The Nameless Temple exploded with shadows. They wrapped themselves around Auro halting the dreamwalker's advance. They wrapped themselves around the Mountain King decimating it body.
[You have slain an awakened tyrant, Mountain King.]
Sunny looked to Auro, even the ancient divine shadows could only stop the dreamwalker, not destroy it. Sunny felt a sense of true fear, while Shadow god was in his eternal slumber and thus greatly weakened, even his weakened shadows should have carried at least the power of a transcendent. Surely that should be enough to kill a creature of a first nightmare.
[Wake up, Sunless! Your nightmare is over.]
[Prepare for appraisal…]
Sunny again found himself in a space between dream and reality.
[You have received a Memory: Puppeteer's Shroud]
[Aspirant! Your trial is over.]
[A nameless slave ascended the Black Mountain. Both heroes and monsters fell by his hand. Unbroken, he entered the ruined temple of a long-forgotten god. The god sent one of his minions to sentence the slave to endless slumber. The slave refused and spilled his blood on the sacred altar. The gods were dead, and yet they listened.]
[You have defeated six dormant beasts: Mountain King's Larva.]
[You have defeated nine dormant humans, names unknown.]
[You have defeated an awakened human: Auro of the Nine.]
[You have defeated an awakened tyrant: Mountain King.]
[You have received the Shadow God's blessing.]
[You have achieved the impossible!]
[Final appraisal: glorious.]
'Huh, I guess the Spell doesn't think I'm treacherous this time.' Sunny thought.
[Your treachery truly knows no bounds.]
'Or not'
[Dreamer Sunless, receive your boon!]
[You have been bestowed a True Name: Fate's Shadow.]
Sunny was not entirely surprised. He and Cassie had changed Fate and true names were a reflection of one's fate. He grimaced, he seemed to be unable to escape Weaver's insidious plots.
[Your Aspect is ready to evolve. Evolve Aspect?]
Sunny immediately chose 'yes.'
[Dormant Aspect Temple Slave is evolving…]
[New Aspect acquired.]
[Aspect Rank: Divine.]
[Aspect Name: Shadow Slave.]
Aspect: [Shadow Slave].
Aspect Rank: Divine.
Aspect Description: [You are a miraculous shadow left behind by a dead god. As a divine shadow, you possess plenty of strange and wondrous powers. However, your existence is empty and lonesome; you mourn the passing of your former master and long to find a new one.]
Innate Ability: [Shadow Bond].
Ability Description: [Find a worthy master and let them know your True Name. Once they recite it out loud, you will be bound to their will, unable to disobey any command. It is improper for a shadow, let alone a divine one, to walk around without a master.]
Sunny knew it was coming and yet still sighed internally. His innate ability had truly caused him much more harm than good. He had wanted to sacrifice the Mountain King in hopes of Shadow god granting a more beneficial innate and yet was left disappointed.
[The First Seal is broken.]
[Awakening dormant powers…]
[Awakening Aspect Ability…]
[Aspect Ability acquired.]
[Aspect Ability Name: Shadow Control.]
[All power has a price.]
[You have received a Flaw.]
Sunny pulled up all his runes:
Name: Sunless.
True Name: Fate's Shadow.
Rank: Dreamer.
Shadow Core: Dormant.
Shadow Fragments: [12/1000].
Memories: [???], [Silver Bell], [Dreadful Burden], [Puppeteer's Shroud].
Echoes: —
Attributes: [Fated], [Flame of Divinity], [Child of Shadows].
Aspect: [Shadow Slave].
Aspect Rank: Divine.
Aspect Abilities: [Shadow Control].
Aspect Ability Description: [Your shadow is more independent than most. It is an invaluable helper.]
Flaw: [Clear Conscience].
Flaw Description: [You cannot lie.]
Sunny smiled to himself remembering how torn he was when he first received his Flaw. Of course, the potential dangers and inconvenience was detrimental, but Sunny had gotten used to navigating it and now almost felt like it was a foundational part of himself.
[Wake up, Fate's Shadow!]
Sunny opened his eyes.
