Sunny wanted nothing more than to lie down and go to sleep.
Sadly, it didn't look like he could do that anytime soon.
The twins were gone, which meant that the city was vulnerable. No Supreme resided within the walls -what need was there with the twins right here?- and, as strong as Erelia -the city watch commander- was, she couldn't compare to one.
Well, that wasn't correct anymore. There was a Supreme resting right in his arms.
A pity that she wasn't anywhere close to being in fighting shape.
"I'm fine," she said confidently, conviction burning fiercely in her eyes.
Were women capable of reading his mind or what?! This happened way too much!
"You are not," he replied instantly.
It was the honest truth. It didn't matter how much she tried to pretend otherwise; she was obviously spent.
The way her whole body trembled, the blood still pouring out of her nose, the deathly pallor. It painted a clear, pitiful image.
"Stay here, I'll go check the situation."
He tried to let go.
Tried, being the keyword.
His hands could have been glued to her, and he would have found it easier to release her. It didn't matter how much he tried to let go; he couldn't. It was as if her body had become the center of gravity.
Not even five minutes since she became a Supreme, and she was already abusing her will. Idly, he wondered how she had become so good at wielding it already.
In a lighter situation, he might have laughed and teased her about it. But now? It wasn't the time.
Sunny gave her a stern stare, but it was met with an even sterner one. One that made clear that she wouldn't be dissuaded.
He exhaled in annoyance. "Fine, but if there is an attack going on, I will drop you like a sack of potatoes."
"Good luck doing that without my permission," she replied weakly, the attempt at humor not quite successful.
Sunny pinched her; at least he could still do that while holding her.
"Promise me that if there is a fight, you will let me go." He said, and seeing that she was about to retort, kept going. "You will help noone like that. So please, listen to me for once in your life and do what I ask." He finished in a pleading tone.
She smiled sadly and simply nodded.
He stood up, carrying her as carefully as possible, and stepped toward the gate.
If she noticed that he stopped on the way to spit on Auro's corpse, she did not comment.
-------------------------------------------
Sunny could hear the panic on the streets even before he stepped outside.
It was the kind that was impossible to miss. The sound of people screaming. The low reverberation produced by thousands of feet hurriedly moving along. The sheer weight of fear, thick enough to be palpable.
Thank the dead gods -huh? When had they died…?- he hadn't seen many situations like this before. But each time it happened, it left him feeling weak and powerless.
Well, not this time. He was a Transcendent; if he couldn't be of help, then they were already doomed.
He stopped a couple as they passed in front of him to question them. Despite the interruption, they seemed relieved to see the two of them, their grip on each other growing less forceful.
"What is going on?" He demanded immediately, the time for pleasantries long gone.
"There is an attack, Lord Sunless!" One of them exclaimed.
"Commander Erelia has ordered all forces to garrison the wall!" The other added.
Sunny nodded thankfully and let them go, while he himself started moving toward the fortification.
On the way, he sent one of his shadows toward his mansion, where it would enter the basement. He could use the strength, but he could use the essence regeneration even more.
He was practically bottomed out. It turned out that facing no less than four hordes of nightmare creatures -each stronger than the last- and then, on top of that, a Supreme of all things wasn't good for your reserves. Who could have thought?
"This has been a long day, hasn't it?" He muttered bitterly.
She chuckled weakly, her breath tickling his ear. "Indeed."
Sunny had moved her to his back, since carrying her like a princess didn't allow for the best of mobility. She seemed oddly disappointed by that fact for some reason.
"Do you think he will win?" She asked in a trembling voice.
"Yes." He didn't need to ask who she was talking about.
Just as he answered, another tremor made itself known across the realm. It was even stronger this time.
Sunny clenched his teeth. What a damn mess.
A part of him, one that he was deeply ashamed of, resented what had just happened.
A month.
Had this happened just one month later, he would be gone, and it would be someone else's problem.
"I'm a terrible person," he whispered to himself.
The arms around his neck tightened, not in anger but in comfort.
"I thought the same thing as you did," she whispered.
