Shadow Slave

1019 The Fall of Falcon Scott (37)

Some distance away, the ethereal flower suddenly swirled, its beautiful petals billowing outward like a current of white silk. Ghostly tentacles of flowing cloth shot toward the charging Saint, too swift and insidious to dodge.

As Sunny watched in fear, Bloodwave's head became enveloped by the silk, his glowing eyes disappearing from view. The body of the monstrous killer whale shuddered, moved weakly, and then grew strangely still.

'Gods...'

He saw something much more frightening, as well.

Two of the longer petals were already flying through the dark abyss, approaching Sunny and Naeve. They were fast... too fast. Inescapable.

He had no time to dodge, or even react. There were no thralls close enough to hide in their shadow, and not enough time to try and swim away. All Sunny managed to do was slash forward with the Sin of Solace. The jade blade met the white petal, cutting through the cloth. A small piece of it drifted away, but the petal was not slowed down at all.

It seemed to unfurl into a vast expanse of billowing silk, surrounding Sunny from all sides. Then, he was wrapped in the cold whiteness, encompassed and immobilized by it. The feeling of smooth satin brushing against his naked skin made Sunny shudder.

'Damna... tion...'

Then, the world grew still.

The dark abyss of the ocean disappeared, replaced by an eternity of fluttering white cloth.

His exhaustion and fear disappeared, too.

His memory, foresight, awareness, intent, and resolve were gone.

His mind was empty.

Sunny vaguely remembered having thoughts, desires, and hopes. But those words seemed senseless now, their meaning unfathomable. In fact, the word he had used to describe himself — Sunny — was meaningless, too. What a strange one it was...

movement. There were... shadows... moving around him.

his sense of self was dissolving more and more. Soon, it would be gone completely. And

at peace

He felt... empty.

The emptiness was comforting.

blemishing the peaceful white

sinister, mocking voice. It whispered into his ear,

we go. A pathetic end for a

hateful voice — his own voice — Sunny suddenly

Lost from Light.

That was his name.

memory unlocked all the rest like

'What... is... going on?'

terrifying understanding flooded his mind, making him

was probably about to

sensing the reality of being dragged through the mass of water by one of the

seeing through his eyes, thinking his thoughts, and hungrily wanting for more. Its progress was slow and labored, but inevitable. Sunny tried to fight against the harrowing invader, throwing all of his willpower into a fierce assault, but it simply shattered against the vast, ancient, malevolent enormity of

'Ah... not good...'

thoughts were

against his body, and the white cloth refused to part before the blade of the Sin of Solace, like the flesh

'Curse it!'

vaguely sense the shadows of Naeve and Bloodwave some distance away from him. It seemed that he was the only one trying to struggle against the

a True Name might have helped, but it could not have been the only reason. Bloodwave was the enigmatic Saint's True Name, as well, and yet the monstrous killer whale was motionless, silently drifting on the currents in the dreadful

meant that this small degree of awareness was probably the result of Sunny's unreasonably high resistance to mental attacks.

could neither free himself nor stop the creature

himself growing... insubstantial. With each moment, his thoughts became less his own. His eyes stared at the silken veil, moving on their own. As if something

Sunny felt true

of his body, while utterly helpless to resist the slow dissolution of his