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."

see that Cassie's mind was not all there yet,

It's just a

She lingered.

I heard a… a sound… and then something was pulling

his teeth and tried to keep his tone

I dove down and managed to find you,

Cassie wavered.

"Where's… where's…"

interrupt her, unwilling

We can

without climbing the fingers themselves. Sitting down on the cold stone, he rested his

eyes were

by his side. Her pale face was contorted, as though she simultaneously wanted to ask the

gathering her courage, the blind girl whispered, her

"Sunny. Where is Neph?"

to speak the words

become the truth. But if he didn't, there was

'I'm not answering.'

pressure appeared in his mind. The pressure

'I'm not!'

before, keeping his mouth shut until

he was still forced

"She's… she's g…"

attracted his attention. It

skipped a

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

itself onto

His eyes widened.

that something was wrong, Cassie turned

"Sunny? What is it?"

trembled and whispered, gripped

"It's Nephis."

on the

"Neph?! She is alright?!"

found himself unable

was

didn't know how she was even

as though almost half of her right side was missing. Sunny could see the sharp shards

wanted to

the shredded remnants of muscle and the white surface of the femur, cracked and barely holding together. Her right arm was severely damaged, too. In fact, it

gone, its socket crushed and shattered, the skin of her

sight of her was harrowing

that Changing Star

Why are you

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

buckled, and she heavily fell to her knees, splattering blood all other the cold surface of the stone. A terrible