Cherreads

Chapter 38 - The longest dream (1)

 

"Are you sure?" Mother asked him, still looking worried.

Warmth filled his chest, bringing with it a sense of comfort he did not even know he had been missing.

Sunny smiled at his mother. "Yes. Sorry for making you worry."

"He spent all night reading, again," Rain snitched on him without shame.

Laughs were shared around the table, all of them, even Saint, the traitor, laughing at him.

"Hey, that's not true," he denied indignantly, then added in a low voice, "this time…"

More laughter echoed around the room, Sunny joining in too, this time.

They went back to eating, aware of the ticking clock that would force them to depart soon enough.

"It's alright, son. I know of someone who used to do the very same," his father commented, pointing with his eyes to the woman seated beside him.

"And who would that be, dear?" The voice was sweet, but Father shivered all the same when the cheery smile of his mother landed on him.

He gulped, suddenly finding his cup of coffee very interesting.

"Come now, Father, you can't just stay silent now," Sunny threw him under the PTV without doubt nor remorse.

Served him right for laughing at him earlier.

"Don't bully your own father, little Sun," Mother chided him, though she failed to hide the way the corners of her mouth tilted upwards.

Usually, he found the childish nickname annoying, but this time, for some reason, he found it endearing. There was something nostalgic in this room, in this very conversation.

He had missed it. He had missed it with all of his heart.

Wrongness arose within his chest as he tried and failed to come up with an explanation for why he was so nostalgic all of a sudden.

"Will you accompany me to school, big brother?" Rain asked, the cheeky brat ignoring the way she had snitched on him just minutes ago with practiced ease.

Sunny shook the weird feeling aside and ruffled her hair, purposely making a mess out of it. Served her right.

"I will," he agreed easily.

Rain pouted at him, trying to fix the mess he had made without much success.

"What about you, Saint?" He turned toward his elder sister. "Do you have guard duty today?"

The taciturn woman merely nodded, her otherworldly beautiful face a mask of neutrality.

Sunny shook his head. "They are overworking you. Just because you are a Transcendent now does not mean you have to spend so much time there."

"She only wants to protect our beloved Aleras, son," Father defended her, sipping from his coffee at a quicker pace. He would have to leave for work soon.

Sunny opened his mouth to argue. Wanting to protect your home was one thing, and allowing yourself to be buried under work was a completely different thing, but the words died in his throat.

Aleras.

The name echoed strangely in his mind, like a piece of a puzzle that did not match the others. He frowned, confusion settling in his mind.

Aleras… had his home always been called that?

Suddenly, the table seemed a little too long. The light streaming in through the windows was too warm, too bright, like its only purpose was to make the scene more idyllic. The ticking of the clock on the wall skipped a beat. Once. Twice.

Wrongness surged again, stronger this time, cold fingers wrapping around his heart. His gaze drifted over them. Mother's gentle smile. Father's relaxed posture. Rain humming a song while she ate. Saint, a content expression playing on her face. Even Serpent, chewing on his own food.

They were perfect. Everything he had ever wanted and more.

Too perfect.

His hands clenched around the edge of the table.

"We… don't usually eat together on weekdays," he said slowly, the creeping wrongness rising.

The room went quiet at his words.

Mother tilted her head. "Of course we do, little Sun."

Her eyes were kind. Loving. Empty.

Sunny swallowed. "No," he whispered. "You leave early. Father leaves early, too. Saint is usually gone even earlier. Rain…"

Rain stopped humming.

"She walks to school alone," Sunny continued, his voice growing steadier the more he spoke. "Every day. She always says she's too old to be hanging out with me."

The clock stopped ticking for a second, the sudden silence all the more jarring.

Father's cup hovered a millimeter above the table.

Saint's gaze sharpened, fully locking onto him, a strange emotion running through the rubies she had for eyes.

For a second, he could swear silver tendrils unfurled around him, slithering around his form like snakes stalking their prey. He blinked, and the silver tendrils were gone.

