Shadow Slave

Sunny remained silent for a few moments, then sighed and followed Kai through the garden. He felt a little uneasy about meeting Noctis…

'Surely, he won't be mad at me for breaking his amulet… well, who cares, anyway? That slick bastard owes me too much, already…'

Destroying the emerald amulet had not been his plan. Suny just really, really wanted to find a more efficient method of expressing himself, and the sorcerer's gift was the only thing in his possession that had a suitable enchantment.

The problem was that the enchantment was made with runes, and not a weave. So Sunny had no way to reproduce it.

…He could, however, try to turn the amulet into a Memory.

Sunny had already achieved something similar back in the Red Colosseum by weaving a basic enchantment of summoning into his slave collar. However, the process had never been completed, because the enchantment was destroyed in the clash with the collar's own magic, lasting only long enough to allow him to escape the cage.

Now, however, Sunny had plenty of time to make another attempt.

This time, armed with his new knowledge, he had a far better chance of success. Of course, it was not guaranteed, so he started by experimenting with a beautifully crafted wooden chair in his room.

Slowly and tediously, he created countless strings of the essence and weaved the three basic enchantments into the piece of furniture… only to see them — and the soul shard he had used as an anchor — disintegrate into a rain of ethereal sparks.

After thinking for a while and replenishing his essence, Sunny repeated the process, but this time with one additional step. He also weaved his True Name into the pattern, using it as the beacon for the enchantment that was responsible for connecting the Memory to the owner's soul.

And so, the chair… became a Memory, of sorts.

Now, there was a [???] in the list of Memories he owned, with a description that stated "This chair was turned into a Memory by Lost from Light... for reasons unknown". The chair could be summoned and dismissed at will, and even repaired itself while stored within his soul.

It could also be fed to Saint, increasing her shadow fragment count by half a point — since the single soul shard Sunny had used to create the weave was of the Awakened rank.

Satisfied with that, Sunny waited for his cores to regenerate enough essence, and repeated the process once again, now with the emerald amulet itself.

Sadly, the result… was not the same.

He did manage to make the amulet into a Memory. What was more, in the process, the Spell itself transformed the enchantment of the amulet from runic to a weave, showing just how ingenious Weaver's creation was.

However, the resulting pattern turned out to be unstable. Perhaps because of the alien nature of the amulet's magic, or perhaps because Sunny did not know its name, or how to name it using strings, it began to slowly unravel almost immediately after the transformation. All Sunny could do was feverishly study the weave of the swiftly decaying Memory before it completely fell apart.

Soom, the amulet destroyed itself.

But Sunny still managed to copy its enchantment onto the Ordinary Rock, as well as adding a new anchor to the weave of the Rock, thus elevating it to the Second Tier. He also went ahead and copied the [Sonorous] enchantment onto it, as well.

When he did, the name of the Memory changed, and the Ordinary Rock… became the Extraordinary Rock.

Overall, Sunny was very pleased with himself — not only because he managed to recreate another enchantment and confirm his ability to turn soul shards into food for his Shadows, but also because he would finally be able to speak his mind… without speaking everything that was on his mind in the process.

Gods knew he needed that!

The only bad thing about the whole situation was that Noctis's gift was destroyed. But, with some luck, the sorcerer would not even notice…

'Whatever…'

They met Effie near the wooden door. By now, the little girl's bruises had healed, and she looked like a vigorous, healthy child again.

...She was also gnawing on a large bone with a wild look on her face, seemingly making even the Sailor Dolls a bit nervous.

Noticing the two of them, Effie smiled.

"There you are!"

Kai greeted her, and then asked:

"Where's Cassie?"

The little girl swung her bone, pointing at the flying ship that hovered above the Sanctuary.

"There. Noctis is, too. Let's go?"

With that, she swallowed the remains of the bone and raised her hands, as if asking for a hug.

Kai sighed, then picked her up and flew into the sky. Sunny grimaced, summoned the Heavenly Burden, and followed.

Soon, they landed on the deck of the ship and found Cassie there, already waiting for them. The sorcerer was some distance away, watering the sacred tree.

The sight of him with a watering pot in hand was so mundane that it almost looked comical.

The members of the cohort approached Noctis and then stopped, waiting respectfully for him to notice them.

…After a while, Sunny cleared his throat.

Some time later, he growled loudly.

Finally, the sorcerer flinched, then turned around and smiled.

"Oh! You are finally here."

Sunny nodded, then asked cautiously:

"We are. What did you want to talk about?"

Noctis scratched his chin, then sighed.

"Well… it's time for the four of you to go and retrieve the Ruby Knife. It is not too far from here, being kept by a friend of mine. The whole trip should not take you more than a couple of days."

'...Sounds like another disaster.'

Sunny frowned, hesitated for a second, and then said:

"And what exactly do we need to do to get the knife from your… friend?"

Noctis blinked a couple of times, a confused look on his face.

"Oh… nothing? Just go there and tell her to give you the knife. As long as at least one of you is pure… in heart and thought… she will."

'Can't be that easy… and what does being pure even mean?'

Sunny wanted to ask a few questions, but then changed his mind. Speaking with Noctis more than absolutely necessary was… troublesome. It was also fruitless, since Noctis only ever revealed as much information as he wanted, and never more than that.

So, he simply said:

"And where does that friend of yours reside?"

The immortal Transcendent smiled, then conjured a map of the Kingdom of Hope from somewhere and pointed to a particular island.

"Here! See… it's really close…"

Sunny looked at where the sorcerer's manicured finger pointed… and paled.

He knew that island pretty well.

It was the island of the tranquil, clear lake that he had been advised to never approach… because the creature living in the lake was so terrifying that even Sky tide did not dare to venture there.

The creature was surely Corrupted, and as for its Rank, no one even had a guess.

Rattled, he glanced at Noctis with a dark expression and growled.

"Are you joking? There's a terrible, unsightly thing living in that lake!"

The sorcerer looked at him with reproach, and then said bitterly:

"Well… that unsightly thing is my friend. Shame on you, Sunless. Of all the creatures in the world, I thought that you would be the last to judge someone on their appearance… after all, you are a terrible and unsightly thing yourself… and yet, we are best friends…"