"Neph did we really have to let Valor have all the Firekeepers? Surely there was a better way to end the negotiations with them?", Cassie protested.
The cohort had just left their meeting with Morgan to conclude their negotiations with Valor. Clan Valor certainly wasn't going to let bygones be bygones after Sunny and Cassie had freed the mirror wraith Mordret.
Nephis sighed and responded, "Cassie what else was I supposed to do. Morgan drives a hard bargain and none of us could have joined them since we need to find Sunny. So, the only way to get them to leave us alone was to let them have the Firekeepers."
Cassie raised her voice in both confusion and annoyance with her friend, "Neph I don't understand why you want to go after Sunny so much. He clearly doesn't want to see you ever again. He's already left you twice. Honestly, I don't understand what you see in him.", before she could even finish talking Cassie felt a scorching glare directed towards her.
Nephis had always thought of herself as a rather hard to anger person. Rarely did she ever let her emotions seep out, though that was not to say that she didn't have emotions. Right now for example she was doing her best to restrain the anger and annoyance from bursting out of her.
She was usually very patient with Cassie. She had grown accustomed to it as she had to care of the blind girl a lot during the Forgotten Shore, but even Nephis' patience had its limits, and Cassie was really pushing her. If there was one thing she would not stand to hear from Cassie it was her repeatedly demeaning and sometimes downright insulting Sunny.
Nephis turned to face Cassie sharply and then let out a slow breath, "Cassie I am warning you I am tired of hearing you talk about Sunny so harshly. I recommend you remedy this habit of yours before you end up testing my patience anymore. I simply can't let my relationship with Sunny end like this without even at least apologizing to him, I owe him that much. To be honest I also want to see him as well, it's been too long."
'Why did I ever even think that Sunny loves Cassie. If anything, it's more likely the exact opposite.', she couldn't blame him either. She wouldn't be caught dead being friendly to any of the sovereigns, so it was understandable that he hated Cassie.
Effie put her arms between them and tried to separate them as she mitigated, "Whoa whoa whoa calm down princess and you too Cassie. Princess is right about how rude you are to Doofus. I don't know why you seem to hate him but let me tell you that you won't be finding any common ground here when it comes to your feelings towards him. Especially not from Princess." She finished with a wink towards Nephis.
A light shade of pink made its way onto Nephis' face as she raised a hand touching her hair awkwardly, she asked, "Hypothetically speaking, if I did happen to like Sunny would it have been that obvious?"
The three members of her cohort responded not a beat later, "Yes." Effie started to giggle and placed an arm across Nephis' shoulder pulling her close.
"Princess it's very obvious that you have a crush on Doofus. You just happen to be unlucky enough to have fallen for the densest man in the world so believe me the only one who doesn't know is him."
Nephis let out a sigh of relief. She might have died of embarrassment if Sunny had realized the depths of her feelings for him and had still chosen to leave her.
Their PTV passed through a pair of what must have once been luxurious gates with some embellishments still visible on them. Most of the bars were rusted and a few were even bent out of shape. They served as a microcosm for the rundown and broken state of the last mansion of the Immortal Flame.
The cohort looked at the sad state of the mansion, yet no one mentioned anything about it to Nephis. They knew seeing her last home brought back painful memories for her, so they did their best to give her some time.
Later Nephis and the cohort were standing in one of the less run-down rooms of the mansion. There was an investigation board in front of them that contained all their knowledge of the friend they had come to know as Sunny.
At some point they had realized they had very few actual pictures of Sunny and not much more information about him either. Funnily enough Sunny's 'under the radar' persona of Mongrel took up a majority of the board.
The physical representation of all of their knowledge of Sunny only served to cement how little they knew about him.
"There's no way this is all we know about Sunny. I can't even remember him having any specific hobbies or interests. He seemed to detest my music at the very least.", Kai said his voice wavering. He was more confused than the rest of the cohort. While they all knew about Sunny's Flaw it would often times slip some of there minds since Sunny was so skilled at working around it, but it never did for Kai since his Flaw constantly forced him to confront the truth behind many of Sunny's outrageous statements.
Most of their lack of knowledge about him was connected to his upbringing in the outskirts. There weren't many records of the people that resided there, so the cohort didn't even have the slightest idea about Sunny's parents or family.
There was also a giant question mark near the center of the board with a string tying it directly to Sunny, it represented someone they had only ever heard Sunny mention a couple times, that being his sister.
An almost simultaneous frown appeared on all of their faces as they realized they should have paid more attention to Sunny. They didn't even have an excuse to give themselves for knowing so little about him considering his Flaw would have forced him to tell them about himself.
As Nephis looked at the board something started to eat away at her. 'Why are there so many women connected to Sunny?' The more she thought about it she began to realize the only men with much of a connection to Sunny were Kai and Teacher Julius.
