Shadow Slave

A few days went by in a flash. Nothing serious seemed to have happened, but grand and dire events were being set in motion in the shadows.

Saint Madoc had transported several cohorts of Valor retainers into the Dream Realm and then disappeared. Of course, no one was told about his absence - in fact, Clan Valor made a good show of pretending that he was still around, supporting the Awakened in the Dream Realm.

It was a believable lie.

Awakened, Ascended, and Saints were affected by the Call all the same - if they traveled to the Dream Realm near a Nightmare Gate, they would be brought to the area surrounding the Seed instead of to where their anchor was. However, there was a big difference when a Transcendent was actually involved.

That difference was that Saints could return to the waking world by just using their innate powers, while Awakened and Masters needed to find a Gateway to come back.

Another, no less important distinction was that the pull of the Call was not precise. If an Awakened fell asleep near a Gate, they could be transported right to where the Seed was, but just as easily to a spot dozens of kilometers away. They could even be dropped right into the middle of a horde of hungry Nightmare Creatures.

So, if a cohort of Awakened wanted to use a Nightmare Gate as a pathway to the Dream Realm, they would be scattered over a large area and risk finding their doom long before reuniting with their fellow warriors. A Saint could follow the Call first, establish an anchor in a safe place, and then transport the members of the cohort there one by one.

A Saint could even clear the way to the Seed, if the cohort was truly planning to challenge it. That was how the Nightmare Gates that opened inside the human cities were usually dealt with, unless there was no one to challenge them - in that case, they were simply contained, surrounded by a fortified exclusion zone, and guarded day and night.

So, everyone had been led to believe that that was exactly what Whispering Blade was doing - guiding the Awakened warriors of Clan Valor to the Seeds of Nightmare in order to conquer them.

Sunny, however, knew better.

He knew that Madoc actually left to infiltrate Song's territory and secretly take out Mordret. The Awakened cohorts the fearsome Saint had transported to the Dream Realm had been left to their own devices, presumably supporting Knight Shtad in pursuing a mysterious objective.

The war between the great clans was starting in earnest. Blood had already been spilled, and much more of it was going to flow very soon.

He was in a real rush of excitement about

In theory.

to what

that was more or less the extent of how large he could

easier change, although not without its limitations either. The smallest he managed to become was about the size of the Imp, which induced quite a

changing various aspects of his appearance. Facial features were easy to

tool... if not for the fact that all these permutations were still of

won't be masquerading as other people

went beyond cosmetic changes. His interest was mostly combat and stealth, after all. So, Sunny started by adding two more arms to the corporeal shadow form, and

and experience. Sunny did well with smaller alterations, like adding sharp claws to his fingers or turning his teeth

not know their anatomy and how it engaged with the rest of

soaring in the sky like Kai or Saint Tyris

far away from becoming truly shapeless and formless. He

however, was fulfill his

it too was

himself larger, the proportions of his body seemed a bit off. When he elongated his

result, though, and was currently looking at himself through

such a pity Effie can't see me right now. The look on her face would be priceless! Especially since she would be looking up at me... oh gods, I can just

was really weird. He wasn't sure that he liked its lanky silhouette that much...

actually white, because Sunny had summoned the Autumn Leaf to see if it worked

in the future... they seem to be working on this form,