The city around the castle could be described in one word: Ruins.
Shadows of a civilization long gone.
Buildings toppled and destroyed.
The castle stood above it all, seemingly immune to all time and destruction.
The three Sleepers had finally reached the streets of the city, after passing the tall, impregnable walls. Cassie was sleeping in Sunless' back, being carried through the whole way.
"How is she?"
Nephis asked after looking around the area to make sure they were alone.
"Still breathing, and she stopped bleeding, so that's good…"
When Cassie consumed the drop of ichor, she began to bleed, her whole body bled, it was like the ichor was forcibly changing Cassie's body to fit the lineage's power. She looked like she was in a lot of pain, real pain.
Nephis tried to use her aspect to heal Cassie and ease her pain, but the blind girl passed out.
It was completely different from when he consumed Shadow God's lineage.
Maybe that was the difference between the Daemon of Fate and the God of Solace…
'Both force their will onto you, but one respects you, the other, doesn't care.'
"So, what do you think will happen now?"
Nephis question was warranted, they reached the castle, what now?
"It all depends on what the situation is here… Let's rest a little."
They entered a half-toppled house, what seemed to be the living room was relatively whole. Sunny laid Cassie on the torn sofa and sat down on the floor. Nephis sat next to him.
They were quiet for a while.
Sunless broke the silence.
"So that's why you always hesitate to use your aspect… Your flaw is a really bad one."
Nephis shifted slightly, he looked at him with an unreadable expression.
"Yes… But I will bear it. I have to."
Sunny discovered what her flaw was when he saw her healing Cassie. Using her aspect brought her pain.
He looked back at her, thinking about the last day and everything that had happened, and made a decision. He could regret it afterwards, but he needed to do this.
"I cannot lie."
The girl widened her eyes in surprise.
"That's my flaw… I can never lie. I am the most honest person in the world, two worlds, in fact."
He chuckled at his own humorless joke. Nephis stared at him, surprised.
"It… Doesn't quite fit you."
"Maybe it's because it was supposed to be my… 'Original self' flaw, I can't imagine I would be so trusting if I lived on the outskirts. Lying would probably be second nature to me, living on the outskirts, so the flaw would be ironic.
But it still fits me somewhat, I did lie to myself a lot of the time."
He made another self-depricading laugh, it was obvious the truth still haunted him.
Nephis hesitated, but got closer, touching his shoulder.
"You are your own self, that path of Fate is long gone."
The black haired boy sighed, holding her hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah… Maybe you're right… But I can't help but think…"
Nephis had an understanding look on her beautiful face. Her gray eyes showed sympathy for the first time since they met.
'Maybe… Ki Song…'
The worldview of Changing Star was breaking, she spent so many years hating the Sovereigns, thinking they were monsters… Just to know one of them changed Fate to save one child…
She looked at Sunny… She just noticed how handsome he was… She began to admire him, remembering all the moments with him, his strength, his smarts… For the first time, she started to feel things she didn't know she could feel anymore…
'I guess seeing someone at their worst will change how you view them…'
She looked down, noticing blood on the side of his hip, she touched it and began to use her flames, trying to heal it. Her face twisted in pain, feeling herself burn.
Sunny felt her soothing flames and immediately grabbed her hand and took it away.
Nephis let out a yelp in surprise.
"Don't!… Sorry, why did you do that? I don't want you to hurt yourself for nothing."
He could see her cheeks getting… Warm… In embarrassment…
It was a breathtaking scene.
"Arent you bleeding?"
Sunny felt his own face getting hotter.
"What? No… Even if I bleed, it heals relatively quickly…"
He then looked at where she touched him, since he hadn't dismissed [Puppeteer's Shroud], so the blood that stained it from the wound he caused on himself to get rid of the mind-hex was still there.
"Oh, it's just from a past wound, don't worry about it."
"A-All right… I just never saw you get hurt…"
They both got red in embarrassment, who would have thought the teenagers that were threatening each other yesterday were now blushing for one another.
The moment was interrupted by Sunless sensing a shadow coming closer to the house via shadow sense.
