Shadow Slave

Consumed by despondence, Sunny tried to find solace in anger. But it was of no use. Then, Sunny tried to remind himself that the Ananke he knew was just an apparition conjured by the Spell... the real Ananke - the true Priestess of the Nightmare Spell who had lived in the real Tomb of Ariel - was long dead, her spirit and bones taken by the Great River.

She had never met Sunny and Nephis. She had never traveled to the far reaches of the future or made delicious small pies for two complete strangers.

In fact, it was not at all clear if the real Ananke shared the same fate as the one he knew. The Serpent King had brought many challengers into the Nightmare, after all - their actions had to have changed the flow of events within this version of the Tomb of Ariel.

Perhaps the real Weave was never destroyed by one of the Six Plagues, or had been wiped out entirely long before Ananke was born.

But telling himself that Ananke was not real did not help either. It never did. Be it the First Nightmare, the Second, or the Third, Sunny could not help but treat the people he met as real.

With a heavy sigh, he turned to look at the magnificent structure they were approaching. It was an unusual one. Much larger than most buildings in Weave, it was situated in the very heart of the city, on a solitary island-ship that floated some distance away from the rest. The artificial island was connected to the neighboring ones with rope bridges of white silk, resembling a spider sitting at the center of a vast web.

The structure itself was tall and imposing, built of roughly cut black stone. Tattered white banners were hanging from its walls, fluttering in the wind. It looked nebulous and sinister, like a temple of some dark deity.

...Sunny had an idea who that deity was.

Looking up, he saw a lonely figure standing on the roof of the numinous temple, looking down at the desolate ruin of Weave. The black silk of its long hair and tunic remained motionless despite the strong wind. He couldn't see the figure's face from the distance, but silhouetted against the azure sky, it seemed strangely grim.

'There you are.'

The Sin of Solace had finally shown himself after hiding somewhere for a long time. And yet, the wraith was simply observing the ghost city from above instead of tormenting Sunny with snide remarks... its behavior had been getting stranger and stranger ever since the start of the Nightmare.

'Well, good. Stay away for as long as you want, you won't be missed.'

Paying attention to the apparition through one of the shadows, Sunny followed Ananke across one of the rope bridges. As they got closer to the ominous temple, Sunny and Nephis felt a strong sense of unease... however, the young priestess looked unperturbed. If anything, her expression grew calmer.

"This is the last place we will visit in Weave."

Even her voice sounded lighter.

a few moments, then asked

the temple

shook her head with

elusive and had no desire to be worshipped. It is useless to worship the Demon of Fate,

to

Spell. Of the gift Weaver has given us to rely

'Of fate itself...'

with the fact the Demon of Fate seemed to have created the Spell to resist the very thing

of fate, just like I am bound

and chilling. If even the Demon of Fate had not been

everything that had happened,

too vast and searing to be put

that there was no such thing as true freedom - at least not without sacrificing everything one held dear - he still stubbornly clung to the desperate wish of breaking free of his bonds. It was just that the tumultuous twists and turns of his

then glanced at

to do something extreme like burning the temple of

but Sunny doubted that the young priestess would just watch silently as her home was destroyed. And although it was sometimes easy to forget because of her gentle temperament, she was still a

she wasn't, Sunny simply did not

all. Even though Neph had not shown it, meeting Ananke must have pulled at the strings of her heart... which still existed, no matter how abused, neglected,

"Let's hurry inside."

considered to be its apostles, the young priestess headed toward the

neither of them saying

dark entrance and found themselves within a vast hall. Its interior was shrouded in darkness, creating a solemn and mysterious atmosphere - for everyone except Sunny, of course, who could see everything just fine. Narrow beams

of falling light resembled the breathtaking weave of the inner workings of the Spell, while the darkness of the vast hall was like the lightless void between dream

was... strangely

however, were the white tapestries of enormous spiderwebs growing freely

to them, mentally preparing

abomination did make a nest in the