Shadow Slave

She studied the waters and put her hand on the hilt of her sword.

The enchanted scabbard was the same, but the blade it sheathed was different. The longsword bestowed upon her by the great clan Valor had been destroyed in Twilight, and replaced by the silver blade, which was currently molded to a similar shape.

That weapon was a reward Nephis received for slaying Soul Stealer — a Defiled Saint who had once been a prince of the same clan. Whether there was some symbolism to one replacing the other, Sunny did not know.

Nephis turned slightly, looking at Cassie, and asked:

"How long before we reach Verge?"

The blind girl was the best at steering the Chain Breaker, the most familiar with the slate map created by the sybils, and the one who had spent the most time among the River People. So, she was their navigator.

Cassie lingered for a moment..

"No more than two days, if we sail at moderate speed. More if we want to be truly careful… less if we want to abandon caution."

Noting the answer, Nephis glanced at Mordret:

"Is there danger close to us?"

The Prince of Nothing had been a bit cagey about the particulars of how his Aspect worked, but by now, they knew many things about it.

For example, the distance at which Sunny could control his shadows as an Ascended Terror was somewhere around twenty-four kilometers. His perception was limited to what the shadows perceived, though. Mordret's Dormant Ability, on the contrary, allowed him to perceive the world through any reflection within a similar range — adjusted for the fact that he was merely a Beast at the moment.

allowed him to

giant reflective surface, the Prince of

through their eyes and possess their body, wearing it as a costume. That Ability, too, would make him a priceless

few

It's… eerie. We'll see it soon, an area where the water is a little bit darker than usual. I would suggest avoiding that area completely, as well as any other

ahead, then

one day. Then, we will anchor the Chain

and then added in a steady

if we meet one, we can't let it escape alive and

were not equal to an order. Still, he felt a bit of a chill

But she was right.

did, indeed, know what to do. All of this had been discussed over and over again already. The cohort was prepared as well as it could have been, considering the lack of information about the state of

Torment…

Sunny frowned.

Verge, then? All of them had expected to be ambushed by the Defiled abominations the

And yet, nothing happened.

the Last Plague

he went about raising the ship's sails. They were going to sail on water, for now, to not be

Sunny knew about the great swarm of monstrous butterflies hiding somewhere out there, in that darkness, the night seemed

there were monsters hiding in the

the Nightmare Creatures they had usually fought upstream, and far more cunning. ?ìg??օ???w????~?օ?. Thankfully, the might of

and finished off by Kai, who was the fastest of them all.

Here near the Source, they were turbulent and unpredictable, often hiding fatal hazards. The Chain Breaker avoided the truly inescapable ones thanks to Cassie's intuition,