Chapter Text
Nephis was laying on the padding in Sunny’s underground dojo.
She was tired and suffering the consequences of using her aspect continuously. The two of them had spent the whole night testing the benefits of the Shadow Bond after all.
Her Flaw: [Pristine Soul], had left her heart and soul feeling empty and dull, as it always has.
Sometimes, it was hard for her to even realize that her humanity was dwindling when using her aspect. The pain would be so vastly blinding that she found it easier to only focus on combat and survival, nearly disregarding things like companions and relationships as a whole.
It was easy to retreat into this personality when dealing with her flaw. Mainly because she had never been good at dealing with human emotions and personalities, despite being taught by the expert himself, Sunny.
Nephis had initially gotten used to the pain of her flaw through extensive usage of her aspect in small doses, slowly accumulating her body and senses to be able to function properly when the time to use her aspect came.
But that was not enough, it was nowhere near enough. She still remembered the first time she really ripped the bandaid off, with it being her healing Sunny after he had been left dying from the Carapace Centurion on the Forgotten Shore.
She vividly remembered the pitiful state he had been in, her reaction to seeing him torn to shreds, with his bones being shattered, flesh visible, and organs failing. But most importantly, she remembered the harrowing pain she suffered as a result of healing him.
It was beyond terrible, it left her shaking as if she was suffering a seizure and screaming as if she was being cruelly tortured. It felt like every part of her being was burning, with no end to the suffering.
The aftermath was so agonizing that she even collapsed to the floor vomiting, leaving her out of commission completely for a few moments.
For Nephis, the worst part was that she couldn’t even do anything to prevent this pain, it was just simply the price she had to pay to use her aspect.
And she paid that price extensively in the past two… no three years. She needed her aspect in order to survive that hell after all.
Nephis eventually got used to this pain, hiding her suffering behind her usual deadpanned expression, letting a grimace or two sneak through ever so often. Even if all she felt like doing when using her aspect was screaming and crying out in pain.
But there was no other option but hiding it. Because regardless, Changing Star needed to be the symbol of hope for the sleepers in the Forgotten Shore; it was simply unacceptable for her to express weakness otherwise.
Nephis eventually threw out the concept of hiding her suffering. During her journey, she let out all sorts of expressions from behind her previously built facade she adopted near others.
The Nightmare creatures wouldn’t judge her for showing weakness right? All they did was throw themselves at her, and die by her blade as a result.
Nephis knew that by doing this, she was just furthering the loss of her already barely-there humanity, but she didn’t care, she was incapable of caring. She was already dealing with the pain, the hunger, the dehydration, the heat and cold along with everything else.
How was one supposed to care about their humanity while already suffering through all that?
It was simply impossible to remain completely sane in a situation like that and thankfully so, if she hadn’t gone a little insane a while ago then she really would’ve forever lost herself in that desert.
‘Is this what Sunny felt like when he was alone in the ruins for three months?’
Interrupting her tangent, Sunny, who was sitting across from her, grabbed his communicator and flinched.
“Crap! It’s morning already! I am going to be late for my lecture!”
He looked at her with his usual expression every time she used her aspect. It was an expression that had hints of sorrow, guilt, and …pain?
He was one of a select few that really knew just how much she had to suffer every time she used her aspect after all.
It warmed her heart to see that he still cared about her enough to have a reaction, despite what she had done to him.
She chose her words carefully and replied with a nod. “You can go if you wish. I’ll… I’ll rest for a while.”
The man in front of her hesitated, then nodded as he dissolved into the shadows.
‘He’s gone.’
Nephis was alone once again. This time however, only temporarily. That did not stop her heart from aching though. Feeling as if she was never going to see him again.
She lingered for a while, before standing up and heading upstairs.
Now that she was left alone, Nephis planned on doing nothing but relaxing — and catching up on everything that she had missed during her three years in the dream realm.
