Shadow Slave

For better or for worse, they did not find such a harrowing fruit on the branches of the Night Garden. It was fortunate, of course, that there were no terrible abominations hiding aboard the ancient ship, but Sunny found himself facing a dilemma. The problem was that they did not find anything of note at all while exploring the wondrous dream.

It was just quiet and tranquil. The rustling of leaves, the distant murmur of the waves, the gentle wind, and the falling rays of silver starlight — that was all there was to the dream of the Night Garden, which slumbered peacefully as its great mass sailed the tumultuous waters of the Stormsea.

Perhaps it was only to be expected, considering that the being dreaming that dream was not exactly sentient, let alone sapient.

‘At least someone is dreaming peacefully,’ Sunny sighed.

The tree was immense, but it was not vast enough for a Sovereign and a Saint to miss something important. Standing on one of the lower branches, Sunny glanced at the calm surface of the distant sea below.

The roots of the Night Garden must have extended far down... was he going to have to dive into the depths, after all?

As Sunny was considering his options with a sullen face, the leaves rustled, and Jet landed softly on the weathered bark beside him. As she did, he observed something curious — the leaves, as well as the smaller branches of the Night Garden, seemed to bend slightly toward her, as if drawn to her tantalizing figure.

If that was not the Night Garden playing favorites and giving its captain special treatment, then Sunny did not know what was.

He might have been sulking a little because there did not seem to be a fruit anywhere here representing him. Sunny knew for a fact that he was quite delicious — why else would countless creatures have tried to eat him?

‘What a silly ship...’

Jet straightened and gave him a neutral look.

“Well? Did you find anything?”

Sunny coughed, embarrassed by his thoughts, and slowly shook his head.

“Not really. Ah... I am starting to doubt my initial assumption. What about you? Have you discovered something?”

They had split up after the initial sweep. Sunny went to explore the lower branches of the Night Garden, while Jet climbed to the top. Nightmare followed her in the shadows, just in case something did happen and she needed help.

But nothing had happened, in the end.

Jet hesitated for a few moments.

”I am not sure. Maybe?”

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

”How do you mean?”

She considered something, then gestured up.

”Follow me. It will be easier to show you.” He did with a shrug.

Together, they climbed the great tree. Of course, the Night Garden was too tall, standing higher than the most towering mountain on Earth, to be scaled like an ordinary tree... or even an ordinary mountain. But Sunny and Jet were not ordinary people, either.

They leapt from one branch to another, covering hundreds of meters of vertical distance with each leap and only pausing for a brief moment before taking the next one. The great branches streaked past them, and the leaves rustled from their passing, disturbed by the turbulent currents of wind.

Although not the most practical, this way of ascending the immense height of the Night Garden was the simplest.

Well, and it was also a bit exhilarating. ‘Look at me, having fun in a giant ship’s dream.’

Sunny smiled slightly, thinking that he understood why Nightmare enjoyed galloping at terrible speed so much.

Some time later, they finally reached the top of the huge tree. Its vast trunk was thinner there, and the canopy was not as thick, revealing the clear picture of the gorgeous night sky. 𝙍аΝo͍฿Ε𝘚

Sunny suddenly felt wary, looking around with a tense expression.

He almost expected to see an enormous nest, and find a murderous egg laying on the bed of spiderwebs inside... but luckily, the Vile Thieving Bird did not seem to have visited the dreams of the Night Garden in the past.

Sunny lingered for a few moments.

“What exactly am I looking at?”

Jet pointed up once again.

“The sky.”

He frowned, then followed her finger to the dark vista of the night sky.

There was no light pollution in the dream of the Night Garden to make stars seem feeble and pale, and since Sunny and Jet were quite high, they looked huge.

The breathtaking tapestry of silver stars stretched above the great tree, countless of them connected by long trails of cosmic fog. All together, the stars and the shimmering nebulae looked like a painting drawn by the hand of a genius artist, their vast expanse suffused with darkness, light, and mystery in equal measure.