With everything put into place the cohort only had a couple leads.
One was a government master that only Nephis had seen Sunny interacting with when she dropped him off at the academy in her PTV.
Nephis pointed at the picture of a schoolgirl that had a direct connection to Sunny and asked, "Who is this?"
"That's just some girl that lives nearby Doofus' house that he was tutoring.", Effie replied nonchalantly.
"And why did you not think it important to tell me that Sunny has a house?", a brief ooh look covered Effie's face as a mischievous grin soon replaced it.
"Ah, I should have known you would be interested Princess well let's go visit I'll sit in the passenger's seat. I know the way since I've been living there." Effie said while approaching the door only to find herself being tugged backwards by the collar.
"What was that you just said about having lived with Sunny.", Nephis said with a smile similar to the one she had tried to wear when she first smiled at Sunny.
Effie was enjoying teasing Nephis now that she got to see how jealous and possessive over Sunny she would get, but even she underestimated the lengths that these emotions would push Nephis as she found herself sitting in the driver's seat of the PTV.
"Princess, I'm warning you I have no idea how to drive. You never got to see me in the waking world before I was a Master, so I'll tell you I've been wheelchair bound my whole life."
Effie gave a pleading look to Nephis while she was trying her best to fit herself into driver's seat, moving the seat as far back as possible as it wasn't made for someone of her stature.
Nephis just patted her on the shoulder, "Then consider yourself lucky that this is your punishment and not that you'll get acquainted with your wheelchair again."
Effie paled, "Kai, could you help me out by sitting in the passenger's seat and guiding me through this?"
Miraculously enough Effie had managed to start the PTV and navigate it out of the Immortal Flame mansion grounds. This was when Nephis decided to add some fuel to the flame.
"So, tell me Effie what does this girl that Sunny is tutoring look like and what is their relationship?
"Princess, I think I'm being punished enough please don't talk to me and let me focus."
Cassie intervened for Effie's sake.
"She looks quite a lot like Sunny actually now that I think about it, short with onyx eyes and matching hair."
This caused Nephis to contemplate for a second.
"What's her name?"
Effie managed to find the courage to respond to her, "Oh, we never told you, its Rain."
"Hmm, is that so? Then does she happen to live in a house with a big window and a lawn?"
All three of them gave Nephis a look of surprise as Kai asked, "Yes how'd you know?"
Nephis gave them a look of confusion as she asked, "You all really haven't figured it out yet?"
Effie sighed and answered, "What's there to figure out Doofus just managed to get a girlfriend."
Nephis' eye twitched, "Well I should have known you would never figure it out Effie, but I would have figured that one of you would have.", she said as she turned her gaze to Cassie and Kai.
"Doesn't it almost sound like Rain is Sunny's sister."
The cohort had just donned unified looks of understanding as their PTV pulled into the driveway of Sunny's former house.
Sitting on the porch of Sunny's house was a girl of small stature with deep onyx eyes and hair. She didn't see to notice their PTV pulling into the driveway as she looked at the house seemingly lost in her own thoughts.
Rain wore her school uniform and was armed with her wooden practice sword. She had been going over the advice her mentor had given her before he left.
Something that had been bothering her was how often he had stressed that she needed to work on her mentality.
Her mentor had made it abundantly clear that he thought she was soft and naïve because she hadn't experienced the harshness of the real world.
She never quite knew where he got the gall to say that to her.
'He looks softer than me so what gives him the nerve to say that'.
When she had first met her mentor, she had mistaken him for someone her age she had even laughed in his face when he had claimed to be her elder.
He was just so unassuming and looked like a soft porcelain doll that couldn't harm a fly. He even looked quite a bit like her, so it was hard to take him seriously.
Yet after she had gotten to know her mentor more, she had realized just how wrong her initial impression of him was.
He still had his soft appearance but if you looked closely, you could see something in his eyes. They spoke of deep experience and a kind of cold logic that could only have been gained by having lived a life harsher than anyone else.
She heard a knock against the railing of the porch and when she turned towards the noise, she saw what she could only describe as the cast of a blockbuster movie come to life.
Rain's mouth dropped as she saw such legendary figures as the huntress Raised by Wolves, the seer Song of the Fallen, and most importantly of all the lead singer of Nightingale and the martyr of the Forgotten Shore Changing Star.
The sheer sight of such famous Masters caused Rain's vision to go dark as she passed out from shock.
Or at least she had assumed it was from shock.
Nephis watched as the girl's shadow almost seemed to morph into a physical shape.
Then her vision went dark. She summoned a luminous memory and a sword but before she knew it her vision had returned to her and the rest of the cohort as they looked around in confusion.
The girl that had been standing before them just seconds ago was nowhere to be seen.