Shadow Slave

'Wooden sword… fight for their freedom…'

Sunny shifted slightly, causing his cage to sway, and glanced at Elyas. The youth was not in a talking mood anymore and just sat quietly, staring into the darkness.

There was something, a hint of a meaning, in what he had said. Sunny tried desperately to catch that meaning, but for some reason, his thoughts kept returning to the statues of War God.

He had seen two depictions of the fearsome deity in the Kingdom of Hope. One was a warrior in heavy armor, wielding a bloodied spear and a cracked shield — both, presumably, representing warfare and battle — and the other was a woman wearing nothing but a beast hide around her waist, holding a spear in one hand and a beating human heart in another… the spear representing her dominion over war, technology, and craft perhaps, the heart representing her connection to life and humanity.

Why were these statues so different?

Sunny was still exhausted after the furious battles of the past day, his thoughts slow and feverish, as they often were these days. Frustrated, he rubbed his face, then scratched at it with sharp claws, slicing the skin apart. The pain washed the fog shrouding his mind away, allowing him to think clearly for a few minutes.

The Altar of War… that was what Solvane had called the island where the primeval statue of the Goddess of Life stood. And that was the right word — this depiction of the deity seemed much more primal, bestial… ancient.

The statue itself seemed incredibly ancient, too. Much older than the statues of the mighty warrior were… in fact, it seemed as ancient as the Red Colosseum itself, or perhaps even older. Old enough to have been created before the Kingdom of Hope was shattered and turned into the chain of floating islands by Sun God, as it was today, and would be thousands of years into the future.

Why would Hope have a monument to one of the gods in her domain? Well, the idea itself was not that strange. Gods and daemons had not been always at war, after all. In fact, the Prince of the Underworld had a shrine to the Goddess of the Black Skies, Storm God, in his very tower — despite the fact that later, she would become his mortal enemy.

So that question was not important… the important thing was that Sunny couldn't stop thinking about the statue, for some reason.

ancient as the

tilted

'Huh?'

amphitheater, and the arena it surrounded, were the derelict of the true Kingdom of Hope, as well. He had realized that fact a while back, partially from how they looked, and partially from how deep and ancient some of the shadows hiding

of the Hollow Mountains, where the seven heroes of the Forgotten

a similar quarry, once, and had served as the source of the white stones used to construct those aerial bridges and aqueducts. Later, it had been turned into a theater, and later still, the

His black eyes narrowed.

is it… this must

A question that

exist yet, then how could Solvane put him on a leash capable of severing his

lock or any other way of opening it. It was almost impossible to damage or destroy, but the enchantment itself was not

cages, prevent the slaves from escaping by any means, mundane or magical, and ensure that they

to the Spell almost seemed like a side effect of

with the Spell, let alone

he felt as if he had found the answer! If the Red Colosseum was, indeed, not built by the Warriors, but

then the enchantments left behind by her

the bars

his muscles with renewed strength, and