Walking across the Academy grounds, Sunny and Nephis re‑entered the hospital complex. The sterile scent of disinfectant and recycled air washed over them as the doors slid shut behind them.
Sunny turned his head to look at Nephis.
Her brow was barely creased—just the slightest furrow. Her lips had a tiny downward curve, subtle enough that most people would miss it.
'Uh oh, she's worried about something.'
"Are you okay?" he asked gently.
"Mmm." Her reply was distracted, her mind clearly elsewhere.
Hesitating, Sunny sucked in a breath to gather his courage, he was going to need it.
He slowly reached out and carefully—timidly even, took her hand in his. He kept his gaze on her face, watching her reaction. Nephis's ears turned slightly red, and her frown turned into a small smile.
She turned her head to face him, interlocking her fingers with his, squeezing lightly.
"Thank you."
Sunny immediately looked away, flustered. Unfortunately, he caught sight of his own reflection in a wall mirror—bright red face and all. He grimaced and turned back to Nephis just as she continued.
"I was thinking about what Master Jet said," she murmured. "About the Shadow Clan… and what they want from me."
Sunny raised a brow.
"You don't know why they are protecting you?"
She shook her head.
"No, I've been racking my brain trying to remember anything, but… as far as I recall no one in my clan ever mentioned anything about the Shadow Clan, I didn't even know they existed until Jet mentioned them."
Sunny frowned.
"That's… concerning."
Nephis let out a soft sigh.
"Yeah."
They walked in silence for a few moments, their footsteps echoing down the corridor. Then Sunny heard voices from around the bend—several people, chatting animatedly.
He instinctively tried to pull his hand away.
Nephis tightened her grip instantly, holding his hand in a vice‑like clasp.
"Um, Neph, people are approaching…" he whispered.
Nephis just smile slyly.
"I know."
Sunny felt his soul leave his body.
'D-damnation.'
They turned the corner and entered a small hall—the same one where Sunny had met some of the other survivors earlier. There were fewer people now, but several Awakened still lingered, resting or chatting quietly.
The moment they saw Nephis, everything changed.
Their faces lit up, and they rose their voice's excitement. People rushed toward them with expressions of joy and relief.
"Lady Nephis! Your Back!"
"Lady Nephis has returned!"
"Quickly! Get the others!"
Sunny groaned internally as he found himself swept into the center of attention. Thankfully, Nephis handled the greetings with calm grace, offering nods and soft words. Sunny, meanwhile, endured congratulatory winks, thumbs‑ups, and far too many pats on the back.
"Damn! I lost the bet," someone muttered.
"I told you they were together! Pay up!" another whispered triumphantly.
Sunny's eye twitched.
'Were they… Were they betting on me and Nephis!? Those scoundrels! Where's my cut!?'
Eventually, he spotted Cassie standing at the edge of the crowd, smiling brightly. Nephis saw her too and immediately tugged Sunny along, weaving through the cluster of Awakened.
"Cassie, there you are," Nephis said warmly as she reached her. She took Cassie's hand with her free one. "Come. We need to make plans."
Nephis said when she reached her, taking Cassie's hand with her free one and pulling them both through the crowd and back to Sunny's room.
The eyes of the awakened around them gleamed with excitement at her words and a small group followed the trio, taking guarding positions at the corridor and on either side of Sunny's door.
Without waiting for a response, she pulled both Sunny and Cassie through the crowd and back toward Sunny's room.
Behind them, the Awakened exchanged excited looks. A small group followed, taking up guarding positions in the corridor and on either side of Sunny's door
Sunny stared at them as he entered his room.
'…Since when did we become a faction?'
Closing the door behind him, Sunny followed Nephis and Cassie toward the center of the room. Nephis reached into her pocket and pulled out the privacy memory she had borrowed from Jet.
With a tap of her finger, the swirling mist inside the marble surged outward, expanding into a dome of translucent fog. It enveloped the three of them in a sphere that muted all sound from outside and blurred the world beyond into a frosted haze.
"We can talk freely now," Nephis said.
