Shadow Slave

Sunny felt that he was at the end of his rope. He had put himself through too much abuse during these last few days. Now, it was hard to even remember when was the last time he had slept.

A day before climbing the Soul Devouring Tree in search of a special fruit, perhaps.

Since then, he had lived through the harrowing torture of the Blood Weave transformation, spent countless hours on the verge of mental collapse to resist the effects of the enthrallment, mangled his hands to stay lucid, guided the boat through the terrors of the dark sea in absolute darkness, saw it being destroyed by the horrid dweller of the deep, and gave battle to that monster in the cold black depths, almost drowning as the result.

His body and mind were on the brink of shutting off.

Despite that, Sunny stubbornly continued to swim, bringing himself and Cassie closer and closer to the giant stone hand that was rising from the water, as though trying to embrace the skies.

The dark sea was surging around him, still reeling from the effects of the light explosion that had rocked it sometime earlier. Tall waves were threatening to drown the two Sleepers, throwing them around like toys. Struggling against them was a hard task.

And still, he persisted.

The dawn was drawing close, but for now, there was still nothing but cold, darkness and danger all around them. Any second, something could rise from the depths of the abyss and put an end to their desperate attempt to save themselves.

At least the tentacles were gone, perhaps scared away by the pain of being exposed to the searing light.

By some miracle, Sunny eventually managed to reach the stone hand.

Hoisting Cassie up, he helped her climb on the dark rocks and followed closely behind. Soon, they reached the open palm of the hand and crawled to its center, then fell down, utterly spent and exhausted.

For a long time, neither of them was able to talk. All Sunny could do was lay motionless, draw in raspy breaths, and try to stay awake.

His mind was empty of thoughts. That was fine, because he didn't want to think. If he did, he would be forced to remember… remember what had happened to…

'Shut up!'

What was the point of remembering? He couldn't change anything.

The sound of the black water crashing against the base of the giant hand reminded him that the night was still not over.

Opening his eyes, Sunny tried to understand their current circumstances.

Their shelter was slightly raised above the waves, the base of the giant thumb almost touching the surface of the dark sea. The palm was not very spacious, roughly half the size of the circular platform that had saved his life on his first day on the Forgotten Shore. It was angled upward, creating a slight slope.

The fingers were higher above waves and wide enough to accommodate a person, but they were bent upward toward the sky, making them less suitable to serve as a refuge.

'We need to get further away from the water.'

With that thought, Sunny tiredly stood up and bent down to touch Cassie's shoulder.

"Cassie. Stand up. We have to move higher."

His voice sounded hollow and brittle.

The blind girl flinched and raised her head, her skin deathly pale.

"...Sunny?"

He nodded.

"Yeah. It's me."

in shock. Sunny could see that Cassie's mind was not all there yet, so he gently pulled

It's just a few

She lingered.

sound… and then something was pulling me

and tried to

destroyed. I dove down and managed to find you, then swam to this pile

Cassie wavered.

"Where's… where's…"

unwilling to

can rest

they could reach without climbing the fingers themselves. Sitting

eyes were cold

Her pale face was contorted, as though she simultaneously wanted to ask the question and dreaded

the blind girl

"Sunny. Where is Neph?"

to speak the

they would become the truth. But if he didn't, there was still a possibility that

'I'm not answering.'

the familiar pressure appeared in his mind. The pressure grew and grew,

'I'm not!'

than he had ever done before, keeping his mouth shut until hot

he was still forced to say those bitter

"She's… she's g…"

sound attracted his attention. It came from

skipped

base of the giant thumb, where the cursed sea was almost touching its stone surface, a pale white hand

a tall figure slowly pulled itself onto the opened palm of the

His eyes widened.

Cassie turned her head and

"Sunny? What is it?"

and whispered,

"It's Nephis."

smile appeared on the blind

"Neph?! She is alright?!"

found himself

Nephis was not

fact, he didn't know how she

her right side was missing. Sunny could see the sharp shards of broken ribs, the rivers of blood streaming down

wanted to

of muscle and the white surface of the femur, cracked and barely holding together. Her right arm was severely damaged, too. In fact, it was almost torn off, hanging only by

not spared. One of Neph's eyes was gone, its socket crushed and shattered, the skin of her cheek was shaved

her was harrowing

that Changing Star was about

Why are you

at Cassie and bit his lip, trying once again to suppress the answer that was fighting its way out. Something sharp and hot was stabbing at his

cold surface of the stone. A terrible moan escaped from her lips as her cracked femur