Shadow Slave

Sunny left the old woman alone and returned to where Nephis was resting, full of thought. He had not received all the answers he wanted from Ananke, but at the same time, he learned a lot... maybe even too much.

’Ah, I don’t know.’

There was too much information, all of it fragmented, ambiguous, and confusing. Not only that, but he was not even sure that it could be trusted.

In any case, many mysteries he had never hoped to solve were resolved now. Like the destruction of the Forgotten Shore - it had become collateral damage in the war between the daemons and the gods. Or the identity of the nameless prisoner of the ruined cathedral - it was one of the first two apostles chosen by Weaver to tend to and spread the Nightmare Spell... whoever these apostles had been.

Sunny even had more context for why the followers of War God had been destroying the temples of Shadow God in his First Nightmare, and what empire Auro of the Nine was a soldier of.

Still... he had even more questions now.

Like always.

’...My head hurts.’

He was saying these words a lot in this Nightmare.

Sunny sighed, then looked at Nephis.

”What do you think?”

With how obsessed she was with destroying the Spell, the revelations about its origin and presumed purpose had to have shaken her... and maybe even her conviction.

But Nephis simply shrugged.

”Makes sense.”

He raised an eyebrow.

”Huh?”

She looked at him and remained silent for a moment.

”That the Nightmare Spell has a purpose, and that its purpose is tied somehow to the destruction of the Dream Realm. However, that doesn’t change anything.”

Sunny leaned back and studied her calm face. She seemed as composed as ever.

”So, knowing that doesn’t change anything for you?”

Nephis looked at the sky.

”Why would it? It is still hateful. It is still the cause of indescribable misery... that of countless people, and my own. Salvation? Future? To me, it sounds like the Spell was designed to destroy countless futures for the sake of a future that Weaver envisioned, and fuel it with the lives of those like us, who have never asked to be a part of Weaver’s schemes.”

Sunny frowned, then glanced at the frail figure of Ananke. Luckily, it didn’t seem like she had heard them.

Nephis gritted her teeth.

”If a burglar comes into your home, kills your family, and takes everything you have from you... does it really matter if the burglar intends to use the spoils for a noble cause? Would you hate him less?”

Sunny sighed.

...He could see her point, too.

”I guess it depends.”

Nephis looked at him darkly.

”Depends? On what?”

He lingered for a few moments, collecting his thoughts.

”On the nature of the relationship between the Dream Realm and our world. How separate are they, exactly? Would Corruption have spread to the waking world eventually, even without the Spell, or not? Things like that. Ah, sorry... I seem to have lost track of the metaphor.”

She stared at him for a while, then turned away with a scowl.

Sunny winced. His argument was reasonable... but humans weren’t. That included him, as well.

If someone murdered Rain to save an entire neighborhood, he would have hated them all the same.

?οm

He did not say anything else, looking somberly at the Great River. Eventually, it was Nephis who broke the silence. Her voice was even:

”I am curious about something else, though.”

Sunny glanced at her and raised an eyebrow.

”What?”

She frowned slightly.

”What happened after Ananke’s elders entered the Tomb of Ariel and lost contact with the outside world? How did the war escalate even further? What could have happened to cause both sides to be destroyed?”

Neph’s eyes glinted with white radiance.

”And what role did the Spell play in the conclusion of the war? How has it grown to its current state?”

Sunny felt a sudden chill as he remembered the description of Bone Weave...

[...despised and hunted by both sides, Weaver disappeared. No one knew where Weaver went and what they did... until it was too late.]

With white light burning in her eyes, Nephis looked at him and asked:

”Did you ever think that, maybe, the Nightmare Spell is not only responsible for the devastation of our world, but also for the destruction of the Dream Realm?”

He remained silent for a while, his expression troubled.

Then, Sunny rolled his eyes.

”Damn it, Neph. You do remember what Flaw I have, right? Please don’t subject me to avalanches of questions like that. To answer all of them... I don’t know, I have no idea, I have no clue, there’s no way to tell...”

Nephis blinked a couple of times, then opened her eyes wide and covered her mouth with a hand.

”Oh! S-sorry...”

Sunny continued nonchalantly:

”...that is a mystery to me, who knows? And yes, I did consider it before. There, all done.”

In the awkward silence that followed, he smiled and said:

”Anyway. All this talking made me hungry. Let’s eat...”

***

Sunny felt spoiled eating Ananke’s home-cooked food, so much so that the weight he had lost on the dark island was slowly returning.

The old woman herself still ate like a bird, but she seemed to be in a better state than before. Her hands were shaking less, and she remained lucid for longer periods of time before having to rest.

The ketch continued to move downstream, devouring distance with great speed. Nothing had attacked them yet - perhaps because they had left the most dangerous region of the Great River, perhaps because Ananke knew how to navigate the flowing waters to avoid danger.

It was probably both.

The day came to an end, followed by a peaceful night.

Sunny spent most of that time quietly working on mastering the fourth step of Shadow Dance. The dire enlightenment he had gained in the battle against the Azure Serpent was steadily leading him to success.

In the morning, they enjoyed a scrumptious breakfast, and then... nothing changed.

The journey continued, and the waters of the Great River remained the same.

The old ketch continued to travel into the past.