Instead, his mother stood. The chair did not scrape against the floor.

"Oh, Sunny," she said softly, stepping closer. The warmth in the room intensified, pressing against him, draping over his form in a suffocating embrace. "You must be more tired than I thought."

His head throbbed, a pounding ache taking shape at the back of his skull.

Memories surfaced. Streets teeming with sleeping monsters. A never ending night. The tower.

He staggered to his feet on unsteady legs, the headache growing worse. "This isn't real."

Rain's smile trembled.

Father finally set his cup down, hands shaking.

Saint moved, and suddenly she was beside him. Her usually comforting presence oppressive all of a sudden.

Mother's hand cupped Sunny's cheek gently. Her touch was unbearably warm.

"You're tired," she murmured. "That's all. You've been reading too much again."

The pain assaulting his mind became blinding.

"No," Sunny gasped, nails digging into his palms. "You're not, she's not, nothing of this is real. My mother is de—"

A silver flash enveloped the room and then…

Warmth.

Comfort.

The pain eased, returning to the dark recesses of his mind.

Sunny blinked.

He was sitting at the table again, like he had never moved.

Rain was laughing about something. Father was checking his watch. Saint stood by the door, ready to leave.

Mother placed a plate in front of him.

"There," she said fondly. "Eat up, little Sun. You are going to be late."

Sunny smiled.

"Right," he said, warmth filling his chest, chasing away the strange, fading unease. "Sorry. I must have spaced out."

The clock ticked on.

-------------------------------------------

After walking Rain to school, he moved on to his own destination.

Five minutes later, the training grounds rose before him, a massive structure painted in a bold blue, its facade carved and layered in a way that made it look as though waves were frozen mid motion. A relic of older times, back when the Twin Gods were still venerated, or so he had heard.

Sunny could not find it in himself to care much. The Lady was the only god he knew, and it was not like he was particularly pious to begin with.

A hand smacking him on the back ripped him straight out of his thoughts. He turned with a glare toward the perpetrator, knowing who it was going to be even before he finished turning.

"Wake up, Doofus!" The brute did not seem concerned by his glare.

"Was that necessary?" The annoyance in his tone was clear for the world to see.

"To see that adorable grumpy face?" Effie smiled broadly. "Of course!"

Sunny shook his head, asking himself for the thousandth time why he was friends with the woman.

"One of these days," he said darkly, "I'm going to return the favor. You know that, right?"

The smile became dangerous. "Oh? I welcome you to try."

"My vengeance will be terrible," he warned.

She did not seem worried. "Bring it on, shorty."

"My height is perfectly average!" he protested indignantly. "It's not my fault you are such a freak of nature."

She rested her elbow on his head nonchalantly, the smug smile on her face saying it all.

"One of these days, Effie," Sunny swore, "you'll rue the day you dared cross me."

They kept bickering as they entered the building, the receptionist shooting them an exasperated look as they passed. Somewhere along the way, Kai joined them, the unfairly handsome man immediately drawing more than a few appreciative stares toward their eclectic group.

"I think I'm close to awakening," Kai confessed, smiling brightly.

Sunny tilted his head, looking him up and down. There was something different about him, that was true.

"Congratulations, buddy." He patted him on the back softly.

Effie, ever the brute, smacked him in the same spot hard enough to make him stumble. "I knew you had it in you, pretty boy!"

Kai smiled nervously, not-so-subtly massaging the place she had hit. That would leave a mark.

The Huntress had awakened recently, and she was still getting used to her newfound strength. He could not blame her too much for going overboard sometimes.

Wait, who was he trying to fool? He was going to tease her for it relentlessly. Nobody was more deserving of it than her.

"Did you hear?"

Sunny looked at Kai, the question snapping him out of his plans for revenge. "Hear what?"

The man smiled, looking genuinely excited. "The queen and king are going to give a speech today."

