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 what

Not only that, but he also infected the rest of the Seekers with it, destroying - or rather,

kind of secret had Ariel buried

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

would be

the same. After pondering for

"What happened next?"

on her

of the Great River became plagued by the Corrupted. 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

away and

heard was that many of the sybils had

world by entering the Tomb of Ariel... most of them had either died or been Corrupted, and the rest would soon follow. That was the fate

there were two ways to resolve the conflict of the

had to either help the destruction of that civilization, or turn the tide by eliminating the source of the spreading Defilement. The latter, of course, would receive much

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

'And another thing...'

Tomb of Ariel that were much more dreadful and dangerous than all the rest - the far reaches of the future

Sunny entered the Great River in one of these harrowing places, but he also seemed

'Great. Simply great...'

Defilement spreading? He did

with Corruption - instead, it could only infect them with itself. Did the Defilement have a similar nature? He did not think that it did - if all the Nightmare Creatures in the Tomb of Ariel

an

Ananke, he asked in a dark