Cassie turned fully toward him. The Dark Sea moved below, patient and lightless.
"Could you please start from the beginning," she said. "I don't know what has happened since you got back. Not all of it."
Sunny looked at her. Right. She had sent him back with memories intact, but the flow of information hadn't been immediate or complete on her end. He'd assumed that she knew more than she did.
He told her. The mountain, the caravan, Auro. The purple and indigo haze infecting the dream from the start, the thing he'd nearly forgotten in the temple, had to fight to remember. The attack in his sleep, the feeling of something ancient trying to push him into slumber.
Cassie listened without interrupting. When he finished she was quiet for a long moment.
"That wasn't Weaver was it," she said.
"No."
She looked out at the Dark Sea. "In the original timeline the forgotten god was barely a whisper until much later." She paused. "Going back must have roused him a bit from his slumber."
"That's approximately what I think happened," Sunny said.
They both sat with that for a moment.
"What about Weaver," Cassie said finally.
"Weaver's plans were thorough. Annoying as it is to admit, a lot of what we accomplished in the previous life is thanks to Weaver." He paused. "I think those plans are gone now. Though Weaver knows something shifted, I felt Its influence as I traveled back."
"If we think about it like a chess board, we used to be semi-autonomous pieces in a game with multiple players. Now the board has been flipped and we're almost entirely autonomous." finished Sunny.
"Which is good," Cassie said.
"Yes, but as someone who went to great lengths to be fateless for a time, I can tell you there are downsides," said Sunny. "Weaver's plots, as much as I despise thing being out of my control, were effective."
Cassie absorbed that with the composure of someone who had already arrived at the same conclusion.
"There's something else," he said. "I still have some remnants of Weaver's influence. I can read memories and while I can't see a creatures rank and class I can feel it.
"But the strings of fate, the various enhancements, the ability to weave seems to be gone. At least my heart tells me that they are." said Sunny.
Cassie looked at him. "Then... you're saying you need to regain Weaver's lineage."
"Not exactly." said Sunny. "I think we should think carefully about which lineages go to whom this time."
"In the original timeline you took Weaver's lineage." Cassie said.
"And it destroyed Shadow God's within me," Sunny said flatly. "I didn't know that until it was too late."
"That can't happen again." he said with a meaningful undertone.
Cassie was quiet for a moment. "Then you will take Shadow God's."
"Yes." Sunny nodded.
"And I take Weaver's."
"That's what I think is best, but I wanted to ask if you're ok with it," said Sunny.
"I started us down this path, I won't let anything deter me much less something as trivial as sharing a lineage with a Daemon," she said simply.
They sat in silent until they both drifted to sleep. Hours later they were roused by Nephis who wasn't sure who was taking next watch.
"I'll handle the next watch, but I do need to talk to you about two things," Cassie said to Sunny.
Sunny nodded and waited.
"Before looking forward was like standing at a series of ethereal crossroads and seeing where they led." She paused. "Now when I look far enough forward there's something else there. It doesn't always show up. But when it does-" She stopped. "It's the same color as what you described in your nightmare."
Sunny went very still.
"Indigo and purple," he said.
"Yes." Her voice was level in the way that required effort. "It hasn't harmed me, but it hasn't had the chance."
"I think to be on the safe side you should try and limit your visions if you can," Sunny said.
Cassie nodded.
"I also wanted to know... are we manipulating Nephis?" she looked at Sunny anxiously.
"I don't know," he said with a sigh, he had been having the same thought ever since being fateless in their first life.
"We decided to protect her. Help her. Keep the three of us together." Cassie said. "She hasn't agreed to any of that. She doesn't know any of that. We're making choices about her future that she has no knowledge of."
"We're not deceiving her about anything that affects her immediate choices," he said slowly. "We're not steering her toward danger she doesn't understand or away from something she'd want for herself."
"We're steering her toward us," Cassie said. "Specifically and deliberately."
"Yes," he admitted.
