Shadow Slave: Foreign shadow

The next day, Sunny approached Nephis again during a rare moment when the two of them were alone. He tried in vain to unravel whatever secret revelation—known only to her—was hidden within the letter she had received the day before.

​He didn’t broach the subject directly. Instead, he cautiously danced around the topic, simply asking how she was doing, masking his burning curiosity behind a veil of sheer concern.

​However, Changing Star stubbornly evaded his probing with a flat, indecipherable, ”I’m fine, thank you,” refusing to add another word. Her usually stoic face felt even more distant than usual, and the silver flames burning in her eyes seemed to have suddenly grown colder.

​And so, the unknown remained unknown. The days blurred together, day and night alternating in a rapidly accelerating crescendo as the Winter Solstice drew closer. And life pressed on with its usual, agonizingly fleeting lightness.

​Until...

​Knock. Knock. Knock.

​It was a dark and stormy night—though the storm wasn’t raging in the sky, but rather on the mattress, where two shadows had intertwined their bodies. Their limbs were a tangled mess, holding onto each other fiercely as their tongues engaged in a breathless, no-holds-barred duel.

​Passionate kisses were eagerly exchanged in the quiet darkness of the dorm room, where Sunny and Thene lost themselves in the absolute intimacy granted by the shadows. They were far too preoccupied to care that someone had just knocked on the door.

​Knock. Knock. Knock.

​Breaking away from yet another deep kiss, Sunny glared toward the door, terribly annoyed. He instantly harbored a deep, burning grudge against whoever was ruining the magic of the moment.

​’Who the hell is it?! My neighbors have been going at it like rabbits for weeks without giving a damn about the noise they make. And I, who am doing this in respectful silence, am about to get scolded?! Oh, hell no!’

​Feigning sudden deafness, Sunny went right back to showering his beautiful companion with affection, hoping the nuisance on the other side of the door would just assume he was fast asleep.

​BANG. BANG. BANG.

​The knocking instantly escalated into an unjustified, violent assault on the innocent wood of his door.

​Separating their lips once more, Sunny let out a long, heavy sigh. ’By the dead Gods, I even oiled the bedsprings,’ he thought bitterly. He let his head rest momentarily against Thene’s bare chest. She looked down at him, her splendid eyes—two gems of pure obsidian—reflecting the exact same dismay.

​”I’m coming!” he yelled at the door, finally causing the frantic, violent pounding to cease.

​To the immense displeasure of both, they separated. Dragging himself out of bed, Sunny quickly snatched a surviving black t-shirt and a pair of matching boxers that had been tossed aside some ten minutes prior, hastily throwing them on.

Of his pants, there was absolutely no trace.

​’If this is some kind of prank, I swear I’m going to turn tonight into the Purge.’

​Reaching the door, Sunny took a deep breath, violently forcing himself to calm down before he did something he definitely wouldn’t regret, but that would surely lead to legal consequences.

​Before unlocking the door, he threw a quick glance back at the empty bed. Myriad Shade had already dissolved back into the shadows. He then glanced at his shoulder, noticing the Jiminy Cricket materializing in a tiny pair of blue pajamas, yawning widely—a clear sign that his conscience had firmly retaken the reins.

​Satisfied, Sunny placed his hand on the handle and pulled the door open. The second he did...

​”Sunny!”

​A voice as sweet and cheerful as a delicate silver bell chimed, instantly followed by two petite arms wrapping tightly around his waist in a warm embrace. It caught him completely off guard.

​”Cas?” That was the only word his brain managed to produce at that moment.

​Sunny looked down at Cassie, who was squeezing him tightly, and then lifted his gaze. Standing right there in the hallway were Yuki and Nephis. The former had eyes heavy and swollen with sleep, while the latter wore her usual indecipherable expression, though she too looked visibly exhausted.

​”Ehm... what are you doing here?” he asked, looking back and forth between Ice and Fire, all while instinctively stroking the head of the blind seer, who was affectionately rubbing her soft cheeks against his chest.

​It was Cassie who answered. She tilted her head up, the crystal monocle sparkling over her right eye. ”Pajama party,” she announced with a radiant smile.

​”Pajama party?” Sunny repeated, utterly perplexed.

