It is a little funny though.' Sunny smiled wryly, he lived like a dog his entire life, surviving and never living, and now here he was going to die a dog's death.
After all the struggle.
After all the pain.
After everything, his life really was just one big joke, wasn't it?
Sunny collapsed onto the ground and looked up towards the sky, he had capitalised on the wound Gale left on the creature to incapacitate it a bit more, but that's the move that cost him his eye.
It was licking its wounds right now, but he was sure it was going to be back, his attribute was making him very aware of the death slowly closing around him.
"I… I tried, I really did." Sunny whispered to himself, a strange peace settling over him. "But… it's too much, why struggle? Why fight? There's no point…"
Sunny had fought the good fight, he had done more than any other Sleeper in history, even if he were to die here, he could at least take solace in the fact that in the end he stood proud.
He was strong.
Sunny would fight the monster when it came for him and die like a warrior, never submitting to the Spell till the end.
'I'm fine with that.' Sunny said as he closed his singular eye.
He would normally be worried about what his cohort would think but he had no doubt that they had already accepted his death.
Feelin much lighter than he had been in years, Sunny summoned his runes and got ready to see what Memories he could use in his last stand. He was a spiteful little creature and he wasn't going to die easily.
But as Sunny subconsciously looked down, his eyes snapped open at what he saw.
"No way…"
Master: Changing Star.
Rank: Ascended.
Sunny was baffled, it had been a day since he checked her runes and the thought of Nephis currently challenging her 2nd Nightmare never crossed his mind, it took her 2 years and she had already become a Master.
Sunny laughed again when he realised his master had officially become a Master.
But that wasn't what shocked Sunny the most.
Near the end of her Memories, there was a list of them and at first glance didn't seem anything special, but when he took another look at them though, a certain message was spelled out.
DONT.DIE
"Don't die, don't die…" Sunny found himself involuntarily muttering that phrase over and over, he couldn't believe it. Did Nephis really arrange her memories in a way to send him a message? Whatever clan she was a part of now must really be loaded for her to do that.
And even the way she phrased it was more like a command if anything, shouldn't she have more tact? What if that triggered the Shadow Bond and forced him to act. This wasn't here a day before so she must have done this immediately after conquering her Nightmare, browbeating some poor Memory owner with her new status, he wouldn't put it past her.
Nephis didn't have an inkling of his current circumstances or the pain he was going through, giving him such a request was rude and Sunny should have been seething at her arrogance as if it was that easy.
Sunny blinked. Something hot trailed down his face.
...Tears?
Why was he crying?
Why were tears flowing down his face?
Why did it feel as if a weight that had been holding him down suddenly disappeared?
Why did it feel so good to finally have confirmation that Nephis didn't actually forget him?
'Gods, this is embarrassing.' He thought as he frantically rubbed his face, Effie would never let him live this down if she found out about this.
A fire, small but present, had begun to burn in Sunny's chest after seeing that message. Nephis really did know him best, how could he die after reading something like that? It would be disappointing to not live up to someone who clearly believed in him so much.
Sunny lifted himself off the ground holding back the scream that nearly broke from his mouth at the pain, a new energy filling him. It was going to be tough but it looked like he would need to kill a Fallen Devil on his own.
But just as the thought crossed Sunny's mind, one of the Shadow's he had sent out to scout for him found something that made his breath hitch.
It was a tomb.
Well, what used to be a tomb. It was in a clearing dug straight into the hill, the entrance passage was made of wood, long rotted, the inside was grandiose and filled with fine engravings damaged by the curse of time, on the sign above the entrance was a stone sign.
[Here Lies,
Concea
May her soul
Bless these cursed lands.]
But what interested Sunny the most, wasn't the tomb, instead it was the rippling mass of darkness inside of it, warping the very space around it with its presence and nestled in the middle of the tomb itself.
A Nightmare Gate.
Before Sunny knew it, he was dashing towards the tomb with all the strength his body could muster, he could feel the Fate that he's been chasing for so long scream out like a siren's song towards the Gate, pulling him ever onward.
Towards his salvation.
Normally, Sunny would have been hesitant, a Sleeper challenging the 2nd Nightmare? It's unheard of, he didn't even know if the Spell would allow his entry! It was stupid, irrational and most of all suicidal.
But Sunny had let go of his rationality a long time ago, as much as he was filled with new resolve to kill the Fallen Devil, he didn't know how he was going to do it and was still very much on the verge of death.
Everyone knew that Nightmare's gave Awakened new bodies, and his current state wasn't battle viable at all, he didn't know how he was going to conquer it, but Sunny wasn't new to challenging the impossible.
