[Innate Ability: Clarity of the mind].
[Ability Description: The abilities of your body are amplified to the extreme—you absorb knowledge as if it were second nature, and remember things that others cannot; your senses detect even the most miniature of movement.]
…What? Sunny couldn't help but think, as he read it over and over again. Isn't this an ideal Ability?
It would make him the perfect warrior! Even with his limited knowledge about Aspects… Sunny knew this was good, too good.
And this is only the innate ability! Imagine what his Aspect Ability would be! Certainly, it would make him rich! He would never have to be trapped in the outskirts ever again! A suitable reward for my nightmare. He chuckled with glee.
[The first seal is broken.]
[Awakening dormant powers…]
[Awakening Aspect Ability…]
Sunny bubbled with excitement, his eyes fixated on the runes before him. Please be something good.
[Aspect Ability acquired.]
[Aspect Ability: Forgotten Seer].
[Aspect Ability Description: Fate is woven by countless strings, and yours are more unique than most, showing you echoes of the forgotten world.]
Huh?
"What does that mean?" He asked out loud, yet the runes shone before him, some secret hidden behind their luminous glare.
"Yours are more unique? Echoes of the forgotten world? What does it have to do with anything? What can I even do—" Sunny yelled, but just as he was doing so, the world flipped. Literally.
No longer did the blank, blank sight of a world without light lay before him, instead, he was somewhere else—somewhere that was eerily similar, yet different.
Waves still rolled around his ankles, but they weren't the gentle, the smooth ones he had felt just moments before. Instead, they were rough, ragged. Powerful. As if their suppression had been lifted, and they were… free.
The brilliant star of utter black laid before him, consuming anything that briefly touched it. But it was different, for it was black no more—a silver edge hung to its side, like the brief flare of the sun in the sides during an eclipse.
Those black, black waves around him rolled, fluttered into the star, and for just a moment, he saw a shimmer of light.
The nebulous star of his memory circled around it, again and again, its smooth, flat edges catching the light from the silver crescent, reflecting it as it continued its dance around his star.
At that moment, Sunny finally knew where he had been the whole time—his sea of soul. He had seen it being built!
But was that even possible?
Besides…
Soul Seas shouldn't have a black star in it! Shouldn't it be something light, something memorable? He was pretty sure it wouldn't be like this! And… I can barely see in this dim light!
However, Sunny was curious, deeply curious—about the soul that is. Never had he seen his own before, and he wanted to know… how it felt.
He took a step forward, ignoring the crack of his bones, the sting of the snowy nights left within him. But he was different, Sunny wasn't the temple slave who had clawed his way up the Black Mountains, nor was he the rat from the outskirts who ran, who fought for another day.
He had survived—did he—and the Spell rewarded him. Strength coiled around his arms, and Sunny just knew that he wasn't the weak shell he had been.
He had potential now.
A chuckle left his lips, "Potential? I'll still lose out to anyone else!", he had no training prior after all! And… he'll have to brave the Dream Realm, all of its dangers— well, when had life ever been easy?
"At least it'll be easier now," Sunny whispered to no one in particular, watching how it echoed throughout his soul. His Aspect Ability was strange, but that innate ability? That was gold!
Step.
Step.
Step.
Soon enough, he arrived before his soul core, reaching out to touch it. And… he couldn't feel anything, unlike the wading of the waves before him. But his core was no illusion, he could feel those waves pulsing, swirling into the great unknown before him. It just… rejected him.
A brief flash of light caught his attention— looking up, there was… something else. Or was there?
He blinked. Then blinked.
Oh.
He saw it—a strange, almost translucent string swirling around his soul core, its designated course wild, errant, uncontrollable. And for just the second they met, it was as if it stopped its glide, because… it saw him. However, the nebulous star of the [Puppeteer's Shroud] soon elapsed again, devouring the brief light he could see in his soul core.
What was that? He thought for the nth time today. But… strings? Strings! Frantically, he looked around, the hum of [Child of Fate] like a song atop his eyes. He could see no fate ahead! No black strings tangling within his hands.
So even [Child of Fate] has its limits…
[...All power has a price.]
The Spell suddenly whispered, its voice a judge proclaiming his sentence.
[You have received a Flaw.]
It said, and he couldn't help but pale, praying to the gods above it wouldn't be cruel.
[Your Flaw is…]
Sunny read the runes, and his eyes widened with horror. The soft repose he had from receiving his aspect disappeared in an instant, as if it were never there.
He closed his eyes, then opened them again, and yet, they were still here.
This was no dream; all this was very, very much real.
Flaw: [Veil of Shadows].
Flaw description: [Sight is not allowed for your kind.]
In a single instant, the astounding scenery of his soul sea disappeared from view, the darkness creeping up without any warning,
With a single whisper, the spell had taken everything from him.
[Wake up, Lost from Light!]
A hysterical smile drew itself atop his lips, when had anything gone right for him?! Yes, this is more like it, more like the Spell I know!
—
Sunny woke up with a gasp.
He was met with nothing but an endless void, sniffling any hope that this was just a sick joke by the spell. He really was blind.
Sunny was hit by a wave of nausea. His sight was taken from him, taken from the darned spell. Hadn't he suffered enough? Hadn't he survived against all odds in that damned nightmare?
The sounds of ventilation hummed in his ears, and he could feel the soft touch of a quilt? A faint smell of cleanliness hung in the air, which Sunny greedily took in. It had been so long since he was back.
'Is this what richness feels like? Clean, filtered air even in a police station near the outskirts…'
However, the restraints put on him by the hospital dug into his skin, and it was cool and clean. Metal. They weren't cold, they weren't heavy—but they were strong, designed to trap a Sleeper and prevent the worst should they fail.
He felt trapped, like an animal before their predator, and without sight no less.
Sure, it was better than the chains from his nightmare; sure, his feet and wrists no longer burned, but the phantom feeling of cold ice still lingered in his bones, and he was still trapped, still weak, still powerless.
Yet the bite from the whip was gone forever, and finally, finally— he could breathe without feeling the sharp edges of his broken ribs cutting deeper and deeper into his lungs.
The cold that threatened to freeze him in place was replaced by the warm air, and instead of the hard floor that he had slept on, he could relax under the comforting presence of a bed and a blanket.
Only now did Sunny realise how much he missed the real world.
He didn't have to fear for his life in an unknown terrain, and there was no constant fear of torturous death.
It was home.
No matter if…
Look! He felt something pull him, [Child of Fate]. A string, another string, a huge web of interconnected ones, of times from the past and of times now, and—
In the web of Fate around this room, something caught his eye: The nebulous black string that he knew was his, and… one with icy mist surrounding it.
Flash.
"What are you looking at?"
A voice whispered, brushing past the tips of his ears. It was cold, reminding him of the blizzards atop the Black Mountain.
"Are you awake now?"
No. He would never be. But he was awake enough to process her voice, that cold, misty, unfeeling voice.
"Good let me give you a piece of advice: never—"
Lost from–
A whisper of a forgotten sound,
Forbidden dance in the gusts of wind:
A rumble in a sea of silence.
A horn of a herald lost to time.
And the second of surprise before the chime of time.
Lost from Light?
"I'm sorry but freedom is just a myth."
"It takes a certain kind of person to face the very depths of despair, and still continue to fight. You are one such person, ---- ---- ."
Redacted? But something was calling him, and—
An echo from the lost bell !
The silver from the ringing sounds,
A reminder for the wayward son,
Of a home long gone to the wild.
"Congratulations,---- ---- ."
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
It howled into his ears, loud and sinister.
Wake up, Lost from Light. Wake up.