Chapter Summary: Freaky Star strikes again.
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Seishan was lying face down on the grass.
How she had gotten there, or why, she didn't know, and didn't care to change it.
All she knew was that she was dead tired, and that the aftermath of the battle that had just taken place wasn't her problem to deal with.
She loved being on vacation.
Letting out a contented sigh, she flipped over and spent a long while just staring at the vast blue sky above her. It was so big, so beautiful, and so free that she would never tire of looking at it.
Everything was just perfect. The grass beneath her felt like a comfortable mattress, the wind like a gentle caress, and the temperature just the way she liked it. She could stay there for hours.
"How can you be so casual?" someone mumbled beside her.
Seishan turned her head to the left and caught sight of Rain.
Unlike her, the other girl was sitting properly, her back resting against the massive Serpent that had protected them during the latter part of the battle. Maybe she should give it a treat or something as thanks? Echoes usually couldn't care less about anything but the orders they received, but it looked intelligent enough to think otherwise.
Focusing back on the question, Seishan briefly considered whether to give the rehearsed answer or simply say what she thought. Briefly, because she immediately remembered just how tired she was and that she couldn't be bothered at the moment.
"There is always another disaster looming on the horizon," she replied casually, her voice dripping with all the certainty of someone who had lived through many such disasters. "Enjoy the calm while it lasts."
Rain adopted a conflicted expression.
"That's what big brother and big sister always say." She hesitated. "But..."
"Knowing and experiencing it aren't the same, huh?" Seishan interjected.
"Yeah..."
Seishan resisted the urge to snort in amusement. The other girl was likely to take it as a dismissive gesture when it was anything but.
Hadn't she been the same? On edge for days after something bad had happened? Fearing when the next calamity would come knocking?
Reluctantly, she thought back on that dark passage of her life. Eight long years. Stuck on the Forgotten Shore, serving under a petty tyrant. Years spent doing everything she could to shield the women under her command and care. Offering a measure of comfort to those whom the Winter Solstice had cruelly delivered to their own little slice of hell. Doing her utmost to survive a world that wanted her dead.
She was free now. A Princess, commanding more power and authority than she had ever thought possible after giving up on escaping. And still, she had been powerless once more, her life and future completely at the mercy of someone else's whims.
Seishan felt gratitude toward Nephis and Sunless. She truly did. If not for them, she would be dead right now. No ifs or buts about it. That made it twice now that she owed her life to them.
But more than anything else, what she felt was frustration. Frustration at herself for still being too weak.
"Do you want to know my trick?" she asked when the voices in her head started growing too loud.
Rain perked up and nodded.
"I think of what I could have done differently over and over until I find a solution, so that next time I'll be ready."
The other girl looked at her dubiously. "Isn't that the opposite of what you're supposed to do? Not obsessing over it and all that."
She chuckled at that. The words of the younger girl rang true, but she knew herself too well to think that she could just accept that she couldn't have done anything and move on.
"It is a bad idea, but it works for me." Seishan rolled her shoulders and shifted to find a more comfortable position. "I hate feeling powerless, like I can do nothing but hope that everything will work out in the end. So I follow Mother's advice instead. I gather information, analyze the situation, look at what I could have done differently. And then I make a plan. One that ensures I'll come out on top."
Was that why Mother favored her so much, perhaps? Because of how alike they were? Their love of control and scheming?
Seishan could only hope that she wouldn't grow to love drama and gossip as much as Mother did.
"What conclusion have you reached?" Rain asked, her eyes alight with curiosity.
A small upward tilt of her lips was the only hint Seishan gave before pouncing, her tone conspiratorial.
"Well, I wasn't going to bother you just yet, but since you asked…" she lowered her voice. "Can I ask you a question instead?"
Looking at her oddly, the black-haired girl nodded.
"How much longer until you become an Ascended, Rain?" Seishan asked quietly, in the same conspiratorial tone.
