Mordret nodded with a tired smile.
"Yes, teacher. You're something all right."
Kai stumbled backward, nearly crashing into a vase that stood on top of a platform; Cassie gripped Sunny's arm to catch herself from falling over, and Sunny stared wide-eyed.
"You're…. You're alive."
Noctis, gods, he still couldn't believe it, gave Kai a strange look.
"Well yes, why wouldn't I be? And please, watch your surroundings, Kai; just because you are almost as gorgeous as me doesn't mean you can go knocking things over."
Letting go of his arm and looking in the direction of where his voice was coming from, Cassie stepped forward, speaking in a trembling voice.
"How are you still alive? How are you here? Why are you here? How does Mordret know you despite never setting foot in here and being in the real world this whole time?"
Noctis stared at her for a while before shaking his head.
"Cassia, it's really rude to bombard someone with a ton of questions; I can only answer so many at a time."
"I'm sorry, I'm just- we're all in shock."
"Yes, I understand; it's not every day you get to meet someone such as me, but I must ask: how did you all come to know about me? I mean, only the people in the kingdom of hope knew about me."
"We met a version of you in our second nightmare. He helped us."
Noctis lit up like a street light.
"My goodness! Was he as gorgeous as me? Probably not; looks such as mine can never be replicated."
Kai forced a smile before turning to Sunny with a curious expression.
"We know how we came to know of him, but what about you, Sunless? How did you know who he was? There are no reports on him or our second nightmare."
'Ah, hell,'
"A good friend of mine told me about him; he was a very big fan. He knew a lot about him."
He didn't mention that the friend he was talking about was Noctis himself, as Cassie and Kai would forget, and Noctis himself likely wouldn't believe him. But strangely enough, the sorcerer eyed Sunny for so long that for a moment he thought Noctis knew that Sunny was referring to him. But before Sunny could ponder on it, he smiled brightly.
"Well, I would love to meet him. If he is a big fan of mine, then he is most definitely a very sophisticated, downright gorgeous, upstanding person with exceptional fashion sense. Come, all of you can sit; there's no use standing around."
With Cassie still holding onto his arm, Sunny guided her a few steps forward and slowly helped her sit on the couch before sitting down beside her, followed by Kai sitting next to him.
At the same time, Noctis and Mordret sat a few cushions away to give them space.
Cassie let go of Sunny's arm and turned her head to where she thought the sorcerer was.
"So what rank are you?"
"My rank?"
"Yes, are you a supreme being or are you still a saint after all this time?"
Noctis gave Cassie a shrug.
"How would I know?"
Feeling his eye twitch in irritation, Sunny frowned at him.
"What kind of answer is that? What do you mean by "how would I know?" You should know your own rank!"
Noctis shook his head and adjusted his eyesore of a garment.
"That's because my domain was the followers of Weaver, and they are all long gone, save for a young priestess, so I can't really consider myself a supreme being, but I'm far stronger than a saint to be considered one. So I guess I'm trapped somewhere in the middle."
That… made sense.
This time, Kai spoke up.
"As for one of Cassie's questions earlier, how are you still alive? Wasn't your knife destroyed?"
Noctis studied him for a moment and answered.
"I'm alive because of Weaver."
"Would you care to elaborate?"
Nodding, the man stood up from the couch and walked toward what Sunny assumed was the kitchen, then watched him grab an object before he sat back down with a heavy sigh. Holding it up in the air, he revealed an obsidian knife, making Kai, along with Sunny, gasp, and Cassie frown in confusion.
"What is it? What do you two see?"
"It's his knife, the one that contained his fate. It's still intact."
Cassie paled and swallowed hard.
"That's… that's impossible. When all the chain lords died, Hope was supposed to be set free, and she was as she was in the Doom war! So how are you still alive? How is the knife still intact? It should be shattered, and you should be dead."
"I wanted help in killing the chain lords, including myself, to defy the will of the Gods and set Hope free. So, I tore out my heart and said a prayer, offering it to a daemon, any daemon, and it just so happened that Weaver heard and answered. They agreed to help me but rejected my death as payment and told me that such a thing would not absolve the debt I now owed them. "
"And so Weaver snatched a fate from its strings and placed it into my chest and destroyed the one in this knife. From that moment on, I belonged to them. They then told me of their plans for the nightmare spell and said that I would be its high priest. They demanded that I reach supremacy before the Doom War started, though they never told me why, and I still have no idea why they wanted me to reach supremacy to this day."
