At first light, Sunny rose from his bed. Gloomy had sensed the three Sleepers from the previous day drawing near to their makeshift camp, so he moved to prepare his cohort for the day ahead.
Waking Cassie was no challenge, but the giant huntress was far less willing to stir.
Effie murmured lazily, "Not the type to let a woman sleep, huh?"
She turned toward Sunny with a teasing smirk. "Though, I'd prefer if you kept me awake at night instead... if you catch my drift."
Sunny's Flaw flared with a flicker of embarrassment. Effie stiffened at the sensation, eyes bearing a mischievous glint.
Before she could speak again, Serpent coiled around her mouth.
Sunny's voice sounded with a practiced calm. "I've endured a lifetime of your teasing. Must you subject me to more? Be silent."
Effie writhed, muffled complaints escaping her. Cassie spoke for her, laughter dancing on her tongue.
"Poor taste, sure, but that's the first time I've ever seen you flustered." Her voice warmed. "You don't have to be so serious all the time. It's nice to see you experiencing happy memories for a change, you know."
Sunny's voice swelled—but his Flaw betrayed the outburst as performative.
"Not so serious? Happy memories? I beg to differ! You of all people should know! My heart is spoken for, little miss oracle, and I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea."
Effie's expression softened, shifting between the two of them, her insight falling tragically short. Sunny, misinterpreting Effie's look, assumed she intended to offer words of substance. Accordingly, Serpent withdrew the strangle-hold gagging her.
"Oh—I meant no offense!" Effie blurted, a little too loudly. "I should've guessed sooner. He's not much to look at, but he's got that boy-toy charm, y'know? Good catch, Cassie."
The two Sleepers fixed Effie with murderous glares. It seems she had pushed her luck too far.
Before Sunny could snap back, the blind girl cut in sharply.
"I take back what I said, maybe you should stay silent. Even blind, I can see how wrong you are. Now shut your mouth before I shut it for you."
Effie flinched. Cassie's sudden anger was wildly out of character—even Sunny blinked in surprise. The conversation withered, awkward silence marking its grave.
'What has gotten into her lately?'
Had Cassie carried the same Flaw as her mentor, the air would have thickened with guilt.
She had witnessed, more closely than anyone, the boy's ongoing journey through grief. Losing Nephis, the weight of that loss, the rage. It was a tragedy wrought by her hand after all.
That wasn't to say her current self was to blame—she wasn't the one who had whispered his True Name. And yet… how different were they, truly? They had walked different paths, but months could not unmake an entire person.
But even so, Sunny had never held the sins against her. He taught her, protected her, never once turning bitter. Not even toward someone as blind, as weak, as useless as her.
Her Aspect would be refined. She would wield it against Fate once more.
She would bring Nephis back. Even if it killed her.
***
When the group reconvened, the air in the shack was heavy. Tense. The three newcomers knew not what had happened—only that something had.
Sunny chose to draw no attention to it.
"So?" he asked, voice flat. "Have you made up your minds?"
Kai and Aiko exchanged a glance—uncertainty swimming across their faces. Caster, by contrast, stood with confidence under the boy's gaze.
He was the first to respond.
"The extra time has done little to help me process." Caster's voice was measured, steady and firm. "Your words, and their implications, carry a weight far beyond what the others here seem to realize. Everything about you stands in direct opposition to common sense and reason."
He summoned the bone flute, and played the same low, haunting note. The sound didn't echo, but instead pulled silence over the room like a curtain.
The boy had invoked the veil of his own volition.
"I need to understand," Caster continued. "You know too much about the world to carry the limited perspective you have. Why"
Sunny's hands formed curled fists, and he let out a sigh.
"You Legacies, and your Clans, are the worst kind of people. You know that, right?"
For once, his Flaw did not reveal disdain while speaking to the Legacy scion. The emotion unveiled carried far more weight. It was disappointment.
"It is not I who lacks perspective, but rather the Clans who have lost theirs. You cling to hypocritical ideals of honor, power, bravery— duty inherited through your 'Legacies'—but it's all for show. A disguised, ugly truth: you want control, and you'll call it anything else to keep it."
The shadows in the room seemed to deepen as the boy spoke, air growing heavy with his words. Cassie shifted, the effects leaving her especially uncomfortable.
"What you fight so fiercely for is meaningless. You fight over what's in front of you, maybe even on the horizon, but you fail to see what is looming above."
His tone iced over. Kai and Aiko fidgeted.
"Your leaders are inept. Unworthy."
The temperature dropped. Effie's usual levity faltered.
"The Sovereigns are too weak. Their goals are shallow. Their ambition? Pathetic. I don't care which of them wins their little war. They've already lost the one that matters. Desire is more than just a psychological experience in this world, it is the very origin of strength. I have found their desires lacking. They have the lost the war everyone wages to improve themselves. No matter how powerful their Domains grow, they will never win against this world's true horrors."
The reverberation of Sunny's words echoed unchallenged through the air.
"In fact, they tried to kill one of the few people who could—out of fear of what she might become. Humanity deserves better, so I will grant it to them."
And just like that, the Sleepers were able to release their bated breaths.
After some time, Caster scoffed in false confidence. "Your allies claim you are sane, but they lack insight to understand your level of your delusion. Someday, your confidence will see all of them killed."
He paused, hands clenching.
"But for now, our goals align, so I will work with you." Eyes flashing with resolve, he added: "I want to make one thing very clear though, you are a fool."
Sunny waved the boy away. "Yet here you are, following the fool. Stick around long enough, maybe I'll even teach you how to pull that stick out of your ass."
