Orphne had been wandering the Shadow Realm for thousands of years after the end up the Doom War and the beginning of the age of the Nightmare Spell.
After having completed her fate by slaying Weaver for the second time she had decided to retire in the Shadow Realm.
Well, retire was a strong word considering she didn't know a way back to any of the divine or mortal realms, so it was more like she was enjoying her banishment in the realm of the dead.
Being the only sentient thing in the Shadow Realm had left her quite lonely. At first, after she had moved further away from the center of the Shadow Realm, she had encountered the shadows of some of the people she had known.
Seeing the shadows of her dead friends, family, and colleagues had been both sad and nostalgic for Orphne. She couldn't interact with their Shadows, but she had made it her mission to accompany them on their journey to the center of the Shadow Realm.
Yet now that their shadows had either dissipated on the journey or had long ago made it to the center, she had little left to do in the Shadow Realm and could feel that she was slowly turning into a shadow herself.
She thought it fitting that someone who only had shadows for companions left would become a shadow themselves. She had resigned herself to her fate. Thousands of years of tortuous loneliness in a realm by herself had eroded away her once indomitable will to live.
That was until one day when she saw the person she thought she had killed twice. Once she saw the nebulous figure that resembled Weaver standing in the Shadow Realm a cold fury was once again ignited within the dying embers of her heart.
She suddenly remembered the words Weaver had spoken to her long ago right before the end of the Doom War.
"You can forget everything else, everyone else – you can even forget your own name. But don't dare forget the name of Weaver, Demon of Fate. We must see each other again, you and I. So, come find me in the Shadow Realm. Come and see if someone like you can really kill Weaver. Then, after you've learned the true meaning of despair. Then, I'll allow you to die, Orphne of the Nine."
Orphne had thought she had known the true meaning of despair. She had felt despair many times throughout her long life so she believed Weaver had meant them coming back from the grave for the first time would let her experience true despair.
She could only lament how wrong she had been now as she saw Weaver once again in the Shadow Realm after she had killed them on two separate occasions.
She quickly nocked an arrow in her bow and took aim at the nebulous daemon. She let nothing distract her as she measured the distance between them, the strength of the wind, and the subtle movements of Weaver's figure.
She let out a breath and loosed the arrow. Before it even hit Weaver, she knew that her shot was off. She had been aiming for Weaver's heart, but the arrow would at best pierce his gut and even that was unlikely.
Many years of not having touched the bow seemed to have dulled her skills. Even if she was just the slightest bit rusty, she knew that she couldn't be at anything less than her peak if she was to slay the daemon who had killed not only all of his siblings but as well as all the gods other than the forgotten one.
That's when something unexpected happened. Her arrow did end up piercing Weaver's gut. She was in disbelief. It should have been a simple task for Weaver to bat the arrow away. It would have taken them no more effort than brushing off some dust from their clothing.
Something was wrong. She hadn't even shot the arrow with the intent to kill. If anything, it had been something more akin to a greeting. Sure, she was furious that Weaver had returned but she didn't think this would be their end.
'Well, that was anticlimactic.' was all she could think of. To think her quest throughout thousands of years would end like this. She dropped her bow and started approaching Weaver.
It might not be much of a consolation but at least I'll finally get to see what's behind that damn mask. Despite having pursued Weaver throughout realms and having killed them twice. Orphne had never gotten to see what Weaver looked like behind the mask. Nor had anyone else. She would be the first to see the face of the nebulous daemon.
She blinked and then the body of Weaver was gone. She started searching the area for Weaver. She began to think that she had gone crazy. She broke down into a fit of bright and melodious laughter.
'Oh Weaver if you could see me now you would never let me live this down who knew your words would come true.', Orphne was embarrassed who knew she of all people would be caught hallucinating someone's presence.
She was about to go return to her retirement when a faint scent reached her nostrils. A smile made its way onto her face as she said, "So my eyes weren't playing tricks on me."
She began sniffing the air and followed the scent's trail like a well-trained dog. Weaver's mask had always given the ancient huntress trouble when tracking them but there was one thing even his mask couldn't hide, and that was the unmistakably strong scent of daemon that they gave off.
She saw the giant skull of a soul serpent and knew that was where they must have taken cover.
Weaver looked different though. Was she just seeing things or was Weaver a bit shorter than she remembered.
It was hard to tell because their mask had always been throwing off her senses but after having studied and hunted them for so long, she had started to be able to recognize their figures proportions at the very least.
