Shadow Slave: Heir of the daemons

Ray then proceeded to open the tome where this part was supposed to start, and began reading.

"The demon of oblivion, an entity so elusive even time began to forget. She – like most of her siblings – was an existence who was near the pinnacle of power. At least that was what they believed, at the time. Nevertheless, as powerful as she may have been, very few could hold onto the memory of her, much less truly interact with her. With the help of her siblings she managed to create a method to keep people from forgetting her. The Sorcery of Oaths."

Ray looked intrigued, but also confused. He had the attribute [Heir of Oblivion], but it appeared to be a highly weakened version of the described curse – that appeared to follow this power. His was – ever since he had passed his first nightmare – not much more than a slight bother.

Maybe if he were to disappear for a while… would it then begin to affect the people here? Something he was interested in, but wasn't sure if he even wanted to find out about.

'It is spoken about her siblings too… the daemons – or demons? The spell seems to translate these runes in a very similar way – or are they the same? No, that shouldn't be the case. Regardless, was she the only one who faced such a curse, or were the other ones plagued by similar things – just maybe not as apparent?' all of this went through Ray's mind after reading just the very first paragraph.

He quickly continued reading, but was slightly unsatisfied, that there was no more information about what he had been thinking about. 'It must be either in one of the other chapters, or can be found in the other tomes. I suppose that if we truly make it out of here, I must take myself some time to understand what has been truly going on with them, since I don't think 'it' is gonna talk about it – if it even can.'

Nevertheless, as he continued with the tome, he very quickly got engrossed in it. The method – or rather this sorcery… it was genius. All of it, from how they had managed to create it, to how it had been used.

The tome stated, that two of her siblings had helped her. They took certain elements of other kinds – ones not further mentioned here – and began to fuse and change them. They had also used certain phenomena which were directly tied to her domain, Oblivion.

Having read through the whole chapter in one go, he could now more or less grasp the general idea.

It was all based on a trigger it seemed. In most cases a kind of deal… or promise. From there it used her inherent power to connect both parties of the agreement. This connection was based on the memory of the prior agreement.

Another part that truly stood out was… these Oaths were absolute. Anyone who would break one such Oath would need to bear the consequences. This was also not limited to just the other party, it was the same for any involved person, no matter who – or how powerful they were.

It could truly be absolute.

Well, besides the two very basic requirements. Both – or all – parties involved needed to agree and formally give their consent to finish the contract. It was impossible to force another person into an Oath, especially because even threats or force did not appear to work in the creation process, since they would directly influence the memory the Oath was created on.

And the second condition was that once the contract was made, no further changes could be made. It didn't matter if all sides wanted the change, once it was sealed, it was absolute.

The next thing to consider was the punishment for breaking the Oaths. If the punishment was not already stated in the contract itself, then it would be decided by the magnitude of the contract itself. Meaning, if one wanted something of great worth, and they should break it, then their punishment would be severe.

On the last page of the chapter was something interesting too. Since this whole Sorcery was one of a kind, in the way it was completely reliant on the ability of Oblivion and the power to access memories, no one else had ever managed to learn and use it.

Ray hung on this part for a while. It was just too… coincidental. If until now, he still held some reservations, then this whole situation was the moment it all connected just too smoothly.

First, his nightmare. It was… straightforward, even relatively boring, but somehow also appearing impossible, if it hadn't been for the memory that was there when he had just began the nightmare – something completely unheard of. Especially, since it appeared to have been the exact key necessary to clear that labyrinth.

Next, the end of his nightmare. It was completely obscured. From one moment to another, he was in a different location and the nightmare had ended. Such a thing couldn't have 'just' happened.

And lastly, his whole Aspect. If, at first, it had been relatively normal – of course besides the point, it somehow was of the divine rank – another thing completely unheard of, it worked like any other. But then came his 'awakening' – or rather his aspect legacy. It had changed his whole aspect, being, and what he knew about himself.

His [Nullborn] attribute was already a hard pill to swallow when he first saw it, but then he even now seemed to follow the path of profanity, meaning he had essentially become a nightmare creature?!

All of it appeared to be coincidences, but so many one after the other, wasn't just chance, there must be something deeper, but he had no idea what it could be, or where it could lead him. The only thing he knew, either continue this path and trust that it would bring him where he needed to and should be, or do everything in his power to defy whatever was playing with his whole existence.

Ray didn't have much more time to think about it though, since he was suddenly pulled out of his soul sea and back to the outside, by a sudden movement of his body.

