Shadow Slave

The Eastern Road had been built incredibly fast. By now, it reached far from Ravenheart, entering a new region of the Dream Realm.

The mountains were out of sight, and there was no ash falling from the sky. There was no human presence, either the barren wasteland stretched as far as the eye could see, with rolling hills and deep canyons breaking the landscape here and there.

Sometimes, without any warning, the deep canyons would suddenly let out a low, weeping roar. Then, they would overflow with rushing water and turn into countless rivers. Those rivers eventually merged far to the south, forming the Great Waterfall.

Since the cliffs of the waterfall resembled a beautiful face from a certain angle, especially under moonlight, it was also often called the Weeping Goddess.

That was where the Citadel of Clan Sorrow stood.

Clan Sorrow was an old one, and held a special position in the Song Domain — that was because the lake below the waterfall, known as the Lake of Tears, gave birth to a great river, which was similarly called the River of Tears. That river flowed through several regions of the Dream Realm, serving as a waterway for the Song Domain, while its estuary was on the dusky shores of the Stormsea.

Its significance had always been great, but now that isolated Citadels were turning into thriving cities, the importance of the River of Tears as the connective tissue of the Song Domain was impossible to underestimate.

The Citadel of Clan Sorrow was perched on the cliffs of the Great Waterfall, while the city it now governed was below it, on the shores of the Lake of Tears. It was now an important logistical hub…

Well, at least that was what Rain had heard. She had never been there herself, of course.

In any case, the great waterfall and the homestead of young Lady Tamar were far to the south. What concerned Rain now were the deep canyons they had to cross.

The area they were traversing was an inhospitable place. The soil was rocky, and the sun was small and distant. There was little snow, but the air was frigid and cold. There were ancient ruins here and there, rising from the ground like forlorn obelisks to the meaninglessness of life. All in all, it was a bleak land.

night, though, because there were three beautiful moons illuminating the starlit sky. That was the first time Rain

view,

itself was treacherous, as well, because one had to be careful not to plummet into

stone bridges built over the canyons once, but most of them long collapsed. The road crew would have to build new ones to lay down the

wasn't hard to guess that the road crew would finish its work soon. Rain was still unclear on why Queen Song wanted to build a road to

short, the survey team was

dozen mundane porters, several survey specialists, three Awakened, one Ascended Echo, and

to help push the carts with survey equipment during the day, and do camp chores at night. It could have been exhausting, but the

have been the most comfortable of the

suffering. Their boots were wet, their feet were blistered, they were either too cold or too hot, their bodies were tired from the strain of climbing over the canyons… but to her, it was

abominations in the wild. She was relaxed and comfortable, enjoying the forgiving pace and light responsibilities of a mundane

to fight

times the survey team was attacked, the three young Awakened had dealt with the danger confidently. Despite the small size of their cohort, they were well-matched to

teacher had warned her about, Ray, could hide his presence and

also of a higher quality than most Awakened would have access to, which helped her excel

Her Dormant Aspect Ability could alleviate fatigue, while her Awakened Ability could stem bleeding and speed up the healing

out of their league, the

a gift Tamar had received from her clan. Rain wasn't sure about the Class of the creature, but it seemed ferocious enough to deal with most

and enjoy her role as a helpless mundane