The first thing Asteria felt was the weight of her own eyelashes. They felt like lead shutters, glued shut by the salt of dried sweat and old blood. The second thing she felt was the bed – too soft for a place like this, and far too clean for a battlefield.
"I win the bet, Sunny, pay up!"
The voice was vibrant, booming with a predatory sort of cheerfulness. It was a woman's voice, rich and full of life in a place that usually smelled like death.
"I never agreed to that, and I don't have anything to pay you with! You glutton!" The second voice replied. This one quieter, sharper – like the rasp of a whetstone against a blade's edge. It was defensive, cynical and layered with a strange humour.
Asteria forced her eyes open.
The ceiling was white stone, illuminated by the soft, ambient glow of lamps.
She was in the Bright Castle.
"Oh, look at that. Rise and shine, little mystery!" The woman remarked.
Asteria sat up slowly, her muscles groaning in protest. Sitting at the end of her bed was a tall, strikingly beautiful woman with olive skin and a build that defined the word amazonian.
Her muscles moved like coiled springs beneath her simple tunic, and her eyes sparkled with a hunger that seemed to be both literal and metaphorical.
In the corner, leaning against the shadows of the doorframe, was a smaller, pale boy with messy black hair and eyes that seemed to track every movement in the room. He looked like a feral, stray cat that was tempted to bite and tempted to disappear into those same shadows.
"Sunless, but my friends call me Sunny." The boy said, his voice flat. "But you already know that, don't you?"
Asteria rubbed her temples, "Yeah, sure, let's go with that. How long was I out for?"
"Two days, give or take a few hours." Sunny replied, crossing his arms. "You hit the floor harder than Gunlaug did. Which, by the way, was a very dramatic exit."
"Ignore doofus, he's just grumpy because you're a bigger mystery than he is," The woman began, reaching over the pat Asteria's shoulder with enough force to bruise anyone else. "You can call me Effie. Thanks for the show, by the way, I've wanted to crack that golden tin-can open for like, ever!"
The door creaked open, and two more figures entered. One was a young woman with golden hair and a blindfold across her eyes. She moved with a clumsy grace that was most likely due to the lack of sight.
Beside her was a man so handsome it felt like a mockery of the grim surroundings. He had a gentle aura and a smile that seemed to radiate genuine kindness.
"Asteria," the blind girl said softly. "You're the one I saw... " she mumbled, hoping nobody would hear her musings.
"That's our Cassie," Effie said, waving a hand while giving the blind stranger a name. "She sees things. And this beautiful specimen is Kai. Careful, his voice is an aspect ability in itself. He'll make you want to tell him your deepest secrets."
"It's a pleasure, Asteria," Kai said, his voice melodic and sincere. "The camp is in an uproar. You and Nephis... you've changed everything. Gunlaug is dead, the Bright Castle is ours, and everyone is ready to escape this hell."
Asteria's mouth dropped, her eyes widening into circles. "Kai..."
"Yes?"
"Like Kai from Nightingale?" Asteria gasped, her heart rate rising rapidly.
They all stared at her before sighing, not giving attention to her flushed face.
Asteria looked at the four of them before trying to calm herself down. 'Oh man I always wanted to meet Kai, I saw him loads on posters before... '
"Where's Nephis?"
"...Recovering? Plotting, maybe." Sunny said, eyes narrowing. "She's fine – we think – but she's... Nephis. She's already thinking about marching on the Crimson Spire."
"March?" Asteria replied, her voice raspy.
"We can't stay here, can we?" Kai explained gently. "Gunlaug and his lieutenants kept this place stable through fear and a semblance of order – now that he's gone, the food is running our and the creatures are getting bolder in the Dark City. Nephis believes the only way out is through the gateway at the top of the spire."
Sunny snorted. "By 'believes,' he means she's decided we're all going to go on a suicide mission."
Asteria stood up, her legs feeling like jelly for a moment before her ascended physique took over, forcing her blood to flow.
"I didn't come here to help fix your problems," Asteria said, looking at her reflection in a polished shield on the wall. The dried blood was gone, but her eyes were still a haunting, crystalline violet. "I came to repay a debt. Nephis helped me when I was nothing. If she wants to burn down that tower, I'll gladly help her – nobody else. "
Sunny's shadow flickered on the floor, stretching toward Asteria's feet as if trying to taste her power. He looked at her with a mix of intense curiosity and deep-seated wariness. "A debt. Right. Because people who can kill a transcendent echo always act out of the goodness of their hearts."