As soon as his consciousness was back outside, his whole body went on alarm, and he looked around frantically, trying to identify what had happened. Only to notice… he was upside down.

With the sudden increase on blood that went to his brain he needed a second longer to understand what was happening to him, before eventually using his ability to turn his left shin intangible, freeing himself out of the grip of a very familiar giantess, and landing on the ground a bit awkwardly.

"What the hell, Eff!?"

"Oh! The prince has awoken," Effie chuckled seeing his reaction. "Well, what was I supposed to do, you weren't reacting when I knocked, and someone called for us, since the princess seems to have something to talk to us about."

Realization dawned on him, upon hearing this. It appeared as if he had taken a lot longer than he thought to completely summarize the chapter and actually understand what was written there.

Effie got a bit impatient, and tapped with her foot on the ground a few times, because Ray was apparently taking his sweet time with whatever, "Are you coming now, or what?"

This snapped Ray out of it again, "Ah, yeah. Lets go."

Both of them then stepped over to the door, and ray opened it. Once open, he was greeted with the sight of Kai, frozen mid movement of wanting to knock on his door.

"Ah, hey." The charming friend of his greeted him, not appearing bothered by the awkward position he was in just now. "I didn't have much success yet with the search for a proper hut, so I was still around, and then… then the time passed and I wondered if you were still going to that meeting and so on…"

"Hey, so… are we going then, or do you want to continue standing in the door?"

"Oh, sure, lets go." Kai said and took a step back to let the two pass through.

After that short, partly awkward exchange, the three moved towards where the meeting was supposed to be held. For that, they walked over to the familiar outermost building, namely Neph's — or rather, their group's main — building.

They entered and moved through the assembled people in the entrance and cafeteria, all the while attracting some attention from others who were currently in there, but ignoring it. All of them were used to such things at this point.

Ray didn't stand much on ceremony, and therefore, upon reaching the room where they would normally hold their meetings, he entered immediately without knocking first.

What greeted him was way fewer people than he had imagined. Nephis was there, of course, as were Caster, Cassie and Henry. But there was one person sitting amongst them – or rather to the side – that he truly hadn't expected to see here.

Sunny.

Ray, as well as Kai, threw him a questioning look, which he avoided by simply looking away.

"So… Sunny is back, is that what this is about today?" Ray asked, not sure about the meaning of the meeting anymore.

No one spoke though. Not Neph, not Caster, not Cassie. Well, the last one was probably waiting for Neph to answer, but her and Caster's eyes were solely fixed on the boy standing next to him.

After a long moment of awkward silence, Nephis finally spoke, her usual composure cracking slightly, a hint of awe in her voice. "Am- Am I seeing this right? Is… is The Night really standing right next to you there, Ray?"

Before anyone else could even get a chance to react, Cassie also spoke up, her voice full of an uncharacteristic, excited energy. "That's what it was! I heard his voice earlier… it was just like it did on the recordings!" Immediately after, a blush crept up her neck, and she became shy again, lowering her head.

Kai, faced with the unexpected fan-girling from two of the settlement's most famous and beautiful women, offered a charming, slightly practiced smile. "It's an honor to meet you both properly. The tales of Changing Star and her Seer have probably reached every corner of the Shore in which a human being has survived in. It's a pleasure to see the legends are even more impressive in person."

To pull his friend out of the spotlight and steer the conversation back to the main topic, Ray clapped a hand on Kai's shoulder. "He's with us now, by the way. After a… long discussion, Kai has was now finally ready to join our side."

Nephis coughed once, a clear attempt to hide her prior embarrassment and regain her leaderly composure. "I see. That is… good news." Her gaze swept over everyone in the room, lingering on Sunny for a moment longer than the others, before she continued. "You may wonder why only so few of us are here today. That is because what we discuss must be kept under tight wraps."

She paused, letting the weight of her words settle. A kind of hopeful relief filled the air in the room, but no one voiced it directly.

A moment later, Nephis continued. "We finally know where the rest of the Memories and their statues are located. And for that, we will need to head out very soon."

"To at least get a slight head start and finish the last preparations, we will depart in pairs. This way we can—hopefully—avoid most of the attention the Host might give us. Since we currently have the highest profile around, Ray and I will be the last ones to follow."

She then gestured towards the silent, dirty young man sitting off to the side.

"As for where we'll stay for the time being… Sunny will fill you in on that."