He was back in the police station. Back to the waking world, all those years ago.
He was lying on a medical table. Looking to his side he saw a striking woman with short, raven-black hair and icy blue eyes sitting in a plastic chair.
"What are you looking at?" asked Jet.
Sunny thought for a second before his flaw compelled him to answer.
"Another person from the outskirts" replied Sunny.
Jet blinked not expecting the answer. How could this kid tell? Why was that the first thing that he thought of after a nightmare?
"How-" Jet began to ask.
"Sorry, I just noticed a look inn your eye I recognized." Sunny cut off Jet's question before he was asked a more awkward question.
It was not a lie, Sunny always saw in Jet the more rough exterior of the outskirts. He just conveniently left out the part about time travel and all that. He thought about replaying the past for fun, but he needed to get closer to Jet for his preparation before the Forgotten Shore.
"I see. Well, welcome back to the land of the living. Congratulations on surviving your First Nightmare, Sleeper Sunless." Jet said with more warmth than she usually did.
"I am Ascended Jet. You can call me Master Jet. These past three days, I was on watch duty due to your Nightmare." Jet continued.
"I guess you already know, but my name is Sunless. My friends call me Sunny." Sunny told Jet.
"Alright Sunny, well I'll be waiting in the cafeteria. Go get cleaned up and then I'll help you figure out what to do from here." Jet said with a smile.
Sunny stood alone in the shower room, steam still curling off his skin as he caught his own reflection in the mirror. Sunny stared at it for a long moment, then let out a slow breath. He didn't need to interrogate it. They shared the same memories, the same scars. He could feel within his heart it knew him, and he knew it.
He willed the shadow to raise a hand. It raised a hand. Then after a minute, gave him a reluctant thumbs up.
"Coy till the end." Sunny snorted.
The gloomy guy shrugged, but didn't deny it.
Sunny closed his eyes and reacquainted himself with his shadow sense. He could feel all around the station.
"Well, we're back. I guess it's time to go talk to Jet." he said cheerfully to his shadow, who face palmed in response.
Sunny entered the cafeteria sat next to Jet who gave him some synthetic food.
"I can eat and listen if there're rules or things I need to follow." said Sunny.
"Oh. Well then I'll begin. As per protocol, I am obligated to inform you of a few things. It is mostly a formality. First of all, concerning your Nightmare…" Jet trailed off.
She glanced at him and sighed.
"You are entitled to receive free psychological counseling. No matter what traumatic experience you have encountered, there is no shame in asking for help. Your mind is as important as your body, it's only right to keep it healthy. Are you interested?"
"No really. Is there anything you need obligated to tell me?" asked Sunny.
"You're free to do as you like. But if you have any sense, you'll enroll in the Awakened Academy. Food, lodging, prep classes and you'll meet the people entering the Dream Realm with you." Jet said, glancing at her communicator with a grimace.
"What do you say?" Jet asked looking back at Sunny.
"I want to go to the Academy." said Sunny.
Together they walked out of the station. Sunny hesitated at the threshold.
"One thing first. A favor." said Sunny.
Jet crossed her arms but didn't walk away. He laid it out simply, and she listened without interrupting. When he finished, silence sat between them for a minute.
"That's quite the favor you're asking." Jet said.
She sighed through her nose. Something in her face shifted, not quite soft, but not stone either.
"Fine. Just this once and only because I know the government just acquired what you're looking for and I have enough pull to get it to you by the solstice." said Jet.
"Thank you, I'll be sure to pay you back more than in full." said Sunny.
Jet gave him a long look.
"Don't make promises you're not sure you can keep Sunny." said Jet simply.
'Don't worry, I'm sure I'll keep this one,' Sunny thought as he followed Jet into a PTV.
Sunny stood before the red gates of the Awakened Academy, hands in his pockets, watching snow fall in silence. The time he had been here before felt like a lifetime ago. The cold, the gates, the anxieties of everything waiting on the other side.
