Lucien's head began pounding as he read the runes, learning of their significance. The seven parts that made a being, Blood, Bone, Flesh, Mind, Soul, Spirit, and Shadow.
That corresponded to what he had seen when he glimpsed at Nephis' Divinity. Her soul cores had been the brightest then. He remembered looking at his own and noticing that his blood and the air around him were the brightest.
Why were some parts brighter than the others? He could understand his blood, considering how unique it was, but what was the air around him?
It couldn't be his soul, as that was depicted by his soul cores. It couldn't be his shadow, or mind. The spirit then?
Did the spirit of a person extend outward, encompassing a portion of the world around them?
But then why were they brighter than the rest?
Frowning, he began reading the second set of runes below those. These six runes each described the gods. As Lucien read each rune, a new piece of information drilled into his mind.
The first rune he saw was that of Shadow. The God of peace, death, solace, and mystery.
Inside Lucien's mind, in the great wall at the edge of his soul sea, a blank page began festering. A rune slowly took shape, carving itself onto the wall, the rune of Shadow. Dark smoke leaked from the rune, giving it a gloomy feeling.
The next rune he saw was that of Sun. The God of light, fire, passion, creation, and destruction.
Beside the rune of Shadow, the rune of Sun was carved into the wall. And a bright light came from it, as if a miniature sun was hiding behind the rune.
As his knees buckled, Lucien's gaze then fell on the third rune, Heart. The God of souls, emotion, memory, hunger, and growth.
The rune of Heart appeared next to Sun, one could see a forest underneath the rune, swaying in nonexistent wind.
Falling to a kneeling position, Lucien looked up at the next rune, that of War. The Goddess of life, War, Progress, Technology, Craft and Intellect.
The rune of War was carved below the rune of Heart. One could hear the sound of gears moving as they peeked through the rune.
Lucien forced himself to look at the fifth rune, the rune of Beast. The Goddess of the Moon, hunting, carnal desire, blood, beauty, and the cycle of birth and death.
The rune of Beast appeared beside war, and a white glow came from beyond, the visage of the moon could be seen along the lines of the rune.
Lucien's mind was a mess by then, it felt like someone had grabbed a stick and scrambled the inside of his head with it. Warm liquid flowed out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Clearly, learning the runes of the gods was not something he could handle.
Still, there was only one more rune left. With great effort, Lucien craned his neck up and stared at the final rune. The rune of Storm. The Goddess of the depths, oceans, darkness, stars, travel, guidance, and disaster.
The rune of Storm appeared finally, the night sky was visible beyond the rune, and the stars glimmerred through the lines.
Together the six runes created a circle on the great wall, much like the runes for the daemons. And just like the runes for the daemons, there was enough space for one more rune to fit in there.
All of this went unnoticed by Lucien. After seeing the sixth and final rune depicting the gods, Lucien's body finally gave in, and he passed out on the stone floor of Nethers workshop. The magenta, almost purple, blood formed a small pool around his head.
***
In the waking world, Nephis had just learned of Sunny's disappearance, she stayed quiet as Effie explained what had happened.
Even after she was done, Nephis kept staring at something in front of her, as if she was reading something.
A few seconds passed before she said, "He will survive."
It was both because she was confident in Sunny's abilities and because she had just read his runes.
A moment of silence passed before Kai chose to break it, "Lady Nephis, what exactly happened to you? How did you survive?"
Nephis looked away with a smile.
"There is not much to tell, really. The Crimson Terror was in its most vulnerable state when I reached the top of the Spire. Unrestrained by the dark sea, she had absorbed countless souls and was in the middle of an arduous evolution. With the help of the Dawn Shard, I was able to strike her down."
That simple explanation did not really do justice to the incredible accomplishment of slaying a Fallen Terror, but Nephis seemed reluctant to dwell too much on that part of her story. She also decided to skip the part about their confrontation with Sunny entirely. Instead, she looked at the window and continued:
"After she died, however, the Spire became unstable. The Gateway collapsed, and the tower itself soon followed. I barely escaped the debris. The artificial sun of the Forgotten Shore was extinguished, as well, submerging it into absolute darkness. The labyrinth itself perished, too, the crimson coral turning grey and slowly crumbling to dust. With no sea, no sun, and most Nightmare Creatures eradicated by the culling, it became a lightless and desolate place."
Then, she turned towards Effie, "As soon as I escaped the crumbling Crimson Spire, I found Lucien. He had just arrived."
Effie instantly perked up, giving Nephis her full attention, "How..how was he? Was he hurt?"