Sunny’s eyes glistened.

”Wait...”

Jet shrugged.

“They don’t look like any of the stars I have seen. And, how should I put it... there’s something peculiar about them? It is as if there is a pattern hidden in the constellations, although if there is, I don’t know what kind.”

Sunny lingered for a while, the stars reflecting in his onyx eyes, and then smiled faintly.

“That’s alright. I know what the pattern is.”

She looked at him in surprise.

”You do?”

Sunny nodded.

”Yes. It’s a weave.”

Indeed, there was an image of a mysterious spellweave hidden in the stars of the Night Garden’s dream. No one except for Sunny would have discerned the subtle order in the seemingly chaotic scattering of constellations and the trails of radiant fog blooming around them, and even then, it would have taken him a great amount of time to decipher the pattern without Mind Weave.

But Sunny was quite an accomplished weaver by now, and he did possess Mind Weave. So, he recognized the anchors of the celestial spellweave almost immediately — after that, tracing all its twists and turns was not that hard.

The spellweave was vast and intricately complicated, endlessly elegant in its design, and daunting... it felt like something the Spell would weave, but was even more refined.

Despite its complexity and scale, however, it was simple — easily within the boundaries of what Sunny could replicate.

Jet raised an eyebrow.

”A weave?”

Reluctantly looking away from the radiant pattern hidden in the depths of the dark sky, Sunny remained silent for a moment and then nodded.

”Rather, it is an image of a weave. Spellweaves are what make the Memories and the Echoes work — they are a form of long-lost sorcery that a select few practiced once, in the ancient past. That sorcery originates from Weaver, the Demon of Fate... and Weaver did not create it to be used by the masses. So, unlike runic sorcery and Shaping, not just anyone can master even its basics.”

Jet gave him a dubious look.

”So, what’s the use of this hidden pattern?”

Sunny smiled.

”Well, as it happens, it’s quite useful. Because I just happen to be the only weaver in existence. And I haven’t just mastered the basics... as far as Weaver’s sorcery goes, I am quite the master.”

Looking at the starlit sky once again, he said in a subdued tone:

”What I am trying to say is that I can use this pattern as a blueprint to create some kind of spell.”

There was the question of whether he should, of course. Blindly giving shape to a mysterious spell hidden in the dreams of a living ship was not exactly a wise course of action — it smelled of recklessness, rather. But who was he kidding?

Sunny had come to the Night Garden to find a clue leading to a fragment of Weaver’s lineage, and now, he found the blueprint of a spellweave conveniently hidden on the ship’s dreams. One had to be a fool not to realize that this spell had been left here by Weaver to give his future heir a sign.

Jet frowned.

“And what will that spell do?”

Sunny looked at her and grinned.

“There is only one way to find out, is there?”

In the end, it took Sunny a few days to complete the mysterious spellweave.

He had secluded himself in Jet’s garden and dedicated himself fully to weaving, meticulously recreating the vast intricacy of the pattern Weaver had hidden in the starlit sky.

He used strings of shadow essence to shape the strings, and the soul shards of sea monsters Jet and Nightmare hunted for him to form the anchors of the complicated pattern.

Since the weave needed a vessel to exist — at least as far as Sunny was concerned — he used a long branch from one of the sacred trees Jet had transplanted into her garden, which he fashioned into a staff.

All of them were children of the tree growing on the Chain Breaker and quite young, but their wood was resilient and possessed mystical qualities needed to contain a powerful enchantment.

When the weave was complete, Sunny and Jet looked at the simple wooden staff he was holding with complicated expressions.

“This thing... is not going to blow up my ship, is it?”

Sunny hesitated for a moment.

”What? No, of course not.”

As Jet let out a relieved sigh, he added:

“At best, it will blow up a small part of your ship.”

Jet’s icy blue eyes widened, but before she could say anything, Sunny poured his essence into the staff and activated its enchantment.

In the next moment...

The Night Garden did not explode.

Countless stars in the night sky exploded instead.

”..Oops.”