Confusion shone in Rain's face for a moment, as though she couldn't quite understand what she had been asked. Then the moment passed, and the girl shot upright, her eyes darting wildly around to check if anyone else was listening. There wasn't. Seishan had made sure before opening her mouth, but it was still a good instinct on her part.
Although, amusing as Rain's reaction was, maybe she should have toned it down. The Serpent was giving her a menacing stare that told her she'd better choose her next words wisely.
Seconds later, Rain finally calmed down and looked back at her with narrowed eyes. In another situation, it might have been slightly menacing, but compared to the massive Serpent glaring at her, the girl looked downright adorable.
"How do you know?" Rain asked carefully, still glancing around from time to time to make sure nobody was listening.
This time, Seishan didn't bother hiding her snort.
"You are stronger and have more essence than someone who has only just Awakened should," Seishan replied easily. "It could be explained away as the result of your training and upbringing. But then we have Changing Star's recent Transcendence. Her excuse about finding and conquering a Nightmare Seed that was about to burst might work on the ignorant, but I don't count myself among them." She shrugged idly. "Clan Song has long known about Natural Ascension, and though we lack a safe, reliable method to reach Ascendancy, it's obvious enough that it -and stages beyond it- exist out there."
Rain remained silent, her face carefully neutral, which, given how expressive she normally was, was more of a tell than any reaction she could have given.
"Sunless knows, doesn't he?" Seishan continued when the other girl insisted on saying nothing.
Rain finally reacted, glancing to the side, her lip trembling in a way that told Seishan she was spot on.
"A few months, I think. Until I become a Master," the girl answered reluctantly.
Seishan nodded and finally stood up from where she had been lying before approaching the girl, but a low hiss from the Serpent warned her against it. Any more pushing, and it would attack, consequences be damned.
"What do you want?" Rain asked, looking at her suspiciously.
"Your help," she answered immediately.
The girl blinked, confusion painted across her face.
"What do you mean?"
Seishan pointed toward the Lake of Tears, where, barely an hour ago, they had nearly met their end at the hands of Amalgamation.
"I was too weak to do anything about that Nightmare Creature. The solution to that is quite simple: becoming stronger. A Nightmare Seed is too dangerous and unpredictable, so why not try something else first?"
Rain blinked again, then looked at her oddly.
"You want my help convincing big brother or big sister to teach you how to become a Saint?"
"Yes," she answered without pause.
Seishan knew well enough that she could hardly convince them on her own. Not without betraying Mother in a way she deemed completely unacceptable, at least. Which left the girl before her.
Oh, she didn't think it would be easy to convince her, either.
"Sure, I'll help."
It would likely take plenty of effort and bribing, but—
The words registered, and Seishan's mind ground to a halt.
"Come again?" she asked, blinking owlishly.
Rain smirked mischievously. "You'll owe me a favor, and in the end, the decision is still up to them. Why shouldn't I?"
Suddenly, Seishan had the sensation that she had made a terrible mistake.
-------------------------------------------
The moment her back hit the chair, Nephis felt all the energy leave her body.
It must have been a mind hex carved directly into the chair. A very dangerous and comfortable one.
She should do something about it. Right after she had some rest. Maybe. Probably.
"To think this was supposed to be a vacation," she groused.
Cassie placed a tray with two cups of coffee and some biscuits atop the table between them, then took a seat beside her, an amused smile painted across her lips.
"And you believed it?" the oracle asked with an incredulous expression.
Nephis glared at the other woman, tempted beyond words to set her on fire.
"I wanted to."
Cassie chuckled and picked up one of the cups before bringing it to her lips.
"Your fault, honestly," she said cheerfully. "You should know better by now."
Maybe a little wouldn't be that bad?
"Please stop plotting to set me on fire."
"Stop being so cheerful then," Nephis complained, picking up her own cup.
Maybe some caffeine was what she needed to stop feeling like she had been run over by seven PTVs in a row.
Admittedly, it did help. Even if only a little, though she still desperately needed some of the sleep she had been missing.
