Chapter 18 Doubts

Agatha could traverse shadows and mirrors in an instant. The very first moment the Dream of the Nameless ended, she could return to the *Sea Wanderer* in the real world and observe the changes in the boundary of reflections—Duncan had no doubt about her ability.

"As long as either Silrandis or Goathead is awakened, the Dream of the Nameless will end…" Duncan frowned slightly, carefully considering Agatha's guess. "So, that means the Dream of the Nameless is actually 'maintained' by Silrandis and Goathead together?"

"Or, it's their shared dream," Agatha said earnestly. "This could also explain why that 'Reflection *Sea Wanderer*' sails on the edge of Silrandis' dream."

Duncan didn't speak for a moment, just quietly sorting out his thoughts.

After a while, he suddenly broke the silence, "So, like you said, the reason for the premature end of this Dream of the Nameless is that my first mate was 'awakened' – so what caused it to be 'awakened'?"

Agatha thought for a moment, then said uncertainly, "Perhaps… related to your final helming?"

Duncan frowned slightly, "Helming?"

"You controlled your flames very carefully this time, and you also reserved a safe seed of fire on that 'dream ship' by implanting the flames into the reflection of the *Sea Wanderer* in advance, which did avoid 'startling' Silrandis, but as far as that dream ship is concerned, you yourself are still an 'outsider'," Agatha said, stating her guess. "Do you remember? You forcibly intervened in that dark misty space from the 'outside' by touching the vine in Light Breeze Port in the real world…"

Agatha spoke, and Duncan listened. Goathead kept turning its head back and forth, looking at the captain and then at Agatha. As the most direct party involved in the whole thing, it was the most confused person on the scene, but now it finally understood what Agatha meant. It immediately reacted and quickly looked at Duncan, "Captain, my loyalty is beyond doubt, Captain! You are the true master of the *Sea Wanderer*, even if I dream about it…"

"I know, but the problem isn't with you," Duncan waved his hand before Goathead could finish. "It's the inherent attribute of dreams—they reject 'intrusion'."

Speaking of this, he paused, and then continued while thinking, "It seems that unless someone is directly dragged into the dream like Vanna and the others and becomes a part of the Dream of the Nameless, any attempt to connect to the Dream of the Nameless from the outside will cause this kind of 'rejection,' either startling Silrandis or startling you…"

Goathead raised its head, and a humanized look of tangled emotion appeared on its hard wooden face. "Then what should we do? Captain, you know that I don't even know that I'm dreaming. I can't control this…"

"You can't control it, but the matter itself may not be difficult," Duncan said thoughtfully. "I already have an idea… perhaps it can be verified tonight."

…

Lucretia frowned, watching Talan Eile, who was busily working in a pile of "junk" in the laboratory. After a long time, she finally couldn't help but say, "You sent an apprentice to my house early in the morning to call me here, just to let me see how messy your laboratory is? You've been 'digging' in this pile of mess and paper for half an hour… did I tell you that I'm busy?"

"Almost done, almost done, there is a lot of automatically recorded data here that needs to be sorted together…" Talan Eile raised his head from behind a machine with a black shell, with grease from somewhere smeared on his messy hair. "These devices were all improved by myself. Now it seems that they still have a lot of room for improvement in terms of convenience… oh, I finally took this cardboard box off. This is the last one…"

The elven scholar muttered, and finally emerged from the dazzling array of machines and equipment, holding a large pile of printouts, paper tapes, and film back to Lucretia. He put the pile of things in his hand on the table, and continued without looking up, "Yes, I know you are very busy, because Light Breeze Port is shrouded in a huge anomaly, and you and your father are working hard for this matter—thank you for your hard work, but we 'locals' should also do something, even if we haven't found a way to fight that 'dream' yet…"

Lucretia's expression finally became serious. She temporarily forgot the displeasure of being interrupted early in the morning and urged to go out, and came to the scholar's desk, looking at the various records on it. "So, this is your effort to fight that 'dream'?"

"It's not just me who is working hard. Many departments, many colleagues, and other institutions in the city, Knowledge Keepers and officers, we are all trying to find a way—we may not be as powerful as your father, but stupid methods are also methods… Yes, this part is my achievement."

Talan Eile said, pulling out a long paper tape from the pile of records and placing it in front of Lucretia.

"This is my vital signs and sleep record from last night."

