Sunny should have known who he was dealing with when talking to Orphne.
Who knew how long she had been alone in the Shadow Realm. Of course she would develop an eccentric personality. If anything, it was a miracle she hadn't gone completely insane.
He was no stranger to going a little mad himself so he should have recognized the signs.
Orphne led him to an ominous looking shack that was built from the massive skull of a soul serpent's skeleton.
He had assumed that the inside would share the morbid and foreboding atmosphere but somehow despite the structure being made out of the skull of a creature that wields death, the inside was rather homely and comfy.
It was decorated with furs from all sorts of creatures that he was sure he would prefer not to encounter.
She hung her bow on a hook attached to the door and made her way to a cushy looking chair and pulled out an identical one for him gesturing for him to join her.
As a person who had an interest in history would, when encountering someone from ancient times, Sunny opened his mouth and prepared to ask a question that would likely end up with him becoming a more permanent resident of the Shadow Realm than he had planned.
Perhaps [Fated] pitied him and decided to spare his life as before he could ask the question that no woman wanted to hear, the huntress interrupted him by saying something that made his open mouth seem like a normal reaction.
"I'm curious though, you look fairly young. So how did you end up receiving Shadow's blessing and becoming a Shadow Slave."
'Why am I not surprised that she knows that?'
This was bad. He was becoming desensitized after having interacted with too many insane people who knew too much.
'I better be careful and protect my flawless mental health before I end up becoming like one of them.'
Well flawless might be a bit of an exaggeration but he was speaking relatively.
Compared to all of his peers with the possible exception of Kai he was the picture of perfect mental health.
Really it had all gone downhill when he had met Nephis.
Before meeting her Sunny might have even considered himself to be a little insane.
Now that he was thinking about it, he was struggling to come up with an Awakened that he had met that could be described as sane.
"Shadow woke up from his eternal slumber and blessed me personally."
For some reason Orphne did not look at all surprised.
Somehow Shadow, waking up from a cold dark grave to bless him, was more believable to her than his real name being Sunless.
"How did you know I'm a Shadow Slave anyway."
Orphne gave him an odd look that seemed to convey that he was asking a stupid question.
"Even for someone who has seen as much as me it's not often you come across someone with four shadows. Besides wouldn't it be a little odd if I didn't recognize a Shadow Slave considering one of the nine was one."
Sunny had thought himself desensitized to Orphne's antics yet what she said still had him floored.
'Is this how Kai feels when he talks to me?'
He felt slightly bad for the charming archer. Although not nearly enough to stop himself from teasing him when they next met.
Still meeting someone who had knowledge of Shadow Slave's was an enormous opportunity for Sunny. It only helped that she was positively ancient and may have some long-lost knowledge she might be willing to pass down.
"So, if knew a Shadow Slave then do you know how the hell, I can get rid of the [Shadow Bond]?"
He had a feeling she must know a thing or two about [Shadow Bond] and possibly a way to break it. He didn't know much about the nine, but he doubted someone from such an enigmatic group would be content living life as a slave.
Sunny had initially thought that anyone who was cursed with the innate ability [Shadow Bond] would inevitably try to break free. Yet now he wasn't so sure anymore.
Having met someone like Harus who he detested for having willingly become a slave he didn't believe that his desire for freedom was so universal anymore.
Orphne's face was lit up with an understanding smile.
"Ah, someone must have enslaved you already. Well feel free to share. Tell me about her."
Sunny looked at her in disbelief.
"How the hell did you know it was a woman who enslaved me?"
"Let's just say it's a woman's intuition."
Sunny was starting to get tired from all the nonsense he had heard come out of her mouth today.
'Maybe I was wrong. I'd probably be better off if I became desensitized to this.'
As Sunny began to talk about Nephis describing her personality and appearance in startling detail a faint smile made its way onto Orphne's face.
"Then she told she that her goal was to conquer all the nightmares, destroy the spell, and the Dream Realm. Surely, I'm not the only one who thinks that she is completely insane."
Orphne chuckled and retorted, "I don't really think you have grounds to accuse other people of being insane."
Sunny gave her an offended look, "Insane? Me? If anything, I'm the most normal person I know. It's more like everyone around me is insane. Now that I say that out loud it does sound exactly like what a crazy person would say."
"What makes you say that I'm insane?"
Orphne gave him an odd look. "What can't you tell? Based on how you describe this Nephis it became pretty obvious to me. You love her, don't you?"
