Shadow Slave

Sunny descended from the White Feather's aery in a complicated mood.

If he ever had doubts that the lost prince was harboring dire secrets, now, there were none. Why else would Saint Tyris caution him to not speak about the Mirror Beast, who had seemingly been the only trace left of Mordret's existence?

Mordret had conquered the First Nightmare when he was only twelve… such an individual, surely, would have been as famous as Nephis back in the real world. And yet, Sunny had never heard of him, or of anyone who had accomplished the same feat.

It was almost as if someone very powerful had purposefully erased any mention of the mysterious prince from history.

…How had he lost his physical body, to begin with? And where was his spirit body in the Dream Realm? Did… did he even have one? He must have had it once, at least. The pack Sunny had found on the Reckoning contained a detailed map of the Chained Isles, with the word "hope" written on it next to a question mark.

Back then, he thought that the owner of the pack had been killed by the Mirror Beast. Now, however, he suspected that it had belonged to Mordret himself.

So, the lost prince had at least visited the Chained Isles before disappearing. Was the great clan Valor complicit in his disappearance? Sunny had no real reason to come to that conclusion, other than the fact that the Chained Isles were in their sphere of influence, and that Saint Tyris hinted at her knowledge of the nature of the Mirror Beast.

But why hadn't she killed it herself?

'I am going to have to ask Mordret a lot of questions when he appears.'

Which wasn't going to happen for many days, sadly.

had other matters to

wasn't going to appear for a while… so, even though the desire to place

…Cassie.

matter how reluctant Sunny was to face his former friend, he had to speak to her. He couldn't make plans for the future

absolutely needed to

and Nephis much more. And even though creating future cores would be harder after he achieved a higher Rank, being an Ascended also meant that there

of information about the Sovereigns Sunny learned, the more disturbed he became. He was distrustful by nature, so he didn't believe that these hidden overlords would not try to exert their influence on him or try to destroy him one day, simply

were hundreds of people who could kill him without breaking a sweat. But if he became a Master himself… well, then there would only be a few dozen individuals he would have to

Like Saint Tyris.

go from the Dream Realm as he wished. He would even be able to abandon it forever, and never

that be a

Desecrated Grove

and spent some time adding all the details he remembered from Mordret's map onto it. Soon, he was in possession of an intricately detailed depiction of most of the Chained Isles on his hands, complete with descriptions of what dangers he was likely to meet, and

traveling to his destinations was going to

studied the route to the Desecrated Grove

too hard. I can probably reach it by morning, and return to the Sanctuary

finally get to use the coins he had bled so

dismissed the Covetous Coffer, stretches his limbs, and headed toward the

***

that Cassie named in her note indeed turned out to be uneventful. Sunny rode the heavenly chains in the form of the shadow and traversed the islands on foot, avoiding any Nightmare