Even inside the walls of the Bright Castle, the waves hitting the cliffs of the Forgotten Shore could be heard. In its dark halls, recently painted with the blood of Gunlaug and his supporters, Changing Star was walking to a secluded area—alone, just as Cassie had insisted.
Cassie had been very insistent that they needed to talk, claiming it was a matter of life or death. Nephis couldn't understand why, if this was so important, the whole cohort couldn't hear what the blind girl had to say; but, as she had many times before, Nephis listened to Cassie without asking too many questions.
Nephis knew that this probably had to do with one of Cassie's visions. The blind girl's foresight had been a godsend at times, saving both her life and Sunny's, but it was also terrible. Nephis could remember the first time she saw Cassie have one of her visions. The poor girl had been sleeping while Nephis stood guard and Sunny kept her company—since he, as was often the case during the journey to the Dark City, couldn't sleep—when suddenly she started screaming and thrashing. Even after all the times Nephis had seen it happen, it still broke her heart to see Cassie suffer like that.
After a while, Nephis finally reached the room where Cassie had told her she would be waiting. The door opened with a screech, its hinges showing they had not been cared for in a long time. Inside, Cassie was waiting, standing near a window that let in the breeze from the coast. Nephis looked at Cassie; she was standing as still as a stone, looking with her unseeing eyes out of the window, letting the fresh, gentle breeze hit her face. Nephis would have thought that Cassie looked at peace, as if she had nothing bad to tell her, but then Nephis looked at Cassie's hands and saw how they trembled. Whatever Cassie wanted to tell her, it was not going to be good.
"Cass," Nephis said, after she had entered the room and closed the door.
The blind girl turned to her as if she could see.
"You came," Cassie said, as though she hadn't known Nephis would come alone as she had asked.
"You said it's important—life or death, if I remember correctly," Nephis said while walking towards Cassie, positioning herself on the other side of the window and leaning against the wall.
-
Cassie only nodded at her words.
"If this is concerning the attack on the Crimson Spire tomorrow, we should have the whole cohort here," Nephis said, a crease appearing on her brow. "So why—"
"It's about Sunny," Cassie interrupted, her voice sounding desperate to Nephis.
The crease between Nephis's brows deepened, and she stopped leaning against the wall. Her hands felt clammy, and she started to shift from side to side as if she couldn't bear to stand still.
"Wha—" Nephis stuttered. "What's wrong with Sunny?!" Her voice rose, and her speech grew faster. "Is he hurt?! Is he going to be hurt tomorrow?!"
Nephis's heart started racing, each beat coming faster than the last. She couldn't lose him. She couldn't lose Sunny like she had lost her parents. She started walking toward the door with hurried steps.
"He's going to kill you, Neph." Cassie's voice drifted from her position by the window.
Nephis stopped in her tracks. She had just reached the door, and her hand froze on the handle. Sunny, kill me? But why? No, Cassie must be wrong. But if she saw it in one of her visions, it must be true. No—her visions are always obscure and need to be interpreted. She could be wrong. Yes, she has to be wrong. All these thoughts raced through Nephis's mind as Cassie spoke those words.
"You're… you're wrong," Nephis stuttered, but then she steeled herself. "Sunny wouldn't do that. He wouldn't hurt me or you. Much less would he think of killing…" Nephis gestured to herself. "Me."
Cassie raised a hand, reaching for Nephis to bring her closer. After a moment of hesitation, Nephis moved away from the door and took Cassie's hand, noticing it was trembling slightly.
"Do you remember my first vision? The one about an angel and a dark shadow?" Cassie asked, grabbing Nephis's hand firmly as if making sure she was really there.
Nephis let out a relieved breath. This was an old vision Cassie had experienced just before they started their journey to the Dark City. It had been two years since then, and still, nothing even remotely related to that vision had happened. Cassie is just being paranoid; that's all it is, Nephis thought.
"Cassie, that's an old vision. Why would you bring it up now, especially after saying such a thing about Sunny?" Nephis asked in a calm voice, her thumb rubbing Cassie's trembling hand to soothe her.
-
Cassie shook her head. "Nephis, listen to me! I finally know what the vision means!" Her words came out pleading and desperate. "He's going to do it on the Crimson Spire! I just know that he is planning something! If not, how can you justify him leaving for three months and then suddenly deciding to help with Gunlaug?"
