The jump ended.
The Shixiang and the Resplendent Star slipped out of that even, gray-white “background” and, with a slight rocking and vibration, both ships entered waters as calm and mirror-like as glass.
After such a long pilgrimage to the world’s edge, the two ships finally returned to the beginning of everything, to the node where they had first arrived—the resting place of the Leviathan Queen.
Compared with when they had left, nothing here seemed to have changed.
The sea lay still, and the dark isles floating on the endless surface still hid in the mist.
In the deepest breaths of fog, the continent-sized island showed a faint, shadowy outline, as if it were part dream.
It was simply quieter than before—so quiet that even the smallest ripple had vanished from the water, and the ever-present low murmurs in the mist had now dissipated.
Even the sound of wind across the deck came through blurred and distant.
Everyone gathered on deck, clustering by the rail of the foredeck and staring at that long-absent archipelago and sea.
After a long silence, Nina broke it first: “Before we knew it... we’ve been sailing at the world’s end for so long...”