Shadow Slave

In a heavily guarded underground room, a young woman with silver hair was sleeping in a transparent machine that kept her body alive. Her face was pale and thin, painted by the ghostly glow of machine lights and deep, angular shadows.

The room was peaceful and silent, the hum of machinery creating low background noise. From time to time, a piece of medical equipment produced a sound and grew quiet again.

A blind girl with piercing blue eyes stood quietly near the sleeping pod, an empty expression written in the delicate lines of her beautiful face. If it wasn't for the fact that her hand rested on the hilt of an elegant rapier, a person would easily mistake her for one of the Hollows that were cared for on another level of the hospital complex.

The door of the room did not open, however, there was suddenly another presence inside. A young man with pale skin and dark, cruel eyes appeared out of the shadows and walked over to stand on the opposite side of the sleeping pod. His steps were soft and quiet.

He lingered for a while, then looked down, at the young woman sleeping beneath the glass lid of the mechanical coffin.

For a second, his face became contorted by a terrible grimace. Grief, anger, fear, and longing mixed in his eyes, then disappeared, hidden behind a mask of cold indifference.

Sunny stared at Nephis for a long time, trying to get his emotions under control. He knew that seeing her like this, weak and helpless, would affect him. But he didn't know just how much it was going hurt him.

…He also had not anticipated how dark the thoughts entering his mind would be.

'...I can kill her right now. One strike of the Moonlight Shard, and I'll be free again.'

But no, he couldn't.

Firstly, because there was no guarantee that Nephis would die if her body was destroyed. Just like there were Hollows, people whose souls had been destroyed while leaving an empty body behind, there were Lost — people whose bodies in the real world had died, leaving their souls wandering the Dream Realm.

He suspected that this was the reason why the people who wanted Changing Star dead had sent Caster to kill her in the Dream Realm instead of infiltrating the Academy.

And secondly, and maybe more importantly… he simply could not bring himself to harm Nephis. Not again, not anymore, and not… not like this.

'Cassie, on the other hand…'

With a dark grimace, Sunny slowly moved his gaze to the blind girl.

As if noticing it, she turned slightly and said:

"Hello, Sunny."

He stared at her, his eyes burning with fury.

"What, you can see now?"

Cassie lingered for a moment, then shook her head.

"No. But… something like that."

A wild grin appeared on his face.

"Congratulations. Really, good for you! You won't be useless anymore, at least."

He knew that his words were going to hurt her, and was glad to say them for that reason

The blind girl didn't react, and just continued staring into the emptiness, her eyes cold and distant. But he wasn't fooled. He knew her well enough to recognize the ocean of pain hiding behind that coldness.

'Good… suffer! You deserve this!'

Sunny opened his mouth, wishing to accuse her, but then forced himself to stop. He had to keep himself under control...

Swallowing his angry words, Sunny gritted his teeth and spat:

"How? How did you even know?!"

Cassie hesitated for a bit, then answered quietly:

"When you killed that spy from the Castle. You said it out loud then. I saw it… in a vision. After that, the rest was not impossible to figure out."

His eyes widened.

Sunny remained silent for a long time, trying to deal with the shock that her words had caused him.

'Harper… when I killed Harper?'

The memory of that horrible day sent a shudder through his soul. He remembered it so vividly… the blood streaming down his hands as he held the pitiful young man down, murdering him, giving in to the agony of the Flaw.

And whispering in a hoarse, barely audible voice:

"Lost from Light! I am… Lost… Lost from Light…"

Standing in the underground room of the hospital complex, Sunny wanted to both laugh and cry.

'So this is it… this was what did me in… one mistake, I only made one mistake, and it was all it took to undo me!'

It was almost as if Harper had managed to avenge himself from beyond the grave. Well… he had never gotten a grave, really. Sunny just dumped his body in the ruins, for the Nightmare Creatures to feast on.

A lot of good it did him, in the end.

