Shadow Slave - After the Third Nightmare - A different Story

He couldn't just start enchanting a mantle. Because he's become a Saint, he had a bit too potent powers. If his hold on a mantle was too strong, he would ruin it.
The same shadow of doubt was casted over most of his manual skills. When he sipped coffee while stalking Rain he had to keep concentrating on not breaking the cup. The truth referred also to his sorcery. He had to relearn making Memories.
Sunny summoned his Covetous Coffer and took out a pile of rocks. They were common rocks. Perhaps they weren't deserving of being turned into Memories, as these didn't come from Nightmare Creatures, but he wouldn't regret it.
He started his weaving. He used only dormant and awakened cores for this. Aiko procured many of them as they were the basis of the offer. To turn a thing into a Memory Sunny didn't need powerful soul shards.
The process of weaving was also very simple at this point, because the patterns responsible for summoning, and dismissing were actually the easiest to perform. He did waste only two rocks due to some slips. He reflected on himself and the next rocks weren't wasted at all. When he created five useless Memories he decided there's no point in making more super rocks.
He felt sure enough to take care of orders that Aiko took in the meanwhile in hope that after the Antarctica Campaign Sunny will come and make up for backlogs. If those wouldn't be taken care of in the next few months the Brilliant Emporium would fall into debt.
Perhaps Aiko could do something to deal with this somehow, but for how long? In the long run a shop without goods could only fall.
'I put her in a tough position.'
He promised to himself he's going to make up for the time he lost, which meant he's going to turn more than a hundred things into Memories. Saddles for Echos, suits, garments. He started turning them all one after another. He completed that way several orders.

It still wasn't an efficient way of making money, though. Even before his departure, services of the Brilliant Emporium couldn't earn him much. Now it wasn't different. Only there was more Soul Shards to use due to drops in prices. The Chain of Gates opening in the waking world caused the appearance of many hordes of Nightmare Creatures. With them Soul Shards appeared as well. That means that the material to make Memories has become much cheaper. The same couldn't be said about Memories. He passed freshly crafted Memories to Aiko, making her relieved that the situation was improving quickly.

When she left he decided to concentrate on studying Ananke's Mantle. He wanted to copy only one enchantment, [Concealing]. That Memory was a transcendent, which normally would make it a harrowing task, but he could tell it would be actually easier than enchantments from his ascended Memories. Usually enchantments were vast, and terribly complicated.
Ananke's Mantle was also very complex, but its complexity was lowered by two levels due to different approaches to weaving.
Also comfortable conditions in his workshop let him to fully concentrate on the task. The last months he had to weave in extreme cold, in true darkness, on a ship, on a ketch, with a wraith driving him mad... Having a relatively warm, comfortable room was surely an improvement. He would have to be stupid to choose learning while wandering through Antarctica or Dream Realm over studying runes here.

Taking his so far experience with enchantments his success was almost inevitable. It only required some time, and usual effort. Maybe a few days? By the end of the week he should be able to attempt to copy the enchantment.

Aiko had still to remind herself the guy who makes memories is her business partner. It's not like she didn't want to believe, but somehow it was slipping from her head.
It went to the point she had to have notes everywhere to remind her that Sunny exists. Even with all those notes she failed. Every note could be treated like it was about another person. The feeling was sometimes unbearable. At least she knew there was an answer to all this mess. Maybe if she bashed her head hard enough, she will be able to remember.
It made him wonder.
'Can it be detrimental?'
...
As the end of the week was nearing close he already felt confident enough to copy the enchantment from Ananke's mantle. Aiko helped him to choose better clothes to enchant. She procured black ones. Noctis would berate him for being tasteless, but he knew this time it's for utility.
For the purpose he decided it would be best to use ascended Soul Shards. Ananke's mantle used one transcendent soul shard, and yet it was able to accommodate three enchantments. Sunny was interested in only one.
If that wasn't enough to fuel it he could add more nodes. There weren't many transcendent soul shards on the market, and each was too expensive. The ascendent ones Sunny was about to use were from Fallen Nightmare Creatures Sunny killed on Antarctica before his return to NQSC.
Two Soul Shards change the pattern, but it couldn't be more complicated than supporting three enchantments with one transcendent Soul Shard.
When everything was ready Sunny manifested eight arms made of shadows to start weaving. When Sunny turned into a Saint it increased his mental capacity. His mind has become more capable of multitasking. If using a few arms back in the Nightmare was a lot of stress for his mind, now he could use them with much more ease.
He could limit their strength bringing them more to the level of power from the time he was a Master. Sunny was far from enjoying the amounts of concentration he had maintained, but it was also much more bearable in comparison to how transplantation of the enchantments exhausted him.
Soon he finished the spellweave placing the last shadow essence string on the mantle. He grinned with a hint of pride. It was strange to take pride in doing something easier than usual. He checked if it works, dismissed, and summoned again.
Happy with the result he decided to call one of his shadows and turned it into an avatar. He bestowed it with a freshly made mantle. He himself used Ananke's mantle, the avatar used the new mantle. Then he called Aiko to check on the clone, and confirm it really hides its transcendent presence. In result she was rather startled by how identical they both looked. Nonetheless the mantle worked fine.
Despite the consumption of the essence, he maintained the clone. One clone wasn't that much of expense. There was still some things to turn into Memories, and now he could make two at the same time using his own avatar without anyone's notice.
The patterns that make for the basis of every Memory were all the same so he, and his clone could work doing pretty much the same things. After the success Sunny planned to make even six more mantles just in case he wanted to use all the clones to interact with people in different places.
It would be the first kind of enchantment that he would be making repetitively, which would be something new. He almost never did it before just because he had hardly an enchantment that he wanted to have many times. There were various conditions that would have to be met to make sense of repeating the same enchantment in one equipment.
However the point was that there were many Sunnies, and every single one had to be bestowed with a Memory. The amount of Memories he required was simply outrageous. He couldn't hope to just find six mantles meant for concealing on the market, and if he could, he didn't want to use his money for that purpose.

The world around them was surely changing. Rain already told him she would be moving in a few months, because his dad was assigned to a different post. It was probably all related to the appearance of the Gate in East Antarctica that leads to Bastion. Back then when he woke up after the end of the Third Nightmare he saw a Gate that could be used bilaterally.

A person could use it to enter the Dream Realm, but it could also be used to enter the waking world. That was the cause for great changes. If before goods from the Dream Realm couldn't be brought to the waking world without the Saints and Masters expending much more essence, now East Antarctica has become the strategic place where trade between the two worlds takes place.
Many people couldn't be evacuated from East Antarctica in time, and started to seek refuge in the citadels of the Great Clans. Whatever change humanity is going through, the Government wants to be present there so its focus naturally changed even more to East Antarctica.
At some point Sunny will also go there. He also wants to be wherever things happen. This way he'll be able to change the fate of this world. Even if the continent is lost, the Gate is really important to humanity.
'Because it also erodes our world...'
"How do you feel?"
Surprisingly it was Aiko. She didn't remember him. She asked him like the guy who spent many hours doing weird things with his hands.
"I'm tired, alone, and a stranger. I went to great lengths, and yet it doesn't seem to amount to anything."
Aiko looked at him weirdly.
"I don't think I understand. From your story you look like a serial overachiever."