Chapter 83: The Fire That Lives Only in Dreams

Chapter 83 The Fire That Survives Only in Dreams

Nina went to her room to sleep.

In this world, most people went to bed early and woke up early – the time after the sun faded was dangerous, the shimmering light of the World’s Creation would distort the entire world to its peak, and even if the city was protected by lights, people had to face the night with caution.

There was no way to go out and gather without much means of entertainment, and reading books at night, while not as dangerous as reading at sea, could easily lead to mental exhaustion, hallucinations, and on occasion, unwanted prying eyes in the night, so all things considered, the safest way to go to bed was to go to bed early and wait for the sun to rise the next day.

Duncan, however, was not the least bit sleepy.

He extinguished the lights in the house and stood near the window with his shirt draped over his head, casually admiring the nocturnal view of the city-state of Prand as he recalled his conversation with Nina after dinner.

Nina remembered a fire, and so did his body’s remaining memories of a fire in which “he” had fled from a collapsed and burning building with a six-year-old girl in tow, while the distant streets were filled with frenzied crowds and fog.

But only the two of them remembered the fire – Nina had mentioned it to other adults, but it was dismissed as “a child’s confused memory after being scared out of her wits”, and the newspapers from eleven years ago clearly recorded the “truth”. Eleven years ago, the newspapers clearly recorded the “truth”: there was only one factory leak on the border of Lower Plainfield and Crossroads that triggered the mass hallucination, and there was no record of any fires.

Duncan frowned slightly, another doubt in this matter is in “himself”.

According to Nina’s statement, “Uncle Duncan” did not remember the fire, only she remembered the incident, she even mentioned the fire to Uncle Duncan when she was a child (although it should be “Ron”), and Uncle Duncan also thought she was “a fire”, and he thought she was “a fire”. She even mentioned the fire to Uncle Duncan as a child (though it was “Ron” at the time), and he was one of the adults who thought she had “misremembered the fire after being scared silly”.

But now, the image of the fire appeared in Duncan’s memory – a memory that the original owner of this body had left in the deepest recesses of her mind.

What was the problem? Why was it that in Nina’s memories, her own uncle didn’t remember the fire at all, but Duncan found a corresponding image in the depths of this body’s memories? Had Nina’s uncle been lying? Or had the memory been sealed away until a ghost captain took over the body and the deepest memories surfaced?

Duncan tapped his fingers unconsciously against the window pane, silently organizing the timeline in his mind.

He put together the information he had gotten from those Sunspearers:
Eleven years ago, the sun shard first appeared within the city-state of Prand, and the transcendental phenomenon triggered by the shard may have rippled over a large area.

Also eleven years ago, Nina had been orphaned, and in her and Duncan’s memories, there had been a fire at that time, in the Lower Townships-but no one but them remembered the fire, and there was no evidence that it had ever happened.

Since then the Sun Shard has lay dormant in the city-state, making no further moves, and the only record of an event from that year is the “Crossroads Factory Leak”.

For years, Nina lived with the only family she had left.

Four years ago, the followers of the Sun God in the city-state of Prand attempted to awaken the sleeping Sun Fragment in advance, and held a dangerous sacrifice ceremony, but the ceremony was unsuccessful, and was destroyed by the newly-promoted Inquisitor Trainee, Vanna, who led a team, and the power of his order was dealt a heavy blow, and the Church of the Sun God was driven out of the city-state after a massive purge.

However, even though the ceremony did not reach its final stage, the cultists’ attempts at “awakening” may have had some effect, and the Sun Shard began to gradually break out of its slumber after that.

Around that time, Nina’s “uncle” contracted a strange disease and fell under the torment of the disease, eventually accepting the temptation of the remaining Sun Worshippers in the city and becoming a cultist.

Not long ago, the news of the Sun Shard’s activities began to attract the sun worshipers to regroup in the city, the cultists who have been lying low for four years to re-consecrate the ceremony, and then what happened after that …… is that Duncan intervened.

Throughout the timeline, many things seem to be vaguely connected, yet all lack key evidence.

The most suspicious is eleven years ago, when the sun shard actually triggered some kind of transcendent vision, and whether the fire existed or not.