He remembered her too. The silver-haired girl stood a few feet away, headphones on, grey eyes distant. Nephis. Changing Star. The girl who would become something closer to a force of nature than a person. She looked lonely in the quiet way she had before, self-contained, apart from the world, like a figure painted into the wrong scenery.
He waited for something to stir in his chest. Some echo of what he'd once felt. Nothing. If anything had remained after their falling out in another life, it hadn't made the crossing with him.
But still he felt a sense of responsibility and sibling-like overprotection. His vow came quickly and quietly. He wasn't going to let her fate end up the way it had. Along with Rain and Cassie he would ensure to carry them with him to his ideal future, free from ruin. Whatever the cost.
Nephis stepped forward onto the bridge without a word. Sunny exhaled and followed.
The induction hall was full. Well-dressed Sleepers with suitcases and duffel bags filled the space, buzzing with nervous energy. Sunny and the silver-haired girl, empty-handed in police-issued tracksuits, were apparently the anomaly.
He barely noticed. He was looking for one person. He found her near the quiet end of the hall. She had pale blonde hair, blue eyes, delicate yet stronger than the way he remembered. Cassie. Except her eyes weren't empty. They moved, nervously darting around the hall.
She wasn't blind.
Sunny stared a little too long. She gave him a quizzed look, the expression of someone wondering why a stranger was studying them like a puzzle. He glanced away.
Sunny had faced gods and slayed rulers of humanity and yet this... it threw off more than he wanted to admit. He tucked the thought away and left the hall without talking to anyone.
His room was small and clean just like he remembered. Sunny set the table aside to make more space. Sunny stood in the middle of it for a moment, then glanced at his shadow.
"I guess it time to get to work." he said changing clothes and summoning the [Dreadful Burden].
The shadow was unimpressed.
"Maybe you'll stop being so pessimistic once we get Serpent back." said Sunny.
Gloomy was still for a moment and then somberly nodded its head.
Sunny grinned as he began to practice. He couldn't use his Sovereign style of combat given his lack of ability and lack of space. Sunny began with the style he practiced with Saint in the Dark City. With his years of combat he perfectly copied the style of the stalwart, grounded, and oppressive stone saints.
After a couple hours, Sunny heard the sound of the Spell.
[You have received an Aspect Legacy, Shadow Dance]
Aspect Legacy: [Shadow Dance].
Shadow Dance Mastery Level: [1/7].
First Relic: [Claim].
Second Relic: Unearned.
Third Relic: Unearned…
Wasting no time wanting to be reunited with his Shadow, Sunny chose "Claim."
First Relic: Claimed.
[You have received an Aspect Legacy Relic.]
[You have received a Shadow: Soul Serpent.]
Sunny glanced at his raising his sleeve to see the hint of the tattoo hidden by his shirt.
Shadow: [Soul Serpent].
Shadow Rank: Dormant.
Shadow Class: Beast.
Shadow Attributes: [Shadow Guide].
Shadow Description: [When the end came, Shadow was the last of the gods to be destroyed. Many have resented him for creating death, but in the end, death embraced all.]
[Shadow Guide] Attribute Description: "Soul Serpent guides shadow essence as it flows through your body."
Shadow Abilities: [Serpentine Steel]
[Serpentine Steel] Ability Description: "Shadow Serpent's Soul Weapon form can assume the shape of any weapon."
He sat at the edge of the bed, thinking. By the solstice he could reasonably have the second step mastered, he remembered the vast array of battle techniques that he had gained in his previous life. That would allow Serpent to join him in its beast form. The third step was another matter. That one he felt needed the presence of nightmare creatures. Simply imagining a Carapace Scavenger wasn't going to cut it. However, Sunny felt confident he could reach that step before reaching the Dark City and at the very least the siege on the Spire.
Next he summoned the [Puppeteer's Shroud], turning it over in his mind. The exact same runes as before, Sunny was pleased by this. He had worried that Auro would steal his kill and while the Shroud would soon be replaced by the [Mantle of the Underworld], it was nice to have an armor type memory until then.
Finally, Sunny lay back and stared at the fake window and its projected snow.