He was Lost from Light, and he would be damned if he didn't die trying.
Sunny was halfway towards the tomb, when a particularly fast shadow entered his range, approaching him from behind, gaining on him. The Multi-Eyed Devil seemed to have recovered most of its wounds and at its current pace it was determined to finish its prey once and for all.
"Fat chance at that!" Sunny growled, and he recalled his scouting shadow, augmenting his speed even more, running through the forest like a moving PTV.
Death behind him, madness above him and uncertain doom in front of him, Sunny ran like he never had before.
He entered the clearing and not even a second later the Devil also burst through, its eyes filled with maddened frenzy, eager to feast on the impudent ant that dared to hurt it, but for some reason, it paused as it gazed upon the tomb.
Sunny didn't notice though, he crossed the entrance and for a brief moment of madness thought about the irony of running into a tomb to save his life.
…And right in front of him.
The Nightmare Gate seethed like a dark mass, he could feel a drowsiness over taking him, just like on the day of the solstice.
It was centred right about the grave within the tomb, the grave itself seemed destroyed and was suspiciously empty, Sunny normally would have been eager to dismantle the mystery, but the howl of the Multi-Eyed Devil disabused that motion.
Sunny looked at the gate one more time, then turned back looking at the Devil's rapid approach, he glared at the fiend with as much malice and contempt one could fit in a singular gaze, and all he said:
"I'll be back one day monster, count on it."
Without batting an eye Sunny jumped backwards straight into the embrace of the Nightmare, the Devil's claws missing him by an inch.
The tomb disappeared, the Devil disappeared and even Sunny's own pain left him, proof of its existence gone like a half forgotten dream.
Sunny found himself standing alone in complete darkness, surrounded by utter nothingness.
In the nothingness, he heard the voice of the Spell:
[Sleeper! Prepare for your Second Trial…]
[Brave one… welcome to the Nightmare!]
Sunny closed his eyes as he surrendered himself to the mercy of dreams.
Nephis sat in one of the private booths in the teacher's lounge of the Academy.
She brushed a lock of silver hair from her face. Normally, she would wear her disguise in public, but today she was meeting Jet and needed to be seen, if only to throw Valour off her trail.
"I should really get this cut…" she muttered under her breath, and took a sip of the tea she had ordered and relaxed down into her seat.
The past year had been eventful, but also very… calming. Calm in a way she never knew that was possible. Spending time with the cohort, training Rain and leading the Firekeepers soothed scars from her childhood that she didn't even know she had, she even found herself emoting more.
There were still struggles of course, Valor had been getting more and more bold in trying to push her around, and the White Feather clan could only do so much to help her, even now she was still surprised at how much aid Master Roan and Saint Tyris gave her.
Sky Tide especially had a surprising soft side that she didn't expect from the stone-faced Saint. She wondered if that's how people perceived her too…
Nephis was happy though, she wished that times like this would last forever but she knew better, the other shoe had to drop sooner or later and those three ghouls would be coming for her. Nephis was determined to wet her sword with their blood.
And what she planned to do was only a step towards that goal.
The booth door opened up, knocking her out of her dark musings on regicide, entering was none other than Jet, her cold aura enveloping the space, same blue eyes, pale skin and raven dark hair, she looked even more dishevelled than she usually was and there were multiple burn spots on her blue-uniform
Yet even, then she was brimming with energy even while looking dead tired, like always she was still able to look good.
Nephis smiled, "I've been wondering when you would come, Master Jet."
"The government keeps us Ascended very busy, Lady Changing Star." Jet grinned back at her. "But I'm sure you've been quite busy yourself, I can't spend 5 minutes online without seeing your face, but the propaganda machine must roll on."
She picked up the communicator on the table and began ordering for herself. "I still have much more attention on me because of that Tyrant we killed and you foisting the public on me, thanks for that by the way." Jet shot her a dark look, but it lacked heat.
Nephis sighed, even now months later Jet didn't want to let go of that, but Nephis refused to apologise, she thought they were even for all the teasing she had been subjected to by the hands of the cruel Master.
Jet's and Nephis food arrived and they both ate while engaging in idle chatter, there was still business that needed to be cleared as they both had a working relationship in regards to the Firekeepers and the government, Jet had her humorous side but she knew when to get down to business, which Nephis appreciated.
But when the food finally finished it was time for Nephis to get to the point of this meeting, she clasped her hands and looked at Jet, steel in her gaze.
"I'm going to challenge the Second Nightmare."
Jet was wiping her mouth and looked at Nephis in surprise, seeing that she was serious she shook her head.
