Shadow Slave novel Chapter 2292

Rain had once believed her Aspect would awaken during the war — perhaps at the most desperate moment, when she was on the brink of defeat, so that she could rise and turn the tide in the most dramatic fashion imaginable.

In hindsight, that had never truly been possible.

She did not fully understand how the world worked — no one truly did — but Rain sensed there was a subtle poetry to the mysterious crossroads of fate. People and their choices echoed one another... just as did the events they could not control. In that way, lives were like poems.

Not all of them, of course — or at least not all in equal measure. But the lives of those who held great power, or were extraordinary in some way, often were.

Rain did not possess great power. And while she might have been a little unusual, she would never go so far as to call herself exceptional. Yes, she had accomplished something remarkable once — she had Awakened without receiving the Nightmare Spell’s cruel gift — but most of that feat belonged to her brother, not her.

Still, it seemed her life carried its own quiet verse.

And while the poem of her life described battlefields and bloodshed, that was not its true theme.

Her Flaw, the Crown of Thorns, revealed as much.

What was the true theme, then?

The end of the Great War had left Rain in disarray. She had only just begun to understand that she was a Legacy — a princess-to-be, not unlike Tamar. Then, in an instant, her brother betrayed everyone and died.

So instead of a princess, she became the sister of a dead traitor... the most reviled villain in the world.

Thankfully, Rain was only an Awakened. She hadn’t seen Lady Nephis strike her brother down with her own eyes — her perception had not been sharp enough for that. She hadn’t even known what had happened until much later, when Cassie’s voice suddenly echoed in her mind, gently telling her not to worry.

Only then did she learn that her brother was alive — and that he was supposed to have died. In fact, she had not even been given the opportunity to mourn him properly.

More fortunately still, no one truly knew that Rain — or rather, Rani of the Seventh Royal Legion — had any connection to the enigmatic Lord of Shadows.

In the chaotic days that followed, the world changed at a dizzying pace. When the dust finally settled, Rain chose to remain behind in Godgrave, helping to build the road across the Collarbone Plain — the road intended to connect the former Sword and Song Domains. She made that choice for no other reason than a quiet love of creation.

That love carried more weight than one might assume.

She had thought long and hard about her future, and in the end, made her decision with solemn conviction.

Rain was weary of destruction. Tired of war. Tired of watching things crumble. Tired of doing the crumbling herself.

So, she returned to her place on a construction crew — though this time, she was not a mere laborer, but an elite among the Awakened. _{frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓}

And it was there, on a dusty worksite rather than a battlefield, that her Aspect finally revealed itself.

Fitting, really — especially for someone whose Flaw rendered years of painful training and hard-won battle experience almost meaningless.

Rain had spent many hours speculating about what her Aspect might be. In the end, it turned out to be something so strange, so unexpected, that no one could have predicted it.

It was entirely unique.

As an Awakened, Rain now had access to two Aspect Abilities. She also held two essence pools — one of soul essence, and one of spirit essence.

Her Dormant Ability allowed her to bestow Names upon things. Not ordinary names, and not quite True Names either — something in between. These Names were permanent, and imbued with modest power. The power was not overwhelming — she was still an Awakened, after all — but it was real, and it belonged solely to her.

Giving a Name required a one-time infusion of spirit essence. The more she invested, the stronger the Name’s influence on the object and the world around it.

The issue was, Rain still had no idea how to expand her spirit essence pool. And yet, by the time the road across Godgrave was complete, she had somehow accumulated quite a lot of it. The sky of her Soul Sea, once wide and clear, had become overcast, blanketed in thunderclouds and dripping with gentle, constant drizzle.

Then, she poured all that gathered essence into the newly completed road — and Named it the Road of Shadows.

When she did, the skies above her Soul Sea cleared. Sunlight shone once more on the glistening sea below... and something miraculous occurred.

Her brother had taken his Citadel away, but he had left behind a strange thing — the Shadow Realm Fragment, whatever that truly was.

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