"I didn't. Where did you find that out?" Sunny scratched the back of his head, puzzled by the new information. He had not heard about anything like that.

The smile turned sheepish. "One of the instructors told me."

That explained it. The bastard had probably charmed the poor instructor without even realizing it, and they had revealed the secret to curry some favor with him.

If only he was not so oblivious about the whole thing. Honestly, how could his friend be so dense?

It would never happen to him, that was for sure.

Effie seemed excited by the idea. He did not know she was such a fan of speeches.

"Awesome. Have you seen King Vorthal? His biceps are as big as my head."

Never mind, the idiot was only interested in the eye candy.

Shaking his head at the antics of his friend, he noticed that they had arrived.

Unfurling before them was a great hall, separated into many sections. On one side, there was a wall covered by a myriad of weapons, available for any of them to pick up and train. Scattered around the hall were many duel rings, where Awakened and Ascended alike could battle each other or train alone.

The facility for Transcendents was on the bottom floor, the might they could unleash too much to allow the risk of someone being caught in the crossfire.

The trio walked toward one of the unoccupied rings, where they started on some light exercise in order to warm up. Though what they called light exercise was more like a full routine for the non Awakened. Poor Kai, the only one yet to awaken among them, was left sweating profusely by the end of it.

While he rested, Effie and Sunny engaged in a quick spar.

It was going pretty well in his humble opinion. The Huntress was a great fighter, but Shadow Step gave him too much of an advantage. Then, he caught sight of silver hair out of the corner of his eye and his mind ground to a halt.

Effie, never one to waste a golden opportunity, used the chance to attack. With his mind still caught by the glimpse he had seen, he could not react before it landed.

Sunny found himself on the ground, dizzy from the strength of the blow he had received.

Damn her and that absurd strength she had, he thought.

"You okay, doofus? It's not like you to get so distracted." She seemed genuinely sorry at least. "What happened?"

He shook his head to dispel the dizziness and accepted Effie's helping hand. He cast a cursory glance around the room but failed to find the one who had distracted him.

Wrongness rose, sharp and brutal, only to disappear just as quickly.

"Yes. I saw someone and got distracted, that's all."

The dangerous glint in her eyes was the only warning he had. Alas, he was too slow to react.

Sunny started to sink into the shadows, but faster than he had ever seen Effie move, her hand landed on the back of his shirt and dragged him straight out of them, holding him aloft like some sort of unruly pet.

"My, oh my. Does our little Sun have a crush all of a sudden?" Introducing Effie to his mother had been a mistake, he realized in retrospect.

A terrible, terrible mistake.

"No," he denied instantly, not willing to allow her to gather steam.

"He's telling the truth," Kai said -having approached at some point- backing him up. He always had a knack for knowing when someone was lying. Everyone suspected that it had something to do with his yet to unlock aspect.

Effie pouted, still holding him aloft. "Way to ruin my fantasies."

"Why am I in your fantasies to begin with?" Sunny asked under his breath.

He was not quiet enough, it seemed.

"Well, you see," Effie began cheerfully, "it usually starts with Kai all oiled up, then you arrive and—"

Mercifully -for his sanity, that was- she did not get to finish before a loud clap echoed through the room. Everyone present turned toward the source, where they saw an old man clapping once more to gather the attention of those who had not heard him the first time.

Ascended Dismas straightened, frail yet unmistakably imposing. Rumor had it he was over two hundred years old, ancient enough to have served during the Weeping, where he had distinguished himself by saving dozens of lives single handedly.

The tale of that day was still told in hushed tones more than a century and a half later. The death toll it had taken on Aleras more than guaranteed it. Some said that by the end of it, the tower -where the Lady held court along with the queen and king- was the only building still standing, those who had taken refuge inside being the only survivors.

"All right, brats, listen up! We have a visit, and I want all of you to behave like civilized people," Dismas said, glaring at all of them as if daring them to do anything untoward. "I know none of you are, but at least pretend to be while they are here."

