Shadow Slave

Soon, Sunny was walking on the last chain he had to traverse as he approached the Sanctuary of Noctis.

By then, it was already night. Up above, the pale disk of the crescent moon shone softly, its light reflecting off the white walls of the Ivory Tower. Countless stars shimmered on the dark velvet tapestry of the night sky. Without the light pollution that the giant city where Sunny had grown up produced, they were beautiful and bright.

There had not been any stars on the Forgotten Shore, as well, so this sight was still new and breathtaking to him.

Now that it was night, the border between the Sky Above and the Sky Below was almost invisible. The empty void beneath the Isles had stars of its own, so it seemed like the reflection of the real sky during these hours. The only difference between them was that it lacked both the moon and the ethereal silhouette of a graceful white tower floating through the clouds.

The chain swayed lightly as Sunny walked. He felt reluctant to use Shadow Step this close to the Sanctuary and enjoyed the sight of the night sky, the smell of clean air, and the cool embrace of the wind. So he tended to complete this last part of the return journey on foot.

…Even hell could be beautiful, sometimes.

A few minutes later, Sunny heard the murmur of flowing water and knew that the Sanctuary was already close.

The Citadel that served most Awakened of the Chained Isles as the home was situated on a tiny island of its own. That island, however, was rather anomalous: unlike all others, it never rose and never fell, always remaining at a stable height, away from the torturous pressure of the Crushing.

There was a grass field, and in its center, massive menhirs stood in a perfect circle, which encompassed another, smaller one. This larger circle formed the outer wall of the Citadel, while the smaller one formed the inner.

a pool of clear water in its middle. A path of stones led to a small island at the center of the pool, where, in the shade of an ancient tree, an altar cut from a

three

very special, with the exception of the fact that no one — not

be transported back to the real world. Once anchored to

third thing was that a seemingly endless stream of water flowed from the altar, feeding the pool that surrounded it. No one knew where the water came from or why the altar produced it, just that it

the pool and eventually fell over the edges of the small island, turning into water dust in the wind. On a bright day, the whole

murmur of these waterfalls that Sunny had heard

over to a stone post that stood nearby and rang the bronze bell that hung on it. This was to let the watchmen know that he was a human and not a Nightmare Creature that needed to be

Sunny walked forward on a path that led to the towering

minutes later, he had walked between two massive stones and entered the Sanctuary

in their honor… if that name even belonged to a living

between the two rings of menhirs had been made into a place for the Awakened to rest and recuperate between their ventures into the wild expanse of the Chained Isles. The White Feather clan had built walls to close

about two hundred Awakened populating the Sanctuary, which was enough to keep it functioning and

either sleeping, resting, or had already returned to the real world, so Sunny

was assigned a small room after becoming anchored to the Sanctuary. It was situated near one of

scattering of soul shards, a few weird-looking fruits, and the golden coin — into a chest standing near the bed. Then he threw the pack on the