Shadow Slave

"This... is the House of Parting. It is the furthest point of Weave as one travels upstream."

Ananke's voice sounded uncharacteristically dispirited.

'House of Parting...'

Sunny studied the artificial island and the solemn structure built upon it, then turned to the old woman and asked:

"It's... a windmill?"

She nodded.

"Yes, my Lord. The tower harvests the wind to maintain the island."

Ananke lingered for a second, and then added:

"The cities of the Great River are actually more akin to flotillas, each consisting of many city-ships - some small like this one, some spanning dozens of kilometers across. They migrate sometimes, but mostly they have to stay in place. There is nothing to anchor a ship to on the Great River, though."

Nephis raised an eyebrow.

"Is the Great River so deep that no anchor can reach its bottom?"

Ananke shook her head.

"It is not that the floor of the Great River is too deep, it's that it doesn't exist. No one has ever managed to reach it, at least... so, we had to find other ways."

She pointed to the rotating blades of the towering windmill.

"There are various ways to make a city-ship resist the current, from mundane ones to magical. The House of Parting... you can't see it from here, but there is a great water wheel at the back of the island, constantly propelling it forward at the same speed as the River pushes it back. Its mechanism is mostly powered by the current itself, but the windmill lightens the burden significantly."

She sighed.

brink of collapse, now... I've tried to repair it as well as I could, but my knowledge is insufficient to keep an entire city from breaking apart. There's little

in front of them was actually the creation of incredible human ingenuity - a floating city district that used the wind and

Weave were gone, it was still pushing forward, refusing to become

close, Ananke released the wind filling the sails, skillfully guided the boat to the pier,

the small ketch for the first time in a

wooden planks of the pier under his feet, Sunny enjoyed the fact that the ground was not swaying and took a few steps. He was swaying like a drunk himself for the first couple, but then regained his

stretched his limbs, Nephis looked around

House of Parting... why was this

faintly as she headed toward the stone hall, and gestured

however, humans are not created to be immortal. If

turned around and looked at her ketch, tied to the peer

farewell. They prepare a feast and celebrate. When all is said and

lingered for a while, and then added

your arrival. Ah... ironically, I ended up repeating all the same steps, stopping just shy of the last one.

chuckled and

human cities on the Great River are the same, I'd imagine. The Lower House is meant for those who were not given a choice, and died an untimely death. Their bodies, if recovered, are sent downstream, to return to the Estuary - the

of Fallen Grace had ended up becoming a Nightmare

she a friend or

Ananke sighed.

on this island, and in the morning, we will continue on the way to

of Parting was a bit ominous, but he was not going to refuse a night of sleeping

than that, while he and Nephis had enjoyed plenty of rest on the way, Ananke had mostly stayed awake, controlling the ketch and preventing anything dangerous from happening to them. She had to take

He nodded.

Guide

nodded, and continued walking toward the

were

seven suns fell into the river, the three of them were inside the House of Parting. The interior of the grand hall was beautiful and solemn, but at the same

had been inherited from the original Outsiders, who came from the Dream Realm, and

earnest artisans, the Riverborn were clearly much less sophisticated than their ancestors, not

wood that Ananke's ketch and the pier of the House of Parting were built of, for example. Where had it come from? The fruits