Two days.
That was how long it had taken to settle things down after killing Amalgamation. Two days of calming people down, killing the Nightmare Creatures attracted by the battle, and putting down every other problem that arose.
Nephis hadn't been able to sleep a wink during those two damn days.
At least it finally looked like things were calming down, and she could get some of that well-deserved rest.
Now, if only people would stop building statues of Sunny and her, everything would be perfect. Or praying to a 'Nephless' altar, the name they had apparently given their combined form, or any of the other crazy things they were doing. She had almost burnt to a crisp a particularly forward Awakened who asked if Sunny needed a concubine.
"You can't rest yet," Cassie said with the same cheerfully calm tone.
Slowly, almost mechanically, Nephis turned toward her friend. Taking a proper look at her was the only reason she stopped herself from saying something rude in return.
Nephis had spent the last two days putting out fire after fire, true, but so had Cassie. And she looked just as tired as that implied. Unlike her, however, Cassie wasn't a Saint.
"What happened this time?" she asked, her voice full of resignation.
"Nothing yet, but one of Ki Song's vessels will arrive later today." At least she had toned down that annoyingly cheerful tone. "She wants us to return to Ravenheart."
Nephis groaned, too tired to care about hiding her reaction. Not only had she failed to enjoy her "vacation," but now she also had to return and deal with whatever the Ghoul wanted next.
"It won't be anything too bad," Cassie consoled her, patting her shoulder good-naturedly.
Taking a sip from her cup, Nephis threw an inquisitive look at Cassie that she knew the other woman could detect despite her blindness.
"Why are you so cheerful?"
Cassie smiled brightly. "We're alive. Isn't that reason enough to celebrate?"
"It is. I want to hear the real reason, though," she responded dryly.
Pouting, the other woman answered, "You're no fun, but fine. It's what Amalgamation said."
"Go on," she insisted when the seer did not continue.
"Can't a woman keep some mystery?" Cassie whined.
"Your 'mysteries' tend to come with extreme danger and horrors beyond human comprehension attached, so no." Nephis deadpaned.
Still pouting, Cassie answered at last. "Weaver committed two mistakes in their prediction. One, that you would be dead when Sunny met Amalgamation, and two, that he would be a Titan."
Tilting her head, Nephis considered it for a moment before pointing out the obvious.
"Weaver could have been lying." She took another sip from her coffee before continuing. "In fact, it's one of their most famous traits."
"It's something I've thought about myself," Cassie agreed immediately. "And while I don't dismiss the possibility, there's another that I find more likely."
"That we have changed Fate," Nephis added calmly. "Didn't Sunny say that Weaver admitted as much themselves? In that book of his, they even go on about how proud we should be of that."
Smiling, Cassie nodded. "Exactly! Except for one fact. If we have indeed changed Fate, then how come Weaver could predict so much? They knew that you would meet Amalgamation in the Chained Isles, knew about Sunny's journey through the Dream Realm and the exact Nightmare Seed he would challenge. They even predicted him finding the message on that mountain where his First Nightmare took place."
After taking a deep breath, she continued.
"This, however, is the first time we can say for certain that Weaver was wrong. It could be a lie. As much as I wish otherwise, I have to accept that possibility. But if they really were wrong..." Her smile grew even brighter. "Then that means we can do it. That we can really change Fate beyond what even the Daemon of Fate itself could predict!"
Nephis looked -properly looked- and finally noticed the manic energy surrounding Cassie.
The way she was holding her cup, as though she needed to hold onto something lest she fall apart. The way she fidgeted in her seat, like she had too much energy and no way to let it out. Even how she nervously tapped her foot.
She knew it was something that had been haunting the other woman. Fate had changed -that was indisputable- and yet, at every step, they found that they were still playing the roles expected of them.
To her, this might very well be like finding water in the desert.
"Cassie..."
"I know," she interrupted abruptly. "I won't get my hopes up. I've been disappointed enough times to know better, but..."
