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.

Jet... can you tell us what has happened to

of tee, then smiled back

"Sure. Why not?"

eye grew a little

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

She sighed.

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

her head a little,

they were

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

Jet nodded somberly.

children for more than a year or two, and were expected to join the hunts immediately

She shook her head.

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

back, fed her crow Echo a grape, and

I came around, it could barely be called a tribe. There were maybe a dozen people

Her expression darkened slightly.

was happening, and how to 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

stretched and then winced, briefly

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

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

shrugged

to most enemies, 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. After about a week of

Reaper looked at the black bird and smiled. Then, her smile faded

reach

Cassie, then frowned

do you mean? How long have you been