[You can ask 5 questions now]
A heavy, expectant silence descended as the assembled Saints and Masters and even sovereigns from across time weighed their questions. Both Clan Song and Clan Valor were burning with curiosity about the reclusive Saint, yet neither wished to grant the other the advantage of an extra query. The air crackled with unspoken rivalry.
Unperturbed, Anvil of Valor broke the stillness, his voice as frigid and devoid of emotion as ever.
"Is his Aspect related to this double life? How he exists as the Saint, LOS, and this 'Master' simultaneously?"
[Yes and no. It is related to a portion of his Aspect.]
The mood grew contemplative once more. The implications were staggering; Sunless's Aspect was somehow connected to him being in two places at once, or perhaps instantaneous travel to the desolate nightmare of Godgrave.
This time, it was Seishan of Song who addressed the runes.
"Does his Aspect allow for teleportation or some form of rapid travel?"
[No. His Aspect does not grant him the ability to travel instantly.]
The deduction was now chillingly clear. Somehow, Sunless was in two places—and possibly even more—at the exact same time.
"An Aspect related to clones?" Effie mused aloud with a light chuckle. "If so, the one in Godgrave has to be the real one. Survived there and all. It can't be that the copies are as strong as the original, right?"
[Song and Valor are left with one question each.]
"What is his Aspect?" Morgan asked, her voice sharp and decisive after a brief, tense exchange with her fellow Saints and a curt nod from her father.
[It will be revealed later.]
flicker of raw disappointment crossed Morgan's face at the wasted question. Seishan, after a silent deliberation with her clan, stepped forward again.
"Changing Star went to meet LOS. What was the outcome? Was she rejected like our own delegation, or does the Lord of Shadows hold a soft spot for the cohort that forgot him?"
[The Lord of Shadows proposed a challenge to Changing Star and her cohort... a spar of skill. Changing Star emerged victorious. As a result, LOS has agreed to ally himself with her... not with Valor.]
Morgan's frown deepened into a scowl. The practical outcome was the same—an alliance for Valor through her adopted sister. But the runes' specific, deliberate phrasing was a barb she couldn't ignore. She had no question left to clear her doubts, but she didn't need one. Nephis herself addressed the runes, her voice calm and steady.
"What do you mean, 'allied to me'... and not to Valor?"
[It is as stated. LOS has allied himself to Changing Star's 'cause'.]
That was all Nephis and her cohort needed to hear. A small, almost imperceptible smile—a true rarity—graced her usually stoic face. LOS was helping them in their true war: the one against the Sovereigns.
"I see," she said softly.
[The viewing will start now.]
The runes foretold before dissipating, and the screen before them flooded with color.
[More customers visited the Brilliant Emporium to enjoy tea and snacks after a long day of work. The evening crowd receded, and the sun disappeared beyond the horizon. Moonlight and darkness enveloped the streets of Bastion as the city slowly grew quieter.]
[Aiko left, leaving Sunny in the empty cottage.]
[He cleaned up the dining hall, and then went to the porch to breathe some fresh air.]
[Looking at the thriving city surrounding him, full of countless people… Sunny felt painfully alone.]
[Especially today, he couldn't help but feel it sharply.]
While most maintained emotionless facades, a few of the more compassionate souls, like Smile of Heaven and Sunny's own cohort, felt a distinct pang of sorrow for him. The depth of his loneliness, sharp and palpable even through the screen, was a painful thing to witness.
[Sunny remained on the porch for a while, watching the pale moon slowly move across the starlit sky.]
[Then, he sighed and went inside.]
['I'll clean up the kitchen, then go to bed. Everything else can wait until tomorrow.']
[This day had been strangely eventful.]
[He was busy washing the kitchen utensils when the Silver Bell suddenly rang again. Surprised at the appearance of a late customer, Sunny raised an eyebrow and walked into the dining hall.]
["I'm sorry, but we are about to close…"]
[The words died on his lips.]
[Out there, in front of him, stood a delicate young woman in a seawave cloak. Her hair was like a cascade of pale gold, and her eyes… were hidden behind a strip of blue cloth.]
"Cassie?" Nephis breathed, her gaze locked on the screen, her composure momentarily broken.
"Tch… the blind witch," Jest muttered from Valor's side, his voice dripping with disdain. A few glares were shot his way, but he simply returned them with a contemptuous smirk.