"No," Nephis shook her head, "He was fine, better than fine. He had managed to find the citadel in the Hollow Mountains and had awakened. Together the two of us headed towards the Nightmare Desert to look for his mother. We retraced the journey that Sunny, Cassie, and I had made…avoiding the Ashen Barrow of course."
Awakened…Effie couldn't help but smile. He was alive, he was well.
Nephis continued her tale.
"Eventually, we reached the edges of the Forgotten Shore and crossed into a vast and terrible desert. Seeing the sun and the stars once again… it was like a blessing. But that blessing came with its own curse. The desert had once been the site of a great battle between the gods and the daemons. Echoes of the clash between powers well beyond our comprehension still linger there, making it a dire and deadly place."
Nephis paused and continued in a somber tone.
"The land was filled with the corpses of both armies, they would rise at night and continue their eternal fight. The two of us barely managed to get through unnoticed. The deeper we went, it became more and more dangerous. At one point, we encountered another Fallen Terror. It cast a hex on us, making us unable to see or fight it."
She went silent for a moment, and then said, "Lucien managed to break out of it somehow, but I was still affected. In the end I couldn't do anything except watch as he fought the Terror on his own and won. We didn't go much farther after that, more and more Fallen abominations filled the desert, there were even some corrupted ones."
Scowling, she looked away.
"We had to give up on our search and turn back. We left the desert and returned to the Dark City, before heading towards the Hollow Mountains again. Once there, we took a different path and avoided the maze and the river to get to the Citadel. Lucien decided to stay there, and I returned through the gateway."
Then, she looked at Effie again, "I don't plan to change my Citadel, as long as I'm tethered there, I will be able to check up on him every time I enter the Dream Realm. At least this way he won't be alone."
Effie nodded blankly, as if still processing what she had just heard. Behind her Kai had a wide smile on his face.
"Thank the gods…He's fine, both of you are fine."
At some point, Kai had started blaming himself, for not noticing Lucien's turmoil earlier, for not telling the others about it. He felt like he was responsible for his fall. And the same went for Nephis. If only he'd stayed back a bit longer, he would've been able to get Nephi's out of the Crimson Spire on time.
"You wouldn't be able to take us with you to the citadel, would you?" Effie asked after a while.
"No," Nephis shook her head, "Only Saints can take people into the Dream Realm."
Then, she suddenly frowned and asked:
"Were there any… complications after you returned from the Forgotten Shore?"
She was alluding to Caster, the great clans, and the Sovereigns that wished her dead.
Cassie hesitated for a moment before shaking her head, "Not yet."
'Not yet?', Nephis echoed in her mind. For an oracle like Cassie to say that, meant that it was only a matter of time before it happened.
Right, she needed to be prepared. She was still only an Awakened, if the Sovereigns wanted they could still assassinate her. At that point it would be better for her to escape into the dream realm and directly challenge her second nightmare. Once she was a Master, the great clans would think twice before trying to kill her.
That was because Masters were still rare in the waking world, and each and every one was well known by the public. If one of them disappeared, the great clans would be under a lot of pressure.
At that moment, Kai stepped forward to say, "We should leave the hospital. People have started gathering around the gates, if we stay for too long it will become impossible to squeeze through the crowd."
As he said that a pained expression came over his face, as if he had faced this exact situation a thousand times over.
Nephis frowned and looked up at him, "Do you have anywhere we could stay, and catch up?"
"…" Kai went silent at that, all the places he knew were places where they would have no pirvacy.
"We could head to doofus' house." Effie suggested, "It's not like he's using it anyway."
"That sounds good." Kai said, "You could see him there too, although he is sleeping."
Nodding, Nephis got up from the bed, "Let's go."
As they were heading towards the armoured door, Effie leaned down and said:
"Fair warning, there are a lot of people waiting for you. So don't get spooked, okay princess?"
Before Nephis could respond to that, the armoured door opened, and the dozens of people outside came into view.
Nephis froze, for a moment she didn't know what to do. She had just come from a place devoid of human life with her only companions being Lucien and a talking skeleton.
Thankfully, the hospital staff had anticipated this and opened up a different path for her to leave the building. Before the excited people could swarm her, the four awakened slipped away from the coldly lit corridor.
It didn't take them long to leave the academy grounds and reach Sunny's new home. Once inside, the first thing they did was head to the basement, where Sunny's body was currently in the sleeping pod.
Nephis walked up to the sleeping pod, dragging her hand over the smooth surface of it as she stared at the lid.
The sleeping pod was heavily armoured, there wasn't even a glass window to look inside. For all intents and purposes it looked like a steel sarcophagus.
At least for the moment their roles were switched. Sunny was the one stuck in the Dream Realm, and Nephis was the one beside his waking pod.
The world had a sick sense of humour sometimes.