I open my eyes to a horrible headache and nothingness.
"Meeehhh"
"■■■■ you're awake! Okay okay, you need to have that echo fly us up!"
I stare at Sunny who frankly did not look good right now. Oh yeah, singer, I try to summon her but it doesn't work. I try again and again and again
"We have a problem. I can't summon Singer"
He stares at me dumbfounded
"I'm sorry what"
I shake my head
"The spell said something about her evolving"
I notice I had been, badly, tied to... the dead mimic, of course Sunny killed the damn thing.
"That took a whole month for saint....."
Wait what. By his face, it was a slip of the tongue so I won't say anything about it. Nobody likes someone who digs into their business
"So we are falling through the sky below"
"Yup and we can't get back up"
"We are so fucked."
I put my hand on his shoulder
"Sunless I swear to god do you have something that attracts situations or something?"
He makes a face
"Yeah it's called Fated."
"20 points to me being right yet again"
Sunny gets another face
"Why are you so calm about this"
"If I die then I won't care, if I live I'll refuse to ever think about it so I won't be able to care."
He slowly shakes his head getting the look
"I hope that one was a joke"
I'm bored as all hell. I've never been this bored in my life. What to do, what to do.
"Hey sun"
"Yeah?"
"Got any tips for like talking to people?"
He stares at me
"Yes? What do you need them for?"
What kind of question is that?
"Yes, that's why I'm asking"
He slowly shakes his head.
"People never say what they mean exactly. Like if they mention going somewhere they normally want you to ask to come along. If they mention a problem they mean they want you to ask about helping."
I nod
"Hm yeah people never tend to say what they mean"
He doesn't seem very impressed.
So what now, I don't have much to do. I've already desummoned my armor for it to heal up....wait
"Sunny where are the coins?"
He grins
"I got a storage memory from the mimic it put them all in there"
Ah shit!
"so you're improving the brilliant emporium?"
He nods with a grin
"Of course I am who do you think I am"
I laugh
"shard hungry that's what"
He shakes his head dramatically
"That's just insulting"
"I'm right"
"I mean yeah but it's insulting"
"Hey ■■■■"
I look up from my new hobby of picking at my clothes
"yeah?"
"Where did you learn to make clothes?"
Oh yeah that makes sense
"I learned the basics from teacher. Then I learned some more from my first cohort"
He tilts his head
"Can you teach me a bit?"
I shrug
"If we manage to survive this whole thing"
"cool thanks"
I go back to picking at my clothes.
I have no clue how long it's been since we started falling. I at this point had mostly just been sleeping the time away. Sunny had started talking to his shadows, to which I've noticed there are 2 and they move on their own and have personalities.
I'm probably just going insane like he has oh and he talks to a memory, a rock. He has been talking to his shadows and a rock.
"Why wouldn't it be dark? This is the sky below after all."
Sunny then stops moving looking around
"Was that you ■■■■?"
I look over
"No?"
He gets a slightly scared look
"I heard a voice, it asked why it was so dark. Is there something out there?"
I shake my head
"I couldn't hear it."
I hope Sunnys not going insane that would suck big time. For a bit I hear Sunny talking to himself then I hear him play back his words with that rock. That's weird.
What is he doing now?
"What are you doing?"
"I'm practicing essence control."
I suppose that's smart maybe I'll practice making more detailed ice creations. So I start trying to make the ice crown. It was very very detailed so it's a good thing to practice with.
Each time it just isn't right and it's annoying but I've got nothing to do so I keep going.
Sunny hits me in the face to wake me up. I swing my fist up as a result almost getting the slippery little beast in the face.
"The voice spoke again"
I stared at him
"Don't give me that look. Anyways, the stars, their divine flames. We will need to dodge them"
I blink staring at him
"Did you do some kind of drug?"
"No I didn't. He said he's not at the sanctuary so he's probably at the night temple..."
I laugh
"You know what I think?"
He looks over at me
"What now ■■■■?"
I grin
"I think that place isn't really for exploring the hollow mountains. No no I think they're using it for something darker"
He face palms
"Well let's see if this new conspiracy is true"
I roll over
"It's a theory not a conspiracy"
And I go back to sleep.
We are eating the mimic, it is horrid, second only to my cooking.
"Sure. Want a bite?"
I stare at Sunny who randomly spoke. He's making quite the annoyed face, he's speaking to that voice again.
I do the you're crazy thing with my hand, he gives me an offended look
"He's offended you think he's fake"
"Sorry weird voice that only Sunny can hear that I'm sure is only in his head"
He gets a really annoyed look. Sunny goes on to speak to that voice again, I still think he's insane. He gets an alarmed look
"You uh... aren't going to get angry with me for killing your pet are you?"
I look up, oh that's quite sad actually.
"Sorry for your loss voice in Sunny's head"
Sunny stares at me then looks away.
Sunny is messing with the bow he gives Saint when he looks up.
"Not really but I hope to learn a bit of it soon"
He's talking to that voice again. I go back to trying to make the crown, it's so detailed it's really hard and that's really really annoying but I don't have anything better to do.
