The destroyed streets of the city were full of holes, its buildings crumbled and desertic. By humans, of course: all kinds of Nightmare Creatures were thriving in the Dark City. There were all the edifices on would expect from a city of the ancient times: plazas, houses, dry fountains and statues of now unrecognizable figures. There was even a small temple, the dwelling of a very lovely knight. In one such ruin, behind a crumbling wall, was hiding an huntress. She was tall and athletic, with a robust constitution. Her olive skin and the drops of sweat glinted . The metal of her spear reflected the light of the sun.
She had been crouching like that for almost two hours now, awaiting her prey. It did not matter if the heat was making sweat get in her eyes, or if her bones ached because she hadn't moved in while.
Finally, the monster she was waiting for appeared. It had a skeletal figure, of about two meters. It was wearing a tunic impregnated with dried blood. His harrowing face was mostly occupied by a gigantic mouth, source of bone claws. It moved slowly, sniffing the air. As if catching her scent, it turned sharply to where she was hiding, bile dripping from his claws.
However, the huntress' spear was already flying through the air like a ballistic missile. Before the abomination had any time to react, it pierced between its eyes, penetrated the skull and exited from the back, spraying blood and shards of bone. It continued its journey and impacted against a wall, damaging even further.
Effie grinned as the Spell whispered:
[You have slain an awakened monster, Blood Fiend.]
She walked to where the spear was lying and retrieved it. Of course, she had made preparations if her throw had missed. She could've either escaped or used her knives: even if she preferred the spear by a rather large margin, she could handle herself with knives, too. She approached the corpse and carved out the two shards. She looked at them for a few moments, then sighed. She had long saturated her core, so she mainly used them for exchanges. Sometimes, she had even given them for free, on the Winter Solstice, to confused and scared Sleeper who had found themselves in the horror the Forgotten Shore was. It was still better than the Waking World, at least for her. She put them in her bag Memory, alongside with the Fiend's corpse. She instantly abandoned the site, as many creatures, such as Blood Fiends themselves, would be attracted by the smell of blood. She certainly didn't want to be there. She carefully navigated the streets of the Dark City, her hears searching for any noise that could warn her of attacks. She was one of the most experienced hunters of the Forgotten Shore, the greatest, perhaps, and so she was especially aware that a single mistake could be the end of her. She finally reached a zone in a large building, conserved better than most, where she could make a fire and eat relatively safely, when she noticed something strange.
There was a human shadow, gesturing in a direction. However, the warrior didn't lower her guard: she had heard of eldritch horrors who could mimic humans cries, or even their appearances.
"Hey."
She jumped back and turned to the side, pointing her spear towards the direction the voice. Three humans were standing there, or at least they looked like one. One was a short teenager, with pale skin and ragged black hair. He was disarmed. The two girls were both exquisitely beautiful. One had silky grey hair and striking eyes of the same colour. A sword was loosely hanging from one of her hands. Effie immediately recognized her as a formidable fighter; just the way she held herself was enough. The other girl had long blond hair and was standing a bit behind the other two. Effie noticed something strange about her beautiful blue eyes: they were looking in her direction, but not exactly at her. Realization downed upon her. She was blind. 'What a cruel Flaw.' Effie herself was more than familiar with disabilities, too, so she realized that having her sight stripped from her must've hurt as much as it had elated Effie to be able to use her body.
"Hi, I'm Sunny. Those are Cassie and Nephis. I mean no harm. Are you an Awakened?
Effie laughed. An Awakened? She? Oh, she wished she was.
Strangely, only the blind girl showed some signs of unease. Effie stopped laughing. Giving the news to new arrivals was possibly the most disheartening thing she did, so she did it with as much dramatic effect as possible. With a wide gesture of her arms she bowed.
"There are no Awakened here, only Sleepers. For some, it will be hell. How was the line? Ah, yes, it was something like that. Oh, y'all who enter, leave all hope behind. "
She sighed.
"By that, I mean that there is no Gate, at least not one accessible to us, and so, we are blocked here on the Forgotten Shore. Oh, wait, if you didn't know that, you must have survived almost two months in the Labyrinth. Congratulations, guys. That's a real feat. Oh, by the way, I'm Effie."
Cassie sniffed a couple of times, then posed her head on Sunny's back.
"So, you guys were right…"
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The morning after Sunny woke up from his one-day-coma, Cassie had approached the two of them. She had had a resigned expression, as if she'd finally accepted a reality she had been avoiding.
"There isn't a Gate, is there?" Her voice was laced with desperation.
"You've finally got it."
Cassie sighed and mumbled.
"You had hypothesized this from the start, right? You and Nephis have been dropping hints. 'How strange it is that I've never heard of a region with such characteristics.' And things like that."
"Yes, Nephis and I theorised this from the beginning. However, we do believe there is a Gate and that there are people. Simply, there are only Sleepers, and they aren't strong enough to challenge the Guardian of the Citadel. Now that we're here, though, things are bound to change. Nephis' True Name isn't Changing Star for no reason."