Shadow Slave - After the Third Nightmare - A different Story

'Only a bit more.'

The man thought tiredly. His mind was running at a slow, but unbroken pace.

Some weeks ago he got signed up for a strange thing. Some kind of an eccentric Master appeared dressed like a rich bastard, and promised many things to him, poor man. The opportunity was announced in strange circumstances. He was giving a tasty soup, and water like it was mud.

What appeared to be even stranger he, and the group of strangers were offered a job, or rather it would be more adequate to say they were given with a mission. The Master warned them there's no way they're going to know how to do the job, that they have yet to learn that.

It's nothing strange. On his first day in the factory he also didn't know very well how to do his task so he could very well consider that he would pick up along the way. The absurdity of the situation, however, exceeded such shallow thoughts. It appears that not only he couldn't pick up on the way, but also there's only one person who could teach him, that being the eccentric Master himself.

And to say it gently he isn't really good at explaining things. The graphs were beautiful, but the notation was kind of a mess. In many places he just didn't know what's going on. Many things had to be covered by his… what to say… assistant, Awakened Kim. The woman had a strange ability to see where he was messing something up, but never really able to explain what it was. That was for them to figure out, and cover the gap between seeing, and understanding

There were many manuals, watching, and rewatching the Master working on his things in slow motion, the entire book describing the structure of the product. The Master was able to create many of these in a matter of hours, something that a mortal would spend weeks or even months to complete. The first time he saw it he understood there's no way he's going to move his hands so deftly ever, and even memorizing the pattern might stand a huge problem. It could be great if he just did the same thing even in the span of a week.

At first he thought it would be really hard to find the motivation to even study. The Master didn't insist on any date by which the task should be done, the reason for that was kind of obvious. The task was also very hard. Not beyond what they should be able to do, but very demanding. Then he resorted to soft measures. If someone's lazy, he won't necessarily be kicked out. No, for the people who have yet to succeed there were various unpleasant tasks, mainly involving extracting useful parts of the abominations, preserving, and some processing. If they didn't want to do that, well… only then they would be kicked out.

Being kicked out from such a place was really a bad thing, there's not much to look forward to in the outskirts, and watching all those nasty things that happened to the abominations… was just nasty. So the sensible way to improve his situation was to succeed. Simple. And all of them could see everyday that some interiors of the tower are pretty, and clean, while the outskirts are mostly poor, and full of pollution…

However, all unpleasant things were also being rewarded, albeit with no proportion. Just being in the tower was some kind of reward, and that didn't include the meals served, access to very refreshing water, shower, laundry… nothing much, one would say, but the level of comfort was enough to feel he doesn't belong here.

And yet he was. He gained weight, he's not malnourished anymore, he's getting some kind of education. He felt almost as if they obtained citizenship. Almost.

The rest could be attributed to his passion. The idea of putting his hand on some kind of magic, and the right circumstances were more than enough for him to strain his mind to the limit many times.

At home he had some chapters copied, and the graph so he can study it at home with his brother, especially the parts they are working on right now.

At the beginning there were terrible mistakes that led him to the situations when entire work was better to be scrapped. But with time he learned from his mistakes enough to do them rarely, and not waste as many diamond strings.

And now he's about to finish it for the first time. His gloves are covered with cuts inflicted by his poor use of the diamond strings, and hands are a bit hurt.

He stood up, stretched his legs a little to not feel them too stiff. He looked at the tapestry. It was beautiful on its own, composed of strings so thin that he had to use tools to even see it well enough. He would like to watch it more, but for that he could just look at the graphs, which was enough to admire the beauty. There was one last thing to do. He called for the supervisor.

"Awakened Kim, may I take you for a word?"

"What's going on?"

"I finished. I mean I'm not totally sure, but to confirm that I need someone to check that for me."

Even though the hall was pretty quiet, this time it felt to be a different silence. It was less silent, and more tense, filled with some shocked murmurs. No, it wasn't the first time someone declared he finished the job. There was a woman that declared that once only to learn that too many things were messed up. Nonetheless someone declaring that the task is actually finished raised some expectations.

Awakened Kim walked close to his desk to see his loom.

"I see no glaring weakness."

"Awakened Kim, what does that mean?"

"Not really sure. It's the lack of the thing I see when there's a visible defect of workmanship."

He still couldn't wrap around the meaning of her words. It's surely some kind of revelation. Cool. Really cool. How nice would it be to see such things? He would uncover many mysteries with a glance. That was reminding him that actually he was still a teenager.

Kim answered him with a hint of liveness.

