Shadow Slave

The deepest level of the abandoned factory was dark and quiet, illuminated only by the light of radiant Memories. Usually, such enchanted lanterns looked warm and inviting, but as pieces of cement scraped under his feet in the dead silence, Sunny could not help but find their familiar radiance eerie instead.

There were no members of the Shadow Clan here, no government specialists, and no Fire Keepers either. The only people waiting for him at the end of a desolate hall were a blind seer and the last daughter of the Immortal Flame clan, the ruler of humanity herself — they were Nephis and Cassie, naturally, which temporarily made the old underground factory the most exalted place in all of existence.

Sunny greeted them somberly.

”Long time no see”

Nephis gave him a peculiar look, making him smile faintly.

He had, in fact, seen her this morning — naturally he had, considering that they always woke up together. However, even a few hours of separation could be considered a long time, and he was entitled to his subjective opinion.

Cassie simply nodded, then turned to a heavy metal door.

The cell where the prisoner was being held had been reinforced to contain an Awakened. There was a complicated weave of runes shimmering on the alloy, as well, having been drawn by Cassie herself to isolate this hidden space from the outside world. They did not know what kind of threat the prisoner could pose, exactly, so they had prepared for as many complications as they could.

Even though the man locked inside was hidden from view — or possibly because of it — the very sight of the imposing cell made Sunny feel a hint of an ominous premonition.

For some reason, he was reminded of the dungeon hidden under the ruined cathedral of the Dark City. It was there that he had found the ancient corpse of a Nightmare Spell priest, read the dreadful prayer to Weaver carved into the floor, and inherited Weaver’s Mask.

‘Hail Weaver, was it?’

They had worked hard to catch the man locked inside the enchanted cell.

“It’s a bit peculiar, isn’t it?”

Remembering all the efforts that went into arranging today’s interrogation, Sunny could not help but think about how incongruous it all was.

Here they were, putting in work hours to stave off the end of the world, as if it were the most mundane thing to do. At some point, world-ending threats had become the new norm, so much so that even the emergence of a creepy mind-altering Sovereign felt like nothing new... which was not to say that they underestimated how perilous the Dreamspawn really was. Sunny often saw Nephis standing on the balcony of the Ivory Tower, gazing down at the world below with a distant expression. Every time, he knew that her mind was elsewhere, lost in the billions of small flames burning brightly in the vast expanse of her splendid Domain.

Some of those flames grew brighter over time. New fires ignited in the darkness as children were born or learned about Changing Star and were inspired by her. But at the same time, too many flames were extinguished every day.

Nephis felt their absence, and even if she did not show it often, he knew that she grieved the loss of their light.

It was just that now, not all of the flames that disappeared necessarily meant that somewhere out of there, a person had died. Some of them, as Nephis suspected, simply ceased to be subjects of the Longing Domain, becoming servants of Asterion instead.

Her suspicions were not easy to prove, though.

Even if Nephis felt a connection to billions of people, it was not like she knew their names or their faces. Instead, she only knew their desires — the fragile flames of longing burning in their hearts. So even when compared against the list of documented deaths that happened across the two worlds on any given day, she could not determine if there was a missing flame not mentioned in the report.

So, they limited the list of potential turncoats from all of humanity to only the Awakened, going from billions of potential suspects to only slightly more than a million. Sadly, that proved to be too vast a number, as well.

Therefore, they changed tactics.

Although Nephis was connected to billions of people, sensing the flames of their longing, she could not fathom all of them at the same time. As a result, not everyone who called upon her healing light could receive its blessing. So, over the last month, Nephis was concentrating only on a small number of areas, making sure to extend her healing to everyone who needed it there. Naturally, the chosen areas were those where the bloodshed was most intense — the very tip of the subjugation crusade in the remote reaches of the Dream Realm east of the former Sword Domain, the frigid wastelands west of Raveneart, and the most perilous lengths of the Death Zone belt separating the two great human enclaves from each other.

By enduring the pain of her Aspect to heal as many wounded warriors as she could in these perilous areas, Nephis gave Sunny and Cassie an opportunity to find outliers among them — those Awakened who were grievously wounded in one of the ceaseless battles, but were not healed by the wondrous white flames.

And after monitoring those outliers for a short while, as well as using Cassie’s powers to stir Neph’s memories of their longing, they identified several as true subjects of Asterion’s Domain.

They were real sleeper agents that served the Dreamspawn, as opposed to those who were merely infected by his name.

The discovery was quite disturbing, since there were more of them than they had suspected. None had shown any signs of being disloyal to the Human Domain or their comrades, either. Worse still, the hidden thralls were spread out evenly among various armies of humanity, proving that the malignant tumor of Asterion’s corruption had spread too deep and too wide to be incised.

And eerily, these turncoats were not showing any signs of abnormal behavior, going about their lives as if nothing was out of place. If not for their absence from the sea of flames of the Longing Domain, they would have never been discovered.

The rest was relatively easy. Sunny sent a team of Shadow Clan members to capture one of the Awakened thralls and bring him here, to this abandoned factory in NQSC. His people had accomplished the task easily... to easily, even, as June admitted. Glancing at Nephis and Cassie, he lingered for a few seconds, then asked in a quiet tone:

”When is Kai arriving?”

Cassie responded after a short pause.

”He’s already in NQSC. Five more minutes, and he’ll be here.’

They needed Kai’s help to make sure that the thrall was telling the truth.

Sunny inhaled deeply.

”Well, then. Shall we get some answers?” Nephis nodded somberly.

”Let’s get answers, indeed.”