​”Mhm,” Cassie hummed, nodding happily. ”Since there are only two days left until the Winter Solstice and we can’t leave the Academy, I thought we could have one in my room. And you are invited.”

​And if there was one thing made absolutely clear by her brief, cheerful explanation, it was that he did not have any right to choice in the matter.

***

A few minutes later...

​Cassie’s room was practically identical to Sunny’s, but the interior design was a violent assault of strawberry-pink blankets, lavender scent, and an absurd mountain of plushies. The walls were plastered with movie stars and idol posters—including, Sunny noted with a wry smile, one of Nightingale.

​’Did her parents really need to pack all this just to make her feel at home?’ Sunny wondered, scratching his head as he surveyed the room like a piece of modern art. ’I mean, I get wanting to comfort her given the circumstances, but not even the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air lived in this much luxury!’

​

Once the door was locked, the festivities began.

​Yuki and Nephis, both exhausted and utterly tired, instantly collapsed into two fluffy pink beanbags, their bodies sinking deep into the furniture with zero intention of ever resurfacing. Cassie, meanwhile, sat on the bed and tightly hugged her chosen plushie, rubbing her cheek against it affectionately.

Thankfully, she had taken off her monocle.

​”Cas?” Sunny called out.

​”Mhm?” Cassie tilted her head up.

​”I’m not a plushie,” he pointed out dryly.

​”Yes, you are,” she murmured, burying her face back into his chest, breathing in his scent and tightening her arms around his waist. ”You are my super-squishy, giant teddy bear.” She said while giggling softly.

​Sunny sighed, accepting his fate as human furniture. ’What a headache. It’s impossible to say no to her when she’s like this.’

​”So,” he said, breaking the silence as he looked at the half-asleep girls—Cassie being the only exception, vibrating with sheer excitement. ”What exactly do people do at a pajama party?”

​Cassie blinked her sightless zapphire-blue eyes at him, utterly scandalized. ”What do you mean? Have you never been to a pajama party before?”

​”No,” Sunny replied, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. In neither of his two lives had he ever participated in such a mundane social event.

​”If it makes you feel better, neither have I,” Nephis added, earning a horrified gasp from the blind seer.

​Yuki didn’t even speak; she just shook her head. A given, considering she and Sunny shared the same miserable Outskirts origins.

​”None of you have ever had a pajama party before?” Cassie whispered, the tragedy of it all causing her to slump dramatically against Sunny’s chest.

But then, her face lit up like a supernova.

”It doesn’t matter!” she cheered, her voice brimming with newfound purpose. ”If this is really your first pajama party, then I’ll make sure it’s the best one of your entire lives!”

​And with that, the chaos truly began.

​They did everything except sleep. They demolished mountains of sugary snacks and carbonated drinks. They had a ruthless pillow fight. They played cards. They built a massive fort out of blankets and spare pillows raided from their own rooms. Yuki even ended up throwing up in the bathroom after aggressively overeating, much to everyone’s dismay.

​Poor Sunny was subjected to far worse tortures: he was forced to act as a foot model for a pedicure session, and his legs served as Cassie’s personal chair during ”secret sharing time”—which mostly consisted of her gossiping while the others listened in silence. Someone (Cassie) even dared to suggest Spin the Bottle, a terrifying prospect that both Sunny and Yuki aggressively vetoed.

All in all, it was really fun.

​Finally, after dismantling their blanket fortress, the quartet constructed a warm, cozy nest on the floor to watch a movie on Cassie’s portable TV. It was an abomination of tangled limbs, pillows, and strawberry-pink fabrics—but it was undeniably comfortable.

Two and a half hours later, the movie finally came to a close, leaving the four Sleepers staring at a black screen adorned with a stylized, hand-painted ”The End”.

​The title of the film had been: ”Shadow Slave: Merry Birth day, Nephis.”

​The plot had been gripping, delivering a rollercoaster of emotions to anyone watching. The characters were deep and well-crafted, evolving right before the viewers’ eyes as the narrative unfolded. The comedy was charming but never overbearing, and the writing easily kept pace with the stunning visuals. Simply put, it was absolute cinema.

