"Can you see through your shadows?"
Sunny stood frozen, his back pressed hard against the kitchen counter, his chest heaving as if he had just sprinted across the entirety of the Forgotten Shore. He was staring at Cielle, completely and utterly wrecked.
His Flaw, cold and absolute, seized his throat. It didn't care that his brain was currently melting down. It didn't care that his heart was hammering a frantic rhythm against his ribs. A question had been asked, and so the truth was forcefully pulled from his lips.
"Yes," Sunny rasped, his voice sounding shaky
Cielle simply nodded. Her large, magnificent wings slowly folded back behind her with a soft rustle of feathers. She looked angelic. Pure.
'What an absolute, bold-faced lie!' Sunny's brain screamed.' There was nothing angelic about what she just did! That was the most unholy, carnal thing that has ever happened to me…'
His gaze traitorously dropped to her mouth. Her lips were still swollen, flushed a deep pink, and glistening slightly in the dim light of the kitchen. He could still feel the phantom sensation of her soft, wet tongue sliding against his, the hot pool of saliva they had shared, and the heavy, incredibly distracting weight of her breasts pressing firmly into his chest.
'Stop it!' he ordered himself, his hands gripping the edge of the counter tight enough to crack the synthwood. 'Stop thinking about her body. Look at the wall. The wall is nice and safe.'
"Fascinating," Cielle murmured, her big green eyes studying him like a lab rat. She didn't look flustered. She was breathing a little deeply, yes, but her composure was infuriatingly perfect. "The structure of it is incredibly complex. It's tied directly to your soul core. I only caught the very edge of it."
'The very edge?'
Sunny thought, panic flaring in his chest.
'If that was just the edge, what does she have to do to get the rest of it? No, don't ask that. Do not ask that.'
He didn't tell her to leave. He should have. A rational man would have pointed to the door and demanded time to process the fact that his deepest secret had just been partially breached via French kiss. But Sunny couldn't bring himself to say the words. Instead, he just stood there, hyper-aware of the silence, the rain was loud against the window, and the terrifyingly beautiful girl standing in his kitchen.
"I'm going to make tea," Cielle announced casually, turning away from him as if she hadn't just rearranged his entire nervous system. "Can I?" she asked a second later.
Sunny just watched dumbly as she moved around the kitchen, her white wings shifting slightly with her steps. He felt like a bystander in his own home. He eventually managed to peel himself off the counter, sinking into one of the chairs at the too-large dining table.
"Sure…."
When she placed a steaming cup in front of him, he stared at it like it was a trap. She sat across from him, sipping her own tea. Her brown hair fell over her shoulder, framing her pale neck.
"Could you show me the rest of the house?" She set her cup down.
Sunny swallowed hard, forcing his vocal cords to work. "There's... there's just the basement left."
He led the way down the reinforced stairs, intensely aware of her following right behind him. He could hear the soft rustle of her white feathers, the light tread of her boots. His imagination, completely unhinged , supplied him with a barrage of highly inappropriate thoughts.
'What if she pushes me against the wall down here? The basement is soundproof. Lanard said it was soundproof. Why am I thinking about this? I am a dignified divine shadow. I am a terror of the Dream Realm. A divine aspect wielder! I am not currently losing my mind over a girl'
They stepped into the basement. The heavy ceramic alloy walls gleamed under the bright white lights.
Cielle walked past him, her eyes scanning the reinforced training equipment, the thick plating, and finally, the alcove at the far end. She stopped in front of the sleeping pod and the Dreamscape pod.
"A monolith," she noted, running a hand along the smooth steel of the primary pod. She turned her large green eyes toward him. "You expect to be in the Dream Realm for long periods of time?"
The Flaw gripped him again. "The academy pods are ok for a few hours, but I am a scout for my citadel, hence I'm usually out for around three to four days,"
Cielle looked at the thick metal, then at the heavy vault door of the basement. She processed the sheer level of paranoia required to build a room like this. She didn't judge him for it. If anything, the look in her green eyes softened just a fraction.
"It's a good room," she said quietly.
They spent another twenty minutes in the house. Sunny was functioning on pure autopilot. He answered her questions, showed her the security measures, and tried incredibly hard not to stare at her mouth every time she spoke.
Finally, she stood at the front door, pulling her damp cloak back over her shoulders. The rain had slowed to a light drizzle outside.
"Thanks for the tour, Sunny," she said.
She looked at him, gave him that small, impossibly subtle half-smile, and stepped out into the grey afternoon.
"See you," she said, and began walking down the path.
Sunny closed the door. He locked the deadbolt, and then, his knees completely gave out.
Sunny slid down the solid wood of the front door until he hit the floor with a dull thud. He brought his hands up, burying his face in his palms, letting out a long, pathetic groan that echoed in the empty hallway.
"I am an idiot," he whispered into the quiet house. "A compromised, weak-willed idiot."
His shadows detached from the floorboards. The gloomy shadow crossed its arms and shook its head in profound disappointment. But the friendly shadow was practically doing a triumphant pirouette, throwing its shadowy arms up in the air in absolute victory.
Sunny glared at it through his fingers. "Shut up. Both of you."
He sat on the floor for a long time, waiting for his heart rate to return to normal. It took an hour, maybe more.
Eventually, the exhaustion of the day caught up to him. He needed to enter the Dream Realm. He needed to sleep. He pushed himself off the floor and made his way down to the basement, popping the seal on the heavy steel pod. The interior was lined with a soft, advanced gel, designed to keep his muscles from atrophying.
Sunny let himself lay back into the pod and let the heavy steel lid slide shut, sealing him in absolute, impenetrable darkness. The familiar pulling sensation of the Nightmare Spell washed over him, dragging his consciousness down into the abyss.
***
Sunny opened his eyes.
The transition was always disorienting, a sudden shift from the sensory deprivation of the pod to the vivid, harsh reality of the Dream Realm. He took a deep breath, expecting the familiar scent of dust.
He was in his Sanctuary, a quiet, small settlement with nor more than 200 awakened. Sunny pushed himself up off the stone altar where he always manifested, rolling his shoulders to shake off the stiffness.
A soft rustle of feathers echoed in the quiet hall.
Sunny froze.
He spun around, his eyes piercing through the gloom of the Sanctuary. There were a few awakened here and there, yet the one he locked onto was quite striking.
Standing barely ten feet away, bathed in a shaft of pale, ethereal light falling from a broken archway, was a figure.
Brown hair. Big green eyes. Pristine, brilliant white wings that were currently half-unfurled.
Cielle was standing in the sanctuary of Noctis.
His jaw dropped.
Cielle stared back at him. For the first time since he had met her, the calm, unbothered mask she always wore slipped. Her green eyes were wide with surprise, her lips parted slightly.
"Sunny?" she said, her voice echoing softly in the vast stone hall.
Sunny just stared at her, his brain breaking for the second time that day.