Deep Sea Embers

Chapter 8 “The Sun”

A doll, so delicate that Duncan could hardly distinguish it from a real human being at first glance. In fact, its as if the doll would come alive at any second now. But this was just an illusion on his part. The doll wouldn’t and remained completely unresponsive to its surroundings.

But after a long wary observation, Duncan finally came to the decision the gorgeous goth doll in the box wouldn’t suddenly jump up to surprise himself, which was slightly relieving on his part.

Then he frowned and asked the goat head again: “What do you think of this situation?”

“This must have been an important cargo escorted by the previous ship,” replied the goat head at once. Though it had previously stated that it did not know about the strange wooden coffin that had suddenly appeared on deck, it was clearly more experienced with the affairs of the sea than Duncan. “There are symbols pointing to the gods, and the box is surrounded by pins to secure chains in place. This all indicate that the thing was sealed at some point. To transport something sealed on the Boundless Sea is a very risky thing to do, so I believe that ship we encountered must’ve some background to attempt such a ordeal.”

“Seal?” Duncan’s eyes twitched at the idea. If the coffin had been sealed before coming aboard the Vanished, wouldn’t that mean whatever’s inside had been unsealed now? Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to remove the lid so easily.

“For the ordinary and fragile person, this might be dangerous. However, it’s of no threat to you if it could be sealed by some special skill. Captain, you are far more dangerous than this anomaly.”

Duncan was speechless and became tied inside over the thought of him being more dangerous than a creepy coffin on the ship. It didn’t help either when the one flattering him was an evil and spooky gargoyle figurine with a goat face.

After sighing in his heart that he still needed to be cautious in gathering knowledge, Duncan frowned some more and looked at the doll one last time before making up his mind: “I should throw this back into the sea.”

There was a hint of hesitation in his heart when he said this, especially when looking at the doll.

This wasn’t due to the doll being too beautiful, but rather because it’s too realistic looking. A sleeping beauty like in the Snow White story. Who could bear to do such a thing? But this hesitation eventually strengthened his resolve.

As a rational and cautious person, he could not leave such a potential danger next to himself, especially when this world had so many unnatural and strange things. What if this doll was one of those strange things? Having the goat head was enough, he didn’t need to add a second anomaly to his troubles.

Covering up the coffin with the lid again, Duncan made sure to find a hammer and nailed it tight for safe measures.

Finally, he pushed the “coffin” with the doll inside to the edge of the deck.

“You can dispose of your booty at will Captain, but I will still make a respectful and humble suggestion: you don’t need to be so cautious, the Vanished hadn’t added any loot to its treasure trove for a long time…” The goat says in his head.

“Shut up.” Duncan simply cut off the annoyance and kicked the coffin hard.

The heavy box teetered a bit at the edge of the deck before falling straight into the sea, which had returned to its normal dullish blue color, and made a huge splash at impact. Not relieved yet, Duncan made sure the box left his view completely before issuing out a sigh of relief. Then looking around, he confirmed the fog had mostly dissipated as well, indicating the Vanished had detached itself from the “spirit world” and returned to the real world.

Duncan immediately scanned around for signs of the steam ship. According to his estimation, it shouldn’t have been too long since the two ships met, meaning it could still be within visual view. But he found nothing, not even a faded shape of the steam ship.

“…… Is this also because of this strange sea? Or is it related to the so-called ‘spirit voyage’?”

Duncan muttered in his heart, but soon his attention was drawn to something else – he saw a glimmer of light in the depths of the clouds above the sea that had never dispersed before.

As if a thick drapery had been lifted from his world, the sea surface now glistened like one would expect from a morning rise. This picture emotionally touched Duncan’s heart. Ever since he learned of “this side’s” existence, he hadn’t seen the sun since being trapped in his apartment. And now, he finally got to welcome the sun with open arms again….

But it didn’t happen. The expected warmth of the morning rise didn’t come; instead, he saw a golden sphere that left him utterly frozen on the spot.

The light was in no way as dazzling as he expected. The sun was a round radiant orb of yellow, but circling around it were two concentrical rings of intricate runes that gave off the impression of a shackle binding its prisoner..

“What’s that?” He spoke softly with a low and somewhat cold voice.

“That’s the sun, of course, Captain.” The voice of the goat head was as calm as ever.