The Noble Queen-A Shadow Slave Fanfic

Chapter 849 849: Stagnant City

As expected, the blizzard rolled in overnight, and by morning, all of Ravenheart was covered in dense snow. The lower city where Rain's hovel was would suffer the most, while the areas closest to the volcano would likely be traversable later that day. But for now, the city was quiet, and no one was going anywhere on the first night of dawn.

No one, except for the floating woman, who didn't need to traipse through the frozen ice.

The Dreamer Academy would be closed for the day, so Noble's first stop was to leave a note on the gate. It wasn't open for classes this week anyway, but soon people would be applying to enter their first Nightmare to get the most out of the year before the next solstice. So, in case anyone came seeking her recommendation or wanting to use a practice arena, they would see her note and head to some place warm instead.

Noble would leave for someplace warmer as well, but only slightly. Unfortunately, she could not head home yet. Her children were not yet awake, and Noble would let them enjoy their slumber. In the meantime, she would complete a small mission.

Since Teddy would be unable to get to the citadel and be a courier today, Noble had offered to get her husband his communications from the waking world for him.

Fort would have liked to take another day off, but the ambassador knew better than to delay things too long.

That was the mission that had caused Noble to leave her nice, comfortable bed and pleasant company there to venture across Ravenheart and then into the NQSC. Well, that and her need to find a case of light bulbs for her son. Thankfully, those two tasks could be completed in tandem. That made things easier.

As Noble crossed the great chasm on her journey to the Jade Palace.

'Even the bridge is icier than usual. I am glad I moved my tether to the house before I left, so I don't have to do this twice.'

Not that she needed to do it the first time, but Noble wanted to keep up appearances.

If she had known it would be so cold that it would bother her as a Saint, she might have reconsidered. It was a rare storm that could cause an official snow day in the city, and even rarer for it to affect the Awakened on the bridge.

'Did Tyris send that storm?' Noble smiled, thinking of how she had held Bastion captive because of her love for her husband, Roan.

This storm had not been done by the famous Saint. Among other things, Noble would have felt her presence. If Tyris ever found out Noble was involved in helping her husband transcend, a much worse storm might be headed her way.

Noble shivered. 'Yeah, I can't let that happen.'

Reaching the citadel, Noble went through the motions of being a dutiful Master. The Dream Realm faded away, and the warm air of her small dormitory room brushed across her skin.

There was no flood of other people's emotions to greet her. That was because there were no students and very few staff around.

Noble pulled her emotional sense tightly around her and breathed in the solitude. In a moment, she would be out in the city, and there would be no escaping other people's influences.

From her chest, a trail of light entered the room, taking the form of a tiny bee. Noble chuckled.

"Even when I'm alone, I'm not really alone, am I, Nectar?"

Buzzing, the little bee spun around her head before landing on her finger.

Noble smiled down at her companion.

"So, how do I look?"

The professor's vision shifted, and a second image lay over her normal view. Now she could not only see Nectar, but she could use Nectar's vision to see herself.

'Who needs mirrors when you have a Legacy relic who can show you what you look like?'

While not the most valuable thing about Nectar, it was certainly a boon.

Especially with how rough she looked just now.

'No, the frigid, windblown look is not my thing.' Calling on a comb Memory, Noble smoothed her hair and pinned it back in place. 'Much better.'

"Thank you, Nectar."

The little creature buzzed softly and disappeared.

Satisfied, Noble left her room behind and headed across campus.

She hesitated for a moment, deciding if she would check in with Bee Two. The Android was supposed to be resting for a few more days, and Noble did not want to disturb that process.

So the professor left the gate of her beloved Academy behind to go to the train station. Flying to government headquarters would have been faster, but her old habits kept her from giving in to the impulse. Having barely been out of the Academy since moving to Ravenheart, Noble was curious how the outside world of the NQSC had progressed.

The short answer was—it hadn't.

For all the progress that the inhabitants of the Dream Realm had made, it seems those in the waking world had stagnated or even slid backward.

The train did not seem as spotless as it once had. It was still clean, but the wear and tear were more apparent than they had been when the cars had been her daily routine. Out the window, the buildings passed by just as they used to. People busied themselves in the streets and on the platforms, but Noble couldn't help but feel there was some emptiness in the movement.

There were certainly fewer people. In addition to emptying much of Antarctica into the Great Citadels, large portions of the outskirts had joined the race for a better tomorrow. Even many middle-class people had decided to take the risk, just like Noble and her family.

The pull of adventure and the security of freedom from the Nightmare Spell were enough to lure many from the NQSC to the great unknown.

'There's no energy here.'

Noble didn't mean that the city lacked electricity. That was one of the few things going for the aging city.

What it was missing was the vibrant excitement of what the future held. Even without knowing the Dream Realm was consuming Earth, people instinctively seemed to feel the loss.

As long as there were Nightmare Gates releasing hordes of Nightmare Creatures at increasing intervals, the world would keep crumbling. There was no way for the common man to stop it, and so they had given up thinking about it altogether.

They remained in their routine, hoping that some soul more powerful would intervene and wake them from their dreary slumber.

That wasn't true for everyone, of course.

The government was hard at work maintaining the balance between past and future. Most of the workers there knew what was at stake, and they kept that goal in mind.

Without the waking world's resources, the new settlements would not be able to maintain their population or progress at such high speed. Indeed, Blaze's preliminary trials would never have been possible without the manufactured products from this dying land.

The waking world was the connection between the disparate places of the Dream Realm. Headquarters was the communication and coordination hub for all. That was why the government could not be undervalued.

Their goal was also why they could not give in to the doldrums around them.

And as Noble neared the tall building that seemed to cut the sky, Noble could feel the shift. 'People with purpose.'

Many of the emotional signatures were shielded from her due to the special Spelltech of the compound, but not all.

'I wonder if Fort misses being here?'

If he did, he never mentioned it.

One thing became apparent very shortly.

He was not the only one missing.