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 Even though the information recorded by the sybils was outdated by now, it was still immensely valuable.

little. "Other than that... keep an

the inhabitants of Fallen Grace referred to it as the Wind Flower. The vague stories they had heard about

wasn't even known where the

much time. Soon, he and Nephis were crawling through the debris, separating those slates that were

they did, Sunny briefly looked

enough for them to make their way to Fallen Grace - he couldn't really read the maps engraved into the slates. The maps Sunny was used to were based on topography and landmarks

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

map of the Great River, either. Instead, they were supposed to be put together and moved around as the

of the slates had been destroyed, there was no hope

done was including a description of what was depicted on the slates, engraved on the back. So, instead of trying to decipher

slowly grew

that opens underwater and swallows entire island-ships... a region where the wind literally cuts flesh... what the

suddenly 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

was very much way too

Ariel was a dreadful place, but now, he suddenly felt

as far as the local perils were concerned. So, calling himself lucky might have not been quite

piece, while Nephis collected those that had been broken

on the pile of rubble for a while, then got bored and stood up to take a