Shadow Slave

Sunny leaned back and sighed.

“But let us not rush to studying spellweaves. First, we need to define the terms. What is a Memory, for example? Well, the answer seems to be simple.”

He gestured to the items displayed on the table.

“A Memory is a magical item created with the help of Weaving. But that is not entirely correct, because while all Memories are Woven, not all Woven items are Memories. I once enchanted an entire mountain, for example… but that did not make it a Memory.”

Ananke tilted her head a little.

“You’ve… enchanted a mountain, Lord Sunless?”

He nodded.

“As with most of my incredible feats, it was done out of desperation. I had to fight a Cursed Nightmare Creature, you see, as well as its pack of Great abominations. So, I enchanted a mountain to absorb the impact of the Cursed One’s blows, and then blew it up. Ah… the detonation was quite spectacular.”

Sunny remembered his short tenure as an Academy lecturer as he continued.

“But let’s not get distracted. What is a Memory? A Memory is a Woven artifact imbued with a number of specific rudimentary enchantments — one that allows it to be stored within the soul of its master in the form of essence, one that allows it to be reassembled from essence into matter, one that allows it to repair itself when dismissed, and a few more. A combination of these rudimentary enchantments constitutes a Memory, and by memorizing their patterns, you will be able to create Memories of your own.”

Sunny rubbed his neck.

“The first Memory I created was a slave collar. I lost my head as a result, but hey… it worked!”

He paused for a moment and then added in a somber tone:

“These foundational enchantments… I call them rudimentary, but of course, they are anything but. Storing items within the soul is something that only Supremes can do, and yet, Memories grant that ability to all Awakened. Turning soul essence into matter — well, I don’t have to explain how stunning that power is to you. Infinite self-repair is an astonishing quality, as well. In short, the fundamental enchantments that make Memories what they are are staggering, from the point of view of sorcery.”

Ananke nodded.

“Indeed. That was why the Nightmare Spell was so alluring to many in the era of the Doom War. Being able to wield Memories was a great advantage to all people back then.”

Sunny was inclined to agree.

“Creating such powerful enchantments and making their spellweave so simple that even an untrained Awakened like me could replicate them… that is a level of skill in creating sorcery that even I can’t imagine. Which leads me to believe that it was Weaver’s own design — the Nightmare Spell merely inherited the principles Weaver had instilled into it.”

He sighed.

“The problem, of course… is that Weaver was obsessed with secrets and knowledge. They believed that knowledge was power, and therefore surrounded themselves with countless lies. That devious daemon never shared what they knew, so naturally, they never bothered to make their personal sorcery accessible to everyone — unlike Hope, who bestowed writing and runic sorcery to all people.”

Sunny scratched the tip of his nose.

“The only weavers of the past eras were those who received the ability to perceive, manipulate, and create spellweaves from the Demon of Fate. We don’t know how they received that power, so… we’ll have to invent our own ways.”

He looked at Ananke and smiled.

“That mask of yours, coupled with your Aspect, is already a good start. You possess all the tools to master Weaving now… all that remains is to accumulate knowledge and skill.”

He pushed the folded mantle closer to her.

“So, let’s start with this. First, you will need to develop a sense of where the distinct patterns of the spellweave are, and how they are connected to each other…”

The lesson continued.

Ananke was an amazing student, absorbing knowledge like a sponge — well, it was no surprise. She was a demigod, after all, so concepts that took Sunny years to comprehend and master were like a light appetizer for her Supreme mind. Additionally, Ananke possessed an innate affinity to Weaving due to her Aspect. In fact, she was a born sorcerer — it was just that the inaccessible nature of Weaving had prevented her from ever mastering its art. So, the lesson progressed swiftly. By the end of it, she was already capable of turning mundane items into Memories.

Sunny pushes a small object — a pebble of manifested shadows — toward her, placing a Dormant soul shard nearby.

“Now, we will move to practice. You will have to recreate the basic pattern of the summoning enchantment, anchor it in this soul shard, and then fuse it into this pebble. But first, you will have to create essence strings. Try to manifest a string of essence silk, but stop just shy of turning it into solid matter…”

As Ananke tentatively attempted to follow his instructions, Sunny could not help but imagine the future.

He had no doubt that Ananke would become a proficient sorcerer soon. He also believed that she would take pupils of her own one day, finding a way to share her newly granted ability to perceive spellweaves with them.

So, would there be dozens of weavers walking the vast expanse of the Dream Realm one day? Perfecting each other’s craft, competing, sharing ideas…

It was a nice thing to imagine. Sunny liked the idea of not being the lone weaver in existence — not only would it potentially lead to his own improvement as a sorcerer, but it would also boost the power of humanity, no doubt.

He smiled.

‘Ah… the future is bright.’

There was not a lot of the future left, considering that the world was ending, but the little time they still had was bound to be bright — just like the Stormsea was bright today, ready to fall back into the embrace of twilight.

Enjoying the time he got to spend with Ananke, Sunny allowed his mind to wander and focused on a different incarnation. That one was enjoying life, as well.