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. I am

a shocked

are a Master? As in…

slowly grew

I am. Do you know

She hesitated.

"What?"

said in a

means that my lessons will be much more expensive, of

laughed, then grew silent, and added after a

missed you a

***

flowed 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 fog, tearing a path

gondola cut from onyx, with a glass lantern hanging on its bow. A pristine white flame burned within the lantern, straining against the confines of its crystal prison. The fog opened

the bottom of the onyx boat. In the stark light of the lantern, her face seemed deathly pale

dressed in rags. He was working the oar, staring into the fog or at the young woman. Despite the fact that the skeleton had no lungs, no lips, and no tongue, he was humming

day the gods will

And reveal their lie

one who sleeps

To devour his children

Oh, and us all

That which was forgotten

Will be remembered

And consume the world

all of us will

The nightmare

Of the Forgotten God…"

opened her eyes. The skeleton grew silent, glanced

creature. How have you

not answer, staring at the skeleton

boatman waited for a

speaking much these

remained silent, making the skeleton uncomfortable. He shook his

feels different today. Your shadow… it seems to have grown deeper? How

There was no answer.

continued to sail in silence for a while. Slowly, the fog receded, revealing a black shore. The skeleton changed the course of the boat and let it drift

of the oar and

creature. That is as far