Now, Shirley once again sets out on the journey to the legendary "Wall of Silence" - together with Lucrecia, and still under the guidance of the elf girl named "Shireen".
They walked through the dense forest where light and shadow intertwined, stepped on the forest path covered with dead branches and leaves, crossed thorns and bushes, and the calls of unknown small animals and birds came from the depths of the forest from time to time, but it only made the forest more lonely and cold. Looking at the back of "Shirin" walking in front of her, Shirley even had an illusion in a trance that time had reversed and she was back to the time when she followed the other party trekking in the forest not long ago.
Because nothing seemed to have changed, the forest always looked the same, the movements around it were the same, and the two "Shirin" looked exactly the same.
Only the witch who was walking beside her and turned into colorful paper from time to time to hurry on her way reminded Shirley that things had changed.
Now, Shirley has told Lucrecia everything that happened before without the elf girl noticing. She has also shared it with everyone who is trapped in the dream, including the captain who is active outside the dream. The captain's preparations before entering the dream are quite effective. The power of fire binds everyone together, and this connection is more useful than Shirley imagined.
After learning what happened to "the other Shireen", Lucrecia couldn't help but have a different feeling when she looked at the elf girl walking in front of her.
The "Shirin" who acted with Shirley turned into a tree in the end... And before she was completely transformed, she seemed to have something to tell Shirley...
So now will this "Shirin" also suddenly turn into a tree
Nina and Morris also met a guide who called herself "Shireen". What about the "Shireen" there? Will she also undergo such a change
After all, what are these "Shirin" who appear in the dreams of the Nameless One
At first, Lucrecia only thought that "Shireen" was a mental entity reorganized from the chaos of the underlying consciousness of this dream, but now various clues show that the other party is more special than she could have imagined. This elf who calls herself "Shireen" seems to have an extremely complex connection with this forest and the entire "Dream of the Nameless", and it is by no means just a simple connection between "dream" and "mental entity".
Her "transformation process" into a tree may reveal the nature of this connection.
The elf girl walking in front suddenly slowed down her pace. She turned around and looked at Lucrecia and Shirley who were already far behind. She waved her hand vigorously and said, "Hurry up, it's too dangerous in the forest now. You can rest naturally when you reach the Silent Wall."
Lucrecia looked back at Shirley and Agou beside her, and then they quickened their pace together.
Shirley hurriedly followed while muttering, "Can that big rag doll really find those cultists hiding out? I always feel like it's not very reliable..."
"Rabbi is sometimes dishonest, but as long as I give clear orders, he will do nothing wrong," Lucrecia said softly. "Hunting in dreams is what he is best at. He will track them all the way to the real world, and then we can find where those cultists are hiding."
"... So what on earth is that big rabbit?" Agou muttered to the side, "I smell... human scent on it. It is definitely not a simple magical creation, or even an evil spirit or demon in the ordinary sense. And it's not just it, other things on your ship also have this feeling. It gives me a weird feeling."
"Human smell?" Lucrecia glanced at Agou and smiled. "Ah, I can only say that you are indeed a very sensitive person, as expected of a Deep Hound... That's right, it's a human smell, a 'human smell' emitted by a part of my soul."
Ah Gou was stunned: "...Ah?"
"It's no big deal. When I first encountered Rabbi, it tore a piece of my soul off, but it probably didn't expect that the soul it bit off would deprive it of its freedom forever. Many things on the Brilliant Star are like this. They are all dangerous things from the border or the spirit world, and they once thought they were hunters and regarded me as prey... This is a great convenience for me."
Lucrecia spoke slowly with a faint smile on her face.
"I use souls as bait to find slaves in the borders. Souls cursed by the warp are the best poisons and ropes. Those who mistake themselves for hunters are eventually bound by my soul, sewn into cloth, poured into bottles, carved into wood, and become part of the Brilliant Star. These slaves are necessary because I need assistants in border expeditions, and the mortality rate of humans... is too high."
After the sea witch finished her explanation, she looked down at Agou and said, "Your perception is very accurate. There are traces of human smell everywhere on that ship. There is no need for you to make such a fuss."
Agou and Shirley listened in a daze, seemingly shocked by the things Lucrecia described, and neither of them spoke for a while.
Lucrecia just smiled when she saw this. She was satisfied with Shirley and Agou's silence, so she turned around and continued to follow Shirin.