"I'll call for Master Sunless. I find it good enough, but the last word belongs to him. I can't believe you completed it before me. I'll be embarrassed."

She took the communicator.

"Boss, one of the apprentices has something requiring your attention."

"What is it?"

"He wants to confirm if his tapestry is complete."

"Oh, really? I'll be there soon. Just wait a bit for me."

He can't deny there is a bit of tension. What if he didn't manage to make a working enchantment? That would be sad, not to mention the vision of potential compromitation of his efforts. Soon it turned out he had an audience. Kim, Luster, his brother, all other apprentices gathered together just to be a witness to the verdict. Some veteran soldiers also made an appearance. Even without Sunless' word he could tell that the tapestry left some impression.

"I'm here. Good morning, Kim. What's going on?"

"Master Sunless. Someone succeeded."

"So fast? Did you check it?"

"I see no specific weakness. If there's something wrong, we have to bother you anyway."

"So that's fair. May I ask what they are looking at?"

"Curiosity must have taken over them. Honestly I can't blame anyone."

"Still they should step aside. I want to check without being disturbed."

"You heard him. Please."

His acquaintances dispersed obediently.

"So what do we get here?"

Master Sunless started inspecting every part of the enchantment. He didn't need any graph, which seemed to show again that has an incredible ability to recall the structure of the enchantment. What a terrific mind…

Furthermore the inspection itself took like twenty minutes. Sunless' eyes had been dating, inspecting every part, every diamond string. In the end he also asked Kim to channel to him her vision.

The tension had been growing till the Master uttered two words.

"Well done."

"Sir, will it work?"

"Yes. In the end everything is here. There's a structure of diamond strings that can conduct the essence so if applied properly and provided with a suitable amount of soul essence it has to work."

"Thank gods…"

"And you finished it before Awakened Kim, which itself is quite an achievement. Her aspect is suited for learning this kind of stuff, while you don't have any. You seem to possess some talent."

Praise. A lot of time passed since he heard a compliment from a stranger that didn't want to scam him. But rather than accomplished he felt confused. It was the only task he had to complete, and now he completed it which means he reached the only goal he had. Although he wasn't eager to start another thing he had to ask.

"Master, what am I going to do now? I have no tasks at hand."

"I want you to do more. Doing the trick once doesn't mean you mastered the art. At least in your case. I didn't have such luxury."

Master Sunless had his usual way of sounding distant when talking to him, and the rest. It was probably one of few truthful things about him. He had his set of clothes, meant to look when he's being around, but behind his lavish appearance there were many things that didn't match it all. After all every time here he had a task of soul shards extraction. Where did all those corpses come from? Is it really just hunting team. No, he had to participate in those hunts himself. At least sometimes, which implies he's a fearsome existence.

"How much, sir?"

"Let's say… do that four times. In the meanwhile I can show you a new enchantment to study. Also you should widen your runic vocabulary. While it isn't so important to know many words, it will become crucial in the future."

If you dislike swords named 'Water Bottle', which isn't necessarily true. But yeah, there's no reason to consider it a better course of action. If the name holds a power over the object, then the meaning of that name is also very important.

"What kind of enchantment?"

"One for sharpness, albeit relatively weak. Enough only to enchant a sword of Awakened Rank. Also we need to widen your knowledge of the runic language."

"That seems to be sufficient. I mean… Most of Awakened are Awakened."

The handsome Master's eyes subtly narrowed. There was some discomfort held by these words. The subtleness was almost immediately hidden by the half-careless half-joyfull mask. It wasn't sufficient. They both knew that already.

"Maybe you're right… But sometimes there's a Fallen to kill or even an Awakened abomination of a higher class. You never know what you have to kill to live."

He always heard about the life of Awakened from the media stories, or some other fiction. The glaring mix of government propaganda, perverse paternalism, and unwillingness of Awakened to share all their stories has contributed to uncertainty. Being a bit provocative could direct the Master to correct his ignorance.

"What was the strongest Nightmare Creature you killed as an Awakened?"

"Oh, I think it's a Corrupted Monster."

Corrupted. Like hell that guy could kill a Corrupted. Is that man telling the truth or maybe he's lying to brag about himself? But perhaps there's a moral to the story about the power of Memories.

"Did you have such a strong Memory?"

Master Sunless shook his head.

"Quite the contrary. At that time no Memory in my Soul Sea could do much against it. Killing such a creature was a miracle in and of itself."

Killing a Corrupted was already an absurd. He had no idea how he could pursue the topic so he had to let go.

"Thanks for your generosity."