The oracle hesitated, face downcast, and Nephis did not need any more reason to take her hand and give it a comforting squeeze.
"Whatever happens, we'll be there for you." She promised.
"I know you will," Cassie replied, her smile more sincere and warm now. "And there are no words in the world that could do justice to how thankful I am for that."
Nephis smiled too, and for just a moment, she saw her friend truly and genuinely happy. Gone was the weight she always carried around, the grim certainty that everything could and would go wrong, that they were just walking toward their inevitable doom.
The conversation died shortly after that, both of them too tired to keep talking when rest called so insistently.
Nephis saw her off and went to bed, where she lay wide awake for a long time.
She was worried, too.
About the future. About Fate. About everything, if she was honest.
How could she not?
She was meant to become the Spirit of Ruin, the very embodiment of destruction. A monster that would destroy everything around her as naturally as she breathed.
Sunny, Rain, Cassie, Kai, Effie, the Firekeepers, the world itself. Would she bring ruin to them? Kill them all for no other reason than because that was what she was?
Then there was the thing Amalgamation had told her. Something that clashed with that apparent inevitable outcome.
Heir of the Flame of Desire. She, Nephis, Changing Star, the Star of Ruin if you were to use another translation.
How far away was that? How could she fulfill such a role? How could she become a replacement to something powerful enough to birth the Gods? What kind of reality would someone with a Fate as disastrous as her create?
Would she destroy with one hand and create with the other?
She didn't know. Unlike Cassie, she couldn't see the future. Unlike Sunny, she couldn't peer into the tapestry of Fate.
All she had were her own two arms, and the Will to make what she wished, rather than what was destined, come true.
The course of action was clear from the very beginning.
Fight. Resist. Do things in a way that she would be able to look back and not feel any regret. That was the only path she was willing to walk.
And still, conviction or not, she doubted. Doubted until exhaustion and sleep finally claimed her.
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Sunny woke up with a tired groan.
Why did he have to wake up? His dream had been great.
He had opened that shop he had always dreamt about, and it was such a success that no Memory in the world was sold without him profiting from it. Worse, he woke up just as he was about to dive into a pile of gold like that cartoon duck he had read about once.
Still grumbling, he took a look around with bleary eyes and, much to his confusion, realized that he was in his room in the Ivory Tower.
Scratching the back of his head, Sunny looked around again, but still found himself in the same place. The last thing he could remember was the Spell whispering Amalgamation's death into his ear and then falling unconscious from a combination of exhaustion and the damage he had taken from looking at Fate.
But that had happened at the Lake of Tears, hadn't it?
"Why am I here?" he muttered aloud.
"Ki Song has asked us to return to Ravenheart. You weren't waking up, so I carried you here," someone replied calmly.
Well, that explained it.
Still sleepy, he nodded in the direction of the voice.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome," the voice replied in the same calm tone.
Mystery resolved, Sunny rested his head back on the pillow and allowed his eyes to close, already being lulled back to sleep by the howl of the wind outside.
...
...
His eyes flew open, and he jumped out of bed, pointing an accusing finger in the voice's direction.
"What are you doing here!?"
Seated on a chair that his blurry sight had failed to recognize as occupied before, there was a woman with silver hair.
Nephis looked up from her book, then looked back down, then up again. With a deadpan expression, she replied just as calmly as before.
"Reading."
Sunny felt his eye start twitching.
"You know what I meant," he grumbled.
The corners of her mouth twitched faintly.
"We figured you would want someone to explain things to you when you woke up. It just happened to be me you woke up to."
Rolling his eyes, Sunny decided to accept her answer.
"Anything else I should know?" he asked curiously.
"Nothing of interest, no," she replied.
Sunny nodded and started stretching to get rid of the stiffness in his limbs. Then he noticed a simple fact.
He was wearing black pajamas. Black pajamas, he was sure he hadn't been wearing before falling unconscious. Her earlier words about carrying him to the Ivory Tower came back to mind.
