Chapter 601 – Waking up with traces of a dream

Chapter 601: Dreams Awake with Traces
Agatha’s ability to travel through shadows and mirrors in an instant, to return to the Lost Country in the real world and observe the change in the boundaries of the reflection in the first instant the Dream of the Nameless One was over – Duncan had no doubt about her abilities.

“The Dream of the Nameless One will end as soon as one of Silentis and Goathead awakens ……” Duncan frowned slightly, thinking carefully about the conjecture Agatha had just put forward, “That would mean that the Dream of the Nameless One was actually ‘maintained’ by Silentis and Goathead together?”

“Or rather, it’s their shared dream,” Agatha said with a serious look on her face, “That would also explain why that ‘Reflection Lost Country Ship’ was sailing on the edge of Silantis’ dream. ”

Duncan didn’t say anything for a moment, just quietly organized his thoughts.

It was a while before he suddenly broke the silence, “So like you said, what caused this Dream of the Nameless One to end prematurely was that my first mate was ‘awakened’ – that caused it to be ‘awakened’ again?”

Agatha thought for a moment, and spoke with less certainty, “Perhaps …… it had something to do with your last helm?”

Duncan’s brow furrowed slightly, “Helm?”

“You were careful to control your flames this time, and also reserved a safe fire on that ‘dream ship’ by implanting it in the Lost Country’s reflection ahead of time, which did avoid ‘spooking’ Silantis. But you yourself are still an ‘outsider’ to that dream ship,” Agatha said of her suspicions, “Do you remember? You forced your way into that dark misty space from the ‘outside world’ by touching that vine at Lightwind Harbor in the real world ……”

Agatha spoke, Duncan listened, while the goat head kept turning its head around, looking at the captain and then looking at Agatha, as the most direct party to the whole thing, it was the most confused one at the scene, but now that it finally understood Agatha’s meaning, it instantly reacted and rushed to look at Duncan: “Captain, my loyalty cannot be questioned ah captain! You are the true master of the Lost Country ship, even if I really dream about it ……”

“I know, but the problem isn’t you,” Duncan waved his hand without waiting for the goathead to finish his rant, “It’s an inherent property of the dream world – it repels ‘intrusion’ ‘.”

At that he paused before continuing while thinking, “It seems that unless one is dragged directly inside the Dreamscape and becomes part of the Dream of the Nameless One like Vanna and the others, any attempt to connect to the Dream of the Nameless One from the outside world will result in this ‘repulsion’, either by awakening Thee Lantis, or wake you up ……”

Goathead lifted his head, and a humanized, tangled look actually appeared on that hard, wooden face, “What about this? Captain you know, I don’t even know I’m dreaming, this I can’t control ah ……”

“You have no way to control, but this matter itself may not be difficult,” Duncan said thoughtfully, “I already have a thought …… this night may be able to verify.”

……

Lucrecia frowned as she looked at Taran El, who was working his way through the piles of “clutter” in her lab, and after a long time she finally couldn’t help but speak, “You sent an apprentice to my house early in the morning and called me here just so you could show me how messy your lab is? You’ve been ‘digging’ through this mess of machines and piles of paper for half an hour now……. Did I ever tell you that I’m busy?”

“Almost done, almost done, there’s a whole bunch of automatically recorded data here that needs to be organized together ……” Taran-El lifted his head from behind a machine with a black casing, his messy hair rubbed with grease from who knows where, and “I’ve improved all the equipment here myself, and now it seems they do have a lot of room for improvement in terms of convenience …… Oh, and I finally got this carton off, it’s the last copy …… “

The elven great scholar chanted, finally getting out of the dazzling pile of machinery and equipment, holding a large pile of printouts, paper tapes and films back in front of Lucrecia, he placed the pile in his hands on the table while continuing without looking up, “Yes, I know that you’re very busy, because Lightwind Harbor is shrouded in a huge vision, and both you and your father are running around about it – thank you for running around, but it’s time for us ‘locals’ to do something about it, even if right now we haven’t found a way to combat that ‘dream’ solution ……”

Lucrecia’s expression finally took on a bit more seriousness, and she temporarily forgot her unhappiness at being interrupted from her work and rushed out the door so early in the morning, and came over to the Great Scholar’s desk, looking at the various records on there, “So, this is your effort to fight that ‘dream world’? ”

“I’m not the only one making efforts, many departments, many colleagues, and other institutions in the city, the Knowledge Guards and the Magistrates, we’re all trying to figure out how to do it – we may not be as powerful as your father, but a stupid solution is still a solution… . and yes, this is partly my achievement.”

Taran-El said, pulling a long strip of paper from the pile of records and placing it in front of Lucrecia.

“These are my vitals and sleep records from last night.”

