A Sunless Dream

The path towards God Grave was not one that could be traversed by the faint of heart and the weak. Great beasts, Corrupted titans and even the immense heat that was provided by the weather were enough to weaken even the strongest Saints.

Aboard the chain breaker, Nephis wiped some sweat off her brow with an expression of thinly veiled annoyance. Her aspect was immensely linked with fire and heat, so finding herself affected by the weather was an entirely new experience for her. Regardless of that, her continuous exposure to heat offered her high resistance to the high temperatures of God Grave.

However, the same could not be said for Cassie as she walked up the stairs of the chain breaker making her way up to the deck. She was covered in sweat from head to toe and wore an expression of utter frustration, the sudden change in temperature was not treating her kindly as her clothes clung to her body being held firmly in place by the copious amounts of sweat that was being caused.

"We need to take a break, and we need to do it now" Cassie said, taking a moment to wipe sweat off her face and although Nephis could not see her eyes the feeling of a glare being directed at her was not one she could easily shrug off. "Can we make a quick stop at Bastion? I need a cold shower" although Cassie phrased it as a question, her frustration made it appear as more of an order than what she had originally intended.

Nephis shook her head understanding her frustration and made her way towards the fire keeper who was controlling the ship. He was armed with three heat resistance charms however a small puddle of sweat was slowly surrounding him; it took every ounce of effort from Nephis body to resist a giggle as she stared at him with her expertly worn poker face.

"We'll be making a stop at bastion. It'll do us some good to escape the heat for a few days" she said, before even receiving a response she turned around and made her way back down to the docks of the ship where her room was located. Quite frankly, parts of her wished for it to take as long as possible for her to contact the lord of shadows.

Although his strength was rumoured to be bridging the gap between Saint and Sovereign without even challenging the fourth nightmare, that wasn't one of her major concerns. If he was who she thought he was, how was she supposed to face a man who she had robbed of his freedom? Lamenting her lack of social skills, she looked in her mirror and did something nobody ever would expect her to do.

She began practicing what she would say, if the man was Sunless.

Quite frankly, aside from the injustice she had done to him. It would make things complicated if she ordered him accidentally to join the forces of Valor as not only would that violate every principle, she had spent her life developing but his tendency to lash out violently at himself and the people around him was not something with which she could easily deal. A mistake of that magnitude would be one she couldn't live to see happen.

In Bastion however, Kai had just made his way into a Cafe attempting to cool his head off after his recent interactions with Cassie. Though his anger had not subsided even a little, the week that had passed offered him the time to gain clarity on what to do next.

Though the Cafe was rumoured to serve as excellent eye candy as well as create some of the finest dishes in the dream realm, his reason for entry was separate from such motivations.

Opening the door, he observed the foreign environment. The cafe was coloured tastefully as the space inside seemed to be much larger than how the building appeared externally. Additionally, a young man pitch black hair and onyx eyes could be seen preparing some waffles in the back of the Cafe for one of his several customers.

"Hey Kai! Surprising seeing you here!" shouted Aiko as she made her way towards him and enveloped him in a tight hug. Immediately turning red from her affectionate display, she coughed and took a step back. Kai took a second to analyse her new appearance, she had changed from when they were just teenagers stranded in the forgotten shore, and he was glad to see her doing so well.

What truly caught his attention, however, was how similar the man standing at the back of the cafe was with Sunless. Although his interaction with Sunless was brief and mostly violent as he received a fist to his jaw as he attempted to stop the man from self mutilation, he could still remember his facial features like the event had just taken place a few seconds ago.

'How curious' he thought to himself mildly, turning his attention back to Aiko he smiled warmly and said "Oh, I'm just quickly visiting to clear my head and maybe grab a bite of the waffles that they serve here. I've heard excellent things about them" Aiko raised an eyebrow at his comment on clearing his head but decided to focus more on the business side of matters.

"The waffles? Yes, my boss is responsible for those. For some reason, everyone seems to come here only to see him. Surely, I can't be that bad compared to him, right?" replied Aiko, though she was fishing for compliments, she would take anything she could get from Nightengale. Kai also noticed her attempts at gaining a compliment but rather than verbally engaging decided to give a nod as he scratched the back of his head.

"What even is the name of your boss anyway?" he asked, ripping Aiko out of her silent celebration of being acknowledged as attractive. If the man was who he thought he was, then that would heavily complicate things. Was he to tell Nephis and the rest of the cohort or let the man remain in peace as he was, the choice was hard.