"I knew you could read my mind." He replied, but the joking tone he had intended to use was nowhere to be seen.
They kept talking to each other as he closed the distance to the wall. Trying and failing to distract each other from what had just happened.
The quakes only ever grew stronger.
-------------------------------------------
"Thank the Twins you are here." It was the first thing Sunny heard on arrival.
He turned to see the living mantle of darkness known as Erelia. As usual, there was nothing to be seen of her expression or form. However, given the way she was hunched over, he could tell that she wasn't in the best of shapes.
It didn't take long to see the reason. Out there, in the fields, he could see hordes upon hordes of nightmare creatures. There were literal mountains of corpses out there -probably Erelia's doing- and yet there still seemed to be far more.
"They attacked shortly after the first quake," Erelia explained, her voice strained.
Sunny exhaled slowly, his whole body already protesting in advance. It would have to deal with it; he couldn't stay idle while his colleagues fought.
They would win, he was sure of that.
The casualties would be unacceptable, he was sure of that, too.
He turned his head around and caught his friend's gaze. She looked determined, but when he shook his head, she sighed in resignation.
Sunny lowered himself to allow her to climb down. At least, she had recovered enough to be able to stay up on her own. She should also be able to use her aspect from the walls, which would go a long way in relieving the pressure.
"I bet I can still defeat more of them than you do." The exaggerated, arrogant smile on her face did a lot to ease the tension he felt.
Sunny chuckled and shaped an Odachi out of the shadows.
"Whoever loses has to do the chores for a full week," He countered.
"You are on."
Sunny smiled and jumped down from the wall.
-------------------------------------------
Poke.
Sunny ignored it.
Poke. Poke.
Sunny tried to ignore it.
Poke. Poke. Poke.
Sunny really wished he had the energy to stab whoever was doing that.
"Hey, Sunny, are you alive?"
Poke.
With a groan, he opened his eyes to see her face hovering right above him. Given her dark hair and pale skin, she could have blended in easily with the dark stone that made up the battlement of the wall.
He closed his eyes again, too tired to keep them open. At least, the cool stone beneath him felt refreshing.
"Yes, but you won't be for long if you keep doing that." He said in the flattest voice he could manage.
She nodded and lay down by his side, blessed silence returning to the battlefield right after.
"Why do you think he did it?"
He already missed the silence.
"I have no idea," He replied with a shrug, or at least he tried to shrug. The only thing that came out was an awkward wiggle of his brows.
The silence didn't have time to settle before it was broken again. "How could anyone do such a thing?"
He opened his eyes once more, fully aware that there wouldn't be any rest until she was done. At least the silver moon far above looked pretty.
"I once met a man who gifted food to poor orphans," He began in a dejected voice. "Every day, around eight in the morning, he would be there, in a little corner that acted as the frontier between the territory of three gangs. He had a stall and all. He would stand there for hours on end, smiling. I promise you it was the most caring smile I have ever seen."
Her hand snaked to hold his own. She really liked to do that.
"Kids from all over the Outskirts would go there just to stand in that damn queue. Hoping to be among the fortunate few who would receive some food before it ran out." Huh, what were the Outskirts?
Sunny went silent for a moment and then continued. "And yet, never once did I take the food. Not. A. Single. Time. I was starving, and I never did."
"Why?" She asked softly.
A dry laugh escaped him, immediately followed by a pained cough that transmitted clearly just how little his bruised ribs liked the action.
"Because even then, I knew that nothing in this world is free." He squeezed her hand, trying to draw strength out of her presence. "In the end, I was proven right. It started slow, as these things usually do. Some kids seemed sick; they grew pale, they seemed thinner. And eventually, the day in which they stopped showing up would arrive."
The tiny gasp told him that she already knew where he was going, but he kept talking nonetheless.
"The sick bastard was delivering poisoned food. Some sort of rat killer, if I remember correctly." Another dry laugh escaped him. "And do you know what he said when questioned?"
Silence settled over them, thick and heavy.
"What did he say?" She asked at last, when it became clear that he wouldn't continue without her input.
