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.

was the first time Rain had

to enjoy the view, though, because the Moonriver Plain was

of Nightmare Creatures stalking the deep canyons and nesting in the old ruins. The terrain itself was treacherous, as well, because one had to be careful not to plummet into the

the canyons once, but most of them long collapsed. The road crew would have to build new ones to lay down the road, which was why

its work soon. Rain was still unclear on why Queen Song wanted to build

survey team was struggling to

porters, several survey specialists, three Awakened, one

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

might have been the most comfortable of the survey team

too hot, their bodies were tired from the strain of climbing over the canyons… but to her, it was like a relaxed walk. A vacation, really — doing construction work at the main camp had been much

to her rich experience of hunting abominations in the wild. She was relaxed and comfortable,

was no need to fight

Awakened had dealt with the danger confidently. Despite the small size of their cohort, they were well-matched to face the dangers of

his presence and even turn invisible. That alone allowed them to deal with

as the bulwark of the small cohort, Her Memories were also of a higher quality than most Awakened would have

healer. Her Dormant Aspect Ability could alleviate fatigue, while her Awakened Ability could stem

three faced something out of their league,

like a giant, monstrous wolf, and was 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

just relax and enjoy her role as a