Agatha was able to travel through shadows and mirrors in an instant, and in the first moments of the Nameless Dream's end, she was able to return to the real-world Lost and observe the changes in the boundaries of the reflection - Duncan had no doubt about her abilities.

"As long as there is a wake-up between Silantis and the goathead, the dream of the Nameless will end......" Duncan frowned slightly, thinking carefully about the conjecture that Agatha had just proposed, "So in other words, the dream of the Nameless is actually 'maintained' by both Silantis and the goathead?" ”

"Or rather, their shared dreams," Agatha said with a serious face, "and that would explain why the Reflection Lost was sailing on the edge of Silandis's dreams. ”

Duncan didn't speak for a while, just quietly sorted out his thoughts.

After a long while, he suddenly broke his silence: "So as you said, the reason for the early end of this Nameless Dream is that my first mate was 'woken up' - what was the reason for it being 'woken up'?" ”

Agatha thought for a moment and said uncertainly, "Perhaps...... Something to do with your last time at the helm? ”

Duncan's brows furrowed slightly: "At the helm? ”

"You carefully controlled your flames this time, and you also reserved a safe fire on that 'dream ship' by implanting the flame in advance of the reflection of the Lost Land, which did avoid 'scareping' Syllandis, but you are still an 'outsider' to that dream ship," Agatha said as she guessed, "Do you remember?" You are the ...... of forcibly intervening in that dark and foggy space from the 'outside world' by touching that vine in the light wind harbor of the real world."

Agatha said, Duncan listened, and the goathead kept turning his head around, looking at the captain and then at Agatha, as the most direct person in the whole matter, it was the most confused one on the scene, but now it finally understood what Agatha meant, and immediately reacted and quickly looked at Duncan: "Captain, my loyalty is unquestionable, Captain!" You're the true owner of the Lost Country, even if I really ...... dream."

"I know, but it's not with you," Duncan waved his hand without waiting for the goat's head to finish, "it's an intrinsic property of dreams—it repels 'invasion'. ”

Speaking of this, he paused before continuing, "It seems that unless you are dragged directly into the inner part of the dream and become a part of the Nameless Dream, as Vanna and the others did, any attempt to connect to the Nameless Dream from the outside world will lead to this 'rejection', either to wake up Silantis or to wake you up ......"

The goat's head raised its head, and the hard wooden face also revealed a humanized tangled look: "Then what should I do?" You know, Captain, I didn't even know I was dreaming, and I can't control that......"

"There's no way you can control it, but it may not be difficult in itself," Duncan said thoughtfully, "and I've got an idea...... Tonight may be the case. ”

……

Lucrecia frowned, looking at Taran El who was busy everywhere in the large pile of "clutter" in the laboratory, and finally couldn't help but speak after a long time: "You sent an apprentice to my house early in the morning to call me here, just to let me see how messy your laboratory is?" You've been 'digging' through this mess of machines and paper for half an hour...... Did I tell you that I'm busy? ”

"It's almost right, it's almost done, there's a lot of automatically recorded data here that needs to be put together......" Taran Al looked up from behind a machine with a black shell, his messy hair rubbing against the oil from nowhere, "The equipment here is all improved by myself, and it seems that they do have a lot of room for improvement in terms of convenience...... Oh, I finally removed this carton and this is the last ......"

The elven scholar muttered, finally emerging from the dazzling array of machines, and returned to Lucrecia with a large pile of prints, paper tape, and film, and he placed the large pile in his hand on the table, while continuing without looking up, "Yes, I know you're busy, because Winhaven is shrouded in a vast vision, and you and your father are running around for it—thank you for your rush, but we're all about." The locals should do something about it, even if we haven't found a way to fight that 'dream' yet......"

Lucrecia's expression finally became a little more serious, she forgot for a moment the unhappiness of being interrupted from work early in the morning and being urged to go out, and went to the university scholar's desk and looked at the various records on it: "So, this is your effort to fight that 'dream'?" ”

"It's not just me who is working hard, many departments, many colleagues, and other agencies in the city, the knowledge guards and the sheriffs, and we're all trying to figure out a way—we may not be as strong as your father, but stupid is the way...... That's right, that's part of my work. ”

Taran El said, pulling out a long strip of paper from the pile of records and placing it in front of Lucrecia.

"Here's my vital signs and sleep record from last night."