Did the city-state authorities erase the truth of that accident and the traces of the fire? And then, out of concern for maintaining order, publicized the whole thing as a collective hallucination caused by a factory leak?
But that doesn’t explain why the fire is also completely absent from many people’s memories – unless the authorities also went to the trouble of reframing the memories of all those involved.

And there’s one more thing – in this world, anomalies and visions are open to the public, and even children are aware of the existence and dangers of extraordinary things, and the authorities are obviously aware of this, and have always governed the city with a policy of “announcing the dangers ahead of time to ensure that the citizens have the common sense to protect themselves! “If it was really just a fire caused by an extraordinary power,……, why did they have to hide it?
Unless …… there was a bigger problem behind the fire, so that even the mere disclosure of the information would cause some kind of danger to spread out of control.

Duncan suddenly frowned.

Or there was another possibility.

The bizarre nature of transcendental phenomena was such that very often the harm it caused was not limited to the physical plane, but could even distort one’s perceptions to the point of distorting the evidence that had already fallen on paper – what if people’s memories, perceptions, and even the records of the city-state authorities and churches of the event had been tainted by the solar debris?

Duncan felt that his mind was a little too open, as a half-baked “novice” in the field of anomalies and visions, his imagination was too free, but on the other hand, he could not stop thinking about this idea as soon as it came out. People’s memories, records of the authorities, and even things written in black and white in the archives more than ten years ago can be twisted and replaced – this kind of thing in the past he may not believe, but in the present, he is more than anyone else to believe.

Because this place where he is now called “Duncan’s Antiques”.

Everyone here knows their old neighbor, Mr. Duncan, who owns the antique store.

Duncan breathed a soft sigh of relief as he lowered his head and looked through the second floor window at the street illuminated by gas lamps.

There was only one question left now.

Whether or not that fire eleven years ago existed, whether or not sun fragments had tainted the memories of those involved as well as the records left behind by the city-state, there was only one crucial point:

Why did Nina remember the fire.

……

Uptown, inside a mansion under the Consul’s name.

Vanna woke up from a nightmare.

But this time, the nightmare no longer had anything to do with the Black Sun, and it didn’t point to the Lost Country ship that was returning from subspace – she was just suddenly dreaming about her childhood.

On that night filled with fog, smoke, blood, and wild crowds, at the tender age of twelve, she had been carried on her own uncle’s back as he fled from a mob siege.

In her dream, it was as if she was back to that helpless, vulnerable time, when her proud martial arts skills and powerful divine powers were reduced to nothing, and she could only flee in haste, pursued by berserkers and shadows, and with her uncle over the pipes and valves over the factories, as she looked down at the city in terror amidst the thick waves of smoke and heat, and saw the infinite sea of flames rising up in every direction, filling the entire city as far as the eye could see… …

The young Inquisitor, clad in a nightgown, sat up in bed and took a deep breath, looking out the window at the sky – the clear glow of the World’s Creation was still high in the sky, and the wall clock hanging near the window indicated that it was just after midnight.

She felt like she had literally been wallowing in a nightmare for a century.

Vanna got up and twisted on the electric light and went to her dresser to look at herself in the mirror, she whispered the name of the Storm Goddess and gained inner peace before sighing as if to comfort herself and saying to herself, “At least now I won’t dream about that ship ……”

As soon as her words left her mouth, she suddenly heard footsteps from the hallway outside the house, followed by a knock on the door, “Vanna? Vanna did you have a nightmare?”

It was the voice of her uncle – the most admired consul of this city-state.

“I’m fine.” Vanna settled down, then straightened her clothes and got up to open the door to her room.

Dante Wayne stood in the doorway, the gray-haired, gray-eyed, not-too-big middle-aged man who had apparently just woken up as well, casually draped in a jacket and looking at his niece with concern once the door opened.

Having lost an eye in an incident, he now possessed an eye made of ruby – the delicate gold veins of which could still be seen on the inside of this eye, and the hideous scars from eleven years ago could be seen on the socket around the eye, which gave him an intimidating countenance.

But Vanna had long since grown accustomed to seeing it, and she knew that her uncle was in fact a generous and fair man.

“Had a nightmare,” she rubbed her eyes, sounding a little helpless, “I didn’t realize I woke you up.”

“It’s nothing, being older is supposed to be a light sleeper,” Dante Wayne looked at Vanna with concern, “dreaming about being a child again?”

“Well, dreaming about that time again.”

(End of chapter)