Nephis was still looking at him, her eyes as steady as usual. It seemed like meeting him again after more than two months, and especially after the argument they had before, did absolutely nothing for her.
Little did he know the storm of emotions inside her heart and the thoughts running through her head.
He was thinner. Sharper. The ruins had carved away whatever softness had been left on him, leaving angles and shadows and that familiar, infuriating spark in his eyes. He was alive. Of course he was. Sunny had always been hard to kill.
Alive and standing in front of her again.
That should have been all that mattered.
She kept her expression neutral and let none of that show.
"…So what brings you to the Bright Castle?" she asked, tone even. "Are you… back?"
He hesitated, scratched the back of his head.
Doing shopping. Why else would I come back here?"
Shopping.
That was all? Not to talk, not to revisit what they'd left unresolved before he left for the Dark City, not to tell her he had thought about her plan, or that he would stand with her—or against her—more clearly this time.
Just shopping.
On the surface, she only blinked once.
"Shopping," she repeated.
He winced.
"Right. That sounded weird. Did I say that out loud again?"
He slapped a hand over his mouth, horror crossing his face. At his feet, his shadow shook with silent laughter.
For a brief moment, something in her wanted to laugh, too. The great mastermind of lies and survival, undone by his own muttering. She held it back. A curl of amusement tugged at the edge of her composure and was pressed down again.
"Unusual," she said. "But not… bad."
Inside, questions churned.
If he was only here to buy a Memory, then everything between them was exactly where they had left it: raw, unresolved, dangling over an abyss. He had not returned for her or for their shared goal. He had returned because the Bright Castle was a market and he had shards to spend.
'What does it matter?' She asked herself.
He went on, awkwardly, "Yeah. I have some shards, so I wanted a Memory or two… Or a few."
She knew he was stronger than before—it was apparent in the way he carried himself, in the wear on his armor, in the way his eyes moved, taking everything in. The days of him pretending to be weak felt very far away.
He no longer needed to cling to her plans to survive.
That realization stung more than she liked.
She pushed it aside.
"Once you are done… shopping," she said, "do you want to go somewhere and talk?"
It came out calmly, but it didn't feel calm at all. Nephis felt like she was walking on the edge of a blade once more.
'Gods, why does he have to do this to me?'
His jaw tightened.
"Sorry," he said after a second. "No can do. I'm… waiting for someone."
The refusal landed cleanly, like a cut.
Nephis did not flinch.
"Ah," she said.
Inside, something small and hard shifted. She had assumed, on some level, that if they met again, he would want what she wanted: clarity, decision, an answer to the question hanging between them since the alley.
He clearly did not.
He even made up a random person to get away from her.
"Sunny, you don't have to invent a–"
She didn't manage to finish that sentence, since she then heard a voice from the end of the alley.
"Sunny? Hey, are you here?"
They turned.
The man approaching them moved as if he belonged on a stage, not in a ruined fortress. Auburn hair, wind‑tossed but deliberate. Eyes as green and bright as polished glass. The faint cadence of someone accustomed to microphones and crowds in the way he spoke.
Night.
Recognition slid through her like a blade.
For a second, the Forgotten Shore, with its grey sky and dead sea, felt unreal, and the memory of city lights and screens and distant music pressed in on her instead. She had seen him a thousand times, just as a face in a world far removed from hers.
Now he was here.
On the same cursed beach as them.
Her fingers wanted to tighten. She did not let them.
"Uh, Sunny? Who is your friend?" Night asked, looking between them.
Sunny exhaled.
"What do you mean, 'invent'?" he muttered to her in an aside. "See? He's right here…"
She barely heard it.
Her mind was trying to reconcile two contradictory images: Night on a stage, untouched by blood and ash; Night in front of her, in worn armor, clearly exhausted, clearly human.
The Spell did not care who you were.
You end up here all the same.
"Sunny," she said, lowering her voice. "What is Night doing here?"
He blinked.
"He's the friend I was telling you about."
"That is not what I asked," she said. "Why is he here. On the Forgotten Shore."
Frustration flickered through his eyes, but he understood this time.
"You guys know each other?" he asked. "In the real world?"
The idea was strange enough that she almost missed the question.
"You don't know who he is," she said instead, more statement than accusation.
Sunny gave her an unreadable look.
"He really doesn't," Night said, sounding… oddly pleased. "Isn't it wonderful?"
No. It was bewildering.
"It's only the most famous idol group of the last decade," she said quietly. "Nightingale. That Night. The lead vocalist."
She watched Sunny's face shift from confusion to realization to amusement, and something hot and embarrassed brushed her ribs. It was ridiculous to feel that way, but there it was.
He laughed.
"Sorry," he said. "I just didn't expect that. From you."
"What is strange about that?" she asked, more sharply than intended.
Nephis was not some distant thing above the world. She remembered music. She remembered screens. Nightingale's songs had been… a small light, once, far away from the pain of seeing the Immortal Flame be snuffed out.
She was a regular human with regular emotions, so of course, she would have a favorite band.
