Outside, Sunny's body moved on autopilot. He hunched slightly, letting his legs carry him forward without conscious thought. Dangerous as it was, Gloomy was still scouting ahead, passively ensuring no immediate threat lurked in the Settlement's narrow streets.
After covering a few meters, Sunny stopped abruptly. With a violent kick, he sent a loose piece of rubble spinning into the air. The stone collided with a wall and shattered in a loud crash. Yet even that release of force barely dented the storm inside him.
The conversation from earlier had revealed the source of the tumult gnawing at him: discomfort. He had sensed it subconsciously before, but the truth now sat heavy in his chest. Nephis had an ulterior motive behind her kindness. He had guessed, but refused to believe it. She was capable of orchestrating something inhuman—willing to lead hundreds of people into potential death, perhaps even certain death. What she framed as salvation and liberation felt to him like a calculated manipulation, reminiscent of governments and Legacy Clans: luring the weak with promises of safety and progress, only to discard them once their value was exhausted.
The revelation hit Sunny like a gut-punch. Again and again, he kicked any stone unfortunate enough to lie in his path. Gloomy coiled around him, amplifying the force of each strike, turning his frustration into kinetic energy. Even as his anger raged, a strange question gnawed at him: why did he feel betrayed? Nephis owed him nothing; he had never demanded loyalty, never sought servitude. And yet the sense of betrayal was real, deep, and burning.
He swung his foot at yet another rock—his eighth or ninth—when a voice rang out behind him. It was calm, teasing, and familiar with danger. Sunny spun on reflex, summoning the Midnight Shard in his hand.
Standing there was a woman unlike anyone he had ever seen. Taller than any female he knew—and taller than most men, too—she exuded raw, predatory strength. Long brown hair framed her sharp face, her olive-toned skin flawless under the muted sunlight. Hazel eyes glimmered with amusement, sharp and wolfish. A bronze spear, tipped with a crystalline point, rested against her shoulder, the weight of it betraying her effortless strength.
She stepped closer, her stance relaxed, and spoke with a teasing voice. "Watch'a doing, kid?"
Sunny's grip on the Midnight Shard tightened. Every nerve screamed readiness, yet his mind raced to place her. He didn't recognize her from the Settlement or the Castle, but there was no mistaking the air of experience and lethal precision that surrounded her.
"I… I was just…" he began, but words failed him under her steady, amused gaze.
The woman chuckled, "Just kicking rocks, huh? That's one way to work out anger… or is it something else?"
Sunny's jaw clenched, his heart still hammering in his chest. "Something like that," he muttered, still wary.
She tilted her head, the crystal tip of her spear catching the light as she regarded him thoughtfully. "Well, kid… whatever you're doing, you're making one hell of a racket. I thought some monster had gotten trapped under some rubble or something and came to check it out, butall I find is a shorty like you."
Sunny scowled at her adress to him. "I'm not that short" he denied. "And I'm sure as hell no kid."
Thewoman gave him an amused look, nodding her chin several times. "Uh huh, uh huh. Well then, what is your name, shorty?"
"Sunny" he snarled out, angrier than he wanted. The woman blinkedat that, some of the jovialnessfading as she realsied just how pent up he really was. She cleared her throat, her tone no longer so flippant. "Well,I'm Athena, though my friends call me Effie. You new here, Sunny?"
His Flaw made him answer first, but then he asked herthe question of his own. "Athena? As in, the one blacklisted by Gunlaug?"
"Oh?" The smile was back. "What, have you heard about me already? Well now I'm curious: what do they say about me?"
"That you're very beautiful, very strong and very crazy" Sunny involuntarily spoke bluntly, though Athena didn't seem bothered. She chuckled softly and scratched her forehead. "Shucks, I really must be pretty famous then. Let me guess, the last one comes from Gunlaug?"
"No, just from me."
Fuck.
"Oho?" Athena looked at him, her eyes narrowed playfully. "You're quite bold, new kid. Let me guess, you think I'm crazy becauseI chose to live alone in the City?"
A nod.
"Well then, I suppose you can't really be called wrong. But I'm not crazy-in fact, I see things more clearly than most. I don'tfear the Dream Realm, so I'm comfortable living off by myself. Besides, if I ever need to talk to somebody, I can always head to the Settlement to kill a couple of hours."
"I thought you were barred?"
"Only from the Castle itself, not from the Outer Settlement."
"Oh. Then why are you heading there now?"
"Pssh, nosey little man, aren't you?" she laughed, but before Sunny could excuse himself she explained anyways. "I'm coming to meet a few friends. They called me over, said they wanted to talk. You've probably heard of them."~
"Really? I'm new here, remember?"
"Oh yeah, even newbies learn about them pretty quick. Ever heard of a charity guy named Adam?"
With that, the smile that had just grown on Sunny's face faded again.