"Crazy kid…"
Nephis frowned at her. "You're not that much older than me, unless you're calling yourself old?"
Jet shot her a dangerous look, while she sipped her coffee. "You're lucky you're a girl, if a boy said that to me I would have slapped him across the room."
She paused for a moment.
"That reminds me, I need to tell you about the time I slapped Sunny when we first met, he had quite the mouth on him when he woke up from his First Nightmare." Jet laughed and Nephis put on a mischievous smile at that nugget of information, even if it was a little brittle.
"By the way how are you going to get this through Valour? I doubt you got their permission to ascend."
Nephis grinned, it didn't reach her eyes. "Officially, the White Feather clan has my cohort doing an extended expedition deep within the Chained Isles to discover more information on the White Tower in the sky."
"Unofficially though, that's where the Nightmare Seed is actually located so they technically aren't lying to the Greater Clan, they just didn't divulge details on the nature of the expedition itself."
Nephis gathered her thoughts for a moment then spoke:
"I don't think I need to explain my reasons for challenging a Seed, you know about the Great Clans and you have a general understanding of my actual situation." She looked at Jet, her expression was dark but she nodded nonetheless.
"Honestly, with how ambitious you are I was surprised you didn't challenge the Nightmare sooner, you have a well known cohort, a strong force of Awakened willing to follow you and are a powerhouse in yourself." She sipped her coffee, tilting her head and thought for a moment. "Well, I don't know what much information I can give you that beats out standard Legacy teachings, I'm sure you've been thoroughly quizzed on what the Second Nightmare entails."
Nephis nodded, her becoming a master was an inevitability, so she had studied as much as she could on the Nightmares, even then… "Information straight from the source is better than textbooks."
Jet smiled at that and gave Nephis a breakdown on what to expect in her Nightmare, the dangers present, the conflict that needs to be resolved and how quickly one needs to adapt to the new body given to them, and all sorts of unique challenges in her Nightmare.
"And finally… I said that there is no one way to conquer the Nightmare. That means that some solutions can contradict each other. And people participating in the trial are not forced to aim for the same result."
Nephis scowled. "What are you trying to say?"
Jet stared at her, voice lowered and cold.
"Not all challengers have to be on the same side to resolve a conflict, it rarely occurs but just… keep in that mind for whatever might happen."
Nephis was silent for a moment, truth be told the thought of betrayal never crossed her mind, but it didn't have to be betrayal born from malice or self-gain, there were all sorts of ways to turn someone against their companions.
"Thank you, I'll be sure to take your advice into account," A beep on her communicator prompted her to pick it up, her face becoming solemn as she read the message.
Nephis sighed, putting her communicator in her pocket and standing up, it was time to leave and she still had one more thing to do. "I'll be taking my leave now, Master Jet, the next time we meet it will be as equals."
Jet gave Nephis a searching look, and as if finding what she was looking for smiled, giving her a firm nod.
Nephis left the booth and entered the main lounge of the faculty within the Academy, she ignored the stares and gawks with a practiced impassive face and looked ahead.
Outside, the air was cool and crisp with grey clouds hanging over ahead. The sun was dipping, slowly approaching dusk, giving the clouds a hue of fiery red and dark purple. The trees were vibrant with yellow and orange foliage, and the sound of groundskeepers with vacuums, cleaning the fallen leaves reverberated across the air in sync with the crunch of Nephis feet on the grass and gravel.
Instead of walking towards the gate of the Academy however, she instead entered the Sleeper's compound, it was sadly close to the Winter Solstice and seeing as they wanted to enter the Nightmare a little early before it came, there were Sleepers, still out and about.
She gave perfunctory greetings, and nods to those who came close, but as if sensing her urgency, they let her walk past.
'This really isn't going to help the rumours.' Nephis mused, but she didn't care, let people make all sorts of guesses on her relationship status, it wasn't going to stop her from visiting him.
She entered the lower parts of the compound, the same grey walls, the same chemical lights overhead and walked past the halls with practiced steps.
Standing outside a certain door, was a blonde girl with a white blouse and black dress, her eyes were a strong cerulean blue, but they were unfocused, signifying her disability and her face was downcast, with solemn shadows drowning her eyes.
Cassie.
Nephis walked next to the blind girl and patted her on the shoulder, no words were needed to explain how they felt whenever they came to his room.
Cassie was silent for a moment, then spoke, her voice low. "I'll see you outside the Academy Gates."
She left and Nephis entered the room.