"'I was doing the world a favour'" He spat, the words tasting rotten. "The Outskirsts were overpopulated and did not have enough resources for everyone. So what better solution than killing the dregs? He was even nice enough to offer them a last meal as he did so."
Sunny laughed once more, his eyes burning. "The worst part? He truly believed that. That monster had killed dozens of children, and he still thought that he was doing the right thing."
Faces flashed past his mind, fuzzy around the edges and half forgotten. They weren't his friends; he had hated many of the victims. And yet, it had horrified him all the same.
Wrongness flickered only to be smothered instantly.
"You asked how anyone could do such a thing?" He echoed. "That's simple. By convincing yourself that you are doing the right thing. A guilty conscience will stop you from doing many things. You may steal, but only enough to feed yourself and not a single morsel more. You may beat someone up for their food, but you will also try to leave them in as good a shape as possible. But when you think you are right? That you are doing a good thing? That anyone who tries to stop you is in the wrong? No action is too heinous, no line is beyond crossing, and all the while, you will be convinced of what a model of virtue you are."
He smiled viciously when he remembered the fate of that man. The Outskirsts believed in neither forgiveness nor forgetting.
"I don't know Auro enough to tell you how he thought. I have no idea what purpose could be leading him to such extremes. What I do know is that he was completely confident in his own righteousness. He could set a whole realm aflame, and still have the gall to think that he had done no wrong."
"What does that make him?" She asked softly.
"Well, that depends." Sunny grinned, a jagged, broken thing. "Had he succeeded in whatever he was striving for, we would call him a hero." He spat the words like they were poison. "But since he failed? He's just another monster."
The silence returned, only to be broken once more by her.
"We cannot leave." It was said quietly, almost a whisper, and yet it sounded like a heavenly decree.
He grimaced internally, knowing full well what she meant but still not liking it.
"You are right." The agreement sounded like surrender.
Just one damn month and they wouldn't be here.
"They need us." She kept talking as if he hadn't spoken at all.
"They do." He agreed once more.
He caught movement from the corner of his eyes. She had risen, only enough to inch closer and embrace his side. The simple action seemed enough to drain her of all the energy she had left.
It had truly been a long day.
"I will neither ask nor force you into th-"
"You think I will just abandon you here?" He interrupted immediately. Then, he grinned arrogantly. "You can't get rid of me so easily. We shadows have to stay together after all."
Her grip grew tighter, desperate, like she never wanted to let go.
He returned it with whatever strength he had left.
A comfortable silence settled between them, one in which neither bothered to speak.
Time slipped out of his perception, moving blazingly fast.
They spent the night embracing each other. Just a few meters away, there was a battlefield covered in the corpses of nightmare creatures. They could hear and feel the constant tremors caused by the duel between the Twins. And yet, none of them would have changed it for anything.
-------------------------------------------
"That's the current situation."
None of them spoke, perfectly aware of just how grim things looked.
A thunderous clash could be heard in the silence that followed.
Seven days had passed already, and they were still fighting. At this pace, it wouldn't matter who won; the realm would rip itself apart long before it was done.
Not for the first time, Sunny thought about the fact that he could just leave. It would be so damn easy and simple.
He dragged a hand through his hair in irritation. Wishing and denying himself in the same motion.
He couldn't bring himself to do such a thing. Besides, she wouldn't leave without the people inside the realm, and evacuating it was out of the question. Such a thing could easily take a year. Months at the earliest.
Another clash made clear that they did not have such a generous margin. The fabric of the world was already fraying, space thinner, time bending in unnatural ways.
"The nightmare horde seems to be retreating," Erelia spoke at last, even the darkness that enveloped her seemed exhausted.
Sunny could agree with the sentiment. In the last seven days, the tide had been relentless, besieging the city day and night.
"The Tyrant we killed was the one leading them?" He asked in a voice that sounded just as tired as she was.
The darkness shifted as she turned around to look at him. "Yes."
A thrice damned Great Tyrant.
Sunny and Erelia had fought it personally while his friend dealt with the hordes.
