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 Even though the information recorded by the sybils was outdated by now, it was still immensely valuable.

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

place 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 no one

known where the name

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

they did, Sunny briefly looked at

way to Fallen Grace - he couldn't really read the maps engraved into the slates. The maps

elaborate. It was based on a convoluted method of assigning each slate a kind of coordinates that had to do with its relation to the edges of the Great River, the passage of the suns, and the approximate distance

and moved around as the areas described on them shifted their locations, with old

there was no hope of recreating

was depicted on the slates, engraved on the back. So, instead of trying to decipher the markings describing the coordinates,

slowly

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

if he suddenly saw that island, it would mean that he was going to die in the next few minutes? Or

it was very

was a dreadful place, but now, he suddenly felt lucky to have made it

terrifying even as far as the local perils were

settled into a rhythm. Sunny was looking for those slates that were in one piece, while Nephis

a while, then got bored and