Shadow Slave

After entering the central chamber of the ancient library, Sunny felt his excitement diminish somewhat. The stone slates had seemed unharmed from the outside, but at a closer look, they were not in the best state.

The Defiled sybil had rampaged in this chamber, as well. Many slates were shattered, some turned to rubble, others to dust. The whole place was a mess, with deep cracks littering its walls and the ceiling. There were deep puddles on the floor, and the cold darkness shrouding the chamber echoed with the sound of falling water.

Still... there were many slates that were unharmed, as well.

Cassie remained motionless for a few moments, then sighed and sat down on a relatively dry pile of rubble.

Sunny gave her a stare. "...What, you're not going to help us look?" The blind girl smiled. "I am looking."

He coughed and awkwardly turned away. 'Yeah, way to go, genius. Asking a blind person if she'll look...' Although Cassie's Awakened Ability allowed her to navigate the world, it did not grant her sight - Cassie sensed the future as if she lived it, meaning that she remained blind. It was her Ascended Ability that allowed her to see, even if it was only through someone else's eyes. Someone like Sunny or Nephis, for example - which meant that she could only look at the slates that they were looking at.

So, she could only help them identify the correct one, not find it herself.

Hiding his embarrassment, Sunny cleared his throat. "So, what exactly should we search for?" Cassie lingered for a moment. "We should probably separate all the intact slates first. Even those that do not contain the information we're currently looking for might be useful later."

Indeed... rescuing Effie and Jet was not going to be their last stop on the Great River. They would have to travel to Twilight as well, and then journey all the way to the dawn of time to attack Verge. There was no telling what kind of dangers hid beneath the surface of the endless river. Even though the information recorded by the sybils was outdated by now, it was still immensely valuable.

her head a little. "Other than that... keep an eye out for any mention

where Effie and Jet were trapped, but the inhabitants of Fallen Grace referred to it as the Wind Flower. The vague stories they had heard about that area of the Great River told very little, except for how

even known where the name Wind Flower

went about sifting through the rubble without wasting much time. Soon, he and Nephis were crawling through the debris, separating those slates that were only lightly damaged from those

they did, Sunny briefly looked

- he couldn't really read the maps engraved into the slates. The maps Sunny was used to were based on

used was rather elaborate. It was based on a convoluted method of assigning each slate a kind of coordinates that had to do with its relation to

moved

destroyed, there was no hope of recreating

description of what was depicted on the slates, engraved on the back.

slowly grew

island-ships... a region where the wind literally cuts flesh... what the hell, an illusory island that can

saw that island, it would mean that he was going to die in the next few minutes? Or was it the other way around, and it was seeing the island that

any way, it was very much

a dreadful place, but now, he suddenly

the time storm, which was pretty terrifying even as far as the local perils were concerned. So,

Nephis collected those that had been broken into pieces but could be restored, and put them back together with the

rubble for a while, then got bored and stood up to take