On a weekday in the summer, the Immortal Flame mansion stood as a bastion of the legends of humanity, its glory standing regardless of the death of the legend that built it.
Many still passed it with awe and admiration in their eyes, admiring the place.
The Immortal Flame, Smile of Heaven and even the mighty Broken Sword might have died in tragedy, but in the eyes of Humanity… They were Immortal legends that would live on even if the great and grand Clan they made ended in the dust, something that was surely impossible…
In contrast to that delusional notion of grandeur, inside the mansion was weirdly empty for a Great Clan of the Immortal Flame's stature.
Few maids, few Awakened. Even after selling most of their Memories and Echoes, they were barely hanging on, Valor was strangling them dry. More and more of their retainers either died or betrayed them for the King of Swords.
The Raven Queen was strangely quiet, she only stole some of their members in the beginning, then disappeared. But the few loyal of the Immortal Flame could still feel the stares of the dead in the house, not for them, but for something else…
But none of that mattered for the little heir of the family. The ignorant girl was saved from the worries of the adults, at least for now…
It was a sunny day in the Immortal Flame mansion, a great day, an excellent day to do absolutely nothing!
At least that was what Nephis hoped for…
Another day of training… Another day of learning about something she would forget about the very next day.
A little girl sat on her chair in her room, playing with her pencil as the paper in front of her sat the same way as an hour ago, white.
It wasn't her fault, it was simply too boring! Her teacher was boring! Why did she have to memorize all these things anyway? Math wouldn't help her in the Dream Realm while fighting beasts!
Plus, she was distracted! The best show in the world had just released their newest episode, she had to see it! Too bad Sarah caught her, now her communicator was gone, how unfair!
The door cracked as the devil appeared, a young woman wearing a black maid outfit revealed herself, bearing a sweet smile to cover her wickedness, short black hair that reached her shoulders and bangs to cover her forehead and part of her nose, still letting both emerald eyes that looked like gems visible despite the amount of hair that formed the bangs.
The beautiful gem-like eyes scanned the room until they found the little girl, the motherly smile growing wider.
"Young Lady Nephis, did you finish your work?"
The little girl groaned, pushing herself up, letting her black hair that was cascading on the table straightening as she turned to the maid, gray eyes showcasing childish anger.
"Of course I didn't Sarah! What did you expect?! It's way too boring!"
The nanny faked surprise and put on a thinking face, taking a few seconds with a hand on her chin before smiling widely without showing her teeth.
"Then no communicator for you little master!"
Little Nephis groaned again, collapsing into the chair with her hands wide onto the table.
Sarah laughed loudly as she walked deeper into the room, reaching the table and putting her hand on the girl's shoulder.
"Nephis, it can't be this hard, here, let me see."
Sarah's eyes landed on the paper and started reading the questions. She stayed quiet, but her gentle gaze slowly became more and more terrified as she read more and more of the assignment.
Nephis looked up at her confused, Sarah was a grown up, she shouldn't find anything difficult, especially an assignment made for a little girl.
After a few seconds, Sarah finally spoke.
"... Lady Nephis, I believe there has been a mix-up. This is not your assignment."
The nanny picked up the notebook.
"It 's mine…"
"....."
Nephis stared at Sarah for multiple seconds unflinching, all the while the young woman looked sideways, sweat coming out of her face.
"You have assignments?"
"Yes."
"Do I have any chance of doing them?"
"No."
"Did I just waste an hour of my life-"
"Well! Let me get your communicator!"
"Sarah!!"
The nanny laughed while the little girl pouted looking adorable while doing so, pleading for compensation, but Sarah was already immune to Nephis' adorable nature after years of taking care of her.
Sarah had been Nephis' nanny since very little, someone who treated the Heir of the Immortal Flame as she should be treated: like a child, a commodity for Nephis, as such, she cared a lot about her nanny…
She would never admit it of course, otherwise Sarah would use it against her like the devil she is!
As Sarah held the girl down by the head so she didn't receive the retribution of a bored Heir of Immortal Flame, both stopped upon hearing the door creak again.
Looking in the direction, a tall man entered wearing light armor with chainmail underneath. His slouch position showed hesitation and uncertainty, with a dark gaze haunting his brown eyes.
