been removed and was still sitting upside down on the table next to him, a slightly lighter colored oval mark had been left on the wall, the carrying case that had housed the crystal ball and the lens set was at the end of the bed, re-locked, and the rest of the room with mirrors or smooth mirrors had been covered with cloth.
But those white cloths covering the mirrors instead made the room look more and more eerie, and under the cool glow of the World’s Creation, the room looked like a place where ghosts gathered.
But Tirion was not afraid of ghosts, he had a ship full of living dead sailors, a cursed living warship, and several secret bases where strange and frightening visions would appear all year round – compared to his father, ghosts were nothing to be afraid of.
After a few minutes of pacing back and forth in the quiet, eerie room, Tirian’s eyes fell upon the suitcase at the end of the bed, and after a moment’s hesitation, he picked it up.
Perry had already flown back to the ship to report that he was safe, and as the captain of the ship, he couldn’t be bothered to run to the next room to wake up his men to play cards with him, so he might as well see what Lucrecia was doing.
Maybe the other man was suffering from insomnia like himself.
Twisting on the light, he placed the case on the table and opened the lid, the crystal sphere surrounded by a complex set of lenses and curved connecting arms came into view, Tirion held out his hand, but before he could activate the lenses the device buzzed and the crystal sphere at its center was quickly illuminated.
In but a few moments, Lucrecia’s figure appeared in the crystal ball.
Dressed in a sarong, with black hair draped over her shoulders, the mysterious “Witch of the Sea” was now looking at her elder brother with a tired look on her face.
“Brother, I’m losing sleep.”
“Insomnia can find your dolls to relieve your boredom, or go do your magic experiments,” Tirion’s face was stern and serious, “I’m formulating a plan for the subsequent development of the Sea Mist Fleet …… “
“But your hair is as disheveled as if you’d been rolling around on a pillow for four hours,” Lucrecia said blandly, “Is this a new position when formulating development plans?” “……”
Tirian was silent for a few seconds, a tired look on his face, “Any good suggestions for curing insomnia? Utilize your intelligence as a ‘witch’ …… Forget it, forget I asked.”
The two siblings fell into a moment of awkward silence, and then each made some small talk, but both intentionally or unintentionally avoided whatever was at stake, but gradually, the topic inevitably began to lean in a certain direction.
“…… I’ve just made some ‘changes’ to Luni,” Lucrecia said, “I’ve strengthened her joint protection, and again I’ve made some changes in the storage of the ‘soul’ sphere, and added small containers for storing holy oils and protective runes next to the sphere that holds the ‘soul’.”
“Do you think this will block Father’s next contact with you through ‘Niru’?”
“It can’t, but maybe it will keep Luni from getting stuck outright next time,” Lucrecia said with a hint of helplessness in her tone, “She’s actually upset about the last one too, and we had a serious exchange about it just now.”
Tirian was a bit curious, “Exchange? What did you exchange with your doll?”
“She advised me to take it easy, and I advised her to think outside the box.”
Tirian: “……”
Silence fell between them once more, but this time it didn’t last long before Tirian snapped, “Actually, I was just thinking about something.”
“Thinking about what?”
“Remember what father said at the end of the day?” Tirian said slowly, “He said that he found Luni’s sister ‘Niru’ and mentioned that the doll was never sold ……”
Lucrecia’s eyes changed slightly, “What do you mean ……”
“It means that the store is still there – do you remember where the doll store is located?” Tirian’s expression turned serious, “I only remember it being within the city of Prand.”
Lucrecia frowned slightly and fell into recollection, while Tirian continued slowly, “If father really did ‘buy’ Niru from that doll store, then this reveals a very crucial piece of information: he had already set foot in this city-state in some way before Plande suffered from historical contamination, and And even operated here in a dignified manner ……”
“Did you ever think that this was a clue that Father deliberately revealed to us?” Lucrecia snapped, “Now that you’ve thought of that, but maybe that’s what Father deliberately wanted you to investigate.”
Tirian was silent for a few seconds before speaking, “I considered that possibility – but even so, you know I wouldn’t let this clue go.”
“…… I only vaguely remember the location of the store,” Lucrecia said, “It would have been on the edge of the Upper Town, near some intersection near the Lower Town to the south, and it was owned by an elven lady …… When I met her a century ago, she felt old, but considering the lifespan of elves, she should still own that store now.”
Tirion nodded lightly, making a silent note of the information provided by Lucrecia.
……
The sea picked up slightly, and the Lost Country rocked its hull slightly in the wind and waves as Duncan sat at the navigational table, studying the misty coiled charts in front of him with some boredom.
His body in the city of Prand has already slept, but this “body” in the Lost Country is almost not need to rest, so, during the night voyage becomes a period of quite boring time, especially the night is not suitable for reading, the sea is also not suitable for reading the double limitations, he can not bring in Prand to buy books to relieve boredom. The boredom was increased by the fact that he could not bring the books he had bought in Pland to relieve the boredom over here.
After all, he couldn’t explore the ship every day as a pleasure – as big as the Lost Country was, there was an end to exploring it.
“I’m kind of tempted to walk around the spirit world knocking on glass and greeting Vanna, Tirian and the rest of them for a game of cards,” Duncan sighed in his boredom, raising his eyes to look at the goat’s head, “It’s hard to tell on Vanna’s side, and Tirian won’t be able to sleep more than likely tonight… …”
“He’ll lose sleep tomorrow night as well if you do,” Goathead said immediately, “But frankly, your idea is really appealing, with full thrill effect and entertainment – you’re planning on knocking first Whose?”
“I’ll just say it,” Duncan glanced at the goat-head, his eyes sweeping over the charts once more, but suddenly, as if remembering something else, he jerked his head up, “How long until sunrise?”
“…… Three hours to go,” Goathead estimated roughly, “if it rises on time today.”
(End of chapter)