Sunny sat there in a daze; he was learning more in these few minutes than he had ever in the past four years.
"So that's why you called yourself the unwilling high priest of the nightmare spell?"
The gorgeous man nodded.
"Yes, Sunless, because I am still paying the price of asking for help from the daemon of fate. After they claimed me as their own, Weaver told me that when the nightmare spell finished playing its role was when I could finally rest. But until then, I must live, mostly because I don't have a choice. Weaver cursed me to live. It is why I am still alive after so many eons. I cannot die, and gods know I've tried many methods; I always heal back to how I was before."
"How did you get here?"
"It's a long story. I can assure you that it is not for the faint of heart. You might even faint yourself."
Sunny leaned forward.
"We have time."
The older man let out a sigh and pushed his hair out of his face.
"Alright then, before the war broke out, a group was chasing me- well, more specifically, a member of the group. He was one of the Nine. So, I fled and hid in the Eternal City for possibly a few millennia or more, who knows really, before Daeron and his people showed up in search of a way to save their home realm. Anyway, I gave them a place to go and in return, they helped me out of that place, and so I hid in a place that had been long forgotten by time for a few centuries or more; it's hard to say as it all blurs together."
Cassie spoke up.
"Where did you send them?"
For a moment, Sunny could have sworn a sad look was on his face, but it disappeared just as fast as it showed up.
"To the tomb of Ariel; it was a haven whenever I went there long ago, and so I figured it would be for them too. Do you all know of the tomb?"
Kai nodded.
"Our third nightmare took place there. I'm going to assume that you know what that is."
The sorcerer frowned and then smiled.
"How awful, and yes, I do. I know many things; there is no one in any realm that has more knowledge than me."
Cassie ignored the last part and asked.
"So is that why you left your hiding place, to seek them out?"
The sorcerer nodded and placed the knife down onto the table in front of him and leaned back into the couch.
"Yes, I wanted to see how my friends were doing, but also because I had a dream of a city with seven suns in the sky, lying in ruins with bodies all over the place, with a giant mad serpent roaming the sea.
Anyway, to make it short, I went to the tomb, retrieved them all after many, many loops, and made runes on Daeron's ship so it could fly, and we flew out of an exit Weaver informed me of. I would have used mine, but I had no way of retrieving it, mostly because it would be a terribly long walk. Tell me, have you all seen a glorious, magnificent flying ship? Tell me…. Tell me you have."
Kai nodded hesitantly.
"We have, my friend. Nephis has your ship, the Chain Breaker. I hope you're not mad. Cassie did her best to repair it, but nothing she did was enough to get it back to its original state. She did manage to repair its enchantment circuits fully."
Noctis smiled brightly and laughed.
"Excellent! Excellent! Fate has been very generous to me today! And why would I be mad? I am glad to hear it is still in use to this day! Thank you, Kai, for telling me th-"
Suddenly he froze in place and slowly leaned forward with a serious expression.
"I'm sorry, what did you call it again?"
"The Chain Breaker. That's what we named it when we found it, in honor of you."
Noctis held a blank expression for a moment before it soon turned into a look of horror.
"Why in the dead gods would you all name my ship that?! And in honor of me? Bah! That is a terrible name! You might as well be spitting in my tea!"
Sunny felt his pride significantly wounded as he was the one who had named it in the first place, but he masked it behind a scoff.
"Then what would you have them call it? The Flying Dutchman? Moby Dick?"
Noctis waved him away dismissively.
"That's a ridiculous name! She is called 'Nocturnal', not Chain Breaker or whatever outrageous names you said, Sunless!"
Rolling his eyes, he let out a snort.
"Like that's any better. "
Noctis scoffed as well.
"It is significantly better because it is similar to my name. But, getting back on track, after putting them back in the eternal city, I used a flying boat- yes, you heard me right, a flying boat to leave that god-forsaken place and fled to Mirage City because I thought I was still being chased by nine. And I was being chased, just not by the nine like I thought at first, but by a great titan. In fact, I'm pretty sure it followed me here."