She had spent a lot of time during her journey thinking about things, an attempt to cure her boredom that resulted from staring at the same landscape for gods knew how long.
And during that time, she compiled a list of things she wanted to do when she returned.
The list included various things such as visiting her mother, spending time with her friends, spending time with Sunny, listening to her favorite Nightingale songs again, eating anything but Nightmare creature meat, taking a lukewarm bath, among other things.
There was also the list of things she needed to do when she returned.
This list was solely centered around everything she needed to do when she returned from the dream realm in order to further her goals.
Since she ascended as a result of conquering the Second Nightmare, she would have a lot more flexibility in her options. But regardless, she needed to start formulating a plan on how to achieve her goals based on the new information she received.
But all of that… could be dealt with another day.
Right now, as Cassie so kindly lectured her, Nephis needed reprieve from the crushing weight she had been carrying on her shoulders ever since conquering her first nightmare. And spoil herself she would.
‘Where to start…’
Reaching the top of the stairs and walking into Sunny’s living room, Nephis glanced at herself. The tracksuit she had been given by the academy was sticky from sweat and her odor was probably just as bad.
Frowning to herself, she headed upstairs to the guest bathroom before freezing as she came to a realization.
Nephis hasn’t gotten to buying clothes since returning to the waking world. Resulting in her having nothing to wear.
Of course, she could just summon an armor memory, but she was reluctant to, as she had spent the past three years wearing nothing but armor.
Seeing Sunny’s room down the hall, Nephis hesitated and lingered for a bit before walking over and pushing the cracked door open.
Nephis would be lying if she said she was only there to find something to wear. The infamous Changing Star was more than a little interested in what Sunny’s bedroom looked like.
Nephis smiled faintly as she thought back to his room in the ruined cathedral — the place where he isolated himself for three months. That room was elegantly decorated, various patterns engraved on its stone walls, along with furniture made out of polished wood, and a very comfortable bed — as he described it himself.
Stepping into his bedroom, she looked around, taking in the smell and sight.
This room felt a lot more like Sunny owning it and decorating it himself, rather than him simply occupying it. It had a desk directly across from the door with various research papers and illustrations covering it, a closet on her left, and a bed draped by black sheets in the corner.
She looked at the closet --- the reason she came here, before glancing back to the desk and submitting to her curiosity.
Humming to herself as she walked over to his desk, she pulled the chair out and sat down as she surfed through the papers and illustrations, lazily glancing over it.
Most of the contents were research papers based on various sections of the Dream Realm, and the rest were illustrations and schematics of weapons/structures.
But then something caught her eye.
It was a paper that had two illustrations of a coin —- for the front and back, as well as a title which said “Noctis Coin”. The front showed the face of a beautiful man with a crescent shaped moon in the middle of his forehead and the back had a ship engraved into it, on it a mystical tree was planted right in the center.
She stared at the side of the coin that had the man’s face on it with a curious expression.
‘This must be the immortal Saint they met in their second nightmare.’
She always wondered what the Saint they met was like.
Sunny seemed like he both hated and liked the man with the way he talked about him, which confused her more than she would admit.
Setting the illustration down in the same way she found it, in order to hide any traces of her meandering naturally, she picked up another paper on his desk titled, “Exploration Report of the Chained Isles, by Master Sunless.”
‘Right, he told me he was a renowned academic too.’
She read through the whole report out of curiosity for both the contents and to see how Sunny wrote. The paper was very well put together, one would never think that the author had lived in the outskirts for most of his life.
But that's just how Sunny was, he was an incredibly talented person who adapted and learned quickly.
Putting it down, she walked over to his closet, interested to see what it held.
To her it didn't seem like Sunny was into fashion, but it wasn't like he had time to indulge in that hobby if he ever had it in the first place. During the Shore, they were either wearing their armor or makeshift clothing.
Grabbing the handle and pulling it open, she quickly realized that couldn't be further from the truth as a vast selection of pure black clothes assaulted her vision.