"And if she knew, if she had all the information we have, would she choose this?"
Sunny thought about Nephis. The version of her he'd known at the end of another life. The fire that had burned through everything including itself, that had chosen ruin because ruin felt like the only road that could contain her grief. He thought about what she'd looked like at the beginning, before any of that.
"I think she'd choose it," he said. "If she knew what was coming and what it cost her the other way. I think she'd choose us."
"That's not the same as her choosing it now," Cassie said quietly. "With the information she has now."
"No," Sunny agreed. "It isn't."
The silence that followed was honest and slightly uncomfortable.
"I don't think we stop," Cassie said finally. "But I think we owe her the truth sooner rather than later without destroying everything we're building." She paused. "And I think we make sure we're doing this for her. Not just with her as a variable in our plan."
"Agreed," Sunny said.
"You should go to sleep," Cassie said. "You'll want to be rested. Hunting fallen creatures half-asleep isn't a winning strategy."
"Wake me well before dawn comes," he said.
"No worries," she said, not looking at him.
Sunny lay back. Sleep came faster than expected.
Cassie's hand on his shoulder was light.
By the time dawn struck the Dark Sea had begun its retreat and Nephis had woken up relieving Sunny of watching over them. Sunny rose, equipped the [Akhlut's Hide], and dropped into the last of the receding water casually.
The island had more areas for injured creatures than the statue. He moved through them with quiet efficiency, the red-black nimbus of the [Akhlut's Hide] humming at the edges of his vision.
[You have slain a fallen beast, Shore Lurker.]
[You have slain a fallen devil, Abyssal Eel.]
[You have slain a fallen beast, Shore Lurker.]
[You have slain a fallen devil, Abyssal Eel.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
Fourteen fragments in a matter of minutes. However, Sunny felt a pull and was surprised by a small cave hidden in the mass of land. He glanced at where the water was, he had maybe fifteen more minutes before the Sea was gone. Quickly he darted into the cave and looked around.
Tucked in the cave were clusters of eggs the size of his fist, anchored to the stone walls in thick translucent sacs that pulsed with a faint bioluminescence. Dozens of them, layered in overlapping masses from floor to ceiling, each one visibly alive, the dark silhouette of something coiled inside pressing against the membrane with slow rhythmic contractions.
They were completely helpless.
Sunny looked at the clusters for exactly one second. Then he summoned the [Dreadful Burden] into its broadest blade form and got to work.
The notifications came in a rapid, deeply satisfying cascade.
[You have slain a corrupted beast, Leviathan's Hatchling.]
[You have slain a corrupted beast, Leviathan's Hatchling.]
[You have slain a corrupted beast, Leviathan's Hatchling.]
[You have slain a corrupted beast, Leviathan's Hatchling.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
He climbed back up as grey dawn settled over the exposed sea floor. He checked his runes.
Shadow Fragments: [348/1000].
He grinned as he walked back. he had slain about twenty-five corrupted before breakfast, and it was easy since they were completely defenseless. Gloomy gave him a look that may have contained mild judgment.
"You can't exactly blame me," Sunny said, however he dreaded the idea of meeting whatever the Leviathan that had laid the eggs.
Cassie handed him a bit of cooked Scavenger without looking up.
He smiled and ate beside her and Nephis in silence. At some point during the meal his shoulder ended up touching Cassie's and neither of them moved to change it.
The trio pushed west through the exposed sea floor during daylight and took refuge on whatever elevated ground the Shore offered before the Dark Sea returned. The coral labyrinth was generous with its dangers and stingy with its rewards, though Sunny made sure to use the [Akhlut's Hide] to its fullest to gain fragments.
Nephis fought with the same intensity Sunny remembered. Cassie fought with increasing confidence, her sight giving her an angle on combat that she previously missed. However, she did grumble about having never seen a Cestus memory even in the past. When he asked what it was she just said it was a glorified punching glove.
Sunny himself grew stronger by the day, shadow fragments increasing and learning to use essence provided by Serpent even as a Sleeper.
