Shadow Slave

In the next week or so, things moved with terrible speed.

Nephis became the ruler of the Bright Castle without any type of glorious ceremony or impassioned speech. No one questioned her authority, anyway, as though it was a simple fact of life.

In a sense, it was.

Sunny found it interesting, however, that she didn't take her seat on the white throne of the ancient citadel once. Even when there was a need for a large gathering, Changing Star sat on the last step of the stairs leading to the throne. As if making a point to show that the Bright Castle did not belong to her… or, perhaps, that she did not belong to the Bright Castle.

At first, he was sure that Nephis was going to push people to march on the Crimson Spire immediately, but she didn't even mention it. When he confronted her about her plans, she simply said that they were going to wait until the winter solstice came before making any decisions.

It was just a few days away, anyway. In the meantime, everyone who was left alive had a lot to do.

There were just five hundred people in the Dark City now. In less than a month, the human population of the Forgotten Shore had been reduced by half. The outer settlement remained completely abandoned, but even then, there were barely enough people to maintain and guard the Bright Castle.

Nevertheless, they persevered.

The halls and corridors of the ancient citadel were cleaned of blood and corpses. The Nightmare Creatures that had found their way inside were methodically hunted down and eliminated. The breaches in the defensive lines they had created were located and repaired.

Neph's watchmen assumed the role of the obliterated Castle Guard, manning the walls and protecting the stronghold from outside threats. The hunting parties resumed their expeditions into the ruins, with hunters from the outer settlement and the Castle joining forces under the leadership of Effie and Gemma. Once again, there was food for everyone to eat and safety to enjoy.

Despite the harrowing hollowness and the absence of so many young men and women who had died in the turmoil of the bloody struggle for the throne, not to mention the invisible scars left on the souls of those who had survived, things were slowly starting to resemble how they had been before.

But behind this veil of normalcy, they were anything but. And the reason for that was Changing Star and her Crown of Dawn.

With the help of the miraculous Shard Memory, humans of the Dark City were now able to not only hunt more Nightmare Creatures and with less risk, but also challenge Fallen rulers of the cursed ruins. Not every one of these terrifying creatures could be killed without paying too terrible a price, of course. But after so many years on the Forgotten Shore, experienced Hunters knew a lot about various horrors populating the city. Putting the knowledge together, they determined which ones they could challenge and survive.

One after another, many powerful Nightmare Creatures were tracked down and slain. Suddenly, humans have become if not the apex species in the Dark City, then at least not the weakest one.

By killing Fallen abominations, Nephis was achieving several goals simultaneously. She was steadily accumulating an arsenal of Memories to arm every person in the Castle. Some of those Memories were even of the Ascended Rank, and the number of such powerful armaments slowly grew.

She and her warriors also brought back large quantities of soul shards, which were then given to the inhabitants of the Castle to absorb and grow stronger.

In an ironic twist of fate, it appeared as though now, it was the Bright Lady who was paying tribute to her subjects, and not the other way around.

This only made the respect and adoration people felt toward her grow stronger.

But most importantly, perhaps, was the fact that through these hunts, she was training her people to fight together as a cohesive force and prevail against creatures that were much more powerful than them.

Guided by Cassie, the surviving Artisans were hard at work, too. They were applying their mastery and craft to close any gaps in how the humans of the Dark City were equipped and supplied for the battle against the Dream Realm. However, the nature of their tasks was drastically different now.

If they had been in charge of maintaining the lifestyle of people leaving in the Castle as much as working to supply Gunlaug's Host with gear and equipment, now their only job was to create things people were going to need in battle.

It was as though they were preparing for war.

There were a few large projects that the Artisans were working on that Sunny knew little about, too. These things were requested from them by Nephis herself. He suspected that they were going to become useful once the time to attack the Crimson Spire finally came.

...Just like that, the winter solstice came.

On this day, exactly a year ago, Sunny had arrived on the Forgotten Shore. It was hard to believe that he had survived here for so long. That any of them had. But it also seemed as though one year was not enough to encompass it all.

It felt more like a lifetime. Several lifetimes, perhaps…

It was also on this day, a year later, that Sunny turned eighteen.

Remembering his previous birthday, a slight smile appeared on his lips. Back then, Cassie, who had been a complete stranger, offered him unexpected congratulations. He also made plans to celebrate his next birthday as an Awakened by drinking a cup of coffee with lots of milk and sugar.

Those dreams were not meant to come true.

Instead, Sunny met his eighteenth birthday in an empty hall of the Tower of Dusk, practicing the steps of the Shadow Dance, sweat streaming down his lithe and strong body.

These days, he felt that he was almost there. Just a little bit more, and the first level of mastery over his mysterious Aspect Legacy would be his. It was already in reach.

One more thing happened on that day.

As Sunny continued to train, the subtly familiar voice of the Spell suddenly whispered into his ear:

[...Your Shadow has evolved.]