A girl was on the journey to leave the NQSC. The thing wasn't so unusual. A great siege capital, including its defenses, can't be maintained without ever going outside. The unusual part, she was wearing a suit of armor. It wasn't a Memory. It was a piece of spelltech and a military uniform. No electricity, but no soul essence either. Crafted to serve common soldiers as protection, but can withstand only an attack of Dormant Beasts.
And the fact it can withstand wasn't a good consolation. The armor might endure but the one wearing would still receive bruises.
At her back there was a composite bow, an alloy sword, and a quiver of arrows. All were made of materials obtained from Dormant Beasts, and Monsters. It's madness to go there alone. And yet from external point of view one would think she indeed was doing such a nonsense thing.
She went through the gates, and was walking away from the gates till she was out of sight. Then from her shadow emerged another shadow, separating from her own, and turning into a form of human.
"Where are we going?"
"I've got an intel about a Dormant Beast living 20 kilometers from here."
"Intel? I haven't heard of anything being in this place."
"Because they appeared only recently. The point is your task will be to hunt one, and not always there's going to be an intel. Even if there is an intel, it can be inaccurate either due to poor observations, or by the fact facts are prone to change. I remember fighting a horde of abominations that was unintelligent at first, and wasn't able even to look consciously for humans, that gave birth to a Tyrant, which resulted in them rushing straight to a Siege Capital."
"When did that happen?"
"Two years ago. Let's go."
While she was curious she wasn't sure her morale wouldn't take a hit after hearing something more so she didn't pursue the matter.
She started her journey towards her target. Teacher ordered her to go for her first hunt. Because of her inexperience he will guide her to get her first kill. By guiding he means leading to the place it is. Figuring out the way to kill it is her job. For the questions about why it's like that the teacher was saying something about the she has to learn to solve such problems on her own, because that's the way of the strong.
The way was covered mostly by the roads in a good condition. Walking such long distances was training on its own. Along the way she could spot some magazines, military bases, and hydroponics. Very often there were also ruins, and long abandoned buildings. The reason they were abandoned was related to pollution, and bad defensive position. From time to time a pack of abomination finds its way close, and if you can't defend against them, you'll end up as food before someone can exterminate them.
After a few hours of walking her legs were mildly tired. At some point the Teacher said they're going off the road, further into deeper desolate plains. Desolation doesn't mean it's lifeless. There was vegetation.
Life always finds a way to continue even in radioactive, polluted wasteland. Another reason why people live in siege capitals is the fact that looking at the plants growing there in conjunction with the threat of hunger would tempt them to gather them. But pollution is still toxic, and the pollution would eventually posit itself in growing plants. If people were to eat them… their lives would be intense, thought very short.
With plants there were insects. Some decades of evolution caused the growth of insects capable of thriving on the pollution, especially beetles capable of consuming small amounts of old kinds of plastic, which by that time often turned into a compressed dust.
Eventually in the long distance of several more kilometers, in the corner of her eyes she spotted something. She didn't dare to look directly at it. Teacher warned her that gaze is an actual thing, and it can transmit something, probably an intent. Looking directly at it would cause them to notice.
Now the first step: Rest, and study your target.
…
Sunny left Happy to keep an eye on Rain at her first hunt. Hardly anything could go wrong, if he doesn't consider failing her hunt. But safety goes first. He wouldn't forgive himself if he let Rain endanger her life, while trying to carve out a little strength for her.
He arrived in Ravenheart, the capital of the Song Domain. Why there? The answer is: He has to think or rather there's someone he has to talk with.
Making all decisions he felt always torn. What's the point of being a brother if you can't pamper your siblings? But in the end the best kind of family he can be is the one that supports in fulfilling desires, and Rain desires to be stronger. Therefore the most supportive brother he can be is paradoxically a little harsh teacher. Rationally. Humans are not creatures of reason alone.
The ashy, vulcanic landscapes, snowy mountains peaks. Enormous sights were really beautiful, ane breathtaking, but really, someone has to go nuts to live there.
