Shadow Slave

Days passed while the Night Garden drifted through the vast emptiness of the Sky Below.

Far above, the King of Nothing had already conquered the Glass Hell and the Chained Isles. Now, his forces were invading Godgrave and the Moonriver Plains, as well as moving south, toward the distant Black Mountains.

The Black Mountains had served as the boundary of the lands tamed by humanity once, decades ago. Then, Anvil and Madoc of Valor led their Knights on a conquest crusade to subjugate the regions of the Dream Realm laying further north, eventually reaching all the way to the Hollow Mountains.

Now, Mordret was taking the lands they had conquered back from humanity. It was as if he were erasing everything his father had achieved, one feat at a time.

‘I guess it’s a little poetic... in a morbidly sinister kind of way.’

Jet was descending toward the runic hall of the Mainmast Pagoda.

There, Nightwalker was currently at the helm of the living ship. The two of them had been busy for the last few days, working closely together to develop an alternative way of escaping the Sky Below.

The simplest way was to ascend the same way they had descended — slowly and arduously, pouring oceans of essence into the Night Garden. The obvious drawbacks of this method were that it would exhaust the Saints, as well as that they would escape the abyss in the middle of the Chained Isles, which currently belonged to Mordret.

The more difficult way was to use one of the living ship’s Components to open a portal to somewhere else.

Opening spatial rifts and moving through them was one of the abilities Night Garden had gained after visiting the Eternal City. The problem was that, like many of its other Continents, it was not really meant to be used by a Saint. Jet could open a portal, but only as far as her eyes could see — which was largely meaningless, since the living ship could breach that gap in no time all by itself.

To truly make use of that function of the living ship, they had to master a different one first — a function that had to do with navigation. However, no matter how much time they spent on studying it, the puzzle still remained unsolved.

In the end, Jet could not open a portal to guide the Night Garden away from the Sky Below and the Chained Isles — she wasn’t a good enough navigator for that.

However... there was Nightwalker.

He not only possessed the lineage of Storm God, the god of travel and guidance, but also had an Aspect Ability that allowed him to always know where to go in order to get to where he wanted to arrive.

So, in theory, Nightwalker did not even need to master the navigation tools of the Night Garden. As long as they could properly integrate his Aspect into the sorcery of the living ship, he would probably be able to open a portal to almost anywhere without having to master a different function of the ship.

That was what Jet and Nightwalker had been working on ever since the Night Garden plunged into the Sky Below, and by now, it felt like they were nearing a turning point.

All the while, the plague of Asterion was ravaging the population of the living ship, and paranoia was slowly taking over the Saints who were meant to protect it.

Jet entered the runic hall and nodded at Nightwalker, who was standing in the circle.

”How is it?”

He gave her an apologetic smile.

“Sorry. I haven’t been able to make any progress since yesterday.”

Jet remained silent for a few moments, looking at him.

Then, she smiled as well.

“Okay.”

‘Wasn’t he saying that he could almost feel the connection yesterday?’

She chose not to comment.

Instead, she turned to the other two people present in the runic hall. They were Naeve and Aether, discussing something quietly among themselves.

“And what are you two doing here?”

Distracted from their conversation, they greeted her warmly.

“Oh, we are just waiting for my uncle.”

Naeve seemed inpatient.

In recent days, the Saints under her command had taken it upon themselves to take turns travelling to the waking world. There, they gathered information about the current situation, as well as procured various supplies that the ship needed. Aether looked at Naeve, then politely offered a more detailed explanation:

“He is supposed to bring a civil engineer who can help us deal with the excess heat. The ship is overcrowded, and with all those flames below us, people are quite uncomfortable. So, we hope to quite literally cool them off. If we do, perhaps the amount of problems they create will lessen.”

Heat waves had always been known to increase the crime rate. The living ship was already like a powder keg, so their motive seemed reasonable.

At least at first glance... as long as one did not think too hard about it.

Jet studied them quietly.

”Good thinking.”

The compliment was hollow.

At that moment, there was the sound of steps, and two more Saints suddenly appeared in the runic hall. They were Tyris and Roan, looking around with reserved curiosity.

Jet spared them a confused look.

“And why are you here?”

Roan flashed her a charismatic smile.

”Nightwalker insisted that we learn how to steer this ship, in case we need to help out with supplying it with essence. So, we are here for a lesson.”

Nightwalker waved from the runic circle.

“Right, right! Just wait for me quietly. You can observe what I do in the meantime.”

Jet remained silent.

It made sense that Nightwalker would want to teach Tyris and Roan how to control the ship. They indeed needed more hands, considering how much essence the Night Garden would consume as it left the sea of flames behind.

However...

Jet looked around carefully.

Nightwalker was in front of her. Naeve and Aether were flanking her. Tyris and Roan, meanwhile, were still standing at the entrance.

Cutting off her path of escape.

Was it a coincidence, or a trap?

Jet suddenly felt a cold shiver run down his spine.

And was Bloodwave really bridging in a civil engineer?

Just as she thought that, two figures appeared in the grand emptiness of the runic hall.

One of them was the familiar tall Saint of the House of Night.

The other...

Had golden eyes.