Shadow Slave

During the battle in the flooded temple, he had observed Cassie's artificial Echo in action. Even though it did not seem that powerful, that was only because their enemies that time had been of both a higher Rank and a higher Class than the blade mannequin. Sunny would not have wanted to face that thing in battle as an Awakened.

The most impressive thing about it, though, was the very fact that it was artificial.

After interrogating Cassie and Nephis on the topic, he had found out that the forgemasters of Clan Valor were capable of creating not only Memories but also Echoes. Making one was an extremely long process, though, and one that demanded a lot of precious resources. So, there were actually very few artificial Echoes in existence, all of them belonging to the most valued members of the clan.

Nevertheless, Sunny couldn't help but wonder if he would be capable of weaving Echoes one day, as well. So, he had spent most of his free time studying the blade mannequin.

It was not going well, for now, but Sunny wasn't disheartened.

His attempts to learn the Sorcery of Names were not bearing any results, anyway. Although his horizons were somewhat expanded, being able to actually use this power seemed to be beyond him. If there was one consolation, it was that Cassie was having just as much trouble with it.

Being talentless together was less of a bitter pill to swallow.

Her mastery of runic sorcery, though, was slowly growing. In fact, there seemed to be a positive loop between the Sorcery of Names and the Sorcery of Runes - both were founded on invoking the True Names of things, after all, albeit in a different manner. So, Cassie and Nephis were able to help each other improve.

As a result, the blind girl had indeed managed to restore some of the enchantments permeating the Chain Breaker. Just as she had told them, the graceful vessel was now once again capable of flight - it just couldn't fly for too long, or too fast. The strain of supplying the ancient ship with essence was dire enough to drain even Neph's reserves in less than a minute.

It would have to be enough to carry them to the island at the center of Wind Flower.

...Now, all they needed was to actually find it.

Sunny stared at the horizon and tried not to feel too anxious, a swift shadow glided across the deck of the Chain Breaker. Then,

Echo seemed less grumpy than it

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

"What is it?"

hopped a couple of times, and then cawed while

"Jet! Jet!"

and dissolved into the shadows. A split second later, he appeared

hand, spared him an indifferent gaze. Her ruby eyes glowed silently, not betraying

be

a few minutes, then sent

we are

far in the distance, the flowing surface of the Great River had grown a little

we'll see how terrible that place is, exactly,

Cassie joined him at the bow. Nephis remained at the stern, holding the steering oar, but she did respond through

[I see.]

blind girl. The soul shard crowning her wooden staff was glowing, its light pointing precisely at

is no doubt,

Cassie slowly nodded.

"Yes. We have arrived."

wide spiral, positioning it directly upstream of the approaching hazard. By the time she did, Sunny could

get to