Sunny was walking down the streets of the strange city, alone and confused as he took each turn further from the house. He was trying to find the guarded house, but he couldn't find it, no matter what.
'Seriously, how is it so hard to find a house that is larger than any other in the district, in the whole city possibly!'
It hadn't been long, maybe 5-10 minutes since he departed from the house and leaving Neph with her task. He had used shadow sense to the max ever since leaving to try and find the large shadow that the house was bound to make. Surprisingly, unlike the other times he had used shadow sense to the max which caused an overload of information to flood his brain and senses, he was bored from the repetition of shadows. Most of the buildings and stands were the same size with only a few differences in between but not enough that it made a difference.
At this point, he preferred to fight a monster to find the house rather than looking around like a lost tourist. Although he had just admitted to being bored there was something that caught his attention. When he started using shadow sense, for a split second he felt shadows that were old, ancient, and frozen even before being what could only be described as "covered" by new, young moving shadows. So sunny was often turning on and off the sense to discover that the city was seemingly covered or being mettled by something, but he didn't know what it was that was causing it or what it even was causing.
But it did make him more alert and on edge whenever someone walked near him or when someone tried to give him something, but he refused politely. Sunny felt like he was in the outskirts again with the citizens being potential enemies and the city being a hopeless prison...
Sunny stood still for a moment before taking a deep breath and continuing.
'This place is affecting my mind it seems, I guess my paranoia is increased by this place. Great, just great it's just what I needed.' sunny thought sarcastically.
Sunny continued to walk and scout and after an hour Neph was checking in on him but doing it weirdly. He chalked it up to her antisocial nature and was just glad that she seemed to care about him. Just as he was going to send a message to her, he did another sweep with his senses and he felt a large gathering of deep, vast, and ancient shadows about a few miles away from where he stood.
"Found you," he murmured before making his way towards the shadows.
But as if knowing he was approaching he was suddenly blocked by vendors with their carts crashing and being close enough that even with his small size he couldn't squeeze through. Thinking quickly, he summoned a few shadow tentacles and used them to raise himself over the carts before being lowered once more and broke into a sprint. As Sunny turned the corner dread filled his heart as up ahead was a marketplace with crowds blocking any way of making it through the same way as he had already wasted half his essence.
'Why couldn't I have gotten an ability to turn into a shadow or something?' he whined internally as he got ready to enter the crowd before noticing the roofs.
The houses on these streets were surprisingly smaller than the ones he's seen so far and with an idea forming inside his head he decided it was worth a try before getting devoured by the large crowd. He summoned a flimsy imitation of a chain attached to a hook, something he saw once in a web novel that robbers used to break into houses from the roofs and threw it up. Got on the roof but when Sunny pulled on it and came back down with a clack sound.
'I guess it's harder than it looks.'
Sunny kept trying but kept failing to get it stuck on something. After what seemed like the tenth try, he heard footsteps and turned his head to see the crowd seemingly approaching him like a boat slowly being consumed by a storm. 'Shit,' immediately he started trying harder and started modifying the hook to try and get it stuck faster but with each attempt the crowd got closer and closer. Right as the crowd was about to consume him, he pulled on the chain desperately... and it didn't fall back down, 'yes!' He jumped a decent height, enough to bring him over the crowd who looked mesmerized but also angered before they went back to their neutral and calmed expressions. Sunny walled jumped on the wall until he reached the top and pulled himself over before rolling on the ground panting. He dismissed the shadow chain since he was starting to feel nauseous from depleting his reserve of essence.
Sunny took his sweet time up there, catching his breath, before getting back up and starting to run over the rooftops. From above he could see the guarded house, or big house he started calling it, across the street, just a few rooftops away. He decided that he would arrive there in style and started parkouring his way through each roof. Landing front flips, kicking off chimneys, vaulting over elevated parts of the roof and more he made sure to hit it all. Eventually, he jumped off the last roof in the street and rolled to absorb the fall before getting back up and brushing himself off.
In front of him now was a house that stood apart from others like a kid trying to fit in with adults. Unlike the modest, boxy homes packed tightly along the street—each with peeling paint, curtains drawn open—the guarded house loomed larger, almost watchful and staring into his very soul. Its roof sloped higher than he wouldn't be able to reach it through normal ways, lined with dark, angular tiles that glinted faintly even if it was above the street lights. Smooth stone walls — darker than the ones from others — gave it a quiet, impenetrable feel, as if it had been built not just to be lived in, but to withstand something... or hold something back.
As if the intimidating walls weren't enough, tall iron fencing wrapped the property like a crown of thorns, with people perched at each corner, motionless enough that they looked like statues. Two guards stood at the front gate, somewhat idle and slouched, but firm and unblinking under their fasaude to act natural, their presence making clear that this house was off limits. It was the only house that house security which only made it more obvious that whatever secrets were in there would be big. Sunny had wanted to reject invading the house but his fate started acting up when he and Neph had passed it. The only other time that had happened was with the hidden wall hiding Weaver's mask.
So there was no better incentive for Sunny than a treasure of the divine rank.
The front door, set back beneath an archway of carved stone, was glossy and dark, bearing no number, no knocker, no welcome mat, unlike the rest.
Pale lights glowed softly from within through the cracks between the blinds. Sunny could tell there wasn't movement in there due to no shadows moving within although the deeper he sensed into the house the more willpower it took as if something was trying to keep him out. Giving out a final burst before he gave in he channeled his willpower and commanded Shadow Sense to extend deeper. Luckily, his efforts weren't in vain as he sensed shadows behind what seemed like a bookcase on the first floor of the two-story building before losing control and almost fainted from being what could be described as thrown out of the club by a bouncer.
