Shadow Slave

A few more days passed in blissful idleness. Sunny continued concentrating on Shadow Dance, not ready yet to learn more from Ananke - the information she had shared with them was already vexing enough, and he was struggling to parse through all of its many implications. He also resumed his habit of studying the weave of the Estuary Key, even though it still remained a complete mystery to him.

After hesitating for a while, Sunny turned to the old woman for help, but there was no result. Although she was a priestess of the Nightmare Spell and a follower of the Demon of Fate, she was not a weaver herself. Sunny knew more about Weaver's sorcery than Ananke did.

...Which was not to say that she did not know anything about sorcery at all.

After spending several days in the ketch, Sunny and Nephis noticed two strange things about the swift vessel and its owner.

The first one concerned the ketch itself. Its sails were always full of wind, pushing the boat across the shining surface of the Great River with enviable speed. Which was not too strange in and of itself, if not for the fact that this speed was too constant and stable. It also did not seem as though the direction and strength of the wind ever changed - or rather, they never changed around the ketch.

They did, however, change some distance away from it, creating an eerie situation where the waters where the wooden sailboat passed were different from the rest of the world.

Not only that, but Ananke also never manipulated the sales in any way to help them catch the wind.

And nothing ever attacked them.

Both Sunny and Nephis knew, of course, that the ketch was not a mundane boat. It was obviously enchanted in some way, they just did not know how. There were no runes carved into its surface and no sophisticated runic patterns like on the Chain Breaker. There was no spellweave hidden within the old wood either.

Eventually, they were defeated by curiosity and asked Ananke directly.

That was how Sunny learned that, while the old woman was not a weaver, she was still a sorceress. However, the sorcery she used did not belong to the Demon of Fate, nor was it the runic sorcery created by Hope.

Instead, it was the ancient sorcery upon which Hope's runic magic was based - the sorcery of Names.

their bewilderment, the old

Lady... don't look too surprised. I am not some kind of powerful Shaper. I was just taught a few simple Names and Phrases by my mother, enough to sail the Great

every day that

True Names of things and how to invoke them,

forgemasters of Clan Valor. She had told him that the members of the Valor family often received Aspects tied to crafting, which was how they were

cage that Sunny and Cassie had almost died in during their imprisonment in the Night Temple

her head

Well... makes sense. We were a dying breed even before the war. And with the gifts of the Nightmare Spell, no one would need to seek power

moments, and then pointed

simple, really. I just invoked the Name of the wind, the Name of moving forward across water, and the name of the sail, then put them together into a Verse. I also used the Name of concealment and the Name of being hidden from predators. Of course, most of that was only possible because this old ketch of mine is imbued with a True Name of

Ananke sighed.

Names... were never meant to be spoken by mortals. So, one has to possess innate talent in

at her intently

it very important for the ketch to have a True Name of its

nodded with a

to it that well. Oh, at least that was how it was explained to me when I was a child. A nameless thing won't be influenced as much, but it will also be unable to exert much influence in turn... that is

contemplating her words. Ananke, meanwhile, looked at them with

you how to control the ketch, my Lord and Lady. If you are willing, of course... since even I was able to master these few

other. Her expression was thoughtful, while

'Ah, damn it...'

avarice. Learn a few sorcerous words? Of course, he

Shadow Dance, he also had to study weaving. His combat skills and Aspect powers all required attention, too. Becoming distracted by a shiny new toy was only going to slow down his