Shadow Slave

The three women looked at him expectedly. Sunny hesitated for a few moments.

"You know where we are, right, Jet? In general, I mean."

Taking the cup of tea and cradling it in her hands, she nodded.

"Yeah... we are inside that weird pyramid. Somehow. This place is the Great River, which is supposed to flow endlessly from the future into the past."

He sighed in relief. It seemed that Effie and Jet had learned a few things about the nature of the Third Nightmare, as well.

"Indeed. Because of the nature of the Great River, there are all kinds of strange things happening to time in this Nightmare. For example... Nephis and I have been here for about four months now. But Cassie has been here for more than a year."

Nephis and Cassie nodded calmly, since they had already known that fact. Jet, however, seemed perplexed.

"What?"

Sunny looked at her, lingered for a moment, and said:

"Yeah. What about you?"

Soul Reaper suddenly seemed uncertain. He touched her hair briefly, then blinked a couple times.

"About... two months? Effie and I were sent to the same place, two months ago."

This time, it was Neph's and Cassie's turn to look stunned.

"How can that be?"

Sunny smiled faintly.

But first, Jet... can

a sip of tee, then

"Sure. Why not?"

eye grew a

we've taken belonged to a tribe of river nomads. Their ancestors were the survivors of one of the destroyed cities, I think, but these guys... they had already regressed into abject savagery. Which is not that

She sighed.

creatures as steeds and hunted weaker abominations for sustenance. When Defiled or powerful Nightmare Creatures appeared, they ran. Actually, their way of life was

head a little,

they were

was confused, too. How could Riverborn lead nomadic lives? Weren't they bound to a span of the Great River they

Jet nodded somberly.

short lives, you see. No generation lasted more than a couple of decades. They rarely remained as children for more than a year or two, and

She shook her head.

was a tribe where no one ever reached adulthood. They were all

her crow Echo

were maybe a dozen people left. All the other nomad tribes seemed to have gone extinct already, as well. We were most likely the

Her expression darkened slightly.

It took us some time to learn how to live the lives of the Great River nomads. In

then winced, briefly touching

went if not well, then at least alright until we stumbled on an especially powerful swarm of the Drowned. Our tribe... at that point, there were no children among the nomads anymore, so there was not even

and Effie remained Outsiders despite having taken the roles of two Riverborn

she shrugged and

was their life's mission to obliterate all nomads. The sea creatures we rode had also been wounded in the battle, so they were gradually slowing down. After about a week of running away and fighting pitched battles with those bastards, we got lost in

black bird and smiled. Then, her smile

separated while trying to reach the

Cassie,

How long have you been