Piercing the blind girl with a burning look, he said through gritted teeth:

"So that was why you were waiting for me back then, why you gave me the Eternal Spring? You were… you were ready to say goodbye. You knew?"

Cassie slowly faced him, then said in a steady, even tone:

"Yes. I did."

Sunny looked down, clenching his fists.

"You knew... if you knew… then why didn't you try to change anything?! Why, curse you?!"

Cassie stared at him, her calm expression finally collapsing. Pain, sorrow, and anger contorted her face, and with a voice so hurt that it almost sounded as if she was bleeding, she answered:

"Didn't try?! Of course, I tried! I tried everything I could to make the future I saw change! But no matter how much I tried, it never did. It always remained the same! Even worse, my attempts only made it... appear even more inevitable..."

Turning away, she gritted her teeth and remained silent for a while, her hands trembling.

"I… I… I was the first one to understand what my vision of the Crimson Spire meant. Shadows devouring a dying angel… I understood it on that very day."

Cassie closed her eyes for a moment, then spoke again, her voice quiet.

"Don't you remember? I even asked you to promise to always protect her. And what did you say?"

Sunny stared at her, remembering. Yes, at the very start, there had been a conversation like that.

"...No. I said no."

A fragile smile appeared on Cassie's face.

"Yes. You said no. And on that day, I knew that I had to make a choice. And I made it. I chose Neph."

She shivered and hugged herself, as if dying of cold.

"I had to betray one of my best friends to save the other. And I did. I chose to sacrifice you to save Neph. Of course, I fooled myself for a while, telling myself that nothing bad would happen. That if I help Neph, maybe both of you would survive. But deep down, I knew that it was just one of the possible outcomes, so what was the difference? I betrayed you. And you know what?"

A small, bitter laugh escaped from her lips.

"It was for nothing. I betrayed my best friend, and nothing still changed. I sacrificed you, but couldn't save anyone. Despite it all, I couldn't… couldn't change fate."

Sunny stared at her for a while, then snarled:

"...That's it? That's your speech? That's what you have to say for yourself? What do you want me to do, pity you?"

A furious gleam appeared in his eyes.

"After everything I have done for you, after I saved your life countless times, took care of you as if you were my sister, this is how you chose to repay me? By giving my biggest secret to Neph, so that she could use it against me when the time came?"

Cassie remained silent, not saying anything.

"Do you even know what you've done?! Do you even know what you've taken from me?!"

She hesitated for a bit, that answered quietly:

"I didn't know why, or how my vision would come true. I only knew that it would happen in the Spire. So I gave your secret to Nephis, hoping that she would survive thanks to it."

Sunny laughed, then grew quiet.

An oppressive silence settled between them, and remained unbroken for several minutes.

After a while, he finally said:

"...I can understand. Rationally, I do. You were forced to make a terrible decision, with both choices being a betrayal. And you chose to help Neph, who was with you first. Who saved you when I would have just left you to die."

But then, a cold gleam appeared in his eyes.

"But that doesn't mean that I can forgive it. You go to hell, Cassie. Go to hell and die there, for all I care. I hope that I will never see you again."

With that, Sunny turned around to leave, but then stopped.

He couldn't help but be cruel to her one last time.

"Oh, and that secret? It was the reason why she got stuck there all alone. So, in a sense, you have doomed both of your friends."

As he spoke those words, Cassie flinched.

A satisfied, vindictive smile appeared on Sunny's face.

...But why did it hurt him so much to say those words?

"So, congratulations. You've made it back, Cassie. Go back home, spend time with your family. Didn't you tell me that your mother makes the best eggs? Eat your fill. Try to enjoy them, knowing what you did."

As the blind girl paled and turned away with a broken expression on his face, he smiled bitterly and dissolved into the shadows.

Bonds of friendship were such a fragile thing.

They were so hard to create, but so easy to break.

All it took was a moment...