Cassie's last statement came out in a barely audible voice. "I think he's working with Caster." Her hands tightened on Nephis's own with those last words.
Nephis's mind started racing, trying desperately to find reasons why Cassie was wrong.
"That's why I have a solution to stop him," Cassie said, interrupting Nephis's thoughts. "His True Name. His weakness is his True Name."
Nephis was confused. True Names were supposed to be badges—extremely rare achievements that the Nightmare Spell gives to people it believes performed exceptionally well. Both Cassie and Nephis knew this because they each had a True Name. But Sunny? Why would he have a True Name, and if he did, why would he hide it? Most importantly, how could a True Name be a weakness?
"Cassie, what do you mean? I—I don't understand," Nephis said, tripping over her own words.
Cassie tightened her grip and pulled Nephis closer, as if to tell her a secret. "If you say his True Name and tell him to do something, he has to do it, even against his will," Cassie whispered. "I saw it in a vision. Sunny, covered in blood and on his feet, a boy no older than you and me, dead." Cassie's eyes glazed over as if she were remembering the scene. "Lost From Light, that's what Sunny said. That has to be it, the reason Sunny had killed the boy." Cassie mumbled.
Nephis looks at Cassie, confused about what Lost From Light is.
Cassie continued whispering, her voice coming faster. "Don't you get it, Nephis? If he tries something, you could just say his True Name and tell him to stop." Ragged breaths were coming from Cassie now.
"Cassie, please," Nephis said in a pleading voice, the start of unshed tears forming in her eyes. "Please, stop." Nephis tried to make Cassie stop shaking and bring her own emotions under control.
"Lost from Light," Cassie spat out suddenly. "That's Sunny's True Name. That's how you will stay alive."
Suddenly, Nephis was pulled into Cassie's embrace. The blind girl was shaking uncontrollably. "You need to survive. You need to survive. You need to survive," Cassie kept repeating. Nephis didn't know what to do; it was hard to believe that Sunny would try to kill her, but seeing Cassie like this sowed seeds of doubt in her mind.
"You... I'll choose you. I'll always choose you," Cassie said in a choked voice. "Promise me—promise me that you'll use it."
Cassie's voice remained strangled, but somehow Nephis felt that Cassie was about to say something even worse.
"Promise—" Cassie's voice kept catching in her throat. "Promise that if you need to—" A lump formed in Cassie's throat. "Promise you will kill Sunny," Cassie finished, her voice quavering and her body trembling in Nephis's arms.
Cold.
The cold of the dead. The cold that only someone on the brink of losing their life knows. The cold that Nephis felt every time she looked at Caster, knowing what his true intentions were. This cold traveled from her feet all the way to her stomach. She could feel the cold in her hands. Nephis started opening and closing her fists, not letting the sensation take full root.
-
"I'll—" Nephis started to say, but then she stopped, trying to control the tears that threatened to fall. "I'll think about it, Cassie."
"Nephis, please," Cassie said in a broken voice.
Nephis tightened her arms around Cassie. "I'll keep it in mind. Just please, calm down," Nephis said in a strained whisper.
_______
An hour later, Nephis found herself walking through the courtyard of the Bright Castle without direction. It had taken a while for Cassie to calm down, and now Nephis was outside, thinking and walking under the ever-gray sky of the Forgotten Shore, the coastal breeze gently pushing her hair behind her. Nephis passed a number of campfires, each one surrounded by people she was supposed to lead home tomorrow after fighting their way through the Crimson Spire. Five hundred people. That was how many she would have to lead into the mortal claws of the Spire. How many of them will survive? Nephis wondered. At times like this, Sunny's words came back to her: "Is it so bad? Living here?" He had asked her that once, before the argument that had kept them apart for three months.
Three months—a long time to be alone in this monster-filled place. If what Cassie said was true, Sunny and Caster were now working together. Nephis didn't like the idea, not because she would be outnumbered two-to-one, but because her chest ached every time she tried to imagine Sunny trying to hurt her. Something deep inside of her couldn't reconcile the belief Cassie had planted in her head—that Sunny wanted to end her life. Tears threatened to fall, and Nephis couldn't understand why.
