Nephis looked at Elizabeth as she unpacked the meat with a faint frown. Of all the people the Spell could have sent to this damned place, of course it had sent her as well.
Elizabeth Hale.
Nephis knew exactly who she was; the other Sleeper with a True Name. She did not know what to think of the girl. There was something strange about Elizabeth, something she could never quite put her finger on.
From the moment she had first seen her standing at the Academy gates, and later when they had sat beside each other in the cafeteria, it had felt as though she were meeting someone she already knew. Not merely a familiar face, but an old friend she had not seen in a very long time.
Yet that feeling had been crushed almost instantly.
They had never met before. Nephis was certain of that. They were complete strangers, and yet, for reasons she could not explain, her heart insisted otherwise.
At first, she had assumed it was no more than a trick. Perhaps the great clans had finally abandoned their usual methods. Instead of sending yet another assassin, they had sent someone whose Aspect could subtly influence the mind. It was the only explanation she could come up with for the inexplicable sense of familiarity Elizabeth inspired.
But then another question arose.
'Why?'
The great clans wanted her dead. Of that much she was certain; it was honestly a miracle she'd survived this long. If they truly meant to kill her, they had more than enough means to make it happen. And yet they never sent anything she couldn't fight past, it was never quite enough.
She had long suspected there was another game being played beneath the obvious one, a game whose rules she still did not understand. But she did not need to understand the rules to take advantage of them.
'Let them toy with me,' she thought. 'Soon enough they'll wish they hadn't.'
But she still couldn't place where Elizabeth fit into any of it. Had they sent her to get close, to lower her guard from a friendly angle instead? No. The great clans weren't that sloppy. So what was she, then?
For a long time Nephis simply watched her from a distance. A few times she even closed the gap herself, deliberately, curious whether Elizabeth would seize the opening and push for something more.
She never did.
She stayed polite. Friendly, even. But she never once tried to get closer, never angled for anything. It was almost as if she had no motive at all. Nephis kept watching anyway, right up until the rumors about Elizabeth's brother reached her.
The Ice Savage. The one they called the "Winter Soldier." Cain Hale.
That name cracked open memories she'd thought time had erased for good. Nephis knew exactly who Cain Hale was. He'd once been a knight of the Immortal Flame Clan, appointed by her father to head the clan's Antarctica branch. Whenever her grandmother dragged her out there, Cain always found time to visit.
She'd been fond of the eccentric man. Like many of the clan's old guards and retainers, he'd been more than a knight. He'd been family, more present in her childhood than her own father ever was. Of course, like everything else in her life back then, that peace didn't last. Her father died. With the clan's only Saint gone, the Immortal Flame Clan began losing its influence, and people started leaving. Cain left too.
Officially, at least.
"I am going to challenge the Third Nightmare, Lady Nephis. I will take Broken Sword's burden."
A few years after his disappearance, he returned one night and spoke those words.
"Maybe then, the Immortal Flame Clan will remain standing."
His words that night had lit a small spark of hope in her chest. That was the last time she ever saw him. A year later, word reached her that he'd died. By then she'd already grown used to that kind of news; too many people she'd cared about had already been taken from her. Some of the guards she'd once considered family had even tried to kill her themselves.
Still, Cain's death hit differently. It snuffed out the last ember of hope he'd managed to relight in her, and in its place the flames of revenge burned brighter against everyone who'd taken it all from her.
That was why Elizabeth had felt so familiar. She was the image of something Nephis had nearly let herself forget, It was like her old friend was wearing a new face.
Yet learning who Elizabeth's brother had been only deepened her inner conflict. Was Elizabeth Hale, the little sister Cain had never been able to stop talking about, nothing more than another pawn sent by the great clans? Were they using her connection to Cain to torment Nephis? To remind her that hope was useless?
Or was it simply fate that had led Elizabeth to her?
Despite knowing how poisonous the well of hope truly was, she could not help but drink from it. Was it asking too much to let heaven smile at her for once in her life.
***
Side Note: A shorter chapter today. I was experimenting with writing a character like Nephis and trying to capture her perspective more accurately. I'm not entirely satisfied with this chapter, but it's still progress. I also used this chapter as an opportunity to expand on the OC's lore and explore some of her connections to the existing story.
The next chapter will be longer for sure.