Cassie wasn't blind. That changed things, how much, he didn't yet know. But she was still Cassie, and he intended to keep his promise. He'd introduce himself tomorrow.
He closed his eyes. Tomorrow, one day closer to the solstice.
True to his word, Sunny found Cassie the next morning. She was sitting alone at the edge of the Academy's training courtyard, watching the other Sleepers spar with the quiet attentiveness of someone cataloguing rather than observing. Without the blindfold. Without the empty stare. It was still strange.
Sunny sat down beside her.
"You're Cassie, right?" said Sunny.
She turned toward him, and internally Sunny felt a small jolt. Her blue eyes moved to look back at him with friendliness.
"...Yes. You're the one who was staring at me yesterday." Cassie replied.
"I was," he said. His Flaw gave him no room to maneuver.
She waited for him to elaborate, which he didn't.
"Is there a reason?" she asked.
Cassie was somewhere between cautious and curious. She had only one vision so far after her nightmare, a vision of Sunny celebrating his birthday in the outskirts. This made a Sunny more special than the rest of the class, and yet his gaze last night left her wary but excited with questions.
Sunny considered his words carefully. There was a reason, of course. Several. None of which he could say. Feeling his flaw building.
"You reminded me of someone." True. "I wanted to introduce myself." Also true. "My name is Sunless. People call me Sunny." Sunny answered.
Something in her expression softened slightly, the guardedness not gone but shifted. They sat in comfortable silence for a moment. Sunny dove into his soul sea, feeling for the [???] memory. He'd been thinking about this all night. The memory hummed with Cassie's resonance, her fate woven into it alongside his. It wanted to interact in some way with her.
"Can I try something? It might feel a little strange." Sunny looked at her sideways.
"...Alright." she said with a look that said she found this entire interaction strange already.
Sunny held out his expectantly, to which Cassie gave an unimpressed look.
[You have received a Memory: ???]
"A memory?" Cassie asked.
Sunny watched her expecting something to happen.
"Are you able to use it?" asked Sunny.
"Uhhh... no is this a kind of joke," asked Cassie.
"No, never mind," replied Sunny taking her hand once again.
Cassie transferred the memory back over. They sat in silence.
"...What were you trying to do?" Cassie asked, her brow furrowed slightly.
"Something that didn't work, sorry" Sunny said honestly.
He sat back, genuinely disappointed. She studied him for a moment with an expression she recognized well, the look of someone bearing a burden unknown to even those close to them. Then she turned back to the courtyard.
"You're strange," she said not unkindly.
"Deeply," Sunny agreed.
She laughed. Quiet and a little surprised at herself. It sounded exactly as he remembered.
They fell into an unannounced routine over the following days. One of them would find the other in the mornings the eastern wall, or the quieter end of the mess hall, or watching sparring matches.
They talked about small things first. The Academy's food, which Sunny found better than the outskirts and Cassie found to be akin to prison food. The other Sleepers, several of whom had already distinguished themselves through either exceptional ability or exceptional foolishness. Cassie had quiet, precise opinions about people that she offered sparingly, and Sunny found he enjoyed hearing Cassie before they faced the true horrors of the forgotten shore.
By the fifth morning, when Sunny sat down next to her, she had already got him a coffee.
Sunny waited until he felt Nephis running her solo drills in the main space. He and Cassie slipped in, quietly watching the silver-haired girl moving through her forms with mechanical precision.
"Are we spying on Nephis of the Immortal Flame." Cassie glanced at him sideways.
"A little, I'm thinking that she could be our fiend what do you think?" asked Sunny.
"She doesn't exactly look approachable." Cassie said looking less certain.
"She isn't," Sunny agreed. "Come on."
Sunny and Cassie walked over and introduced themselves to the famous legacy. Nephis received the introduction with a measured look and a silence that lasted just long enough to be uncomfortable.
"I'm Nephis," she said simply an awkward silence about to set in again.
"We were wondering if you wanted to be friends," said Sunny with an overly cheerful tone.
Nephis was quiet for a moment.
"Why..."
Cassie paled.
"...not" said Nephis.