​’I have to admit, the author—Sofiris—really knew how to cook,’ Sunny thought, grabbing the remote to click off the TV.

The sudden absence of the screen’s glow plunged the room back into the sweet, comforting cradle of the shadows, enveloping the group—half of whom had already drifted off into sweet dreams.

​’Nephis seems to be the one who liked it the most. Maybe because she and the protagonist of the story shared the same name,’ he mused, glancing over at Changing Star.

She was currently sitting off to the side in the ocean of pillows, silently staring at the blank screen. At that moment, they were the only two still awake.

​”Mhm...”

​A soft murmur drew his attention downward.

Sunny felt a light weight settling against his right side, accompanied by a gentle, radiating warmth. To his not-so-great surprise, he found Cassie. The blind seer had stacked her hands together to form a makeshift pillow, using his torso as her personal mattress. Right now, her expression was incredibly, breathtakingly serene.

​”...” At that sight, any words Sunny might have had died in his throat. He simply froze, captivated for a long, quiet second.

​Slowly, his hand moved to gently stroke her silky blonde hair, carefully tucking away a stray golden strand that was very close to fluttering into her mouth with every soft breath she took. His hand lingered on her plump cheek, savoring the delicate warmth of her skin. His thumb, yielding to temptation, lightly brushed over her glossy lips to wipe away a phantom crumb that only he could see.

​Cassie looked so sweet. It was almost frightening how carefree and fragile she appeared in that fleeting moment.

​In the treacherous, silent dark of the room, an intrusive thought bloomed in Sunny’s mind—one of those thoughts that defies words.

So... Sunny closed his eyes, and the silence and his heart took the lead.

​Unconsciously, moving on pure instinct, he slowly lowered his head. With profound tenderness, devoid of any rush or fervor, their lips met.

​It wasn’t a clash; it wasn’t an accident.

They simply touched.

It was a suspended instant that seemed to engrave itself into the very fabric of eternity.

With his eyes closed, Sunny felt the incredibly soft, yielding pressure of her small lips against his own.

​’Mhm... Strawberry!’ he noted absentmindedly, a sweet reminder of all the candies and sugary drinks they had devoured hours ago.

​Sunny pulled back slightly, opening his pitch-black eyes to look down at the blind seer still peacefully asleep against him. His hand was still gently resting on her cheek, his heart screaming at him not to let her go.

​’Please, Cassie,’ he silently pleaded in the private theater of his mind, dreading a storm that had yet to arrive. ’Please... never change.’

​Perhaps it was just his imagination, but he could have sworn Cassie’s lips curved upward in a faintest, imperceptible smile right then.

​With one final, lingering caress against her cheek, he slowly withdrew his hand, trying to collect his thoughts. But then... a new presence—also soft, but this time cold as ice—pressed heavily against his left shoulder.

​

”Zzz… snort… wheeze…”

​Sunny whipped his head around, finding Yuki completely passed out, snoring entirely without grace, her chin resting heavily on his shoulder.

​Sunny narrowed his eyes and sighed heavily. ’Look at her! If I didn’t know firsthand that she’s a vicious, calculating brute who fights with an ice morning star, I’d say she’s the spitting image of a poor, defenseless maiden,’ he thought, hopelessly shaking his head, thoroughly amused by the sheer irony of the illusion.

​> the Jiminy Cricket interjected in his mind, mercilessly highlighting his current predicament—pinned down under two sleeping girls.

​Carefully lifting Yuki’s head and shifting his weight with agonizing slowness so as not to wake the peacefully dozing Cassie, Sunny finally managed to extricate himself.

He stood up and turned his gaze back to Nephis. She was still in the exact same position, staring blankly at the dead TV screen. Her silver eyes were completely lost in the dark void of the room.

​Standing tall, he glanced at the tiny figure of Jiminy Cricket standing on his shoulder. The mental image of his Flaw met his gaze, offering no words, only a single, decisive nod of approval.

​’I have to make at least one last attempt,’ Sunny told himself, and he began making his way toward her.

​”Hey,” he whispered warmly, stepping up beside Nephis and cautiously sitting down on her right.

​Hearing him, Changing Star finally lifted her gaze and turned toward him. ”Hey,” she echoed with the same quiet tone.