Meanwhile, the person in question was drowning in her own thoughts. Why did I go to him? As her mind drifted, a forgotten memory surfaced... not a memory itself, but the ghost of one. A pocket note she had written for herself. It felt alien; she never wrote notes, her memory was flawless. It was as though a veil of smoke was deliberately obscuring the memory's content from her mind.
"...ssie... Cassie... CASSIE!" Nephis said, gently shaking her friend's shoulder.
Cassie frowned slightly, blinking as she saw the worried faces of her friends.
"Are you all right?" Nephis asked, her concern genuine.
Cassie forced a small smile. "I-I'm fine... just remembering something."
[She lingered for a moment, then turned her head in the direction of Sunny's voice.]
["Oh… I am sorry. I'm afraid I'm a bit late, then."]
[Sunny remained silent, trying to overcome his shock.]
['What… what is she doing here?']
[He suppressed his roiling emotions and put on the polite mask of a humble shopkeeper.]
["No, no. It's no trouble. What can I get for you? I'll prepare it quickly."]
[The young woman tilted her head a little, then said hesitantly:]
["My name is…"]
[He interrupted her, forcing an appropriate amount of reverence into his voice:]
["I know who you are, Saint Cassia song of the Fallen. Who in Bastion doesn't? I am the owner of the Brilliant Emporium... you can call me Master Sunless. It is an honor to meet you."]
[Cassie sighed, then nodded curtly. Eventually, she said:]
["... I heard that you can procure rare Memories. Or craft them."]
[Sunny froze for a moment.]
['Ah.']
[One of the Fire Keepers must have recommended him. And knowing Cassie, it wouldn't have taken her long to discover that the owner of the Brilliant Emporium didn't just sell Memories, but also crafted them.]
[But why would she come to him? The finest enchanters of Clan Valor were at her disposal.]
[Sunny took a deep breath.]
["Are you interested in commissioning a Memory, my lady?"]
[She nodded again.]
["In a way."]
[He smiled. Now, he was in familiar territory.]
["Great! I am sure that you won't be disappointed in my services. Just today, a member of the renowned White Feather clan purchased a Memory from our stock. They were extremely satisfied with its quality."]
"Telle... you know of this Emporium?" Raon asked his daughter, his tone laced with surprise. Telle flushed slightly under her stoic mask and gave a small, stiff nod. Raon and Tyris exchanged a worried glance.
"Saint Cassia," Morgan began, her voice carrying a sharp, political edge, "why did you seek out Master Sunless? Are you dissatisfied with Valor's own enchanters? Or is this a matter of distrust?"
"...This is an event in the future," Cassie replied, her small smile mirroring Morgan's, though her mind was a tumultuous sea. "If you wish for an answer, Princess Morgan, I suggest you ask my future self."
[Cassie smiled, then shifted slightly as if looking around.]
["That is good to hear. The Memory I want you to make must be of the highest quality."]
[She lingered for a few moments, then turned to him and added in a neutral tone:]
["Oh, and by the way…"]
[Her smile wavered a little.]
["...Happy Birthday."]
Eyes widened across the room.
"What...?" Nephis's voice trembled slightly as she turned to Cassie, who looked equally stunned. "Cassie, did you remember him?"
Just then, a fragment of memory pierced through the fog in Cassie's mind. The blurry note crystalized: a simple, stark command to herself to wish someone a happy birthday on the winter solstice.
"N-no... not fully," Cassie stammered, her voice shaking but filled with a sudden, desperate hope. "But I remembered a piece of it. A warning to myself."
[For a split second, his mask cracked.]
[Sunny's face did not move, but his gaze transformed. For a short moment, his eyes were deeper and darker than before — the lightless depth contained within them was too vast, too cold, and too unfathomable to belong to a harmless shopkeeper.]
[He froze, a storm of emotions raging in his heart. For a second, Sunny was stunned, not knowing what to say.]
[The shadows stirred.]
[But then, just as quickly, he composed himself.]
Telle, Smile of Heaven, and even some of the Saints shuddered.
"Now that is a gaze that has seen the abyss," Broken Sword commented, grabbing his wife's hand. She squeezed it, reassured by his touch.