Which were millions already. The citadel, and its vicinity were covered with all different attempts to make a temporary living. At the scope of the vulcano Sunny could spot some quarries meant to excavate material to build houses. Blocks of stone were being loaded, by awakaned humans with some primitive cranes. Then the blocks of stone were being carried by – that gave him a significant surprise – Nightmare Creatures. Someone, probably Saint Beastmaster was able to force them to follow orders.
Whatever power it was it seemed to have no much limitations in terms of the amount of creatures she's able to enthrall nor there was a great cost of maintaining them. Otherwise they wouldn't be used so casually as a workforce.
While it looked disturbing, and the power was terrifying, Sunny felt mostly regret that Song Clan will be the enemy of Valor. Those great powers are what humanity needs to settle in the Dream Realm, and yet he's not sure if it's possible to save as many of them.
At some point he spotted the shape of a flying dragon, very magnificent, knightly dragon with beauty transcribed into its 'monstrosity'.
'Bingo!'
Sunny dove into the shadows and started following it. Their shadows merged, and following became very easy. No one could make the difference. Eventually landed on one of the mountains with a gorgeous view at the city.
The dragon turned into a human. He sat at a rock, and looked at the distant capital.
"You can show yourself, bastard, you know that?"
Sunny undid his shadow form, and gave him a surprised look.
"What betrayed me, Saint Kai? The intensity of the shadow."
"Don't even think I'll tell you. Have you stolen the body of another poor man? Don't you know any shame? This one. I have to give it to you. It has some charm. And it's strong."
"I don't recall stealing that body. Well, I can't say for sure I was born with it but I'm sure it's well earned from the Spell."
Kai gave him a radiant look. That guy is so handsome he could be a mafia boss, and no one would believe it even if he was caught hot committing a thievery.
"Oh, my deep apologies. I took you for someone else."
"I think I know who you're talking about. He even tried to steal my body. He barely survived the attempt."
"But mister, why do you spy on me? Not hard feelings. I'm even flattered that my fame had reached the shadows, but you could use some more open approach instead of creeping. Kind of advice. That would be prettier."
"I wanted to talk with you without someone else knowing. The matter doesn't require a delicate approach. It's mostly about morals, and integrity. Probably. Then I thought: Saint Kai is a man that has the best moral spine of us all. In this treacherous, where even I, or especially I am tainted, you seem to be the most eager to act out of moral reasons."
And he started talking, referring to himself as a strong Master, and to Rain as his taken relative. Sunny never considered himself a principled man. Despite the masks he wears he acts mostly selfishly, and without honor. But moral tendencies were somewhere inside of him together with spite. Perhaps, the spite was a shadow of his integrity, or what he considered to be more true the integrity was a shadow of his spite.
"I have a sister. She didn't grow up with me. I rather stumbled across her in NQSC, and decided to take her as a disciple. The times are hard for a girl like her, and me… I have some affection for her. It's not romantic. But it makes me fall into dilemmas."
Kai nodded.
"Sounds nice of you. So do you want to teach her?"
"I'm already training her, and preparing to become an Awakened. Well, not only her. I'm preparing many people to awaken. Not like the Academy, but I'm in touch with a professor there. The point is what it means to me."
On one end he had to provide Rain with knowledge, and means to become stronger, on the other he had to make her go through all the hardships, because the will can't be as sharp without them.
Taking care of Rain's training he could better understand the position of legacies. One might not need to retain your power for yourself, but what about your children? Wouldn't a good father want the best for their children? And if they did, what else can they do if the world is the way it is? Awakened have the top position among humans, so to have good future for your children you want them to be Awakened. One thing leads to another, and soon you have something reminiscent of the current situation, even eliminating the competition is easy to understand.
"And then I started to wonder what I should actually do. Is it right that I withhold help I'm providing to my sister? And what should I teach her? The value of honor? Knowing your business? That the King of Sword, and Queen of Worms are the light of the humanity? That they're in truth some powerful bastards that happened to work for humanity up to this date. To believe in the Spell, and its trials or to resent it?"
