Forgotten Sea: Chapter 8

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Retranslation

My love, I will use the sharpest of daggers to cut open your heart, let it become faith I name as love;

I will bathe your corpse, as clean as a pearl;

I will properly take care of your heart,

Until the day we meet again, and you personally take it back,

–<<Siren’s Song - Act Three - Moya>>

Dream - The End of Sand and Sea

I dreamed.

Both legs sinking into shifting sands, I cannot see clearly what is at the end of the golden evening sky. All the plants grow, clustered around a dry riverbed.

I follow the river bed for a very long time, until my fingers wither and split, and my legs are bleeding.

At the end of the riverbed, a youth with a face that is not clearly visible curls up next to a giant sea creature, feeling its radiated body heat.

He seems to be softly humming something.

The melody that drifts over is wondrous and enthralling, but he’s singing too softly, I can barely hear anything.

I walk to his side, wanting to hear a little clearer.

As soon as he looks up, I recognize that familiar pair of eyes.

He stands up, reaches a hand out to me. Just like if I were a friend who’d gone on a long journey.

“Over there is Whalefall City.” He points towards the distance. A sea creature’s skeleton, dried in the wind, seems to appear from the sand dunes.

“Can you see the ocean there?”

“... Mmhmm.”

I grasp his hand.

After dawn, we arrive at our destination.

The youth turns his body, facing me.

The dagger pierces towards my chest. Drip after drip of warm blood falls, sinking into the whirlpool of shifting sands.

I see my own heart be cut open, his clean white fingers holding my blood-soaked heart.

The drips of fresh blood are used to feed a tiny flame.

At the center of the flame, is a crystal that glows with a peculiar light.

On the wind someone is chanting lowly: “... we walk out of the desert, not in search of an oasis… but because we wish to redeem a heart to become our faith.”

MC: I haven’t had a dream in a very long time, why is this dream so realistic, so…

It makes me so breathless, as if my heart had really been cut out.

These few days, Whalefall City’s magical conch has brought quite a few strange tales from land.

The escaped “sacrifice” angered the Sea God, and the Sea God passed judgment on his followers. A fire burnt down the temple.

The oldest of the Emissaries fell ill after that, and before a few days had passed, he died.

Algie: So what! Wait until tomorrow, it’ll be our Lemuria’s true celebration then.

MC: Algie, what is the Sea God’s Ceremony like?

Algie: It’s, it’s… I can’t explain it clearly either!

According to every Lemurian, the Sea God’s Ceremony is sacred and something to yearn for.

Young girls will put on dresses as light as the waves, braid their long hair, and suspend beautiful pearls and shells in their hair.

MC: Is this the dress you’ll be wearing tomorrow? How pretty.

Algie holds the edge of her skirt and twirls happily before me.

Algie: Don’t fret, we’ve also prepared a beautiful dress for you.

MC: But you will all be going to help, I really don’t know what I should do…

Algie: You just have to stand in the most noticeable spot in front of the city gates, and then all you do is give him your hand.

MC: Algie, do you know what happened at the last Sea God’s Ceremony?

Algie: That was something that happened thousands of years ago. At the time my grandfather’s grandfather was just a little child.

Algie sees I’m worried, and comes over to clasp both my hands.

Algie: Don’t be afraid, I heard the follower will help the Sea God to see Lemuria’s future prophesied.

Algie: And this prophecy will foreshadow Lemuria’s future fate.

Algie: After the ceremony ends, you can come back and play with us again.

Childhood Game - Hide and Seek

… you will meet a person, and she will steal away your most important possession. But even when blindfolded by others and tossed into this world’s ocean, she will still know where to find you.

– << The Siren’s Song - Act 4 - The Weeping Sea >>

After spending an entire minute climbing in through the temple’s window, Rafayel felt slightly tired and a little dizzy.

“Three, two, one… have you all hidden? !”

Algie’s figure was very far away, and looked like an invisible little black dot. Rafayel found a comfortable position and laid down to deal with the long wait before the game ended.

Lemuria’s temple sits on a cliff on the ocean floor, said to be the closest place to the sky in Lemuria.

Because of this, every daybreak, dawn’s first ray of light slides across the spire—but only the spire.

Lemuria is located in a fissure in the deep sea; not a single beam of sunlight can stand the solitude. Only the Sacred Flame continuously provides warmth and light.

Basking in the sun made him sleepy. In order to avoid falling down from the window, he stuck out a finger to touch the Sacred Flame in the niche.

Two flames met and melded, continuing to burn as if they were always one.

The prophecy also said, one day, this flame will go out, and be lit by his flames.

He asked Elder Amund, what happened to the last Sea God? Is he dead? Was he swallowed by fire? When he couldn’t swim any more, was he eaten by fish?

Missing Line: The above line is missing from the original English version.

He says I’m the last Sea God, so after I die, Lemuria won’t have a Sea God anymore?

However, Elder Amund said, the Sea God has an immortal heart; even if his life is coming to an end, he will only slumber in the deepest part of the ocean floor.

Rafayel frowned and thought, that place is too cold and too dark; he doesn’t like it. So he asked, then if one day I hide in that kind of place, will anyone be able to find me?

Elder Amund shook his head again, gazed at the leaping flame, and sighed gently.

...

He slowly stuck his finger into the heart of the Sacred Flame.

This flame wasn’t roiling hot. It was warm like basking in seawater under the noonday sun.

He really wanted to be like those fish that leap out of the surface to take a look, to see that miserly sun, if it was really this warm.

He suddenly got a wicked thought. Perhaps Lemuria’s Sacred Flame was only an inferior copy of the sun.

Little fish: Glub lub lub, glub lub lub.

Rafayel came back to his senses, pulled back his finger, and tugged on the little fish’s translucent tail fin.

Younger Rafayel: Shh, not so loud, I don’t want to be discovered so soon.

Little fish: Blub blub blub, glub lub lub lub lub…

Younger Rafayel: Any more noise and I’ll turn you back into a scale, and not let you come out to play again.

The little fish stops speaking, and blows bubbles boredly.

Younger Rafayel: I hear that on land there are many fun things, and also humans.

Rafayel idly fiddles with the little fish in his hand.

Younger Rafayel: You’re so small, you don’t even amount to a couple of bites.

Younger Rafayel: Even if you go on land, what would you do if you run into humans with bad intentions?

Younger Rafayel: If you aren’t careful they’ll capture you, descale you and cut open your belly, turn you into blubber candles, and…

The little fish suddenly bites Rafayel.

Younger Rafayel: … bite you ruthlessly.

Rafayel shakes the finger that aches from the bite, jumps off the windowsill. He’s already somewhat bored from hiding.

Younger Rafayel: You guys are so dumb, I’m right here!

Younger Rafayel: Next time you have to find me.

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