Although quite frankly he was still infuriated at Cassie's willingness to knowingly enslave someone she called a friend, inhibiting her from being able to make amends didn't sit right with him. However, the man seemed at peace how he was, utterly removed from a life full of political drama and violence being able to stick to his own devices.

Before he could make a mental decision, his thought process was interrupted as the man stood right in front of him. "Oh me? My name is Sunless" he said, although his face remained completely neutral his tone immediately shifted promising violence if Kai were to refuse his request "and you, are coming with me." he finished.

Not even giving Kai an opportunity to respond, he grabbed Kai by the arm and began to pull him towards the back rooms of the Cafe. Then, Kai noticed him shoot a look behind him at Cassie portraying a silent command to keep the Cafe running in his absence.

In all honesty, Sunny was enraged. Though not as much as he would usually be seeing as Kai had quite literally no idea of the situation, he was currently in. Rather, he was infuriated by what Kai represented. With Kai coming to his Cafe, he brought an end to Sunny's brief but desirable life of peace and solitude.

Although he considered it, he couldn't kill Kai either as the disappearance of a saint was not something that occurred often, and its occurrence taking place only shortly after he made his way to Bastion would point more eyes at him than necessary. And so, upon pulling Kai into the back rooms he practically flung him into a chair.

Bringing his hands to his temples Sunny attempted to restrain a headache as he paced around the room attempting to figure out what he was going to do with Kai. Before he could conclude on what to do, Kai spoke first "I know what she did" a simple yet impactful statement such as that almost threw Sunny off his feet.

Sunny stared at Kai with as his face expressed a variety of emotions. First it was shock, then anger and finally it transitioned into an expression of relief. Sunny had never told anyone about what had took place at the end of the forgotten shore, he had put the bonds that the cohort and Cassie had made before his own mental health and someone acknowledging it took a mountain from his shoulders.

Struggling to remain upright, Sunny leaned on one of the counters as he took a moment to ready himself and finally, he asked "How much do you know?" knowledge was the strongest weapon one could have within their arsenal and currently Sunny was running low on it. If Kai knew what had happened what would that change? Would he defect from the cohort to aid his plans?

That was unlikely, although Kai could be labelled as many things a traitor was not one of them. The bonds he had built with the cohort were not ones that could be broken in the span of a single argument and so he needed to gain his bearings before he decided how to treat Kai.

"I know Cassie gave away your true name to Nephis to leave you to die in the dream realm. And I know that has to do with why nobody can remember you, I've looked everywhere trying to find even a sliver of information about you however I found nothing!" Kai said, although Sunny didn't have a flaw that allowed him to determine when people were lying to him his trust in Kai's character was all he needed to know he was telling the truth. He had nothing but good intentions.

However, he had been hurt by the product of good intentions too many times to care.

"Look, I said the same thing to Nephis and I'm going to say it to you. Stay away from me, I don't want to see you again at all just pretend like we've never met" his tone didn't express anger, frankly it would be a bit unfair to be angry at Kai. And although he knew that Kai wouldn't listen to his words there was nothing he could do except try.

"I've been living a peaceful life as you can see" he said gesturing to the cafe "and the last thing I'd want is for you and my master to come into my life again and drag me back into your world of violence. Hell, that skin stealer already tried contacting me already I'm fucking lucky he couldn't get past the shadows." Sunny's tone grew more frustrated as he continued to speak about the saints who seemed to have made it their life mission to interfere with his life.

All he wanted was to live a peaceful life, however the world no, fate itself was fighting against his desires. Become a shadow God? Fighting in wars? None of these satiated Sunny's simple desires. Though they represented pathways to levels of strength he had never even imagined were conceivable, ultimately, they were just a different set of chains.

Kai, however, was absorbing the information that had just been unloaded by the man who stood before him. 'Skin stealer? Where have I heard that name?' he thought to himself, however upon his breakthrough his eyes widened, and he struggled to speak. If Mordet ever ended up making an ally of Sunless, things would not go well. Not just for him, but as the world as he knew it.

Opening his mouth to respond, he was cut off by Sunny beginning to swear like a sailor. Glancing at the door, Sunny looked back at Kai slowly with a smile that hardly portrayed the inner turmoil that was going through his head at the moment.

"If you don't mind, could you tell me why changing star is here?"