"Prince? What are you the prince of?"
I look up okay the voice is a prince now, that's kinda funny. I lift the crown, it's a bit sloppy
"When I'm done with this does the voice want it?"
It's a bad joke but I find it quite funny like someone at 3 at night who laughs at stuff that isn't that funny.
"He's flattered."
I laugh and I go back to trying to make it like the one in my first nightmare.
I'm halfway asleep I think. I've never been very good at telling things like that. I have, not quite a dream more like a memory. I don't normally think about the past. It was a year after they had died.
"You should join the host, Gunlaug personally invites you"
I had looked at the group of guards, I remember noticing how young they seemed, recruits no doubt. It's a shame, nobody was able to find the bodies in the end. Not that there was any, I was still so angry I kept hitting and hitting. It never gave me a feeling of power or anything good.
I was just so angry I didn't stop. In the end, I knew Gunlaug was aware of what I did but didn't want to deal with the losses he could have dealt with if he tried to kill me.
Elemental damage is quite horrible if you have no resistance after all. Those guards didn't deserve what I did to them.
I wish I could go back and stop myself from doing it.
I look down at the flames that once looked like stars. He was talking to.... prince yeah I'll go with that.
"Hey prince, see you after the flames."
Sunny gives me a look
"I'm sure Sun will survive he's known for being almost unkillable."
"And you'll live too."
I nod
"Maybe."
He pats me on the shoulder.
"He says see you too"
I do a thumbs up with one hand as I put on my helmet.
I jump forward activating the stained glass wings flying forward. I make little ice platforms to jump off of making me move even faster. I'm able to get within the, whatever he calls it, quite easily using this tactic.
Sunny however falls right through the last one. I still jump over while I can in a blind panic. I pull him closer to me away from the flames. He's on fire, shit shit shit, he's on fire.
I start trying to put him out, but I stop not because for the first time in, years, my hand is being burnt but because it hurts Sunny. That's when the fire moves and flows to one of the two ice shards behind me.
[Your ice shard is evolving]
Cool cool. I wrap myself around him as he desummons his armor. He could be cooked alive and well I'd rather stop that from happening. He's not on fire anymore but he's still badly burnt and that armor of his burned to hell and back and its melting.
I can't breathe so he can't either. He summons that new sword and it does a thing I think. My eyes are closed so I can't tell. I should have done more I didn't so now he's burnt as all hell.
It takes a while before we finally get to the end of the divine flames I can't see because I had dismissed the owl's eye before the flames. I don't let go of him just yet because it's still too hot. He looks over my shoulder and he points at something
"Sun I can't see into the darkness right now"
He nods and we keep falling. He's so burnt, I should have grabbed him. I should have done more, I didn't, and it's my fault. My hands hurt a lot too. This sucks.
I fell and fell finally letting go of sunny when it wasn't too hot.
"An island"
I tilt my head
"Huh?"
"There's an island down there"
I sigh and I grab him again as I summon my wings. It may be able to melt but it's better than his are, I think it has some elemental resistance. We slowly start going slower until we land. I promptly fall over onto my face.
"Land"
I look to the sunny then I look away quickly. He's not in any clothes gross. I take out a blanket from my satchel and I throw it to him.
"Thanks"
He puts a hand out and I toss over a small block of ice.
We sit there for a while until we finally get up Sunny Summons Saint. We walk to the black pagoda. I had summoned the owl eye back a while ago. We get to the door he looks around at it
"Any ideas?"
I shrug and saint points to her eyes. Weird but okay. Wait why does Sunny have a tattoo? It looks pretty cool I'll give him that. He leans towards the door and puts his hand on one point. Then it just... opens? How completely insane and how sunny. He gets behind Saint
"Hah-wimp"
I walk right in, if any nightmare creatures are going to try to kill me they'll have a bad time even with my burnt ass arms.
We walk for a bit before Sunny sniffs the air
"I smell food"
He pushes open a door and torches light up. There's tons of stuff and a ton of food. I move forward without thought. I stuff as much as I can into my mouth. Sunny soon does the same.
Soon he goes to sleep on a bed that was there. I however summon my satchel and I shove anything and everything I can into it. Saint gives me a weird look but I don't care. This stuff looks valuable, or well it looks free. I walk over and I make an ice bed next to the normal bed and I fall asleep on it.
I wake up to a crash. I sit up looking around, I don't see any threats. I hear another I look over at Sunny, whose bed had broken
"Pfft"
He shoots me a look. I get up stretching. My hands hurt, I look down at my burnt as all hell hands. He looks around I do too, everything i hadn't repossessed had rotted away. I checked any anything I had grabbed is fine thankfully.
"I grabbed what I could"
He nods
"good"
I feel bad when looking at him, so I don't. Soon we will go exploring the tower. Most things are rotted away and unrecognizable. We go down a level and there's a bunch of doll parts. I narrow my eyes, should I take one or two of them? I totally should but what good would it do? Wait are those footprints? They seem pretty old.