He sharpened his eyes and gave an order for Gloomy to scout.
His shadow moved through the rubble to see what was coming closer.
Through its eyes, Sunless saw a human. A tall, massive woman wearing hunter armor, walking happily while eating a piece of nightmare creature's flesh. She walked like she owned the damn place, smiling greedily.
Nephis noticed Sunny's serious expression and asked.
"Is there a problem?"
He sighed in relief.
"I think I found someone that will explain everything we need to know."
"Good."
Cassie's voice was heard behind them. They both turned to watch the blind girl rise.
"Because the visions of this place were very abstract."
—
"That's the jist of it!"
The giant tan woman said like she had just explained how to ride a bike.
Sunny stared at the woman, then at Nephis, then at Cassie, then at the woman again.
Her name was Effie. She had hazel eyes and beautiful brown hair, tied in a simple braid. Her build is extremely athletic, with perfect lean muscles.
She was an experienced hunter of the Dark City, and she had just explained the whole situation of the Sleepers of the Forgotten Shore.
"In essence, we are stuck because the gateway of the crimson spire is guarded by a Fallen Terror. And there is a self made ruler called Gunlaug that oppresses the thousand remaining Sleepers here by demanding people pay one soul shard to stay in the castle, and we are forced to hunt Awakened nightmare creatures and avoid Fallen ones in the city to survive?"
Sunny summarized the hunter's explanation in an analytical fashion.
She nodded, rather surprised by the lukewarm reaction of the three Sleepers.
"You guys are taking this much better than I expected…"
Truth is, the newcomers had already deduced that they would be stuck on the Forgotten Shore, Sunless already knew, Nephis had her theories since she never heard of a zone like this, and Cassie had seen in her visions.
Funnily enough, they just didn't talk about that to each other.
"Well, I can take you guys to the castle if you want, but after that, you are on your own."
They all got up and Effie started to guide them through the ruins of the Dark City. They encountered a few nightmare creatures, but the huntress showed how to avoid them easily, showcasing her knowledge of the ruined city.
On the way, she gave a few more pointers of how life was here. But Sunless was only paying attention to half of it, he was more focused on Cassie.
"Cass?"
The blind girl turned to him, she was being led by Nephis using a memory of a golden rope that the seer got in her First Nightmare.
"Yes? What is it Sunny?"
The boy sighed, choosing his words, he answered before the pain of his flaw appeared. Measuring his voice so Effie would not hear them.
"Are you okay? Did you gain the lineage?"
Cassie nodded.
"Yes, to both. It hurt a lot, but I have it…"
She then smiled softly, her voice full of wonder.
"It's actually incredible, I can see so much more, well, I can feel it… It's like a whole new world appeared. I can feel the weave of the world, of memories, even their enchantments."
Sunny's eyes widened, Cassie seemed… Happy, excited for the first time since she came to the Dream Realm.
He chuckled, her happiness reminded him of his sisters.
"Yeah… I felt like that too, when I got Shadow God's lineage. It was like all the shadows in the world wanted to protect me."
She snapped out of her excitement and got serious again.
"Also, the Spell described as a forbidden lineage, and is only a part of it, calling it [Bloodweave]."
'Forbidden lineage? And it's not complete?'
More and more questions piled up, but that was for another day.
"You said you could see memory enchantments?"
The blind seer nodded.
"Once we get to the castle, we'll test how it works."
"Right."
—
The outer settlement.
The place where all sleepers who couldn't pay the tax of the Bright Castle resided. They were mostly people who didn't have powerful aspects or didn't know how to fight.
All of them were in horrible condition.
The houses -if you could even call them that- were torn down and barely standing.
The Bright Castle was like a tall tower, observing all of the misery of the sleepers.
Sunny observed it all, an empty expression plastered on his face.
Effie looked back to see the reactions of the newcomers, Nephis still had an unreadable expression, Cassie was blind so… But Sunless?
"What? You're angry? If you want, go confront the Bright Lord, I'm sure he will listen to your pretty face!"
