Deep Sea Embers

Vanna found herself struggling to comprehend the situation.

This feeling of being overwhelmed was not foreign to her. Back in her school days, every tshe attended Mr. Morris’s lectures, she would feel this way. However, ever since she hit puberty and began to rely more on her physical strengths rather than her intellectual abilities, she hadn’t felt like this in many years.

Now, the familiar feeling was back.

She gazed at the “luminous orb” in the giant’s hand, blinking several times. She grasped its meaning both rationally and literally after a few moments, but emotionally, she was still in a daze. Could this really be… the sun that once shone over this world?

“Would you like to touch it?” The giant, noticing Vanna’s frozen demeanor, offered a friendly smile and extended the “sun” slightly towards her. “It’s not hot anymore.”

The statement sounded incredibly bizarre to Vanna, and she was unsure how to respond.

She tentatively reached out after a few seconds of hesitation, almost as if driven by an unseen force. With a mix of curiosity and indescribable emotion, she lightly touched the glowing orb in the giant’s hand.

It was only the size of a human fist. In the hands of the giant, it looked like a delicate, tiny bead. The surface of this bead-like sun seemed to be alive with intricate patterns of activity. Tiny flares danced, alternating between light and dark patches. Occasionally, hair-thin beams of light would ascend, only to fall back onto its surface.

It felt slightly warm to the touch, similar to water that was just a bit hotter than human body temperature.

Lost in her thoughts, Vanna recalled the image of the sun she was familiar with—rising every day from the horizon, adorned with its brilliant twin rune halos, providing the world with light and warmth. It was a magnificent “miracle”, an ancient, grand “vision”.

Simultaneously, she remembered the captain mentioning that there was another form of the sun, an even more radiant and immense one. Just recently, the captain began sharing knowledge from subspace, which included concepts of stars and the cosmos.

Truthfully, Vanna had difficulty grasping the captain’s teachings. Even Mr. Morris and Miss Lucretia seemed not to fully understand. But one thing was clear to Vanna… Regardless of its form, the sun should not be… the size of a fist.

The huge being sat ponderously on the edge of a large crater, cradling the “sun” in the palm of his hand, which he rested on his lap. His deep and distant gaze suggested he was lost in a vast sea of memories and contemplation. Tseemed to stretch indefinitely before he finally spoke, his voice a low rumble, “They were beings of great intellect, proficient in devising numerous ways to explain the workings of the world. Despite their inherent fragility, they used ‘science’ to confront entities far mightier than themselves. I have often pondered, had they persisted to this day, perhaps they might’ve deciphered the mystery of this ‘sun’…”

“But when it descended, the world had already been silenced. The last of their kind transformed into that towering spire, and the brilliant minds with their myriad of ingenious insights disappeared from this realm. As for me, I can’t fathom the essence of this event.”

Vanna remained silent for a long while, but her quietude was not simply a lack of words. She was mentally communicating the unfolding situation to the captain.

She relayed to him that she might’ve located the “sun” the cultists referred to in their gatherings.

It lay in the grasp of this self-proclaimed deity, this giant, and it appeared… truly portable, easily held within a single hand.

The giant, however, seemed unperturbed by Vanna’s prolonged silence or her subtle communion with an unseen entity. Memories clouded the visage of this lonely erstwhile god as he gazed intently at the small celestial body in his hand, once the beacon that illuminated his world and shone upon his mortal subjects. Much later, he murmured to himself, “I’ve been pondering what could have ravaged this place. It wasn’t an instantaneous cataclysm, Traveler. It unfolded over a prolonged period.”

“A process?” Vanna instantly latched onto the term.

The giant nodded, his voice emerging from the depths of recollection, “At first, there were anomalies we couldn’t explain with our existing knowledge. Clouds would abruptly vanish and then suddenly reappear, mysterious flashes lit up the atmosphere, weather patterns becerratic, and plants ceased to grow normally.

“Subsequently, these anomalies penetrated deeper, affecting even more unsettling realms. Gravity started to fluctuate, and temporal rifts appeared across different regions.

“During this phase, we observed an intensifying red glow reminiscent of a fissure that permeated from beyond the heavens. It seemed to fixate in the sky, casting a veil over our world and warping the luminance of distant stars. Ssort of… ‘distortion’ began corroding the fabric of the world, leaving everyone powerless against its might. It was in these times that the Archives were established.”