They were already among the most deadly unit of Sleepers Sunny could remember. With Nephis as the shining vanguard, Cassie rising to support her anywhere she was needed, and Sunny roaming the battlefield like a grim reaper they made light work of the small groups of Scavengers and the occasional lone Widow or Centurion.
They reached a second island on the fourth day and the storm arrived that night without warning besides their prior knowledge. The Dark Sea churned below them and the sky above them became a single continuous sound. The journey was proceeded much better than before, Sunny lamented not receiving an echo this time but it wasn't too terrible.
The storm's second night was the worst of it. The wind came in sideways and the Dark Sea below churned with a violence that made the island feel considerably smaller. At some point Nephis stopped sitting at the edge of the group. Sunny and Cassie shared a happy glance, glad that their friend was getting closer to them.
Sunny used the time to train, his recent duels with nightmare creature fueling the Shadow Dance. The third step pressed closer.
Not yet.
The storm passed. They moved on.
Three more days through the labyrinth. On the seventh day his shadow sense found the barrow.
He checked his runes:
Shadow Fragments: [936/1000].
Between the travel and his trips into the Dark Sea he had averaged about 84 fragments per day.
Sunny and Cassie looked at it with strange emotion. The Ashen Barrow and the tree which stretched to the sky. They reached the bottom of the hill when Sunny motioned the two to stop.
"There's five Centurions..." said Sunny, to which Nephis nodded. The three of them had faced similar odds the past week.
"...and a demon under the tree." finished Sunny.
Nephis's eyes narrowed. Widows were not the most daunting foes, but Sunny had phrased it like it was no Widow. After all, the Widows were not as dangerous as their class suggested in straight combat.
"I can take out the demon, but can you two face five Centurions," Sunny asked.
Nephis looked at him.
"We'll handle the Centurions," she said with certainty.
Cassie nodded.
The Centurions came out to meet Cassie and Nephis immediately, bone scythes raised. The two girls pulled them left, creating separation, and Sunny went right through the barrow entrance.
The Carapace Demon was waiting under the tree. It looked the exact same as before.
"Long time no see," said Sunny.
He rolled his neck, summoned the [Dreadful Burden] into an odachi, and felt something ease in his chest.
How much has changed.
The first time he had stood here he felt true terror of genuine uncertainty. He hadn't known if he would survive. He hadn't known if he was capable.
He was not uncertain now.
The Demon attacked with the full weight of its mass. Sunny sidestepped comfortably, the distance measured precisely, nothing wasted. The [Dreadful Burden] shifted from odachi to spear mid-pivot and he drove it into the joint between the Demon's neck plate and shoulder carapace, withdrew it before the counterstrike came, shifted back to odachi and parried a strike with a light smile.
The Demon was strong. It was fast for its size. It hit harder than anything the labyrinth had offered in the past week. Sunny fought and thought about the third step. He knew the breakthrough was an understanding of his opponents, both human and nightmare creature. Ducking beneath a swing from a scythe Sunny exploded with power from his essence, Gloomy, and the Resolve enchantment the [Dreadful Burden] taking the shape of a terrifying scythe not unlike the one he just dodged.
The [Dreadful Burden] found a gap within the armor or maybe it created a gap through sheer strength. The Demon staggered. Sunny finished the coup de grace driving the scythe through the Demon.
[You have slain an awakened demon, Carapace Demon.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
[You have received a Memory: Midnight Shard]
[Your Aspect Legacy mastery level has increased.]
He looked up at the tree's ascending branches, and thought about a bird's nest.
Outside, the last of the Centurion sounds were going quiet.
Still looking up, Sunny saw two small dots beginning to get larger.
The Cursed Heralds descended on Nephis and Cassie and Sunny raced to their aid.
Cassie and Nephis had just finished the last Centurion and hadn't had time to register the danger. Nephis moved to meet the first with the reflexive certainty of someone who had been training for exactly this kind of moment her entire life, not because she'd faced Heralds before but because she was Nephis.
