Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2898

Rain walked across the ashen soil of the Ebony Island.

It was strange. The island looked very much like the Ivory Island, but was also completely different.

There was no emerald grass. No clear lake. No grove of ancient trees, and no bones of a dead dragon, either. Instead, there were ruins of mysterious structures buried in the ash, dark stone, and obsidian berths protruding into the chasm that separated the island from the rest of the Chained Isles.

The pagoda itself was entirely black, as opposed to the pristine white of the Ivory Tower. In fact, it was so lusterless and black that its walls seemed to devour light, like a vertical rift in the fabric of the world.

The seven broken heavenly chains hanging from the stone slopes of the Ivory Island were nowhere to be seen, either. Instead, there were other chains — just as enormous and mighty, but new and shiny as opposed to ancient and weathered.

These chains were quite mundane and had been forged in the subterranean smelting plants of NQSC. Then, they were delivered to the Chained Isles through a Dream Gate and used to connect the Ebony Tower to the rest of the flying islands in order to prevent them from gradually collapsing into the Sky Below.

Now, the enormous alloy chains stretched over the vast chasm at the heart of the Chained Isles, drawn taut. The Ebony Island served as the nexus of the entire region, holding it up in the sky.

"Quite impressive."

Rain could only vaguely imagine the amount of ingenuity, industrial might, and complex calculations that had gone into pulling the Ebony Island from beneath the sea of divine flames in the depths of the Sky Below, then turning it into the anchor of this fractured continent. It definitely took the efforts of numerous people, including a few Saints and a Supreme, to accomplish...

And a bit of divine sorcery of the Demon of Destiny, as well. Humans might not have understood how it worked, but they seamlessly integrated it into their design nevertheless. The result looked no less magnificent and humbling than all the other impossible sights one could find in the Dream Realm — more so, even, considering what it represented.

A flawless synthesis of ancient sorcery and modern engineering, as well as a brilliant example of what was possible when all kinds of different people, mundane and Awakened, worked together to achieve a benign and constructive goal.

It was an example of how the world was meant to be...

But very rarely was.

"Rain, focus.”

Rain flinched and turned her gaze back to where Cassie was kneeling on the ground, painting runes on the stone surface of the Ebony Island with a brush.

“Sorry."

She was here to serve as Cassie's eyes, so there was no time to gawk at the sights. With Rain focused on the runes, Cassie was able to continue. As her brush glided gracefully across the black stone, she spoke in a measured tone:

“This rune doesn't have a meaning, but it expresses denial or prohibition. Adding it to a phrase changes the meaning, while adding it to a word often creates an antonym — but not always. Synonyms and antonyms are a separate topic, so we will not get into them right now..."

Which was probably wise, because it was a topic completely alien to Rain.

At the moment, Cassie was creating a defensive array to protect the Ebony Island from the siege she believed was inevitable — similar to those she and Sunny had created before to reinforce a few other Citadels, but also different, since she could not rely on his expertise anymore.

Rain and Cassie had been at it for several days already, and since Rain had nothing to do but stare in the right direction, Cassie decided to give her lessons on runic sorcery as she worked.

Rain was soaking the knowledge like a sponge.

There was a lot of overlap between Shaping and runic sorcery — after all, the latter was based on the former. However, there were also enough differences to make the two completely different from each other. There were no synonyms in Shaping, for example. Every thing only had one Name, and every Name was absolute. So, there could be no Names that had the same meaning.

There were more differences than that, of course.

In Shaping, there were only the Names and their medium — the Shaper.

Runic sorcery, on the other hand, involved much more. There were the runes themselves, which transcribed the Names, and the sorcerer who drew them. There was the canvas on which the runes were drawn, the tool used to draw them, and even the medium that transferred the runes from the brush to the canvas — unless they were carved, in which case there wasn't.

The runes themselves were far more complex than the Names, too, and there was an art to expressing the Names through either solitary runes or combinations of them. Not everyone could fathom the Names, but everyone could learn the runes and transcribe an approximation of a Name they were not equipped to know.

It was like an entirely new universe, but since Rain was a gifted Shaper, she took to the runic sorcery easily as well. It was actually far more fun than learning the Names.

Cassie was still talking:

“This rune describes space. However, there are countless runes that describe space in the runic language, all bearing a slightly different meaning. So, if you want to transcribe the True Name of Space, you need to list them all in order — if you aspire to achieve a good result, that is..."

Rain studied the stunning weave of runes for a few moments, then tilted her head.

"But what does that element of the array do?"

Cassie smiled faintly.

"Do you still have that scarf of yours? In Case of Emergency?"

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