However, upon seeing them, he tried to put up a joyous facade, straightening his posture and putting in a fake smile.
"Sarah, Lady Nephis! How's the afternoon?"
Little Nephis smiled, none the wiser of the actions of the man.
"Cain! Sarah just made me waste…"
Her words died as she turned to her nanny, Sarah looked at him with a dark, terrified gaze in her emerald eyes.
"Sarah…?"
The nanny took one step forward and put Nephis behind her, not letting the girl disobey her silent command. Nephis began to feel a strange sensation run down her spine.
"Cain, what are you doing here? You are supposed to be on patrol."
The man laughed humorlessly.
"Oh you know how things are, I just happened to pass through here and wanted to see Lady Neph–"
Sarah shot down the idea immediately.
"Your sector is on the other side of the house, you are under strict orders to not see Nephis. What are you doing here?"
The atmosphere seemed to darken as Nephis began to tremble, something was clearly wrong, and her body was feeling it.
Cain sighed, his smile disappeared and his brows furrowed. He closed the door and for some reason, locked it with a click, the echo of the sound immediately disappearing as something was put on the room.
It only made Sarah glare at the guard, who looked at her with an emotionless mask.
"Come now Sarah, don't make this harder than it has to be…"
He extended his arm with an open hand, and a well of sparks began appearing. But he didn't even wait for his Memory to finish forming before dashing forward.
Sarah unconsciously pushed Nephis back, making the confused little girl fall into the floor. She felt pain rock her back as she tried to understand…
But when she looked up, she was even more overwhelmed, because Sarah had a blade struck into her chest.
Red liquid flowed out of her torso. A silver dagger pierced her right lung, it was sharp, it was once pristine, now dirtied with blood. Made to kill someone with precise, clean strikes, the most striking was the symbol embedded on the blade: a sword piercing an anvil. The symbol of Valor.
Nephis couldn't advert her eyes from the sight, blood trailed out of Sarah's mouth, her gem emerald eyes looking down at her own chest.
The person that took care of her, that always had a confident, reassuring smile, now had fear and terror plastered on her face, feelings that were now transferred to Nephis.
Cain held a pained expression as he looked her in the eyes.
"I'm sorry… But Immortal Flame cannot live."
Sarah couldn't even speak anymore, she tried, but all the breath she had evaporated as she puked blood out of her mouth, making Cain's hand covered in red blood.
The symbol of the sword piercing the anvil was now completely covered in blood, the blood of a nanny that simply wished to take care of a little girl that lost her parents…
The last thing her beautiful emerald eyes saw was the terrified face of Nephis, crying. If only she could say something…
'I'm sorry… My Lady… Please… Save–'
The light in her eyes vanished as her thoughts became nothing.
Cain looked at the little girl crouched on the floor, whose eyes were showing complete fear, trembling… Tears filled her eyes as she began crying.
Cain felt his resolve falter, but he steeled himself, he needed to do this. So he took his dagger from Sarah's body–
It didn't budge.
"Huh?"
Cain looked back at the body of the woman he had just killed, only to see a corpse, the same dead eyes, even if it still had some warmth, he knew she was dead!
So… Why was she gripping his hand so tightly?!
The body of Sarah was gripping Cain's arm. No… Her skin was closing in on the dagger, refusing to let it go.
"What the?! Were you an Echo or something? No, an attribute to continue on living?! What are you?!"
Sarah, or what was left of her, didn't respond, it simply held Cain's dagger and arm even tighter, to the point it was starting to hurt the assassin.
He gritted his teeth, using all his strength and essence to try and rip out the dagger out of the body.
But it was meaningless, the body only gripped him tighter and tighter. All the while her lightless eyes just kept gazing at Nephis, an uncertain emotion in them.
"LET GO!"
His scream pierced Nephis ears like a loud screech, but she didn't even react, she merely kept her gaze on Sarah…
The corpse of the nanny inevitably broke Cain's arm, but it didn't stop at that, the hands gripped so hard it pierced his armored arm and ripped skin and flesh. Reaching the bones and tearing them apart.
The corpse ripped his arm off his body.
The assassin screamed and squirmed, staggering back while grasping the hole left where his right arm was supposed to be.
