Shadow Slave

As Sunny's shadows climbed the cliffs, he and his companions cautiously advanced up the beach. Even the crow, who had been anxious and impatient to find its master all this time, seemed wary and subdued. The black bird was sitting on Sunny's shoulder, its feathers raised, and kept silent.

The mist swirled silently around them. Saint and Fiend were in the rear, both ready to defend against an unexpected attack at any moment. Sunny and Nephis were in the middle. Cassie rode Nightmare at the front of the group, her back straight. The radiance of the Guiding Light that she held up illuminated the way.

At some point, the shadow steed suddenly stopped. Sunny gripped the hilt of the Sin of Solace tighter and said in a low voice:

"What is it?"

Cassie remained motionless for a moment, then pointed the sacred staff down, at the ground. When Sunny and Nephis approached, they immediately understood why.

Out there in the white sand, hidden in the mist, was a line of lonesome footprints. Sunny kneeled to study them, a frown appearing on his face.

"Those were left by a human."

Neph's voice echoed in the fog.

He nodded slightly.

Indeed, the shallow prints left in the sand belonged to a human. From the look of it, someone had walked across the beach, barefoot... it was hard to tell the gender of the person just from these traces, but they could not have been of a very large stature - both the size and the depths of the footprints proved otherwise.

The traces also looked fresh. They could not have been left more than a few hours ago.

Sunny felt a cold chill creeping up his spine.

...Who was taking barefoot walks in this harrowing place?

There was another strange detail about the footprints. Contrary to what Sunny would have expected, the line of them came from the direction of the cliffs and disappeared in the mist, heading toward the edge of the island.

And yet, they had not met or heard anyone on their way here.

He hesitated for a few moments, then looked at Nephis and said:

"Wait here."

stood up and followed the footprints into the fog. Soon, his companions disappeared from view, and he was left alone

don't

them through the shadow,

of the island opened into an abyssal chasm, the view of the colossal whirlpool and the darkness hiding

can turn into a bird. Is it

sighed and

of the island. There, the lonesome line of them disappeared, as if the

was suddenly overcome by

you try jumping,

Solace, who was standing at the very edge, looking into the fog with

"No thanks."

The sword wraith smiled.

you can turn into a bird. Hey, maybe this person knew

Sunny sighed and nodded.

sky... well, watch the fog above. Aerial attacks are some

to Nephis and Cassie, Sunny was thinking about the footprints in the sand. Who had left them behind? Had that person really jumped off the edge? If so, why?

like... such a

a few hours earlier, they could have met this person. How bitter would it be, to arrive at an island from where no one could return on the same day

into the sky and escaped

was sure about, though, was that the footprints did not belong to Effie or Jet. Effie was too tall to have left them behind, while Jet... Jet would have never chosen to end her

doubt that

dark forest of tall pine trees, mist swirling between the ancient trunks. One shadow cautiously glided to the left, another to

Chained Isles were - so exploring it was going to take a lot of time. Especially because Sunny wanted to be careful and not expose his shadows

days... weeks,

no sign of

didn't find anything

slowly and cautiously, never letting their guard down. Although nothing had attacked

time in front of narrow stairs cut into the cliffside. The steps led all the way to the forest, by the looks

other. The stone stairs were too narrow to maintain their formation... if something attacked them while they were ascending

"Fiend, take the lead."

as the shield of the cohort. The Shadow did not seem too concerned with his task, either - with dark flames burning in his eyes, he moved to the front of the formation and stepped onto the

the stairs, Sunny walked behind Nephis. At some point, he noticed that she was paying a lot of attention to the stone steps disappearing