Shadow Slave

1529 Worm of Doubt
The conversation with Mordret left Sunny in a somber mood. The bastard clearly
knew more than he had deemed necessary to share, but the few pieces of
information he did offer were... concerning.
However, Sunny did not dwell on the distant threat of the Sovereigns for long. He
did not have the luxury of worrying about something waiting far in the future when
there were lethal dangers waiting for him in the present...
Or past, technically, considering that Verge was situated far downstream, as
close to the Source and the Estuary as the Seekers of Truth had been able to
build it, before the Defilement was born.
Not long after he talked with Mordret, the Chain Breaker was attacked for the first
time since leaving Twilight. The cohort dealt with the swarm of the Drowned with
comparative ease, allowing him to collect a few soul shards and for Jet to
replenish her reserves of essence.
After that, they maintained a battle-ready schedule at all times. Sunny's Shadows
stood guard at different points of the ship day and night. Nephis and Cassie took
turns steering the graceful vessel, keeping it at low altitude, sometimes just
above the flowing water. Jet's crow and Kai scouted ahead for signs of
approaching danger.
The most useful scout, however, was none other than Mordret. With his ability to
perceive the world through reflections and the vast expanse of water around
them, he could see far and wide, warning them of any suspicious movement far
in advance.
They did not have to fight too often. Sometimes, danger came from below the
water, and sometimes, it came from the sky. But most of the time, the Great River
remained calm and peaceful, leaving them with plenty of free time on their hands.
Knowing that the cohort was drawing closer and closer to the inevitable attack on
Verge with each passing day, Sunny threw himself into weaving.
There was a lot for him to do.
He had five Supreme soul shards, which meant that five of the Transcendent
Memories the cohort possessed could be potentially elevated to a higher Rank.
The first thing Sunny had to do was choose what Memories to alter.
He chose the first two rather quickly. They were the Transcendent armors Effie
and Kai had received in the Second Nightmare — the former after slaying the
Sun Prince, the latter after slaying the Ivory Lord, Dragon Sevirax.
Both were potent and possessed tremendously robust weaves, making the
possibility of the alterations damaging or destroying them slim. Best of all, they
were Memories of the First Tier, so a single soul shard was enough to change
their Rank completely.
The third Memory Sunny decided on was somewhat of a harder choice — it was
the Transcendent weapon of the Seventh Tier Nephis had received for slaying
Soul Stealer.
The weapon, which could take many forms, possessed several insidious
enchantments. In a sense, it was similar to the Cruel Sight, but much more
versatile, destructive, and potent. Because of the similarities between the two
silver blades, Sunny had an easier time studying its weave. Therefore, he had a
better chance of transplanting a new nexus.
Sadly, transplanting seven was currently beyond his abilities — not that he had
enough Supreme soul shards. However, Sunny decided to attempt isolating a
single enchantment and supplying that enchantment alone with the power equal
to that of a Supreme Memory — thus creating a strange and unheard-of Memory
of a hybrid Rank.
The enchantment he chose was responsible for channeling elemental damage,
as well as protecting the blade from harm. Considering Neph's propensity for
destroying her Memories with her own flame, or simply by exposing them to too
much punishment, that single improvement would serve her very well in the
future.
The remaining two Memories he decided to alter had also been received by
Nephis in Twilight. Both of them were of Transcendent Memories of the First Tier
— one was an arrow, while the other was a charm.
The arrow possessed a simple enchantment that enhanced the force delivered
by its impact, and could also shape that force into a flat, severing field. The
charm was a more complicated one, and served to enhance the material
properties of other objects — making weapons sharper, armor more durable, and
s0 on.
With that arrangement, two of his companions would be better protected, two
would be capable of delivering more harm to the enemy, and one would be able
to better support the rest of the cohort in any kind of situation.
With his plans set, Sunny began the work — studying the weaves of the chosen
Memories in great detail, creating threads of shadow essence, and preparing
himself for the alterations was going to take him a long while. He hoped to be
done with the process by the time they reached Fallen Grace, and if that failed,
then at least before they reached Verge.
Days passed with him being completely concentrated on the task. Strangely
enough, studying the unfamiliar weaves also gave him some inspiration for his
own unrelated project — the complicated puzzle of turning the Covetous Coffer
into a semblance of an Echo.
For a while, Sunny was fully engrossed in the mysteries of weaving, not paying
attention to anything else — except for occasional attacks on the Chain Breaker.
...Slowly, however, a note of dissonance invaded his focused mind. Sunny was
reluctant to pay it much attention at first, but with each passing day, the worm of
doubt that had entered his mind continued to grow harder to ignore.
Especially because the Sin of Solace did not miss any opportunity to remind him
of that small contradiction.
The thought gnawing at Sunny's mind was a seemingly innocent question...
"How did Cassie survive the explosion that consumed Twilight?"
At first, he had not paid that detail any attention, simply being glad and relieved
that the blind girl was alive. But the more time passed, the more it bothered
Sunny, for some reason.
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Except for Mordret, who had been
sent back to his physical body, all
members of the diag
t ownRutohite irror realm in
approximately the same location —
past the open space where they had
met Soul Stealer, near the inner
districts of the city. The content is on
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chapter there!
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From there, Nephis had made her
way to the palace. Cassie, however,
had somehow Sages py nearcthe!!
NA ofthe SitfBwth the explosion
happened. She then dove deep into
the still water beyond the gates to
save herself, as well as Effie and Jet,
from the obliterating blast. The
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the latest chapter there!
But how had she found herself all the way near the wall of Twilight?
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It had to have been immensely
difficult to fight her way through the

c '
flood of Soul Stealer's vesselspnd
the res aboninations of the
Defiled orde. The distance between
where the cohort had found
themselves and the outer limits of
the city was much greater than the
distance to the palace... The content
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chapter there!
Cassie couldn't have reached the water by accident. So how had she done it?
There was only one reasonable answer...
It was that Cassie's goal had always been to escape the city.
Which meant that she had known what would happen all along.