Effie let out a laugh, breaking some of the tension that had gripped the room.
Turning to Kai and Aiko, Cassie apologized. "Sorry for the... inhospitality."
Kai shrugged. "It's fine. I actually agree with Sunny. Power corrupts. It warps priorities. What he said makes sense."
He looked to Sunny. "But give Caster some grace. He was raised in a cage of pride. You can't unlearn everything you have ever been taught in a single conversation, let alone while sins you haven't yet committed are held over your head.
Gesturing to Caster, he motioned toward the window—toward Bright Castle.
"As for you… this place spits on everything you believe. A meritocracy, only the strongest survive, right? Yet there's barely a Legacy in sight, despite accounting for most who survive the First Nightmare."
His voice sharpened.
"Maybe your 'Legacies' are just arbitrary inheritance. Maybe they mean far less than you thought."
What remained of the tension now evaporated in full.
Effie clapped him on the shoulder. "Handsome and diplomatic. No wonder they say you're a womanizer!"
Kai turned pink and rolled his eyes, clearly choosing not to respond.
"As for our answer," he said, turning back towards Sunny, "your claims seem flagrantly impossible—and for the first time, I'm questioning my Flaw because of them."
Aiko stepped forward, brushing her thumbs together.
"But impossible or not, we want to leave" she said, voice swelling with determination.
She mustered a small smile. "As far as we can tell, you're the only one actually trying to do that."
She gathered herself, drawing in a quick breath.
"I don't like fighting. But if you could turn a blind girl into a swordsman, then there probably isn't anything you can't do. Just... get us out of here, please. I'll do whatever you ask, as long as I can finally have modern plumbing again."
Sunny clapped his hands, expression unreadable. His Flaw though, revealed his relief.
"Good talk! If you've got anything left in Bright Castle, grab it. We won't be coming back for a while."
Aiko and Kai exchanged a grimace, then nodded.
***
With decisions cast and his cohort assembled, Sunny turned toward the path ahead.
Two broad objectives remained.
First: the Shard Memories. Of seven, three were already claimed.
Effie's spear—the Zenith Shard.
Cassie's sword—the Midnight Shard.
Seishan's warhammer—the Sunlight Shard.
Four still needed to be gathered.
The Dawn Shard lay unguarded, resting on the First Lord's corpse in the Hollow Mountains. Nearby, a Spire Messenger held the Dusk Shard. Beneath the city, the Lord of the Dead guarded the Starlight Shard—likely the most difficult to retrieve.
The Moonlight Shard was a mystery. Sunny knew little about its location, given that he had not accompanied Nephis on her expedition north to retrieve it. The Memory was an Ascended Memory of the first tier, so the guardian is a Fallen Beast. The only other information he knew was that it was where Cassie had once found the Quiet Dancer.
Then came the Daemon's inheritances.
Nether's Mantle of the Underworld, already in Sunny's possession, had been repaired in his Soul Sea. He wouldn't be summoning it until leaving the city, so as to hide its existence from the Host.
Saint remained in the city square. The Soul Core of the Forsaken Knight, who guarded the cathedral, would trigger her evolution from Monster to Demon.
And finally, the most valuable treasure: Weaver's. His mask lay locked behind a door in the ruined cathedral.
So, in what order should the treasures be claimed?
Saint couldn't be converted into a Shadow until Sunny received his next core, but even in her current state, her Echo would be invaluable. She was the obvious first target.
Once converted into a Shadow, feeding her excess Memories would enable her Ascension quite handily. Going further than that would be essentially impossible though, as Ascended Memories were in limited supply.
After reclaiming Saint, Sunny planned to immediately pursue the Shard Memories located outside the city. The Dawn Shard would increase the potency of their existing Memories, while claiming the Moonlight Shard would add the Echo of the Quiet Dancer to their forces. The decision of which to retrieve first would depend on the giant automata's patrol.
The Dusk Shard would be collected in the same sweep as Dawn, leaving Starlight as the final piece of seven. Its guardian, the Lord of the Dead, was a Fallen Tyrant—and likely the most dangerous foe they'd face for quite some time.
The final treasures would lie in the ruined cathedral.
But what came after the expedition?
That mattered more than any relic.
Preventing internal conflict from culling the Sleeper population was more than a noble goal—it was Sunny's highest priority. It was the reason the cohort would not return to Bright Castle until they were ready to dispose of Gunlaug's regime.
They wouldn't give the Host—or any other faction—the chance to prepare. They would strike with overwhelming and unexpected force, leaving no room for resistance. The population of Bright Castle would recognize their new leaders in one brutal, unforgettable moment.
Ironically, that was exactly how Gunlaug had seized power himself. Only in his case, it had been to far less benevolent ends.
The siege itself would be the biggest obstacle. It could be made easier with numbers, but many of the castles' strongest fighters would be left with unsaturated soul cores should they not fight the bloody civil war. That could be remedied by a concerted effort to pick the city clean of resources...
But that still didn't solve the real problem.
The Crimson Spire. More specifically, the Crimson Terror.
There was no clear answer. Fighting without sustaining devastating damage from the false sun would be a near-impossible feat—both for Sunny and the army.
Unless it was killed before sealing the Dark City.
Even then, the battle would be fought alone. The Crimson Terror utilized soul attacks, and wielding the Mantle of the Underworld, Sunny was the only Sleeper capable of resisting them.
Agonizing over that fight wouldn't help. There would be time to plan later.
For now, the focus would be on drawing out the true potential of his cohort. Their upcoming expedition would be brutal—and they needed to be ready.