Asterion took a step forward while Neph took another step back and spoke in an unusually trembling voice.
"You… you shouldn't be here,"
Asterion frowned, as did everyone on the sidewalk.
"Is that all you have to say to me after all these years? Come now, I know that Broken Sword and Smile of Heaven taught you better than that."
Nephis trembled in rare anger and hissed.
"Don't you dare speak about them, you wretch."
The Dreamspawn laughed and turned his gaze on Cassie.
"Oh, I've missed you, little Nephis. But never mind that, hello Cassia, it's nice to meet you in person, finally."
Cassie was about to transport herself to the dream realm when Asterion took a step forward and suddenly reached into his pocket and placed a monocle on his right eye. All of the people across the street did the same and began laughing in unison for a while, along with Asterion, before stopping abruptly.
That was when Mordret appeared in his original body from behind them while laughing as he adjusted his tie.
He wiped a tear from the corner of his eye as he smiled.
"Goodness gracious, if that is how you both react now, I can only imagine what you two will act like when he truly does arrive; you'll be like a deer in headlights. I haven't laughed that much in a long time, so thank you for that."
Cassie felt anger boiling in her blood and wanted to punch the bastard. She could only imagine what Neph was feeling.
"You… you fiend."
Mordret smiled widely.
"You can admit it, you were terrified, weren't you? Rest assured, that abomination won't be here for a while because he is trapped for the time being. I found it hilarious when I pretended my father was approaching your office and used his reflection to ask if there was any popcorn left. You didn't truly believe that he, out of all people, would ask for such a thing, did you?"
Nephis stood there silently for a long time, trying to calm her wildly beating heart from her assumption that Asterion had truly arrived. Nephis would never admit how relieved she was to have been tricked by Mordret.
Cassie ignored Mordret's words and was silent for a while. She watched through Neph's eyes and saw Mordret's suit catch fire. She didn't comment on it, allowed her lips to curl into a smile, and asked.
"His followers said, 'Praise our Lord on the moon.' How did he get on the moon?"
Mordret eyed the random fire that had caught on his suit with an amused expression and patted his body a few times to put out the fire before speaking.
"Ki Song and my father trapped him there; they presumably double-crossed him after killing Changing Star's father."
Cassie finally asked the question Nephis had been wondering as well.
"So you were the followers? You were chanting 'praise him'? Why would you do that when you said you fear him? Do you want him to arrive faster?"
Mordret shook his head.
"No, I was not the follower, at least not at first. I took their bodies just after I approached you from behind. That's why they went silent."
Nephis raised an eyebrow and finally spoke.
"You say you're scared of him and yet you don't seem too frightened at his inevitable arrival."
Mordret laughed bitterly and began walking as his vessels seemed to go about their business, pretending to be regular people.
"While I am afraid of him, I am not worried. Because the abomination is not coming after me, as he already got what he wanted, and that is the war lineage. He's coming after you, Song of the Fallen, because as I have said before. You are a potential threat to him. As for you, Changing Star, he wants your lineage. Why do you think he protected you from being killed as a child?"
Cassie frowned.
"To wait for her lineage to awaken when she did, except he never got the chance to because of what Ki Song and Anvil did."
Mordret nodded with a solemn expression.
"Exactly, and everything you know, he knows as well. From the moment you say his name, he will be able to listen through you."
Nephis had nearly stopped in place; she knew this from when he said it in the meeting, but she was now suddenly aware of whether she had ever said the Dreampsawn name. Would he know of their plan to reach natural supremacy?
Nephis felt herself involuntarily shudder at the thought.
'No, that's impossible, no one in our cohort has said his name yet, Cassie would have told me already.'
Mordret noticed her expression and forced a laugh.
"Now do you see what you're up against? Oh, but it's not too much trouble for the brilliant Changing Star, right? What is it that you always say? 'If it is your will, who dares stop you?' Yes, I think that's it, I'm very curious to see how this turns out when he does arrive."
Cassie smiled.
"Nephis is right, you see, giving the dreamspawn too much credit."
Mordret shook his head.
"Fools, both of you are complete and utter fools. You'll have to learn the hard way then."
"You said that saying his name allows him to listen through you, and you said his name when you were pretending to be him."
Mordret's smile became forced.
"I admit that I got too carried away,"
…
Hours had passed in the waking world when a gorgeous young woman appeared out of nowhere in the streets of NQSC, startling nearby civilians at her sudden appearance as well as her beauty, along with her status. It was the Princess of Valor, Lady Morgan!
"Good gods, look at her!"
"Right? Do you think she's single?"
"She'll step on you like trash before giving someone like you the time of day."
"You're telling me that like it's a problem for me,"
"You goddamn freak, don't you have any shame?"
