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.

the

taught a few simple Names and Phrases by my mother,

was not every day that they met a practitioner of

met two sorcerers... himself and Noctis. Noctis had known a great deal about True Names of things and how to invoke

him that the members of the Valor family often received Aspects tied to crafting, which was how they were able to create powerful Memories. However, the family had accumulated plenty of knowledge of

almost died in during their

her

dying breed even before the war. And with the gifts of the Nightmare Spell, no one would need to seek power in such an

a few moments, and then

the sail, then put them together into a Verse. I also used the Name of concealment

Ananke sighed.

So, one has to possess innate talent in order to master even the easiest of them. My talent is

looked at her intently

very important for the ketch to have

nodded with

course. Without a True Name, a thing does not have... pull. It is tenuous and slippery, so sorcery can't stick 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

Ananke, meanwhile, looked at them

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

Nephis glanced at each other. Her expression was thoughtful, while his was full

'Ah, damn it...'

was burning with curiosity and insatiable avarice. Learn a few sorcerous words? Of course, he

but his resources were already spread thin. Apart from Shadow Dance, he also had to