Shadow Slave

At dawn, Sunny was sitting on the Shadow Chair and watching the sun rise with a crystal glass of wine in his hand. It was quite difficult to get intoxicated as a Supreme—unless he wanted to—so the wine was nothing more than a symbolic gesture that Jet had insisted on.

They had to celebrate the Skinwalker’s demise, after all.

Soul Reaper herself was reclining in a lounge chair of her own, with the striking vista of the Night Garden stretching below them. She glanced at the lilac radiance of dawn and sighed.

”Life sure is strange sometimes...”

Sunny smiled faintly.

“How would we know? We’re dead.”

Jet laughed.

”Fair...”

She remained silent for a while, then said with a hint of amusement in her laidback tone:

“But really—yesterday, I was at war with a Great Terror. Today, the Terror is gone, and the war is over. Mind you, I am not complaining... who would complain about peace? Anyone would agree, though, that it was all quite sudden.”

Sunny shrugged.

”No need to worry... there’s plenty of Great Terrors left to go around.”

He took a sip of wine, then looked at Jet with curiosity.

”So, what are you going to do next? And I don’t mean it philosophically—rather, what exactly is going to happen in the next few days?”

Jet did not consider his question for more than a moment.

”It’s all a big mess. Nobody has really decided what to do with the Eastern Quadrant yet, but honestly, that is of little consequence for us. The Night Garden was supposed to escort a naval convoy across the ocean—that has not changed. It will be our last voyage in the waking world for a long while, though, because the ship’s reserves of essence are running low. We were meant to return to the Dream Realm after delivering the refugees to the Northern Quadrant, and that has not changed either.”

She lingered for a moment and then added neutrally:

”So, we will return to the Stormsea after about a week.”

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

“Reserves of essence? And how, exactly, does the Night Garden replenish itself in the Dream Realm?”

Jet smiled, looking at the magnificent landscape of the titanic ship with a hint of affection.

”There are two main ways.”

She pointed up.

“Have you not wondered why this ship has such tall masts, but no sails?”

The masts of the Night Garden were terrifyingly tall, extending numerous kilometers into the sky—the main mast, especially, was tall like a mountain. Each horizontal beam attached to them was long and wide enough to serve as a street, but there was no human dwelling there despite the limited space on the decks of the gargantuan vessel. ℝÅƝȎ𝖇ËꞨ

There were no sails, either.

Sunny shrugged.

“The question did cross my mind.”

He was not ignorant of how the Night Garden functioned, of course. However, hearing it from the woman who had ruled the Great Citadel for more than a year was more valuable than theoretical knowledge or listening to hearsay.

Jet exhaled slowly.

“The masts serve as lightning rods. They attract lightning, and the ship absorbs its power. So, to help it replenish its reserves, all we need to do is brave a storm—one of the mystical storms of the Stormsea, best of all. Those are... nothing short of apocalyptic in their scope and scale, but the Night Garden can barrel through one without much trouble. This ship is truly unyielding.” She yawned.

“The second way is to feed it Nightmare Creatures. The more, the better.”

Sunny remained silent for a while, staring at her with an unreadable expression.

”And how, exactly, does it eat those Nightmare Creatures?”

Jet smiled.

”Well, it doesn’t actually chew and devour them. The Night Garden might resemble a living thing, but it does not have a maw. Instead, the Nightmare Creatures get absorbed into the hull, and then... digested by it, I guess.”

Her smile seemed a little ironic.

”The ship can absorb some essence that way, but the primary purpose of that particular method seems to be resource collection to allow the hull to repair itself. That is what the remaining members of the House of Night think, at least.”

Jet looked at Sunny and said in an even tone:

”Oh... and it is not Nightmare Creatures that the hull of the Night Garden will absorb. In truth, it does not differentiate between living beings—anything will do. So, don’t go around crawling on the outer hull... not that I thought that you would.”

She smiled slightly and glanced away.

”In a way, it makes sense. The masts of the Night Garden are like branches and leaves, absorbing celestial energy, while its hull is like roots, absorbing minerals and the like from the earth... or the ocean, to be precise. In any case, the ship needs to replenish itself from time to time, and the Stormsea is the perfect place for that to happen.”

Sunny remained silent for a while, and then asked in a tone that betrayed a hint of concerned apprehension:

”And what happens if the Night Garden is not... fed on time?”

Jet chuckled.

“In short? Nothing, really.”

She looked at the last vestiges of darkness hiding on the western horizon.

”The Night Garden was starved and largely dormant when the Nightwalker first discovered and claimed it. However, it was not dead, and neither was it starving. Although lightning and Nightmare Creatures are its main sources of sustenance, they aren’t the only ones. The ship can also absorb starlight, ambient spirit essence, seaweed and coral, the energy of the wind, the force of the waves—anything and everything, really. Its capacity to repair and refuel itself is almost inexhaustible.” Jet grinned.

”Which is quite fitting, considering that it was created by the Demon of Repose. She was the Demon of rest and rejuvenation, after all, so her ship was able to endlessly repair and restore itself, it seems.”

Looking at Sunny, Jet then raised an eyebrow.

”That daemon... she does not sound as dreadful as the rest of her siblings, does she? I mean, what’s so scary about rest and restoration?”

Sunny gave her a long, concerned look.

“That just sounds like the Demon of Repose will end up being the most harrowing of them all. Doesn’t it?”

Jet met his gaze, then pursed her lips and looked away.

”I do hate to admit it, but you make a good point...”