There were dozens of black tee-shirts with two singular exceptions on the far end of the closet. They were a long-sleeve and a hoodie, both in black of course.
Nephis stared at that sight with a blank expression on her face.
She then stared a little longer
She briefly hesitated before pulling open a drawer, in hopes that it was just a fluke, a hopeful wish that Sunny could possibly wear something in a different color. But no, she was met with the same exact sight of black, and only black, shorts and pants.
The shorts and pants were exactly the same. Her hand flashed as she grabbed pair by pair, examining the tags in hopes that they were at least different variations.
But no, each and every last one was the same exact brand and build.
It was like he found the first piece of black clothing he saw, added 10 pairs of the piece into his cart, and called it a day.
Sunny indeed looked best in black, she could attest to that herself, but even if it was his favorite color, this… this was a travesty.
Sighing to herself, Nephis reached for the drawer containing his underwear before stopping herself in a sudden self-embarrising-realization of her snooping. Besides, it wasn’t like she didn’t know what she would find anyways.
‘Did Kai not say anything about this?’
Nephis wasn't into fashion herself, but that didn't mean she preferred to be at Sunny's level when choosing what to wear.
There was a difference between being into fashion and doing whatever it was that Sunny was doing.
Sighing softly to herself, she grabbed one of Sunny’s black shirts and headed to the guest bathroom to take a bath.
The water rippled as she slipped into the tub. Nephis closed her eyes and let out a soft exhale of satisfaction. The water was perfectly lukewarm, not too cold and not too hot as it had been all the time when she was trekking across that cursed desert.
Nephis’s body had already healed from the bruises she received sparring with Sunny. It healed naturally, not from the use of her aspect. The sight surprised her, she wasn’t used to her ascended physique. Even more so considering that she skipped being an awakened entirely.
After that realization, Nephis stared at the wall in front of her for a while as she soaked in the bath, not particularly thinking about anything.
Her mind started to drift as she grew bored however. Whenever this had happened during her 2 year isolation, Changing Star often thought about one person more than any other.
She thought about Sunny.
Nephis could’ve made an excuse and say it was only because she could see his runes, but that was not the whole truth.
Changing Star did look at his runes constantly though. To her, It felt nice knowing that Sunny was still out there somewhere in the real world doing incredible things.
Whenever she was bored, she liked to imagine what he was doing based on his runes. Things like imagining what Nightmare Creatures he fought, how he defeated it, how he got sudden influxes of fragments, and such. And she was bored very often during her two years.
But the main reason she thought about him so often was because Sunny was an incredibly fascinating person, he was simply… different from everybody else.
She had been a very inexperienced person emotionally before the Forgotten Shore, mainly because of how she was raised. But that all changed when she met Sunny and Cassie.
The two of them had taken up so much of her heart, as they were the only two friends she has ever had in her life.
Cassie was someone who relied on her, just like the rest of the Sleepers in the Dark City. Sunny, though…
Sunny was the only one who defied her. He was the only one who challenged her. He was unpredictable and uncomfortable, and Nephis kept being bothered by him.
But she also found comfort in him. Because out there on the Forgotten Shore, he was the only one who made her feel like she was not alone.
Sunny was someone who did what he wanted and what he deemed right rather than follow her every whim. She didn’t even realize how important that was to her until after their falling out in the Forgotten Shore.
Sunny is also somebody who is just as strong… stronger?, than Nephis herself. He had a divine aspect with four shadow cores, his aspect lineage unlocked with three claimed relics, three powerful shadows of the awakened and ascended rank, a memory arsenal that puts legacies to shame, and an absurd ability to think creatively and deceive his opponents. And that's without even mentioning the plethora of experience he gained from surviving the Forgotten Shore and Second Nightmare.
He was someone who could stand beside her. A person that could lessen her burden by simply being there with her.
There was also that other thing she realized.
During Nephis’s expanded journey in the dream realm, she slowly accepted the fact that she cared for Sunny more than a friend would.