'At least I know where to look at with Neph. Now the million credits question, how do we get in?'
Sunny wanted to send in his shadows to scout what was inside the house but decided against it since the possibility of there being something capable of dealing soul damage is possible although rare. He didn't want to take a gamble on it so instead he strategized and soon realized a flaw in the building's design. Although the building was built to stop any intruders from entering via the front door and the roof to an extent, they hadn't put any countermeasures underground. Plus, from the split second he felt the shadows behind the bookcase, he saw they went downwards, almost like a staircase but the steps were circling a pole in the middle.
'We don't need to break in through the entrance if we could just dig underground. Plus, I'm starting to doubt there's anything informational in the actual house. I guess it's time to head back and report to Neph and maybe have lunch with her if there's time.'
Sunny walked away and for once the streets seemed to leave him alone as he had no trouble walking in the streets. He had no idea where Neph was remotely at and when he had called for her with their mental link he got no reply.
'Did I just get ghosted?'
Sunny thought mortified that she hadn't replied for about an hour and a half now. Deciding that she might be in trouble Sunny dropped all caution in not causing a scene or bringing intention and ran full speed across the city looking for her. He bumped into people, moving carts which in more than one case caused him to lose his breath since he got knocked into them on the hard metal parts, and even used his Shadows to scout at max range. Eventually, through one of his Shadows -gloomy specifically, may gods bless his shadow - entered a seemingly empty park aside from a few kids and families. In there he found a beautiful sleeping Neph, and somehow illuminated, her hair seemed to give off a silver glow that calmed Sunny's nerves as he made his way over to her.
Once he arrived, he noticed she seemed at peace with even a smile on her face, and muttered something incoherent. Smiling, Sunny took a seat next to her and laid her head on his lap before stroking her smooth silver hair. The way her hair moved through his fingers felt like he was touching silk and her soft breathing made Sunny's heart skip a beat as it felt just right, something only he could hear and feel. They stayed like this until Neph opened her eyes slowly and was still a bit dazed from sleeping. They talked and when Sunny made a big show of saying they were going to break in via digging, it didn't seem to get a reaction out of her.
"I would have thought you would've at least pulled some type of emotion."
"I... expected we'd need to get in through unconventional means so you can say I was prepared for it."
Sunny was a bit saddened but got over it and continued stroking her hair as they sat together in peace. Nephis lifted her left hand and Sunny took it before intertwining their fingers together which brought a smile to both of them.
'This reminds me of the elderly people from the outskirts.'
It was quite rare to see people live past 30 in the outskirts but Sunny knew a few old people who managed to pass 70 although he could count all of them with his two hands. There was a couple in that group that would always go to the park where his parents' death tree was and sit on a bench together. Often Sunny would go to them for help after being chased by hoodlums or being targeted by gangs. Most of them had only survived that far because they had fought in what was called "WWIII" and had gotten paid a small fortune for their service. Sadly the couple passed a year before Sunny had become infected with the spell and most of the other elders had died due to poor air quality or being robbed.
Sunny reminisced about the time he had spent with them and how they would hold hands just like he was with Neph and have that smile that seemed foreign in the world they lived in. Others helped him get by but the couple was the main thing that kept Sunny going when things got rough and especially when he lost half his credits during an escape from a particularly difficult fallout with a gang. He had even done them a few favors and tasks like checking in on their children and grandchildren, and he was always grateful for the Credits he would receive from them.
"Sunny?"
Sunny looked down and saw Nephis looking up at him with slightly beady silver eyes.
"What's wrong, your eyes seem distant..."
"It's nothing I'm just thinking about how similar we look to an elderly couple I knew. Nice folk who took care of me in rough times when they could. I just wish I could've thanked them before they died of old age. It's not often you find old folk so they were a rare if not an anomaly. Told me stories about the war they fought and the world before the spell."
Sunny rubbed the side of nephis hand with his thumb. Soft and gentle like a smooth massage, he did it subconsciously as he talked and she didn't mind his touch.
"They remind me of how my parents were, although I don't remember much about them. My dad died from an accident while working on air filtration, which happens more often than you think since safety isn't a priority in the outskirts. All I remember is my mother crying at the front door as someone told her the news outside. After that things got pretty rough and money got tight, but when she had time she would use it to play with us. Reading me and Rain stories on a cracked old communicator or singing to us as we huddled on the floor. She got sick soon after and died a few weeks later, not before making me promise to take care of Rain.
She had told me to go to a relative who had her entire savings since there weren't banks but when I went there they told me they had already spent it and to scram. After that, you already know the rest of the story."
Sunny paused for a moment, seemingly staring out in the distance to the lack but in reality, thinking about something.
"I know you feel pity for my background but I don't want it. All that's in the past now and why worry about the past if I have you now oh my shining star of change."
He said the last part dramatically which got him a quick kiss before Neph pulled herself up and sat aside from him. They say like this for a while, hands together and fingers interlaced as if meant for each other like one big puzzle. The peace was broken sadly by Sunny surprisingly as he got up and stretched his hands out.
"That rest was nice but we should head out now, after all, it'll be dark soon and that's the best time to do this plan I have in mind."
Nephis got up and looked at him with a look he couldn't determine what it was,
"Well, if you ever need a reason to keep going then let me be your reason Lost from Light, let me be your guiding light, your light."
Sunny stared at her before smiling as they started walking,
"Oh, Changing Star... how lucky I am to have you as my shining light then."