"D-DAMN YOU!!"
Cain glared at Sarah's body, that was now motionless, immobile, as if it didn't do anything. All with the dagger still impaling the chest.
The assassin extended his left arm and began to summon another Memory, his gaze lingered at the standing corpse before his eyes widened.
Something must have caught his attention, because fear infected his face as he snapped his head to his real target, Nephis of the Immortal Flame.
He rushed, but it was already too late, the door of the room was broken into.
The door fell to the floor, ripped out of the door frame as multiple men, guards of the Immortal Flame, appeared with Memories raised.
It didn't take long for the Ascended captain among them to close onto Cain in his moment of shock and kill him, letting the blood of the assassin's throat fall to the ground.
Upon the death of Cain, the corpse of Sarah fell as well, robotically losing all the strength it had.
Little Nephis couldn't take her eyes off the corpse of her nanny, she couldn't ever hear the guards checking up on her, asking her questions.
She only got rid of the shock when her grandmother finally appeared, hugging her while crying intensely upon seeing the death of her friend.
That was the day Nephis lost hope of having a childhood.
Years after the event, now that the Heir of Immortal Flame knew more than she did when she was but a child… She couldn't help but wonder…
'Was that you…?'
— — —
Nephis days upon joining Valor were as tiring as they were boring.
To begin with, she had to deal with the bureaucracy and pushback for her decisions on Valor's Ball; most, if not all elders were not happy, already warning and threatening her about the consequences of staying with Sunless.
Surprisingly, Whispering Blade had the least to say, as in: he didn't say anything at all, simply observing her with a severe stare as the others spoke in the chambers of Valor's mansion.
Afterwards, she and Cassie would organize the Firekeepers along with her new, 'dearest sister', Morgan, into the Clan.
More than half of Nephis' followers believed it was her choice to join Valor, they didn't know the choice was out of her hands, otherwise, it meant war, others understood the reasons and that it wasn't a choice, so kept their mouths shut in respect. So they integrated quite positively, some believing it was Changing Star's wish to join Valor, others keeping their questions to themselves.
Many still questioned why she didn't choose Song, considering her relationship with Sunless, not knowing the consequences of her joining the Great Clan.
It was ironic, in a way, Ki Song's choice to not go after the Immortal Flame Clan cascaded into Valor having more power, which now forced Nephis into joining them.
Either way, she would be with Sunny, whether Valor wanted it or not. That choice already led to some consequences, including the inaccessibility to many of Valor's secrets, their most powerful forgers. She was even denied the opportunity to meet with Anvil.
Well, Morgan said it was because of her stunt and stubbornness to not follow their orders, but something told her Nephis wouldn't have anything even if she didn't make clear how she felt about Sunny.
But if Nephis was being honest, she didn't care much, the only loss was not being able to talk with her new 'father' that will never be her father. And even then, after knowing about Rain, Sunless' little sister and what they did to her, Nephis wished to talk to him even less. She would know of his reasons another way…
But if he really was influenced by the Dreamspawn…
She decided to leave the conundrum that was the King of Swords to the side for now, there was no use wondering about something she couldn't figure out right now.
And no matter his reasons, Nephis would kill him anyway, he sealed his fate the moment he sent all the assassins after her. The moment her Grandmother died from exhaustion. The moment he made a deal with the Dreamspawn.
Which brings up something else, the question of why Anvil wanted to kill her in the first place, it was something Sunny probably knew, but Nephis wanted to hear it from the Sovereign himself, when she defeated him.
When she was about to kill him.
Unfortunately, that line of thought eventually brought her to Ki Song, the Raven Queen, Queen of Worms and foster mother to her new boyfriend…
What should she do about her…?
Thankfully, the situation she was in was able to distract her from those thoughts.
She was in the Immortal Flame mansion, waiting for Sunless so they could go on their date to kill a Fallen Terror, unfortunately, the subordinates from both sides heard about it and were not pleased.
Sunny wasn't even there yet and they were already having a discussion.
Nephis was in the main couch in the center of the room with her arms crossed.
On her right, there were three of the Shadow Watchers…
'Sunny really needs to change the name, it doesn't fit anymore.'