"Cool, well tomorrow would you mind if we three trained together?" Sunny asked tentatively.
Nephis nodded and then exited the training hall. Cassie looked at Sunny who wore a smile on his face. They only had a little over a week until the solstice, but Sunny felt that he could lay the ground work for trust between the three of them even if he failed to give Cassie her memories.
Over the next few day the trio spent their time training in the mornings, eating together when schedules allowed, quietly learning each other's rhythms.
Cassie, without her blindness, was a different fighter than Sunny had known. Slightly above average, quicker than she looked. It was clear that whatever training she did have was truly crippled by her blindness last time.
Interestingly, she excelled more at hand-to-hand combat than weaponry. Sunny also noticed that even when fighting with a weapon she would use her wrist guards to effectively bat away strikes.
"Again," Nephis said one afternoon after putting Cassie on the ground for the third time.
Cassie stared at the ceiling.
"You could say it with slightly less satisfaction."
"I don't feel satisfaction."
"That somehow makes it worse."
Sunny, watching from the side, said nothing. He was quietly memorizing the three of them in a room bickering about nothing before the forgotten shore, before fate's trajectory pointed only towards ruin.
The second step of the Shadow Dance came a week before the solstice. Sunny trained in every night, cycling through the battle forms he carried from another life. The style of the stone saints. The fluid cruelty of the Immoral Flame. The countless forms he copied from other awakened in tournaments and wars. The unorthodox hybridization he'd forged through years of desperate improvisation. He drilled them until his body remembered what it was supposed to be capable of.
The Dreadful Burden shifted forms constantly in his hands from an odachi to spear to knife to jian and back again, each transition deliberate.
It was during the end of a session, alone in the room with only his shadow for company, that he felt it. The sense of closeness whenever he neared a breakthrough.
[Your Aspect Legacy mastery level has increased.]
Sunny exhaled slowly, glee written on his face. He looked at his shadow, who raised both hands above its head in a reluctant, somewhat sarcastic gesture of celebration.
"Don't patronize me," Sunny said.
The shadow shrugged and sat down.
Sunny pulled up his runes:
[You have received the right to claim a Legacy Relic.]
Aspect Legacy: [Shadow Dance].
Shadow Dance Mastery Level: [2/7].
First Relic: [Claimed].
Second Relic: [Claim].
Not wanting to deal with the issue of the Second Relic, Sunny looked at Serpent's runes who had gained both [Soul Beast] and [Soul Reaver].
Sunny willed the Serpent to assume its beast form. It uncoiled from his skin slowly, the tattoo bleeding outward into something larger and terribly familiar. Shadow-dark scales, a body that moved like smoke given weight, Serpent was the size of a large python. It filled the small room with a quiet, crushing presence. Sunny exhaled. It was beautiful.
Serpent turned its head towards him. No recognition in its eyes beyond looking at its new master. No memory of everything they had endured together. Just a creature meeting its master for the first time.
It still pressed its head into his palm. Sunny stood there for a moment, throat tight.
"It's good to have you back buddy," he said quietly.
He recalled Serpent and went to lay down in his bed two choices remaining in front of him that he wanted to address before the solstice filled his mind.
He told her on the eve of the solstice. They were in Sunny's dorm, while not forbidden it was unusual for the Sleepers to go into each others dorm rooms. Still Cassie had come because Sunny has asked her to saying that it was important. At first they sat in silence Cassie readying herself for the solstice and Sunny for the coming conversation. Sunny had been quiet for long enough that she'd started watching him sideways with that careful attention of hers.
"You've been strange all evening," she said.
"I'm strange every evening."
"Stranger than usual."
He sat down next to her against the wall and was quiet for another moment. Then:
"I want to tell you my True Name."
"You have a True Name!" exclaimed Cassie.
"Yes but that's not exactly what I'm asking," he said.
"My True Name carries with it a burden if someone else knows it. But I want you to, I'm not doing it carelessly." he said as he met her eyes.