"We are, you old dirtbag!" someone shouted.

Dismas answered by throwing a piece of chalk -from where did that come from?- at the brave yet stupid man who had spoken. "Way to prove me right, dipshit!"

The old man and the poor student kept bickering until a weighty presence muted them both.

Immediately after, a cloud of darkness entered the vast room, followed closely by a tall man with tan skin.

Huh. His biceps really were as big as Effie's head.

The pair did not slow, walking until they arrived at Dismas's side, where they greeted the old man warmly. Or at least King Vorthal did. It was harder to say with Queen Erelia.

The king clasped Dismas by the forearm, laughing loudly. "Still standing after all these years, old wolf? They should make statues of you just to scare the brats into behaving."

Dismas snorted. "Statues don't yell loud enough. And they don't throw chalk worth a damn." Then he barked a laugh just as loud as the king's. "And don't think that just because you are a king and a Transcendent now I won't do the same to you, brat."

Vorthal barked another laugh, the sound rolling through the hall like thunder. A few of the Awakened relaxed despite themselves, tension leaving their shoulders upon seeing them act so casually.

"Ascended Dismas. Thank you for accommodating this visit on such short notice." Erelia's voice, in contrast with her husband's, was perfectly even. Not cold, just calm.

The old man bowed, deeper than strictly necessary. "The honor is all mine, Your Majesty. These idiots could use a reminder of why they train beyond bruises and hurt pride."

"That, and a reminder not to die stupidly." Vorthal said cheerfully, resting his hands on his hips.

Effie let out a snort before clamping a hand over her mouth. Sunny shot her a look, but she only grinned wider.

The Ascended and the royal pair exchanged a few more words, seemingly catching up. Minutes later, they turned back toward the watching students.

The king was the first to do so, broad shoulders squaring as an easy grin spread across his face. His presence was overwhelming, like standing before a blazing fire.

"Sleepers and Awakened of Aleras!" Vorthal's voice boomed across the hall. "Seeing you all here fills me with pride."

A ripple of excitement moved through the crowd. Effie straightened unconsciously, chest out. Even Sunny felt it, the pull of that voice, the promise woven into every word. They were not anything special, and yet the words had a strangely encouraging effect.

"You stand on the edge of greatness," the king continued, gesturing widely. "Each one of you carries the potential to carve your name into history. Glory awaits you beyond these walls, honor, renown, and the chance to prove that humanity does not bow to the darkness!"

Cheers erupted. Someone whooped. Vorthal laughed, reciprocating their passion with his own.

Beside him, Queen Erelia stepped forward. The temperature of the room seemed to drop. The cloud of darkness sharpened, rolling into shapes of nightmare that chilled their blood.

"But glory is not why you will fight," she said, her voice calm and carrying just as far.

The cheers faltered.

"You will fight because the tide does not stop," Erelia continued. "Because the defiled will come tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that. Because walls crumble. Because people die."

Silence reigned, heavy and suffocating.

"You will fight because if you don't," she said quietly, "there will be no one left to stand where you are standing now."

Sunny felt a chill crawl up his spine. Everyone knew of her, of the mountains of corpses -defiled and human both- she had left in her wake. Nobody could claim to have sacrificed as much as she had, not even the Lady. Some even whispered that she had foregone the tradition of the Twins to follow their partner in death so that she could keep protecting the city.

At least she seemed happy -or as happy as a cloud of darkness could look- with her new partner.

Vorthal glanced at his queen, then back to the crowd, his expression softening just a little. "And yet," he said more gently, "as long as you stand, Aleras stands with you."

A murmur of agreement followed, tentative but sincere.

It was then that Sunny saw it again, from the corner of his eye.

Silver hair, catching the light as its owner moved along the edges of the room. For a split second, he saw a silhouette where no one should have been, watching not the crowd but him.

