Shadow Slave

“What a dreary place.”

Ananke’s voice sounded subdued.

As they gazed upon the surface of an Unholy Titan’s heart, she looked around with a peculiar expression, a pale smile playing on her lips.

“I must say, my lord and lady… it is a strange thing, to witness the dark truth that lies beneath the surface of your world. We knew, of course, the legend of how the Demon of Dread had built the Tomb of Ariel and created the Great River from the flesh and blood of the Stone Titan. But seeing the Titan’s heart with your own two eyes, hidden here in the darkness, is an entirely different experience.”

Sunny gave her a long look, then shrugged.

“Hideous things hidden in the darkness beneath the bright surface of reality are the theme of all existence, it seems.”

He sighed and turned to face the distant mountains.

“Those mountains ahead of us are where we can enter the true Estuary. So… let’s go.”

They traveled across the vast expanse of black rock in silence.

The Estuary was different from how Sunny had remembered it. It felt just as eternal and indestructible, lost in absolute darkness, but there was no roar of the rushing water surrounding him from all sides like a maddening whisper.

There was no graveyard of ships, either — no countless Chain Breakers and ketches laying shattered on the rocks like a great monument to all his sins.

Instead, there were things that were not supposed to be here, but had inexplicably found their way to the Estuary nonetheless — ruins of magnificent gilded structures, carcasses of enormous Nightmare Creatures that glistened in the dark, giant formations of glimmering crystal, and the like.

It seemed that these were the things that the Thieving Bird had stolen, then grew bored with and discarded without actually taking them into its nest.

Ananke stopped for a moment, glancing at a particular ruin. Sunny felt that it was vaguely familiar, as well, albeit it was hard to tell due to how utterly destroyed the structure was.

“It’s the Knowledge Temple of Fallen Grace.”

Ananke’s voice sounded confused.

“It had been sealed, cut free, and carried away by the River long before Fallen Grace itself was destroyed and pulled over the Edge by the currents, plummeting into the darkness. What is it doing here?”

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

‘Right. This is the drowned temple where we fought the Defiled Sybil.’

He lingered for a moment, then looked away.

“It must have spent thousands of years laying on the floor of the Tomb. All kinds of things must have accumulated there over the eons… and all kinds of harrowing beings, as well… so the Thieving Bird would undoubtedly visit to pick up a few curios.”

The lightless expanse on the bottom of the great pyramid was most likely a special kind of hell. Some of the beings that had populated its terrifying expanse were now probably in Antarctica, while some must have made it outside the Tomb of Ariel. Sunny had no doubt that plenty remained, though.

So, he wasn’t in a hurry to go where the Thieving Bird had gone bravely and discover the truth for himself.

They continued forward cautiously. Soon enough, the vast tunnel that Sunny had once traversed by using the Mirror of Truth revealed itself from the darkness, as colossal and daunting as before.

The circular entrance was surrounded by tall pillars. There were weathered stone steps leading up to the maw of the tunnel, some of them cracked by the passage of ages. Jagged pieces of black rock lay scattered on the ground, and an inexplicably eerie feeling permeated Sunny’s entire being as he gazed upon the dark portal leading into the dead heart of an Unholy Titan.

“The two of us must not go any further.” Sunny was not sure if he could brave the tunnel without succumbing to the Corruption. Being a Shadow Creature, he was supposed to be more resistant to it than most, but there were parts of him that were still human as well. So, there was no guarantee that he would escape being near the dreadful records of the Void unscathed. Ananke hesitated for a short while, then pulled one of the Ark Amulets from beneath her mantle and offered it to Nephis.

“It is fortunate that you are a Shaper, Lady Nephis. I wouldn’t have been able to teach you how to use these amulets otherwise.” The Ark Amulets were enchanted relics, but they were not Memories. Instead, they had been carved from Daeron’s bones by the survivors of the Ark and enchanted using a combination of Shaping and runic sorcery, so special Verses had to be invoked in order to use them.

Ananke had taught Nephis the Verses while they traveled to the heart of the Estuary, noting how deep and stalwart her knowledge of the Names was… not knowing that Nephis had received her first lessons in Shaping from Ananke herself.

Nephis took the white amulet, studied it for a few moments, and then nodded.

There was no point in wasting time. Sunny threw one last glance at the mouth of the tunnel, then turned to Nephis and said in a somber tone:

“There is no telling what we’ll encounter inside. So, summon us back the second you leave the tunnel. Alright?”

Nephis gave him a glance and smiled faintly.

“Alright.”

Sunny hesitated for a moment.

“Well, alright. Let’s do it, then.”

He and Ananke stood in front of Nephis as she recited the Verse.

An odd feeling overcame Sunny…

It was as if he dreamt of a warm meadow, the smell of the grass in the wind, and a gentle sun shining in the blue sky above him.

When he opened his eyes again, he was already on the shores of the lake that lay hidden in the heart of the Estuary.

…It was obvious that Nephis had not summoned them as soon as she left the tunnel, though.

In fact, Sunny felt that quite a bit of time had passed since she saw them last.

The air was filled with the scent of ash.