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.

with them. I am very

for a long time, and

is a dream, isn't

very hard to suppress a curse. That question was… extremely

This was Nephis, after all. Even the Awakened Terror

composure, Sunny simply nodded.

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

It flowed, transforming into something different. The darkness was dispelled by the radiance of an incandescent sun. The cold waters receded, making way for

were surrounded by a vast,

trunk of a tall tree. Its bark was as white as the pristine sand,

figures were cruelly nailed to the tree, hanging from it like prisoners. One of them was a man with black hair, dressed in dark clothes.

that was for the

mouth, but then froze, realizing that he did not know

to tell her, too 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,

were his emotions, as well. His resentment, his anger, his pain,

were her emotions, as

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,

what was he supposed to

finally, he looked at her

The most truthful one.

"I missed you."

and looked at him as

"...I missed you, too."

a heavy sigh, and slumped a little, full

moment later, however, his face turned dark and

he glared at

then why the hell