Sunny's observer and assistant, Lauma, who was sitting on a couch of the main hall respectfully. The outskirts girl with strange cat eyes Merlin, who was lazily sitting on the floor, not caring about anyone's judgement. And finally, Sunny's Ghost, Motza, who was in the corner, watching.
On Nephis' left, a few of her high ranking subordinates that had already become Masters… Who were clearly displeased.
"Lady Nephis, please, don't tell me you were planning to go to the Box without telling us? Especially with Lord Sunless after just joining Valor?"
The one who said that was Damien, one of the survivors of the Dreamer Army and one that climbed up to become extremely powerful and respected. He had an angular face, with black short hair and strange grey eyes. If Nephis could compare him to something, she imagined a kind of prince from a weird book, he was kind of pale and wearing a grey uniform. He had a serious, tired expression.
Beside him, Kiana, a slim young woman with heterochromia, her right eye was orange while the other was navy blue. Her long white hair cascading around her black outfit that showcased much of her curvy body and skin, leather jacket and shorts. She merely observed the Watchers with an uncertain gaze, gripping her arm.
Finally, some others were also there, Shim, their healer, was pondering close by, Shakti and Kaor whispered to each other about Lauma, impressed to how much she changed, Sid kept to herself, shifting nervously as she didn't wish to be a fight.
Nephis sighed lightly, turning to Damien with her usual indifference.
"This is my business with Sunny, and what Valor thinks matters little to me, as you know."
Damien sighed.
"I know Lady Nephis, but we have to keep appearances at least…"
Lauma raised her hand, and all turned to look at her. She was calm, composed, a little smile on her face.
"Valor won't care."
Her voice was confident, her eyes not betraying anything as she spoke, something that brought confusion and surprise to Shakti, not believing she was the same girl she knew a year ago.
Lauma continued.
"At this point, they'll use you, but they know you have no loyalty to them. So you can rest easy, the most that could happen at this point is scorned faces from the elders."
Damien raised an eyebrow at that.
"How do you know that?"
Lauma was about to say something… Merlin snorted out with laughter and interrupted her.
"How else emo? We tortured them until they said something!"
All the Firekeepers stared at them with confused faces, a weird silence settled, and even Nephis looked at Merlin, unimpressed.
Motza, who was at the corner all this time, finally sighed and moved to his companion, slapping Merlin's head lightly for her to take a hint. She reacted immediately.
"Ouch! We spied on them! We spied on them a lot!"
Lauma looked at her friend with annoyance, sighing, she looked back at Damien with a tired expression.
"That, we did that."
The Firekeeper held a sympathetic gaze at the Shadow Watcher, nodding with the same tired expression.
A sudden laughter made everyone snap their heads towards the source, a girl with different coloured eyes.
Kiana was laughing a lot.
"S-Sorry, you guys are funny!"
Nephis sighed again, letting them continue talking, she let her thoughts wander. For a few minutes, she sat silently on the couch.
She thought about various things, the Song Sisters, Valor, sword techniques, remembered the Second Nightmare, and the bastard she would kill today.
The days were unbearable, but at least she didn't have anymore nightmares, not after Sunny gave her his Shadow. The steed really did devour all her bad dreams, she now had sweet, wonderful dreams…
Speaking of…
'Sunny's late.'
He was supposed to be here already…
She perked up upon feeling a familiar comfort, the shadows grew deeper as she felt more at peace.
A smile creeped onto her mouth, and everyone that saw her stared as they thought such a thing was impossible. Even Motza was taken aback by the sight.
Changing Star then leaned sideways, seemingly falling to lay on the couch, just for her head to rest in a mass of manifesting shadows.
Resting on Sunny's shoulder.
"Took you long enough."
Sunny chuckled.
"Is that your catchphrase now?"
"If you keep being late."
He softened upon hearing that, then looked to the rest, sighing upon understanding what was happening.
"You guys are going to follow us, right?"
Lauma looked at Damien, who nodded like it was obvious, so she looked back at Sunless with a shrug.
"Whether you like it or not."
Sunless rolled his eyes.
"Great, I bet Silent is here somewhere…"
In the Darkness, on a corner that no one could see, a silent hunter slapped the shoulder of a laughing dancer, the boyfriend of said dancer sighing, wondering why he was there.