Thinking about this Sunny didn't even have the guts to consider it that awfully mysterious anymore, because in their shoes, the shoes of the Legacy Clans, he probably would do the same things. Perhaps, which is the most harrowing thought, he would also believe in bullshit like honor, that strange mix of conscience, and ambition. While ambition is what it is, just making it appear better is a way to sharpen the will.
But in the end he also is who he is, born from suffering, and badly disillusioned, and what's more important even if he believed in such things, there would still be even better ideas why he shouldn't. In the end aren't great ambitions the thing that lead Great Clans to start killing each other? He still has in mind the words of Morgan who had told him the bloodshed between the clans is unavoidable, because the humanity to survive needs one stronger domain, and two weaker can't do.
What if… just what if the war was really necessary? Then by stopping it he would be the one to damn humanity.
But then he would have to say those are the words of Morgan. Should he trust Morgan? Nah, she probably made that reason on the spot to tempt him to take her side after conquering the Nightmare. There were too many inconsistencies in her way of convincing him. For example, Morgan said that they were limiting the number of Saints emerging to prevent the Chain of Nightmares from occurring early. But did they really do that? No, he had seen the number of Saints increasing over the years! Up to twelve! Not just that. What Morgan revealed implied that they were hiding the fact that the world needs to be evacuated for all those years, and the Government was helping to hide it.
Yet the most glaring flaw of the way she presented things is considering the war as the only way to establish that one bigger domain. Why war of all things? There are different ways to achieve that bigger domain. The easiest one is Anvil should up on his domain, and turn over his citadels to Ki. Simple as that. The fact that no one is taking that option proves that in truth this conflict isn't for the good of mankind. These bastards are thinking about themselves, and will waste the potential of humans just to secure their power! If the world is going to have such rulers how far can it go? At least to insist on trying to kill Nephis, one of legacies with the best potential, and tasking the second best legacy to risk his own life just to ensure she's dead!
Sunny had very little sympathy for Caster, especially for the fact he was arrogant, fake, and considered him a mongrel for not having as great background or skills as he. But did Caster have any better choice? No, he hasn't. If he prevented himself from trying to kill Nephis, and she would return to the waking world, what would wait for him? He would end up either being punished by his Han Lee or by Valor, perhaps they would even kill him for insubordination. So in a sense the Sovereigns are also guilty of what happened to Caster. They put him in a situation he had to try.
"Why not all of it?"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm trying to be good, but don't ever think it's simple. The same things might lead to both good, and bad results, and our good intentions… at many turns lead us to bad intentions. I remember that I wanted to prevent a dragon, who let his people sacrifice to him their loved ones, because he thought they would feel safer, and have what they need. People wanted to please the dragon that protected them. Eventually I killed the dragon, because I wanted to stop the meaningless sacrifices. And for what? The moment I put an end to that evil it also caused almost everyone to be killed soon after the death of the dragon."
"Do you blame yourself?"
"Mr Shadow, yes, I do blame myself, but also no, if I had to do that once again I would definitely do that. In the end I can't blame myself that people want to live in a vile place, and sacrifice people to someone that doesn't even really want sacrifices. It was good to attempt to heal that madness, but we can't, and shouldn't control everything. The only shame is it didn't turn out better. Back then no one did know. If we knew the truth, everything would be simpler."
At first Sunny would have thought it was all a digression, but there was something precious about it. If he thought about the Ivory City, their madness was a child of superstitions concerning Sevirax, and that was also the reason why they started treating their people so wastefully despite just wanting to be a good lord.
"So you're saying that making people lie to themselves is the road to nowhere?"
"Sort of. I see many people believing in the lies of others, and that makes times like these. Forgive me if it sounds naive, but they make hard times. Many things, well, not all, would turn out better if it wasn't for so many lies being spreaded around, often by kind people. To be a good man you need to have the strength to bear many truths."
To be a good man... Sunny needed to spend a lot of willpower to not be annoyed by the notion. Lies are a major part of his nature. He always wanted to run away from it. It was even more so when telling the truth was against his interests.
