Deep Sea Embers

This puzzled Duncan, who couldn’t comprehend her detached attitude.

“Are you truly willing to sacrifice everything for Frost, even something as significant as your own life?” Duncan asked, his eyes filled with genuine curiosity as they met Ray Nora’s. “You spent over a decade in captivity, confined under a church. You weren’t even acknowledged as a human being until you were twelve. Subjected to continuous observation, bound by chains, and put through ceaseless experiments, every thought and utterance of yours was scrutinized for any potential threat to humanity. Despite your best efforts, you still ended up being publicly displayed on an execution platform and branded the ‘Mad Queen.’ I don’t want to sound cynical, but from a logical standpoint, I find your decision baffling.”

Ray Nora fell quiet, leaning back against her bed while staring at the sheer fabric of the canopy above her. Her thoughts seemed to wander far and wide. After a lengthy pause, she let out a soft, amused laugh and shook her head. “Yeah, why would I go through all of this, indeed.”

She redirected her attention to Duncan.

“Perhaps you misunderstand me, Captain. You seem to think that I should bear a grudge against that cold city, but the reality is different. That city did everything it could to keep me alive,” she explained.

“From a wider viewpoint, our complicated yet fragile ‘civilized world’ aims to preserve the lives of everyone—including people like me with psychic abilities. Even if that required confining me with chains, locking me in iron cages, and keeping me in a dungeon for a decade, they never intended for me to die in that place. They always hoped that one day I would rejoin society as a human being.”

“I don’t harbor any ill will towards anyone, Captain,” Ray Nora said, letting out a gentle sigh. “People weren’t being deliberately malicious towards me. The world is a harsh place for everyone, and each person is simply doing the best they can to navigate it.”

The woman once known as the Frost Queen rose gracefully from her bed, which bore an unsettling resemblance to the one she had been confined to for a decade in the basement of a cathedral. The only difference was that this one had no bars. She walked slowly to the edge of the room, standing beside Duncan, her eyes transfixed on the turbulent, dark depths of the ocean beyond the window.

“My parents, the clergy—everyone was doing their utmost to keep me alive. My supporters and I worked diligently to secure the safety of the city-state. Governor Winston and his predecessors were committed to finishing the work that I couldn’t complete. But sometimes, despite one’s best efforts, failure is inevitable, and that comes with its own set of consequences.”

Lifting her arm, she pointed at the enormous tentacles that could be seen lurking ominously in the dark waters outside.

“Even ancient gods can fail, can’t they?” she mused.

Duncan pondered her words for a moment before replying, “If what you’re saying is true, new flawed copies will inevitably emerge, born from the fabric of this flawed world. Destroying one won’t fix the root issue.”

Ray Nora turned her gaze to Duncan, “Others will continue to ‘do their best.’ What about you? Are you willing to act?”

Duncan paused before softly saying, “I will do my best.”

“That’s good enough for me,” Ray Nora smiled, her eyes revealing a sense of urgency. “Let’s get started then. I’ve been asleep for too long. It’s time for me to wake up from this nightmare… and it’s time to set ‘it’ free.”

Duncan hesitated for a while, but ultimately gave a quiet nod of agreement.

Almost instantly, a group of dim green flames appeared beside him. These flames swirled and expanded, slowly transforming into a vortex-like portal. As he took a step towards the gateway, Ray Nora’s face underwent a sudden change.

She looked at the ascending green flames, her eyes narrowing as if she were grasping at a distant, fuzzy memory. Abruptly, she turned to Duncan, who was just about to step through the portal. “Is it you?!”

Duncan stopped in his tracks. A moment of confusion passed before he understood the reason for Ray Nora’s sudden emotional jolt.

“This wouldn’t count as altering history, would it?” he said, pausing at the threshold of the swirling gateway. He slightly turned his head towards her, “So, what’s your decision?”

“So that’s the way it is… that’s how it is,” Ray Nora murmured, her face shifting through a myriad of expressions as if complex puzzles that had baffled her for years had suddenly been solved. A flicker of understanding seemed to light up her eyes. For the first time, her smile looked genuinely radiant. She lifted her gaze to Duncan and waved her hand as if saying farewell to a longtime friend or companion. “Proceed as you see fit, Captain. I believe we are making the right decision.”

