Shadow Slave

Eventually, Rain reached one of the roads leading from the lowlands to the city. These mountain roads had been in use from before the Chain of Nightmares... it was hard to remember now after the population of Ravenheart exploded to many millions, but it had been a Great Citadel even prior to that.

The roads leading to the great bridge, and the beautiful palace beyond it, were actually thousands of years old. Granted, they had been in a state of desolation and disrepair when the Song clan made the ancient Citadel their home.

The Awakened of the great Legacy clan had restored them to their former glory, and the whole network was further expanded to account for the increased traffic in the past four years.

Now, heavily protected road crews were far away from the Citadel, building safe highways to other cities within the Song Domain. Many Awakened with Utility Aspects were participating in the construction, and many warriors were employed to defend the moving builder camps from the roving Nightmare Creatures. Rain had even tried to get hired for one of the crews, but no one wanted to employ a mundane fighter.

The best they could do was remain polite and not laugh in her face,

‘Ah…’

She couldn't really blame them. In any case, now that she had reached the wide and well-maintained road, the rest of the ascent would become much easier. There was probably a metaphor about the unnecessary hardships of walking the untrodden path somewhere in there, but Rain wasn't going to start complaining to her teacher again.

He had retreated into her shadow, anyway, unwilling to be seen by other people.

Rain rested for a bit, quenched her thirst from a military canteen, and continued on her way.

or returning from their shifts, Song warriors on patrols, caravans loaded with heavy

the vast human jungle of NQSC, so Ravenheart did not seem that large, in comparison. However, it somehow felt much more vibrant. Its atmosphere was entirely different, as though everyone here was looking

including her younger siblings, into the Dream Realm. Sure, her father had been offered a new position as one of the government liaisons in the Song Domain, which was technically a

it, to uproot the family, abandon the safety and modern convenience of NQSC, and tie the lives of their children to the Dream Realm? Returning to the waking world or leaving the Domain meant being sent into the First Nightmare, after all. No matter how well-prepared you were, it was a deadly

they wanted to move to Ravenheart, her father

where

he had meant. The

was incomparably more populous and developed than the Dream Realm... but in a generation or two, their positions would be reversed. Eventually, the dying birthplace

who had left the cradle early would have an advantage in that future. So, the decision her parents had made was ultimately for the sake of Rain and her siblings. It was all to give them a head

survive in the Dream

was not a given, despite the power of

pulled by Awakened, who were much stronger and

being pulled by...

hideous beast that resembled a nightmarish fusion of a carnivorous bull and a horned reptile was attached

Realm, or any other kind of cattle. However, here in Ravenheart, Nightmare Creatures

ease the lives of the citizens of Ravenheart. If not for her, the development of the city, and the Song Domain as a whole, would