Deep Sea Embers

“…… I don’t know, but I think Mr. Duncan may have solved the problem already. Though I can’t imagine how he solved it,” Morris rubbed his forehead as he pondered the matter. “But compared to that, I’m more concerned about this place…”

He raised his head and glanced around at the flaming sails that were stirring against the wind.

“This ship makes me think of that legend, the legend about the Vanished…”

“Yes,” Alice’s voice joins in from the side after Morris’s remark, her face proud and joyous, “This is the Vanished. Welcome aboard!”

Morris’s forehead rubbing stopped as his eyes widened in shock: “Is this really the Vanished?! Then Mr. Duncan’s identity…”

“Obviously the captain, Old Sir, you are too slow in catching on,” Shirley pouted from the other side. After being a nervous wreck for so long, she finally felt a little giddy knowing she’s in the know while others are not. “He is called Duncan, after all. What did you expect?”

“You already knew about this?” Morris stared incredulously at the petite girl in front of him, “I thought you were on this ship for the first time like me…”

“I am, this is my first time aboard, but it’s not the first time I’ve seen Captain Duncan’s true face.” Shirley puffed up her chest triumphantly, “I met Captain Duncan with Dog way back… Earlier than you, at least!”

Morris doesn’t care what Shirley has to offer in the latter part of the sentence because he’s already preoccupied with the “true face” part.

“If possible, I would like to never see his true appearance…” He mutters strangely to himself.

Shirley blinked: “Huh? Old Gramps, what did you say?”

“Nothing… some things are best left unspoken. It’s better for one’s mental and physical health.”

“Tsk, you bunch always talk so cryptically,” Shirley pouted some more, but that didn’t last long before she began commenting on the open deck. “Hey, do you think Nina will be okay? She suddenly disappeared from our eyes earlier…”

Alice’s soft and confident voice sounded from the side, comforting Shirley, who was a little worried: “Don’t worry, it’ll be fine. The captain did say it’s only temporary.”

Shirley raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar lady. The gothic girl didn’t understand why this unusually beautiful and mysterious lady would follow Captain Duncan’s orders so closely. It’s as if she had insider information or something. “Why would you say that? You know where Nina is…?”

“No, and didn’t the captain say it already?” Alice smiled, “He said not to worry.”

Shirley couldn’t argue with her on that. In addition, she also got the perception that Alice wasn’t very smart at all after the interaction…

……

Simultaneously, Duncan was busy watching the bright flaming arc floating around himself in the rear of the deck.

Right now, he was one hundred percent sure that this flame was a sun fragment, at least morphologically. Ignoring its erupting properties that one would find in a solar flare, the intense heat radiating off of its surface was enough to cause harm to Duncan. In fact, the power here alone had already surpassed that Creeping Sun Wheel he met when he donned that golden mask.

Naturally, Duncan had no idea how a small segment of a star could break off from the main body and still exist in this form. All he could speculate on was that the phenomena had something to do with this world’s weird nature.

Just like how he couldn’t understand what caused the great destruction to bring upon the Deep Sea Age, he won’t dig any deeper into the subject. Besides, none of that matter for the time being.

Inhaling deeply, Duncan concentrated his mind again and tentatively extended his right hand, allowing the flicker of green flame at the fingertip to guide the arc.

“Nina, try again,” Duncan said, “and remember what it was like to ‘come back’ to the moment of transformation. We were very close to success just now.”

The flame jumped in the air a few times at the guidance of his ghost fire. Finally, the surface of the sun fragment bulged, and then a golden flame rose and entwined into a human-shaped figure that’s still burning.

Nina lowered her head and seemed intrigued by her own body’s blurred shape. But in the next second, the flame that had just gained form shattered again, gushing and erupting back into the flaming arc.

“Don’t be discouraged. Let’s try again.” Duncan did not lose patience and continued to support the girl gently with his guidance. “I will ‘support’ you. Since you can recover to this extent, it means the idea is feasible…”

The flaming arc swelled again, and a crackling sound came from the golden flames that transformed into Nina’s figure but with more clarity.

Unlike his own reassurance, Duncan watched this scene with much nervousness. Similar attempts had been made several times before, and they always failed halfway through. Nevertheless, he’s sure the procedure could work based on the feedback from the ghost fire he implanted in the sun fragment.

Exactly then, the flames in front of him instantly shattered and blew into a blast of light. A familiar young girl had jumped out through this portal with radiant hair still sparkling against the light.

Nina smiled and looked at her “Uncle Duncan,” who was completely different from her memory, yet it was undoubtedly him. “Uncle, I’m back!”

Only then did Duncan finally breathe a sigh of relief. With his eased tension, the entire Vanished also reacted by loosening the cables and creaking boards.

It was as if the whole ship was cheering and celebrating with the captain.

“Calm down,” Duncan said to no one specific, and immediately, the entire vessel quieted down. “You still recognize me?” He turns to the nice and asks curiously.

“Yes, you’re Uncle Duncan,” Nina said as a matter of course, but then scratched her face – a habitual move she used to disguise her embarrassment and confusion. “But… I don’t know how I’m able to recognize you. Regardless, I just know it’s you. It’s the same as when you beckoned for me to come down when I was floating up in the sky.”

She hesitated and stopped, examining the man up and down with narrowed eyes.

It’s not at all like how she remembers her Uncle Duncan in the antique shop, but nevertheless, her instincts told her this was him and without fault.

“This is good too,” Duncan exhaled softly, “I was wondering how I should explain this ship and my other appearance to you.”

Nina quickly dodged the hand that tried to ruffle her hair like it always did. Unlike the uncle back in the city, this Uncle Duncan was much taller and bigger than she’s accustomed to, especially with that huge hand. The calloused fingers are making her head itchy.

After a while of this silliness, she raised her head and stared straight into the other party’s gaze, “I actually have two ‘uncles’… right?”

Duncan did not dodge the eyes. Although this moment came quite suddenly, it did not surprise him. From long ago, he already knew this moment would come sooner or later.

If any force in this world could resist the power of “Captain Duncan”, then the “sun”… no matter which sun it was, would be an expected option.

He quietly met Nina’s gaze. “You noticed?”

“…… Mhmm.”