Lucrecia’s expression changed slightly as she took the paper tape handed over by the other party, and with a serious expression, she looked at the jumping curves and a series of punched records on it – she noticed that this was the automated data output from some kind of punched recorder, and that there was an extremely obvious “break” in the data She noticed that this was some kind of automatic data output from a punch recorder, and that there was an extremely obvious “fault” in the data.

“I slept in this lab yesterday,” Taran-El gestured to a bed in the corner of the room, next to which could be seen a few odd-looking pieces of equipment that seemed to have been brought here in a hurry, with a messy tangle of cables and tubing, “I made these things before. made, I had tried to use them to improve my sleeping efficiency, the goal was to get better rest with the shortest sleep time …… Those electrodes were able to record my brain activity, the curve on the paper tape is, the punched holes next to it are my breath recordings, one round hole for each exhalation, and one square hole for each inhalation ……”

“There are two distinct breaks on this,” Lucrecia interrupted, “which, judging by the time stamps on the edges of the paper tape, occurred at nine o’clock last night and early this morning, which is …… “

“That is, when the Dream of the Nameless One began and ended,” Taran-El took the paper tape from Lucrecia’s hands and located the two interruptions, then held the tape in front of her, “At those two points in time, there was a noticeable ‘gap’ in my brain ‘, but that’s not the biggest problem, the biggest problem is actually between the two interruption points at …….”

He held up the paper tape, the long record of continuously jumping curves and punched holes. “There is still a record,” he pointed to the section between nine o’clock last night and early this morning, “do you see the problem? Ms. Lucrecia ……”

“I’m guessing you recorded more than just that,” Lucrecia had responded, she spluttered, “where’s the other stuff?”

“The most intuitive is this.” Taran-El didn’t sell the story, he turned and took another stack from the table – it was a stack of black and white pictures.

Lucrecia took the iteration and looked at it, realizing that they were all photographs – the target of which was the sleeping bed in the corner of the lab.

The first few pictures were of Taran-El lying on the bed, with the Great Scholar posing for the camera in greeting, but the later pictures then showed only the empty sleeping bed – the electrodes that had been secured to the Great Scholar’s head had fallen off onto the pillows.

“I set up three cameras, hooked them up to a timing device and continuous film, and every fifteen minutes they take a picture of where I sleep from three angles,” Taran-El said, “Did you see that? There’s been no one in the bed since nine o’clock – because that’s when the Dream of the Nameless One appeared, and I’ve disappeared to the ‘other side’ ……”

With that, the scholar picked up the long strip of paper again, found the center part of it, and placed it in front of the “Witch of the Sea”.

“The question then arises, ma’am – whose brain activity …… was recorded by this machine during the period between nine o’clock last night and five o’clock in the morning, during the period when I had disappeared into the real world? ”

Lucrecia inhaled softly and looked at the last picture she held in her hands.

The electrodes used to read brain activity fell empty on the pillow on the empty sleeping bed in the corner of the lab, the metal pieces of the electrodes glowing coldly in the lens, as if they were communicating silently with ghosts invisible to the naked eye in the stillness of the night in that lifted city.

“The problem doesn’t stop there, the Dream of the Nameless One confuses us in many ways, and the odd data recorded by the instrument is only one part of it,” Taran-El’s voice snapped Lucrecia out of her thoughts, and the great scholar walked behind his desk, and after sitting down said slowly, “Another question is – where exactly did we go after the dream?”

“…… What do you mean?”

“I just listened to your description, when the Dream of the Nameless One occurred, you and your father’s followers were caught up in an odd dream, which had huge forests very similar to what I saw when I was first trapped in the dream, but …… I have no memories of that last night.

“Ever since the last time I was trapped in the dream realm and was rescued by you, I haven’t seen that forest in my dreams.

“It’s not just me, it’s everyone in this city, when the Dream of the Nameless One descended, the whole city disappeared into the night, but we didn’t wake up in the world of dreams like you did, or move around in that mysterious forest – we closed our eyes, and then once we opened them again, it was another day when everything was normal, and without the reminder of you and your father, we wouldn’t have even realized what had happened last night.

“So where was the whole town at nightfall?”

Lucrecia, of course, didn’t know the answer to that, and Taran-El didn’t expect to get any answers from the sorceress, who was just talking to herself, setting herself up for a goal.

The sunlight poured through the clouds, through a large tree outside the lab, through its lush canopy and intertwined branches and leaves, shedding dappled light onto the large scholar’s desk, onto the information that had been recorded by the automated devices.

Lucrecia slowly raised her head, her eyes moving along the sunlight to the dappled shadows of the trees outside the window, and then slowly widened her eyes.

“Master Taran Elle ……”

“What is it, ma’am?”

“…… Was there originally such a tree outside your lab?”

(End of chapter)