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

for a while… so, even though the desire to place his precious coins on the altar gnawed on him, he decided to address the

…Cassie.

he had to speak to her. He couldn't make plans

absolutely needed to challenge

becoming a Master would change the power dynamic between him 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 would be much fewer

Creatures, but also among the humans. The more crumbs 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 by virtue of

people who could kill him without breaking a sweat. But if he became a Master himself…

Like Saint Tyris.

mention that, as an Ascended, he would be free to come and go from the Dream Realm as he

be a nice choice

the Desecrated

map onto it. Soon, he was in possession of an intricately detailed depiction of most of the Chained

destinations was going to

studied the route to the Desecrated Grove

it by morning, and return to the Sanctuary the next day at night, when the moon is high

use the coins he had bled

dismissed the Covetous Coffer, stretches his limbs, and

***

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 Creature that