After watching the "Sea Witch" walk forward for a distance, Shirley shook the chain in her hand. Although she was speaking in a mental connection, she couldn't help but lower her voice: "Agou, Agou, is this what the captain said... what's that called... making a nest? She uses herself to make a nest?"
"It sounds very similar," Agou also muttered in the mental connection, "The captain mentioned this when he introduced fishing techniques to me."
"As expected of the captain's daughter..." Shirley couldn't help but sigh, "It seems that the whole family is good at fishing..."
"I don't think Tirian is good at it?"
"He fished out so many submersibles from the sea back then! Although he didn't fish them out himself, he was at least one of the people responsible..."
"That counts, too?"
"Just tell me if it was brought up from the sea!"
"… "
…
Duncan silently turned off the "eavesdropping" on Shirley and Lucretia.
He sat on a "chair" made of chaotic lines and stacked colors, and words like "baiting" and "fishing" could not help but circle in his mind. After a while, he slightly turned his eyes and glanced at the "mirror" outlined by irregular lines not far away. He muttered to Agatha emerging in the mirror: "She can't remember serious knowledge, but she can understand it well if you tell her something else. If Shirley could devote one tenth of this thought to memorizing words, she wouldn't have to compete with Alice, who has a solid head, for scores."
Agatha did not speak for a while, and hesitated for several seconds before breaking the silence: "To be honest, I also think that Miss Lucrecia has excellent 'fishing skills'..."
Duncan waved his hand. "Anyway, we don't have to worry about Shirley and Lucrecia for now. It's much safer to join forces than to act alone. And maybe that rabbit called Rabbi can really catch those elusive cultists. What's more important now is... this ship."
He stood up from his chair, his eyes sweeping across the chaotically stacked colors and lines around him, distinguishing the outlines of various parts of the room through the lines - after initially adapting to the dazzling and chaotic environment here, he has recognized many familiar things here.
Basic furnishings such as beds, tables and chairs are all available, and roughly correspond to the "correct" positions in the real world, but when it comes to specific details, such as the objects currently placed on the table or the decorations on the wall, there are only vague and chaotic blocks of color.
Just as Duncan judged: the goat head in the real world did not dare to spy on the true situation in the captain's bedroom. At most, it accidentally caught a glimpse of the general appearance of the room when the captain opened the door. Those vague impressions formed the chaotically stacked lines and color blocks in the room.
Outside of this room, the Homeland Lost has been restored almost one-to-one perfectly - that's because the Goat Head in the real world knows every place on the Homeland Lost except the captain's bedroom.
This "Lost Homeland" with a strange atmosphere was transformed from the "shadow" of the Lost Homeland in the real world, but the two are not a simple conversion. In this conversion process, the key role is played by the "cognition" and "memory" of the goat head.
It was obvious that this ship was the dream of his "first mate" - even though Goat Head had no idea he was dreaming.
But this is also Silantis’s dream—at least, there is some kind of “connection” between here and Silantis’s dream.
Duncan raised his hand, and a small flame appeared in the air in front of him. The flame rippled like water waves, spreading rapidly in all directions, but stopped when it touched the edge of this "chaotic room", and reflected back with ripples.
This is the result of Duncan's "testing" here over the past period of time.
In this "room that the goat-head cannot recognize", he can summon his own flames at will without worrying about waking up Silantis like last time, but outside the room, he can only mobilize the fires that have been "mapped" to the ship in advance. Any additional flames may wake up Silantis and cause the dream of the nameless man to end prematurely.
So... is there a safe way to allow himself to fully control the ship and further establish a connection with Silantis without "scaring" Silantis like last time and avoiding causing Silantis' "resistance"
While thinking, Duncan raised his head and looked towards the exit of the room.
I might be overthinking it - this might be a very simple thing.
After a moment's hesitation, he told Agatha to stay in this "safe house" for the time being, and then walked out of the room.
The dazed "Goat Head" was still sitting on the edge of the navigation table, and did not react to Duncan's appearance - Duncan walked straight past it, passed the chart room, walked out of the door of the captain's room, and then followed the familiar route in his memory. He walked up the stairs at the rear side of the captain's room and came to the stern deck.
In the boundless darkness and slowly drifting mist, something appeared in Duncan's sight, as if it was quietly waiting for him, and had been waiting for a long time.
That was the rudder of the Lost Homeland.
“… It’s necessary to take the helm again.”