Shadow Slave

Sunny was riled and angry. Once again, talking to Nephis made him lose his sense of balance.

…However, the decision he made was not an emotional one.

He had enough composure to keep a clear head even while being affected by seething feelings. Years of battles and dire conflicts had taught him how to keep a cool head.

So, his choice was cold and calculated.

Two things had become clear during the conversation.

The first one was very simple — Nephis intended to join the great clan Valor, while Sunny didn't want to have anything to do with it.

It was one thing to become a retainer of a powerful and prosperous clan in order to make use of its vast knowledge, arsenal, and resources. Despite his strong desire to remain independent, Sunny had entertained the idea himself.

However, it was a completely different thing to join an embattled clan that was on the verge of entering a destructive and bloody war against a similarly fearsome adversary. To add insult to injury, Valor was on the losing end of the equation. Their enemy, the great clan Song, held all the advantages.

And even worse than that was the idea of joining a warring faction with conscious plans of betraying it further down the line. Nephis was more than willing to eventually face not one, but both great clans in battle.

She had her goals and conviction, but Sunny just wanted to be left alone. He saw no reason to follow her into the dragon's maw. More than that, with her joining Valor, the initial condition that had forced him into the damned negotiations in the first place was resolved.

Since Valor was willing to settle for recruiting just one member of the cohort, and Changing Star was willing to play the role of the recruit, then why the hell would he follow suit?

Sunny's heart, the situation was rather straightforward. There was no compelling reason for him to enter into service of the great

course, in reality, things were

angered him, but she was not

to receiving Divine and complementing Aspects, from meeting at the gates of the Academy to being sent to the same small patch of the Forgotten Shore… whether by coincidence or not, their connection went far beyond the tether

in his path. And as much as Sunny wished to defy fate, he was not arrogant enough to think that he was ready to break its chains just

could already see how, no matter what he did, he would not be able to escape colliding against Changing Star again. She had been right when she said that escaping the notice of the great clans entirely was impossible for them — more so for her, but also true for

into contact with the Sovereigns and their Domains

then, was more about the nature of their future relationship than whether it would

Sunny do to shape it into something that had a semblance of corresponding to

was the nature of Neph's intentions toward Sunny and

several weeks burying his head in the sand and avoiding this pivotal discussion. As the result, those weeks had been… perhaps some of

intention of ever issuing another order to him. Not because of any moral consideration… but simply because

anyone to obey her. Instead, she planned to have people follow her of their own free will. Instead of enslaving anyone, she preferred to have people

force him to do anything. But she also seemed to be certain

the core problem of the

Nephis valued him. She even respected him. But despite

could never be

'Damn it.'

her

once that he would never be stronger than Changing Star, because

Conviction.