"So this is the legendary Anby? It looks so soft and squishy. It must feel great to touch."
In the room, Ciaccona looked at Anby with curiosity, leaning closer to study the fluffy little creature.
She subconsciously raised her hand, her fingertips pausing in midair, as if suddenly remembering something important. She turned to Ray, her gaze tentative and questioning.
Ray nodded. "Go ahead."
"Wait a minute 'go ahead'?" Anby's fluffy fur puffed up like a startled pom-pom. "Why do you need his permission for me to be touched? I'm not anyone's pet! This is insulting no, this is Echo-insulting!"
Ciaccona paused, then smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry. It's just that this is my first time seeing someone in a symbiotic relationship with a Echo. I unconsciously thought of Ray as your owner."
"We're not master and servant! We're partners, close friends!"
Ciaccona had heard from Carlotta before about Ray's symbiotic relationship with a Echo, but this was her first time seeing it in person, so she was naturally curious.
"Anby, don't be so resistant." Ray teased, "Everyone wants to pet you precisely because you're so cute, isn't that right?"
"That's true, but...." Anby hugged its little paws, though its ears twitched involuntarily. "I, Anby, have dignity too!"
"How much is your dignity worth in meals?" Ray looked at it. "Phoebe bribed you with just a few slices of pizza before."
Anby hugged its paws and snorted lightly. "That was the past! When the sun rises, I forget everything from yesterday. So now, I can't be bribed by just a few slices of pizza!"
"Where did you learn that?"
"From you."
Ciaccona sat quietly, watching the two banter back and forth, and couldn't help but chuckle softly. "You two really have a lovely relationship. Oh, by the way..."
She suddenly remembered something. "Carlotta mentioned that stone tablet before. Would it be possible for me to see it?"
"Of course."
Ray nodded, picked up the small satchel on the bed, and handed the stone tablet to Ciaccona.
Ever since Carlotta had agreed to give him the tablet, he had kept it with him at all times, ready to resonate with it whenever possible.
Ciaccona carefully took the tablet, her fingertips gently brushing its cool surface.
The outline of the steed carved on the stone tablet was smooth and flowing. Though vastly different from the Sentinel statue standing in the middle of the city today, within that dynamic, soaring spirit, one could still recognize a common origin.
"...So that's it." Her fingertip paused on the raised head of the stone horse, her voice as light as a sigh. "This is the true form of the Sentinel. Completely different from that distorted statue."
A dazed expression flickered in her eyes for a moment, then she looked up, her gaze returning to Ray. "Carlotta also told me that you, through this stone tablet... met the Saintess who was supposed to have been martyred twenty years ago, didn't you?"
Ray nodded. "Yes, Cartethyia. She's alive. She didn't die."
"Cartethyia..." Ciaccona softly repeated the name, traces of memory surfacing in her eyes. "I remember now. That was the Saintess's forgotten true name before her coronation. So she's still alive?"
"She's lived alone in that Sonora for twenty years."
"Twenty years!?" Ciaccona's pupils trembled slightly, her fingertips unconsciously tightening. "Living alone in a place like that for twenty years. If it were me, I'd probably go mad. That's the Saintess for you, greatness, needless to say."
The young woman lowered her gaze, gazing at the stone tablet in her palm, as if trying to touch that past buried by time. She gently closed her eyes and activated her Resonance ability.
A moment later, Ciaccona's eyes snapped open, her voice shaking with an indescribable tremor. "I can feel the warmth buried deep within the tablet, like a winter fireplace... but beneath that warmth, there's something cold lurking."
She unconsciously lowered her voice. "I can't say what it is, but I can feel, It is watching us through this tablet."
"Leviathan." Ray said. "The Therenodian. The Imperator of today has long been symbiotic with It, corrupted alongside It. That's why I need your help."
"Is that so?" Ciaccona seemed thoughtful, then nodded. "I see. If I can be of help."
Hearing this, Ray seemed to suddenly remember something and asked curiously, "By the way, Ciaccona, what exactly is your Resonance ability?"
"My Resonance ability?" Ciaccona thought for a moment, then said, "It might be a bit complicated to explain... Simply put, I can perceive the frequencies of things and reproduce past scenes and memories."
"Wait, that ability...." Ray's eyes lit up. "Instead of becoming a detective solving cases, you became a bard?"
"Who told me I like music better?"
"That's true," Ray crossed his arms. "But I think you could definitely develop a side hustle."
"Huh?" Ciaccona was taken aback, then her eyes widened in sudden realization. "Yes... why did I never think of that? No, that's not the point."
Before she finished speaking, a lute had already quietly fallen into her arms. The young woman's fingertips danced lightly, plucking a few notes as clear as a spring.
"No time to waste. Let me try now, use this melody to find the path to that Sonora."
The melodious music flowed like silk thread into Ray's ears. He unconsciously closed his eyes. The world around him gradually fell silent amidst the melody, all sounds fading, leaving only the notes flowing through the void.
In this stillness, faint, indistinct murmurs surfaced. The voice seemed to come from ancient times, each syllable carrying the dust of ages:
"Charioteer, I have been waiting... for a long time."
A sudden sensation of weightlessness struck.
Ray's eyes snapped open, the familiar room had receded like a tide, replaced by the eternally sealed Sonora, now spread out before him once more.
He was falling.
Or rather, it felt more like floating in a dream without gravity.
Ray was almost getting used to this gravity-defying world.
Just as he was about to touch the ground, he spun lightly and landed steadily on this unfamiliar land.
He looked up, his gaze sweeping around, this appeared to be an exquisite garden.
In the center of the garden, beneath a pavilion entwined with vines, a young woman could be vaguely seen sleeping quietly.
Ray stood up, looked ahead, and called softly, "Cartethyia?"