Sunless turned his head to her slowly.
"What are you talking about? I'm not angry."
The huntress smirked, confident of her hypotheses.
"Aren't you angry to see the situation of all these people?"
The boy stared at her with his hollow eyes, and his next words brought a chill down the huntress spine.
"Sure, but I'm more worried about how to kill the ones who are staring at us."
There were many of the outer settlements looking at them with greedy, jealous eyes. No doubt wanting to get their hands on the three newcomers.
Especially the beautiful girl with silver armor…
However, none dared.
The huntress's face dropped in realization. She looked at him like he was crazy.
Apparently, to be prepared for anything and anyone is crazy behavior. If the outskirts taught you anything, is that desperate situations create desperate people… And sometimes it created bad people. Other times? Bad people used the situation as an excuse.
Mother was right, always be on guard, never underestimate your opponent, never judge a book by the cover. The worst enemies were the ones that seemed weak.
Especially when he could sense an actual strong gaze on him. But this one was with curiosity rather than jealousy…
'Interesting.'
Effie stopped and turned, looking at the trio, she lingered her gaze on the Sunless.
"This is it for me, go to the castle, or not."
She smirked at Sunless and proceeded to tease him.
"Just make sure not to get too greedy, pretty boy, just one is enough!"
The pretty boy in question twisted his head in confusion, as did the silver haired girl. Only the blind girl could actually see what Effie meant. Her face got red.
Effie turned to walk away. But Sunny had one last question.
"You said that Gunlaug controls the hunting parties."
The tall woman turned her head to him.
"Why doesn't he control you?"
Effie had explained how the whole structure of the Bright Castle, the strong ones, were able to stay in the castle, paying the tax of one soul shard a week. But to be able to do this consistently, you would need teammates, not only that, you would also need guides to find yourself in the Dark City.
Gunlaug made sure to control everything by getting all guides and strong hunters under his command.
Not to mention forcing people to serve him to be able to live in the castle.
But Effie was not only a guide, but was also strong, strong enough to survive alone.
The huntress laughed at that and turned completely to him, bending down to look him in the eyes.
"Simple, I don't like him. And the guy is pretty petty about it. He basically makes anyone who joins me regret it. So don't even think about inviting me to your cohort."
Sunny stared at the carefree huntress with curiosity.
"You look like an open book, you know that?"
"Ha! You talk as if you already know my flaw!"
He opened his mouth to deny that statement, but Effie talked over him.
"My flaw is that I have to eat a lot more than usual to survive. I kind of like it, it gives me an excuse to eat a lot!"
Sunless mouth gaped, looking like an idiot, who could blame him?
"You are a fool."
"Eh, have a nice day!"
She turned around and walked away. Going to whatever hole she came out of.
The Prince of Song turned to meet his companions, Cassie looked as surprised as he was.
"Did… She just revealed her flaw to you?"
"Yeah… And I do remember her talking about her aspect on the way here, something about making her much stronger…"
He rolled his eyes and decided to forget it for now.
"Either way, I want to see inside the castle, there's something I want to check. We only have two soul fragments so-"
"You and Cassie go, I'll stay here."
She didn't even hesitate. He analyzed her expression, it was the same, but he could tell in her eyes…
"You're planning something."
She gave him a small smile.
"Of course I am, you want to leave this place, no?"
He squinted his eyes. Nephis wasn't one to make plans. In the 2 month journey through the crimson labyrinth, he was the one that made all the strategies, having to stop her from overextanding, even if her racionality had sense.
It may not seem like it, but as much as she was rational, she was also very emotional. A paradox, yet dangerous combinational.
The pain of his flaw came, and he was forced to answer.
"Yes, just don't do anything reckless, we should return soon. I don't want to spend too much time in the castle."
This time, Cassie was the one to question him.
"So why do you want to get inside?"
He considered the question, and turned to see the giant structure looming.
"Because we need to know how things work there. And I need to find someone."
'I wonder… What the Lost Princess chose to do in this situation.'
He chuckled internally.
"You'll either love or hate this nickname sis."