Shadow Slave

Their first goal was to find Jet and Effie. Cassie had been able to determine the general area where they were marooned, but not why... she was also not sure what dangers awaited the Chain Breaker in that hazardous region of the Great River.

However, she did have a lead. The problem was that this lead was buried in one of the lost temples of Fallen Grace - the palace where a Defiled sybil had once been entombed alive. During the battle for the city, the temple had been unsealed, and the island-ships that could not be saved were abandoned.

Cut free, they had been left to the currents. The rest of the flotilla fled upstream, where it remained to this day... nevertheless, the Chain Breaker was moving into the past once more, searching for the lost districts.

Sunny, Nephis, and Cassie were going to find the lost temple, slay the Defiled sybil - if the creature was still dwelling there - and sift through the temple's library in search of information about the place Effie and Jet were trapped in.

Breathing heavily, Sunny leaned on the side of the ketch and cursed quietly. The ketch had been patched up and repaired, as well. With its masts dismantled and stored, it resembled a proper lifeboat. The craftsmen of Fallen Grace had also constructed an actual nest for it, with ropes and pulleys to lower the ketch into the water and hoist it back up again when needed.

Nephis was at the stern, controlling the ship, while Cassie was examining the damaged essence lines of the ancient vessel nearby.

Looking at her, he decided to rest for a few minutes and asked somberly:

"Why wasn't that sybil killed after succumbing to the Defilement, anyway? Simply sealing the temple does not seem like a reliable solution. Especially since it seems to have been done in a hurry, with all the valuables remaining inside. Who just goes and loses an entire library?"

The blind girl was distracted from her thoughts and turned to him, her golden hair fluttering in the wind. She lingered for a moment, then shrugged.

"I'm not really sure. It happened long before we entered the Nightmare, so... perhaps the people of Fallen Grace simply couldn't bring themselves to kill one of their sybils. You saw how conflicted they are about us. Perhaps sealing her inside and turning the temple into a mausoleum was simply safer."

sighed and shook

was a mistake. When I entered the Nightmare... we could have preserved the entire city if not for their misguided ways. There were two sybils left in Fallen Grace back then, and one of

Her face turned dull.

temple came undone that

raised an eyebrow with a

yet you want us to seek

sighed, then smiled

completely different story. I don't think we'll have too much of a problem dealing with her.

Sunny smiled crookedly.

"I guess."

conflict of the Nightmare seemed to be connected to the fate of Fallen Grace, and of the River People civilization as a whole. The natural ending of this story was complete extinction -

the Defilement was not enough. Right now, the people of Fallen Grace were doomed - for no other reason than that they were all too old and weak to have children. To ensure that a

of the lingering presence of the

the creature

looked at the crimson sky,

entombed sybil so

remained silent for

the Nightmare Creatures we met before entering the Tomb had been corrupted countless years ago. There was barely a trace of their previous selves left. Corruption... is a gradual process, as it turns out. The sybil I killed had not been an abomination for more than a week. She

It made