中文原文

【多利先生的遊戲·一】

加入終末地不久後，艾爾黛拉來到了塔衛二的一處侵蝕災區。侵蝕所造成的地質災害撕裂了原本寧靜的小城，留下了可怖的疤痕。而流離失所的難民也因此遭受着身心上的雙重折磨。

她在難民安置所駐足了很久。那裏有很多人失去了雙腿、雙眼，甚至無法正常言語，終日沉默。人們躺在鋼製床架上，被白布簾隔開，只有儀器持續發出微弱的聲音。

艾爾黛拉努力去做些事——清點藥品、照顧病患，她試圖用「我也感同身受」來安慰傷殘者，但卻聽到了比傷痛更尖銳的聲音：

「你不懂。」

那是一個少女，刺耳的聲音從齒縫擠出：「你站得直，走得穩，表情像是沒經歷過災難。」

少女別過臉，聲音發顫：「你說你理解？別開玩笑了。就算你以前生過病，現在不是好了？你有那個運氣，我們沒有。我們呢？我們的人生早就寫好結局了，我們要帶着這些痛苦度過一輩子。你說你理解，是施捨我們一點兒憐憫嗎？」

艾爾黛拉身着科研人員的制服，頭髮束得整齊，步履穩健，眼神清澈而有神。源石重塑了再旅者的身軀，抹去了病痛。現在她能夠聽見風穿過的低語，能夠看清岩石上細微的裂紋。但也正因為如此，當她俯身面對這些痛苦的人，嘴邊的話被對方無法治癒的絕望噎住了。

夜晚降臨時，多利先生出現了。

它在病床與走道之間穿行，掀起一片小小的騷動。它拱倒了藥櫃，頂翻了茶水架，把一隻剛泡好的熱水袋踢進枕頭底下，護士抱怨「空氣怎麼突然變得好熱」，孩子哇哇大叫「有毛茸茸的東西鑽到我腳底下了」。

艾爾黛拉追着多利先生，直到它鑽進了那間破舊的休息室，掀開牆角的帆布，現出一架積滿灰塵的鋼琴。多利先生踩在琴鍵上，發出的聲音把艾爾黛拉「喚醒」。

艾爾黛拉走過去，擦去灰塵。琴鍵泛黃，幾個低音鍵失調，但還能發出聲。她坐了下來，用指尖試探性地按下一連串來自萊塔尼亞的音符。

第一首……第二首……到第三首時，走廊深處傳來窸窸窣窣的腳步聲。

多利安靜地蜷在一旁，像一隻柔軟而隱形的靠枕。孩子們靠在多利先生溫暖的身上，聆聽艾爾黛拉的演奏。

那個少女也來了。她坐在最角落的位置。

「我還是痛，」她低聲說，「但你彈琴的時候，我會不想離開這個世界。」

英文原文

FILE 1: Mr. Dolly's Game I

Shortly after joining Endfield, Ardelia visited a Blight-ravaged sector of Talos-II. The geological disaster had shredded a once-peaceful settlement, leaving fissures that pulsed with residual energy. Survivors bore wounds beyond the physical, their eyes hollow with the kind of trauma only disaster refugees know.

Ardelia stayed at the shelter for a while. The wounded crowded steel cots — limbs lost, eyes vacant, voices severed by trauma. White curtains divided their suffering as medical monitors pulsed like weary hearts.

Ardelia worked tirelessly — organizing supplies, changing bandages, murmuring "I understand your sorrow" to the wounded. Until a voice, serrated with grief, cut through: "You don't understand."

It was a young girl. Small but fierce, she forced the words through gritted teeth: "You stand straight. Your steps don't falter. No disaster has carved its marks into you."

The girl turned away, her voice fraying at the edges. "Stop. Just stop pretending. Maybe you've been sick, but you healed. That's luck we'll never taste. Our stories end in the same sentence: lifelong pain. So when you say you 'understand'... is that pity's cheap coin? Spare us."

Ardelia stood there in her research coat, ponytail precise, steps steady, and eyes bright. The Originium had scoured the reconvenor's illness away, attuning her to wind whispers and microscopic fractures in stone. Yet here, before those still drowning in pain, her engineered perfection rendered her mute.

When darkness fell upon the land, Mr. Dolly appeared.

It trotted between beds and corridors, leaving chaos in its wake — toppling medicine cabinets, upending tea trays, kicking a freshly filled hot-water bottle beneath pillows. Nurses cursed the sudden swelter; children shrieked about 'something furry' burrowing under their blankets.

Ardelia chased Mr. Dolly into an old break room where she tugged at a canvas sheet to reveal a dust-choked piano. It stomped the keys, a discordant chime that jolted Ardelia into clarity.

Ardelia approached, brushing away the dust. The yellowed keys stared back, a few bass notes dissonant but functional. She sat, fingertips tracing a tentative sequence of Leithanian arpeggios into the stale air.

First piece ... second ... and as the third began, soft footsteps whispered from the hallway's depths.

Mr. Dolly lay curled nearby, a silent cushion of warmth. The children nestled against its fur, their breaths syncing with Ardelia's piano as the notes wove through the stale air.

The young girl came in as well, perching quietly in the farthest corner.

"It still hurts," she murmured, "but when you play... the world becomes something worth enduring."

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