Last night, Qi Si asked Yuna, "Now that things have come to this, I'm curious what your wish is. To carve out a sea all your own beyond reality, and crown yourself its king?"
Yuna smiled and gestured. "That was their wish."
The slaves believed deeply in the Sea God. In their despair, they leaped into the sea like gazelles hurling themselves off a cliff.
They offered up their lives, and their collective thoughts built a long dream from which no one would wake, sealing off the entire stretch of sea leading to another world.
As if this would mean their people never had to leave their homeland again. As if they could stay forever and never have to go to that continent they feared...
Unfortunately, things did not go as they wished. The existence of the Bermuda Triangle did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm for the Triangular Trade. Merchants driven by profit opened up more sea routes, all to keep chasing power and gold.
"Such a foolish, naive idea," Qi Si said with a laugh. "Trying to resist human greed through evasion and retreat. Their so-called sacrifice was nothing but useless, misplaced sentiment."
Yuna lowered her eyes, her smile growing wider. "It wasn't useless."
One bizarre, illusory scene after another appeared in a continuous sequence, bringing the visions of the past vividly to life.
The streets overflowed with yellow-green, foul-smelling water. The houses reeked of rotten vegetables and mutton fat. Dead fish, their bellies turned white, often washed up on the shore, and before long their stale carcasses were being sold at seafood stalls.
A girl born in a town like this had been mute from birth, and hideous fish scales grew around her throat.
People called her a devil and said her illness was a curse. Some insisted