Suddenly, his cheeks felt very hot. He had clearly caught a fever. It was the logical explanation and the only one he was willing to accept.
"Did you change my clothes?" he asked quietly, almost afraid of the answer.
Nephis quirked an eyebrow and shook her head.
"No, Rain did."
Another image from the past flashed before his eyes. Nephis had asked him the same thing when she woke up after becoming a Saint. He had answered much the same way she did now, and her next words had embarrassed him so much that he had run away.
Remembering his vow to take revenge, Sunny decided that this was as good a chance as any.
Putting on his best charming smile -why did Neph look at him like he was about to stab her?- he decided to enact his plan.
"I wouldn't have minded if it was you," he said in his best approximation of a low, husky voice.
Nephis froze.
Literally froze.
She stood so still that he feared for a moment she had turned into a statue.
Then, all of a sudden, she came back to life, a rosy hue appearing on her cheeks. Sunny would never admit it, but it made her even more beautiful than usual.
Nephis blinked, looked him up and down, then did it again. She blinked once more, then nodded.
Why did he suddenly feel goosebumps?
"Very well. Shall I do it now?" she asked in her usual deadpan tone.
This time, he was the one who froze.
He had heard wrong, right?
Right!?
She only managed to stand up and take a single step forward before he scrambled backward, waving his arms desperately as he blurted out a quick, "No!"
Nephis looked as though she was about to take another step before finally stopping with a disappointed expression, looking at him sadly.
He was fooled for all of one second before Sunny noticed the smile threatening to slip through.
Wait, was she... teasing him? Her?
Nephis!?
How!? Why!? How!?
"I apologize," Nephis said, the smile out in the open now that he had spotted it. "I just couldn't resist."
Sunny glared at her, vowing that his revenge would be swift and merciless.
"Sorry again." He kept glaring. "Lunch will be prepared soon. Come when you're ready, if you want."
Nephis winked at him -winked!- and turned around, leaving him alone in the room.
Sunny spent more time than he was proud of considering the possibility that maybe he was still dreaming, or that he had somehow fallen into another dimension while he had been out of it. It would make more sense than what had just happened.
In the end, he shook his head, vowed to take revenge again, and moved on. Better stop before his face got so hot he could cook on it.
First, he made his bed and then changed into another set of clothes. Then he walked into the bathroom attached to his room and cleaned himself up.
When he came out, feeling refreshed and ready to face whatever the world had in store for him -save for a teasing Neph- he decided to check his spoils first.
A mental command was all it took for his newest Echo to appear.
Surprisingly, rather than some sort of fleshy abomination, Amalgamation looked just as she had when he had first met her. A beautiful pale woman wearing a white dress, with white hair and icy blue eyes.
Despite his expectations, she just stood there, vacantly looking ahead like any other Echo. That was a little disappointing. Sunny had hoped that, given the intelligence she had possessed even as a Nightmare Creature, she would be more articulate than usual, even before he turned her into a Shadow.
Speaking of which, such a thing wouldn't happen anytime soon.
[Transform Echo into a Shadow?]
[Required Shadow Fragments: 2000]
And here he had thought one hundred of them to turn Saint into a Shadow had been expensive.
Feeling a little depressed, he gazed at his Shadow Fragments counter next.
[Shadow Fragments: 281/6000]
Turning his newest Echo into a Shadow was still a long way off at his current pace, let alone recovering his Titan Core. At times like this, he was really envious of Neph and her ease of gaining fragments.
Then again, he didn't have to burn alive every time he used his Aspect, so he probably came out ahead of that comparison.
"Sorry, Amalgamation, but you'll have to endure being like this a little longer," he said, patting her shoulder.
The Echo, as expected, did not answer.
"Now that I think of it, what should I call you?" He scratched the back of his head. "Amalgamation is a mouthful and annoying to say."
The Echo, once again, did not answer. Sunny had almost forgotten just how unresponsive Echoes were, used to Saint and Serpent.
