Shadow Slave

Once the sun rose, Sunny hid himself in Jet’s shadow as she went about preparing the Night Garden for departure from the Eastern Quadrant. The daemonic ship’s stay here had ended up on an unexpected note, but people seemed to be elated to know that the war against the Skinwalker was over — they were beyond themselves, really.

Humanity had suffered a long streak of debilitating losses here in the waking world over the past few decades, each one bringing it one step closer to complete annihilation — the devastation of America, the fall of Antarctica... people expected Australia to follow them in becoming a lost cause as well, but now it was unexpectedly saved. That astonishing reversal did not merely impact the Eastern Quadrant, but also gave people a hope that the downward spiral of Earth as a whole could come to an end.

Of course, they knew by now that their homeworld was not going to exist for much longer — but that future was too distant and too daunting to truly fathom. So, today, they were celebrating.

Nobody really knew how the Skinwalker had fallen, because the authorities of the Human Domain had not issued a statement yet. Rumors and theories were of course abound, one more fantastical than the next... Sunny was curious to see how the public’s reaction would change once everyone learned the truth of Mordret’s ascension to the throne of Supremacy. Would they be happy, still? Or wary? Would they fear another civil war?

Mordret’s reputation was not the greatest, after all, due to what he had done to the House of Night. Many of the remaining members of the former Great Clan were here, on the Night Garden, and had become the pillars of the local community. They were not going to be happy to learn that the executioner of their clan was a Supreme now, and people who held them in great esteem would not be happy either.

In any case, the truth was not going to come until a few days later. By then, the Night Garden would be in the middle of the ocean, sailing across its perilous expanse to the distant shores of the Northern Quadrant. Sunny was quite curious about the seafaring Great Citadel. He was familiar with the Chain Breaker quite well, and wanted to know if the Night Garden operated in a similar fashion — as it turned out, although there were some outward similarities, there was little in common between the two enchanted ships.

The Chain Breaker was a creation of exquisite, but ultimately mundane runic sorcery. It used the soul essence of the sacred tree that grew around its mast to empower the runic array, which kept the ship in the air and propelled it across the sky. The helmsman connected to the array by entering the runic circle and infusing it with their own essence, then steered the vessel with two steering oars.

There were some mystical qualities to the Chain Breaker and the materials used to craft it, but Sunny could at least understand the principles of everything that went into making the graceful vessel fly.

He could not fathom how the Night Garden moved at all, though.

There was a helmsman’s runic circle as well — which was far more elaborate than the one on the Chain Breaker — but it was not connected to a runic array. In fact, there was no array to speak of anywhere on the ship. There were no sails either, and obviously, the ancient ship was too heavy and gargantuan to be pushed forward by rowing.

There was no discernible reason for it to move at all. And yet, it did move — as long as the master of the Night Garden willed it, the titanic ship would sail forward as if carried by invisible winds. It could reach truly frightening speed, as well... and Sunny suspected that they had not discovered its full potential yet, either.

After all, the Night Garden had not been created to be steered by a mere Saint. It gave a Supreme the power to open Gates between two spaces in the same realm, for example, so what would it have been capable of when the Demon of Repose herself controlled it? Where would it have been able to travel?

How far would it have been able to go?

The Night Garden contained its own isolated ecosystem. It could travel freely, absorb all kinds of energies to maintain itself, and provide its passengers with everything they needed to live.

As Sunny thought about it, an eerie thought crossed his mind...

The thought that perhaps one day, long after all of existence was consumed by Corruption, the titanic ship of the Demon of Repose would still continue to sail, drifting across the boundless dark expanse of the Void.

‘Lam not sure if that image is hopeful or ominous.

More importantly... since the Night Garden was a living thing, could that thing get corrupted itself?

What would happen to the passengers if it did?

‘How scary:

The bridge of the titanic ship was in the same great pagoda where Jet’s private quarters and spacious room garden were located, just a few floors below the spot where they had enjoyed wine while watching the sun rise. Ṙ₳Ｎ∅ВĚŝ

It was a vast room with elegant arched windows that stretched from floor to ceiling, and due to the pagoda’s great height, one had a perfect view of most of the ship and its surroundings from here. An elaborate runic circle was etched into the floor, igniting with ethereal light for a few moments when Jet stepped inside.

The main mast of the ship was behind them, blocking the view in that direction, but as she had explained to Sunny on the way down, the person connected to the elaborate runic circle shared a kind of awareness with the ship, so she could sense what was happening behind the Night Garden as well while steering it.

Sunny did not know what exactly he had expected from the bridge of the Great Citadel, but he imagined it as something out of a space exploration drama — a great hall with an imposing chair meant for the captain and various stations for the crew placed around it.

However, there was no chair. There were no stations, either... which made sense, in hindsight.

After all, the Demon of Repose would not have needed the assistance of subordinates to steer her own ship.

There were some people on the bridge at the moment, though, because Jet was not quite a daemon. Giving them a short greeting, she stood in the center of the runic circle and smiled.

”Shall we depart, ladies and gentlemen?”

Sunny sensed the great ship moving beneath him.