Shadow Slave

'Argh! What an infuriating woman!'

Sunny appeared from the shadows and resumed his position in the corner. No one seemed to have noticed his absence, which was for the best.

Their short conversation with Nephis had been interrupted by the appearance of a ghastly demon with six arms and charred black holes instead of eyes. Sunny had done his best to restrain the abomination while Nightmare attacked it from the back. In the end, they managed to destroy it without sustaining any wounds.

It had not been an easy battle, though.

After that, Sunny felt too confused to continue the conversation, and instead chose to return to the waking world.

'Because I do… that doesn't even make any sense!'

It seemed that Neph's whole existence was designed to continuously stump him. From their first conversation on the Forgotten Shore until now, he just could not get how her mind worked. Protecting Cassie simply because she wanted to, caring about people simply because she did… the sheer audacity of being so unapologetically strange and irrational made him fume.

Especially so because he suspected that Nephis somehow derived strength from this bizarre attitude. Was that what Effie had meant when she talked about conviction?

Sunny did not really understand what exactly it was that she thought he lacked. Was it will or determination? If so, the huntress was terribly mistaken. He might not have been the most principled of people, but few could boast of having more determination than Sunny. Otherwise, he would not have survived all the terrible trials that life had thrown his way.

But maybe… maybe conviction was something else. Maybe having will and determination was not enough, unless they were aimed at something precise, and guided by a singular purpose. After all, having a sharp sword was useless unless it was brandished against an enemy.

Was conviction a guiding principle that shaped formless power and determination into a sharp blade? Was it an unbreakable will to achieve a certain purpose?

without a purpose, after all. He had his own goals — to have a good life, to

all of his desires were centered around him. They were all aimed inside. He did not think that there was anything wrong with that… in fact, he considered it a

other hand, disregarded herself to an almost demented degree in pursuit of her

also for the nature of that purpose to be larger than oneself? For the principles

sounded too high and mighty to Sunny. He was more inclined to value his own simple goals

thought that someone with a greater purpose had an inherent advantage over someone who just

Sunny, he was fated to compete against exactly this kind of people if he wanted to be free to live his life as he seemed fit. Only if he became greater than all of them would they

to result in a very inconvenient

I even thinking about this? Damned Effie and her damned moments of insightfulness… who says

he had other

to Neph's dream had not turned out how he hoped it would. Sunny did accomplish one of his goals and tentatively made sure that two years of lonely and, no doubt, harrowing travels through the Dream Realm had not driven Changing Star

not a raving lunatic. In fact… Nephis seemed strangely stable for a person who had gone through something that no one should have ever been forced

or something else entirely, he did not

of

he had determined Neph's general mental state, he failed in his two

of closure in dismantling her reasons for invoking his True Name. He had expected Changing Star to hide behind a false and misguided veil of having done it

anger, fury, and resentment. He wanted to cause her to feel at least a small part of the anguish that she had caused

her actions were nothing but selfish, making all the attacks and accusations he had prepared moot. That

his own complicated feelings,