Secrets of the Ember Sea: Echoes of the Past

In the foggy capital of London in 1912, wet fog enveloped the halo of gas lamps and filled the streets. Former police officer Elias rubbed the parchment on which his license was revoked - the edges of the paper were frayed by him, and wherever his fingertips scratched, he could always think of the piercing regret of the Thames River murder three years ago. He was guarding the "Lost and Found Shop" in the dock area. The seaweed-shaped light green birthmark behind his ear burned to the core every full moon. When he pressed it with his palm, he could always hear his mother's voice while she was still rubbing the birthmark and sighing: "This is a debt. It must be repaid." The dock foreman burst in with red eyes and stuffed a brass pocket watch - a personal belonging of his missing daughter. The watch chain was also wrapped with half of the girl's usual braid. The miniature chart inside the watch cover pointed directly to the "Ember Island" that the Royal Navy had erased. When Elias was tracing, he was shocked to find that the missing people had bought tentacle fragments in amber on the black market. When the fragments were placed on the palm of his hand, he could feel the faint pulse under the moonlight, as if he was holding a beating heart. My grandfather pressed the logbook at the bottom of the box to reveal the truth: the pages from the Elizabethan period were so brittle that they fell off when touched, and next to the words "Fetal Reporter, Ceremony Guide" next to the altar, the signature was superimposed with the handwriting of my mother's old letter. When green slime dripped from the gas lamps, and his grandfather's barcarolle floated in the fog (the tune he thought he had long forgotten, but now it was like a needle pricking his eardrums), Elias froze in place, with the hot birthmark sticking to his palms. He finally understood: his "lost and found" was just to find blood sacrifices for the old rulers - and he was the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle he was born to carve.