Shadow Slave

Enthralled by the breathtaking visions of the ancient past, Sunny slid his fingers further down the thread of golden light.

Now, he understood why he had seen the birth of the World Tree and the spread of the Heart God’s sacred forest first. It was because the Night Garden had been made from the branch of the great tree, and was therefore a part of it — the last part of it, even.

So, its fate was part of the World Tree’s fate, or had been once, at least.

Marveling at that fact, Sunny opened himself to the truth of what events the Night Garden had experienced.

It was difficult... delving into the meaning of the String of Fate was not like reading a book. A gargantuan torrent of information was pouring into Sunny’s strained mind, and he could only absorb a few drops of that crushing flood here and there.

He did not immediately see another detailed vision of the past like the first two. Instead, what he saw were glimpses of various scenes, all jumbled and mixed together. The Night Garden sailing on a misty sea... the Night Garden battling a storm so fierce that entire realms could have been washed away by it... the Night Garden moving across the great black void between the stars...

And being moored on a titanic peer of a beautiful, awe-inspiring city built among the stars.

That last glimpse seemed especially significant, somehow.

Even consumed by the strain of staring at fate, Sunny could not help but feel a hint of bewildered amusement.

’Is Night Garden... a space ship, then?’

He spent a split second — which felt like an eternity — considering that fact.

And then...

Wham!

Sunny fell from the chair and slammed his head against the floor.

Pulled away from his bewitched state, he belatedly retracted his hand and deactivated [Where is my eye]?

The world... felt strange.

The world felt too small, claustrophobic, and two-dimensional.

Time was most bizarre, somehow separated into three distinct states.

The past, the present, and the future...

The inexplicable division seemed nonsensical.

”Ouch.”

Laying on the floor, Sunny sensed the shadow of Jet move above him. He realized that she had struck him, overturning his chair and throwing him to the floor. ȒＡℕỗ฿ÊṢ

”Why did you hit me?”

Jet let out a bewildered laugh.

”Gods. Have you seen yourself?”

Sunny did not, in fact, see himself.

’What?’

Actually, he could not see anything at all.

Jet fell heavily on her sofa.

”For your information, there was smoke rising from beneath your mask. And the smell...”

She made a retching sound.

’Well. I guess that’s one more accomplishment under my belt:

Making a dead woman retch was no easy feat.

Belatedly, Sunny realized that he was drenched in sweat and could smell burned flesh.

Dismissing Weaver’s Mask, he raised an arm, touched his face tentatively, and winced. His mind was still reeling from beholding the great tapestry of fate, so he felt... dazed. That was a misleading word to describe his peculiar state, but he could not find a better one.

Sunny was so dazed, in fact, that he did not even register the physical pain he was experiencing.

But the area around his eyes was definitely burned.

His eyes were burned, as well. Luckily, they were still there, just scorched and unable to see anything.

”It seems... that I’ve gone blind.”

He sighed.

”How bothersome.”

With that, Sunny rose, brushed his clothes with a shaking hand, picked up his chair, and sat back down.

Being blind was indeed a hassle, but he could function just fine with just shadow sense. More than that, his eyes had only received mild damage — it was only mild thanks to a timely whack from Jet — and with his regenerative abilities, he would be fine in a few days.

Things could have been worse if he kept [Where is my eye?] active for a bit longer, though.

”Wow. You look frightening.”

Jet shook her head.

Sunny tilted his own a little... which almost caused him to lose balance and fall back to the floor.

”Frightening?”

She nodded.

”It’s like you have embers in your eyes. You are mostly black, with glowing orange cracks. What the hell did you do?”

Sunny remained silent for a while, then spoke in a subdued tone:

”Well... I guess it was a divination, of sorts.” In fact, being able to touch the Strings of Fate and catch glimpses of their meaning was eerily similar to Cassie’s Dormant Ability. Sunny was willing to bet that if the great tapestry of fate was still intact, he would have been able to receive visions of the future, as well.

’Huh. Does that make me an oracle, too?’ He shivered.

”A very extreme shape of divination. I was trying to determine where the thing I am looking for is.”

Jet seemed to have raised an eyebrow. Sunny was not sure, since he could only feel the motions of her shadow — and shadow, sadly, did not have eyebrows.

”And did you?”

Sunny scratched the back of his head.

”Sort of. I saw a thread... but that thread did not lead me to any particular area of the ship. Instead, it just sort of disappeared into the ship, and if pointing to it as a whole... or perhaps inside of it.”

Jet hesitated for a while.

”You don’t think that you’ll have to be absorbed into the hull to find it, do you?”

Sunny slowly shook his head.

”That was my first thought, as well. But actually, I have a different idea.”

He considered it again, then thought back to the visions he had seen.

’Yeah. It is worth trying.’

The Night Garden was a living thing. Not in the same sense as humans or animals were, but still one nonetheless. It had been made from a branch of the World Tree and enchanted by the Demon of Repose to endlessly rejuvenate and restore itself. It was alive, but neither conscious nor sentient.

But if it was indeed alive...

Then did it dream of anything?

And could Sunny see what the titanic ship was dreaming of?

Naturally, he could.

After all, Sunny had a horse who could bring him into someone’s dream...