With a soft click, the door to his house opened. Sunny blinked, immediately noticing the smell of food wafting through the air.
'I'll be damned.'
Perhaps his senses deceived him, but… was that Jet cooking?
Throughout both of his entire lives, he had never seen her cook, even once. She could roast meat over a fire or scavenge for food in the wild, but something like making a meal at home? Not happening. She was definitely the type to just order something or have someone else cook. It wasn't something he particularly cared about, but… he was a little curious on what had made her decide to try cooking. With 'try' being the keyword.
'Ah.'
Taking off his shoes, he could hear a litany of muffled curses coming from the kitchen as something beeped in alarm. Along with that, there was the smell of smoke and the crackling of flames.
Silently entering, Sunny watched in amusement as Jet panicked to stop the fire that had started on the pan. She waved her hand over it, using her superhuman strength to remove all the air around it. Had it been a different kind of fire, it would've been fine…
"Motherfucker!"
Just as the flame began weakening, the waving motion of her hand became slightly off, instead causing the flame to grow in size once more.
She panicked once more, backing away slightly as she raised her hand in defense. Taking pity on her, he manifested the flame's shadow, using it to nudge the pans lid closer to her, as she had seemingly forgotten it existed.
"Aha!"
Jet noticed it immediately, grabbing the lid and immediately covering the pan, finally drowning out the fire. As the heat dissipated, she stepped back and wiped the sweat off her forehead, sighing in relief.
"Whatcha cooking?"
"Gaaah!"
She jumped away, leaping atop the counter like a scared animal as she clutched her chest in panic.
"You-!"
Jet choked on her words, coughing slightly as she attempted to catch her breath.
Sunny… Sunny simply stood there while smiling slightly, trying not to burst out laughing.
"You… ahem. You saw all that?"
He nodded.
"Not all of it, but if you're asking about the fire-"
"Of course I'm asking about the fire!"
"Then yes, I saw it."
Jet's face reddened immediately.
"Ah-. I-..."
"Are you going to come down?"
She looked down, realising she was still standing on top of the counter, backed into a corner.
"N-No."
Sunny raised an eyebrow.
"No?"
"Y-Yeah. No."
"...Why?"
"Because… because I almost burned your kitchen?"
Focusing slightly on his shadow sense, he realised Jet was a little scared. Scared of him.
"It's fine. Just get down."
"If it's fine then why aren't you laughing?"
"Because I didn't want to embarrass you. Now get down!"
"I'm already embarrassed!"
"Just get down."
"Don't want to."
"You can't be serious."
She was dead serious.
"Jet, I'm telling you it's fine. Just get down."
"Just go away first!"
"Ge-"
A small laugh interrupted them. Turning his head, Sunny saw Nephis watching the two of them from the stairs, holding her mouth as she desperately tried not to laugh.
"Ah."
"Ah."
Realising she was caught, Nephis' eyes widened and she immediately ran back upstairs. The two of them stared at the spot she had been standing in for a second, completely still.
Eventually, Sunny turned his head back.
"Told you you should've gotten do-"
"Fine, fine! I'm getting down!"
Stepping off the counter, Jet landed on the ground only to immediately slip on the grease she had spilled earlier.
"Gah!"
Shooting forward, Sunny grabbed her by the wrist before she could fall completely.
"...Seriously, what are you doing?"
Hanging from his arm as she desperately tried not to slip further, she glared at him.
"S-Shut up!"
Pulling her wrist, he lifted Jet back up, allowing her to stabilise herself.
"Hey… it's not that I don't appreciate you trying to cook, but what on earth were you doing?
Blushing furiously as she failed to meet his gaze, Jet coughed slightly.
"Well, you see… I got to wake up a little earlier today, so I thought I'd try it! I've seen you do it enough times, and I thought it wouldn't be that hard…"
Looking at the charred mess behind her, it was clear that she was wrong.
Sunny sighed.
"Seriously… you're cleaning this up."
"Okay…"
Giving her a pat on the shoulder, he walked off, falling onto the sofa with a loud sigh.
"If you wanted to learn you could've asked me. Cooking isn't that hard."
"...Sorry."
"As long as you clean everything up properly, all is forgiven."
Sunny stared at the ceiling for a couple seconds before deciding to pull out his communicator, curiously scrolling through some reports to pass the time as he thought of what to do for the day. One that seemed particularly interesting caught his eye.
"Hm? A new type of miniature region?"
"What?"
Not hearing him clearly, Jet poked her head out from the kitchen, thinking he was calling for her.
"Nothing, just reading out loud."
