Love is Worth Waiting for

Morgan was uncomfortable. The room they were in was shrouded in an impenetrable darkness, the only source of light was Nephis' flame, but even that felt suppressed and didn't reach nearly as far as usual.

Morgan couldn't tell if there was anyone else in the room apart from the 12 saints she had brought along and herself.

She knew there was definitely someone in the room with them but simply couldn't see any evidence that there was. 'He can completely hide his existence…' She smiled slightly, 'but Saint Cassia is with us.'

[Lady Cassia?] Morgan spoke through the connection, and waited before continuing. [How many people are in the room with us?]

A short period of silence followed, Morgan could tell the saints were getting uneasy. [I can't tell] Her eyes widened. [It's as if there's only Valor's saints in the room.] Morgan raised her impression of the Shadow Clan, but not before considering it was the nature of the Lord of Shadows' citadel.

She tried various means to penetrate the darkness, but before she could, a voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once echoed throughout the room. "Apologies, I forgot you can't see in the darkness." It was the Lord of Shadows.

Soon, torches along the wall seemed to light by themselves, a ghostly flame dancing around the top of each one. The flame wasn't bright, in fact it didn't seem to give off much light at all. Instead, it served the purpose of piercing the darkness.

The darkness was still present, there was no doubt about it, but it was no longer impenetrable. Morgan's eyes quickly adjusted, allowing her to see perfectly despite the surrounding shadows.

They found themselves standing inside of a grand temple. Morgan quickly spotted the Lord of Shadows sitting on a throne, next to him was Sunny. Leaning against the wall there was another person she assumed to be a saint of the Shadow Clan.

She was a living silhouette, her skin and clothes were the same deep obsidian, and her hair fell like a river of darkness. She looked up at Morgan, meeting her gaze. Morgan immediately felt wary of her.

The woman's eyes were darker than even darkness itself, but Morgan could tell she was staring at her, evaluating her. Cassia looked visibly shaken.

Morgan wanted to continue looking around, but was stopped by the Lord of Shadows speaking again. "Let us commence."

***

Sunny was actually quite proud of the setup. He had recently fought against a corrupted tyrant that commanded ghostly flames as its minions. He found their ability to combat true darkness and pierce through shadows interesting if not useful, so he captured a few. Who knew they would be perfect for setting the scene today?

Sunny had commanded Serpent to take the form of Solvane to act as one of the members of Shadow Clan. He was also counting on the fact that Cassie and Nephis would recognise her, so they would come to him after the fact to question it.

Sunny had actually also incarnated naughty and gloomy, both of which were standing at points around the room dressed in clothing that concealed their identities.

Shortly after announcing the start of the ceremony as the Lord of Shadows, he used Shadow Manifestation to raise a platform from the ground in front of his throne. Then he slowly stood up.

He walked down to it as the Lord of Shadows, stepping heavily and deliberately. He stopped on the platform and an obsidian altar rose in front of him. "As the acting high priest, I shall serve as witness to the divine union of life and death."

He was being theatrical. Remembering the previous owner of Weaver's Mask to be the high priest of weaver's following. He also stole notes from the spell's description of Token of Death's Unity. 

It definitely seemed to have an effect. Morgan looked to be under the assumption that he knew more than she did. He then stepped forwards once more as Sunless, standing in front of the altar on the left side of the altar.

The atmosphere definitely had an effect. Tyris was looking more stoic than usual, if that was even possible, and Roan seemed to be less of his energetic self. Cassie was shaken, but remained silent, almost appearing meek and Nephis was many things.

She looked as confident and in control as ever, but Sunny saw the mix of emotions under her facade. She was filled with grave seriousness, and something else he couldn't quite pinpoint. His eyes widened. 'No way. Is she… jealous?' Sunny couldn't believe his eyes.

He tried his best to ignore her and focused on the other saints. They were a mixture of solemn seriousness and anticipation. Jest seemed out of place with his wide smile.

Morgan herself seemed to realise what she was meant to do, and started walking up to the altar with a small smile. He could tell she was wary but also curious and excited. Something about the glint in her eyes when she looked at Sunny made him shiver.

She made her way up the steps to the raised platform and stood opposite to Sunny.

He spoke once again as the Lord of Shadows. "Does Life give their pledge to Death that their end shall be Death's beginning?" He looked at Morgan.

She seemed to realise he was talking about her. "I do." He turned to Sunny.

"Does Death give their pledge to Life that they shall return anew as Life through Death?" Sunny nodded. 

"I do." He didn't actually know entirely what he was talking about, but it sounded right.

The Lord of Shadows' gaze lingered on Sunny for a bit longer and spoke a bit softer than usual. "Death shall be given to Life, and Life shall be given to Death." He turned to Morgan and then to Sunny once more before giving the command. "Seal the union."

Morgan seemed to realise what was happening a bit too late, "Oh no, I can't, my fl-" But she was cut off.

She lost all composure as Sunny pulled her in and kissed her.