If in his First Nightmare he told everything to people around, they would just kill him. If he told these things at the Forgotten Shore, it would still be very hard to remain unscathed. If he too casually revealed his thoughts about the clans, he could easily become their sworn enemy. They would target him under the pretext of hurt pride or honor.
But many of these things were in the past, and the situation is different now. Now he knows many truths better, and has the strength to stand for them in front of other people. He knows that his spite requires him to despise clans for the way they dismiss simple people. It might appear to be not much, but it implies some things about the nature of his ideals. First of all he shouldn't be what he despises.
"Excuse me, but you seem to be familiar."
"Oh, you might have heard about me. I'm Sunless, the owner of Brilliant Emporium."
…
The arrow struck the Beast into the eye, robbing it of half of its sight. Rain sighed in relief. While she was feeling somewhat confident in her archery, there were many reason to expect that she would fail. First of all she used a different bow. Neither was a Memory. Second, she was practicing mostly in the Dreamscape. It's not easy to find a good place to practice archery in the Waking World, and she's stingy with money to rent one. Third, and the most important, the target is alive, and therefore moving.
And unfortunately the target is alive, and therefore still moving. Mad, and not fond of having its eye pierced. The bear-like creature was advancing towards her with incredible speed.
"What the hell?"
Her teacher smiled deviously.
"Good shot. Now it noticed you. Nightmare Creatures might be stupid, but very malicious. It will follow you as long as it's possible or something else won't take away its attention."
She gave him an annoyed look.
"You should have told me that earlier."
"I thought it's common sense among Awakened."
"I am not."
"Well, now you know. Good luck."
The Teacher shared the information, and disappeared again. She was left alone.
"HEY! Don't leave me just like that! Please!"
The shadow remained indifferent. Of course, it was listening. He was probably hearing her perfectly, and yet she looked at her shadow, and there seemed to be nothing. The training with the mysterious Master was already hard, but she didn't expect he would treat her so harshly, and indifferently. After all it's him that wanted her as his disciple, right? Or maybe he finally realized that training her wasn't worth a cup of ramen, and now was time to dispose of her.
'Calm down, Rain. With or without him you can pull it off.'
While she was wasting her time the bear-like creature managed to shorten the distance between them. It didn't seem to be very weakened, but there was something suggesting he's not able to discern the distance. That could be exploited. She drew an arrow, and collected herself. Then the string was tightened, and took aim again. The speck of the moment was stretched into something like several seconds, and arrow flew at the bear.
But this time it flew a little lower. She didn't aim for the head.
The arrow finally reached the target, and it even cut the skin, thought the wound was shallow. Rain didn't expect too much from it either so she drew quickly another arrow.
"'Throw shit. Finally something has to stick.'
Finally after wasting three more arrows, the creature stumbled, and wasn't so fast anymore, which implied that either she harmed it's muscles hard enough or her arrow reached what she hoped to sever, the joint.
That didn't mean the bear was finally going to do something nicer. Despite heavy injuries it was still running, just a little slower, but the determination was still there. And the bear at this point was already close. In she let herself to stand where she was.
She started to run for her life as quickly as possible. The sense of fear finally took over her, and couldn't think of making any tactical decision. She was so immersed in the idea of making as much distance as possible, she didn't notice the uneven ground. She stepped wrong, and fell.
The bear was about to jump at her, and take her. It made a leap, and was preparing himself to gnaw her. Before it didn't. The jump from a hurt leg was indexterious, but the ground was even less worthy of trust. The earth collapsed revealing a hollow space beneath. The face of the bear instead at Rain was directed at the bottom of the hole, and at the bottom there was a spike.
The spike was one of Rain's creations. She expected to be able to make a nice weapon out of it like her teacher, but sadly at most she managed to do a sharp spike. The spike was a product of 'dissections' she performed on some creatures in the name of learning their body structures. In the end she only managed to do just a sharpened bone.
But that was still enough. The bear was impaled with it, the weight of its body, and a little momentum from the fall.
