Shadow Slave

Sunny braved the labyrinth of broken time, guided by the thread of Ananke’s essence silk. His only companion on this perilous journey was the vile spawn of the Thieving Bird, who was now his Shadow.

As they searched for a way back to the present, Vile’s vocabulary gradually expanded.

Now, apart from “vile”, “damn”, and “crap”, he could also say “fool”, “bastard”, “wretch’, “hell”, and “scum”.

Oh, and “damnation”, of course.

That one seemed to be his favorite.

“Damnation! Damnation!”

Sunny covered his face with a palm and groaned.

He didn’t try to be a bad influence on the devil child… he really didn’t…

Hell, it was all that wretched little bastard’s fault. Sunny was really not such a foul-mouthed scumbag, after all. He was willing to bet that the damn fool was pulling this crap on purpose, just to make him angry.

Otherwise, where would Vile pick up all these profanities?

‘The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, I guess.’

With a progenitor like the Thieving Bird, it was no surprise that the young Devil was learning all the wrong things despite being in such an illustrious company.

…It was entertaining, at least.

Without Vile, Sunny might have gone mad a long time ago — not the least because there was no time in the maze of broken eternity, and therefore neither a long ago nor a one day soon.

Sunny had long lost track of time. They drifted through the alien and unfathomable darkness that hid between moments, following the thread of silver silk — without it, retracing his steps would have been all but impossible.

Sometimes, they emerged from the maze in the places and moments of time that Sunny and the Thieving Bird had traveled through during their battle. Some of these places were safe, allowing them to rest. Some were fraught with peril, so Sunny tried to leave them behind as soon as possible.

Before, he might have wanted to stay back and explore the different eras of the Great River. But now, there was a sense of deep anxiety in his heart.

He wanted to find Nephis. He was worried about her, considering that she had been left entirely alone in the maze of eternity. He was also worried about what she was thinking about now that she seemed to have remembered him.

The prospect of meeting her as himself — not the Lord of Shadows — filled him both with excitement and dread.

So, the closer they drew to the present, the slower their progress became.

But they did continue forward…

And, in the end, Sunny found her.

It seemed that Ananke had attached a thread of essence silk to Nephis, as well, and Nephis was following it back to the heart of the Estuary just like Sunny. Eventually, their paths crossed, and they both arrived at the same fragment of time.

It was Verge.

Not the vibrant and thriving Verge as it had been before the Defilement, but the desolate city of bones it had become after the Defilement was destroyed.

A deep night enveloped the Great River. Its currents were already gone, but the Thieving Bird had not stolen the suns yet, so the water shone with a radiant iridescent glow.

Sensing Neph’s presence, Sunny dismissed Vile and walked in the direction where she stood on the edge of the water, looking downstream with a distant expression on her face.

Sunny stopped a few steps away and remained silent, not knowing what to say. Eventually, he attempted to smile.

“Hey, Neph. It’s done. I killed that loathsome Thieving Bird.”

He paused for a moment and then scratched his head awkwardly.

“Well, and then it escaped. So, the hateful bird is at large somewhere out there now. I have no idea where it went.”

Nephis remained still for a long while, then turned to look at him.

Her face was expressionless, as always… in fact, it was even more expressionless than it usually was.

But Sunny could feel the dire turmoil of conflicting emotions raging beneath her calm facade.

Nephis seemed…

Overjoyed? Hurt?

Sorrowful? Happy?

He did not know.

She studied him for a long while.

Then, she said quietly, her voice betraying a kind of weakness he had never seen her show before:

“You left me.”

Sunny looked away.

Sadly, Verge was the worst place for him to look upon. This was where he had abandoned Nephis and his friends, after all. This city, which was buried under a thick layer of bones, was more or less a monument to his sin.

Sunny turned to Nephis and remained silent for a few moments.

“But I came back. That… has to account for something, doesn’t it?”

She did not answer and faced the beautiful expanse of radiant water.

After a long while, Nephis said evenly:

“You always leave me.”

She sighed heavily.

“In the Dark City. During the Chain of Nightmares. And here in Verge, again.”

Sunny looked at her, a hint of old pain appearing in his eyes.

“That’s not fair.”

His quiet voice was raw.

“You left me too, Nephis. You left me first.”

Nephis inhaled deeply, then looked at him. Her face betrayed a strange expression. Was it fear? Was it longing?

Sunny did not know.

He knew her better than anyone else in the world, and yet now, he couldn’t tell what she felt, what she was thinking about… What she was going to say.

Nephis exhaled, and then nodded slowly.

“Yes… I did. Perhaps I shouldn’t have done that. But…”

A frail smile appeared on her face.

“I would do it again, Sunny. Because that was the only way I knew how to ensure that you would stay alive.”

Sunny smiled bitterly, and then turned away with a quiet laugh.

He looked at the glowing expanse of the Great River.

“…Me too.”

He sighed.

“I would do it again, too. Because I needed to leave in order to come back to you.”

Sunny smiled.

“I am quite a selfish person, you know. Just like you.”

While he finished speaking, Nephis took a step forward and locked him in a tight, desperate embrace.

She buried her face in his shoulder.

“Sunny… is it you? Is this really you?”

He remained motionless for a moment, then wrapped his hands around her.

“Of course, it’s me. Who else would I be?”

Nephis took a deep breath.

She remained silent for a long while.

In the end, she said:

“Thank you for coming back, Sunny.”

She hugged him tighter and then spoke in a slow, hesitant tone:

“Never leave… promise…”

Nephis fell silent for a moment.

“Can you promise to never leave me again?”

Sunny smiled and looked up, cradling her in his arms.

Eventually, he nodded.

“I promise.”

He paused for a moment, and then laughed:

“Nephis… all the gods and all the demons in the world won’t be able to make me leave you again. So don’t you leave me behind, either.”

The eastern horizon ignited with a beautiful golden radiance by then. The suns were rising above the Great River, promising a new day.

But Sunny and Nephis were not meant to witness this dawn. Theirs was a different path — a path through the broken eternity that led to a world drowning in darkness. The darkness was cold and dangerous.

But they were going to brave it side by side… Because they were lost in the darkness together.