Shadow Slave novel Chapter 1335

Chapter 1335 After the Storm

The Great River was like it had always been - vast, dreamlike, and ceaseless. Its current gently carried the ketch forward, as if the harrowing storm had never happened. The seven suns slowly traveled across the azure sky, which was painted lilac in the east and vibrant crimson in the west.

For a while, Nephis and Sunny remained idle. Their bodies were still reeling from the terrible battle against the raging elements, and so were their minds. The invasive violence of broken time had left them drained and fragile.

Their hearts felt hollow, too.

Sunny silently lay on the wooden deck, staring at the sky. His head was empty, full of nothing but the sensation of a dull ache that radiated from all across his battered body.

It was good to hurt. Pain reminded him that he was alive.

There was the smell of wet wood, the peaceful sound of waves splashing against the sides of the ketch, and the warm sunlight. Most noteworthy of all, there was time.

He had never been aware of just how important the sense of time was before experiencing its absence. And why would he? People did not usually pay attention to immutable things, simply taking them for granted. But as it turned out, those things were not as absolute when higher beings were involved.

Now that they had escaped the storm, the natural flow of time returned in all its glory. Its reliable presence felt... reassuring. Time was at peace once again.

Time flowed.

Eventually, the dull ache permeating his body subsided. The pain in his heart grew duller, as well. New sensations took their place.

Thirst, hunger... caution, determination.

Sunny still felt numb, but his mind was slowly recovering.

He lingered for a while longer, then sat up with a quiet sigh.

The vista of the Great River around them was exactly as before the storm... which posed a bit of a problem.

Some time later, Sunny and Nephis were sitting at the bow of the ketch, looking soberly at several strange tools laying on the deck in front of them. One looked like a bronze astrolabe, another was akin to a sextant, and the third resembled a strange compass. All these had been gifted to them by Ananke, and were meant for navigating the Great River.

Of course, the first one was not really an astrolabe, since there were no stars in the Tomb of Ariel. The second one could be considered a sextant, but the set of principles it was supposed to work on was entirely different from the waking world. The third one could indeed show direction, but it was between past, future, dawn, and dusk instead of north, south, east, and west.

Sunny and Nephis had learned a fair deal about how to use these tools, but not about why they worked. The Great River was not a sphere, like Earth was, and it didn't revolve around a star. Instead, seven artificial suns revolved around the river. Nevertheless, there seemed to be some sort of curvature to it, which neither of them could explain.

It was all a mystery.

Before, Ananke had been their navigator, but now that she was gone, Sunny and Nephis had to chart the course themselves.

Hence, the somber expressions.

Nephis sighed.

"It doesn't make sense. According to this, we are much further downstream than we were supposed to be... weeks worth of sailing away from the Lower House."

Sunny scratched the back of his head.

"There was still a current when we were inside the storm. Sure, it was wild and chaotic... but the water still flowed in a single direction. Much faster than usual, at that. So, maybe the storm carried us all the way here."

She frowned.

"But we didn't spend weeks inside it. Did we?"

He hesitated, not knowing what to say. Time had been broken within the storm, so it was impossible to tell how long they had been fighting against it. It could have been days, or hours... or months. Especially considering the insidious nature of the frozen time in the eye of the storm.

Distance was equally hard to measure. They had to have been not too far from Weave up until the point when Ananke's protections failed. After that, both Sunny and Nephis had been completely out of their minds for Spell knew how long, losing all awareness of the world.