"Goodness of my heart? Believe what you want, Sunny." Asteria countered, stepping towards the door. "I don't have one good bone in my body."
Effie stood up, stretching her long limbs with the lazy grace of a well-fed leopard. "I like her. She's got spirit and she's terrifying. My favorite combination."
Asteria reached the threshold of the door but paused, her hand lingering on the cold stone of the frame. She turned her head slightly, her crystalline gaze pinning the small, pale boy in the corner.
"Sunny?"
"Do you need something?" he replied, his tone sharp and layered with practiced annoyance.
"The moment I saw you, my blood started to boil. My senses are screaming that you're just like me," she began, her voice dropping to a low hum. "What are you? Did you feel it too, or should I just call myself crazy?"
Sunny's jaw clenched, his dark eyes tracking the flickering shadows at Asteria's feet. A heavy silence stretched between them for several heartbeats before he finally answered. "I'm a shadow," he said, the words sounding like they were being pulled through grit. "And yes. I noticed."
'People with secrets are the worst,' Asteria thought, already plotting how to pry the truth from him. It wasn't just a physical reaction; it was an emotional paradox. 'It was like I was enraged just by seeing him – no, it was like I was angry that I haven't seen him in so long.'
Effie looked between them, her eyebrows shooting up as the air in the room grew thick with the weight of two predatory gazes locking onto one another.
"So... what exactly is going on here?" she asked, her voice uncharacteristically innocent as she tried to steer the tension toward something less explosive.
"Nothing," Asteria said flatly. She kept her eyes on Sunny for a moment longer. "We'll continue this later. I have a lot of questions for you."
"Likewise," he replied through clenched teeth.
As Asteria walked through the halls of the Bright Castle, the shift in the atmosphere was palpable. The sleepers she passed they hit the floor, bowing their heads in a frantic mix of reverence and sheer, unadulterated fear.
She eventually found Nephis on a high balcony overlooking the wasteland of grey soil and twisted red coral. The silver-haired girl looked haggard, her face pale and her eyes sunken from the apparent lack of sleep.
"You're awake," Nephis said, her voice steady despite her exhaustion. She didn't turn around.
"I am," Asteria replied, leaning against the stone railing beside her. A small, tired chuckle escaped her. "You look terrible."
Nephis nodded, her expression unreadable as she stared at the horizon. "We're leading the siege on the Crimson Spire as soon as our preparations are complete." She finally turned, her piercing gaze searching Asteria's face. "Are you coming to help? And... where did you even come from? We didn't see you here before."
Asteria looked out at the Crimson Spire. It was still a terrifying, jagged monument to a dead world, but as a master, the horror felt manageable. The daunting weight of the tower no longer felt like a death sentence.
"Sunny thinks it's a suicide mission," Asteria noted.
"Sunny thinks everything is a suicide mission until he finds a way to profit from it," Nephis said, a ghost of a cunning smile appearing on her lips. "So. Where have you been?"
A long sigh escaped Asteria's lips. "Where do I even begin? After the academy, I was thrown into a desert and a sandstorm. I discovered the ruins of a fallen civilization, escaped an army of living statues, and fell headfirst into a second nightmare seed."
Nephis visibly trembled at the mention of the seed, but she remained silent, letting Asteria continue.
"I became a slave, got bought by a revolutionist saint, caused a little chaos, and then killed a supreme within her own soul." Asteria exhaled, brushing a strand of iridescent hair behind her ear. "Just a normal second nightmare, I suppose."
"You're a master, then?" Nephis's voice was small, a rare departure from the iron confidence she usually projected.
"Correct. As real as they come," Asteria smiled, the golden light of the afternoon catching the violet in her retinas.
Nephis's lips twisted into a small, sharp grin – the look of a grandmaster who had suddenly found the winning piece on an impossible board. The despair that had been clouding her eyes seemed to vanish, replaced by a cold, calculating fire.
"It seems this siege just became a lot easier – and a lot safer – for us."
Her hand briefly brushed against Asteria's, her skin feeling like ice against the warmth of Asteria's pulse. "Let's go kill the sun, shall we?"