Deep Sea Embers

Her mind was a mess, and her consciousness became increasingly more confused as the smoke seeped into the room, causing her a shortness of breath as well.

And those disturbing memories, they all started to burn, engulfed by the terrible flames. Even now, Nina was staring at the ground expecting it to burst into a pillar of red and yellow. Then a cold hand snapped her out of the illusion by pressing it against her forehead.

“Are you all right?” Shirley looked at her “friend”, a little worried over the weird behavior.

“I… I’m okay,” Nina quickly shook her head in denial and grabbed Shirley’s arm, “Thank you… I just suddenly remembered my family.”

“Family…” Shirley was startled when she heard these words, “Who is in your family?”

“There is only one uncle… My parents passed away many years ago, and I grew up with my uncle.” Nina briefly recalled the faces of her parents and uncle before slowly burying that head into the knees, “I promised my uncle to go home early today…”

“You… You have a good relationship with your uncle, right? Shirley seemed a little uncomfortable with this kind of topic and did not know how to comfort her friend, “What does he do?”

“He’s just an ordinary person. Our family opened an antique shop in the lower city, and he’s managing it alone…” Nina said slowly, then quickly flailed her hands up after noticing Shirley’s surprised expression, “It’s not what you think. There are no real things in there.”

“That sounds awesome too!” Shirley quickly complimented, “Shop owner! If you have a store of your own, even in the lower city, then your life at home should be pretty good, right?”

“Actually, it’s very average.” Nina continued to wave her hand frantically in panic, “Uncle’s health wasn’t very good a few years ago, so the business in the store hasn’t been good. He didn’t save much money… But I think Uncle is really amazing. He can even chat with Mr. Morris for a long time! He knows a lot of things, and Mr. Morris said he is a profound person…”

Shirley listened to Nina’s narration and pretended to understand by nodding: “Then after we go out, I must get to know your uncle…”

Nina laughed. She was about to open her mouth to say something, but suddenly heard a loud noise coming from the direction of the door—the next second, the door to the water room, which was not very strong at all, got kicked open from the outside. It fell with a bang!

The moment she saw this scene, Nina’s first reaction was that the fire in the corridor had blown apart the door from the intensity. But the next second, what she saw was a familiar figure walking through the doorway, and the expected flames were nowhere to be seen.

Shirley was also startled by the loud bang of metal hinges nearly snapping apart. She looked back in astonishment, and her whole body froze the moment she recognized the figure at the doorway.

But before the gothic-dressed girl could take action in cowering before the shadowy avatar of subspace, the voice of the new friend she made had cut in and interrupted.

“Uncle Duncan?!” Nina looked at the figure with surprise and disbelief. Right now, it seemed that all the fear and depression had disappeared in that instant, and nothing could ever harm her.

“Nina?” Duncan also looked at his niece with some surprise. He actually didn’t expect this. The man only followed the mark because he wanted to make Shirley into a helper to find Nina.

So what I heard was Shirley talking to Nina, and the new friend and classmate was none other than Shirley?! What are the odds?!

Quickly reorganizing these thoughts, Duncan took only a second to get the story straight. Then he noticed the gothic girl’s expression. Not going to let the little summoner spill the bean, he took the initiative in leading the conversation: “Looks like you’re all right.”

Then before he had time to say more, Duncan noticed a third person in the room: a young woman in a long skirt who was unconscious on the floor. She seemed to be alive at least.

Shirley finally regained her ability to think by then and recalled what Nina had said about her family. By connecting one and two together, she froze into a statue and looked like she’s seen a ghost. “Nina… he is… your uncle?”

“Yes!” Nina said happily and threw herself on Duncan in a few steps, “Uncle, why are you here?! The fire outside has gone out?!”

“Not yet, but the fire is under control,” Duncan replied casually. He knew that this ambiguous statement must have seemed suspicious under normal circumstances, but now Nina was clearly in a state of confusion, so there’s no harm. “This is awesome. I thought I was going to…”

“It’s okay. Let’s wait until we get out first. This is not the place to talk,” Duncan interrupted Nina, then his gaze swept over to Shirley and the lady who remained on the floor, “We have to take this lady with us.”

“Ahhh… Right!” Nina reacted belatedly and hurried over to pick up the lady with Shirley running over to help from behind. But due to the height difference, this was not easy for both girls, so Duncan had no choice but to step in and do it himself.

But then, right when he was about to reach down, Duncan saw a slight flickering movement that caused his gesture to stop.

It was an amethyst pendant that looked somewhat familiar.

Duncan was stunned, slowly recalling the previous home visit of Mr. Morris and some of the things revealed in the other party’s words.

“Uncle?” Nina’s voice came from the side, interrupting Duncan’s thoughts.

Quickly shaking his head to lose the unnecessary thoughts, he glanced at Nina, then casually at Shirley before smiling humorously: “The world is really small.”

With that, Duncan and the girls left the room with him acting as the main carrier while the two served as support.

There was no flame in the corridor once they got out, and even the thick smoke had dissipated for “unexplained reasons”. Shirley observed the dark passage ahead and hesitated before speaking: “Which direction are we going?”

Duncan raised his head and was about to point out the direction when he suddenly sensed something through the “power of flames” that permeated the museum. Getting an idea, he changed his finger to another exit from the original: “This way.”

Shortly after their retreat, another group suddenly circled the corner of the corridor ahead and appeared near the water room – it was the guardian squad of the Storm Church that had charged into the flames earlier.

The squad was a mess, but the blessings of the sea had not yet dissipated on all of them. They had charged in with the determination to die, but the unexpected receding of the fire caught them by surprise and made the rescue effort safer than planned.

“The fire here is also extinguished…” the priest who led the team slightly frowned, muttering as he observed the surroundings, “Even the smoke has dissipated.”

“It’s good that the fire is extinguished, isn’t it?” A guardian murmurs.

“It’s indeed a good thing, but under normal circumstances, a fire of this scale would not be extinguished so easily,” the priest said in a deep and concerned voice. Suddenly, he noticed the violently damaged door of the nearby water room.

“Someone has been here…” A guard immediately stepped forward to check. After confirming the traces near the doorway, he skillfully took out the incense burner and prayer book before putting on a special set of lenses on his head.

The set looked like a half-sided helmet made of copper tubes, cranks, and a series of lenses, some of which had intricate runes etched on the edges.

The guardian placed an incense burner on the ground, then adjusted the lens set on his head and began observing the remaining clues.

“There is no supernatural power remaining… just a few ordinary people that passed through. The exact number can’t be determined, and the aura is very chaotic,” the guard quickly reported. “It should be the tourists who were trapped before… The door was vandalized inward. Likely someone from the outside smashed it in to save those trapped.”

“Are you sure there is no supernatural power?”

“No.”

“…… Continue searching upwards.”

“YES SIR!”