Shadow Slave

”Let me tell you, Crow Crow... those daemons all had a thing for unnecessarily huge structures. Why are all their Citadels so stupidly huge? No, really, what were they compensating for?”

Sitting in the crow’s nest of the main mast of the Night Garden, countless kilometers above the surface of the ocean, Sunny glanced at the horizon with a bitter expression. Actually, no one was crazy enough to get this high, especially because the masts of the titanic ship were designed to attract lightning, so he could enjoy some privacy here.

Which he did after spending a long, long time fruitlessly searching the endless expanse of the gargantuan ship for traces of Weaver.

Crow Crow tilted its head and gave him a contemplative look, then opened its beak.

”Crow! Crow!”

Sunny sighed.

”Exactly! You make a good point. And what about their own size? Don’t they have the decency to stick to one size, at least? Slayer did not seem that much shorter than Weaver in the vision... so why the hell was Weaver’s reflection a hundred meters tall? What is that about, huh?”

The tiny bird stared at him with its glistening black eyes.

”Short! Short!”

Sunny scowled.

”Who are you calling short, you soot-covered rook? Let me tell you, I can be as tall as I want! I am just choosing to be this size! A hundred metres is nothing...”

Crow Crow gave him a pitying look and cawed, as if proving the point:

”Soot! Soot!”

Sunny scoffed and glanced away.

The coast of Australia, which used to be visible beyond the starboard of the Night Garden, was now almost behind them. And on the water below, a naval convoy of dozens of immense battleships was slowly moving into formation behind the Great Citadel’s wide bow.

Well, the battleships had seemed immense when Sunny first saw them, all the way at the start of the Chain of Nightmares. Now, hiding in the shadow cast by the hull of the Night Garden, the alloy behemoths looked like a flock of clumsy ducklings following the mama duck.

Sunny saw a few familiar figures, as well. On one side of the convoy, a giant killer whale briefly breached the surface of the water, then dove into the depths again. On the other side, a gargantuan sea serpent cut the waves with the spikes of its long dorsal fin while accelerating to catch up with the titanic ship.

Soon enough, the serpent disappeared, and a man climbed the series of rope ladders to the deck of the Night Garden, careful not to touch the surface of the hull.

By the time Naeve reached the deck, Jet was already waiting for him, having descended from the runic hall as a torrent of flowing mist.

Someone else was waiting for the Saint of Night there, as well — a teenage girl with hair that glistened with an indigo sheen in the warm sunlight.

”Dad!”

Sensing the movement of their shadows, Sunny scratched the back of his head.

”Who’s the girl?”

His eyes widened.

“Wait, is that Naeve’s daughter? What... when did she become a teenager? I could have sworn that she was five just a few years ago!”

He glanced at Crow Crow and coughed in embarrassment.

”Well, I suppose that is how aging works... wait, how old is Naeve?”

Raising a hand, he began counting on his fingers. When his fingers proved insufficient, he summoned a few shadow hands and continued counting on them.

“Goodness gracious, what a fossil.”

It was good that Jet could not hear him, because according to his calculations, they were the same age.

Sunny gave Crow Crow a suspicious look.

”You are not going to rat me out, are you?”

Crow Crow flapped its wings.

”Rat! Rat!”

...Whatever that was supposed to mean.

Naeve, who had been absent from the Night Garden to guard the refugee ships, gave his daughter a hug and patted her on the head. Then, he turned to Jet. ᚱἈŊốʙÈŠ

“Everyone is accounted for, so we are ready to depart as soon as the details of the defensive formation are decided. The diviners have not sensed any powerful nightmare creatures moving along our chosen route, either. I have the report with the exact numbers with me, so should we discuss it now? Oh, there is also a small issue with supplies...”

His daughter crossed her arms and pouted.

”Daaaad.”

Naeve fell silent for a moment.

“Or we can discuss it in an... hour?”

Sunny sighed.

“Alas, I don’t have a cute daughter to help me slack off. Yet. Anyway, back to work...”

Crow Crow let out a caw of affirmation.

Closing his eyes, Sunny concentrated on exploring the Night Garden with his shadow sense. The little bird, meanwhile, grew bored with his company and went on a patrol across the highest horizontal beam of the main mast, waddling along its edge with an exceedingly serious look.

Soon enough, the Night Garden began to move again, heading north. The battleships fell into formation behind it, and before too long, the coast of Australia disappeared from view.

There was nothing but open water around them.

The first time Sunny had crossed the ocean, it had been a nerve-wracking affair. The battleship felt like an alloy coffin, and he could not help but feel wary, knowing the only thing that separated him from the watery depths was a few layers of mundane metal.

The naval convoy had been attacked by Nightmare Creatures countless times, as well, once even coming closer to losing several ships.

Now, Sunny felt much safer — so safe, in fact, that he did not see a reason to worry at all. Not only was he a Sovereign, but he was also sailing on the Night Garden. The titanic ship was not exactly invincible, but there was nothing in the Indian Ocean that could seriously harm it, let alone sink it.

The Stormsea, on the other hand...

‘Let’s hope that I find what I am looking for before we return to the Dream Realm.’

Despite Sunny’s hopes, however, he did not. No matter how meticulously he explored the Night Garden, there was no trace of anything left behind by Weaver. His blood did not react at all, and even his intuition remained silent.

It was as if there was no clue anywhere on the ship at all.

With each day that passed without producing a result, Sunny’s mood turned more somber. Eventually, he had to admit something that he had been avoiding all along.

‘I think... I will have to use that thing to locate Weaver’s traces.’

Just thinking about it made him shiver.