10 [10]Plans

At first, Nephis didn't know what Sunny had done. Cassie had already started to drift off into sleep, so Sunny was basically alone with her. Sunny told her to check her runes.

Nephis was confused, at first, but she did what Sunny suggested. She started to read, and quickly realized that she could see everything about his Aspect. She jumped up. Summoning her sword, she pointed it at Sunny, who was still clumsily making pants.

"What is this?"

"Shadow Bond. It's a part of my Aspect that enslaves me to someone in exchange for power. In other words, if you tell me to kill myself, even as a joke, I'll immediately do it. There's nothing I can do to stop you from ruining my life now. I've literally placed it in your hands."

"In exchange for power? Enslaved to me? What do you mean by that?"

By this point, Cassie had sat up and looked in their direction. She was dead tired, but she couldn't just ignore what she heard. What the Spell was Sunny saying?

Sunny didn't even look up from his seaweed pants, which were almost finished. He spoke calmly, but he was anything but calm, even if it was Neph.

"Shadow Bond doesn't directly give me new powers, exactly. What it can do, though is allow me and my partner to share our powers. "

"This is why I allowed you to hold dominance over my life. It builds trust, knowing that no matter how I tried to hurt you two, you can always stop me with a few words."

"In fact, it shows all of my powers and attributes down to the smallest detail. It even includes my memories, Echoes, and Flaw. There's nothing I can hide from you both now, unless you allow me."

"I mean you both no harm, and all I ask in exchange, is to help me grow, and quietly pretend you never knew me when we find our way back to civilization."

Nephis was still uncomfortable. It was ridiculous. Sunny had literally placed his  life in her hands, as far as she knew. Finally, she decided to trust the Spell. People might lie, but the Spell did not.

"Were you sent to the Forgotten Shore to kill me?"

At this question, Sunny feigned ignorance of Nephis' situation in the waking world.

"No, why would I want to kill you? I know what your background is. That Castor guy couldn't help blabbering about it, trying to make the other Sleepers respect you."

This was true, to an extent. He had originally learned of Neph's identity through Castor in his past life, so even if Castor had not told anyone about Nephis of the Immortal Flame, he could have claimed that. The proof was that the Spell allowed his excuse to count.

Nephis finally dismissed her blade. Cassie realized that the tension was settled and finally laid back down. She was exhausted, after all.

"I don't really know what to make of you, Sunny, but we should probably sleep."

Sunny looked at her funny, the asked in a quiet tone:

"I can see your Runes now, too, you know. It would probably hurt you to heal my hand, wouldn't it?"

Nephis nodded. It would indeed be very painful. Almost impossibly so.

"I'll make you another trade. If you endure your flaw for a few moments and heal me, I'll give you my armor in the morning for now."

Nephis looked at him incredulously. It took her a moment to speak.

"Why?"

Sunny turned away, embarrassed.

"You're driving me mad, barely clothed like that. It's better this way, until we get another memory for you to wear."

Nephis stiffened and hurried to cover her chest with her arms. She spoke harshly.

"Pervert."

Sunny shook his head.

"I wouldn't do whatever you are thinking. In fact, if you heal my literally broken hand, I can have this problem settled by morning."

Nephis sighed. She walked over to Sunny, and began to move her power into Sunny's hand. There were tears in her eyes, and she was suppressing a silent scream.

Luckily,  the whole procedure only took a moment, and Sunny quickly pulled his hand away. He turned and moved it, making sure it was alright, and then turned to Nephis, who was silently crying from the pain.

"I'm sorry. You should rest now. It's not like you'll see more than me, and I still have to finish my seaweed shorts."

Finally, Nephis went and laid down next to Cassie. To Sunny's surprise, the blind girl shifted, then reached out for a few moments,  finally finding Neph's seaweed bed next to her.

Cassie caught Neph's hand in her search, and then squeezed it. When Nephis noticed who was holding her hand, she half got up, with a question in her eyes. Cassie pulled Nephis closer to her, in a tight embrace, and began to fall asleep.

Nephis was as stiff as a board at first, but the two were already much closer to each other than they were before Sunny came back to the past. Nephis quickly relaxed, and Sunny could see the faintest smile on her lips.

***

In the morning, Sunny and Nephis were the first to get up. Sunny had changed into his seaweed shorts. They looked slightly rough, but they were surprisingly well made. The difficulty of using seaweed to make roughshod clothing paled in comparison to weaving  essence strings, after all.

Sunny and Nephis began to make breakfast while the dark waters retreated, and the sun began to rise.

Sunny remembered that he had never gotten to hear the story of Odysseus from Nephis in this life. It struck a small string in his heart.

Sunny began to speak to Nephis.

"The labyrinth will become much more dangerous soon. Actually, the night twe came here, I saw a giant shark get killed by a giant tentacle nearby."

"Do you remember how I told you yesterday about how I already had a camp? It's actually a giant, headless statue. I could see hundreds of those scavengers feasting on the shark carcass ever since my first morning here."

Nephis narrowed her eyes. It only took her a moment to speak again.

"How long?"

Sunny knew what she meant.

"A day or two. If we head in that direction, we'll definitely cross some stragglers, at least."

Nephis nodded, clearly wary of the idea of the scavengers spreading out in their direction of the labyrinth.

Finally, Cassie bolted up. Nervousness and excited could be read like a book from her face.

Nephis frowned.

"Soz, what's the matter?"

The blind girl turned to them and smiled.

"I had a vision!"

'Ah, it's starting. Those damning dreams.' Sunny thought.

Nephis tensed, prepared to summon her sword.

"Are we in danger?"

Cassie quickly shook her head. Sunny smiled. He missed this enthusiastic version of Cassie. The smile faded long before the girls saw it.

"No, it's not that! People... I saw a castle full of people!"

She smiled and pointed with her finger.

"I don't know how far it is,  but I'm sure it is in that direction!"

Nephis turned in Sunny's direction,  but he didn't meet her eyes, instead glaring daggers into the coral floor. He had a deep frown.

He knew. He knew better than anyone what was blocking their path west. He didn't like it one bit.