"Reading what?"
Skimming through the report, he hummed curiously.
"New kind of region found in the Dream Realm. Sort of."
Sunny could hear the sound of scrubbing and pots clamoring together.
"Sort of? What is it then?"
"A group of explorers found it in one of those border regions. You know where the different geographies sort of crash into each other?"
"What about 'em?"
He squinted slightly as he read, making sure what he was seeing was right.
"They found some sort of closed or folded space there. It was like… a region that didn't take up any space. That's what it says anyways."
"How's that work?"
"There's a bit of warped space in the center of three regional lines. One of the idiots actually stepped into it, seems like."
"And? They die?"
Sunny scrolled further.
"Nope. They were brought inside and found a miniature region inside that closed pocket or whatever."
"How miniature or we talking? Like country sized or what?"
"No. They said that it was about… three or four times the diameter of NQSC? So it's still pretty big."
"Cool! What'd they find inside?"
Seeing the end of the report, he frowned.
"They said they found… an incredible amount of riches? Soul shards, gold, the like…"
"Damn! Those guys are rich then?"
He looked into it a bit further. And… it seemed to be legitimate. They really had struck gold.
"Yeah, seems like it. Valor bought it from them and paid all of them extremely handsomely apparently."
"Why're saying that like it's a bad thing?"
Sunny hummed thoughtfully.
"I don't know. Just seems a little suspicious. But if Valor really was that desperate to take it off their hands, then it's probably legitimate. Seems like they had to fight the House of Night for it too, seeing as it was pretty close to the Stormsea."
"House of Night, huh? Oh speaking of Night, where were you last night?"
Switching off his communicator, he stretched himself out.
"Oh, Seishan invited me out to talk, so I was with her."
The scrubbing coming from the kitchen paused.
"You were?"
"Gah!"
Sunny flinched, as Jet had suddenly appeared right next to him.
"Hey, what were you two doing? Tell me, tell me!"
She had a smug smile on her face, causing him to push her away as he sat up.
"Nothing. What's with you?"
"Nothing? Aw…"
Shoulders slumped, Jet slowly walked back to the kitchen, soap dripping from her hands. The scrubbing resumed as he heard her voice call out again.
"Then what did you two do? Train together or something?"
"No, nothing like that. She got me a coffee, we had a walk, and we chatted together in a park for a while."
The scrubbing paused once more.
"What?!"
"Gah!"
Jet appeared next to him once more, causing him to jump slightly.
"I thought you said you didn't do anything?"
"I didn't!"
She grabbed his shoulder, shaking him slightly.
"What do you mean? That totally sounds like a date!"
"Wha… What are you talking about?"
"A date! D-A-T-E, you know, when a m-"
Sunny scowled.
"I know what a date is! What are you on about?"
Jet laughed, shaking him even more.
"Are you serious? That's a classic coffee date! I think the roles are reversed, but yeah!"
He glanced at her.
"And how would you know?"
As far as he knew, Jet was just as inexperienced as he was in this sort of thing.
She gasped and leaned back, offended.
"What? I'll have you know I have… I have friends who tell me all about this kind of thing! At the office!"
"Right…"
Jet grabbed his shoulders, shaking him again.
"Don't try to turn this on me! Tell me what happened on your date!"
"It wasn't a date! And I already told you what happened!"
"You didn't tell me shit! Come on, come on~ What did you two talk about then?"
Pushing her off him again, he sighed.
"Fine… well, we talked about…"
He began to narrate the night, starting from the beginning and only leaving out the information that didn't need to be said. At some point during his narration, Nephis had emerged from upstairs as well, having finished getting ready for the day.
"...then she said something about a bridge. Then the sun rose, and I left. The end."
"Whaaat?"
Jet's mouth hung open, a clear look of disappointment on her face.
"You… You're so boring! The whole night and you really just talked about work?"
"What? She wanted to talk, so we talked. I don't know what you expect from me."
Shaking her head and muttering something, she walked off to continue cleaning her mess. Ignoring her ravings, Sunny looked at the top of the stairwell and smiled.
"How much longer are you gonna stay up there, kid?"
Not wanting to interrupt his narration, Nephis had remained upstairs, sneakily eavesdropping.
"Heheh… Good morning, Sunny."
Sunny waved her over.
"Get over here and pick what you want to eat. We're ordering since Jet decided the kitchen was better off burnt down."
He heard grumbling from the kitchen, but Jet did not retaliate.
"Okay!"
Rushing down the stairs, Nephis joined him on the sofa, leaning over his shoulder as she peered at the menu.
