Pendant?

Hearing the words of the shadow in the subspace in front of her, Heidi was stunned at first, and then she looked down at the "Amethyst" pendant from a glass workshop on her chest. The next second, everything about the pendant came to her mind -

The weird antique shop manager, the pendant that my father brought back from the antique shop, the incredible protection during the Black Sun incident, the second pendant, Vanna's unresolved investigation of the antique shop, and... the appearance and words of Duncan Abnomer at this moment...

The psychiatrist finally opened her eyes gradually, and her crazy guess gradually turned into a proven fact. She suddenly felt... that she seemed to need some psychological help.

"Relax a little, and control your gaze. Don't look at things you shouldn't look at," Duncan said to Heidi slowly with a smile, "Your father specifically asked me to remind you of this."

Heidi felt a buzzing in her head, and she couldn't tell whether it was the noise caused by mild mental pollution or simply auditory hallucinations caused by nervous tension. She held her forehead and finally managed to control her reason and impulse, but she still felt that her thinking was slow and intermittent: "My father...he is now..."

"He was serving as an advisor on the Lost Homeland. He didn't tell you because he was afraid you would worry, but we didn't expect you to be involved in the incident."

"Is he okay?! He's on your ship..." Heidi asked subconsciously, but when she looked at the majestic "captain" in front of her, the end of her voice suddenly hesitated. She felt that no matter how she asked, it would seem offensive and rude at this moment.

Duncan didn't care about it, and just replied casually: "He's fine, maintaining the healthiest schedule in the team, and playing a huge role on the ship - is there anything else you want to know?"

Heidi opened her mouth and reorganized her words in her mind for a long time before she suddenly thought of another thing, something that happened almost at the same time as her father left home. Now thinking back on it, it was full of doubts. She felt that her guess was crazy, but she couldn't help asking: "Then... is Vanna also in your..."

Duncan didn't answer directly, but confirmed her guess indirectly: "Do you want to meet them?"

Heidi was stunned for a moment, and didn't know how to answer this simple question. After two or three seconds, she suddenly woke up, and her first reaction was to put away her many terrifying personality clones, and said in a panic: "Is it okay? Do you really allow it? Oh, sorry, I don't mean anything else, but I heard a lot about you... I should..."

Her hurried words suddenly stopped.

Because along with a rotating dark green flame door, two very familiar figures appeared in front of her——

Morris was smiling, but Vanna looked a little embarrassed.

"Well...long time no see," Vanna came up to Heidi, touched her nose and greeted her, "I'm sorry I kept it a secret from you for so long, my new position is a bit sensitive, and it's mainly confidentiality requirements, so I can only do this with the captain's permission this time...are you angry?"

Heidi didn't answer, but just stared at her long-time friend, then stared at Morris beside her. After a long pause, she finally said, "Can anyone explain to me what's going on here?!"

"You two can talk slowly." Duncan saw that they had already started to communicate. He immediately waved his hand with great insight and turned away. "I'll talk to Lucy."

The two "crew members" and Heidi were left staring at each other in embarrassment.

Duncan paid no attention to the subtle atmosphere of resentment between Vanna and Morris behind him. He came to Lucretia very calmly, but saw that the "sea witch" avoided his gaze and looked quite embarrassed.

Lucrecia had been brainstorming for a long time. After her father suddenly entered this dream, she had been in a state of confusion. Just now, while her father was communicating with the "psychiatrist", she was trying to think about how to communicate with this "relative" she had not seen for a long time, how to adjust her mentality like Tirian, and...

How should I explain the incident with the sickle just now?

However, when her father really came over here, she found that she was not prepared at all - the "witch" who frightened many people on the vast sea was actually not very good at dealing with such emotional emergencies. On the contrary, because of her wild thoughts for a while, she was even more at a loss at the moment.

Lucrecia opened her mouth: "I..."

"No hurry," Duncan suddenly waved his hand to interrupt Lucrecia's next words, then turned around and looked at Heidi and the other two not far away, "Let's watch for a while."

Lucrecia: “……?”

She was a little confused for a moment, not knowing what her father meant by "let's see first", and even subconsciously associated it with completely unrelated ideas such as "planning" and "layout". But the next second, she found that the familiar but long-lost figure next to her was just looking at something not far away, with a humane expression of watching a show on his face.

