Day 3.
It was the final day before they went and escaped this dark city once and for all. Sunny suggested a party for the last day, they had no solution for day two due to the fight about it.
Besides that, it didn't really feel like a party. It made sense, as everyone knew a lot of them would die. But it was also like this because of the hatred for the host of the party — the host of course being Sunny... the dark tyrant.
Luckily though, there was one person who could bring the spirits up, that person being Nephis. Right now she was in the middle of her speech to everyone.
"I cannot guarantee your lives, that is why if you choose not to fight I would not blame you and will allow you to stay in the back of the charge... but if you do fight with me.
"I can promise you that we will win."
She raised up a glass, which wasn't full of any sort of mysterious alcohol they somehow had made, but rather milk from a nightmare creature and some sort of "honey" from somewhere he didn't know. All he knew was it was also from a nightmare creature. In the first place, he had no clue what honey was.
"We will go to our deaths — to our dawn. We will turn that wish into a dream and that dream into a reality... so I implore you, for the last day before this Armageddon, celebrate to your hearts' content!"
Cheers rang out for her; if it was because she said it or if it was due to it being a good speech, he had no clue. After all, he had no speeches to compare it to. But looking next to him at Pauline, who had a snarl on her face, he supposed that speech wouldn't resonate with outskirt rats like them. This made sense; to them, dreams were a privilege, not a right.
He decided to let her have her little tantrum; after all, it didn't involve him. The current him was someone who had the right to dream — that's because he was strong. So marching towards his dream, he walked...
To grab a drink of course.
---
The party raged on. He'd talked to Kai and Effie; now he was making his way to Cassie. Brushing a branch full of leaves away, he saw her. She had Weaver's mask on, looking at the ocean.
He should really find a memory one day that can turn memories invisible.
As if sensing him, she turned back. Slight changes in her body posture could tell him that she was smiling.
"It's beautiful, isn't it? The ocean, that is. Despite all the creatures in it, I believe there's beauty hiding in it as well."
He walked up next to her, looking down into the ocean. Waves crashed onto the sandy beach, and sometimes the smell of blood wafted to their noses. Shortly after the smell reached them, a creature's body washed up on the beach before being dragged back into the ocean.
"Maybe it's just me... but I can't see what's beautiful about it."
Her arm stretched out before she pointed her finger at the ocean. There was nothing she was pointing at specifically — maybe there was, maybe it was something only she could see.
"In the waking world, there used to be these things called clams and oysters. Inside of them, you could find pearls... I'm sure that you know what those are due to your aspect, but that's besides the point."
Lowering her hand, she looked down at the creatures drifting onto the shore.
"Those clams and oysters were quite hideous despite a beautiful gem being inside of them... that's why..."
Her hand brushed his covered left eye, before trailing down to his heart that nobody knew was human or not.
"Even if you change, even if you turn into a monster... I'll always know that there's a pearl in you."
With those words, she dismissed Weaver's mask, and her lips drew ever so close to his. They didn't touch, but if he ever moved up a tiny bit, they would.
Still, that thought didn't even cross his mind, because her eyes were consumed by a sadness he could never understand.
"Yet even so... I have one request, please Sunny."
"Do not become a monster..."
---
The party was dying out now; the scene reminded Sunny of the village from his first nightmare. Everyone was scattered around, passed out in random places. Walking over to a hill that gave a clear view of the starless night sky, he saw a star — a changing star, that is. He went and lay down next to her; she didn't say anything about this fact either.
"My father was killed in front of me."
His head swung towards her, his eyes wide. Trauma dump much... still, he looked back at the sky and let her go on.
"His cohort... or ex-cohort, I should say... ambushed him before he could go somewhere. That where, I have no clue."
She raised her hand at the blank sky as if she could see herself being sucked into the darkness.
"They didn't know I was watching... so I had to straighten my back and raise my nose in the sky. After all, a good legacy who didn't witness such a horrific sight of their own father being torn apart would still have pride in their status."
She clenched her hand into a fist before it flew down into the ground next to her, causing a hole to form in the shape of her fist.
"After assassination attempt... after assassination attempt... they assumed I wouldn't be a threat. They assumed I was ignorant to the truth and would be a waste of time and resources."
A seething rage filled her eyes as she gritted her teeth; the trembling from her body ceased suddenly though.
"Revenge, eventually I would have my revenge. That was my grand goal, and after that I would destroy the Spell in its entirety, freeing this world from endless death like the death that will be seen tomorrow."
A sad smile, a myriad of emotions welling up in her eyes before they faded, replaced by a single thing.
"But one day... I got entangled with a boy from the outskirts and a blind girl. From that day on my goal was quite different, you see."
Raising both her hands up as if letting go of the darkness that was dragging her in, a bright smile appeared on her face — a smile that couldn't be absorbed even by the darkness of the night sky.
"A hero... it was a pipe dream. A seer, what does that matter when you'll trip over anything in front of you? So I myself had to change; my dreams weren't just for me anymore... my life wasn't just mine anymore. Who would become a hero for that lonesome hero? Who would become the eyes for that pitiful blind girl... well, it's rather obvious, isn't it? I would."
There was no more night sky. In that moment, it was only them — it was him and the Nephis with tears in her eyes that never shed a tear in a long while.
"So I beg you, Sunny... even if you have to become a monster... don't die."