Shadow Slave

It did not take them long to travel to Vanishing Lake — Tamar summoned her Echo, the grotesque wolf, while Telle summoned the griffin she had inherited from her mother. June had a mount, as well — it was a sleek Echo that would have doubtlessly turned heads on the streets of Bastion if he ever wanted to draw attention to himself.

Rain rode the wolf Echo with Tamar. She had already brought her friends up to speed with the current events, so it was time to satiate her own curiosity.

“Your Nightmare lasted for a long while. What, exactly, happened there?”

Tamar did not answer immediately. Eventually, she sighed.

“It took place here, in Mictlan… in Godgrave, I mean. Only not the Godgrave we know — in Godgrave that existed once, a long time ago, before the sky above it was covered by a veil of clouds.”

She remained silent for a moment, then added in a somber tone:

“It was still hell, though. The scarlet jungle was not as powerful as it is today, since it could never create a foothold on the surface of the Sun Killer without the Cloudveil. Oh, the Sun Killer is what people of Mictlan called this giant skeleton, while Mictlan was their word for the Hollows. The jungle was still teeming with abominations, was still ever-growing and relentless… was still an endless source of Corruption.”

Tamar exhaled slowly.

“We were given the roles of Awakened warriors in a conflict between two Transcendent powerhouses of Mictlan. One of them was Ketzelkan, the Winged Serpent. The other was known as Shatana. The two of them… had different opinions about the fate of this land and its people.”

She shook her head.

“The locals believed that the Sun Killer was still alive, and that the scarlet jungle was a manifestation of his will to be reborn. The White Abyss — the sky above Godgrave — was therefore meant to prevent him from ever becoming complete. And the sacred duty of the people of Mictlan was to ensure that the Sun Killer never defeats the White Abyss.”

Tamar lingered for a few moments before continuing.

“The problem was that the people of Mictlan were just as trapped in the Hollows as the scarlet jungle was, lost in eternal darkness. And without access to the surface, they were slowly going extinct. Their extinction was not obvious yet, at the time of the Nightmare, but it was easy to predict. So…”

She grimaced.

“So, Shatana wanted to do something about it, even if it meant turning their backs on the sacred duty of guarding the Sun Killer. Ketzelkan, meanwhile, was vehemently against betraying their purpose. So, the two of them opposed each other, and their difference of opinion eventually turned into open hostility.”

Tamar smiled bitterly.

“Basically, we had a choice of helping Shatana succeed or helping Ketzelkan prevent her from succeeding.”

Rain hesitated for a while, then asked:

“So, what did you choose?”

Tamar looked ahead.

“Telle and I wanted to support Ketzelkan, while Ray and Fleaur wanted to support Shatana and her daughters. In the end, June had the deciding vote, and he chose Ketzelkan — not because he agreed with what Ketzelkan represented, but simply because Ketzelkan was far more powerful, and siding with him was going to increase our chances of survival.”

She fell silent for a few moments.

“So, we infiltrated Shatana’s factions, revealed her plans, and helped Ketzelkan kill her before she could create the Cloudveil. Her and her people, I mean. Dooming the civilization of Mictlan to disappear far sooner than it would have disappeared otherwise.”

Tamar shook her head.

“I am glad to have survived, but that Nightmare… it really left a bad taste in my mouth. I still don’t know if we made the correct choice, and I think I never will.”

Rain put a hand on her shoulder.

“Surviving was the correct choice. So, I am glad June was there to make it.”

By the time they reached Vanishing Lake, Rain managed to satiate her curiosity and learn what their Ascended Abilities were, as well.

The shockwave that almost blasted her off the ziggurat had been produced by Tamar. Her Ascended Ability was quite a versatile one, but one that demanded a long period of training to master. It allowed her to transform momentum into kinetic energy, as well as channel that force in a variety of ways.

In short, the faster Tamar was moving, the more devastation she could cause. She could create a widespread explosion of kinetic force around herself, or shape the blast into a narrow cone in front of her, for example.

Interestingly enough, her momentum was consumed by the transition, bringing her to a stop. That ostensibly freed her from the shackles of inertia, which opened a whole spectrum of tactical possibilities in combat. The more insidious side of her Ascended Ability, though, was that the momentum Tamar could drain and transform was not limited to her own. She could augment her swordsmanship by turning the momentum of her sword into pure concussive force, for example… or she could drain the momentum of the swords and arrows aimed at her.

Or even of her enemies, if they were close enough.

Telle’s Ascended Ability was equally as potent.

The Dormant Ability of the young lady of the White Feather clan allowed her to create electric currents within her body, which augmented her physical prowess and made her far faster and stronger than most Awakened of equal Rank. Her Awakened Ability, meanwhile, allowed her to channel these currents outward, either augmenting her weapons or simply firing them off like bolts of lightning.

Her Ascended Ability, though… it allowed her to manipulate magnetic force instead. Needless to say, the applications of that power were endless. From hastening her sword to manipulating the movement of the enemy’s blade, she could do it all — as long as the weapons were magnetic, of course. She could even fly by using her Ascended Ability on her own armor.

And those were merely combat uses — there were countless things Telle could do outside of combat, as well. She could spend years trying to discover them all and still only scratch the surface.

Ray’s Ascended Ability, meanwhile, was just… weird.

His Dormant Ability made him hard to notice, while his Awakened Ability simply made him invisible and imperceptible. Her Ascended Ability, however, allowed him to apply these qualities to other objects and beings.

For example, Ray could apply his Dormant Ability to a building and make it so that no one would notice it even if they walked past it a thousand times. Alternatively, he could make the whole cohort invisible — although that would drain his essence much faster. In fact, the expenditure of essence depended not only on what he was trying to conceal, but also on who he was trying to conceal it from. Nevertheless, it was an Ability with an incredible level of utility. And lastly, there was Fleur, the healer of the cohort.

Her Dormant Ability allowed her to alleviate fatigue, while her Awakened Ability allowed her to stem bleeding and hasten the process of natural recovery. Her Ascended Ability, meanwhile, granted her the power to augment the bodies of her allies, making them stronger and far more resilient than they would usually be.

Naturally, most members of the cohort were also members of the Shadow Clan, which meant that their Marks had risen to a new Rank, as well — so, the boons granted to them by the Mark of Shadow grew more potent, as well.

…Fleur was the last because June simply refused to share with anyone what his new power was. He insisted that it was because true professionals did not reveal their cards, but there were too many fishy things about that explanation. If anything, it seemed as if he was embarrassed to tell them what his Ascended Ability could do.

‘Old people… are weird!’

Rain scratched her nose.

‘I wonder how I stack up against them.’

None of them could talk with ancient towers, that was for sure.

And none of these Abilities could beat the versatility and utility of Rain’s Epithets, either.

Overall…

She was just glad that her friends were back from the Nightmare in one piece.

Soon, the Vanishing Lake appeared in front of them.

Having spent months living in a tent, Rain could not wait to get back to civilization.