Shadow Slave

Sunny and Nephis remained silent, looking at Ananke with intense emotions swirling in their eyes.

He did not know what Nephis was thinking about, but in his mind… for a while, there were no thoughts at all. Sunny was frozen still, his heart unable to handle the implications of what Ananke had said.

‘There are people alive…’

Slowly, tentatively, a profound emotion rose from the depths of his being and filled his chest, making Sunny draw a shaky breath.

‘There are people alive.’

He exhaled slowly and finally allowed himself to feel it — a deep, overwhelming sense of jubilation. It was incredibly sweet… but also indelibly bitter. Because it reminded him of how much had been lost, even if he knew now that not everything was.

The River People were alive… Ananke had carried them through eternity on her delicate shoulders, never losing herself to the darkness. The others had fallen, but she continued on, braving the long years of peril and solitude to fulfill her solemn duty.

And as a result, the descendants of those who had come to the Tomb Ariel from the Twilight Sea were saved. That meant that the people of Earth were not the only inhabitants of the Divine Realms to have survived the descent of the Nightmare Spell. The River People were saved, too. And that… that meant much more. More than Sunny could describe, because it changed the context of all existence.

Before, he believed that no one — not a single soul — had survived the Doom War outside the six Divine Realms. The finality of it all was suffocating, and even if Sunny never admitted it, he felt sometimes that a similar end would inevitably befall the waking world, as well. No one had ever survived the Nightmare before, after all… there was simply no precedent.

In all his endless wanderings, Sunny had only met three humans from the ancient past who remained free of the Corruption: Eurys, Azarax… and Solvane. Needless to say, none of them could be used as an example — there were merely exceptions that proved the rule.

But now, the rule had been broken. The River People were the descendants of those from the mortal realms who had survived the Doom War, and so, their existence made it seem like salvation was possible, after all. That there was hope.

Even though the sybils were gone, even though Daeron and Cronos were gone… they accomplished what they had set out to accomplish. They ensured the survival of their people, so who was to say that Sunny and Nephis would not?

He could not help but smile.

“You… you did well, Ananke.”

She smiled.

“Why, thank you, Lord Sunless. I do think that I did decently, all things considered.”

Looking around, she chuckled.

Then, the smile slowly drained from her face.

“You have come to the Tomb of Ariel at a strange time, my lord and lady. It wasn’t like this when we emerged from the Ark… it was quite different, in fact.”

She stood up and went about boiling water over the fire to make tea.

“It wasn’t so dark, for one. The River teemed with endless horrors and harbored perils of all kinds — tempestuous storms, ferocious whirlpools, treacherous currents that made people turn to dust from old age… in fact, even though its waters stood still, those calamities only grew more frequent and devastating for a time. That was because the length of the River was diminishing, and it was growing shallower. At times, it felt as if the world was coming to an end.”

She poured boiling water into a kettle and shook her head.

“Many of the Corrupted were destroyed by those calamities, as well. I traveled from shelter to shelter, biding my time. Sometimes, I fought; sometimes, I ran. And then, after being alone for a long while, I somehow ended up becoming Supreme. It… happened when I was at my worst, full of despair and ready to give up. But I didn’t give up. Life became a bit easier after that, even if my Domain was quite feeble — I don’t have a single follower, after all. My kingdom only stretches from one side of the Time Slayer to the other, and the only person I rule is myself.”

Ananke smiled.

“Of all the great Supremes in history, I must be the most pitiful. It suits me fine, though — I never wanted to rule anyone, really. Actually, I was quite a famous troublemaker in Weave… there has hardly ever been a person less suited to be a Supreme. That is what my teachers would say if they were here today, at least. Gods! They’d be horrified.”

Sunny and Nephis glanced at each other. A few moments later, Nephis said in a neutral tone:

“It seems to me that it’s the opposite. You cared for and protected your people while weathering terrible storms — that is what a ruler must do. That is who a ruler must be.”

Sunny nodded with a slightly dark expression.

“Yeah. You think you’re not suited to be a Supreme? Then you should really never meet the Supremes of the War Realm. Honestly, most of the War Realm’s problems have been caused by its Supremes. Nephis and I are among the better ones, and even then, no one has ever called us sane. Well… no one sane has even called us sane, at least.”

Ananke smiled.

“You seem very sane to me, my lord!”

Sunny stared at her for a moment, then coughed and looked away.

“We’ll work on your discernment later.”

She laughed quietly, then poured the tea into clay cups and put them in front of Sunny and Nephis.

He reached for it, even if his hand halted for a moment.

It was such a mundane thing, to offer one’s guests tea. But where would Ananke get tea leaves in the dead darkness of the Tomb of Ariel? These leaves, which seemed trifling to Sunny, were most likely precious to her… she must have saved them for a special occasion, waiting patiently for the day she would be able to share tea with someone. He made sure to savor the fragrant drink and smiled.

“Good tea.”

Ananke beamed.

“I am glad you like it, Lord Sunless.”

Nephis took a sip from her cup and then said evenly:

“Me too. I like it too.”

Ananke looked at her with a faint hint of confusion in her eyes, then gave Nephis a smile.

“Thank you as well, my lady.”

Nephis nodded and took another sip, the corners of her mouth curving up slightly. Ananke tasted the tea, too.

Sitting down, she remained silent for a short while, and then said:

“Things were the same for a long, long time. The storms, the Corrupted… trying to survive and barely surviving. I had gotten quite good at it, I think — nothing managed to kill me, at least.”

She paused for a moment.

“But then, recently, things began to change. I didn’t notice it at first, but one day, I woke up to discover that there were only six suns in the sky. One of them had vanished without a trace, and the nights grew longer. The Great River had been dying for a long while, though, so I just figured that the suns were dying, too. However, I was wrong. It was because of something else… something new.”

Ananke’s expression hardened, and she said in a dark tone:

“It was that loathsome bird… that loathsome bird and her odious spawn.”