"What do you mean? What have I done?" Sunny asked in confusion.
It was already hard enough holding back a piece of his mind, but her telling him that he did wrong made it so hard for Sunny to do so. But at the same time, Sunny wanted to give Cassie a big hug, after all Sunny had cared for her like a sister for over a year, and those feelings don't disappear instantly. Plus, Sunny had some time to think it over after Nephis told him it was Cassie who had given him her true name.
'I'll talk to her about it later,' Sunny thought as Cassie sighed.
"Fate... is a complete mess right now is what I mean. I thought you would have felt it by now, given your deep connection to fate, but it seems not. After I returned to the awaking world fate seemed to be okay, I received visions like usual and were on point. But then... holes started to appear in them. Some were still full at times, but only on rare occasions now."
Where it felt like someone should be there was an empty void. Sometimes there were two holes and sometimes there was just one, but not just that. My visions have seemed to become inaccurate, or heavily faded as if disappearing from the grand tapestry of fate. Where I should have seen a vision there was none.
Cassie stopped speaking for a moment, to both catch her breath and to let Sunny digest the information.
"I suspect that rather you or Nephis, or possibly both of you, weren't supposed to be trapped here. The damage to fate has been... minimal as it's only my aspect being hindered by whatever you and Nephis caused. So tell me Sunny, what the hell happened in the spire?" Cassie finished as he looked at her delicate eyes that weren't hidden behind a blindfold for once.
What Cassie had told him was shocking to say the least. The grand tapestry being shaken meant that fate wasn't as idominable as he thought. Not only that but Sunny had managed to break fate even, becoming a fate breaker in the process. It also meant that what happened between them at the spire and after wasn't supposed to happen. Getting his thoughts together Sunny tried to get his thoughts together before an important question popped into his mind.
"Wait Cassie how the hell are you contacting me right now?"
Cassie seemingly smiled a little from his question, as if amused.
"Don't tell me you thought I was staying idle in the waking world? After escaping I needed a citadel to stay at, so I chose the Chain Isles which is up north from Bastion. Before that though I gathered the entire dreamer army under one banner, the Fire Keepers, and spread them all over the dream realm to act as reconnaissance. After that, I officially joined clan Valor as a valuable seer for their surplus of resources and spying on their moves. It seems that Valor and Song have given up their assassination attempts and are waiting until Nephis wakes up.
But while all that was happening, I made a special request to the blacksmiths, a special memory that would allow me to contact people from a great distance for a short time. It took them about a month after the escape till now for them to complete it, but it would only be activated after their asleep. And although I would've loved to see Nephis again I knew the smarter choice was to contact you again."
"Oh yeah? And why's that? After all, you seem to be closer to her than me." Sunny said mockingly.
Frowning, she pretended not to hear the last bit and responded.
"Because I need to... see you for myself, to see what my actions had done to you and Nephis. Perhaps if I hadn't meddled with fate you both would've escaped, or more likely one of you would have. Nephis... I wanted her to escape more than you, and I know how unfair that is to you as you had done as much as she had for me, for all of us."
Getting closer to him Cassie seemingly spawned a sword and tossed it to him.
"What is this for?" Sunny asked as he caught the plane looking sword
"You can hurt me as much as you want, cut off my arm, or maybe gut me. Whatever you'd like, this will be my apology to you Sunny for making you into a slave, I will not fight back."
Sunny stared at her shocked as Cassie seemingly stood there, expectantly. Sunny didn't know if she was pulling a reverse psychology for him not to hurt her, or if she was being genuine with her actions. And yet Sunny felt that her actions were indeed genuine. Moving close to her, Sunny raised the sword and hovered it above her throat. Cassie kept her promise as she neither flinched nor resisted as the cold blade touched her delicate throat. It would be so easy to slice her throat, and yet Sunny was hesitating once more like he did with Nephis.
As if coming to a decision Sunny threw his sword aside, leaving a slightly red mark on her neck where his sword had been.