Cassie, Kai, and Sunny flinched.
"What?!"
Noctis smiled at them.
"Oh, but worry not; it's been dead for a very long time, I think. I mean, I assume it's dead considering that I haven't seen it in the past… hmm, how long have I been here again? Oh well, I have complete faith that it won't show up again!"
Everyone stared at him for a long time before Sunny, whose eyes had been twitching in annoyance, spoke through gritted teeth.
"We're not making it out of here alive."
"I'm sure everything will work out fine; I just know it! So, have some faith in fate, my new short friend."
"I'm not short!"
"Come, have some tea. It will calm your nerves."
"I don't need tea."
"Coffee then?"
"Yeah, if you have any sugar."
"I do. Stay right here. Do you two want anything?"
Kai and Cassie shook their heads.
"No thank you."
As Noctis nodded, stood up, and headed towards the kitchen, Kai called after him.
"Noctis, you never answered Cassie's question: how do you two know each other?"
Noctis poked his head around the corner of the kitchen.
"It's not my place to say; you'll have to ask Mordret if he is willing to tell you. But I can tell you that he helped a young couple out of here; their names were Jessandra and Kain. Do you know what became of them?"
Kai nodded and pointed at Sunny. But he wasn't prepared for his next words.
"Yes, they're his girlfriend's parents; they're in Ravenheart as we speak."
"Excellent, it brings me joy to hear that they are alive and well."
"Bin isn't my girlfriend."
Kai smiled at him.
"Bin? You're calling her by her nickname now?"
"I- well yeah. She calls me Sunny now."
"I see."
Sunny turned to look at him with a frown.
"See what? Why are you smiling like that?"
Kai smiled wider.
"I'm not smiling like anything, Sunless."
"Yeah, you are; I can see your dimples."
The archer shook his head with a laugh.
"It's nothing; I'm just happy to hear that you two are making progress."
"Progress, what progress? We're not doing any project."
Kai, along with Cassie, for some reason, sighed deeply in unison while Mordret watched their banter with a smile and looked at Noctis with a curious expression.
"Teacher, will you assist me in helping them get out of here? Maybe we could get you out of here too."
The sorcerer nodded, well, at least Sunny assumed he did; he couldn't tell because he couldn't see him.
"Well, of course I will, and wouldn't that be grand? I have been wanting to leave this place for eons."
Kai pursed his lips.
"Why haven't you done it yet?"
The sorcerer's face didn't change, but his grey eyes held a more serious gaze as he came back with two mugs in his hand. He handed one to Sunny and kept the other for himself before sliding a coaster to him and sitting down next to Mordret again.
"Because of the castellan; he is a special reflection, but he is also one of the nine. And his mission was to convince Mirage to go to the side of the nine, which was the side of daemons, and to kill me because of my affiliation with Weaver, which is something the creature still seeks to accomplish, as anyone who was affiliated with or worshipped a daemon was considered a heretic. And because I am a high priest of Weaver's Nightmare spell, many people tried to hunt me down and kill me."
"Also, I meant it when I said that every single person would chase after me if they saw my face; that is because the castellan would possess the others and try to kill me. He always does every time I try to escape. And I am a regular person in this place, and even though Mirage City is not real, my death would be very real, as my immortality doesn't exist in a place like this."
Nodding in understanding, Sunny considered something for a moment as he took a sip of his coffee and grimaced before asking.
"If that's the case, then wouldn't he recognize Weaver's mask and know that it's you?"
Noctis shook his head.
"No, he wouldn't, as even though Weaver's mask is a normal wooden object, he is unable to see that it's me, as his gaze can't see past the mask. I'd be able to cover my presence with my mantle as well because even though it would be a normal cloak in here, it would still allow me to be mostly undetected from his gaze, but I lost it on my way here."
All three of them froze.
"Wait, a dark mantle?"
The joyful man nodded.
"Yes, have you seen it?"
Sunny slowly nodded.
"We saw a tattered mantle on the floor in front of the three great mirrors before coming here. Was… was that yours?"
Noctis let out a laugh.
"Why yes, yes it was! It is glorious to hear that it has survived after all this time! Well, of course it would; I made it myself."