She was extraordinary. The way she moved inside the Herald's reach, finding angles that shouldn't exist against something that large, her strikes precise and relentless, sparks flowering where blade met feather and flesh. The Herald was twice her size and she was making it work for every exchange.
The second Herald circled. Cassie held it at range, but it suddenly feint towards her cause her to retreat slightly. Getting the reaction it wanted the second Herald turned towards Nephis.
Sunny was already moving.
The Herald's strike caught him instead, even while slightly blocking it was still enough force to lift him off the ground and deposit him into the barrow wall hard enough to crack the stone behind him.
It was the most damage he had taken since his fight with Auro as a dreamwalker. Dazed, he looked up.
Serpent was already moving. Now an ascended beast, the same rank as the Herald, it engaged the first in a duel.
The second Herald turned toward Sunny's dazed form against the wall.
Sunny's arms were barely working. His legs were even less certain.
The Herald stepped closer. Then a sword alight with fire hit it across the shoulder with enough force to stagger it sideways. Nephis stood between Sunny and the Herald. She had seen Sunny put himself between her and the claw. The Herald had made the mistake of turning its back on her in the same moment she finished processing that.
She was, Sunny thought distantly, very upset about it.
She drove back into the second Herald with Cassie flanking immediately the two of them working in the wordless coordination they'd built across seven days of fighting together. They were good. They were holding it, but the Herald was still a fallen beast. Nephis absorbed a wing-blow. Cassie faced a claw-swipe that she barely deflected. They were on the back-foot and Sunny could see it and his legs still weren't fully responding to instructions.
Remembering a combination of shadow and fire, Sunny found Cassie and wrapped Gloomy around her. While the Shadow Bond has its many downsides, they was at least one silver-lining.
Cassie felt the sudden sharpness of everything, perception and reflex and force all enhance. She drove past the Herald's guard with a speed that hadn't been available to her a moment ago and found the gap at the joint of the wing where the pale flesh was thinnest. T
The Herald staggered, its next movement telegraphed by the wound, its guard broken for exactly the length of time that Nephis needed. Nephis hit it with everything.
Across the barrow, the first Herald saw the death of its companion. Neither it or Serpent had gained an advantage, and witnessing the other Herald fell, something in the first one's conviction broke. Breaking from the fight it launched itself back into the sky.
The barrow went silent.
Sunny finished pushing himself to his feet. Cassie was beside him before he'd fully straightened, Gloomy retreating back from her as she moved. Her expression soft and worried.
"How bad," she said quietly.
"Manageable," he said.
"That's not what I asked."
"Ribs bruised, but nothing broken I don't think," he said.
She looked at him for a moment and he looked at her.
Nephis stood where the Herald had fallen. She looked at Sunny with the expression of respect and trust. She walked over to the two of them.
"Thank you," she said simply looking at Sunny with her grey eyes.
"How did you know that wouldn't kill you?" she asked.
"I didn't, but I have a little sister and I couldn't imagine not protecting her." said Sunny.
Nephis was silent at this. Something in her face shifted in a way she didn't move to correct.
'Her genuine smile is nicer than her fake one,' Sunny thought.
They walked to the tree together.
He turned to Nephis before they started up and reached out his hand. Looking confused she took it. Sunny transferred the memory.
"You got this from the Demon?" she asked.
Sunny nodded letting go of her hand.
"Then take this," she said reaching out.
Sunny dodged and shook his head.
"From the Herald?" he inquired, she nodded. "Keep it. You earned it."
Nephis looked at him with an expression that was not quite frustration. Cassie laughed breaking the tension.
"Wanna climb a terrible, mind-bewitching tree?" he asked them.
Nephis looked at him incredulously, while Cassie gave the tree a bitter look.
Nephis looked at the tree for a long moment. Then at the two of them.
"I'm going to train," she said simply.
"Make sure not to eat any fruit."
