Shadow Slave

Ananke's weathered, wrinkly face grew dark. The old woman lingered for a while before saying:

"The other name for the Defilement is Corruption... a special kind of Corruption that appeared on the Great River and then spread from downstream like a plague. Or rather, was spread."

Nephis leaned forward a little:

"Spread... from downstream?"

The old woman nodded heavily.

"Yes. It is because the Defilement... its origin is the Estuary."

Her cloudy eyes grew distant.

"The Seekers were always trying to reach the Estuary, traveling further and further downstream. But none of them succeeded in finding it. Eventually, they built a city of their own in the far reaches of the past - a city called Verge. Its grandeur could compete with the bustling prosperity of the large cities ruled by the sybils, and from there, they continued their search. Until, eventually... one of them really managed to enter the Estuary."

The old woman gripped the steering oar as she looked at the vast expanse of the Great River, then continued dully:

"However, what he found there was not the truth, but Corruption. Or perhaps it was the truth that he found that corrupted him. That Seeker became the first of the Defiled, and he brought the Defilement back with him to the Verge. The city of Seekers was consumed by the Defilement, and those consumed by it became twisted and monstrous. They spread from there like a plague, bringing a great calamity to the River People."

Ananke grew silent, breathing heavily.

Sunny was scowling deeply.

was

Corruption as a result. Not only that,

had Ariel buried

Twilight Sea had tried to achieve? Storm the corrupted city of Verge and slay the first witness to

task would be a

thinking the same.

"What happened next?"

her bench, then

The most powerful of them come from the furthest reaches of the past, downstream... as well as from the terrible emptiness of the future, where you have come from, my Lord and Lady. The River People found themselves trapped between the harrowing past and the doomed future, with nowhere to escape. Of course, they fought against the

away and said

how we were chased away and forced to escape upstream, braving terrible dangers. Eventually, we lost all contact with those who had exiled us. The last we heard was that many of the sybils had succumbed to the Defilement, and that many of their cities had fallen. Even Twilight, the city of the Serpent King, had been lost. Now... it is the dusk of the River People. Soon,

end of the world by entering the Tomb of Ariel... most of them had either died or been Corrupted, and

there were two ways to resolve the

eliminating the source of the spreading Defilement. The latter, of course, would receive much higher praise

out, was the name of the city King Daeron and his vassals had built. Another interesting point was that Fallen Grace, the city ruled by the last sybil, was situated in the region of the Great River that had already mostly succumbed to the Defilement. Perhaps it was the last human stronghold remaining in the Tomb of

'And another thing...'

dreadful and dangerous than all the rest - the far reaches of the future upstream, and the far reaches of the past

was incredible, as always. Not only had Sunny entered the Great River in one

'Great. Simply great...'

however, was a simple question... just how was the Defilement spreading? He did not know a lot about Corruption, but it didn't seem like something that could

not think that it did - if all the

was an

Ananke, he asked in