Shadow Slave

Sunny remained on the porch for a while longer, thinking about nothing in particular.

He wondered about the future, and about the past.

What had happened to the real Noctis? What had happened to the real Hope? What had really happened to her cursed kingdom?

He had seen the corpses and Sevras and Sun Prince in the Dream Realm. However, Solvane had still been alive. The Obsidian and the Ivory knives had never been used, hinting that the real events of the liberation of Hope had been both similar and vastly different from how they had transpired in the Nightmare.

Had Noctis succeeded in his ambition to make a deal with Weaver? Had the Demon of Fate helped him find a way to break the eternal shackles of Hope without using the knives?

If so… had the sorcerer, perhaps, survived his mad rebellion?

What price had he paid?

Of course, Sunny knew that there were no answers to his questions. He was never going to learn the truth. The events he had lived through in the Nightmare were too distant, and shrouded in too much mystery for him to discover it.

...As he thought about all these things, a familiar figure suddenly appeared on the crosswalk.

A teenage girl with pale skin and black hair was walking back from school, a somber expression on her face.

Noticing Sunny, she froze for a second, and then suddenly sprinted over.

Halfway to the porch, Rain remember herself and slowed down, awkwardly trying to hide her excitement.

She stopped near Sunny, hesitated for a moment, and then hit him on the shoulder with her little fist.

"Where… where the hell have you been? Are you back? You were gone for so long!"

Sunny leaned back and grinned.

"Hey, Rain. Of course, I am back. Can't you see? As for where I was... I just visited a temple. Then, I went on a little cruise. Then, I visited a couple of towers, spent some time in a theater, befriended a horse, lived in another temple for a while. Finally, I visited a very pretty city and got to know its rulers. Why? Did you miss me?"

Rain stared at him for a few moments, then scoffed.

"Me? Ha! Why would I miss you, of all people?!"

She grew silent, looked down, and then added shyly:

"Well… maybe I did miss you… a tiny bit. My new tutor is a very respectable Awakened, but he is not at all as fun as you."

Sunny looked at her for a few moments, and then smiled:

pity.

and threw a shocked glance

are a Master? As in… an Ascended?

slowly

you know

She hesitated.

"What?"

said in

that my lessons will be much more expensive, of

silent, and added

also… I might have missed

***

through a cavernous expanse of black stone. Fog nestled on the water, stifling its quiet murmurs and veiling everything in white. A lone source of light was traveling through the

a slender gondola cut from onyx, with a glass lantern hanging on its bow. A pristine white flame burned within the lantern,

into a ball, sleeping on the bottom of the onyx boat. In the stark light of

the oar, staring into the fog or at the young woman. Despite the fact that the skeleton had no lungs, no lips, and

the gods

And reveal their lie

who

To devour his children

Oh, and us all

That which was forgotten

Will be remembered

And consume the world

of us will

The nightmare

Of the Forgotten God…"

he sang, the young woman stirred, and then slowly opened her eyes. The skeleton grew silent, glanced at her, then

How have

straight and did not answer, staring at the skeleton with tired

waited for a

you feeling well? You… you have not been speaking much

making the skeleton uncomfortable. He shook

shadow… it seems to

There was no answer.

Slowly, the fog receded, revealing a black shore. The skeleton changed the course of the boat and let it

let go of

it, creature. That is as far as