Shadow Slave

While Nephis was pretending to sleep, Sunny moved to the stern of the ketch and looked at Ananke, who seemed to have paid no attention to their conversation. Sensing his attention, however, he turned slightly and asked:

"Yes, my Lord?"

He hesitated for a few moments.

"I... wanted to ask you about Weaver."

The old woman smiled slightly, as if uplifted by his question.

"What would you like to know?"

Sunny remained silent for a moment. What didn't he want to know? Daemons were surrounded by mystery, and while he slowly accumulated a lot of knowledge about them - much more knowledge than an average human in the ancient times of the Dream Realm had, most likely - there were still wide gaps in it.

The problem was that Ananke was not really a person from the Dream Realm. She had been born in the Tomb of Ariel and spent her life in isolation from the outside world. Still... she was a priestess of the Nightmare Spell. She had to know many things, even if some of that knowledge had undoubtedly been twisted as a result of becoming religious doctrine.

So, he was unsure how much he would be able to learn from the old woman.

Sunny scratched the back of his head.

"Well... for starters, was Weaver a man or a woman?"

He was really tired of stumbling over his words every time he tried to say something about... them.

Ananke chuckled.

"No one knows. Weaver was a master of lies, after all - so, you should take anything that is known about the Demon of Fate with a grain of salt. Weaver was the firstborn of the Unknown. His - or hers - domain was fate. And just like fate, Weaver was fickle, inevitable, and terrifying. Despite not possessing dreadful battle power, unlike some other daemons, the Demon of Fate was feared the most."

Sunny was not surprised. He couldn't imagine a more frightening enemy than someone whose weapon was fate itself. That said... he wasn't sure whether Weaver had been able to control fate, or simply perceive it. The latter seemed more probable, even if everyone had been convinced otherwise.

that one of

He inhaled deeply.

was the

The old woman smiled.

"...I don't know."

blinked a couple

uses for the runes it refuses to translate. So, the progenitor of the daemons is called something else. The priesthood of the Nightmare Spell probably started calling that being Unknown for the same reason I did, considering that they are the carriers of the Spell, as well. Or rather,

shook his head

their lives to serving Weaver, suffering all kinds of mistreatment and persecution, you and your people don't seem to know a lot

Ananke would be offended by his remark, but

not know a lot... but we know all we need. We know that when the gods and the daemons

weathered face

all, Weaver was the only one who offered us all a path to

what they were talking about. Wondering what

path to salvation...

Ananke nodded.

by Weaver and entrusted to us in order to

had tentatively considered before, but was never really sure of. That the purpose

However...

Weaver had told people like Ananke... could that

just described the Demon of Fate as a master of lies, after all, and said

to believe in the benevolence of the Nightmare Spell wholeheartedly. That was... rather

should I

despite her age and wisdom, seemed a little bit... naive. Sunny and Nephis were not the worst people from the waking world by far, but even they had briefly contemplated

trust in Weaver

hesitated for a long time before

you, but hasn't that doom come already? Where is the salvation