"Don't get the wrong idea, I just prefer to hit you with my fist instead of a sword," Sunny said.
"Oh of course," Cassie responded as she bowed a little, putting her face outward, as if happy to fulfill her harrowing repentance.
"I was joking, I'm not going to hurt you, Cassie. You... matter too much to me and even though you really fucked up, I'm willing to give you a second chance. I will never forgive you, or maybe one day I will, but for now I'll just give you one last chance."
Cassie stood deadly still before tears and snot started pouring down her pale face as she ran and hugged Sunny tightly as she sobbed into his shirt. Sunny, not knowing what to do, simply patted her head as he held her tightly as she sobbed.
"I-I'm s-so sorry!" Cassie wailed as her tears started to soak his shirt.
"Shhh it's okay," Sunny said soothingly like he had done with Rain whenever she did something bad. They stood together for an unknown amount of time, Sunny holding her tight as she sobbed into his chest. Eventually, she pulled herself together and she magically summoned two chairs across from each other as they took a seat.
"So I guess I should tell you now what exactly happened in the spire huh?"
Cassie nodded as Sunny mentally prepared to tell her what she could and couldn't know. In the end, he decided to go tell her the full truth. Not because she deserved it, gods know she didn't after what she took away from him even if he did eventually get over it and benefited from it. But because Sunny simply didn't want to leave out important details that could be important for later for her to know later. After all, she had been the only one to notice, to their knowledge, that fate had been thrown into dismay. So it was smart for her to know what exactly happened to perhaps theories what happened differently from what fate had planned.
"Well after I led the charge up to the gate I went up to see Nephis. On the way, I was intercepted by Caster who tried to get there first to kill Nephis. In which I made my totally awesome ordinary rock to mimic Nephis' voice before destroying his sand dial memory which he used to counteract his flaw. He died to age shortly after and around that time Nephis killed the fallen terror during its evolution, but in doing so the spire used everyone remaining as a conduit for the gate. I went up to Nephis who was still injured from her fight before we fought for who got to go home. In the end, I won and Nephis lost.
Or at least it seemed so, in truth, Nephis had allowed me to win and almost tricked me even if I hadn't noticed small details throughout the fight. Eventually, we argued, I was saying I should stay with her while she urged me to leave her. In the end, I faked leaving before destroying the gate myself, in which she invoked my true name which you gave her to try and stop me but it was too late. After that, we escaped the spire right as it collapsed and spent the rest of the following weeks in the Dark City." Sunny finished as he caught his breath from his simplified story.
"Well then," Cassie said slowly as if piecing the puzzle together, "I truly do think you broke fate after all. The vision of light being devoured by shadow didn't happen as intended, meaning that you were supposed to kill her, or perhaps you were supposed to leave her behind after all but instead got stuck with her. It was perhaps the latter since if it was the former it would still fit the vision, thus not leading fate to be in shambles.
Sunny nodded as she spoke, a frown appearing on his face. He could never imagine killing Nephis, but what if he was supposed to? He didn't feel an urge to kill her now or ever but still... did it mean the vision is invalid or has still yet to come, perhaps fate would make it so Sunny would have to sacrifice her later on.
'I wouldn't put it past fate to do something so vile and odious.'
"We can only hope that the vision is invalid now and pray that fate will restore itself in a matter of time. For now, though the safe option for you Cassie would be to not trust any visions from now on since they are variables now." Sunny told her with a straight face, trying not to frown.
"Yes I thought so too, it's sad really, I am limited to my awakened ability now. Oh, I haven't told you about it yet but it allows me to see a few moments in the future if I use essence. It doesn't exactly replace sight but is helpful for not falling or being able to walk with diligence."
"Well, that's a significant improvement considering you're blind. It might even make you more capable in battle than the average awakened if you manage your usage and essence correctly. You really lucked out Cassie!" Sunny said with a small smile forming on his face.
He wasn't kidding when he said she could be more capable in battle with her new ability. Being able to perceive the future meant she could change it completely to benefit herself. Of course, seeing the move the enemy would do and being able to dodge or counter it were two completely different things. But Sunny was sure she would be able to integrate it into her battle style and become deadly among awakens.
