Deep Sea Embers

Right now, the old priest was sitting behind a dull circular table and concentrating on a mechanical creation in his hand. It was an item that looked like a Rubik’s cube, and with the help of some ingenious tools, he disassembled it into a pile of parts for further examination.

When Vanna approached, her tall body had blocked the lamp light next to the old priest, causing the latter to look up at the person coming over: “Oh, it’s Your Excellency. What help can I offer from these old bones today?”

“I like to know where the records for the various disasters and accidents of 1889 is.” Vanna nods to the old senior as her way of saying hello.

“Disaster records from 1889?” The old priest hummed as he knocked on the wide circular table. In the next instant, a slight mechanical friction sound came from beneath, followed by the retreat of the table board to reveal a machine with many round digital dials and paddles.

Accompanied by the creaking sound of the machine running, the old priest began to operate this delicate machine with the help of those paddles and digital dials. After inputting the necessary information, Vanna heard the low characteristic noise of larger machines running beneath her feet. Through the vibrating floorboard, where countless gears and rods were happily running with steam, she then heard the expected crisp “ding” from the mechanical device from the front. With this sound, a printed tape was then spat out of an opening next to the operator.

“From this path, turn left in the third aisle of bookshelves, then take a right at the end. One of the lit isles is the one you seek. The records aren’t organized though so it’s a mess. Everything from big events to small steam accidents was recorded there. Ring the bell if you need more help.” The old priest said as he handed over the note with his prosthetic hand. It’s a brass construct with delicate working parts that reached up to the shoulder.

Vanna of course didn’t miss the guardian’s missing hand that had been hidden away from view until now due to the long sleeves. Such veterans weren’t uncommon in the civilian department of the Storm Church.

Those who fought at the frontline against the shadows of this world are all like this. More often than not, they have to sacrifice their flesh and blood in battle. When they could no longer serve the church as a combatant, the best home for these old servants was the backlines in the civilian departments. In this case, the old priest had clearly lost a limb and now uses a steam-powered magical prosthetic on his job.

In a certain sense, this would of course be considered preferential treatment for old soldiers who could use a relatively relaxed and high-paying job; however, in another sense, it’s also an excellent use of allocating talents. Their bodies may be unfit for battle, but their wills are strong, and the work of guarding books and archives... always required a strong will.

A trace of respect appeared in Vanna’s heart as she took the paper with both hands: “Thank you.”

“Remember to pack up the books after reading them, and don’t touch those books that are not on the list,” the old priest waved his hand. “There are many books here that haven’t been touched in a long time. Best not to them.”

After that, he returned to his “work” and subtly ignored Vanna.

The female inquisitor didn’t care and just took the paper tape with the long list of books printed on it. She walked towards the depths of the archives, where she quickly found herself confronting a series of bookshelves that were tall enough to be described as majestic on both sides. For a moment, Vanna even imagined herself running through an initiation gauntlet of guardians here, the shelves being the guardians and her being the new recruit.

Before long, the lady had found the bookshelves mentioned by the old priest—a row of small light bulbs lit the shelves to indicate the files that she could flip through.

The files were not low either, but fortunately, Vanna was a very tall woman herself so she didn’t need a ladder. This brought great relief because running around with a ladder in such a huge library was no easy feat.

She took a light breath, found the beginning of the file on the shelf, pulled out the numbered book, and quickly flipped through it.

What she’s looking for was simple: the fire from eleven years ago or the fire packaged as a factory leak.

In fact, this was not the first time she had investigated this matter – as an inquisitor, she was already sensitive to all “unusual phenomena”, including what happened to herself. After finding out that only she remembers the fire in her childhood, she has privately investigated some more on her own, but those superficial investigations have not yielded anything.

Before long, she had quickly put the matter behind her and thought nothing more.

Because no matter what, she was only twelve years old when she encountered the accident. She was neither a believer in the goddess nor a person of outstanding brains. It was not impossible to have some false memories in the mind of a child who panicked and inhaled poisonous smoke. Therefore, it didn’t take long for her to put the matter down after consulting some public files.

But now, she suddenly discovered that there were still people in the city-state of Pland who had experienced the fire like herself.

The doubts and countless speculations that had been put in the back of her mind instantly surged up, and her “professional vigilance” as an inquisitor was frantically blaring in her mind.

It was precisely because of this professional vigilance that she rejected Heidi’s suggestion to “return to the antique shop” and quietly waited until today. Here, she could investigate the original documents that are sheltered by the goddess and not made public.

The reason was simple, there’s a dangerous atmosphere in this matter. Erasing a fire sounds easy, but in fact, it involves the cognition and memory of thousands of people at an enormous scale. What’s more, there are cultists involved as well back then with the sabotages that year. If all this was really done by a hand hidden behind the shadows, then this hand would never sit idly by and watch someone detect the truth.

The memories that remain in her own mind, the memories that remain in the mind of the girl named Nina... These “residues” are most likely the omissions of the masterminds behind the scenes. The “person” hidden behind the scenes may not have discovered these omissions yet, but if he did... She herself wasn’t afraid, but Nina and her uncle, and the girl named Shirley, they’re only ordinary people.

So, she rejected Heidi’s suggestion at the time and asked her friend not to mention the matter again. On the one hand, she did not want to startle the snake while investigating in secret; on the other hand, she wanted to avoid involving the innocent.

Until I have more information, I mustn’t show any more attention to that antique shop than necessary.

Slowly flipping through the file in her hand, Vanna’s mood kept fluctuating.

For some reason, there’s this inkling sensation that something was spying on her while she’s here, a ubiquitous eye of unknown origin. Naturally, this left her irritated and uncomfortable since this was the goddess’s realm. No shadow could invade this place, at least according to her own perception.

Under this atmosphere, she placed the file down and picked up another one next to her while going over the recent happenings in the city.

Currently, many active suntists in the city have been captured. It seems that the resolute action of the city-state has effectively deterred those heretics, or it may be that the channels they infiltrated have really been completely destroyed. In any case, the numbers have been significantly reduced, and the prisons under the cathedrals are filled to the brim.

Better yet, the purpose of those sun heretics operating in the city-states has long been ascertained: look for the “sun fragment” that appeared briefly eleven years ago and may still be hiding somewhere.

Sun fragment... The fire of eleven years ago...

The “vision” that Heidi had glimpsed into at the museum before.

Vanna stopped flipping through the pages, and some clues that hadn’t caught her attention suddenly joined together, becoming more and more prominent as she began to examine the fire in her memory again.

“There is a connection behind these events ... The fire of eleven years ago is definitely real...” The young inquisitor lightly gasped, and at the same time, her gaze inadvertently swept over some words on the file:

“...... On X day of X month, block XX, a vicious heretical worship incident occurred. Three residents built an altar in their home, sacrificed blood, and prayed to some evil thing that’s not on record. This caused panic and nightmares among a large number of nearby residents. The sacrifice ceremony was eventually reported and destroyed, but the clues left at the scene could not point to any known evil god or spirit....”

“In theory, the sacrificial ritual should not have been effective since blind worship doesn’t yield effects. Nevertheless, the ritual worked and caused panic and nightmares among the local population. Follow-up investigations confirmed that the area had indeed been affected by supernatural forces at that time...”