Sunny was sleeping as peacefully as ever, his pod had been moved deeper into the compound and given much finer embellishments and medical equipment to constantly be aware of his current health, even now he was serene without a single sign on his face of the Nightmare he was currently experiencing.
Nephis sat next to the pod, her chair as comfortable as always.
"Hey, Sunny."
A pause.
"I'm about to challenge the Second Nightmare, Valour has been getting more bold in testing my boundaries and I don't doubt it will be long before they trying something, it wasn't even a month ago when one of the Firekeepers was mysteriously injured, but thankfully they were alive to get treated, but even then it doesn't bode well."
Another pause.
"Cassie was the one who directed us to the seed, she told us a pretty detailed vision of where it is and what we need to do, but you could tell that she was hiding certain details, I don't blame her though who knows what would happen if she told us everything, we both know how that turned out for us right?"
She sighed, it was heavy.
"I wish you were here challenging the Nightmare with us, your scouting would have been valuable. Kai is good but he sadly just can't compete with a Divine Aspect holder."
She laughed a little.
"Rain is still fine, don't worry, I'm still sorry about telling her that your siblings even if the situation was out of my control, but she still visited you and dropped some flowers so I hope that makes up for it."
She rested her elbows on the edge of the pod.
"You're smart so I'm sure that you've already figured out who gave me your True Name, but still…. Please don't be too hard on Cassie, she really regrets what she did, I- I don't want you to hate her, but if you do… if you do, hate me instead. I was the one who took your freedom."
Her head rested on her forearms, closing her eyes.
"I'm sorry for that Sunny, but I would do it again, if I could swap positions with you I would, not because you're weak, but because…."
Her voice was small.
"But because I really can't stand the thought of you dying… I know it's selfish for me to say that since I'm sure you feel the same, you wouldn't have done what you did if you didn't, but I would trap myself in that hell just so you'd live."
"Even if we would have survived it together, even if we would have been stronger together, even if we would have been better together…"
She looked up, her chin tucked between her arms and stared at Sunny's face.
"… I can't take that chance, I don't show it much, but I'm mad at you for what you did, joining the list of people who sacrificed themselves for me burns in a way my Flaw can't compare, and I'm sure you're mad at me for what I did, taking your freedom and violating you like that, so come back Sunny, come back so we can both scream at each other about how stupid we both are."
White sparks ignited in Nephis eyes, she slowly stood up and looked over at the person who she knew her Fate was connected to, for better or worse, till death did them part.
"And I'll come back to make sure I'm strong enough for the both of us, to make sure that this never happens again."
Changing Star walked away without saying goodbye, she didn't need to, she would see Sunny again as an Ascended, no matter what.
For if it was her will, who dared to stop her?
***
Nephis walked out of the Academy gates and entered her stationed PTV, Cassie was already sitting inside waiting for her.
While the PTV drove away, she looked at the entrance of the Academy, there were dozens of miniature tachi like blades made of hardened clay stuck next to the gate. They were positioned in a way that they always caught the light of the sun or moon, similar to a sundial. The shadows cast looked as if they were guarding the school itself.
Nephis smiled as the vehicle drove away, one of the Firekeepers, — Sid — was their chauffeur for today, and was surprisingly good with a wheel.
The interior of the PTV was silent, but it wasn't a bad thing, both her and Cassie needed to sort their thoughts for what was to come.
The sun continued ever onward, the sky turning into the tranquil form of Dusk, the blood red hues fading from the clouds and buildings. The purple and blues became ever stronger, inviting the night. The lights of the Northern Capital Siege Quadrant started to switch on one by one, but it couldn't fully stop the world from being drowned in shadows.
But the shadows were made deeper by the light, and the light was made brighter by shadows in turn, ever connected and better for it.
The PTV drove into the manor and main HQ of the Firekeepers, Nephis wasn't going to leave her body defenceless and exposed in her home. Even if it was destroyed, the moment she became a Master it would be rebuilt, but she didn't want her home to be caught in the crossfire, she liked it very much.
Her and Cassie walked out of the garage, Sid drove off to find more appropriate parking and they entered the Manor proper. All the Firekeepers were on high alert, the air heavy and whenever she passed they each gave grim nods, but there was insurance in their eyes, they had faith they would come back.
Entering the main lounge she saw Kai pacing, anxious as ever but there was steel in his eyes, ready for whatever came next. Effie was munching on a whole plate of food as to be expected, not a single worry on her face, she even looked excited.
Spotting us she grinned, even with her crippled body it didn't take away from any of her energy. "Finally, Princess! I thought we would have to meet you in the Isles, you didn't spend too long staring longingly at Sunny's face did you?"