Duncan looked deeply into Ray Nora’s eyes as if to capture the essence of the woman once known as the Frost Queen. Without uttering another word, he moved forward, stepping into the swirling vortex of green flames.

Ray Nora remained still, watching as Duncan’s silhouette disappeared into the vortex, much like a wise and compassionate figure had vanished in the morning light many years ago.

She shifted her gaze and turned around, positioning herself at the room’s shattered edge. Her eyes fixed on the dormant tentacles of the ancient god that had haunted her for decades, along with all the destiny and responsibility they implied.

From the deep abyss, threads of dim green flames started to emerge, initially as tiny as fireflies. In a fleeting moment, they grew in size and intensity, spreading like wildfire, enveloping the entire “pillar.”

A subtle vibration arose beneath her feet, growing in strength over time. The mansion began to quiver; the energy sustaining this dreamlike state started to wane. The “connection point” between the “Drifting Nexus” and the external world was rapidly dissolving. Outside the room, the darkness surged violently, with layers of ripples and beams of light expanding wildly before collapsing back into the shadows. The “tentacles of the ancient god” began to morph amidst the fluctuating light and darkness. They seemed to bend and stretch as if trying to reach into the broken room.

Yet, Ray Nora stood calmly before this terrifying display. She watched as the newly formed, almost illusory, tentacle reached toward her, stretching until it hit an invisible barrier where it began to spread.

Slowly, Ray Nora extended her hand and placed her palm on the pulsating surface of the mysterious flesh. She could feel all the emotions it was trying to convey through the dream’s barrier—confusion, tension, discomfort, and a hint of regret.

“Yes, I understand,” she whispered. “You never wanted to manifest in this world. It will be over soon. Think of it as just a dream. You’ll return to where you belong.”

“As my time to leave approaches, my thoughts turn to what comes next. When this anchor of reality shatters, I’ll set forth. Maybe I’ll find myself in a distant realm, or perhaps there will be no next destination at all. Even if my calculations hold true, I anticipate an incredibly long journey ahead. Should there be wonders to see along the way, I’ll pause to savor them,” Ray Nora mused, growing introspective in the waning moments before waking from the dream state.

“For all the time we’ve spent together, I’ve never asked your name,” she continued, her eyes fixed on the tentacle on the other side of the dream’s boundary. The sensations she received from it were fragmented—barely coherent wisps of thought, like splinters of an idea erupting from a soul too broken to fully formulate them. After decades of this silent dialogue, she’d grown accustomed to interpreting these shattered transmissions. “I know you’re called ‘Nether Lord,’ among other titles. But those aren’t your real names, are they? Do you have a name? Either yours or that of your original form? It’s a sudden curiosity, but one I find myself indulging.”

Amid the cacophony of disjointed noise and whisperings, a single, crystalline thought emerged. Ray Nora listened with the rapt attention of a child, just as she had years ago when she was confined and chained, attuning herself to murmurs from an incomprehensible abyss. A name seemed to rise from her subconscious mind.

A smile slowly spread across her face. “LH-01… What an unusual name. Navigator #1, is that your original name as well? I’ll remember that. It’s good to finally meet you, Navigator #1. So, goodbye for now, and good morning.”

Suddenly, a tidal wave of flames surged from the darkness, engulfing the tentacle that had reached into the ‘Drifting Nexus.’ It was incinerated instantly, reduced to ashes in the conflagration. The blaze even began to erode the boundary of the dream, manifesting beside Ray Nora and around her, sprouting into clusters of ethereal but brilliant fireworks.

Intrigued, Ray Nora reached out to touch the flickering spectral flames, only to see them dissipate upon contact with her fingertips.

In the oceanic depths below, the newly ignited ghost flames illuminated the entire underwater expanse like a celestial event, casting light upon a floating island shrouded in darkness and revealing human-shaped husks drifting aimlessly in the abyssal waters.

Duncan hovered at the periphery of the dark island, observing the blaze he had set into motion. Its intensity and transformation filled even him—the one who’d sparked the conflagration—with a profound sense of awe and wonder.