I walk around looking at stuff. The dolls seem well-made if weirdly familiar. There are glass jar things on the walls which I think maybe held some of the divine flame. Weird. When out of sight I pocket a doll. Not weird, it is not weird.
After a while, we go to the second floor and a horrible feeling of fear. Not fear pure terror, primordial terror. There's a silver bowl thing and crawling from it is something. It feels like looking at that skull. I step in front of Sunny, he's too injured to properly fight right now. Sunny looks over my shoulder and mutters
"Holy shit"
"what?"
He looks at me then at it
"That's the arm of a god...."
We slowly slide along the side of the wall getting to the other side of the room. We go to the next floor and there's floating doll arms. What the hell.
Sunny scampers off to go look at something while I.... repossess a few doll arms. I walk over he's got a needle for some reason. He suddenly tenses looking down
"It's doing something."
Shit shit shit. I move in front of him summoning the shield. Soon he sighs
"It's dying. It's okay it's dying."
I slump on my shield letting it go
"God damn it Sunny don't worry me like that. Now my hands hurt even worse"
Sunny drops the needle and some weird-looking thread into his new storage memory, his very own little mimic. He goes to watch the rot die.
"I'm not watching that shit"
"Oh come on it's dying"
I shake my head
"Oh hell nah. Sunless I swear to god, I'm not watching that thing die"
Later I walk down the stairs and I sit next to him. He looks over at me
"Headache runes"
He nods like that was a normal or good answer. I lift my satchel and we have a small meal as that thing dies. It takes ages but it dies finally. He gets up and walks over like a crazy person. He picks up a bone from that god arm thing.
"Whoa a god bo-"
He fucking eats it. We stare at each other for a few seconds then he screams in pain. I get up and run over to him. He drops like a sack of wet mice. I grab him dragging him away from where the rot was. He seems to be having some kind of seizure- what do you do when someone's having one of those?
I take out a scrap of fabric from my satchel and I use it to make sure he doesn't bite through anything. What do I do now, I don't know. I have to stop him from hurting himself.
"Hell... that was rough"
I look down at him, and he seems to be getting better thankfully. I take a deep breath aside flop down next to him.
"Sunless. You are a fucking idiot."
He gives me an offended look then he looks away
"Well- normally I'm smarter."
Yeah, normally he is. I go upstairs I make a snow bed and I go to sleep finally.
A few days later we're eating the last of the food I, didn't steal, took, not much better sounding, Sunny's talking to Saint sounding like an insane man again. When he looks up with a pretty happy expression. Prince is back, before he can speak I talk
"We live!"
He glances over
"And stole, anyway-"
I start ignoring him once again. I'm not in the mood to listen to a madman.
"-Hey ■■■■ what did you even take?"
"Whatever I could"
He nods.
At this point, we have explored the whole place. I got bored so I've started trying to make the crown again but that got boring as well. Maybe I can make something that has moving parts. But what to make? How about like a shaker? That seems fine. It's something to do. Maybe if I'm able to get back to the waking world I'll look up stuff to make.
After so long of being down here, sunny with that weird new sword of his had been fueling a weird set of runes on the top of the tower. He had been having me help as well. And now it pays off as a portal opens.
"The ivory tower.... mordret was right!"
I run past him as in my own words fuck it. I promptly faceplant as I can not see. It is too bright. I yelp but it's muffled from being face down on the dirt.
I lay in the dirt for a while half awake because frankly, I am sick of this. When....
[Your ice shard has evolved]
"Took long enough!"
I summon Singer. She's mostly the same but her dress is now not torn at the ends and pretty heavy-looking chains are around her wrists, legs, and neck.
"Been a while has it not?"
I jump and hug her. She doesn't move for a little while before she hugs me back. Soon Sunny comes back from whatever Sunny does
"Wow, so she's back. Okay well.... would you be willing to do the second nightmare with me?"
I let go of Singer as I stare at him
"Yes but like not right now obviously"
"Obviously"
I look around
"How do we get down?"
He shrugs
"I don't know"
That's when Singer pipes up, or is it writes up?
"Well I may be of help with that"
After a while me and sunny are at the edge of the island holding Singers hand.
"Well if you're so sure this will work then.... we have to"
And we jump. A really weird feeling like of being disconnected from the world over takes me and Sunny too I think. We fall and fall and don't get killed by the crushing!
It seems Singer was right about that new power of hers, she's able to go intangible like a wraith, how cool! We soon get to the next closest island only dealing with a little of the crushing. From now on I won't have to deal with it!
We soon get to the Iron Hand Island finding some poor awakened, we have to look like crazy people. I personally eat as much as I can because, well we had run out of most food a little before the portal opened. Sunny eats even more like an opossum, I read about those animals because they seemed fun.
"Hey sun, when's your birthday?"
He looks up
"The winter solstice"
I stare at him
"I didn't get you a gift- I have to get you something for your birthday- even if it's late!"