It had been a close affair; Sunny had danced with death more times than he cared to count, but they had won in the end. In no small part thanks to his friend's help.
Her aspect had become truly terrifying after ascending to Supremacy; before, she could only affect hundreds at the same time. But now? She could put thousands to sleep and still have energy left to influence a Great Tyrant. Not for the first time, he was glad to have her on his side.
The scars left by the battle would be with him for a long time, though. With all of them, he assumed.
"What should we do about the civilians?" One of the Ascended asked.
"The same thing we've been doing," his friend replied easily. "Protect them. Reassure them that everything will be alright."
The Ascended nodded immediately, not even thinking about arguing.
As a Supreme, the only one that would grace the city until the others spread among the realm could arrive, she had become the leader of the city overnight.
It was only temporary, or so everyone wished to think. The contrary was a terrifying prospect.
"Is there any signal of the Storm Goddess?" One of the few Transcendents left asked. His voice said clearly that he didn't think there would be, yet he asked nonetheless.
"None," Sunny answered in an even tone.
The Gods, the true ones, the ones that had created it all, had been silent for centuries already. And not even what happened to her children seemed enough to garner the attention of the Goddess of the dark skies.
They would have to save themselves.
The meeting went for two more hours. It was a tedious, grueling affair, but it couldn't be avoided. There were countless things that needed to be dealt with. Somehow, all of them seemed critical. All of them would carry catastrophic consequences if they weren't handled properly. All of them would lead to dead people if they made a mistake.
What a damn mess, he thought.
All the while, the thunderous clashes never stopped.
Glacially slow, it ended, leaving only himself and his friend in the room.
Sunny looked outside the window. Appreciating the sight of the calm blue sky, while doing his best not look down.
He knew what he would see, a colony of ants surrounding the spire they had chosen for governance -it didn't feel right for any of them to use the Tower- until the Twins returned.
Except that they weren't ants. No, they were people. Helpless, broken, terrified people.
So what could they cling to in such dark times but the closest thing to divinity that was left? He had caught sight of some kids building a makeshift statue and of some adults praying to her. They had even made up a title for her.
"Never again." It was said softly, and yet, the conviction burning in her voice was undeniable.
He turned his head to see her resolute face, as if carved on stone. "What do you mean?"
"This won't happen again, Sunny. I will not tolerate it. I won't allow it. " The conviction in her voice grew with each sentence.
He chuckled, somehow conveying the exhaustion and stress of the past days through that single sound. "Sadly… you don't have the power needed to guarantee something like that."
"Then I will earn it." The conviction grew even more. "I will become Sacred. I will climb all the way to Divinity. I will tear the gods from their lofty thrones if I have to. But I promise you, Sunny. This won't happen again. As long as I succeed, as long as nobody else will have to go through what we just did, through what every denizen of this realm is going through. As long as I can create a world without suffering, it will be worth it."
He chuckled once more. It was a ridiculous statement, completely and undeniably impossible. And yet, somehow, he thought that she could do it.
"You will need a good friend to help you along the way, then."
Faster than he thought her capable, she disappeared and reappeared, embracing him in a warm hug. Sunny didn't need to look up to know she was smiling radiantly.
"I already have the best I could ask for, but-" She started, only to stop almost immediately after, her voice suddenly bashful. "I want more. Sunny I…"
Whatever she was going to say was interrupted by the terrifying pressure that suddenly enveloped the Spire.
"Sorry for interrupting, kids, but I need your help." It was Vaelkar's voice, but it sounded strained.
They turned simultaneously to take in the figure of the god.
He was… he was a harrowing sight. His body was covered in countless wounds, bleeding golden ichor like a fountain. His handsome face was disfigured beyond recognition. The luscious long hair was gone, leaving nothing but a few sparse patches behind. The white toga he wore had been ripped countless times, leaving only enough to cover his modesty.
"Vaelkar!" They shouted in unison, already rising to check on him.
The same pressure as before stopped them, leaving them glued to their seats.
"Please don't," He asked in a pleading tone. "Getting close to me is a really bad idea right now." He finished with a helpless grin.