She watched as Weaver pulled the arrow out of his guts and let out a stream of not so quiet curses followed by a rant she knew could only come from someone who hated the [Fated] attribute even more than those who possessed it.
"Damned [Fated] always getting me into these ridiculous situations. Why is it that I'm supposed to be blessed as well as cursed but the challenges that come my way are due to my lack of luck and the 'blessings' that I receive are nothing but the fruits of my own labor. They can hardly be called blessings if I put in all the work to receive my boon."
Orphne unsheathed a dagger as she walked up to weaver and picked them up by their hair. She'd never admit it but his passionate ranting had inspired her, so she wanted to share her own misgivings of being [Fated].
"I'm tired of you coming back to life bastard. If this does not kill you then I give up on this wild goose chase the seers sent me on it's been thousands of years it should be about damn time I retire anyway. Well third times the charm as they say.", and then she stabbed her dagger into his chest.
Sunny felt a sharp pain piercing his chest from where the sword had entered him. He landed roughly on the ground after the archer had let go of his hair.
He wasn't having a good time. He had been elated earlier from his discovery of the Shadow Realm which turned out to all be just bait to lull him into a false sense of security just so the sucker punch [Fated] had in store for him to hit that much harder.
"Damnation" Sunny groaned as he tried his best to get back up to his feet with a moan as he felt the [Undying] enchantment of his armor activate. He tried his best to do a 180 pivot so that he would be facing the archer but before he was knocked back down again.
He heard a stream of quiet curses from the archer followed up by "Dammit bastard have you no shame why do you keep getting back up."
Sunny saw a dagger fall to the ground beside the archer as they fell to their knees and whined, "Stupid seers and their impossible missions. Why did they give me the hardest task. How many times do I have to kill this damn cockroach before they stay in the ground. Hell, it'd have been easier if they assigned me to kill one of the immortal shackles of Hope without their damned knife."
Now being at eye level with the archer Sunny began to study them. She wore a dark suit of armor, and her beautiful face was covered by a veil, her long, luxurious hair tied into a braid. When he looked past the veil into her eyes, he could see a deep despair in them accompanied by a hint of annoyance and rage. Oddly enough her figure seemed almost hazy like she was about to dissipate if he took his eyes off her but that did nothing to take away from her beauty. The sight was mesmerizing, and he found himself at a loss for words.
Despite having been shot through the gut and stabbed in the chest by the archer just moments ago Sunny was beginning to sympathize with the archer.
"Believe me, there's no one in these three worlds who despises seers more than me."
The archer lifted their gaze and then with glistening eyes and said, "Tell me about it, if only they would be more direct about their damned visions so we can help change the future."
Sunny sighed and said, "Yeah if only, then they have the nerve to plan actions out that only make the bad future they foresaw come true and start moping around when you are left to deal with the consequences of their naivety."
The archer blinked a couple of times as if she was just realizing that she had gotten carried away then she thought 'Wait, who is this.'
The dark clothing and mask had led Orphne to believe that the person before her was Weaver, but now she was starting to doubt that initial assumption.
There were a few strange inconsistencies that she was starting to put into place. Namly that as she had observed Weaver was taller than the person before her as well as his scent was much stronger.
She could still make out the unmistakable scent of Weaver on the figure before her but it wasn't quite as strong as she remembered. Weaver's speech patterns also seemed off, the Weaver she knew would have phrased things differently.
There was also this strange sense of familiarity and kinship she felt towards them. She felt they shared many similarities for some reason. She couldn't quite place where this came from or why she felt this way but that made it nonetheless compelling.
Letting her every sharp [Fated] reinforced intuition guide her she looked down at their feet and she suddenly burst out into laughter.
Weaver didn't have four shadows attached to his feet. So, the person before her could only be someone that had a connection to Shadow God. Most likely he was someone also connected to Weaver's cult of the Nightmare Spell. It wouldn't be that odd the nebulous daemon did have a habit of attracting all sorts of strange people to his cult.
While the archer was looking down at his feet Sunny summoned the [Dying Wish] to heal his wounds.
The healing wasn't quite complete, but it did enough to stop him from dying from his wounds.
The archer smiled then met the figure's gaze and asked, "Who are you?"
Sunny scoffed then responded, "If you're asking who someone is it's only polite to introduce yourself first."
Sunny of course disagreed with this line of logic so technically it was a lie. He had never cared about having manners or being polite, so his reversed flaw didn't prevent his reply.
She blinked then replied "So be it. I am Orphne. Orphne of The Nine."