"S-scary... he's so scary," Rain muttered, unnerved by this chilling side of her usually smiling teacher.
"Quite the gaze," Noctis chuckled, a genuine thrill in his voice despite the shudder that ran down his own spine. "Those are the eyes of a true survivor."
["Why, thank you. But how did you know?"]
[An irrational, desperate hope had ignited in his chest, threatening to burn away his judgment. A hope that someone—anyone—remembered him… that Cassie did. The thought was both blindingly sweet and ruthlessly painful.]
[Because it was impossible. The [Fateless] Attribute was absolute. With a surge of will, Sunny extinguished that futile hope and hid his rattled state.]
[How had she known, though?]
['Maybe… just maybe…']
"Ah... he must have been so terribly lonely," Nephis whispered, her heart aching at the sight of Sunny clinging to such a fragile hope.
Cassie watched the screen, her own hope a desperate, burning prayer that her future self would give him the answer he longed for.
[Cassie was facing him, remaining silent. Her smile slowly dimmed, replaced by a strange and solemn expression. Sunny felt uncomfortable, but he did not show it.]
[Come to think of it… he had not noticed immediately, but Cassie looked… wrong.]
[How could he describe it? She seemed… haggard.]
[A stranger would have been blinded by the stunning beauty of the blind seer. But to Sunny, she looked out of sorts. Her clothes were a little messy. Her hair, usually a perfect waterfall of pale gold, seemed hastily combed. There were faint signs of fatigue on her delicate face.]
[Much more importantly, there was a restless intensity to her that had never been there before. As if Cassie was… unmoored, having lost her innate state of composed balance.]
[Sunny had seen the other members of his cohort from afar since his return, but this was his first time seeing Cassie. The blind seer had changed.]
[She finally turned away and walked a few steps, as if studying the dining hall.]
"He knows me so well," Cassie said, her voice thick with emotion. She gripped Nephis's hand tightly. "He must have been so close to us." Nephis squeezed back firmly as their cohort gathered around them with quiet, understanding looks.
["It's strange. Some time ago, I was delivered a note, asking me to find a person named Sunless and wish him a happy birthday. On a winter solstice. But, the strangest part? The sender of the note… was me."]
["And I don't remember ever writing it."]
[Sunny remained silent. Sometimes, silence was the best way to make people talk.]
[The faint hope in his heart was extinguished. Cassie didn't remember. However, she must have known she wouldn't. She had made arrangements for this meeting before the Third Nightmare.]
[He suddenly felt stifled.]
A profound silence filled the viewing area, broken only by Cassie's soft, pained gasp. "I didn't remember," she whispered, the hope that had just bloomed within her withering into ash. Sunny was still forgotten.
[Cassie traced her fingers across one of the tables.]
["Sunless is a peculiar name, so finding him shouldn't have been difficult. But, to my surprise… that person didn't seem to exist. Not in government databases, Academy records, or the archives of the Great Clans. You might not know it, Master Sunless, but there are very few better at collecting information than me."]
[Sunny tilted his head.]
[Oh, he knew.]
["That is indeed strange."]
[His voice was pleasant and even.]
[She smiled.]
["A person named Sunless had not existed in either of the two worlds… until this year, when you arrived in Bastion. Naturally, I was curious. So, I studied you a little. I hope you don't mind."]
"So because he was forgotten, all records of him simply vanished," Broken Sword stated, grasping the terrifying totality of the attribute.
"It has been four years since their Third Nightmare," Mordret said, an unnerving smile playing on his lips. "For three of those years, he was not spotted in any known region of the Dream Realm or the waking world. That begs the question, doesn't it? Where, precisely, was our dear Forgotten One all that time?"
Mordret's words were met with disdain, yet they planted a seed of curiosity. Where had Sunny been for three entire years?
[Sunny hesitated. Even if he did mind, who would rebuke Song of the Fallen, a prominent Saint and seneschal of Clan Valor?]
[Cassie turned her head left and right, as if looking around.]
["I must admit, you are a fascinating man. Not only did you appear from nowhere, but your establishment is built inside of an Ascended Devil. How… inventive."]
[He tensed.]
[It wasn't a surprise. Cassie's Dormant Ability allowed her insight into all living things. The Marvelous Mimic was no exception.]