"—give me free tickets since we're friends," Nephis heard. The voice sounded familiar, so she looked around until she found its source. A few meters to her right, she saw a campfire. Focusing, she recognized Effie's massive shoulders; as always, she was eating. Next to her, with his back also turned, was Nightingale—or more appropriately, Kai. The two seemed to be talking about the real world, with Effie pestering Kai for free tickets. Nephis walked closer, and suddenly, she saw him. He had been hidden from view by Effie's massive frame.
Sunny was sitting there, not paying much attention to the conversation. Nephis's heart beat a little faster, though she didn't know why. If what Cassie said was true, Nephis should have felt cold, but she didn't. She only felt a desire to join them. She intended to wait and observe from a distance to see if her feelings changed, but she wasn't able to. The shadows at Sunny's feet stirred, and his eyes landed directly on her. Nephis waited for the cold to come. She waited for her stomach to churn. She waited for any sensation that would imply the threat Cassie warned her about was real.
None of it came.
There was not a single emotion that signaled her to be on guard, or that the man looking at her meant her any harm. On the contrary, Nephis felt an incredible pull—a desire to sit down next to him and join the conversation.
"Princess! Come sit down! What are you doing there, creeping around like Sunny?" Effie's booming voice pulled Nephis out of her thoughts. It seemed she had noticed Sunny looking at something and turned around.
"Yea—yeah, coming," Nephis stuttered, walking a little too eagerly toward the fire. She decided she would sit in the space between Effie and Sunny—not too close, but not too far. That plan was forgotten moments later. When she reached the spot, she turned to look at Sunny, and her feet unconsciously brought her to the seat right next to him. She only realized her plan had failed once she had already sat down. Her face grew hot. Unable to look at Sunny, she turned toward Effie. Terrible mistake. The boulder of a woman had a slight smile and was wiggling her eyebrows. Kai was less obvious, merely smiling at the sight.
"The first thing I'll do when I get back home is write a song about this place," Kai said, which Nephis felt was an attempt to stop Effie from focusing on her and Sunny. "How about you, Effie?"
The huntress stopped teasing Nephis and fell into deep thought. Thank the dead gods, Nephis thought, I don't know how much longer I could have lasted.
"I'll go to an all-you-can-eat buffet and leave them broke," Effie said, followed by a booming laugh.
Kai smiled. "Somehow, I believe you'll keep that promise. How about you, Lady Nephis?"
Nephis thought about the question. The answer wasn't hard. "I'll visit my mother." She cleared her throat. "She's in a facility where they take care of... of Hollows. I'll go visit her as soon as I can." Her eyes grew a little watery.
Kai nodded, and Effie gave her a tight smile. Sunny, toward whom Nephis had been stealing glances, only looked into the distance as if remembering a faded memory.
"Umm..." Kai looked at Sunny, debating whether to ask him, too. Sunny was always quiet and reserved; most of the people Nephis was leading tomorrow didn't even know how important he was to the cohort. They didn't even know his name or how close to death he had been while helping Nephis find a way home.
"What about you, Sunny?" Effie asked, seeing Kai's hesitation.
Nephis sat a little straighter. She realized how little she actually knew about him. Two years together in this nightmare, and she only knew how he fought and his will to survive. She watched his face. Usually, he looked like he was in deep concentration when asked a question, but now, it looked like pain. Why doesn't he just refuse to answer? she wondered.
"My sister," Sunny finally spoke. "I'll look for my sister."
Yes, that's right, Sunny has a sister. Her name was—
"Rain. That's her name." Sunny's voice interrupted her thoughts. It was the only piece of information she had about his life before the nightmare. "I'll also buy a house and a refrigerator," Sunny continued. "A big refrigerator that can hold a bunch of food."
Effie let out a hearty, non-mocking laugh. Kai smiled and started talking about musicians who might secretly be siblings. Effie and Kai overlooked the refrigerator comment, but Nephis didn't. Why a refrigerator? As if... as if he never had one. Nephis's brows scrunched. He had mentioned he was from the Outskirts. She knew people there lacked resources, but surely everyone had a refrigerator, right?
"Well, Sunny, if your sis looks anything like you," Effie said with a mischievous smile, "you'll be able to start an emo band." She cackled, and Kai snorted.
"What's emo?" Nephis heard Sunny mutter to himself, his voice so low it was almost lost to the crackling of the fire.