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

took a sip of tee,

"Sure. Why not?"

blue eye grew

we've taken belonged to a tribe of river nomads. Their ancestors were the survivors

She sighed.

When Defiled or powerful Nightmare Creatures appeared, they ran. Actually, their way of life was really ingenious... and

tilted her head

nomads... they were

confused, too. How could Riverborn lead nomadic lives? Weren't they bound to

Jet nodded somberly.

that much, that quickly. 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, the older generation was sacrificed to let

She shook her head.

tribe where no one ever reached adulthood. They were all

Reaper leaned back, fed her crow

by the time Effie and I came around, it could barely be called a tribe. There were maybe a dozen people left. All the other nomad tribes

Her expression darkened slightly.

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

stretched and then winced, briefly touching one of

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

that Jet and Effie remained Outsiders despite having taken the

shrugged and

but the Drowned pursued us relentlessly, as if it 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.

bird and

to reach the island. And here we

at Cassie, then

mean? How long