That she didn’t just care for him, but that she liked him, that she liked him a lot, in a romantical sense.
For all she knew, maybe she even loved him? Nephis was never good at understanding these things after all.
Thinking back to it, Nephis had liked him from the very beginning, when they had first arrived on the Forgotten Shore and fought to survive together.
She just hadn’t known it yet.
It took her a while to realize that fact. Because during the Forgotten Shore, she never really had time to think about such affairs. She worried about more pressing things like survival and the future. It was only when Nephis was isolated on the shore that she started thinking about him constantly.
She thought about various things he did, his relationship with the people in her cohort, what she disliked about him, and much more.
But it was only when she started thinking about what she liked about him, did she really understand it herself.
She liked his witty personality, his capability, the way he seemed to easily blend in with the other members of her cohort, his kindness and his cynicism as a whole, how he held himself, and many more she thought about countless times before.
His stature was also rather her type, she never even knew she had a type until meeting Sunny. Changing Star much rather preferred his build over bigger and broader men, it’s not like Sunny let his height get in the way of him after all.
He did however, sometimes let his indignation towards his height out, which she secretly found very amusing.
And she very much liked his looks as well, she always had. When Nephis first saw him after waking up in the academy’s hospital, she was stunned at just how beautiful he was.
Sunny had always been a little scrawny — which came as a result of how he was raised as well as his age. However, the person that stood in front of her when she awoke was not the frail young boy she saw so often on the Shore, but rather an astonishingly delicate young man.
His ascendence had only made him more stunning.
He had alluring raven black hair that draped over his ears and eyes, porcelain pale skin that made him look like a doll, and a physique that most men would die for. She even saw the beautiful serpent tattoo that covered his arms and chest when he took his shirt off in order to summon his armor.
She instinctually licked her lips at the memory of him topless, before forcibly stopping herself.
‘I… I need to calm down.’
She was working herself up without even knowing it!
Wasn’t this supposed to be her time of peace and relaxation?
‘I wonder if he feels the same way?’
She smiled faintly at that thought, before brutally crushing it.
Nephis didn’t know exactly how he felt about her. But it didn’t take a psychologist to put two and two together.
Next to the gateway in the Crimson Spire, Changing Star had enslaved Sunless by evoking his True Name, Lost from Light. Not only that, but immediately after she had completely forced her will upon him, refusing entirely to care about any of his desires.
He… he had wanted to stay with her in the dream realm, and try their chances at escaping together. But Nephis had believed that Sunny would’ve died if he stayed with her, and so, she commanded him to leave.
One could say that Nephis forcing Sunny to leave was in his best interest, after all he was the one returning to the waking world while she was the one being left behind. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
In what world is enslaving someone for the rest of their life their ‘best interest’?
And this enslavement wasn’t just a collar wrapped around his neck. It was a chain, a chain made out of fate, wrapped tightly around his entire being. The chain is unbreakable, eternal, irresistible, to never be changed again.
The chain allowed Nephis to order Sunny to do anything she desired. And not just physical acts, like, “come here”, “stop”, “leave”. But she could also change his entire mentality with a few simple words.
All it took was a simple command like, “Sunny, stop caring about your sister.” and he wouldn’t even think twice about it, he wouldn’t even be able to fight it.
Sunny would understand that he had been ordered, but it wouldn’t matter, he would just never be able to care about his sister again.
It simply wouldn’t be possible, unless his master said otherwise. In the end, all that would happen is his sudden indifference towards his sister.
The same sister that he cared more for than anything else in the entire world.
The same sister that he spent years trying to find as he grew up, doing all kinds of heinous acts in order to save up money, and eventually find, just for him to leave her in his only ever act of selflessness.
The same sister that was his entire reason to live. His sole reason to keep pitifully struggling to survive for most of his life.