"I want… that! And that! And…"
The day continued peacefully as any other.
***
Looking around, Sunny sighed.
"I'll clean this place up one of these days. Definitely."
Night had fallen in the waking world, and Nephis was asleep. Seeing he had nothing else to do, he was going to spend the night in the Dream Realm. The day had passed peacefully, with him accompanying Nephis as swept through all the new material Seishan had sent him late in the afternoon. He hadn't seen her that excited in a while, and he was in a good mood because of it.
But the moment he entered the Dream Realm, it vanished immediately. Dust still covered the Ivory Tower, and he still had many things to do and figure out. He hadn't been spending nearly as much time in the Dream Realm lately, with the situation back at home. Still, he didn't mind too much. If it was for Nephis, he was fine with it. For the most part anyways.
But seeing all the dust and broken things laying about… it really bothered him.
'Not today.'
He wasn't in a hurry to clean up the place. There was quite literally no reason to. No one was here besides him, and no one would be here besides him.
So today, he was just going to be looking around for a couple things before spending the rest of his time searching for any traces of Mordret.
Not wasting a moment, he immediately stepped through the shadows, appearing before the gate to the Ebony Tower. Slotting the apparatus into the gate, he took a step back as it hummed to life.
"Make sure nothing weird happens, Serpent."
A deep hiss resounded from the darkness as a colossal serpent revealed itself. As Sunny walked into the gate, Serpent coiled itself around it, ensuring nothing could happen. He would've preferred it if he had Solvane with him to explore the tower, but he always left her back at home whenever he wasn't there, just in case.
'That woman…'
His Shadow was quite a handful, but at least she was reliable for the most part. Sunny sighed as he thought back to what happened the other day. He had attempted to get her to change out of the suit Immortal Flame had gifted her so he could wash it, only for her to refuse, revealing that it was now her… base outfit? Whatever that meant. It took him a while, but he realised she meant that the tunic that she always wore had now been replaced by the suit. As Solvane had found the apparel quite appealing, she'd somehow managed to make it a part of her core being.
'Maniac.'
Although it was a little strange, he didn't mind. It made her stand out a lot less in the modern world, so perhaps he could actually take her out of the house for once. But first, he'd need another cosmetic Memory that could change one's skin pigment, as he had long returned the one he had borrowed from the Government.
Stepping into the Ebony Tower, he cleared the thoughts out of his mind, focusing on the world around him. He couldn't be certain of whether or not Asterion had left a small surprise for him down here, so he had to stay alert.
Wrapping his shadows around himself, he took a deep breath and began descending. The highest level had remained unchanged, so hopefully there'd be nothing else-
'...Ah hell.'
A headache assaulted his mind as he entered the fifth level, the runes scratched onto the walls pulsing with forbidden knowledge.
But that was not what was bothering him. He had noticed it right away the moment he entered, a small portion of the wall near the entrance had seemingly been destroyed.
The wall that even divine flames couldn't destroy had been partially broken.
Gritting his teeth, Sunny quickly walked over to the section to inspect the damage.
'Gods…'
One of the sets of notes on the walls had been destroyed. A deep indentation was in the center of the words, a net of cracks spreading out from it. From what he could tell… something akin to an absolutely terrifying punch had destroyed it.
But that was not the worst part.
From the small bits of runic language that remained within the cracks, he knew exactly what this part of the wall was talking about as well.
It had been the musings on Nether that had been written down, the one that revealed the destinies of the lost lineage of Weaver.
'Oh, oh shit.'
Asterion… Asterion had learned of the location of all the Weaves.
Sunny glowered.
'Damn it.'
Clenching his fist, he slammed it into the wall beside him, not leaving even the smallest dent on the stone.
'Damn it!'
His breathing quickened as his frustration grew exponentially. He lowered himself to the ground, holding onto his face.
'Calm… Calm yourself.'
It wasn't over just yet. Asterion didn't know all of them. At best, he knew only a couple of them. Perhaps he would fruitlessly search for one of the Weaves Sunny had already consumed? Half of the locations there were extremely vague… like the ones lost to sorrow and rot, how could the Dreamspawn possibly know where that would be? There were ones that could be misinterpreted as well, like the one lost to fear could be seen as being lost in the Tomb of Ariel. The only ones that seemed obvious were the ones that were lost to fantasy, darkness, and respite. And the one lost to darkness had most likely already been claimed by Broken Sword…
Sighing, he stood back up.
'No use getting upset over it.'