His heart skipped, and he turned sharply, eyes searching, ready to Shadow Step to whoever he had seen.

Nothing.

Only stone and banners and the mass of Awakened listening raptly to the rulers of their city.

"Are you all right?" Kai whispered beside him.

Sunny forced himself to breathe, nodding slowly. "Yeah. Thought I saw someone."

The wrongness stirred, faint but insistent, like a whisper at the back of his mind.

The speech went on, the future of Aleras laid bare before them, words of warning and encouragement flowing as the royal pair kept talking.

All the while, Sunny's mind kept going back to the sight of that silver hair.

-------------------------------------------

"I'm done for today," Sunny announced.

Effie and Kai looked at him strangely. Fair, he supposed. He usually stayed much longer.

"Are you all right?" Kai asked, concern clear in his voice.

It seemed they had not missed his abnormal behavior after all.

"I think so," he answered, his mind still far away.

"Already?" Effie asked. Then she wiggled her eyebrows. "Do you need me to carry you home?"

"Yes," he replied to the first question, and then added pleasantly, "Touch me and you die."

Kai laughed, shaking his head in exasperation. "See you tomorrow then."

Effie grinned. "See you tomorrow, little Sun."

He acted like he had not heard the last part. Any reaction would be a win for the annoying woman.

Outside, the air felt colder, a refreshing change from the warm interior of the training grounds.

As he walked, he stared up at the sky, where the moon hung, bathing the city in silver rays.

Idly, his thoughts drifted to history class. Apparently, back when the Twins still ruled Aleras, night and day had lasted roughly the same amount of time. Later on, that changed when the Lady became Sacred and the realm itself changed to accommodate its new ruler.

Now, there were only eight hours of sun once a month.

That had proven a disaster all on its own, if he remembered right, since crops could not grow properly under those conditions. He recalled the excited way Teacher Julius had retold the events and wondered, as he often did, how the old man could be so animated about even the bleakest topics.

So distracted was he by the memory that he failed to notice the person in front of him until he collided with them.

The impact was light but sudden, enough to knock him back half a step. Warm hands caught his arms before he could fully lose his balance.

"Sorry, I wasn't looking properly," he apologized by reflex, straightening himself to avoid further embarrassment.

"Don't worry, I wasn't looking either," a woman's voice replied.

Sunny finally looked at the other person and blinked in surprise.

She was beautiful. Strikingly so, in a way that made the world seem duller by comparison. She wore a black dress that contrasted sharply with her pale skin and dark eyes. Her hair was blonde, though he spotted a few black strands peeking out near her face, making him suspect it was a wig. Now that he thought about it, she also wore makeup, not an obscene amount, but enough to make herself look subtly different.

Had he just run into a celebrity trying to go incognito or something?

"Sorry again," he muttered, already beginning to walk away.

Before he could get much farther, a hand caught his own, rooting him in place. The woman was surprisingly strong.

Sunny turned back with a puzzled expression. "Can I help you?"

The woman, suddenly aware of how tightly she was holding his hand, blushed and let go, looking away.

"You can," she admitted sheepishly. "It's been a long time since I've had the chance to just walk around the city, and I don't recognize many places."

Why did it feel like he had stepped into one of those romcom webtoons he had read as a teenager?

"Do you mind showing me around the city?" The blush deepened.

Sunny was about to say that he did, in fact, mind, but he hesitated.

There was something about her that felt familiar, a sense of kinship that went beyond words. He did not know her. It was the first time he had ever seen her. And yet, he had the eerie sensation that nobody understood him quite as well as she did.

"Sure," he said at last, when his flaw reminded him that he still had not answered.

The woman smiled brightly -his cheeks suddenly feelt warm- and grasped his hand once more, animatedly starting to pull him along.

"It's a date!" She winked at him cheekily.

Sunny cleared his throat, gently extracting his hand from hers.

"It's not," he denied. "I will just show you around."

"Of course. Naturally."