He gave deep bow and was ready to excuse himself, when Master indicated the conversation was not over yet.

"By the way I think it wouldn't be fine to expect you to make tapestries without anything to gain. Knowledge is fine, but life in the outskirts is still harsh. How about this: If you craft four tapestries I'll give you one of my air makers. This one will be special."

Something ignited in his eyes. Air maker? That would be great. He could carry it around, and never worry if breathing is safe or healthy. Even citizens want to improve the air inside their homes. How wouldn't he want that as well?

"I'll do that. Just don't know how long this is gonna take."

"That's fine. However there's more. Once a week you'll get an item. Your job will be to apply basic enchantments. These products will be sold by the Brilliant Emporium to Awakened so you're gonna be more careful from now on."

Only then he got off.

Sunless never hid from them he wanted someone who could perform his sorcery-thing so that wasn't so strange. But really, it also means he's going to work as hard as before in the mind-numbing task of following the graphs. He was also worried about how much he can get from the work. Yes, the Master told him he would reward him.

But is he actually getting something from it? Is it sustainable? The food for forty people wasn't necessarily that much of the problem due to the fact that a lot of meat can be extracted from… the abominations. A bit nasty, and it required some special methods of cooking, but with some cooking techniques, and selection, those abominations could be made into something tasty, at least way better than synthpaste. Water was as good as infinite. Looking at the output of the water-making bottles, just one could provide water for thousands of people. The problem was the way to distribute it. But that was probably a one-time cost. Once the plumbing was established, there was almost no additional costs to it.

Then there are resources. There has to be an item that could be enchanted, the diamond threads used to weave, which came from a factory, and cost a significant amount of credits, and also there has to be a soul shard, the most expensive thing in equation. With taking everything into the account it was pretty much possible to estimate what it takes to make it profitable.

Though there were also things that were too priceless to even consider them. For example, Sunless himself is priceless. His being alone is something that can't be bought or replaced. His knowledge, his time, his skills, power, vision, etc. The uniqueness of this man makes him totally irreplaceable, nothing possible to obtain with money in the social context could measure his value. The stone tower he was working in was a Memory, a very unique one that can't be bought anywhere, but he could replace it with the cost of an estate suitable for accommodating them all.

Thinking about such riches was one of his personal likes, but also a habit of being calculative about the resources. If you know where they come from it's easier to guess how you can get them. If you can guess that, you can find the opportunity to get them, and ease the poverty a bit.He taught his brother to consider such things. After all… that's how he got here. Sometimes it goes even too well. If he didn't reason that out of him, the brother would consider stealing too often. Often the easiest way to get something when you can't buy it is to steal it, which is most of the time. Here it's a bad idea, and accordingly the idea of stealing from the Master or a Master should be abandoned for it can too easily go beyond just any offense.

'I guess I should call it 'damnation'.'

For a man the only way to stand up to Awakened is to become one. Otherwise regardless of what an Awakened does, you're almost already in a losing position.

And the Government would be the first in the row to silence you hoping to get just a little approval of the rest, if what's on the table could result in a scandal. He still remembers a guy who 'disappeared' after saying that the Chain of Nightmares is going to strike. A few months later it happened, and no one even admitted there was a period of censorship.But such is life. Ruled by bastards. You might come across some nice guys, but by the end of the day you're still have to deal with people, who's first idea is to consider you inferior, and then keep it like this as if it's a matter of principles till it's not possible anymore.

It might seem to be a weak, and naive reason, childish even, but Master Sunless was probably the first one to speak up against the idea of the Domains being some kind of salvation, and that colorful picture of the Great Clans. He mentioned that the Domains are going to fight each other. What a wild idea is that? In the face of Chain of Nightmares? Perhaps that guy is lying, because it's for some reason convenient. Then it's just another bastard to be wary of. What if he doesn't lie? Then that means it's the guy who knows the truth, and wants to share it. Finally someone honest enough to think he might deserve the truth! So yeah, he follows Master Sunless out of a naive hope that he's someone who he would not despise.

Later he had the pleasure to be a witness to the Awakened Kim putting a soul shard on a bottle, and doing something… He wasn't sure what it was. Probably something involving that mystical soul essence. All he could tell is that the shard melted down into sparks, and the tapestry of diamond threads started to give a faint white glow that highlighted the blueish epoxy resin.

Soon the glass bottle beneath started to fill itself with water, and in a few seconds, just few, it was already full. His brother watched it as the opportunity was unfolding before him.

"So you did it, Marut. Are we going to celebrate that later?"

"Yes. Just not too much. Two coffees will have to suffice."