Cassie tilted her head, listening as the outside noises faded into absolute silence.
"Was that a privacy memory? Where did you get that?"
"She borrowed it from Master Jet." Sunny answered.
Cassie's face paled slightly.
"Jet… as in Soul Reaper Jet? Don't you know who she is? Why would you—"
"Cass, relax," Sunny said quickly, raising his hands. "She's not as bad as the rumors say. I think she's going around debriefing the most outstanding Awakened from the Forgotten Shore."
Nephis nodded.
"That's right, our talk with her was rather… informative. It's one of the things we'll need to discuss."
Cassie took a breath and seemed to calm a bit.
"Oh, I see, that's good. What sort of things did she tell you— Wait."
She whipped her head to Sunny face pale again.
"Did you just say she's debriefing the most outstanding awakened?"
Sunny nodded.
"Yeah, don't worry about it, she's nice enough."
Cassie gulped and nodded her head.
"O-okay, I'll try not to."
Nephis smiled softly at the interaction before looking to Sunny, there was hesitation and determination in her eyes.
"Before anything else we need to talk about what Jet didn't directly say."
Sunny blinked.
"What she didn't say? What does that mean?"
She looked at him with a bit of fond exasperation.
"Sunny… she told us that unofficially the government considers you the second most outstanding awakened from the Forgotten Shore."
"Yeah, and?"
Cassie looked between them, and gasped.
"Ah! That's not good…"
Sunny was starting to feel concerned.
"Why? What's the issue? Officially I'm at the bottom of that list…"
Nephis's eyes locked onto his.
"But they know in reality you're not, that you're above the others. The others who have true names. She didn't say it directly… but undoubtedly the government knows that you have a true name."
She said with certainty.
Sunny's blood ran cold and his mouth went dry.
"But… I didn't get a true name from the Forgotten Shore…" He tried weakly.
"Neither did I." Nephis said bluntly.
Sunny winced.
'Of course Neph knew, she has a divine aspect too, she probably realized I had a true name when I told her about my aspect.'
He looked between Nephis and Cassie, panic rising.
"Did you tell her? Who else knows?"
Nephis shook her head.
"No, she was the first to know. The only ones who know of your true name are us three."
Sunny let out a shaky breath, running his hand through his hair, how did Cassie figure it out first? At least only she and Neph knew about it.
"I-I see, please don't ask what it is, it will… it will cause problems…"
He looked up and saw Nephis was watching him with a strange expression. Her eyes were soft, but there was something else beneath the surface.
Seeming to register what he just said she quickly shook her head, and the expression he couldn't place in her eyes faded, replaced with disappointment and… hurt?
"If you don't want to tell us, that's okay…"
Sunny grimaced. She held her arm with her other hand, gaze dropping to the floor.
"Neph, I…"
He couldn't finish, the air between them felt brittle, as if it was filled with cracks and a divide was forming.
'She thinks I don't trust her…' He realized, but what else could her do? He couldn't trust anyone with his true name, he couldn't risk it, not even for… not even for Nephis.
His mouth clamped shut, refusing to say anymore.
Looking between the two Cassie facepalmed and let out a long exasperated sigh.
"For gods' sake, you two can be such a handful sometimes."
Both Sunny and Nephis snapped their heads toward her, startled out of their silent standoff
Cassie pointed at Nephis first.
"Neph, I love you, but you suck at communication, believe me when I say Sunny has a very good reason for not telling you."
Then she pointed at Sunny.
"Sunny, I love you too, but you have to look past your trust issues and believe Neph won't abuse your true name."
She folded her arms over her chest.
"You two won't be able to be together if you don't sort this out. I'm not asking you to reveal everything, Sunny, but you do need to explain why you can't tell her."
She glanced around.
"Now, what's the radius of this memory?"
"Only a few paces…" Sunny replied automatically, still dazed.
"Good, I'll leave you two alone to talk this out."
Cassie turned around and walked out of the mist bubble. The mist swirled and closed behind her.
Sunny swallowed.
