Sunny moved towards the aloof woman. Shadows covering him like a blanket, she did not notice him approaching.
"Hey Neph!". Sunny called out
The mysterious person was none other than Nephis. She pulled down her headphones and turned around to look at the person calling out to her. Her eyes widened the instant she noticed who it was. "Sunny." A slight smiled found itself on her face, it was a genuine smile one she rarely gave to anyone.
Sunny wondered many times what he would say to Nephis after seeing her again, after all he had abandoned his only friend to run from the sovereigns, he was not there when she needed him the most. Of course he had needed her many times as well but the choice was made by him, and not her, she did not deserve to bear the consequences of his choice, but she did. He had wondered if she would be mad at him, or if she would forgive him and understand.
He opened his mouth to speak, he could not lie, but even if he could, he wouldn't, not to her. So he said the most honest thing he could have
"I missed you".
"…I missed you too." She replied.
"Were you mad at me?", Sunny often felt guilty about his decision. Actually most of the small free time he had in the outskirts was spend on thinking about Nephis and Rain. He often wondered what would have happened if he stayed with her, if he did not run. But brooding over past problems was not going to change anything. What was done was done, he had to look towards the future, he needed to grow strong… fast.
Nephis suddenly looked away from Sunny, now she was looking at the sky above, seemingly returning to her aloof exterior. Then she said "I was at first… But soon I understood… You know, I always thought about the moment we would meet again, I always thought that I would be mad… but now that you are actually here, I do not feel a shred of anger, instead I feel, relief. I am relieved that you are safe, I am relieved that the ghouls did not get to you"
a slight frown found itself on Sunny's face. He had never seen Nephis show this much emotion before. He wondered just how much his absence had changed her. It made him feel even more guilty. She had every right to be mad at him, he had abandoned her, but she was not. suddenly he pulled Nephis in a tight hug.
"Neph… I… I am sorry, I did not want to abandon you, I did not want to, I… I am glad you are safe too. I was scared… scared of what they might do to you. I was worried, I was worried that without me there, they would get you… and that you would… I… I am Sorry". It was the truth, the honest truth. Not that he could lie anyways.
Nephis wrapped her hands around Sunny returning the hug as she smiled.
"Its okay, we are fine… are we not?" then in the most confident tone he had heard she said "if that is our will, who dares to stop us!"
Sunny let go of Nephis and stepped back. 'Never mind. I take it back. She has not changed at all. Was what she said to him just now a fluke?'. He thought after what Nephis had told him about her feelings, that she had changed. She seldom Displayed her emotions, even more rarely speaking about them. Because of this Sunny had to learn how to read emotions of the most aloof human being in the world, two worlds even. He did not think that being four years apart from her would change that. Because of that he was pleasantly surprised by her show of emotion, he thought the unchanging Nephis, the stoic daughter of immortal flame… had changed. But after what she said just now, he knew that she had not changed. That show of emotion she had displayed would not be the norm. Rather it would be just as rare that it always was.
He for some reason, felt relief? Why? Why would he feel relief? Was he really really happy that he was the only one who got to see her real self? Was he glad that her smile which seemed to light up the world was only for him to see? How would he feel if she gave that smile to someone else? Sunny's face shifted to that of anger and… jealousy? He quickly shook his head batting the unpleasant thought away. After all he was much more interested in something else. Her hair, it was silver, and short.
" …by the way. About your hair, why is It …silver? …and short?"
Nephis looked at him again, staring into Sunny's deep onyx eyes as she said, "the color changed after my first nightmare, its due to my aspect… I think. As for the length, I cut it just before my first nightmare. Do… do you like it more this way?".
Sunny took another glance at her hair. he had not payed it much attention, but thinking about it in retrospect the silver hair suited her much more than the raven-black hair she used to have. Actually if he had not known her beforehand he did not think he could imagine her with black hair. He did not feel the same way about the length though, long hair suited her much more. As soon as he came to the conclusion, his flaw forced out an answer.
"The color suits you much more, but not the length!?".
'Damn This Flaw! Damn it!'. He had meant to say that she was beautiful in every hair style. But perhaps its was not too late. He quickly added.
"Not that you look bad with short hair… you look stunning in every hairstyle.". Sunny truly believed she looked good in every hairstyle, thus it was not a lie and he could freely say it". 'What a save' he thought to himself. What? Why would it be a save? Why did he care if Nephis knew that he liked her in every hairstyle?