"WHAT?!" Effie screamed, leaping to her feet. "My little dumpling was living inside an Ascended Devil?! Wait... he makes food in there? That's... a bit gross!"
Ignoring Effie's outburst, Cassie noted how Sunny knew of her Dormant Ability. I must have told him myself. The thought was another painful reminder of the comrade they had lost.
[And yet she had stepped into the maw of an Ascended Devil without a hint of fear. Was it confidence or indifference? Sunny was not sure.]
[He coughed.]
["Ah. Well, why not? My house might not fly like your Citadel, but it can walk. It's convenient."]
[The more important question was… what did she see when looking at him? Weaver's Mask was in Godgrave, and while the Nebulous Mantle could hide his presence, it was not as potent at deflecting divination.]
[Nevertheless, Sunny was not worried. He was mostly certain that Cassie's powers were based on perceiving the strings of fate. Since no strings of fate were connected to him anymore, she should be powerless.]
A few were surprised that the house could move, but three people, along with the ancient Saints and Sovereigns, were utterly staggered.
"Weaver's Mask?" Noctis asked, his usual amusement replaced by genuine shock. "He is connected to that vile daemon of fate?"
"Weaver..." Anvil and Ki-Song's eyes shone with a dangerous, killing intent. "If has a connection to that daemon, he cannot be allowed to live."
"He's not connected by the strings of fate... so that's why he is [Fateless]," Cassie's eyes lit up with sudden, brilliant insight. "And now I am certain. Him losing his connection to fate is what made everyone forget him, and it is also why fate itself is in disarray! The destiny of the world... it must have been tied to his actions."
"My, oh my," Noctis said, his amusement returning. "The mysteries deepen. How fascinating!"
[As if confirming his thoughts, Cassie spoke calmly:]
["Do you know what I sense when I look at you? Nothing. You are a black void. Completely empty."]
[Sunny raised an eyebrow.]
["Not something a man wants to hear on his birthday, Saint Cassia."]
[She did not seem to have heard him, continuing in the same tone:]
["But this is perfect. Exactly what I've been looking for. Oh, Master Sunless… you seem strangely well-informed about my abilities. Well, just in case, let me tell you… I used to be able to see the future."]
[He hesitated, startled.]
["...Used to?"]
[Cassie nodded.]
["Yes. My ability has been in complete disarray since my Third Nightmare. Not just mine… all Awakened with high affinity to fate are suffering. It is as if fate itself has been thrown into chaos."]
[Sunny forced out a smile.]
["How terrible."]
[She remained silent, seemingly distracted. Then, she said with a subtle hint of relief:]
["Yes. It has been terrible. And I've been trying to find the cause for four years, without success. So, the message I sent myself made me think that you might be of help. That you wouldn't just think I am crazy."]
[Cassie paused, then faced him and said tensely:]
["Master Sunless… how would you react if I told you that there is a man-shaped hole in the fabric of the world?"]
"So the reason prophecies are so inaccurate is because Sunless lost his fate and was forgotten?" Seishan muttered, before fixing a sharp glare on Cassie. "And you know something about this, don't you, Saint Cassia?"
Cassie's voice shuddered with intensity, not for Seishan, but for everyone. "I have... a theory. My Aspect grants me a close connection to fate. I could see the future... I was always guided by it, a puppet on strings. I loathed it... I wanted to break it, to throw chaos into its order."
Her head hung low, her fingers digging into her palms. "And I think I succeeded. During our Third Nightmare... I believe I defied fate... by using Sunny as a weapon." She finally looked up, her expression a mixture of shame and horror. "And I knew he would be forgotten. That note... it was my only way to make my future self suspect something, to try and remember what I had done."
[The viewing has ended.]
The screen faded to black. For a moment, there was only darkness before the runes shone with light once more.
[This viewing will be continued in a short while]
***
Hey guys..I'm back with a new chapter after almost 2 weeks haitus...just wanted to write a chapter quickly and put it out so it might seem rushed or something but i'll continue cassie and sunny's conversation in next chapter...after that a chapter to show rain's teacher sunny in ravenahart....after that i'll start to work on the ideas you guys gave in the comments
also have you started the new arc after mirage city...i stopped reading at chapter 2550 to build up a few chapters as well as due to my exams and am now considering starting the new arc is it good or not?
~reader_who_dreams
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