Shadow Slave

The Demon of Repose had once helped overthrow a being that was as old and eldritch as her — Kanakht, one of the original humans born from the sparks of the Flame of Desire, bearer of the Shadow God’s curse, and the king of the first human kingdom.

The first Human Domain.

She was most likely the one who had separated him into pieces and sealed each piece away, as well. The Eternal City had held one such seal — in fact, containing the Flesh of Kanakht might have been its original purpose.

Now, the Eternal City had fallen from the Black Skies, and the seal was broken.

Sunny was looking at the torn fragments of its lid right now.

Nightwalker blinked a few times.

“Nothing? What do you mean by nothing?” Sunny sighed.

“Well... daemons were never above stealing. Nether in particular felt comfortable lifting any useful idea that had been carelessly left laying around, be it by his siblings or the gods. It seemed that the Demon of Repose took a page out of the divine book, as well.” Carefully avoiding a wisp of grey fog, he added:

“Nothing is what the gods used to seal the Void. It is like... a layer of insulation between the Void and the bars of its cage. A state of absolute non-existence. Touch it, and you’ll be erased from existence, as well.”

He looked at Nightwalker and smiled. ”Unless you’re someone amazing like me, of course. I once spent close to a year enduring nothing. It was a terrible experience, so I do not recommend.”

Walking to the edge of the vast pit where the Flesh of Kanakht had been kept, he looked inside and grimaced.

The mounds of repulsive mold growing inside resembled eerie black hills, with peculiar flowers opening their meaty petals at the sound of his steps.

A deep frown slowly settled onto his face. Nightwalker remained silent for a while, then asked:

“Uh... now what?”

Sunny looked at him darkly.

“Are you sure that this is the heart of the Palace?”

His youthful guide nodded.

”Quite sure.”

Sunny looked away and scratched his head. ”Then I have no idea. Yet.”

The battle was raging outside. Jet was barely staying alive, and Nephis was fighting an ancient fiend proficient in mind attacks. No matter how formidable her mental defenses were, that made Sunny nervous.

He had to solve this puzzle quickly. Nightwalker stared at him with disbelief. ”That’s it? You had no plan?”

Sunny frowned.

”How was I supposed to concoct a plan without knowing anything about what sorcery Repose used to create the Eternal City? I had reasons to believe that I’ll be able to dismantle it, okay?”

He paused for a moment, and then added: “A long time ago, I taught myself Weaver’s sorcery to interfere with the sorcery of Hope. I was merely an Awakened back then, knew close to nothing, and was sitting alone in a cage. Needless to say, I am vastly more powerful now. I know far more, can do far more, and have become a far better sorcerer. I also have the others like me. So, I should be able to at least break whatever sorcery the Demon of Repose left behind”

Sunny threw another look into the pit and sighed heavily.

”The problem is that I need to lay my eyes on the inner workings of that sorcery first. Do you see the problem?”

Nightwalker hesitated a little, then looked around.

”There’s nothing here. Everywhere we’ve been inside the Palace is the same... dead, and empty.”

Sunny smiled faintly.

”Yes. Quite ironic, to find nothing but death and emptiness in the heart of an immortal city.”

He remained silent for a while, then closed his eyes.

His shadow sense was still being suppressed, but he cast it as wide as he could... which wasn’t very wide, really. ‘There has to be something:

The Palace was obviously a structure created to channel a powerful sorcery. Sunny had been confident of that fact even before entering these walls, but after walking between them, he was sure. The Demon of Repose had built the Eternal City around the Palace. Every canal led to the lake surrounding it. The dome was highest above its spires.

[Cassie? What is your intuition telling you?] Sunny used to have a supernatural intuition as well, but now that he was untethered from fate, it had become completely mundane. Cassie, meanwhile, had lost the ability to see the future... and yet she was still innately attuned to the great tapestry. She could sense the underlying connections between things, the intricate intersections of the Strings of Fate, the meaning hidden in them.

So, she was handy to have around. And since she practically lived in Sunny’s head now, there was no need for her to be around, even.

Cassie did not answer immediately, then sent him a simple message:

[Down.]

Sunny sighed heavily.

“Ah, damnation. I knew you’d say that.”

He looked at Nightwalker and summoned the helmet of the Jade Mantle.

“Wish me luck.”

Nightwalker opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Sunny took a step forward and jumped into the pit.

He landed into the mold, feeling it squelch and part under his weight. A black cloud of spores rose into the air, obscuring everything in sight, and the repulsive flowers moved, trying to envelop him with their petals. Sharp thorns scraped against his armor, leaving shallow scratches on it. ”argh...”

It was disgusting.

Breaking free of their hold, Sunny waded through the slithering mold, slowly making his way to the bottom of the pit. It was as if he was diving into an abhorrent mire.

He had hoped to find what he was looking for there, buried under the mold. But to his disappointment, the bottom of the pit where the Flesh of Kanakht had been sealed was no different from the rest of the Palace. There was nothing there. No runes etched into the metal, no diamond strings, no streams of essence, no Strings plucked from the tapestry of fate and twisting onto each other... just a vast expanse of bent, corroded metal.

However...

Sunny’s eyes widened a little.

There was something beneath the pit.

Out there, on the very edge of his shadow sense...

‘What... the hell?’

He could sense shadows.

Thousands of them, motionless, still, silent. They were shadows that belonged to living beings.