A slight blush found itself on Nephis's ears, disappearing in a moments notice. "Oh…"
"We should probably get going, the academy instructor is probably waiting for us.".
***
Sunny and Nephis had both both crossed the bridge. On the way they talked about their aspects and flaws. Sunny felt that he trusted Nephis enough with his flaw, he did not tell her what his true name was, but he did tell her that he had one. He asked her to not ask as well, and Nephis promised that she would not. In turn she had told him about her abilities and her own true name. "Changing Star".
They had both been shocked after finding out that they both had true names and divine aspects, she had told him about her aspect and its innate ability. She told her about its description as well. She also told him about the mysterious [Nephilim] attribute she had received in her first nightmare. The [Nephilim] attribute was kind of similar to his [Child of Shadows] and the [Prince of Shadows] attributes, and for that reason he thought that the attribute was her secondary innate attribute and not given to her due to the vessel she inhabited or her aspect. On the contrary he thought that the vessels that they inhabited in their nightmares were chosen due to their attributes.
They had shared their discoveries with each other. What Nephis was most interested in Sunny though was his [Fated] attribute. He shared about his suspicions, about his reunion with jet and her. He also shared his worries about it, worries on what challenges they would face. But On the other hand Nephis was was ecstatic. The attribute made it more likely for them to end up in the same region in the dream realm. And with how the spell described it, either they would be dropped and roll straight into a gateway, or they would be sent to a region of the dream realm so remote and dangerous that no sleeper had ever returned from it.
To everyone who did not know Nephis, they would think that she was happy and exited about having a higher chance of not facing danger, but Sunny knew Nephis well, too well in fact. So he knew that that Nephis was not ecstatic about facing no danger, but she was ecstatic about facing it. Nephis had an indescribable hatred for the spell, but even with all that hatred, she could not deny that the spell was effective, dangerously so. She knew that it made people strong. And that is exactly the reason on why Nephis wanted to be send into a remote and dangerous region of the dream realm. Because she wanted to be strong, no she needed to be strong. She needed to be stronger, stronger than everyone else. Only then could she achieve her goals. Sunny knew exactly what Nephis was thinking, he was worried, he was scared. He did not want to see her die, but… he also knew that nothing would stop her, not even him. He knew that she would see her plan through. And he knew that not even the most remote and dangerous region of the dream realm would stop her. After all if that was her will, who dared to stop her.
And if it did not stop her, it would not stop him as well. After all they had made a promise. They would survive. Sunny, he would live, and Nephis would do.
They had also talked about their time's before their nightmares, Sunny shared his experience in the outskirts, and Nephis shared her life without him, she talked about many failed assassinations the sovereigns ordered on her.
They also tried to find a way to control Sunny's flaw, and after countless tries. they had Succeeded. Sunny found out that he did not have to answer with the first thing that came to his mind, as long as what came out in the end was true he would be able to say it, as long as he endured some pain that is. He could also use the truth to create something akin to a lie, for example he could say.
"I took the boots of a man I killed"
"What? Did you really kill a man for their boots?"
"Of course not! There were other reasons too. I took his coat too".
He had killed a solider in his first nightmare, the reason was that he was already dying and Sunny was just ending his misery. But he had also taken his boots and coat. The soldiers coat had nothing to do with why he killed him, but by careful manipulation of words he could make it seem like it did.
Using his newfound knowledge Sunny talked to the new batch of sleepers. He made sure to give himself reputation of a creepy and insane person, one who no one wanted to approach let alone talk to. He also made sure to be seen as just average. If someone asked him about his Aspect rank or trial appraisal though, he could make it seem like he was being sarcastic or crazy, that way no one would actually believe in him. He could shout that he had a Divine rank aspect and no one would believe him.
Soon enough the entire batch of sleepers knew him as the crazy person who's aspect could only be used for scouting. Sunny doubted the fact that his aspect could only be used for scouting, but they did not need to know that. Scouting is the only application of the aspect he had discovered, he made sure to take advantage of that, he made sure everyone thought that is ability could only be used for scouting. Nothing more, nothing less.
There is one person he did not approach though, that person was Caster, of the han-li clan. Caster was from a legacy clan, one serving directly under valor. He doubted that he knew about the secretive shadow clan and by extension, its heir, him but he still made sure to be wary of him. Even if he did not know about him, he definitely knew about Nephis, he had to keep a close eye on him.
And by the time Sunny was done manipulating the image of himself the instructor had walked onto the stage.