Introduction then followed; Sunny made them, as careless as always, dropping "Changing Star of the Immortal Flame clan" into the air between them like it weighed nothing.
Night's eyes went wide, then carefully respectful.
"Oh. It's a pleasure to meet you, my lady," he said. "An honor."
The words sat on her shoulders like fresh armor. Heavy and not entirely comfortable. She turned away slightly to hide the faint heat in her cheeks.
"It's good to meet you," she replied, almost automatically. How else was she supposed to react?
For a moment, there was an awkward stillness. Then Night glanced between the two of them, a faint, rueful smile touching his lips.
"You know," he said, "I thought meeting one True Name bearer in this forsaken place was already enough for a lifetime. But two in a single day? That's… kind of crazy."
Nephis's attention sharpened.
"Two?" she asked. "What are you talking about?"
Night hesitated, looking to Sunny for help.
Sunny grimaced.
"Right. That," he muttered.
He scratched his cheek, eyes darting away for a heartbeat before returning to hers.
"On the way here, we ran into someone," he said. "Juno."
'Of course.'
Juno… had an interesting spot in Nephis's heart. On the one hand, he was someone she was incredibly close to. Perhaps, he was as close a friend to her as Sunny and Cassie were. But probably not, as she only spent time with him whilst living in Bone Ridge and the horrible Soul Devourer tree. She didn't grow strong with him or survive the freezing storms of the Crimson Labyrinth together with him. He was probably as close to her as Effie.
But that still didn't change his strength.
Even now, Nephis would wonder if he was the one sent by the ghouls to kill her. She knew, for a certainty, someone was meant to try to kill her as a Sleeper. She had originally believed that person to be Sunny, but quickly changed her thoughts on that. Now, she would swing between Caster and Juno.
Overall, she believed Juno was the one meant to kill her. The simple reason was that he had absolutely no record anywhere. During their stay at the Academy, she had pulled out all the remaining cards the Immortal Flame clan had, but it was all for naught.
The Sun Chaser was a man-shaped hole in the world. No record. No birth. He hadn't even ever been caught on the cameras of the police station he had woken up in.
Stranger still, the policemen didn't remember him walking into their station, and there were no mentions of how Soul Reaper Jet learned of the boy Juno trapped in his First Nightmare.
Sunny, oblivious to the thoughts in her head, continued speaking of his encounter. Even to Nephis, it seemed like his voice had gotten a little brighter.
'He really does care about Juno, doesn't he? Does he perhaps…'
She shook herself mentally.
'No, no way he does. But if he does, I might need to kill him more than I already do.'
She shook herself mentally, again.
"It seems like my brother finally decided it was time to visit his family," Sunny continued. "And do you know what he did? He sold me Memories! Really, if I didn't know him and his Aspect better, I would have assumed he was a powerful oracle. He somehow knew of the place and time I would use to get to the Bright Castle, and offered me seventeen Memories outright."
Nephis was silent.
It was strange how Juno knew all the things he did, but if her suspicions about him were correct, then it made sense.
Juno was most likely a secret blade raised by one of the ghouls, not specifically meant to kill her, but to be a valuable warrior that would move in the darkness.
It was a shame, really.
Nephis's gaze returned to Sunny.
Her Sunny.
"Juno is here, then," she said quietly.
Sunny shrugged.
"As much as he ever is," he replied. "You know how he is, preferring to survive out there than even try in here."
Sunny covered his mouth and yawned, and mumbled something to himself.
"I would have preferred to do the same thing, right about now. Damnation!"
Nephis chose not to comment on how Sunny talked to himself again. It was very worrying to her why he was acting like that, but she didn't want to pry and push him away even further.
Nephis filed that away.
"Very well," she said. "We will speak more when you come."
Her voice was steady again. The storm inside her curled tighter around this new information, rearranging shapes and possibilities.
Sunny nodded once, then jerked his chin toward Night.
"Come on," he said. "We'll be late for our very important shopping trip."
He turned and walked away, Night falling into step beside him.
Nephis watched them go until the crowd swallowed them, Juno's name and the weight of two True Names in the same ruined city echoing in her thoughts.
Then she turned toward the outer settlements and began walking back.
…
'Truly, how the hell does that bastard know all these things?!"
Sunny walked with Kai through the desolate streets surrounding the Bright Castle. With the Memory shopping complete, and Kai successfully convinced to tag along, it was time to meet Nephis and have that talk with her.
But, almost as importantly, Sunny was thinking of the Underworld Mantle he had received in the Memory Market.
'So bizarre! Firstly, how did a Memory like that end up here, and how did Juno know! Well, the number of stories I heard of Baba Yaga was insane, so maybe he heard of a useless piece of junk in the market from some random hunter group that passed by.
But that doesn't explain why he would suggest I get it! He keeps knowing these things and never explains. I am definitely going to find out how he keeps doing this.'
But that was going to be for future Sunny to think about. Currently, he was coming up on Neph's main base, so he had to focus.
'This… isn't going to be fun.'