Shadow Slave

Rain walked across the ashen soil of the Ebony Island.

It was strange. The island looked very much like the Ivory Island, but was also completely different.

There was no emerald grass. No clear lake. No grove of ancient trees, and no bones of a dead dragon, either. Instead, there were ruins of mysterious structures buried in the ash, dark stone, and obsidian berths protruding into the chasm that separated the island from the rest of the Chained Isles.

The pagoda itself was entirely black, as opposed to the pristine white of the Ivory Tower. In fact, it was so lusterless and black that its walls seemed to devour light, like a vertical rift in the fabric of the world.

The seven broken heavenly chains hanging from the stone slopes of the Ivory Island were nowhere to be seen, either. Instead, there were other chains — just as enormous and mighty, but new and shiny as opposed to ancient and weathered.

These chains were quite mundane and had been forged in the subterranean smelting plants of NQSC. Then, they were delivered to the Chained Isles through a Dream Gate and used to connect the Ebony Tower to the rest of the flying islands in order to prevent them from gradually collapsing into the Sky Below.

Now, the enormous alloy chains stretched over the vast chasm at the heart of the Chained Isles, drawn taut. The Ebony Island served as the nexus of the entire region, holding it up in the sky.

“Quite impressive.”

Rain could only vaguely imagine the amount of ingenuity, industrial might, and complex calculations that had gone into pulling the Ebony Island from beneath the sea of divine flames in the depths of the Sky Below, then turning it into the anchor of this fractured continent. It definitely took the efforts of numerous people, including a few Saints and a Supreme, to accomplish…

And a bit of divine sorcery of the Demon of Destiny, as well. Humans might not have understood how it worked, but they seamlessly integrated it into their design nevertheless. The result looked no less magnificent and humbling than all the other impossible sights one could find in the Dream Realm — more so, even, considering what it represented.

A flawless synthesis of ancient sorcery and modern engineering, as well as a brilliant example of what was possible when all kinds of different people, mundane and Awakened, worked together to achieve a benign and constructive goal.

It was an example of how the world was meant to be…

But very rarely was.

“Rain, focus.”

Rain flinched and turned her gaze back to where Cassie was kneeling on the ground, painting runes on the stone surface of the Ebony Island with a brush.

“Sorry.”

She was here to serve as Cassie’s eyes, so there was no time to gawk at the sights. With Rain focused on the runes, Cassie was able to continue. As her brush glided gracefully across the black stone, she spoke in a measured tone:

“This rune doesn’t have a meaning, but it expresses denial or prohibition. Adding it to a phrase changes the meaning, while adding it to a word often creates an antonym — but not always. Synonyms and antonyms are a separate topic, so we will not get into them right now…”

Which was probably wise, because it was a topic completely alien to Rain.

At the moment, Cassie was creating a defensive array to protect the Ebony Island from the siege she believed was inevitable — similar to those she and Sunny had created before to reinforce a few other Citadels, but also different, since she could not rely on his expertise anymore.

Rain and Cassie had been at it for several days already, and since Rain had nothing to do but stare in the right direction, Cassie decided to give her lessons on runic sorcery as she worked.

Rain was soaking the knowledge like a sponge.

There was a lot of overlap between Shaping and runic sorcery — after all, the latter was based on the former. However, there were also enough differences to make the two completely different from each other. There were no synonyms in Shaping, for example. Every thing only had one Name, and every Name was absolute. So, there could be no Names that had the same meaning.

There were more differences than that, of course.

In Shaping, there were only the Names and their medium — the Shaper.

Runic sorcery, on the other hand, involved much more. There were the runes themselves, which transcribed the Names, and the sorcerer who drew them. There was the canvas on which the runes were drawn, the tool used to draw them, and even the medium that transferred the runes from the brush to the canvas — unless they were carved, in which case there wasn’t.

The runes themselves were far more complex than the Names, too, and there was an art to expressing the Names through either solitary runes or combinations of them. Not everyone could fathom the Names, but everyone could learn the runes and transcribe an approximation of a Name they were not equipped to know.

