Shadow Slave

Carried by invisible winds, the Night Garden could reach truly astonishing speed. Still, it took the living ship two more days to reach the area pointed out by the stars — a measure of time largely meaningless in the Stormsea, where the movement of celestial bodies was strange and unpredictable, but was still used by humans both out of habit and out of necessity.

Most of that time had been spent battling a calamitous storm, but at the end of the second day, the winds died down, and the unbridled fury of the Stormsea was replaced by an eerie calm. Instead of the blinding radiance of cascading bolts of lightning and an unceasing torrent of rain, wisps of fog drifted above the endless expanse of rolling waves.

The stars revealed themselves from behind the cloud just long enough to give the Saints of Night an opportunity to confirm that the Night Garden had reached its destination, and were then swiftly swallowed by a veil of mist. The world brightened, leaving the cold embrace of darkness in favor of the pale ambivalence of twilight.

Not needing the star map anymore, Sunny deactivated the enchantment that had revealed it to the world. The Night Garden might not have been the first to reach the destination, but that way, it would be the last.

The living ship slowed down, drifting cautiously through the mist. Nobody knew what to expect from this place, so both the soldiers and their commanders were tense, staring into the grey vastness of the misty sea with apprehension.

Sounds traveled far in the fog, so the measured murmur of waves splashing against the hull of the Night Garden could be heard even from the great height of its deck.

”Well, this has gone better than I expected.” Jet and Sunny were at the observation deck at the bow of the titanic ship. No different from the soldiers, they stared into the mist, trying to determine what was awaiting them ahead. The Eternal City was supposed to be here, somewhere... but the map was not exactly rich with detail about what it looked like, and what obstacles approaching it posed.

Of course, they were not merely looking. Sunny had cast his shadow sense far and wide, enveloping a vast swath of the Stormsea in a net of his perception. Jet, meanwhile, had sent Crow Crow to scout ahead and report its findings to her. Feeling a little disturbed by what he sensed, Sunny raised an eyebrow.

“Better than expected? How do you mean?”

She shrugged with an easy smile.

“I mean that we reached the destination without suffering catastrophic damage or grievous casualties. The worst that has happened is being beset by a dozen or so of chillingly powerful abominations and an unimaginable horror or two... smooth sailing, really.”

Sunny gave her a dubious look, then said in a slightly offended tone:

“You had really low expectations for the feasibility of this expedition, it seems.”

Jet grinned.

”Having low expectations is the secret of living life free of disappointment, after all.” She lingered for a few moments, then inhaled deeply and furrowed her brow. “What is that smell?”

The water was far below them, but underestimating the senses of a Saint was never a good idea. Sunny still gave Jet a surprised look.

“You can smell it?”

He looked down somberly.

”It’s blood.”

Jet could not see it because of the mist, but actually, this entire area of the Stormsea had turned a vivid shade of red, having been contaminated by an unimaginable amount of blood. Sunny could not discern its color either, but he could sense other things.

The Night Garden drifted forward, sailing on a sea of blood. It wasn’t simply moving through the red waves, though — the hull of the living ship was absorbing the blood, subtly clearing the water around it. From time to time, a mangled chunk of flesh would brush against its bow, and be consumed, as well.

It was quite an eerie scene, to say the least. Sunny sighed.

“This whole area is drowned in blood and littered with torn corpses... pieces of torn corpses, at least. I think your decision to arrive late was wise. It seems like a terrible battle concluded here just recently — the Nightmare Creatures who were still in the race must have clashed for the chance to reach the Eternal City.” ṙἈ𝐍ỒＢÊ𝙨

There was Old Tom and the Dutchman, but there must have been countless more abominations whom the Night Garden had never encountered. The Stormsea was vast, after all, and not every contender had been following the stars from its eastern reaches. The weaker of the terrifying fiends would have perished on the way, but the strongest and truly terrifying ones would have all made it here.

And then, they would have eradicated each other, with the most terrible one emerging as victor.

Sunny hummed.

”Maybe we should find mysterious star maps more often. Then, the Nightmare Creatures would do us a favor and all kill each other.” It wasn’t half bad, to have some of the greatest threats in the Stormsea reduce their own population so thoroughly.

That said... the being who had slaughtered all these ancient horrors and came out on top was still out here, somewhere, already approaching the Eternal City. Sunny would have to face it there, so his satisfaction was overshadowed by dark anticipation.

As if to illustrate his description, a dark form suddenly revealed itself from the mist. It was as wide as a small island, protruding a few hundred meters above the waves — so, it seemed small and insignificant in front of the towering wall of the Night Garden’s hull.

It was a chunk of flesh torn from the body of some enormous monstrosity.

As the living ship drew closer, it dwarfed the grotesque island of mangled flesh even more, then effortlessly pushed it aside. Sunny sighed.

”All this meat... going to waste...”

Jet gave him a strange look, then rolled her eyes.

”Nothing is stopping you from diving down to salvage it, you know.”

Sunny shivered.

“No thanks. Why would I? I don’t even need to eat, actually...”

She looked away with a faint smile.

For a while, there was nothing but silence between them. Tendrils of mist moved slowly across the deck of the Night Garden, and myriad lanterns illuminating it shone like islands of warm light in the cold expanse of twilight vastness.

Some time later, Sunny frowned. Noticing his somber expression, Jet raised her scythe a little.

”What is it?”

He lingered for a few moments, then grimaced.

“Nothing. That’s the thing — I sense nothing. There is no sign of the Eternal City anywhere around us, for at least a hundred kilometers in every direction.”

There were no signs of anything that could lead them to it, either, like a stele with runes carved into it or ancient gates that opened a portal to some unknown location. Considering that the Eternal City could not be reached by usual means, Sunny would not be surprised to encounter something like that.

But there was nothing except for the vast expanse of the bloody sea, the mist, and the morbid remnants of the terrible battle that had happened here.

Not long after, Crow Crow returned from its patrol and landed on Jet’s shoulder, cawing loudly:

”Crow! Back!”

She winced and tilted her head, moving her ear away from the small bird’s black beak. “Yes, yes. Good job. Did you find something in the mist, yes or no?”

Crow Crow stared at her for a few moments, then fluttered its wings proudly.

”No! No!”

Jet let out an exasperated sigh.

After remaining silent for a short while, she asked in an uncertain tone:

”That map wouldn’t have led us to nothing at all, would it?”

Sunny shook his head.

“Definitely not. Everything Weaver did had a reason... plus, whoever won the battle is nowhere to be seen. They would have hung around if there had been no path to the Eternal City here, searching. The fact that they are not here suggests that there is a path after all... I think.”

Jet sighed.

”Well, let’s continue exploring.”

The Night Garden continued to drift through the fog, but even after several hours, Sunny could not sense anything in the vast area around them.

In situations like this one, it was usually best not to hurry... they could slowly explore this region of the Stormsea in search of clues, spending days or even weeks to accomplish the task.

However, Sunny was pressed for time. Time was not standing still in the rest of the world, after all, and things that demanded his attention were slowly accumulating. Plus, they had competition. The monster who had triumphed in the frightening battle was already ahead of them in the race, nearing the finish line or already there — so, Sunny could not wait that long.

Luckily — or unfortunately — he had a way to save them quite a bit of time.

Grimacing, Sunny summoned Weaver’s Mask and said as it settled on his face:

”Oh, I am looking forward to this so much...”