Sunny stared at him, bewildered.
"You made that mantle?"
Noctis nodded with a smile.
"I made all the mantles for the followers of Weaver, though unfortunately I didn't get to choose the color. Weaver demanded that it match their mantle."
It now made sense as to why the enchantment on Anake's mantle [Tasteless] said: "Why did it have to be black?" It was because Noctis made it.
'Good gods'
"Does that mean you made the masks as well?"
Noctis nodded without hesitation.
"Yes, though I only put two out of the three enchantments because the last one allowed the wielder to see the strings of fate, and no mortal mind would be able to handle seeing that without dire consequences. Things can happen, such as complete essence exhaustion, which can be fatal, or they can become blind, or they can become entirely brain-dead."
Sunny had experienced the first and vowed never to use [Where is my eye] again. With that, he pushed the thought out of his mind and replaced it with another as he turned to
Mordret.
"So, Mordret."
The prince of nothing met his gaze with that strangely genuine smile.
"Yes?"
Eyeing him carefully, he asked.
"Since you won't tell me how you know him, can you at least tell me how you made me lucid in this place?"
A sad smile took hold of the prince's face.
"I honestly have no idea. I'm sorry, Sunless."
Sunny looked at Kai, who gave him a nod, making him sigh.
"So what now?"
Noctis looked at Mordret over the rim of his teacup and drank the rest before setting it down.
"Well, giving them their powers back would be a great start, dear student."
The former Prince stared at him with a confused expression.
"I can do that?"
Cassie, Sunny, and Kai spoke in unison.
"He can do that?"
Noctis set his teacup down and nodded.
"Yes, you can, because if you can make Sunless lucid in this place, then that means you are the master of this kingdom for whatever reason instead of your father. Which means you would be able to give them their powers back."
"How can you be so sure that I can?"
"Well, what will you lose if you can't?"
Mordret stared at him for a while before answering.
"My dignity?"
"So you'll lose nothing then. Go on."
Mordret ignored the jab and nodded with a hint of hesitation.
"Alright, I grant you your powers back."
At first, nothing happened, but then Sunny felt it, like a shackle breaking off his soul, and he felt his powers returning to him at full force, like a tsunami crashing into a city. He could tell Kai and Cassie felt it too because they flinched back, and soon, the blind seer gasped.
"I can… I can see again, my powers are back."
He knew she didn't mean that she could actually see again, but that she could see through her marks.
Kai smiled at him, dimples showing in his cheeks, as he began to hover above the cushions with crossed legs.
"Noctis, you're a genius."
The sorcerer leaned back and gave him a friendly smile.
"What else is new? You three already said that you know about me, so you shouldn't be surprised by my intelligence. Come, come. I will show the two of you around my home. Cassia, even though you are blind, you are welcome to join us."
They all stood up, with Cassie no longer holding onto Kai's arm and Sunny and Mordret walking side by side. They followed the energetic sorcerer, who soon turned around to face them and continued walking backward; then he looked at Sunny.
"Now, tell me, why have you all come to this place?"
"We came here to find my… inheritance, yes, my inheritance."
The older man nodded wordlessly as they made their way to a room with seven mannequins on display, all in the same pose, dressed in silks similar to his own but in various colors; they wore gorgeous black wigs and held empty wine glasses in their hands.
"These are my sailor dolls, or at least they would be if I could bring them to life. In place, though, they are ordinary but strikingly beautiful mannequins. Do you like them?"
Kai forced a smile and nodded animatedly.
"I…yes, they are very nice."
Noctis smiled in return and turned to Sunny with a raised eyebrow.
"Now, a minute ago, you said you three came to this place to find your inheritance, so tell me, where is the location of it?"
"I uh, I don't know."
Noctis nodded thoughtfully.
"That is fine; it's a big city after all. Can you describe what it looks like then? That way we'll know if we find it."
"I have no idea what it looks like."
Noctis nodded.
"Very interesting. How did you know it was here?"
"Well, I actually don't know if it's in here. It's just a guess, but if it is, my blood will react to it if I'm close."
"….."
"…."
"You don't know if it's here?"
Sunny shook his head.
"No."
"And your blood will react to it if you're close?"