He looked her up and down, and an idea flashed through his mind.
Hadn't he referred to her as the Lady of the Lake? He had found it fitting then, what with how elegant she looked and her apparent love for bodies of water. He thought it over a little more, but in the end it was just too good a name to pass on.
"Lady. I'll call you Lady."
Nodding proudly at his impeccable naming sense, he moved on to... wait, why did it look like Lady had thrown him a judgmental stare just now?
Sunny looked at the Echo attentively but found her expression just as empty as before. Maybe he had just imagined it?
Anyway, moving on to the next point on the list.
The revelation about the mess of biblical proportions -and never did that expression fit so well- that was his family tree could wait for another moment. Never if he could get away with it. No, what mattered was that by combining [Endbringer] and [Blood Weave], he had successfully stared at Fate with nothing but his own eyes.
It was something he had thought impossible until he became Divine. It was something that all of them could do to an -admittedly poor- degree, if Eirene's memories could be trusted. Being able to do it so early was nothing less than astounding.
Funnily enough, he was precisely the last person who needed such a thing.
In a shower of sparks, a mask of lacquered black wood appeared in the palm of his hand.
Sunny looked at [Weaver's Mask], and the snarling visage of a demon returned his gaze. He had only used its enchantment once, and while he could -reluctantly- admit that it had given him the solution he was looking for, the trauma it had inflicted on him was also undeniable.
However, he had a nagging question now. What would happen if he activated [Where is my eye?] while both attributes were active? Logic suggested that nothing would happen. After all, the enchantment was only supposed to allow him to peer into the tapestry of Fate, something he could already do on his own.
His intuition was telling him the opposite. That if he were ever brave -or stupid- enough to try, he would uncover a secret like no other.
Would he finally understand what it was that Weaver had planned for him? The Forgotten God's machinations? Fate's?
Sunny had countless questions, and the means to answer them rested in the palm of his hand. It twitched involuntarily, the mask drifting toward his face for but a moment before his better judgment won out and he dismissed it.
Maybe it really did hold the answers, but Sunny himself wasn't ready to find them.
He was simply too weak.
Just a superficial glance into the strings had almost killed him. Spell, he was still suffering from a terrible headache even now. Looking any deeper? It would kill him. No doubt about it.
A sardonic smile spread across his lips. He had the means to obtain the answers, but not the power to withstand them.
Maybe when he was Supreme? No, that would be too early. The difference between a Transcendent and a Supreme was great, but not that great. Maybe even being Sacred wouldn't be enough to handle it.
Shaking the thought away, Sunny stood up and left the room in search of lunch. He was starving, after all.
All the while, he wondered what he would find when that day finally came.
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The sun was shining brightly outside, bathing the Jade Palace and the city lying beyond it in its warm rays.
Even the perennial cold that pervaded the land seemed to retreat in its wake, as if intent on allowing a bright, peaceful day for those who inhabited the region.
Ki Song had countless vessels spread all around Ravenheart, and through them she saw her people going about their day, walking with their heads held high, smiling, safe, and content.
She allowed a proud smile to spread across her face.
Before her, Ravenheart had been little more than a ghost town, the Awakened of the region huddling behind the walls of the Jade Palace. But now, it stood as one of the three great settlements of the Dream Realm, second only to Bastion. And that was something she intended to remedy sooner or later.
How vexing that all she had built seemed on the verge of toppling down now.
"The culprit was a Corrupted Titan. A remnant fragment of a former Divinity," she echoed what she had heard minutes ago from the mouths of her own heirs.
Ki Song had already received a report from Seishan the very same day it happened, but it never hurt to corroborate the details. Speaking of them, they were annoyingly sparse.
Seishan hadn't found out -rather inconveniently, Ki Song thought- the reason why the Nightmare Creature had been so interested in her newest children, and they themselves remained suspiciously evasive. But it didn't really matter, did it?
What mattered were the results, and she couldn't complain about them.
