Sunny remained on the porch for a while longer, thinking about nothing in particular.
He wondered about the future, and about the past.
What had happened to the real Noctis? What had happened to the real Hope? What had really happened to her cursed kingdom?
He had seen the corpses of Sevras and Sun Prince in the Dream Realm. However, Solvane had still been alive. The Obsidian and the Ivory knives had never been used, hinting that the real events of the liberation of Hope had been both similar and vastly different from how they had transpired in the Nightmare.
Had Noctis succeeded in his ambition to make a deal with Weaver? Had the Demon of Fate helped him find a way to break the eternal shackles of Hope without using the knives?
If so… had the sorcerer, perhaps, survived his mad rebellion?
What price had he paid?
Of course, Sunny knew that there were no answers to his questions. He was never going to learn the truth. The events he had lived through in the Nightmare were too distant, and shrouded in too much mystery for him to discover it.
…As he thought about all these things, a familiar figure suddenly appeared on the crosswalk.
A teenage girl with pale skin and black hair was walking back from school, a somber expression on her face.
Noticing Sunny, she froze for a second, and then suddenly sprinted over.
Halfway to the porch, Rain remembered herself and slowed down, awkwardly trying to hide her excitement.
She stopped near Sunny, hesitated for a moment, and then hit him on the shoulder with her little fist.
“Where… where the hell have you been? Are you back? You were gone for so long!”
Sunny leaned back and grinned.
“Hey, Rain. Of course, I am back. Can’t you see? As for where I was… I just visited a temple. Then, I went on a little cruise. Then, I visited a couple of towers, spent some time in a theater, befriended a horse, lived in another temple for a while. Finally, I visited a very pretty city and got to know its rulers. Why? Did you miss me?”
Rain stared at him for a few moments, then scoffed.
“Me? Ha! Why would I miss you, of all people?!”
She grew silent, looked down, and then added shyly:
“Well… maybe I did miss you… a tiny bit. My new tutor is a very respectable Awakened, but he is not at all as fun as you.”
Sunny looked at her for a few moments, and then smiled:
“An Awakened, huh? What a pity. I am a Master now.”
Rain froze and threw a shocked glance at him.
“You are a Master? As in… an Ascended? Wait… what?”
His smile slowly grew smug.
“Indeed, I am. Do you know what that means?”
She hesitated.
“What?”
Sunny leaned forward and said in a friendly tone:
“Why, it means that my lessons will be much more expensive, of course!”
He laughed, then grew silent, and added after a short pause:
“Oh, also… I might have missed you a tiny bit, too…”
***
…A dark river flowed through a cavernous expanse of black stone. Fog nestled on the water, stifling its quiet murmurs and veiling everything in white. A lone source of light was traveling through the fog, tearing a path through it.
It was a slender gondola cut from onyx, with a glass lantern hanging on its bow. A pristine white flame burned within the lantern, straining against the confines of its crystal prison. The fog opened up before the gondola, and then silently closed behind.
A young woman with silver hair and ivory skin was curled into a ball, sleeping on the bottom of the onyx boat. In the stark light of the lantern, her face seemed deathly pale and vulnerable.
On the stern of the gondola stood a skeleton dressed in rags. He was working the oar, staring into the fog or at the young woman. Despite the fact that the skeleton had no lungs, no lips, and no tongue, he was humming a song.
“One day the gods will fall
And reveal their lie
The one who sleeps will awaken
To devour his children
Oh, and us all
That which was forgotten
Will be remembered
And consume the world
Oh, all of us will dream
The nightmare
Of the Forgotten God…”
As he sang, the young woman stirred, and then slowly opened her eyes. The skeleton grew silent, glanced at her, then said:
“Good morning, creature. How have you slept?”
She sat up straight and did not answer, staring at the skeleton with tired grey eyes.
The boatman waited for a bit, then shrugged.
“Are you feeling well? You… you have not been speaking much these past few weeks, creature. Has your mind finally gone?”
The young woman remained silent, making the skeleton uncomfortable. He shook his head.
“Huh… something about you feels different today. Your shadow… it seems to have grown deeper? How peculiar!”
There was no answer.
They continued to sail in silence for a while. Slowly, the fog receded, revealing a black shore. The skeleton changed the course of the boat and let it drift until its bottom scraped against the rock.
There, he let go of the oar and sighed.
“This is it, creature. That is as far as I go.”
The young woman remained motionless for a while, then stood up and touched the lantern, letting the white flame travel from it to her palm. After that, she jumped onto the shore, staggered, and slowly straightened herself, looking into the darkness.
Finally, she spoke:
“How close are we to that place?”
The skeleton shrugged.
“Close enough, I’d wager. Uh… sorry for lying to you, by the way. In my defense, you only have yourself to blame, creature! Who would be foolish enough to believe that anyone can cross the Underworld? This place is not for the likes of us to traverse. Getting this close to its inner border is already a miracle.”
He hesitated for a while, then added:
“Are you sure that you want to go on? There are worse fates than death, creature. Trust me… I should know.”
The young woman glanced at him, then asked:
“What about you? What will you do?”
The skeleton laughed.
“Me? Oh, I don’t know. Now that I’ve been taken off that damned tree, there’s not much time left for me to exist. Maybe I’ll try to find what remains of the Shadow Realm, to have a proper death. Maybe I’ll just go back and tease Azarax for a while, one last time. That fellow was really insufferable, you know. Spending an eternity in his company was the greatest punishment of all! A piece of advice… choose your eternal companions carefully, creature.”
The young woman lingered for a few moments, then nodded and walked into the darkness. Her steps were steady.
Then, without turning her head, she said:
“Thank you, Eurys. Farewell.”
The skeleton watched her go, and then sighed.
“What a foolish abomination… still, I wish her luck. Even though I don’t know what she seeks, I hope she finds it.”
As the young woman walked further and further away, the light of her flame grew distant and dim. The darkness surrounded the skeleton, and the white fog flowed slowly in his direction, as if wishing to consume him.
Eurys watched the fog draw closer, and then sighed again.
“…She is not as foolish as me, at least.”
Then, the white mist swallowed him, and his voice abruptly fell quiet.
Soon, impenetrable darkness reigned the cold river once again.
…And far in the distance, a lonely spark of light continued to climb higher and higher, soon disappearing from view.
[End of volume four: Chain Breaker.]
The end is here! :]
I hope you have enjoyed the fourth volume of Shadow Slave. I will take a day off to drink a cup of tea, and return with the first chapters of volume five the day after tomorrow.
Cheers!