Vaelkar was... changing. His left eye seemed to be invaded by an azure blue that quickly subsumed the grey that usually occupied it. His body, smelling of blood and ozone, started smelling of saltwater too. Among the few patches of hair left, some of them took on an aquamarine hue.
"What have you done?" Sunny asked, horrified.
The god laughed, a broken, unhinged laugh.
"We have been together since we were born. Through every step I took, every moment of joy and sadness, battles won and lost, she was there. How could I kill her? How could I forsake my other half?" The god laughed once more, sounding even more broken than before.
"What have you done?" she echoed, just as horrified.
"I ate her," Vaelkar admitted easily, as if it were the most normal outcome. "I merged our bodies so that we would never be separated." He grunted in pain, and the pressure increased twofold.
Outside, from the corner of his eye, Sunny could see dark, heavy clouds starting to blot the sky.
"Admittedly, it wasn't the best idea." He chuckled helplessly. "Guess that's what happens when you take a hasty decision in an emotional moment."
The dark clouds finished blanketing the sky, and promptly, heavy rain started pouring.
"What do you need us for?" She asked.
"That's simple. Put me to sleep before my defilement is complete." Vaelkar answered easily, as if he hadn't just asked a Supreme to do the impossible.
Sunny stared. "Are you crazy!?"
"Probably," Vaelkar replied lightly. "It doesn't change the fact that if she can't do it, I will kill you all."
"I will." She said without hesitation.
Her will spread out, blanketing the room under her willpower. It was powerful, heavy, and commanding. The world itself bent to her wishes.
It was still woefully insufficient.
Oh, it was working. Vaelkar was willing himself to fall under the pervasive effect of her aspect -there wouldn't be any chance of this working otherwise- but it was slow. So painfully slow.
Outside, the rain poured harder, sharp and unrelenting like a rain of knives. Sunny could hear the muffled, pained screams outside.
He shaped a dome of shadows, trying to protect the people from the rain, only to see it broken instantly by the downpour.
Left with no other idea, he tried something he had never done before. He incarnated himself into a shadow and coiled around his friend.
Surprisingly, it worked. The bizarre feeling of sharing senses was something he didn't think he would accustom himself to any time soon, but that could be dealt with at another moment.
What mattered was the fact that the extra power could be seen clearly; it was still slow, but Vaelkar was falling under her aspect faster.
Emboldened, he incarnated all six of his shadows and reinforced her with them.
Time moved at the pace of a snail -whatever that was. Drowsiness slowly overtook the God, his eyes dropping more and more each second. And all the while, the screams outside never ceased.
A minute that felt eternal later, the god fell asleep. Immediately after, the rain stopped and the heavy clouds dispersed, leaving a clear blue sky behind.
A minute, that was all the time that had passed, and yet, the city had almost been destroyed.
Through the window, Sunny could see toppled buildings, beautiful mansions reduced to rubble, the lush parks and lakes flooded.
Sunny didn't even want to think about how many had just died.
He unmerged and caught her falling form.
Willing or not, ensnaring a God with her aspect must have been an incredibly grueling task.
Before them, he could spot Vaelkar's body, lying on the ground, sound asleep. The changes didn't stop even now; he was growing bigger, more grotesque, more monstrous.
They would have to find a place to hide him, somewhere where no one could find him. They couldn't risk waking him up by leaving him in a public space. Or worse, that some idiot would try to wake him on purpose.
What a damn mess, he thought again.
-------------------------------------------
Clangs could be heard all around the city. The sound of hammers, of saws, of people groaning and working tirelessly.
The city had taken a daunting amount of damage during the downpour, and everyone was hard at work rebuilding what was broken. Sunny still shuddered at the idea of how much worse it could have been if he hadn't been able to empower his friend.
A week had passed already since that day, and each day they only unearthed even more rubble and corpses.
'The Weeping,' he had heard someone call it.
Fitting, he supposed. There had been no lack of mourning that day.
The census wasn't done yet, but the number of casualties was staggeringly high already.