Sunny stared blankly at the huntress. She had finally topped it all. This was by far the most outrageous thing she had ever said to him, nothing else even came close.
He gave her an indignant look, "Who would be stupid enough to fall in love with their slaver? Let me tell you there's nothing more pathetic than a slave who begins to trust their slaver."
Sunny opened his mouth about to deny her claim that he loved Nephis but suddenly found himself unable to speak what he was thinking as a wave of pain rushed over him.
Perplexed, he tried again and was met with the same wave of pain. That's when the realization of what was happening dawned on him to his own horror.
"No no no no no, that can't be true! This can't be happening!"
He let out a depraved laugh, "Why does my life have to be so full of irony? I'm getting tired of it. It's gotten long past the point where it was funny. Ah if only you could see me now Hero. Damnation, since when have I gotten so soft?"
He was disgusted and in disbelief with himself.
Sunny summoned the covetous coffer and started banging his head against it until blood covered his forehead and was dripping down his face.
After a while Orphne stood up and grabbed Sunny's hair preventing him from hurting himself anymore.
He had done it to hopefully clear his head, but that did little to help. He doubted any amount of pain could interrupt the emotional turmoil he was going through.
Sunny muttered, "I didn't think my Flaw could get any worse. Oh, how wrong I was. Why does confronting the truth hurt so damn much?"
Despite his Flaw Sunny was a master of deceit but even if he was able to deceive everyone else without lying, he could never truly lie to himself.
Orphne gave him a compassionate look, and he vaguely heard he reply, "I have to say that is one cruel Flaw you have. Probably the exact worst Flaw that I've heard of for someone with your Aspect."
He couldn't bring himself to care about another one of his secrets being exposed, as he was too consumed in his own turmoil.
This wasn't acceptable for Sunny. He could reluctantly admit that he didn't want to kill Nephis and even thought of her as a friend, which was saying a lot for someone as paranoid and cynical as himself, but he couldn't allow himself to see her as anything more.
It was already bad enough that he had some level of trust in her. He knew if he trusted her completely, he would be no better than Harus who he had killed solely because he had allowed himself to become what fate forced Sunny into being.
Having his love for Nephis pointed out by someone had caused Sunny to fall into a deep introspection of who he really was.
He had thought himself a creature of spite making grand declarations like he would live just to spite them all but having met Nephis had made him realize how shallow his spite really was. She desperately held onto her goal for revenge against the Sovereigns and the Spell.
Yet he couldn't even manage to kill the person who had enslaved him and the blind seer who had betrayed him.
He had thought himself unsociable and paranoid, yet after taking advice from Jet and being sent into a Death Zone on the winter solstice he had allowed himself to grow close to Nephis and Cassie in just a couple of months on the Forgotten Shore.
He believed he hated the idea of being anyone's shadow, yet he had been chasing after Nephis ever since the Forgotten Shore behaving just like a shadow would.
Maybe the reason that Sunny hated hypocrites so much was because he knew he was the biggest hypocrite of them all.
After having seen himself in a new light he started to believe that his biggest character flaw was his lack of ambition.
Perhaps why he could never catch up to Nephis was because he was content walking side by side with her. Shouldn't he strive to surpass her in strength if he wanted to deny his fate of being a shadow. Afterall how could a person far weaker than him claim that he was their shadow.
If he hated the idea of being someone's shadow so much, then wouldn't the right goal be to become unattached to them and not become emotionally dependent on them like he had become.
He had wanted to direct his spite at fate and break it, but he had found himself wavering in his Second Nightmare towards that goal because he had no idea how he could break fate.
After the Second Nightmare he had come to the realization that he might not really want to break fate.
He knew little of fate except that it seemed to have a vendetta against him.
The only reasonable path to trying to break fate would be to enlist the help of a seer. Yet how could he trust seers anymore after how Cassie had betrayed him.
Even if he were to find a seer to help him, he despised the idea of letting them help because they would be free to manipulate him however they wanted to.
Right now, he wasn't entirely sure that his fate was to forever be a slave. If he could escape away from Nephis, who is to say that he wasn't fated to break his chains completely.
Of course, he would endeavor to break fate if it led him to a horrible outcome but if it led him to a fantastic outcome, he saw no reason why fate needed to be broken.
That might be the difference between his spite towards fate and Nephis' spite towards the Spell. By now he had gotten enough of a grasp on Nephis' personality to tell that even if the Spell was the savior of humanity she wouldn't hesitate for even a second to destroy it with little regard for the possible consequences.