She gave him a look that communicated clearly that any respect he had gained was lost in from the sheer ridiculousness of the instruction.
Cassie watched her go. Then looked at the tree. Then at Sunny.
"You know I think I dislike this tree even more the second time," she said.
She grabbed the first branch.
The climb was long and silent. Neither of them spoke. There wasn't much to say.
Sunny's ribs registered their objection to the climb with consistent clarity. He ignored them with equal consistency.
Cassie climbed steadily below him, pausing occasionally to look through the gaps in the canopy at the Shore spread out below. It was a sight the exposed sea floor, the labyrinth, the distant shape of the second island where they'd waited out the storm. From up here it looked very small.
Sunny pulled himself up through the final branch gap and into the open space where the nest sat.
It looked the same as last time. Onyx branches twisted and interwoven gapless walls. At the top of the sphere, perfectly centered, a round opening just large enough to enter.
Cassie pulled herself up beside him and looked at it.
"Through the hole," she said giving Sunny a look.
"Through the hole," Sunny confirmed.
He went first, folding himself through the opening and dropping into the interior. Cassie followed.
Inside, the nest was very still. The onyx walls absorbed the grey light that filtered down from above and gave nothing back. At the center of the space, taking up most of it, the egg.
He stood in front of it for a moment.
He checked his runes:
Shadow Fragments: [948/1000].
The Spawn of the Vile Thieving Bird would give him 64 fragments. He smiled his monster core would be formed before they reached the other Sleepers.
He looked at Cassie.
"When I kill it I'm going to form my monster core," he said. "The process of gaining a new core is... not fun."
"I remember, well I don't exactly know how it feels, but I did spend ample time with you and Neph." she replied.
He summoned the [Dreadful Burden] and then closing his eyes let the odachi fall.
[You have slain a Great Devil, Vile Thieving Bird's Spawn.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
[You have received a Memory: Drop of Ichor.]
Then.
[...Your shadow is overflowing with power.]
[Your shadow is taking shape.]
The world tilted. The nest floor came up to meet him and he was only distantly aware of Cassie's hands catching his shoulders before everything felt very painful.
'You would think I'd be used to this,' Sunny barely thought, mind exploding and disoriented.
[Your shadow is complete.]
Before he opened his runes Sunny looked to the ground to see Happy looking at him with concern. Gloomy was trying his best to pretend to be an ordinary shadow.
"Don't you two share my memories, how would pretending to be an ordinary shadow even work," said Sunny shaking his head at their antics.
Happy looked at Gloomy with what could only be described as secondhand embarrassment. Gloomy maintained the performance for another two full seconds and then slowly, with great dignity, shrugged.
Sunny came back to reality.
Cassie's hands were still on his shoulders. He became aware of this gradually, the way you became aware of warmth after being cold for a long time.
He looked at her. Cassie looked exhausted. Not physically, but her eyes had the specific quality they got when she had been holding something at a sustained cost and was only now allowing herself to stop. She let out a slow breath that she'd been holding for longer than either of them were going to acknowledge.
He wanted to say something. He looked at her instead, and she looked back, and the nest was very quiet around them.
"Thank you," he said finally.
She nodded. Turned away. Pulled up her own runes with the composure of someone returning to business, which was either pragmatism or grace and possibly both.
He did the same.
Name: Sunless.
True Name: Fate's Shadow.
Rank: Dreamer.
Shadow Core: Dormant.
Class: Monster.
Shadow Cores: [2/7].
Shadow Fragments: [12/2000].
Memories: [Silver Bell], [Dreadful Burden], [Puppeteer's Shroud], [Thief's Pocket], [Akhlut's Hide], [Drop of Ichor.].
Multiple thoughts ran through his head. The need for eighty-eight more fragments, the surge in his power, Serpents growth, but the one that was of the moment was regarding the [Drop of Ichor].
He tapped Cassie on the shoulder.
"Hey... so are you ready to do that one more time each," he said with false cheeriness.