Sunny nodded.
"Yes."
Standing up slowly, Noctis pointed towards the kitchen.
"Come to the kitchen and sit; it's clear that you are delirious from not eating or drinking anything in the days you have been in this place. I will fix that."
"I'm.. I'm not delirious!"
"It's alright, Sunless, there's no need to be embarrassed. Come."
"I'm not going to the kitchen right now."
The sorcerer's smile dimmed.
"Why not?"
Sunny was silent for a few seconds as he considered something.
"Because I have something to ask you in private."
Noctis stared at him for a moment and nodded.
"Alright then, Mordret, show them the rest of my place, will you? Come."
Noctis walked down the hall, expecting him to follow, led him to a guest room, and gestured for Sunny to go in before following behind and closing the door.
"So, what is it that you want to ask me?"
"Could you teach me how to be a better sorcerer?"
The sorcerer's eyebrows shot up so far that Sunny thought they might take flight and fly away.
"You're a sorcerer? I've never heard of a shadow, let alone a divine one, being a sorcerer except for shadow god Himself, but you learn something new every day, I suppose."
Sunny scratched his cheek.
"Well, I'm not exactly a sorcerer."
Noctis stared at him with a confused expression for a moment before his eyes lit up with recognition.
"Oh! I see! So you're the one Weaver talked about all that time ago! You're their heir! It makes sense why you are here, then. To answer your question. Yes, of course, I could teach you."
"You will?"
Sunny was surprised by how fast he agreed. If he were to teach him how to be a better Weaver, then Sunny could likely be able to become skilled enough to weave in the middle of battle, or maybe he could destroy someone's memory by unraveling its weave.
'No, no. That's just absurd and way too powerful; besides, even though Noctis said he could, knowing this guy, there's always a catch.'
"Yes, I will teach you, but under one condition."
And there it was; Sunny hated it when he was right sometimes.
"Go on."
As he followed Noctis down the hallway, he watched the man give him a look up and down as he pointed at Sunny's clothes.
"If you want to be my student, then you must wear one of my garments."
"I-What? Why?!"
"Because I refuse to teach someone who dresses like that and with such a boring, terrible color too. You remind me of- ah, you remind me of an old acquaintance of mine; he was a shadow just like you, and he also loved the color black. I guess it's a thing among all shadows to have bad taste in fashion.
Sunny heard the sad tone in his voice but didn't press on it.
"You can't be serious; you taught Mordret, and he isn't wearing one of the eyesores you call garments!"
Noctis stared at Sunny, then at Mordret, as they arrived in the room the prince was showing Kai, while Cassie ran her hands across the various items around the room. Noctis then stared at Sunny again.
"Because he has a better fashion sense than you."
Sunny turned away from him with a frown.
"You- is that a statue of yourself?
In front of them stood a several-meter-tall white marble statue with Noctis's exact features: a smiling face, long hair that fell to his back, and an identical red silk garment.
Noctis smiled at it and patted its leg.
"Why yes, it is; he's beautiful."
Mordret patted him on the shoulder with a gentle, almost genuine smile.
"Don't worry about what he says; I think your fashion sense is very good, Sunless."
Sunny was taken aback by the strange sincerity Mordret had been displaying for the past hour.
"Thank yo- never mind, forget I said anything."
Sunny couldn't believe he was almost fooled by this lunatic's act, especially after seeing first hand at what he truly was.
"Alright then."
"Since I am offering you the opportunity of being my student, I think you should do something in return, right? It is only fair since I am being so generous to someone I just met."
Sighing, Sunny rubbed his temple and met his gaze.
"What do you want me to do?"
"I'll figure it out soon enough after I eat."
A frown found its way to Sunny's face.
"You mean you don't even know?"
Noctis shrugged with a guilty smile.
"I can't think on an empty stomach. Besides, we have more important matters than that, like getting out of this awful place! And lucky for you three, there is no better guide than me; I know this kingdom like the back of my hand! Believe me, we will be out of here in no time. In fact, it will be so fast that no one will have realized you even left to begin with. Believe it! It will be a grand time!"
This… was going to be a very long day, and yet Sunny didn't mind it one bit.
It feels good to be back. :) I missed writing. Let me know if you find any mistakes.