Shadow Slave

Sunny suddenly paled.

'Wait. No way...'

The runes describing the Shroud of Graceless Dusk resurfaced in his memory...

[There, they found solace, safety, and shelter. In time, the voices of the gods grew silent one after another, leaving behind only a vast and dreadful silence. That was how the sybils embraced the Estuary, and that was how they fell.]

He looked at Cassie somberly and said, his voice slightly hoarse:

"The... Defilement?"

The blind girl nodded sadly.

"Yes. The Defilement spread from the Estuary, consuming Verge, the city of the Seekers. And from there, the Defiled slowly moved upstream, threatening to devour all other settlements on the Great River. The sybils and their people waged a war against them for a long time. Eventually, most of their cities fell - some fell to the Defiled... but not all."

Her beautiful face looked forlorn for a moment.

Cassie sighed.

"The sybils were truly formidable at the height of their power. It was no coincidence that they had managed to guide their people through the horrors of the Doom War and enter the Tomb of Ariel unharmed. Even the Defiled found it difficult to conquer the cities reigned by the sybils... how would they not, if the defenders knew the secrets of the future?"

She paused for a moment and took a small sip of the wine.

"But the very thing that gave the sybils power ended up becoming their undoing. The most stalwart cities... they fell to the sybils themselves. Because they were corrupted by the glimpses of the Estuary and succumbed to the Defilement, letting the rot spread from within."

The blind girl sighed again, then shook her head.

One was already Defiled, and entombed in her temple. Of the other two, Dusk was the junior. The senior sybil... she had hidden the signs of Corruption from everyone until

moment and gestured

what I managed to preserve. I was able to rally the defenders of Fallen Grace and slay the Defiled sybil. But, by then, much of the city had already been lost. Much worse, the seals containing the other Defiled had been broken. And she... she was a much more terrifying creature than the other one. All I could do was abandon the

raised her hands, allowing

guards. I am the ruler of this city, but at the same time, I am a threat to it... or so the River People think, since they don't know that I am not truly Dusk. I was afraid that my own affinity to revelations would place me in the same danger the sybils had been exposed to, but funnily enough, I turned out

at her silently, not knowing what to answer. Sunny was a bit

of becoming Defiled. Her soul is incorruptible...

He shook his head.

"I'm not sure."

chuckled, then

"It's because I'm blind."

blue eyes gazed upon

corrupt me... or at least, can't corrupt me in the same way it corrupted the sybils. In the

her hands slightly, allowing the golden

take. So, I remained in

Cassie's hand. White sparks glinted in her calm grey

the Nightmare much further upstream, and it took us a long time to travel into the past. We encountered a time storm

for a few

thanks to you that Ananke

Cassie's face. He frowned, confused by her

"What? What's wrong?"

The blind girl hesitated.

you mean she knew to guide you to Fallen

a somber look. After a moment of silence, she

it not you who sent a dream message to the