Lucrecia's expression changed slightly, she took the tape from the other party, and looked at the jumping curves and a series of punch notes on it with a serious expression - she noticed that it was some kind of automatic data output by a punch recorder, and there was a very obvious "fault" in the data.

"I slept in this lab yesterday," Taran Al pointed to a bed in the corner of the room, next to which several strange-looking devices could be seen, which seemed to have been hastily moved here, cables and pipes tangled together, "These things I made before, I tried to use them to improve my sleep efficiency, with the goal of getting the shortest amount of sleep in exchange for better rest...... The electrodes are able to record my brain activity, and the curve on the paper tape is that the punch hole next to it is a record of my breathing, one round hole at a time, one square hole at a time inhale......"

"There are two noticeable interruptions in this," Lucrecia interrupted, "judging by the timestamps on the edge of the tape, they happened at nine o'clock last night and early this morning, which is ......"

"That's when Nameless's Dream begins and ends," Taran El took the tape from Lucrecia's hand, found the two breaking points, and held the tape in front of him, "At these two points, my brain has a noticeable 'gap', but it's not the biggest problem, the biggest problem is actually ...... between these two breakpoints. ”

He held up the paper tape, and the long record was a continuous leap of curves and punched holes.

"There are still records," he said, pointing to the section between nine o'clock last night and early this morning, "have you found the problem?" Ms. Lucrecia......"

"I'm guessing you've done more than that," Lucrecia had already reacted, and she said quickly, "where is the rest?" ”

"This is the most intuitive thing." Taran El didn't sell it, he turned around and took another stack of things from the table—it was a stack of black and white pictures.

Lucrecia took the stack and looked at it, and saw that they were all photographs—the target was a bed in the corner of the lab.

The first few photographs show Taran Al lying on his bed, with the university student in the pose of greeting the camera, but the later photos show only an empty bed, with the electrodes that had been attached to the university's head falling on the pillow.

"I set up three cameras, I hooked them up with a timer and a continuous film, and every fifteen minutes, they would take a picture of where I was sleeping from three angles," said Taran Eyre. Since nine o'clock, there has been no one in bed—for by that time the Dream of the Nameless has appeared, and I have disappeared on the 'other side'......"

As he spoke, the scholar picked up the long strip of paper again, took out the middle part of it, and placed it in front of the "Witch of the Sea".

"Then here's the problem, ma'am—the brain activity recorded by this machine between nine o'clock last night and five o'clock in the morning, during the time when I had disappeared into the real world...... Who is it for? ”

Lucrecia took a soft breath and looked at the last photo in her hand.

On the empty bed in the corner of the laboratory, the electrodes used to read brain activity fall emptyly on the pillow, and the metal pieces of the electrodes glow coldly in the lens, as if in the quiet night of the city, silently communicating with the invisible ghost.

"The problem doesn't stop there, the Nameless Dream has caused us a lot of confusion, and the strange data recorded by the instrument is only part of it," Taran El's voice woke Lucrecia from her thoughts, and the scholar walked behind his desk, sat down, and said slowly, "The other question is - where did we go after the dream?" ”

“…… What do you mean? ”

"I just heard your description, when the Nameless Dream happened, you and your father's followers were caught up in a strange dream with a vast forest, very similar to what I saw when I was trapped in the dream, but...... I don't have any memory of that last night.

"I haven't seen that forest in my dreams since the last time I was trapped in a dream and you rescued me.

"Not only me, but everyone in this city, when the dream of the Nameless One came, the whole city disappeared into the night, but we did not wake up in the dream world like you, nor did we move in that mysterious forest—we closed our eyes and opened them again, and it was another day of normal, and we would not even have noticed what had happened last night without you and your father's reminder.

"So, where did the whole city go when night fell?"

Lucrecia didn't know the answer, of course, and Taran El didn't expect any answer from the witch, he was just talking to himself, setting a goal for himself.

Sunlight shines through the clouds, through a large tree outside the lab, through its lush canopy and interlaced foliage, and dapples the light that falls on the desks of university scholars and on the materials recorded by automated devices.

Lucrecia slowly raised her head, her gaze moving along the sunlight, looking out the window at the mottled shadows of the trees, and then slowly widening her eyes.

"Master Talan El ......"

"What's wrong, ma'am?"

“…… Was there such a tree outside your lab? ”

(End of chapter)