Shadow Slave

A beautiful smile illuminated Neph's face, making her look much softer and younger than she usually seemed. In all the time they knew each other, Sunny had only seen her smile a few times, and every time he did, a hint of regret brushed against his heart. It was a shame, for such a brilliant smile to appear so seldom…

Maybe in her dreams, Changing Star allowed herself to show it more often.

Looking at the reception desk serving as her cover, he tried to make his voice sound calm and asked:

"What are you doing here?"

Nephis lingered for a moment, and then looked down.

"...Hiding."

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

"From what?"

Her voice grew quiet as she answered, still looking at the ground:

"Bad people."

He sighed.

It seemed that the memory this nightmare had spawned from belonged to a much younger Nephis. Something similar must have happened to her when she was a kid… and so, although Changing Star looked like her adult self, she was simultaneously a child. That meant that she was not supposed to have any memory of meeting and getting to know Sunny, and yet, she did.

Dreams were strange that way. All kinds of contradictions could exist within them, merging things that could not coexist in reality.

Sunny lowered himself to the ground and sat next to Neph, leaning on the surface of the desk beside her. He remained silent for a while, and then said with a reassuring smile:

"Well… don't be afraid. I'll hide here with you. I am very good at hiding, you know. If bad people come, they will never see us."

Nephis slowly shook her head.

"I don't know…"

Sunny crossed his arms.

deal with them. I am

a long

a

and then tried very hard to

else did he expect? This was Nephis, after all. Even the Awakened Terror of her First Nightmare

Sunny simply

too nice to be real. Strange… I haven't dreamt in

The cold waters receded, making way for pristine white sand. Above them, there was now a

later, they were surrounded by a vast, scorching

a modern desk, their backs were against the trunk of a tall tree. Its bark was as white as the pristine sand, and its leaves were scarlet. Tens of thousands of skulls hung from the beautiful branches, fastened to them

hanging from it like prisoners. One of them was a man with black hair, dressed in dark clothes. The other was a woman in white, her hair glistening like silver. From where

was

but then froze, realizing that he did not know what

much he wanted to ask her. There were matters they had to discuss that had to do with their future, the great clans, the Sovereigns. There were matters they had to discuss that had to do with their past, the decisions they had made, the mistakes that

His resentment, his anger, his pain, his

were her

was so immense. Sunny was much older now than when they had first met… even though only three years passed, those years contained lifetimes of bitter lessons he had learned. He had never been good with complicated feelings, and although he did make some progress on that front, Sunny was still far from being adept

what was he supposed to

for a while. Then, finally, he looked at her and said the only thing that came to his

The most truthful one.

"I missed you."

looked at

"...I missed you, too."

out a heavy sigh, and slumped

later, however, his face

he glared at her

missed me… then why