Nephis vividly remembered Sunny’s expression when he told her about his sister. He looked so… small telling it. His voice was barely audible and emotionless, his face devoid of any expression — lacking the usual grin he put on, shoulders stooped low.
And yet, Changing Star had the ability to take even that away from him if she ever desired.
Sure, Nephis didn’t know the exact implications of what saying his True Name would behold, but that barely matters at all. What matters is that Changing Star knew that by saying it, she would be betraying the person that trusted her more than anyone else in the whole world.
Just how hurt would Sunny be from being betrayed by the two people he trusted most?
This would be from the same person who had lived his entire life up to that point only trusting in himself. Such was a necessity in the outskirts, he had told her so himself.
He had finally somewhat let down his heavily protected walls towards her in an act of trust only for her to make his worst nightmare come true. The doomsday scenario he had spent his entire time as a sleeper hiding and even killing to hide.
All as a result of a certain blind seer having a certain vision, and making a certain decision to sacrifice one of her closest friends in order to save the other one, or so she had thought.
But no… that would be a lie. Sure Cassie had given her the gun, but Nephis was the one who pointed it at Sunny’s head and pulled the trigger.
That was solely her decision, the purely selfish decision she made next to the gateway in the Crimson Spire.
And now, she had to live with the consequences that came as a result of her actions.
Sunny would be her slave for the rest of his life, unless he magically found a way to break the unbreakable chains that made him so.
She wanted him to find a way, she desperately wanted the bond to be broken. But nevertheless, it would be practically impossible to do so. The accursed thing came along with his aspect, how would he even break it?
But she knew the answer to that question, it was a very simple solution after all.
To break free from the chains, all Sunny had to do was kill the person holding them.
To plunge his dagger into her heart when she was least expecting it, fulfilling his vengeance towards her.
Nephis was somewhat surprised he hadn’t done so already. Changing Star knew how spiteful he was, she had seen so herself, and there was definitely enough reason to do so.
She had wronged him deeply, and even that description would be an understatement of the century.
Maybe he hadn’t because of her relationship with the other people he was close with, maybe it was because of her fame, maybe it was because he wouldn’t be able to get away with murdering her.
Nephis knew nothing about what was hidden behind that calm expression of his, and that worried her extensively.
She did hope however, that he still cherished the deep connection they had shared back then, and that it was that reason why he didn’t kill her.
Even though Nephis knew he most likely wouldn’t try anything unless she instigated it, deep down, a small part of her would always be wary and on guard around him. Just like she had done with Caster.
She hated it, she hated her body —- her instincts for tensing up as if Sunny was an enemy. She hated the mere idea her body entertained that those two could ever be the same.
They weren’t and they would never be.
But who knows? One day he could wake up and suddenly change his mind, striking her when she least expected it.
It was the same way he had to live with the possibility of her changing her mind and ordering him at any random moment.
Sunny had hidden that expression well, but she quickly saw through it. She knew him best in the world after all, two worlds even.
She saw the ever so slight tension in his shoulders whenever she spoke, the twitching of his face, his eyes narrowing onto her as the words left her mouth.
Just as a small part of her was coldly calculating his actions, a small part of him was doing the same with her.
It felt as if his entire body was a compressed spring, ready to act at any moment if she ever ordered him again.
She truly hated this game they were playing, but there was no way out.
It was simply the reality they had to live with now.
All of it was just so… complicated.
She hardly even knew how to feel, to think, to do, to say, about any of it.
Things were so much simpler back then on the Forgotten Shore, when all they had to do was survive.
But even if she didn’t know much, Nephis knew she wanted one thing, and it was that she wanted to make it up to him the best she could.
Nephis wasn’t even sure if anything she could do would ever come close to compensating, but trying to was the least she could do for him.
She would never use the bond again, and would watch her every word in order to make sure of that.
That alone felt shallow to her, it barely felt like anything.
So what if she didn’t use the power?
She was the one who forced it upon him in the first place.
But… it was all she could do.
And so she would do it.