Nephis stood only a step away, her silver hair catching the faint light filtering through the fog. Her expression was calm on the surface, but her eyes… her eyes were a storm of emotion she was trying very hard to keep contained.
He opened his mouth, then closed it again.
Nephis was the one who broke the silence.
"…Sunny," she said softly, "I'm not upset that you didn't tell me."
She looked down, fingers curling slightly at her sides
"I'm upset that you can't trust me."
Sunny's heart clenched.
"That's not—Neph, it's not about you," he said quickly. "It's not that I don't trust you. I do! It's that… I can't trust anyone with it."
Nephis lifted her gaze, her eyes were steady, but there was a faint tremor in them— hurt, and longing.
"Why?" she asked.
Sunny clenched his jaw, knowingly or not, Nephis just used his flaw against him.
"Because it'll ruin me if someone says it." He finally said when he could no longer bear his flaw.
Her eyes widened as she realized what she just did.
"I'm sorry…" she whispered.
Nephis stepped forward until she was right in front of him.
"I'm not good at this," she said, voice trembling. "Not with these… feelings."
She reached out and took his hand her fingers warm against his.
"Yeah, me too." Sunny muttered.
Nephis swallowed, gathering herself.
"Maybe I was being unfair," she said quietly. "Wanting you to tell me your true name."
"But the truth is…"
She pursed her lips and opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.
She looked him in his eyes, swallowed hard, and tried again.
"But the truth is… I have known your true name for months, ever since you killed that sleeper in the Dark City."
Sunny froze, and his mind went blank.
The silence dragged on, filled with only their breathing and the pounding of his heart.
"...what…h-how?" He asked weakly.
Nephis's voice was soft, as if others might hear them from outside the sphere of mist.
"Cassie had a vision, the night you left us—left me—she saw you and the sleeper, you were both drunk, she saw him ask for your true name, and she saw you kill him when your flaw made you tell him."
Sunny stared at her blankly, and then he started to laugh, a weak and broken sound.
"All this time… you've known all this time?"
He let go of her hands and brought them to his face.
"Ha, you must think me a fool… All this time you could have used it against me… why didn't you? Saving to use it against me in some critical moment?"
Nephis looked away, unable to meet his gaze.
"...Cassie was worried about her vision." she said quietly.
She didn't deny it.
Sunny felt the sting of betrayal, like a twisting knife to his core. He lowered his hands.
"So I'm right." He said bitterly. "You planned to use it against me."
Nephis flinched.
"…Only after you left," she whispered. "I—I was angry. You left me, Sunny. You even told me to go fuck myself…"
Sunny grimaced. "You kinda deserved it."
Nephis hugged her arms around herself.
"It still hurt."
She took a shaky breath, then forced herself to meet his eyes again.
"When you came back… I forgot about it. Forgot about the prophecy, your true name, everything. I was just happy you came back. And the time we spent together… they were some of the happiest moments of my life."
She laughed weakly, shaking her head.
"Listening to myself I realize how pathetic that sounds, most of my fondest memories are from a hellhole."
"Neph, you're not-" Sunny started.
"I AM!" She shouted, tears forming in her eyes. "I'm pathetic, I'm weak, I led hundreds to their deaths just so I could escape. And you know what?"
Her fingers dug into her sides.
"I couldn't even do that, because I knew you'd come for me at the top of that spire, and with the damned soul conduit only one of us would have been able to leave, and I wanted it to be you."
Sunny shook his head. "I would have never left you there Neph."
She smiled crookedly at him. "I know, but I couldn't let you, unlike me, you still had family to return to."
Her eyes turned steely.
"So I promised myself, that no matter what, you would get to go home. Even if I had to use your true name to make you."
"Why?" he whispered. "Why sacrifice yourself for me?"
Sunny couldn't comprehend why anyone would do that for him.
Nephis stepped closer, raising a trembling hand to his face. Her fingers brushed his cheek.
"Because I love you."
Before Sunny could react she leaned in and kissed him.
Sunny's eyes went wide before they softened, and his hands found her waist pulling her closer.
He leaned into the kiss and returned it.