​Unlike him, Nephis couldn’t see in the dark; she struggled to even distinguish him from the surrounding shadows. Fortunately, he had sat close enough that her eyes could just barely trace the outline of his silhouette against the ambient darkness of the room.

​Nephis watched as he rested his elbows on his knees, leaning forward and clasping his hands together. ”Did you like the movie?” Sunny asked casually.

​Nephis turned her gaze forward again, as if staring at the dead screen. ”Yes,” she nodded. ”I liked it a lot, actually. Though... I have some notes on the final fight scene. It felt like the villain was actively trying to lose,” she added, looking back at him.

​Sunny nodded vigorously, smirking. ”Right?! I counted at least seven different openings where the bad guy could have just chopped the protagonist’s head off. And what does he do instead? He checks his watch, grabs a coffee, reminisces about his tragic childhood... and then, maybe, decides to attack. Too bad that by then, the hero not only had time to dodge but also completely obliterated him. At that point, just admit you want to lose!”

​Unexpectedly, Nephis snorted, quickly bringing a hand to her mouth. It was a sound he had never heard her make before—almost liberating, considering the heavy, suffocating silence that had grown between them ever since she received that letter.

​Sticking to this safe territory, the two lingered on the topic for a few more minutes. They spoke in hushed whispers so as not to wake their friends sleeping just a few feet away. It was a useless, fleeting conversation—and yet, deeply peaceful.

​Then, the conversation naturally died down.

Their eyes wandered back into the void, their mouths stitched shut by the quiet.

​Sunny took a deep breath, trying to find the right words to bridge the gap toward the real issue. But unexpectedly, it was Nephis who reopened the dialogue, shifting the topic entirely.

​”Sunny?” she called out softly, briefly losing his outline in the shadows.

​”Yeah, I’m still here,” he reassured her.

​”Have you ever heard the legend of Odysseus?” she asked. Her quiet voice rose slightly in pitch, colored by a sudden, intense desire to impart a piece of wisdom. Yet, Sunny could sense a much darker shadow lurking beneath her sudden excitement.

​”I have, actually,” he replied, not wanting to lie. ”But it’s been a long time since I’ve heard it. Care to refresh my memory?”

​Concealing a faint smile in the dark, Nephis began to recount the famous myth.

”Odysseus was a hero in an ancient war. In the legends, some humans back then had powers akin to the Awakened...”

​Sunny listened as Changing Star narrated without interrupting, noting how her telling of the story didn’t differ at all from how she had told it in the original timeline.

​Then came the fateful question.

​”As long as the loving Calypso was by his side, Odysseus was even immortal. But… the longer he stayed, the more time he spent sitting on the shore, looking at the sea with bleak eyes. In the end, Odysseus built a makeshift boat and abandoned the island, leaving all its delights, the beautiful fairy, and even his immortality behind. So, my question is… why did he leave?”

​Nephis fell silent, waiting for the shadow beside her to answer.

​Sunny didn’t reply immediately. Still leaning forward with his fingers intertwined, he allowed himself a moment to genuinely think about it. His black eyes danced between the shadows of a past future and a completely unknown one.

​Then, after a brief pause, he looked back at Changing Star and said, ”Because that wasn’t true love, and it certainly wasn’t freedom.”

​Nephis blinked, momentarily taken aback by the unexpected answer. Surprise visibly cracked her stoic, porcelain expression.

”What do you mean?” she asked, leaning forward.

​Sunny inhaled deeply, twisting his torso entirely to face her without straining his neck. He rested his chin on his steepled fingers.

​”Look, Neph,” he began eloquently. ”Odysseus might have had immortality as long as he gave himself over to his carnal desires with Calypso. And sure, maybe that island was a paradise on earth. But let’s be completely honest with ourselves!”

​Sunny cleared his throat, his tone hardening, as if he were laying his next words over a profound, undeniable truth.

​”Calypso wasn’t a lover; she was a jailer. And her island wasn’t a paradise; it was a prison.”

​That declaration left Nephis even more perplexed. She didn’t interrupt, highly curious to see where he was taking this.