A Corrupted Titan. Ki Song could have killed it herself. It would have been annoying, but she could have done it. However, the number of deaths and the collateral damage incurred would have been costly.
Meanwhile, her new heirs had pulled it off with barely a few deaths and no damage worth speaking of.
She would have been proud, had she not known that sooner or later, those very same heirs would seek her head. Maybe she should get it over with and kill them already before they grew any stronger…
Her gaze drifted to the window, through which she could see the great bridge connecting the Jade Palace to Ravenheart. Dozens of people were crossing it now, going in and out of the citadel for a myriad of reasons.
Beyond them lay the city itself, filled with more and more people each day. How long would it be until tens of thousands called it home? Hundreds of thousands? A million?
How many of them would survive when the time came? When the Waking World fell, and nothing but this nightmarish cage remained? When the true Overlords of the Dream Realm decided to remind them of their place in the food chain?
Seryth, Vaelkar, Marcival, the Lady of Ill Dreams. Unholy creatures at the very least, and soon to awaken.
Then there was Merias. A true, uncorrupted God. Maybe the only one left in this day and age.
Ki Song could still remember it with perfect clarity, his Will pressing against hers. At that moment, she had felt like an ant standing before a mountain. Less than that, even.
And the worst part? Merias had been gentle. His Will brushing against hers the way one would pat a child's head.
That gentle touch had been enough to put her in a coma for weeks. A gentle touch.
Even knowing just how truly powerful the true Overlords of the Dream Realm were, Ki Song had still held on to the hope that, with enough people under her Domain, she would be strong enough to at least resist them.
She had been disabused of that notion now.
If all of humanity were to join her Domain at this very moment, and she were to clash Wills with Merias once more, there would be no difference.
Now, a former Goddess had appeared. She was weak, yes, a shadow of a shadow of her former self. But what about those who followed?
How many more horrors lay dormant in this realm, waiting to be awakened by the Age of Madness and Corruption that the golden bird was certain was coming?
How was humanity supposed to survive that? Ki Song wasn't sure even she could survive it, let alone protect anyone else.
The answer to what to do next was obvious enough.
Humanity needed stronger champions. Not only a Sacred, but a true Divine of their own.
Anything less was just hopeful thinking. And she had already engaged in too much of it for her own liking.
Ki Song didn't want to be such a champion. She already felt too inhuman for her taste, and the idea of becoming a being incapable of caring for her daughters repulsed her.
Neither Anvil nor the Dream Spawn were good candidates, either. One would become so detached that he might not bother to lift a finger to save humanity, while the other might end it himself on a whim.
Ki Song knew of two candidates, though. So perfect that it almost looked as though Fate had plucked them up and placed them in her path at the most opportune moment. The very same ones she was considering whether to kill or not.
They were young, but neither their power nor their wits could be doubted. Their ambition was clear as day, too. Whether she helped or not, they would only soar ever higher. Maybe so high that she could no longer see them on the horizon.
Idly, she tapped her fingers on the desk and summoned a Memory atop it.
A scroll manifested, made of a thick, dark violet hide, rimmed with gold and so ancient that it looked one bad breeze away from disintegrating. And yet, its power was undeniable, practically emanating from the aged hide and whispering of unquestionable authority.
A Sacred Memory, the one and only one the Spell had ever deemed to bless her with.
Through it, she could ensure their help in good faith. Bind both sides in an unbreakable agreement that would ensure neither could betray the other. A full cooperation, no more hidden knives, no more carefully worded threats, no more withholding vital information from the other.
And yet, she hesitated.
How could she take that step? Entrust her own future, her daughters' future, of everything she had paid in sweat, blood, and tears to build, to them?
Ki Song paced around her office for a long time, retracing the same arguments over and over again. In favor at times, against at others. Doubting, doubting, and doubting some more.
Trusting them could spell her and everything she held dear's doom. Not doing so certainly would. In the end, everything came down to that simple fact.
Until finally, she reached a decision.