Shadow Slave

In the morning, Sunny woke up feeling grim and uneasy. The memory of the frightening dark mirror was still fresh in his mind, making every shadow seem sinister and foreboding. He scowled sullenly.

'What the hell. I'm the Child of Shadows. Why do I have to be afraid of my own domain?'

But then again, darkness and shadow were not the same, even if a lot of people tended to mistake one for another. Shadows were born from the absence of light. In a sense, they were manifestations of emptiness. True darkness, on the other hand… true darkness was its own entity.

In a sense, shadows shared more in common with light than they did with darkness.

'I mean… I guess they do. Do they?'

Philosophical debates with his internal monologue were not the best way to start the day, at least as far as Sunny was concerned. His already sour mood only got worse. With a short sigh, he sat up and stretched his arms, yawning.

"Good morning."

The sound of his voice was almost drowned by the echoing noise of rushing water. With the sun rising, the dark sea was in a hurry to retreat. Sunny was finally able to relax a little.

"Morning."

Nephis had been guarding the camp during the latter part of the night, so she was already awake. As usual, she was meditating with her eyes closed — in the absolute darkness of the night, "watching over" something actually meant listening for suspicious sounds, so keeping one's eyes open was not that useful.

For everyone except Sunny, that is, who had perfect night vision thanks to his Attributes.

Hearing him stand up, Changing Star slowly opened her eyes. A soft afterglow left behind by the dancing white flame could still be seen in their depth, quickly disappearing as her sight adjusted to the twilight of dawn. She looked at Sunny and offered him a polite smile.

In the past two weeks, Nephis had also been training, perhaps even more diligently than him. However, she wasn't trying to improve her swordsmanship.

She was actually trying to learn how to behave like a normal human. As the result, their interactions had become slightly less awkward… for the most part.

Sunny was able to recognize Changing Star's efforts because they were very similar to a phase he himself had gone through many years ago. On several occasions, he had caught her intently observing how Cassie talked and behaved around them. Sometime later, Neph would randomly try to mimic small details of her friend's behavior. The results were… a mixed bag, to say the least.

The first time she tried to greet him with a smile in the morning, Sunny panicked and almost summoned the Azure Blade. However, Nephis was very smart and persistent. Today, her polite smile looked almost natural.

He had no idea why Changing Start decided to work on her social skills, of all things, during their perilous journey through the monster-infested hellscape that was the Forgotten Shore. But he didn't mind.

It was actually rather entertaining to watch!

all. They never talked about it, but Sunny knew that every time Nephis pretended to meditate, she was actually subjecting herself

about it, his heart ached. Sunny wasn't used to feeling such things, but he suspected that this was what other people called "compassion". At least

he knew a lot

and looked at the beam of light falling through the nearest gap between giant vertebrae. Turning to

"Let's study the surroundings."

and decide on their next step. Usually, that implied looking for the nearest natural features that were high enough to stay above the surface of the sea

day or two of scouting and hunting, followed by

her a

"Alright."

the shadow behind to keep an

seemingly ran up the wall, kicking herself off at the last moment and propelling her body even higher before grabbing onto a bone protrusion. Relying only on her upper body strength, she then climbed up and disappeared into the cascading light. Soon, the golden rope fell down,

spine and then straightened, turning to take a look west. Sunny shook his hands and did the same, expecting to see the usual picture — an

what they saw left them both

The crimson blades of coral stood grey and misshapen, as though struck by some unknown disease

of ash-grey sand. This ashen wasteland looked so alien and strange after weeks

moving through

rose, forming a tall hill. The hill was probably the largest they had seen, easily capable of becoming a real island once the water rose in the night. Its shape reminded Sunny

behind by dead coral, the hill resembled a mountain of ash. That mountain was crowned

enough to cover the whole island in their shade. The bark of the giant tree was as black as the water

the grey sky, the crimson crown of the majestic tree looked incredibly vibrant

Sunny gulped.

the hell… is

She just

that moment, something glistened brightly from beneath the tree. The glimmer was clear and easily visible even from their position, like a beam of sunlight reflected by

'A mirror…'

some reason, the bright glimmer suddenly seemed to become

some time had passed, he addressed

"What do you think?"

a bit before turning to him. While Changing Star was deliberating on what to say, he

is the only way

grimaced and

didn't like this turn of events one