​”The immortality Calypso offered wasn’t a gift; it was just another chain, meant to prevent him from escaping her even in death. And Odysseus realized that. You just told me that Odysseus was the first human to defy the will of the gods... Now, I’ll admit I’m not the most educated guy, coming from the Outskirts and all. But to me, this specific episode isn’t about a man fighting the gods, or a father wanting to return to his family, or a king returning to his homeland. No. It’s about a man who chose his freedom above all else.”

​Sunny paused, letting the heavy weight of his words settle in the air between them.

​”The point is, Odysseus didn’t leave that island just to go home. People reading it might think that, but it’s not the truth. Odysseus simply loved his freedom. Calypso tried to put him in chains, depriving him of it. To get it back, he renounced immortality, choosing a limited, mortal existence—but one without a leash. He could have had the most beautiful woman in the world, but he preferred to challenge the unforgiving sea just to be free of constraints. He rejected a paradise on earth in favor of a kingdom that had probably forgotten him, and a wife who might have already remarried for all he knew. And I say... he did the right thing. Do you want to know why?” Sunny asked, pouring his entire soul into the matter.

​”No. Tell me,” Nephis shook her head slightly, inviting him to continue.

​”Because...” His voice grew dry, as if a desert had buried his heart, and then suddenly thick, like a dam breaking and washing the sand away. ”Because an eternal love and a happy, carefree life are not worth wearing chains. Because your own autonomy is worth infinitely more than all of that. And because...”

​For some reason, Sunny felt that the next words he was about to speak would hurt him more than he anticipated, even if she wouldn’t fully understand the pain behind them.

​”Because there is absolutely nothing more miserable than a slave who trusts his slaver. Whether that person is your lover, your master, or even your parent; a slaver is always a slaver, and the destiny of a slave remains exactly the same.”

​Only the silent scream of a past shadow truly understood the crushing weight behind those words.

​Having said his piece, Sunny fell silent. Nephis observed him intently, inexplicably enchanted by his raw conviction.

​Sunny looked down at his right hand, not even realizing he had intertwined it with hers. Her hand was soft, and incredibly warm.

​Nephis only realized it when he shifted his gaze in the darkness, lacking his visual advantage. Suddenly flustered, she instinctively tried to pull her hand back. But at the very last second, she felt his pale hand tighten its grip slightly.

​”My turn,” Sunny said quietly. It was an inadvertent gesture, one she didn’t even fully register as intentional.

​”Do you mind if I tell you a story now?” he asked, his pitch-black eyes practically glowing with a burning need to share.

​Nephis nodded.

​Sunny opened his mouth. For a brief moment, he considered telling her a story about that girl he had met in the Outskirts years ago—using the logic of ’I’ll show you my scars so you’ll show me yours’ to figure out what was in that letter. But then, a ghost appeared in his lightless eyes.

​”Once upon a time, there was a young man. He was completely alone in the world, possessing absolutely nothing except his freedom. One day, this boy befriended two incredible girls, and together, they faced impossible trials. But then, one day, one of those girls betrayed him, and the other took away the most important thing he had: his freedom. Desperate to get it back, the boy traveled far and wide. He fought impossible monsters and uncovered terrifying secrets, all for the sole purpose of escaping his master and reclaiming his freedom.”

​”And did he succeed in the end?” Nephis asked, fully invested.

​Sunny sighed again. Softly. Slightly. Then, he exhaled.

​”Yes,” he continued. ”But freedom has a terrible price. To get back what had been stolen from him, he had to trade away everything else. His friends forgot him. His family couldn’t recognize his face. Even the girl who had enslaved him—the girl he had fallen in love with—no longer remembered who he was. He had regained his freedom, but the price was that the world had entirely erased him.”

​”And what did he do?” Nephis leaned forward—perhaps a bit too close.

​Sunny paid no mind to how the physical space between them had vanished; he cared far more about how she would react to the end of this tale. Because of this, his face and his heart remained perfectly calm— perfectly still.

​”He gave up his freedom,” he finally declared.

​”What?!” she gasped in disbelief, inadvertently raising her voice.

​”He gave up his freedom,” Sunny repeated softly. ”He had fallen in love with his slaver. He loved his friends, and he wanted his loved ones to embrace him again. Instead of freedom, he chose love. As deeply as he loathed the idea of being a slave, he ultimately accepted the reality of it—so long as the person holding the leash was someone he knew he could trust.”