The only good thing to come out of it was the fact that the nightmare creatures were just as affected by the rain as they had been.
He had gone on scouting missions, and there were none alive for hundreds of kilometers around the city.
It made for poor comfort, but it was better than nothing.
"Chin up, Transcendent Sunless, we don't have time for moping."
Standing by him on the battlements of the wall. There was Erelia, covered in the usual mantle of darkness. Except that it was denser now, leaving nothing but an abyssal cloud to indicate her position.
He chuckled, feeling like he should be allowed some brooding. But acquiescing nonetheless.
"How is Supremacy treating you, Erelia?"
She had achieved it during The Weeping, having successfully crafted a dome of darkness to shield the people. It even managed to last for all of half a second.
Short as it may seem, the feat was one of such a magnitude that it defied all sense.
"Terribly, you have no idea of how awkward it is to be aware of hundreds of people at the same time." She grumbled in irritation.
"I apologize, O mighty Supreme. A lowly Transcendent like me can't even begin to grasp how terrible it must be," he said, raising his hands in mock surrender.
She snorted, the first show of levity she had allowed herself since the whole debacle began.
The darkness shifted, and soon, there was a hand resting on his shoulder, squeezing gently.
"Thank you." She said, her voice brimming with emotion.
Sunny smiled as reassuringly as he could. Trying to avoid conveying just how tempted he still was to just leave.
Erelia nodded -or at least he thought she did, it was hard to tell with that cloud of darkness- and left. She was just as busy as he was.
And unlike him, she didn't have seven bodies.
Silence settled over the walls once more, only for it to be broken immediately after.
His friend arrived and rested her arms on the crenels of the wall, looking dead tired.
"I regret staying," she said, only half-joking.
"Oh?" He made an exaggerated sound of indignation. "So the great Lady of Sorrows can feel regret, too?" He finished with false mockery.
She groaned, her ears covered in a pink hue. "Not you too. That title is terrible." She bemoaned.
He teased her for a little longer, but in the end relented.
A companionable silence settled between them. One that didn't need to be filled.
Sunny took on the fields in front of him. They were working on cleaning them up, but there were still mountains of abominations out there. At least they wouldn't be lacking in meat.
What a damn mess, he thought for the nth time.
They had so many things to do. So many problems to deal with. Every day, a dozen new problems showed up. Every damn day, he would have even more work to do.
And yet...
And yet…
And yet he was still here.
Sunny let out a long breath, feeling like he had aged decades in the span of two weeks. His shoulders ached. All of him ached.
He could list the problems endlessly if he let himself.
The dead weren't all accounted for. The living were half-starved, half-broken, and wholly afraid. Supplies were running thin faster than they could be scavenged. The walls needed reinforcing. The water needed purifying. People needed comfort, guidance, and probably a thousand things more.
And that was before accounting for the politics. The quiet arguments. The whispered blame. The way some people looked at him with gratitude so sharp it felt like a knife, while others looked at him with expectation that bordered on desperation.
Seven bodies, and still not enough hands.
Sometimes -more often than he liked to admit- he imagined what it would be like to leave. To step away from the noise, from the grief, from the endless triage of a broken city. He could vanish. He was very good at that. He could go somewhere quiet, somewhere untouched, somewhere that didn't need him every waking second.
The temptation lingered, sweet and poisonous.
"I'm so tired," his friend muttered beside him, staring out at the fields.
He didn't answer right away, because the truth was lodged too firmly in his throat.
So was he.
He was tired of counting corpses. Tired of weighing lives against dwindling resources. Tired of measuring his every action against a scale. Tired of being Transcendent Sunless, of being a symbol when all he wanted was to be a person allowed to break for a moment.
The city groaned below them, wood and stone and people grinding forward despite everything. Despite the loss. Despite the fear.
They were wholly unaware that the only thing standing between them and a repeat of The Weeping was his friend.
That if Vaelkar woke up, she might very well be unable to stop him again.
Sunny watched them work.
Watched someone stop to help another lift a beam too heavy for one set of arms. Watched a healer slump against a wall, only to straighten again when someone called their name. Watched stubborn, fragile life refusing to lie down and die.
