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?

into service of the great clan, but there was a convenient opportunity for him to take a

things were a bit

she was not wrong. Their fates did, indeed, seem to

year 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

Attribute, [Fated], had a lot to do with placing Nephis in his path. And as much as Sunny wished

colliding against Changing Star again. She had been right when she said that escaping the notice of the great clans entirely was impossible

not to mention Shadow God and Weaver — coming into contact with the Sovereigns

their

do to shape it into something that had

revelation that had resulted from their conversation was the nature of Neph's intentions toward Sunny and

had spent several weeks burying his head in the sand and avoiding this pivotal discussion. As the result, those weeks had been… perhaps some of the nicest in his life. However, his actions had also caused everything to blow

had said in no uncertain terms that she had no intention of ever issuing another order to him. Not because of any moral consideration… but simply because it

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

do anything. But she also seemed to be certain

was the core problem of the dynamic

valued him. She even respected him. But

could

'Damn it.'

her stance was

told him once that he would never be stronger than Changing Star, because Changing Star had something that

Conviction.