The giant paused in his narrative, his gaze drifting towards the towering spire in the distance. It appeared that due to his lack of regular interaction with others, he had a tendency to drift into reflection or beclost in thought midway through a conversation. However, he soon resumed, “The prolonged process met a swift finale. When the Archives were destroyed, I briefly sensed… something had made contact with our world. That entity took an immense duration to approach, and during its approach heralded the drawn-out apocalypse. Its ultimate ‘touch’ signified both the climax and end of the devastation. Yet, after all this time, I still can’t comprehend the nature of that ‘entity’.”

“You felt something ‘touching’ this world?” Vanna’s eyes widened in astonishment, and she realized that out of reverence, she had unwittingly adopted a formal tone when addressing the giant. “Did you truly not ‘see’ any aspect of that entity?”

After a thoughtful moment, the giant responded with a hint of regret in his eyes, “I apologize, Traveler. I can see your deep concern, but what I’ve shared is the extent of my knowledge.”

Vanna pursed her lips, suppressing her disappointment, and her attention shifted back to the “mini-sun” cradled in the giant’s hand.

This must not fall into the hands of the disciples and remnants of the Black Sun.

After much internal debate, she chose to be forthright, “There are individuals with ill intentions who have set their sights on the ‘sun’ in your possession… I’m uncertain if they will locate this place and am at a loss as to how to explain their background, but…”

Before she could finish, the giant once again raised his hand, offering the luminous orb before her, “Would you like to take it?”

His tone was gentle, his face adorned with a soft smile.

Caught off guard, Vanna hurriedly responded, “No, that’s not what I meant. You might have misunderstood…”

“It’s alright, traveler,” the giant interrupted with that sserene and amiable tone, “I sense your benevolence. Besides, I believe you might find it a challenge to take it from my grasp.”

Vanna hesitated briefly. Realizing he wasn’t jesting, she cautiously extended her hand towards the glowing sphere – this time, not merely to touch, but to attempt to lift it.

The warm sensation enveloped her hand, creating the illusion that she had successfully grasped a tangible object. Yet, just as she was about to exert force to lift it, the sensation inexplicably disappeared and phased right through her palm.

Staring in bewilderment, Vanna didn’t understand what just happened and becwordless.

“Somewhere along the line, it beca part of me,” the giant’s voice echoed beside her, “Perhaps it was the day I picked it up… One illusion grasping another, becoming inseparable ever since.

“Traveler, if you cannot take it, then it seems likely those with ill intentions you spoke of won’t be able to either.”

The giant rose from his seated position, brushing the desert dust off his robe. He carefully tucked the “sun” close to his chest and bent down to pick up his massive staff. “It’s tto move on, Traveler.”

Instinctively, Vanna inquired, “Where are we headed?”

“We’ll roam the world. Though its appearance has faded, there’s much here that I want to share with you—the tales and visages of what they once were,” the giant replied, looking out across the vast desert. “You can also share stories of those ‘ill-intentioned’ individuals along the way. It has been eons since I last conversed with another. This is the first tI’ve heard news… from an outsider.”

He paused, glancing down at Vanna, “I had almost forgotten what it feels like to be curious. Thank you for reminding me.”

“Shouldn’t we explore below?” Vanna motioned towards the tower at the crater’s center, “I thought…”

“There’s nothing left to see down there. What you witnessed here is all that remains,” the giant responded, shaking his head and beginning to walk away, “Let’s go. Nightfall approaches rapidly in this place, but perhaps we can reach another ruin by dusk—one that once offered a view of the vast ocean.”

Heeding the giant’s words, Vanna cast a final glance back at the “tower,” silently bidding it farewell. She then turned and hastened to catch up with the giant, who had already traversed a considerable distance.

……

Duncan sat motionless behind the table covered with sea charts. Tseemed to stretch indefinitely in the weight of his contemplation before he finally exhaled deeply.

Vanna had located the “sun”—in a manner that could only be described as utterly baffling.

Yet, for reasons Duncan couldn’t pinpoint, after hearing Vanna’s account, his initial shock and skepticism rapidly faded. Even that initial surprise waned swiftly, leaving behind an acceptance best encapsulated by the sentiment: “So that’s how it is.”

Perhaps it was because he had already witnessed the ten-meter diameter “moon” with his own eyes. Or perhaps because he had already encountered a “day star” that could whimsically dance upon the ship’s deck. Having survived in this enigmatic and distorted world for so long, Duncan’s capacity for embracing the implausible had been honed to an exceptional degree.

But one significant issue remained—Vanna couldn’t take the “sun” with her.

This fact left Duncan feeling quite uneasy.