Shadow Slave

It did not take long to discuss the details of their agreement with Cassie. She was wary of him, somewhat, but Sunny held the overwhelming advantage in the negotiations. After all, he had what she wanted, and knew more than her on top of that. It wasn't hard for him to get the blind seer to agree to his conditions.

She could not stay for long, either - at least not without risking her absence being noticed by someone from Clan Valor. Cassie did not want to attract their attention to Sunny, yet, or maybe ever. That suited him fine, as well.

‘What a strange birthday I'm having this year...'

When Cassie left, Sunny was once again left alone in the Brilliant Emporium. The city had grown dark, and a peaceful silence settled over the lake. He could see the magnificent castle shine with enchanted lights in the distance, the lanterns reflecting in the calm water like stars.

...Of course, that castle was just an illusion.

Or rather, not just an illusion, but a very special one. The kind of illusion that was, for all intents and purposes, real - more real than reality itself, even. Most of the people who lived inside the castle did not know the difference, since it did not affect their lives,

But Sunny knew,

There was a different kind of place hidden behind the beautiful, towering edifice of Bastion. A much more somber and terrifying place than what everyone was familiar with.

That was where he wanted to get to with Cassie's help.

strongholds depicted on the map Nether had left in the Ebony Tower, each connected to one of the daemons. After visiting the tower once more and reading more of the forbidden runes surrounding the map, Sunny was keenly interested in exploring each of these strongholds. One could even say that

Hope. The Tomb of Ariel was the burial

Hollow Mountains. He had barely survived crossing over them, and was not nearly powerful enough, yet, to dare

three daemonic strongholds for him to explore. Coincidentally or maybe not quite so each of them was now a Great Citadel ruled by one of the most

Demon of Dread. Sunny had been searching for a way

Night, meanwhile, was temporarily out of reach - he did not have a spare avatar to go

essence. The Lord of Shadows remained manifested permanently, but that guy also spent most of his time inside the Fragment of the Shadow Realm. Out there, the spirit

shadow, but had to be controlled at all times. In the end, Sunny was maintaining a positive balance between expending and replenishing essence while

he had decided to leave the Great Citadel of the House of Night, which was connected to the Demon of Repose,

left Bastion, which had once belonged to the Demon of

powers. From what he could tell, the Demon of Imagination had been a master of

sense, it was. The beautiful castle, the tranquil lake, the picturesque land surrounding it all of it had been conjured from the imagination of the ancient daemon. The Demon of Imagination was long dead,

even become home to

was looking for in the pretty mirage, though. He could only find it in the harrowing reality

place could only be entered during a full moon at least by those who did not rule the illusory Citadel. That was why he

before the next full moon, though, which would give both of them plenty of time to digest the situation. Cassie had