With his flaw, the Shadow Bond was not something Sunny could simply ignore. Between the Great Clans, the third one on the Moon, and unknown variables such as the Prince of Nothing Sunny could not afford to not choose a master sooner rather than later. His first thought was Rain. He trusted his sister with his life, no less in this life than the previous despite not yet connecting with her. However, he had decided to throw out the idea.
He and Rain had a deep relationship just on account of being siblings, adding the complexity of the Shadow Bond might make it deeper but could also change the very nature of their family bond. Not to mention that any potential banter would be restricted. Most of all Sunny did not want to burden his little sister with that responsibility. While he might feel more comfortable he would be shifting part of the burden onto someone he was sworn by blood and age to protect. It would be improper for a younger sister to take on the burden of her older sibling.
The silence stretched. Cassie looked at him with an expression he couldn't fully read.
"Why?" she asked quietly. "Why me?"
"Because I trust you." He paused. "And because I hope it will help you remember something."
Sunny had felt Weaver's lineage leave him as he traversed time, however while he was still connected he thought he felt the Will of Weaver effect the memory, refusing to let Cassie change fate without having some semblance of control itself.
She didn't answer immediately. He watched her think carefully and all the way to the end.
"Alright," she said finally. "I accept."
Sunny held her gaze. Then, quietly
"My True Name is Fate's Shadow. I need you to repeat it."
"Fate's Shadow." said Cassie.
The moment the words left her mouth, the [???] memory shattered. The shards of it burned through the Sunny in an instant and Cassie gasped, her hand flying to her temple, her whole body locking rigid.
Sunny was on his feet. "Cassie-"
"I-" Her voice broke. Her eyes were wide, filling with something enormous. Tears tracked silently down her face before she seemed to notice them. "I remember. I remember all of it."
She pressed both hands over her mouth. Her shoulders shook once.
Sunny stood very still and let her have the moment. When she finally looked up at him, her expression was almost unbearable in its complexity.
"The memory, you tried to give it back to me that first week." She let out a shaken breath. "You've been trying since the beginning."
"I promised I would."
Cassie was quiet for a long moment. She looked at her hands, then back at him, and he could see her sorting through the weight of two lifetimes at once, all the things that had gone wrong in one, all the things that hadn't happened yet in this one. The victories and the betrayals and the long stretches of ambiguity between.
"I gave up your True Name," she said quietly. The words carried their own verdict. "In the other life. I told Nephis your weakness."
"You did."
"And you still-" She stopped.
"I told you. I want to restart from zero. I don't regret or take back what I did or how I felt, but the past is the past" He held her gaze steadily.
Her jaw tightened. She looked away. A long silence. Then softer:
"What about the other thing I asked. At the end. Before-"
"I heard you," Sunny said. "I haven't forgotten."
She waited.
"I'm not going to pretend I don't have feelings to sort out," he said, choosing each word with the honesty his Flaw demanded. "I'm also not going to give you an answer I do not have yet."
"But... I'm not going to run from it. And I'm not going to make you wait forever." Sunny finished.
Cassie looked at him for a long moment. He couldn't tell if she was satisfied or devastated or somewhere in the vast complicated space between. Knowing her, probably all three.
"Okay," she said at last. Quietly. Like a decision.
She wiped her face with the back of her hand and stood up squaring her shoulders.
Sunny stood as well.
[You have received a Memory: Endless Spring]
"Won't you and Nephis need this more than I will," said Sunny.
"We'll be able to manage there was some flowing water on the island we ended up on," replied Cassie. "It feels wrong for you to not have it."
"Besides knowing you, I trust you'll find us in no time," Cassie said turning to look at him with a smile.
"Although you really didn't give me much time here." Cassie said with a light laugh.
"Yeah sorry about that." said Sunny. "Let's do it right this time."
"Agreed." She said. "Oh, and happy early birthday."
Staring into each others eyes, they both received a notification that they would be led to their pods shortly. Cassie squeezed Sunny's hands and silently went back to her dorm.
Within the hour all the Sleepers within the Academy were in sleeping pods. Sunny took a deep breath and in the darkness he once again heard:
[Welcome to the Dream Realm, Sunless!]