She did not look convinced in the slightest. In fact, she looked delighted.

He shook his head and started walking, the woman following right after him.

Sunny was already regretting this. 

-------------------------------------------

Aleras unfolded around them, the familiar sight of stone bathed under moonlight. The streets were lively despite the early hour, vendors calling out, lanterns glowing softly, clusters of people laughing or arguing as they went about their business. Sunny pointed things out as they passed, slipping into the role of the accidental guide.

"That's one of the older markets," he explained, gesturing toward a plaza filled with stalls of staggering variety. "Prices are better there, but you have to watch your pockets."

"I will," she accepted his advice, edging a little closer to him. Her arm brushing against his.

Sunny stiffened for half a second, then relaxed. The street was crowded, these things happened.

"If you keep going straight," he continued, "you will reach the western canals. They're mostly decorative now, but people still like to walk there."

"That sounds romantic," she said lightly.

He scratched the side of his head. "I guess?"

She studied him openly as they walked, dark eyes tracing the line of his face, the way he moved, the way he frowned slightly whenever he thought too hard about something. Sunny, for his part, was focused on avoiding the packed crowds. Things used to be worse, he had heard, back when the Twins still ruled, people walked so closely and in such multitudes that it was almost impossible to find passage. 

"Have you been living here for long?" she asked.

"Yes. All of my life," he replied. Then, after a pause, he added, "I think."

The words slipped out before he could stop them.

She tilted her head, something alien seeming to pass through her eyes. "You think?"

He frowned, wrongness stirring faintly in his chest. "Sometimes things just… feel off."

Her steps faltered for the briefest moment.

"That must be hard."

He shrugged, the sensation having vanished already. "A little."

They crossed a small bridge, the water below reflecting the moon. For just a heartbeat, Sunny caught a glimpse of something in that reflection, silver hair, drifting where no one stood.

He stopped abruptly, desperately trying to catch another glimpse of the apparition that seemed to be haunting him.

The woman nearly walked into his back.

"Sunny?" she asked, her voice tinged with concern.

He turned slowly to look at her. "Did I tell you my name?"

Her eyes widened. For a fraction of a second, panic flashed across her face before she schooled her expression.

"…You did," she said quickly. Too quickly. "Earlier. When we bumped into each other."

He searched his memory, trying to recall saying such a thing, and came up empty.

The wrongness surged, sharper this time, like a spike of ice sliding between his ribs. He glanced around them, the shadows stretched unnaturally long beneath the lanterns. The city felt too quiet all of a sudden, the distant noise muffled.

For a moment, he thought he saw silver hair again, just beyond the bridge, vanishing behind a stone pillar.

He blinked and it was gone.

"Are you alright?" she asked, stepping closer, standing just beside him.

Sunny exhaled slowly, trying and failing to calm his nerves. 

"Just a little... dazed." He replied in the end. 

She smiled again. "Then we should do something to clear your mind. Something fun. That's what dates are for."

He sighed in irritation. "This is not a date."

She laughed, utterly unbothered. "You keep saying that."

"And you keep refusing to listen."

They resumed walking.

She took over the talking, a smile taking shape on her mesmerizing face as she spoke about the lights, the people, how different everything looked compared to how she remembered it. She gestured with her hands, expressions shifting rapidly, unable to hide the way her gaze kept drifting back to him, soft and fond and dangerously charming.

Sunny nodded along, offering the occasional comment, entirely missing the way she leaned toward him whenever she laughed, or how her steps matched his without conscious effort.

At one point, her hand latched on his once more.

He stiffened. Looked down, then looked at her. 

Why would anyone, let alone her, want to be so close to him?

Sunny gently disentangled himself. 

Her smile wavered, then steadied, brighter than before. "That's fine. We have time."

"For what?" he asked.

She only smiled, eyes gleaming under the moonlight.

"Don't worry about that, we have all of the time in the world, after all," she replied lightly. 

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