Shadow Slave

Hidden in the darkness, Sunny flinched. The image of the piece of wet wood littered with demented runes suddenly appeared in his mind, as did the word repeating in the runes over and over again.

Wish... desire.

Be careful of what you wish for.

Be careful what you desire.

He frowned while Nephis continued somberly:

"All I had to do was instill a desire in the forsaken. A desire for a better life, longer life... safer life. A yearning for things that they had either never known or long forgotten - comfort, companionship, warmth. I had to give them hope. Because we couldn't survive alone, but we could survive together. Most of these creatures were solitary and numb, resigned to their dark existence. The weight of their hopelessness and despair was too great for me to pull them from it. But, by igniting a yearning in their hearts... I could make them push themselves forward with their own strength."

She grew silent once again, and remained so for a long time this time.

When Nephis spoke again, her voice was almost a whisper.

"...We gathered together, and built a village. It had tall walls and stone houses. It even had a large hall for us to gather and enjoy each other's company. And, for a while, life was good. United, we could protect ourselves from the creatures of darkness, and hide from the abyssal visitors behind the tall walls. I thought... I thought that I was on the right track. There were old creatures in the village that taught me their knowledge and wisdom. There were those who had been warriors once. I learned from them, as well. I was the weakest one, but I was liked and valued. Because I could create light, which all of them had forgotten."

White sparks ignited in her eyes before trembling and disappearing.

Neph's face grew motionless.

"But then, someone in the village vanished. And then, someone else. At first, I thought that they had left. But after the third one was gone, the fourth, the fifth... we all realized that something was wrong. They didn't leave. They were taken. After that, every night - what served as night in the Underworld - someone would disappear. We were under attack."

She paused.

in our power to find and confront the creature that was killing the villagers. We enhanced our defenses, increased our vigilance. We investigated, we explored the surrounding darkness for clues. We set traps, carved sorcerous runes into the stone, and placed

was

stop the disappearances. In fact, it only grew worse... at first, the forsaken were just vanishing, but later, their mutilated corpses started to appear around the village, strewn on stalagmites for us to see. As though the creature was leaving them there to

face was motionless, and her voice was even. However, Sunny could feel how fragile that mask was at

took a

two of us left inside the empty walls - myself, and another one of the broken statues. The first one who had become my companion, and

at her

how did you defeat

shook

about giving one last, desperate fight. But as soon as I sensed it, I knew that there was no hope. That thing... it wasn't something I could fight. So I spoke to it. I tried to appease it. I tried to persuade it. I even knelt and begged it. I tried everything

a while, there

that silence, Nephis shivered and let out a

spared me. I don't know why. All I know is that the darkness felt empty again, and I was suddenly alone in that darkness. I was the only one

trembled a

the end of

sat up, summoning

talked for a while, after all. Her throat

clink against the glass bottle a couple of times, to let her know where it was. Nephis

for a

do you remember how the Spell

Nephis shook her head.

middle of the empty hall. And the next thing I remember was you calling me