Lucretia's expression changed slightly. She took the paper tape handed over by the other party and looked seriously at the jumping curves and a series of punched records on it—she noticed that this was automatic data output by some kind of punched recorder, and there were extremely obvious "faults" in the data.

"I slept in this laboratory yesterday," Talan Eile pointed to a bed in the corner of the room. Next to the bed, you could also see several strange-looking devices. Those devices seemed to have been transported here in a hurry, with cables and pipes tangled in a mess. "These things were made by me before. I used to try to use them to improve my sleep efficiency, with the goal of exchanging the shortest sleeping time for a better rest effect… Those electrodes can record my brain activity. The curve on the paper tape is that, and the punching next to it is my breathing record, one round hole for one exhalation, one square hole for one inhalation…"

"There are two obvious interruptions on this," Lucretia interrupted the other party. "Judging from the time stamp on the edge of the paper tape, they occurred at nine o'clock last night and early this morning, which is…"

"Which is when the Dream of the Nameless started and ended," Talan Eile took the paper tape from Lucretia, found the two interruption points, and then held the paper tape in front of him. "At these two time points, my brain showed obvious 'gaps,' but this is not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is actually in… between these two interruption points."

He held up the paper tape. On the long record, there were continuously jumping curves and punches.

"There are still records," he pointed to the part between nine o'clock last night and five o'clock this morning. "Did you find the problem, Ms. Lucretia…"

"I guess you recorded more than just these," Lucretia had already reacted, and she said quickly, "Where are the other things?"

"The most intuitive thing is this." Talan Eile didn't try to be mysterious. He turned around and took another stack of things from the table—a stack of black and white pictures.

Lucretia took the stack of things and glanced at it, and found that they were all photos—the shooting target was the bed in the corner of the laboratory.

The first few photos showed Talan Eile lying on the bed, and there was even a posture of the scholar greeting the camera, but the subsequent photos only showed the empty bed—the electrodes that were originally fixed on the scholar's head fell on the pillow.

"I set up three cameras and connected them to a timer and continuous film. Every fifteen minutes, they would take a photo of my sleeping place from three angles," Talan Eile said. "Do you see? After nine o'clock, there was no one on the bed—because the Dream of the Nameless appeared at that time, and I had disappeared on the 'other side'…"

The scholar said, and once again picked up the long paper tape, found the middle part of it, and placed it in front of the "Sea Witch."

"So, the question is, Ms. Lucretia—during this period of time between nine o'clock last night and five o'clock this morning, during this time when I had disappeared in the real world, whose brain activity was recorded by this machine?"

Lucretia took a light breath and looked at the last photo in her hand.

In the empty bed in the corner of the laboratory, the electrodes used to read brain activity lay emptily on the pillow, the metal pieces of the electrodes reflecting a cold light in the lens, as if silently communicating with invisible ghosts in the quiet night of the entire city.

"The problem is not limited to this. The Dream of the Nameless brings us many confusions, and the strange data recorded by the instruments is just one part of it," Talan Eile's voice woke Lucretia from her thoughts. The scholar walked behind his desk, and after sitting down, slowly said, "Another question is—after entering the dream, where did we actually go?"

"…What do you mean?"

"I just listened to your description. When the Dream of the Nameless occurred, you and your father's followers were involved in a strange dream. There was a huge forest in that dream, which was very similar to what I saw when I was trapped in the dream, but… I don't have any memory of that last night.

"Since I was trapped in the dream last time and was rescued by you, I have never seen that forest in my dream again.

"Not just me, but everyone in this city. When the Dream of the Nameless descends, everyone in the city disappears into the night, but we didn't wake up in the world in the dream like you, nor did we move in that mysterious forest—we closed our eyes, and when we opened them again, it was another normal day. If it weren't for you and your father's reminder, we wouldn't even have noticed what happened last night.

"So, when night falls, where do all the people in the city go?"

Lucretia certainly didn't know the answer, and Talan Eile didn't expect to get any answers from this witch either. He was just talking to himself, setting a goal for himself.

The sunlight passed through the clouds, through a large tree outside the laboratory, through its lush canopy and interlaced branches and leaves, casting mottled light on the scholar's desk, on the data recorded by those automatic devices.

Lucretia slowly raised her head, moved her gaze along the sunlight, looked at the mottled shadows of the trees outside the window, and then slowly widened her eyes.

"Master Talan Eile…"

"What's wrong, Ms. Lucretia?"

"…Was there originally such a tree outside your laboratory?"

(End of this chapter)