"But," Cassie said as she swirled her curly hair with her finger, " I received a weird vision a day after my initial escape. I saw a nightmare seed buried under roots that were under a grand majestic tree. Surrounding it were horrors of all monstrosities, some I can't even begin to describe. But it felt like they all worshiped or feared the tree as their lord. I also think that the tree is alive, more dangerous than the soul devourer as I felt myself getting consumed as I stared at it. As if I would become one of the many leaves on it if I stared too long. I'm hoping that information would be of any use to you?"
"Yes it is actually, it is very useful. After me Nephis and escaped a horrid place filled with corruption we got sent into a jungle that wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the extreme climate and it always being day. But I think you just discovered where me and Nephis should go now. Is there any markers to indicate where the tree is?"
"No I don't but if I had to guess it would be at the center of the forest. It was damp and shaded where the tree was as it towered over all the trees nearby."
Cassie's shoulder suddenly dropped a little as she made a sulking face.
"I had told you that this memory I'm using will only work for a short time, but it's also a one-time use. I had used all my favors to make it in the first place so don't expect any contact with me for a long time, though I hope the next time we talk is in the waking world. I also must tell you that me, Effie, Kai, and three other firekeepers are preparing to face the second nightmare at the end of the week, so in two days. It was quite hard to find the seed since it was in the ivory tower in the chained isles. But luckily a vision showed me how to rebuild a flying ship from the past to go down into the depths of the divine flames to then go to the ivory tower."
Sunny nodded along as she spoke, a look of understanding shown on his face.
'Yeah, I have no idea what she's talking about, but I'm happy for her wanting to challenge the second nightmare.' In truth, Sunny only understood half of what she said.
Sunny guessed that's what people felt whenever he spoke about killing a great devil or when he lived with a fallen devil. Sunny was surprisingly not nervous about Cassie's trial, but that was because he knew she was more than capable of taking care of herself now. He thought that Cassie wouldn't challenge the second nightmare unless it was with Nephis maybe because it was dangerous and deadly for any awakened, especially one who was blind.
"Oh, I guess it's a good time to tell you that Nephis and I are dating," Sunny said with a smile.
"Oh that's nice... wait what!" Cassie said, high-pitched too.
"How did you two start dating? When did you two start dating? You two are such blockheads how could you possibly be dating?" she rambled.
"Well it's a long story, but in short there was a misunderstanding in which I blurted out that I loved her too and she had to chase me as I ran. We talked, then we started dating."
Sunny started to blush a little from talking about Nephis in such a romantic way, but he felt nice talking about her. Sunny was clingy and loved Nephis to a degree that if Nephis told him to get on his knees, she wouldn't even need to use their bond, not that she would ever unless needed.
Suddenly Cassie's figure got blurry as Sunny suddenly found it hard to see her even though she was right in front of him.
"Looks like our time is up now sadly," Cassie sounded, though her voice sounded far away, "I hope you and Nephis come back safe and take care, Sunny."
"I hope you take care too, Cassie," Sunny said warmly as Cassie smiled at him before he felt his eyes grow heavy and closed them.
Sunny opened his eyes again to see Nephis above him, poking at his cheeks softly while staring intently at him.
"Good morning, Sunny."
"Good morning, Nephis."
They both smiled as Nephis kissed him on the lips which he responded with the same force while grabbing the back of her head to pull her closer. Eventually, they pulled away as a string of saliva extended from their lips as Sunny rose slightly from the bed.
"I talked to Cassie in my dream." Nephis looked at him with a puzzling expression.
"How so?"
"She joined clan valor to use their resources and blacksmiths to make a memory to contact me and we talked. I told her about our fight in the spire, us dating, but most importantly what we should do next."
Nephis nuzzled up to him, her head pressing into his chest. He pulled her closer and put an arm around her.
"And what's that?"
"We have to look for a really big tree."