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.'

studied the weave of ethereal strings with a perplexed

be made of - a radiant nexus and an intricate tapestry of essence threads. However, the pattern

was elegant and vast, but... how could he put it... the weave of the dark mantle was infinitely less labyrinthine than

the strange spellweave for a few

'...It's not there!'

the familiar patterns first, to use as a starting point - the universal patterns that all Memories shared, and which were the first sorcery he himself had woven. The connection to the soul of the owner, the ability to

the weave of Ananke's mantle

a couple of

'What...'

all the Memories he had seen shared these

More than that, his knowledge of weaving had mostly come from studying the weaves

weapons using unique Aspects, the Spell served as an intermediary in the process - crafting Memories was an innate ability

in the end, both sources were

way of going about weaving enchanted items... only the ultimate

was looking at right now, though, had been created by someone else. Perhaps by the High Priest of the Nightmare Spell Ananke

was a sorcerous item enchanted through weaving, but

Sunny scratched his head.

like that

yet, he had never considered such a 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

have to be, like the mantle in front

was a curious detail,

a Memory? The traits of Memories that everyone took for granted were supremely useful. The ability to carry a whole arsenal inside your soul alone was a boon any warrior would kill for. Swords that sharpened themselves, suits of armor that repaired any damage done to them and adjusted themselves to perfectly fit the body of the wearer... there