Shadow Slave

Sunny remained motionless for a while, thinking. After a few moments, he unconsciously began to fiddle with the hems of the black mantle's sleeves. The smooth fabric glided across his fingertips, making them tingle a little.

Eventually, his gaze settled on it. Sunny tilted his head.

Abandoning his previous plans, he stood up and took off the mantle instead. Then, he sat back down and laid it across his lap.

'I wonder...'

He doubted that it was a simple piece of clothing. It was the attire of a Nightmare Spell priest, after all, most likely passed down to Ananke from her mother - the original priestess who had entered the Tomb of Ariel with the first wave of Outsiders. The corpse under the cathedral in the Dark City had been wearing the same dark garment.

So, it had to have some secrets.

Sunny hesitated for a few moments. Unlike Weaver's Mask, the black mantle was not a Memory - otherwise, it would have disappeared with Ananke. There were some Memories that persisted after the death of their owners, of course, like the Dawn Shard that Nephis had found on the remains of the First Lord of the Bright Castle.

But the nebulous mantle was not one of those, either. Otherwise, it would have bound itself to Sunny the moment he picked it up.

It seemed to be a perfectly mundane robe, albeit sewn from some mystical material. Nevertheless, he shifted his perception and tried to look within the mantle, just in case.

He was not disappointed.

'Huh?'

There was indeed a spellweave hidden within Ananke's mantle. And it was... a strange one.

'How... odd.'

of ethereal strings with a

was supposed to be made of - a radiant nexus and an intricate tapestry of essence threads.

labyrinthine than that of every

spellweave for a

'...It's not there!'

- the universal patterns that all Memories shared, and which were the first sorcery

Ananke's mantle lacked these fundamental

blinked a

'What...'

Memories he had seen shared these traits... that

was Sunny himself. More than that, his knowledge of weaving

created by the enchanters of Valor weren't different, either. That was because while they forged enchanted weapons using unique Aspects, the Spell served as an intermediary in the process - crafting Memories was an innate ability of the Valor family, not a learned

end, both sources

not the only way of going about weaving enchanted items... only the ultimate

Perhaps by the High Priest of

it was a sorcerous item enchanted through weaving, but not

Sunny scratched his head.

like that

possibility before. Mostly because it was really hard for a human mind to think outside a familiar framework. Every Memory Sunny had known was an item enchanted through weaving, and so, he subconsciously assumed that all items enchanted through weaving

have to be, like the mantle in front of

a curious detail, but not

alone was a boon any warrior would kill for. Swords that sharpened themselves, suits of armor that