​There was no resentment or sadness in his delivery; he was merely recounting a fact.

​”During his incredible journeys, the boy once asked a dragon if true freedom existed. The dragon replied that the only freedom we truly possess is the choice of who we bind ourselves to.” Sunny recalled the dialogue his original self had with Kai during the death game in Ravenheart.

​”The boy later asked a giantess if it is possible to love someone who holds your life in their hands. She laughed and told him that what he was describing was basically marriage.” Sunny thought back to the conversation his original self had with Effie in Mirage City. He clicked his tongue, a half-smile forming on his lips. ”Yeah, I’ll admit that sounds more like a line from a middle-aged man trapped in a failing marriage.”

​Sunny didn’t give her time to laugh. Erasing the smirk from his face, he pressed on.

​”Finally, the boy asked the fog if true freedom existed. The fog told him that true freedom is an illusion; it does not exist.” Sunny recalled the dialogue his original self had with Jet in the Night Garden. ”And so, he made his choice. He gave away his freedom, put his chains back on, just to be remembered and to stay forever by the side of the person he loved. The end.”

​A heavy silence descended between them. Nephis pulled back, distancing her face from his. Her expression was entirely unreadable, veiled by a dense shadow he couldn’t decipher. Their intertwined hands separated slowly, with a chilling inevitability that lacked any emotional warmth.

​She said nothing. Sunny lowered his head, resting both hands on his legs. If he was looking for an opening to make her open up about the letter, it was now or never.

However...

​”THAT IS BULLSHIT!” Nephis shattered the quiet with all the grace and elegance of a raging mammoth in a glassware shop.

​”What?!” This time it was Sunny who inadvertently raised his voice, unsure if he was more shocked by her sudden outburst or her uncharacteristic profanity.

​”Are you seriously telling me,” she demanded, gesturing neurotically in the dark, ”that after everything this person did—all the suffering, the blood spilled, the sheer force of will to defy the world! It all ends with what? With him playing the good little dog and putting his own collar back on? That... that isn’t the conclusion of a story, Sunny. That is a miserable, pathetic circle! And then you tell me he fell in love with the person who enslaved him? That isn’t love! That is a textbook trauma response, it’s fucking Stockholm Syndrome!”

​Sunny blinked rapidly, leaning back as he stared at Nephis with an expression of profound bewilderment. ’Wait... why am I, a reincarnated reader stuck in the world of his favorite web novel, the calmest person in this room? She doesn’t even have the slightest clue that this is literally about us!’ he thought, his eyes darting between Nephis and an imaginary camera breaking the fourth wall, like he was in an episode of The Office.

​

Somehow, he had just struck a massive, exposed nerve.

​”And do we really want to talk about the ’wisdom’ of the dragon, the giantess, and the fog?!” she continued, her voice dripping with venomous logic. ”To claim that our only freedom is choosing our chains is to admit defeat. If the very act of binding yourself to someone is forced by circumstance, then you aren’t free; you’re just picking your favorite flavor of poison! And the giantess? Claiming that marriage is essentially handing your life over to a master? If that is what marriage is, then every married couple is condemned to a tragedy without equality, a master-servant dynamic! True partnership is built between equals, not hostage-takers!”

​

She took a sharp breath, her silver eyes blazing in the dark.

​”And the fog? Maybe the fog is the only one who said something logically sound: that absolute freedom doesn’t actually exist. But despite that, the boy in the story should never have surrendered! If it is true that true freedom doesn’t exist in this world, then he should have torn the world down and forged it himself! That is what a conqueror does!”

​Sunny rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. ”Yeah, but you have to consider that the boy and the girl had both been completely alone before they found each other. He eventually found his peace in her, and she in him...”

​”Then it’s even worse!” Nephis cut him off brutally, her voice sharp as glass. ”Because that means not only did she feel absolutely no remorse for enslaving him, but that she actively needed a slave to feel fulfilled! And it means that as long as she holds his life in her hands, she will never be truly free to love him, either. Neither of them will ever be free because they are mutually condemned by that chain. If she holds his leash, she is anchored by it too.”