Rain was still laying on her belly, and she was about turn around to see the creature to at least see it killing her. But instead she was smirking. She got up, shook of the dust, drew once again on her arrow.
The bear-like creature was dead, Rain was about to check that but when she saw the bone spike going straight through its head it was clear there's no point.
"You have slain a Dorman Beast: Wasteland Dweller"
"Oh, please. Was it nice to look at me?"
She commented in displeasure.
"You're overdramatic."
"Am I? You know that if I didn't have that trap prepared, that big guy down here would kill me."
"Yes, most of your act at the end was unnecessary. I mean why pretend you stumbled? Why all that panic? It could fall into the trap without you falling on the ground."
"Oh, that. So…"
She had to admit that despite leaving her the Teacher was all the time here. The thing about him hiding himself could be easily explained as not wanting to interfere with her hunt. After all the man is really strong, and if the bear noticed it, it was possible that it wouldn't be so eager to pursue her anymore
But still… the problem is the acting wasn't that real. To be like that she doesn't have to pretend that much or stop pretending. Being about to be ripped off by a beast isn't something to be okay with. She was still looking at her prey in silent horror. What if… the bear isn't dead, and as soon as she will be about to touch it will eat her alive?
"Is it dead?"
Rain asked reluctantly.
"It is."
"That's a relief."
If it's dead she can start extracting its core. She climbed down, and unleashed her knife, and began to cut her way towards the heart.
"I think normally it should be."
"What? But…"
"It's far from absolute. Sometimes dead can hurt you too, Rain. For example, the Queen has an army made of walking corpses. I even recall killing some creatures wielding similar powers."
The world is such a horrible place. It didn't prevent her from cutting through, but she was still haunted with paranoid thoughts.
…
"I don't take offense for thinking about forcing me to reveal my secret. It's like I can't take offense of people who think about how to kill me, which is probably what many great warriors do before even politely greeting me. Man can't control all his thoughts, and it's hard to never even consider extreme measures."
"It doesn't apply to me. I can purge my thoughts. I can even force a madman to be sane."
"Did you try that on yourself? Wait… if that's true it's like a new world of possibilities!"
Sunny already had a few new applications in mind. For example, if he realized that earlier, Kai could even try to banish the Sin of Solace for him. He could, right? It would go against his privacy, but in case of an inner voice assaulting him more terribly than any conscience ever could, it's not that bad anymore. And in a way he just commanded it to himself. If by the use of supernatural command could force himself to obliterate a part of his own mind then maybe…
"I did. I mean… my soldiers take it willingly so they won't panic on the battlefield. It helps a lot to bring out their beauty."
That handsome guy still doesn't seem to suspect what was on his mind.
"Saint Kai, it might be really out of place, but one of the reasons I came here is that I want you to use your great power."
Charming smile then paled. He sighed in a mild disappointment. Then for the first time from the moment they started talking Sunny heard sadness in his voice.
"Of course you do. Many do. Why did I suspect otherwise? Sometimes I think this is what I am to people. Though I fed some hope that you're just a man asking for advice. You're not Mordret, but you seem to know him. You seem to not desire power itself either, and have some reasons to despise Great Clans. Master Sunless, who are you?"
"I'm a lonely man… wait, not like that. I'm really lonely, not just thir… that sounds even more inappropriate. I am literally trying to do something about my not so metaphorical, and not at all seductive loneliness."
"But you don't seem to be lying."
This time Sunny gathered all the guts he could get. Somberly he uttered the next words. This one strained him more than a talk with Effie, Cassie or even Nephis. He could tell Neph about his predicament, but because of how unemotional she always appears to be he can at least pretend it's a matter of common interests without any sentimental impurities. Saint Jet would tell him to shrug it off, and not regret anything, and not bother. Effie might be too imperceptive to see what's going on, and to not turn it into a way to ridicule him.
Kai on the other hand.
"It's not the first time we meet, and you're probably one of the last from the most important people I wanted to meet. Hell… I would like to tell you everything, but probably it won't help. Saint Kai, could you… please, try to use your voice to recall what you forgot? Can you command yourself to remember something?"