Love is Worth Waiting for

Morgan wasn't surprised at Sunny's apparent ability to communicate with the Lord of Shadows. A lot of clans had memories for instant communication, just not over such long distances.

She had a rather high opinion of the Shadow Clan as they had somehow managed to stay under the radar for so long and even produce two saints without anyone knowing. 'It was about time for the Shadow God's lineage to show up.'

Though she was a little disappointed. The calm and collected but sweet Master Sunless she had grown attached to had turned out to be a ruthless saint of a mysterious clan.

'How much of it was real?' Morgan shook off her emotions and began preparing for negotiations. 'It's better this way.'

She made a few assumptions about the Shadow Clan based on the knowledge she had. 'The Shadow God is the god of peace, death, solace and mysteries. It's safe to assume that the members of the clan are sufficiently deadly and secretive, especially considering their ability to keep hidden all these years.'

Morgan thought about Sunny for a moment, 'He's likely the main memory provider, aspects related to crafting are rare, especially outside of Valor.'

She was still a bit confused on the nature of his aspect. It was clearly related to shadows, but he could also make memories. She hadn't failed to notice his ability to make clones of himself either. 

After pondering for a bit, she came up with an idea, 'Rebirth? Through death comes life or creation?' It was the only thing she could think of at least.

It was also possible that someone else was responsible for crafting memories and he was just the front, but she found it highly unlikely.

'Apart from that, there's still no indication of the strength of their forces. Only two saints are confirmed.' Morgan frowned, she definitely had the upper hand in negotiation, but not by much. The mysterious nature of the Shadow Clan was a real headache to construct plans around.

She eventually gave up, placing their value in her mind as the same as the House of Night. Even if nothing else, the Lord of Shadows alone was the key to starting their unstoppable advantage.

There was one thing she was sure of, Valor had things to offer the Shadow Clan and they had things to offer to Valor. She wasn't too worried about them defecting to Song, considering how Mordret's negotiations with the Lord of Shadows fell through.

What she was worried about, was that the Shadow Clan would become reclusive once more. Sunny's flaw definitely had something to do with being unable to answer a question with a lie, so she was sure of the ability of Shadow Clan to disappear off the map without any notice.

'We need something to tie the clans together.' Valor held a slight advantage concerning the identity of Sunny. He was definitely in Valor for a reason, and was reluctant to leave. That's the only reason why he would take his chances and silence Morgan.

Valor now had the ability to expose him and foil his plans. 'How lucky am I?' Morgan chuckled to herself. 'Her stumbling randomly onto the cafe was what exposed the Shadow Clan and gave her this advantage.'

Soon she discussed the issue with her father and they arrived at the same conclusion. Valor needed to tie the Shadow Clan to them, thus the solution was a political marriage.

It was a different kind of political marriage than usual. Instead of organising an alliance under the table and using the marriage as a reason on the surface, the marriage itself was the connection.

Valor was giving up one of their own important pieces to be held as collateral and in turn the Shadow Clan would do the same. 

It was a deal between two parties that didn't trust each other in the slightest, only by having a hold over the other party would reach an agreement.

Soon it was the day of negotiations. Back in the cafe, they had organised a time of meeting. The meeting would be conducted in the waking world.

Morgan went over her plans one last time before pulling on her Anchor. Back in the waking world she suddenly appeared in the streets of NQSC.

'Such strange instructions' The Lord of Shadows had instructed her to simply be in NQSC. She just had to be anywhere and he would find her.

'So there's some kind of base of operations in NQSC.' There was no other reason for him to avoid setting a specific place to meet.

Any place he chose would give away some information about his residence in the waking world. If he chose someplace close by they would be able to find it in minutes, and if he purposely led them away from it, they were given a clue as to where it might be.

So he simply asked to meet wherever she was. Morgan smiled, 'They truly leave no way for me to gain any information.'

The only reason she had managed to deduce so much was because of Sunny's flaw. 'How cruel of the spell, to give the person who values utmost secrecy a flaw that forces him to divulge it.'

Morgan experienced first hand how perverse and cruel the spell was, but this was probably the first time she was grateful towards its nature.

She continued walking until she spotted a cafe with some outdoor seating. She walked over and promptly sat down.

Morgan really had nothing to do in the time it took for the Lord of Shadows to arrive, so she figured she'd get herself something to eat.

As she looked over, she saw something in the corner of her eye and snapped her attention to it. Without her noticing, the Lord of Shadows had appeared in the seat opposite to her.

She greeted him with a smile, but was somewhat unnerved by the combination of the stealth in which he appeared, and the attire he chose to wear.

'What an entrance…' She found herself enjoying his theatrics.

"So, what do you want to talk about first?"