The "Sea Witch" hesitated for a moment, then looked in that direction. A strange feeling came over her. She didn't know how to describe this weird and awkward development - this was different from the scene of reuniting with her father that she had imagined over the past many years.

She imagined that one day in the future, she, who was immortal, might encounter the Lost Homeland returning from the warp like Tirian did. She imagined that there might be a tragic battle between the Brilliant Star and the Lost Homeland, and that the evil spirit from the warp would destroy all the betrayers, just like he destroyed the Thirteen Islands of Veselan at the border...

And in some gentler dreams, in some fantasies that had nothing to do with reason, she actually imagined another scene -

Her father would really come back. It might be a quiet afternoon, or in the afterglow before dusk. They might stand on a sea cliff, just like the place she had been to in her childhood. She could no longer remember which city-state it was in, but she remembered the gentle sea breeze and white flowers everywhere. She and her family would stand on the highest big rock, and her father would tell her about the things that happened far away, while she would show off her Brilliant Star, as well as all her laboratories and collections of books.

But those fragmented dreams finally melted away in the sunshine, just like sighs melted in the wind.

She had never imagined that when the day of reunion finally came, it would be like this—she and her father stood in this dream that seemed to never end, together...

Read other people’s gossip.

But gradually, Lucrezia seemed to understand her father's intentions.

She also looked in that direction, at the psychiatrist and her relatives and friends. There was also a daughter with a lot on her mind, a father who was trying to explain everything in embarrassment, and a friend who was at a loss.

Perhaps, this is what my father meant when he wanted me to "take a look first".

Lucrecia felt she understood.

Then she heard Duncan breaking the silence beside her: "In fact, I persuaded Maurice at the beginning to find a chance to talk to Heidi, but we didn't find the opportunity - but this is also good, if he had made it clear earlier, I would not have seen it now."

Lucrecia felt that she understood it too early.

In a brief moment of confusion, she suddenly remembered a sentence that Tirian had said to her before -

[The father has regained his humanity, but it seems he has found too much.]

At that time she could not understand what her brother meant, but now she vaguely understood - this being who returned from the subspace might be her father, but not entirely.

"Lucy, what do you think?"

Duncan's voice suddenly came from the side, interrupting Lucretia's wild thoughts. She woke up with a start and looked at her father who was looking at her inquiringly.

The complicated thoughts in her mind quickly calmed down, and the distant memories and the dislocation of the scene in front of her were thrown behind her. The "Sea Witch" suddenly felt that those confusing problems did not seem to be problems. The person in front of her... this is also good.

After all, life is not academic research, and not all questions must have an answer.

"Ms. Heidi will handle all the problems. Although we haven't had much contact, I know she is a rational person. Mr. Morris doesn't have to worry. He is a consultant you approve of..."

"Oh, I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about this 'place'," Duncan waved his hand, pointing at the forest that had fallen into "dusk" but still showed no signs of collapse or disintegration. "This should be a dream, right? But it looks a bit weird, and it's different from any dream I've ever seen..."

Lucrecia was a little uncomfortable for a moment. Her father's thoughts seemed to jump around a lot, which was very different from the person she remembered. But she soon reacted. While quickly organizing her thoughts, she shifted her attention away from the gossip in the distance and spoke while thinking: "The 'entrance' to this dream is Taran El Scholar, the mental entity over there who is in a stagnant state. His 'self' has not yet awakened. The cause of the matter is this..."

Lucrecia told Duncan the information she had as concisely as possible, and the latter had a thoughtful expression after listening carefully.

"...In other words, this forest is just a barrier covering the 'surface' of the dream. The true appearance of this dream is hidden deeper - but the one who controls all this is not the elf named Taran El, but the 'third dreamer'."

"This is the third one, but there may be a fourth and a fifth one," Lucrecia said seriously. "Heidi's experience shows that this dream is 'connected' to other places, so it is possible that it is connected to more dreamers, but all of this is hidden. The 'self-healing' and 'hiding' abilities of this forest... are far beyond our imagination."

Duncan didn't say anything, he frowned and fell into thought.

At this moment, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the "Great Scholar of Taran El" not far away suddenly blinked.