It was like an entirely new universe, but since Rain was a gifted Shaper, she took to the runic sorcery easily as well. It was actually far more fun than learning the Names.

Cassie was still talking:

“This rune describes space. However, there are countless runes that describe space in the runic language, all bearing a slightly different meaning. So, if you want to transcribe the True Name of Space, you need to list them all in order — if you aspire to achieve a good result, that is…”

Rain studied the stunning weave of runes for a few moments, then tilted her head.

“But what does that element of the array do?”

Cassie smiled faintly.

“Do you still have that scarf of yours? In Case of Emergency?”

She could see Rain’s own runes, so she probably knew. So, she was only asking for the sake of being polite.

After spending time with Cassie, Rain realized that the blind seer did a lot of things simply to make people feel comfortable in her presence. It was a habit born of necessity, both because of her disability and because people would have found it odd and disturbing to be around an oracle as powerful as she was otherwise. Rain raised a hand and touched the silk scarf wrapped around her neck and shoulders.

“Sure, I do.”

Cassie nodded.

“This is what I am trying to do. Sunny designed it to lock you in space in case the Cloudveil above Godgrave broke unexpectedly. Actually, he used the same kind of enchantment later to defeat a Cursed Beast, Abundance. And now I am trying to create a derivative runic enchantment that accomplishes the same thing.”

Rain frowned.

“You are trying… to lock the Ebony Tower in space?”

Continuing to draw runes while pouring essence into the brush, Cassie shook her head.

“No. I am trying to lock space around the Ebony Tower.”

She sighed and turned slightly, facing the vast chasm.

“Mordret is putting on a brave face, but the Dreamspawn will push him back against the Hollow Mountains eventually. The Mirror Domain is simply not powerful enough to contend against the entirety of the Human Domain… perhaps it would have been if given more time, but Mordret had attained Supremacy less than a year ago. His Domain is too young.”

Cassie shook her head.

“The war will arrive here eventually. This is where Mordret will make his last stand… and you remember why we had to run away from the Ivory Island, don’t you?”

Rain nodded.

“Because of the Night Garden.”

Cassie smiled.

“No, not because of the Night Garden. It is because of the man commanding the Night Garden — his Aspect allows him to manipulate space, so he is a walking nightmare for anyone planning to fight a defensive battle.”

She returned to drawing runes.

“The Ebony Island is a natural fortress because it is surrounded by a vast abyss. If Nightwalker is allowed to twist the space around it however he wishes, that advantage will be gone. So, naturally, one of the functions of the defensive array I am creating is to reinforce space here and make it less malleable. Now, focus. This rune…”

Rain looked at the expanse of black stone where Cassie was drawing the runes and concentrated on listening.

In the process, however, she couldn’t help but look at Cassie herself.

Her chest tightened.

Cassie… did not look that well.

She seemed to have lost weight, and her skin was unhealthily pale. Worst of all, the left side of her blindfold was soaked in blood once again, red drops rolling down her cheek from time to time.

She looked… fragile.

Rain gritted her teeth.

It was all because of that man, Mordret. Every morning, Cassie entered his quarters, where she cleansed his memories of the plague. And every morning, she left with blood on her face, weaker than she had been the day before.

It was because of the strain of using her Transcendent Ability despite missing an eye. But more than that, it was because of the strain of experiencing the memories of a Sovereign.

The Supremes were more than just humans, after all, and their minds were too vast for mortal people to fathom… and from what Rain was able to find out, Mordret of Nowhere was the most inhuman of the Supremes.

Nephis felt the desire of countless people. Sunny shared his senses with his shades. The Dreamspawn was connected to his thralls somehow, as well, sharing in their thoughts and emotions.

But the King of Nothing was different… he simply existed shattered across millions of vessels, each vessel representing an instance of his inhuman mind. So, that was what Cassie experienced every time she delved into his memories — she experienced being millions of beings at the same time. Needless to say, that demented kaleidoscope of perspectives put a tremendous burden on her own mind — which, albeit Transcendent, was still human.

And speaking of inhuman…

Rain furtively looked up.

Cassie was not the only one preparing the Ebony Island for a siege.