His fingers curled against the cold stone of the battlement.
What a damn mess.
But it was their mess.
He laughed quietly, the sound rough and humorless at first. Then softer. Warmer.
"Yeah," he finally said. "Me too."
His friend glanced at him, perhaps expecting a joke or a complaint. Instead, she only found resolve.
Sunny straightened, trying and failing to roll away the stiffness in his shoulders.
"But I still want to help."
The words settled into place with a surprising solidity, like a truth he'd been circling for days without daring to touch.
No matter how hard it got. No matter how gruelling. No matter how much it cost him.
He still wanted to help.
Because if he left, the work would still need doing. The suffering wouldn't vanish just because he turned away from it. And because -tired or not- some stubborn part of him refused to abandon people who were still standing, still trying.
Sunny leaned forward, looking out over the ruined fields and the battered city.
"Guess I'll stay," he added lightly.
His friend snorted, the sound brittle but filled with amusement.
"Guess I'll have to stay too." She replied with a fond smile.
The silence returned, warm and comfortable.
They had more work to do, more matters to attend. But as long as they were together, as long as they had each other...
Sunny was happy.
Minutes went by in silence, the two of them allowing themselves a few minutes of rest before diving back into the chaos.
-------------------------------------------
Remembering the unfinished conversations, he asked. "What was it that you wanted to say before Auro and Vaelkar interrupted you?"
She blushed, her face going so red he worried for a moment she might be sick. Then, she straightened up and turned around to face him completely.
She opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. Sunny had to do his best to restrain himself from laughing at the humorous sight.
At last, she seemed to gather her courage. "Sunny, I..."
And was promptly interrupted again.
Two sets of feet were closing the distance quickly. One nervous and hurried, the other completely calm and controlled, yet still keeping pace.
They turned around to see one of the watch members quickly approaching, a person whose features he couldn't discern yet, trailing behind her.
In a matter of seconds, they arrived, the poor guard sweating profusely. He didn't pay attention to the other person yet, intending to hear what the guard had to say first.
The woman bowed hurriedly, "My apologies, this Transcendent woman arrived at the southern wall half an hour ago, saying that she's here for guard duty." She explained and then added hastily, "We wanted to inform you before making any decision."
Huh? So Changing Star had arrived at last.
It had completely slipped his mind after the rather eventful weeks he had.
He turned around to inspect the woman and was immediately stunned.
She was radiant. Her silver hair shone like molten silver under the rays of the sun. Her grey eyes mesmerized him, her armored form a promise of violence and beauty both. Her face was perfect, as if sculpted by the gods.
And yet... he couldn't stop himself from despising the woman before him. Just as it happened with Auro, he held a deep, roaring hatred for her. Except that it was stronger, far, far stronger.
It was love at first sight.
It was hate at first sight.
The emotions warred inside him, tearing each other apart with a savagery without peer.
In the end, it wasn't the emotions that ceded but the world itself.
Silvery threads revealed themselves, fraying away so fast he didn't even have time to properly see them before they were gone.
The world unraveled around him, leaving him face to face with a tapestry that was breaking down by the second.
He felt it fighting back, silvery threads engulfed him, trying to bind him. More spread around reality, trying to keep it together by force.
Sunny took one more look at Changing Star's face, and the world broke.
-------------------------------------------
Sunny opened his eyes to see the familiar form of Serpent standing guard over him, coiled and vigilant, his presence a silent shield against the darkness.
He lifted a trembling hand and petted Serpent's head softly. He also offered him a small, grateful smile.
Serpent hissed quietly, pleased by the affection, then melted back into his tattoo form, ink sinking into skin as if it had never left - yet Sunny could still feel the echo of his watchful loyalty.
His chest trembled, breath hitching as he fought down the bubbling laughter threatening to escape him. He dared not make a sound, not while the Great Beast might still be watching, not while survival hung on such fragile silence.
A jagged, broken smile tugged at his lips all the same.
"She saved me again," he whispered at last.