"Not at all,"
"Well, suit yourself, you masochist, I like my woman like I like my coffee,"
"But you don't like coffee,"
"Exactly,"
Morgan ignored the chatter of the onlookers and looked at her watch as she began to walk through the streets of NQSC at a leisurely pace towards a government building owned by Valor to meet with her elders. She had no idea why they had summoned her at such a random time, but it seemed important to them that she show up at that time. She stared at the evening sky, let out a sigh, and slowed her pace to gaze at the buildings. Morgan stared for so long that she had stopped in place and almost forgotten what she was walking towards in the first place.
'Right, the meeting with the elders, out of all the times they could have held one, they decided to do it now.'
Sometimes, Morgan wanted to smack them for their lack of regard for other people's time. She shook her head and began walking again for a bit before she suddenly stopped, spotting two people in an alleyway, spraying cans of paint from ladders. The man and woman were on separate ladders: the woman was below the man, spraying graffiti on the mural wall, while the man was a few meters above her, slowly spelling words.
Morgan couldn't make out the words yet, as they were incomplete, and the woman seemed to go about it in an unorthodox manner, spraying out the last letters first, then the middle letters second, and presumably the starting letters last. They noticed her gaze and began climbing down their ladders, smiling.
Once they reached the ground, they bowed to her.
"Lady Morgan! I hope we won't get in trouble for this."
Morgan shook her head as she couldn't care less. But she forced a smile as she had an image to maintain.
"Not at all, I was just passing by, that's a wonderful drawing."
"Thank you, Lady Morgan!
The man and woman bowed and spoke in unison.
"Of course, Lady Morgan, you can go watch if you want; we're almost done."
As they moved away from the wall and dumpster to grab more cans and sprays of paint, they came back a minute later and began spraying again for a few minutes. She had no time to stare at a mural of some random person that mundane people were interested in. Contrary to what she thought, Morgan found herself intrigued and stayed to watch them spray. Morgan watched the man lift a bucket of black paint, carry it to the dumpster, then take a paintbrush and begin painting.
After a while, Morgan snapped out of her trance and frowned to herself.
'I…I should get to the meeting with the elders.'
As she forced a smile and began to walk away, the woman called out to her with a shy look.
"Actually, Lady Morgan, we're almost finished. If you don't mind, we'd like you to stay to see the result."
Morgan nodded with a practiced smile.
"Of course,"
The elders could wait a bit longer. And they would understand that Morgan was maintaining her image as a princess. So, with that in mind, Morgan began watching again as they climbed their ladders and sprayed and brushed paint, respectively, for about 30 minutes. They both got down from their ladders and stared at their mural with pride. They stared at it some more, then brought down their ladders, put the spray cans in their bags, and gave each other high fives.
Morgan began to walk away, but stopped fully as curiosity for the better of her, and she fully looked at the words above the mural, along with the actual painting itself. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw a beautiful mural of space, littered with stars, along with the sun and a man in a spacesuit standing on the moon, reaching out with his right hand to what looked like Earth.
Morgan caught their attention, causing them to turn and face her.
"Are you both fans of astronauts?"
The man nodded eagerly and pointed to the astronaut mural.
"That's right! But we became an even bigger fan when we learned of him!"
Morgan raised an eyebrow.
"Who is he?"
The woman smiled brightly.
"Our Lord and Savior,"
Ah, these people were complete lunatics. Morgan nodded dully and tried not to roll her eyes.
"I see,"
She read the words they had spray-painted above the mural aloud, with a curious expression. It read:
"Praise the moon, praise Lord Asterion."
Morgan stared at it for a while before walking away to meet with her elders.
…
Far away in space, on the moon, was a man in a spacesuit sitting on a large rock, praying to the dead gods that the unholy one didn't notice him. Well, in truth, it had already noticed him over twenty years ago. In the unholy creature's eyes, Asterion was simply what an ant was to a human, nothing. And why would a human bother consuming nothing? What good would that do? Nothing, that's what.
Asterion laughed, well, at least he thought he did; there was no sound in space, so he had no idea if he did or not.
'Heh, a little play on words, sometimes I amaze myself,'
It was truly amusing to him, considering the boy who pretended to be him a few hours ago was affiliated with nothing, the mist where nobody dwelled.
'Who would've thought he would impersonate me to scare little Nephis and Cassia? I suppose he did learn from the best, did he not?'
Ah, Asterion must've truly gone mad on this lump of rock if he was thinking about little Mordret. But how could he not? After all, a big family reunion was going to happen soon. Ah, he couldn't wait to see his old friends again. His thoughts drifted to what Sunless, Mordret, Nightingale, and Cassia were going to look for in the mirror maze.
Was it something for Sunless to give him an edge in the war? Was it so that Mordret could retrieve his remaining fragment in Mirage City and fuse with him to become whole again and finally be able to use his powers correctly to unlock his aspect legacy after all this time?
Asterion let out a mute sigh and shifted on the rock.
'Ah, so many questions, I'll know eventually,'
For now, though, all Asterion could do was watch and listen while wondering what Vale's daughter's reaction was going to be when she realized that there was no meeting with any of the elders of Valor to begin with.
Woohoo, another chapter is out :) The Mirage City arc is getting closer and closer. I hope you all are ready.