​She leaned forward, delivering her final, devastating verdict.

​”How can a love built on such a grotesque power imbalance even be called love? It isn’t. It is a hostage situation built on deceit, hidden behind a velvet curtain. It is a bridge destined to collapse, sooner or later.”

​With that said, Changing Star offered nothing more.

​Silence descended upon the dark room once again. This time, it felt heavier. Unnatural. Miraculously, Cassie and Yuki hadn’t stirred from the sudden outburst.

​Nephis was now staring at the floor, lost in a labyrinth of dilemmas only she could navigate. The fiery indignation that had possessed her just moments ago had extinguished as quickly as it had ignited.

Just like that.

In a flash. It was almost as if she had been temporarily possessed by a blinding fury that didn’t even belong to her.

​’It’s now or never,’ Sunny told himself, determined more than ever to get to the bottom of this before they were pulled into the Dream Realm.

​Even if it wasn’t his business, even if he was completely out of his depth in emotional territory, even a blind person (sorry, Cassie) could clearly see that something was wrong with her. Nephis was carrying an unresolved burden. And if she didn’t unpack it before the Winter Solstice, that emotional baggage would inevitably be weaponized against her on the Forgotten Shore—especially by Nightmare Creatures that loved to toy with people’s minds and sanity.

​The thought of their only healer and primary frontline fighter getting incapacitated—or worse, killed—over something so mundane, simply wouldn’t give him peace.

​”Neph,” Sunny said softly, reaching out to capture her hand again, offering what little warmth he could. ”If there’s something bothering you, or if you just need to talk... I’m here.”

​Nephis felt his gentle squeeze, meant to reassure her. A faint ghost of a smile managed to break through her stoic mask. ”I’m fine, thank you.”

​Sunny dropped his head, letting out a heavy, defeated sigh. ’That damn response again.’

​”Neph, I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me,” he pressed, lifting his gaze to meet her eyes directly.

​”I am fine, really,” she insisted with a slight nod.

​It was a lie.

​The exact same words. The usual deflection. If he kept pushing, she would just keep evading him with the bare minimum of a response. It would be an endless loop of preaching and dodging, and in the end, he wouldn’t accomplish a damn thing.

​And so... Sunny gave up. He gently released her hand, leaving Changing Star to fight whatever demons she was harboring inside on her own. He knew that pressing the issue would only yield the same frustrating result.

​’I tried,’ he told himself, trying to wash his hands of the guilt. ’I really did try. This isn’t the first time we’ve had this conversation. Over the past few days, I’ve done everything short of prying the answers out of her mouth with a crowbar! But I made an honest effort! If something happens... I tried.’

​And once again, Sunny was left with zero answers. The physical space between them hadn’t changed, yet it felt as if it had expanded infinitely. Despite sitting shoulder to shoulder, there was a vast, dark, and agonizing ocean separating them.

​”Achoo!”

​A sudden sneeze made both of them jump in place. Sunny and Nephis whipped their heads around to find the culprit behind that adorable, delicate sound—which sounded exactly like a tiny kitten with a cold.

​Peering into the dark, Sunny realized what had happened. Seeking the warmth of the space he had vacated, a sleep-unconscious Yuki had rolled over and instinctively latched onto Cassie. She was now hugging the blind seer tightly against her chest, treating her like a tiny, soft body pillow. The poor seer was visibly shivering, trapped between the cozy warmth of the blankets and the absolute, freezing chill of the ice maiden’s body. She was definitely going to catch a cold.

​It was a bizarre, downright absurd sight. Yet, it instantly warmed his heart, making him forget all of his festering anxieties for just a moment.

​Sunny smiled watching Cassie and Yuki sleep peacefully together, and then he glanced back at Nephis. Their eyes didn’t meet, yet a genuine smile touched his lips.

​’I’m okay with this,’ he admitted to himself. ’I can’t expect to fix everything and everyone, especially if the person in question actively refuses my help. And for the time being...’

​Sunny turned his gaze back to the two girls cuddling in their sleep. A profound serenity settled in his chest—the quiet peace of a simple blade of grass that doesn’t have to carry the weight of the entire world on its shoulders.

​’For now, what I’ve done is enough. Even if I could have done better, this is enough.’