Cassie stood there as a cool breeze played with her pale blonde hair. She remained motionless, a quiet figure against the backdrop of the serene air.
Nephis studied Cassie's features intently. She was undeniably the same Cassie she had always known, yet there was something different about her now. This Cassie seemed more mature; the childish innocence that once softened her face had vanished. She was even more beautiful, if such a thing was possible—but there was also a new, inexplicable coldness about her.
Colder than she had been on the Forgotten Shore.
Nephis felt a wave of confusion wash over her, and it was justified. Dreaming about a close friend was nothing unusual, but this situation defied her assumptions. She had believed they'd stumbled into an unexplored part of the Dream Realm, yet in the Dream Realm, one couldn't dream.
She opened her mouth to speak, but the words caught in her throat.
Finally, she managed to ask:
"...How? No... What is this?"
Cassie smiled warmly and replied, "It's a vision."
A vision? But how? The answer only deepened Nephis's confusion. Cassie had the power of divination—seeing both the past and future—but Nephis possessed no such ability.
How could this even be happening?
Her face remained still as her suspicion grew. Before she could say anything, Cassie, or whatever that thing was, chimed in.
"How is that possible? Or how is she here? That's what you're thinking, right?" Cassie said, her tone light.
Nephis stiffened, her calm and indifferent exterior masking the tension rising within her. This Cassie seemed to know her inside and out. The thought unsettled her, but Cassie merely chuckled softly.
"Well, I'm not exactly here, and I'm not the Cassie you know."
That explanation did nothing to untangle Nephis's bewilderment.
"As if that explains anything," she said in a sharp voice.
Cassie didn't seem offended, her serene smile unshaken as she continued. "What you're seeing is the future, Neph. How am I doing this? Thanks to my transcendent ability, I can see, share, fabricate, and manipulate memories when people look into my eyes."
Nephis's eyes widened, and her mind reeled. What an insidious ability, one that didn't seem to fit someone like Cassie at all. But it still didn't make sense.
What surprised her even more was the mention of how this was due to her transcendent ability. Millions of questions and possibilities immediately flooded her mind.
If this future Cassie had attained transcendence, did the rest of the cohort do the same? How powerful had they become? How had the situation with humanity developed?
Cassie, as if unaware of Nephis's turmoil, pressed on.
"And how am I sharing this with you in the past? It's all thanks to Sunny and a memory he wove."
Her calm composure slightly faltered. "...Sunny did what?"
"It's quite ingenious, really. I could explain the how and what in detail, but I don't think you'd care for the intricacies. As for the why..."
Her voice trailed off, but Nephis was too focused on a single burning question to follow.
Cassie was right, she didn't want the intricate details, the explanations of how or why. She had other priorities.
She cut Cassie off, her voice firm and direct. "Do you know where we are?"
Cassie laughed softly, an almost teasing lilt in her voice. "I thought you'd never ask. Your original assumption was correct, Neph. You're in an unexplored region of the Dream Realm. As for where exactly... I'll have to start from the beginning."
Nephis's eyes narrowed, her focus sharpening even further as Cassie began her explanation.
"You've likely deduced that this region has something to do with the Shadow God or Shadows. When Shadow created death, he became death. Everything Shadow consumed died, and everything that died was consumed by Shadow. Death became an absolute law, unyielding.
And with death came time, an absolute law ensuring that what was once everlasting could endure no longer. Then came space, binding the endless into finite bounds. These three—time, space, and death—became the tools of the gods, who wielded them to bind and defeat their enemies."
Cassie paused, letting the weight of her words settle before continuing.
"Yet even absolute laws were defied. One being, swallowed by Shadow, broke free from the Shadow Realm, shattering it in the process. Fragments of the realm splintered and scattered. This region you find yourself in is one of those fragments, consumed and reshaped by the Dream Realm."
Cassie paused, her tone shifting to something more ominous, her words carrying an unsettling weight.
"And like everything consumed by the Dream Realm, this fragment was eventually corrupted, twisted. It's a shadow of its former self."
Cassie chuckled softly, a faint glimmer of humor breaking through the tension. "No pun intended."
Cruelly ignoring Cassie's attempt at humor, Nephis maintained her outward calm and composure, her expression unreadable.
All of this was undeniably fascinating, but in the end, only one thing truly mattered.
"How do we get out?" she asked.
Cassie's smile widened, though it carried a hint of something unreadable. "Wouldn't you like to know? It's not that simple, Neph. Knowledge is a heavy burden, especially when it's knowledge of the future. I know exactly what horrors await you and Sunny tomorrow, next week, and beyond. I'd give anything to stop it... but fate..."
Cassie's voice trailed off. Behind her blindfold, Nephis could tell something in her eyes had shifted. "Fate has its own insidious way of making things happen. It's not so easy to defy it." She sighed deeply, her smile turning sorrowful.
"I never told you why I'm really here. After I left the Forgotten Shore, I tried to find where you two were, if you were both alive. But all I saw were endless visions of you and Sunny—suffering, tortured, dying.
"You saved me back then. A useless, blind girl who was nothing but a burden. And yet, all I could do was watch as terrible things happened to you... I bided my time, bitterly."
Hearing her best friend's words stirred something inexplicable in Nephis, softening her gaze. Her voice grew tender. "Cassie, you weren't—"
But Cassie wasn't finished. Her expression shifted, and an eerie smile crept across her face, the kind that made Nephis's stomach twist. Even though this vision or dream lacked the concept of temperature, a cold chill seemed to run through her spine.
"As time passed without you and Sunny, I grew frustrated. Angry. Eventually, I became resentful. If I couldn't physically alter what was happening... then I needed someone who could. A variable."
Cassie's voice lowered, her tone heavy with finality.
"You are that variable, Neph."
***
i just know the writing got the paper on fire (metaphorical) .
took my small bird brain quite some time to come up with a canon worthy explanation for why they were on a "shadow realmesque part of the dream realm"
so yeah the description from sunnys fragment and the very concept of fragmentation was an ingenious cop out
if multiple fragments shattered and scattered from the shadow realm, why wouldn't there be chunks big enough to be equivalent to the size of the forgotten shore? and why cant dream realm consume it? the nightmare spell acquired a part of it, did it not?
also we just hit the chapter 12 mark in my drafts! thank you for all the support