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.

a bit. But first, Jet... can you tell us what has happened to you

of tee,

"Sure. Why not?"

eye grew

three of you must know more about this place than we do. Look, you even have a ship! Effie and I... we weren't that lucky. The people whose roles 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

She sighed.

sea creatures as steeds and hunted weaker abominations for sustenance. When Defiled or powerful Nightmare Creatures appeared, they ran. Actually, their way of life was really ingenious... and tenacious. I have never even thought that it was possible, for humans to live entirely in the

her 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.

The nomads lived very 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 were expected to join the hunts immediately after. If there was danger,

She shook her head.

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

fed her crow Echo a grape, and

There were maybe a dozen people left. All the

Her expression darkened slightly.

conquer the Nightmare. It took us some time to learn how to live the lives of the Great River nomads. In the process, we also learned from the surviving tribesmen about the Tomb of Ariel, the Great River, the Defilement, and the fall of the River

stretched and then winced, briefly touching

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 a point in trying to run. In the battle,

Jet and Effie remained Outsiders despite having taken the roles of two Riverborn people. It was an interesting

she shrugged

also been wounded in the battle, so they were gradually slowing down. After about a

black bird

were separated while trying to reach the island. And here we are,

at Cassie, then frowned

you mean? How long have you been