Shadow Slave

The flying ship soared through the darkness, descending deeper and deeper into the empty void. After Saint Tyris had left, nothing much happened for a long time.

They were surrounded by nothing, and nothing bothered them.

This was the oppressive nothingness that Sunny was familiar with all too well.

However, now, things were different. The first time he had fallen into the Sky Below, he was alone and desperate, without any way to escape and no certainty of what awaited him below. This time, he was surrounded by people, knew where he was going, and that they would be able to turn back at any point, if need be.

Not to mention that Sunny had a whole ship to explore, as opposed to plummeting down atop the corpse of a dead devil.

The ancient vessel was not giant, but large enough to make their journey rather comfortable.

There was an upper deck, the main cargo hold, the lower deck stretching from the bow to the middle point of the ship, the auxiliary cargo holds beneath it, and various compartments near the stern, including living quarters for the crew, two separate mess decks, a spacious captain's cabin, several smaller cabins that seemed as though they were meant for either guests or officers, a large war room, and a few service compartments.

Currently, there were less than thirty people on board, so there was more than enough space for everyone. In fact, the vessel seemed rather empty and rough around the edges — the members of Cassie's cohort and other Fire Keepers that joined them to assist in the repairs had done a splendid job of restoring the flying ship's overall integrity, but had had no time to work on its interior.

A few essential facilities had been haphazardly outfitted with everything necessary to barely function, but most of the compartments still required a lot of work. There was no furniture of any kind except for some crude tables, chairs, and flimsy hammocks, and most of the vessel looked empty and barebones. It was a far cry from how luxurious it must have been furnished, outfitted, and decorated once, in the ancient past.

hellish month Sunny had spent in the Night Temple, this environment seemed almost like paradise. He had a whole cabin to himself, and the cargo hold was stocked with enough food and water to last them for a few months. The

not wobble constantly up and down like a seafaring one would, and instead swayed gently from time to time, which was sort of calming, and even a

partially due to the wind. The Fire Keepers seemed more or less capable of operating the sails, be it somewhat tentatively, and used either their Aspects or Memories akin to Cassie's wooden staff to produce gales that pushed the ship in the right

descent into the

lot and ate as much as he could, knowing that the Second Nightmare was going

in the Night Temple, analyze everything he had learned about Mordret, and go other each of his thoughts and decisions, trying

lot of new information Sunny had received in that month — information about the Awakened of higher Ranks, Anvil of Valor, the great clans, the tension between them… and even about his

that dwelled in his Soul Sea were not there just for decoration, after all. He had always suspected that there was a purpose to

all meant, and what he was supposed to do with them. No matter what he tried after the battle with

was almost like he had

accept the fact that the mystery of

had a fearsome defense system against those who would try to possess it. That

started training, slowly conditioning his body for the deadly trial ahead. This was somewhat of a useless process, really, since he would be inhabiting a different vessel entirely inside the

same ferocious determination as back in the Dark City. Kai, Effie, and Cassie joined him, too, working on improving their own condition, as well as learning how to work together as a

them had grown since then, both in terms of power and experience. They were Awakened now, possessed new Abilities, and had improved in their understanding of combat, technique, and skill. They needed to find new and better ways of enhancing each

leader, let alone one as talented and gifted in the art of battle as Nephis had been, back on the Forgotten Shore. Only now,