Shadow Slave

"...The Well of Wishes."

Sunny stared at Cassie with an incredulous expression, struggling to understand what her words meant.

'What is she talking…'

Then, his face changed slightly, a hint of confusion and ridicule appearing in his eyes.

"The… the children's story? The fairy tale about a magical well that grants the most precious wish of anyone who reaches it? Are you… are you out of your mind?"

Sunny took a step back, barely avoiding falling out of the ketch. His mind was full of bewilderment and disbelief.

"Come… come on! You can't possibly be serious! You don't believe that it's true, do you?!".

That was the fairy tale Ananke had told him, not long before her death. Sunny remembered it well… but he had never expected to hear Cassie, someone so smart and pragmatic, put her hopes in a children's story about a magic well!

The blind seer, however, did not seem affected by his ridiculing tone. She faced Sunny calmly, her face somber.

After a while, Cassie gritted her teeth and said, her voice steady:

"It might not be true for anyone else. But it's true for you, Sunny. If you reach the Estuary… your wish to be free will come true. Free of your bond, free to live your life the way you want. Free of fate itself."

lingered for a moment, then rose to her feet, too, and walked closer, stopping

the Estuary from here, but once the Nightmare is over, your chance will be gone. The moment Nephis destroys the First

smiled bitterly and raised the Guiding Light, offering it to

truly angry about, wasn't it? That I

pushed the sacred relic into his

can leave and rush to the Estuary… the Guiding Light will show you the way through the mists of the Source, as long as you don't give another True Name to it. Once you reach the Estuary, use

lingered for a moment, and then added in

you know by now that it's not. What is unbearable is not having been given a choice

felt empty, as

can get rid of Shadow Bond if I reach the Estuary?

frowned a little, then shook

without a shadow of a doubt, is that my words are true. If you reach the very heart of the Estuary before the Nightmare ends, you will become free from fate. You will be fateless. ?ìg??օ???w????~?օ?. The strings that hold you like a puppet will set you free, and your connection to Nephis will be broken as a result.

He frowned.

it sound exactly like what killed Nephis the last time? The Mad Prince, he… he was… he was obsessed with

of the Estuary. If there was indeed a way

with regaining his freedom as he was, would have given

by all his previous selves only served to give credence

was also why Nephis had died in the cycle that birthed

girl, however, shook

though, was engineered by Torment and him specifically to make sure that all members of the cohort survive. Whether you find the Estuary or not, there are mere days left before Nephis