There was nothing he could do to stop a Sovereign anyways. If the Weaves were lost to Asterion, then it was just unlucky. He still had the Shadow Lineage to fall back to if all else went wrong.
Giving himself a couple minutes to recover from the immense frustration, he continued descending the tower. Entering the fourth level, he saw nothing wrong with it.
Standing before the shrine of the Storm God, a memory flashed through his mind. One of the sacrifice of his loyal Shadow.
Sunny scowled once more, turning away in annoyance.
Descending into the third level, he felt something was wrong. Not with the hall itself, but one of the halls underground. He remembered the last time he was here, the shadows below him had been far more numinous, but now it had been seemingly cleared out.
But just before he could continue his path downwards to check out what happened, something caught his eye.
'...'
A small parchment lay on one of the small worktables not too far away from him, just beneath a disassembled arm that was hanging in the air.
Sunny took slow and cautious steps toward it, fearing the worst.
Rather than get near it, he manifested himself a small platform to stand on so he could view the parchment from above instead.
And on it, he saw…
'What?'
It was a drawing. An extremely lifelike drawing of the Dreamcatcher. That alone was surprising enough, but below it were two short sentences, written in runes not dissimilar to the one he had just read above him.
They said:
[If I were you, I would destroy this! Or better yet, throw it into the deepest pit you can find!]
Sunny squinted, reading the passage over and over again to make sure he was seeing it correctly.
'Destroy… the Dreamcatcher?'
Sunny sneered, and the shadows around surged, growing deeper, and deeper, and deeper…
The sheer disgust and malice he felt at the thought had surprised him slightly, but it made sense. That was Hope's gift to him, why should he destroy it? No doubt, they were just the words of a madman. And what the hell did he mean destroy it? That was a genuine Divine Relic, he couldn't damage it even if he tried! And to toss it into the deepest pit he could find? What a goddamn joke!
In a fit of rage, his Shadow Manifestation went off, dark tentacles emerging to shred the parchment apart without mercy.
'Bastard. I never want to see you again. Just die.'
Making sure not even a tiny piece of the parchment remained, Sunny slowly began calming down.
Still shaking slightly, he dropped back to the ground, kicking the remains of the parchment off the table and scattering it everywhere.
Perhaps it was an extreme overreaction to go this far over just a bit of writing, but still, he felt as if it was appropriate.
Shaking his head, he stormed off, descending into the next level. This had been the level that had once contained the terrifying rot. Thankfully, he didn't think any trace of the rot remained, so he doubted the Dreamspawn would be able to piece together the fact that Weaver's lineage had been lost in this very hall.
Walking through it, he saw that thankfully, nothing was wrong. Everything had remained untouched. Seeing this, his bad mood slowly began to lift.
Descending further, he entered the first level. Looking around, he saw dust and debris everywhere, but that was to be expected. This was Nether's Workshop, and everything here had already crumbled, having been lost to time. That unless one counted the two items he had turned into Memories that now rested quietly within his soul. The thought of him owning valuable Memories further lifted his mood.
'That's right… remember how rich you are… life is good… life is good.'
But after entering the underground level, he finally found the reason the shadows of the place felt off.
The once massive pile of broken dolls that had been left here were gone, each and every one of them having been taken away by the Dreamspawn for whatever reason.
…Except one.
A lone doll lay, its limbs broken and battered. It had been one of Nether's very first failures, and had been one at the bottom of the pile. It was so broken and frail that even Asterion had not seen fit to take it.
Sunny's gaze softened.
'Poor thing.'
Seeing the discarded and broken doll… for some reason, it made him quite emotional. Perhaps it reminded him of something, of a Shadow long lost. Or perhaps it reminded him of his own life, having been discarded for the longest time until he was suddenly deemed useful by society.
'I won't leave you here.'
He didn't have a single use for the doll, but he couldn't stand leaving it here alone to rot. It was irrational, it was pointless, but he still did it.
Slowly bending down, he gently picked it up, gazing at its broken and lifeless eyes. He turned to the side and placed its body within the Coffer. Having received its bounty, the chest shut its maw, bouncing around slightly as it followed its master.
"Ah, right. I still need to turn you into an Echo, don't I?"
The Coffer jumped up at his words, seemingly excited.
Sunny patted it on the lid, a dull clang echoing throughout the hall.
"Tomorrow. I've got plans for today."
Sighing, he turned his gaze upwards and sunk into the shadows, returning to the Ivory Tower.
Today, he was going to visit a certain grove. A grove that had once been Sacred, but was now Desecrated. After all... it was about time he repaired the Chain Breaker.