Sunny looked at Nephis, the spite in his eyes fading into something heavier. Something that looked almost like grief.His voice cracked as he asked, barely above a whisper:
"W… what happened to you?"
He swallowed hard. "Why are you like this?"
Why do they look so lonely ..when they had each other, why did she look so pained, when her flames could wash away even the gravest of wounds, what was that she was missing and why did she look like she lost a piece of her soul.
The questions gnawed at his very soul. Nephis looked up, her expression calm, "I don't know, Sunny… I really don't." She paused, then asked a hint of some unknown emotion in her eyes, "Have you ever thought about the consequences of your actions, and how they might affect others?"
Sunny frowned at the sudden shift. The answer however was simple..too simple.
No.
He had never cared about such things. As long as it benefited him, as long as it kept him alive, he would do anything. He had lived his entire life by that rule. And if he was honest with himself, he had no right to question Nephis and her motives. In truth, they were far too alike.
A terrible suspicion took root in his mind. After arriving at this strange place, Sunny had noticed many things… things most people would miss. But if there was one trait that had kept him alive this long..from the outskirts to the Forgotten Shore, even before he ever received the divine aspect,it was his perceptive nature. It was what made him different. It was what kept him alive.
From the behavior of his older self, the future cohort, the way young Cassie spoke, and the strange tension around Nephis, he had begun to piece together a painful truth.
The cause behind all of this…was himself.
As if answering the suspicion forming inside him, Nephis spoke. Her tone was soft, wistful, almost as if she was afraid of the answer yet desperate to hear it.
"You were with me in the Forgotten Shore, yes?"
Sunny's mask cracked.Grief and guilt twisted his features, sharp and sudden, as though she had ripped open an old wound he kept buried in the deepest part of his soul, And in that moment, everything clicked into place.
This confirmed it.They had forgotten him.
He didn't know the exact reason why, but he had an inkling,a bitter thought that settled like poison in his chest.' Price of freedom, perhaps.'
Sunny swallowed,he remained silent for a long while until his flaw forced himself to answer the question Nephis had asked.
"Yes," he muttered, his voice raw with pain. He asked quietly : "You don't remember me… do you?"
Nephis looked like she had been struck by lightning. The gnawing suspicion she had carried for years. The missing pieces. The strange gaps in her memory. The inexplicable sense of wrongness every time she tried to recall the memories.
It was the question she had never dared to voice.
The one she feared would break her if answered.
The one she needed to know more than anything.
And now the answer stood in front of her.
Her breath caught. For a moment, she looked utterly undone,"…So it's true," she whispered, her voice barely holding together.
Her fingers curled slightly, as if she needed to hold on to something. Her grey eyes trembled with shock so raw, it almost looked like grief.
"You were there," she said, the words spilling out in a breath. "You were with me. Through all of it. And I—"
She stopped, the next words choking her."And I don't remember you."Her voice trembled, "But I should," she added, almost to herself. "Everything in me says I should."
The pain in her voice was different from Sunny's.
Hers was a wound she hadn't even known existed until this very moment but had always felt the pain.How cruel was that going through all that torment without knowing what the cause was.
Her lips parted slightly, as if searching for an answer that simply wasn't there. "Sunny… what have I forgotten?". The room felt smaller suddenly, the air tighter. Sunny looked away, jaw clenched, shadows curling faintly around him like restless serpents.
He had suspected this.But hearing it… hurt far more than he had expected.However Sunny didn't get to answer Nephis.A soft ripple of distortion passed through the room.And then Cassie was simply there.
Standing between them,as if she had always been standing there.Both Sunny and Nephis flinched instinctively. Even the shadows around Sunny recoiled for a heartbeat before settling again.
Future Cassie tilted her head slightly, her blind eyes reflecting nothing .
"Enough," she said quietly.
Her voice was calm, but it cut through the tension like a blade. Nephis straightened, startled out of her unraveling emotions. Sunny stiffened, jaw locked, but he didn't turn away.
Cassie stepped forward, "Some things are better left unsaid," she murmured.
Nephis looked at her sharply, but Cassie didn't return the look. Instead, she turned toward Sunny, her blue eyes settling on him with unnerving precision."You want to know the reason," she said. Not a question. A statement. "You've been searching for it since the moment you arrived."
Sunny swallowed once, hard. Then he nodded.
Cassie let out a quiet sigh, almost regretful. For a moment, she seemed so old, so tired, as if she carried every version of herself across every possible fate.
"This," she said, "is the price of breaking the chains."
Sunny's breath shook as he whispered, barely audible, "…I see.",The silence hung heavy after Cassie's final words. Sunny didn't speak again. Nephis didn't either.For a long while, only the faint hum of the Ivory Tower filled the air.
Cassie turned her head slightly, as if listening to something far away.
Then, without shifting her expression, she spoke:
"…Nephis. There's something you need to know."
The change in tone was subtle, but Nephis straightened immediately. Her emotions were quickly buried under the cold, controlled calm of a commander.
Cassie continued.
"Valor's members..they're behaving strangely. Different from last time."
Nephis's eyes narrowed. "Different how?"
Cassie's blind gaze seemed to pierce straight through the walls." Decisions they didn't make in our timeline, especially the forgemasters ..i can't track them"
Nephis exhaled slowly through her nose.
"Then we don't have much time."
Cassie tilted her chin upward, sensing the ripple of Nephis's thought."So you're thinking what I'm thinking?","Yes," Nephis said. "If Valor is deviating already, then war is closer than we thought. The timeline is unstable."
Cassie nodded once. "In that case… we need to move everyone to a safer position."
Her blind eyes slid toward Sunny,then away again."To Godgrave."
Nephis's expression tightened. "Has Sunny anchored the Nameless Temple?"
Cassie's answer came without hesitation.
"Yes, he did before he left. It's in place. The path is open."
Nephis closed her eyes for a brief moment, gathering her resolve. When they opened again, all lingering vulnerability was replaced with a cold, steady determination.
"Then we move."Nephis turned sharply toward the door."Gather the cohort," she ordered. "Old and young."
****
Young Nephis approached Sunny as he stood near the balcony rail, staring up at the night sky. The starlight reflected faintly in his eyes, distant and cold. His face looked carved from porcelain, unreadable yet fragile.
"What are you thinking about?" she asked softly.
Sunny didn't answer immediately. His gaze stayed fixed on the heavens.
"...I'm thinking about these stars," he finally said.
Nephis frowned. "Stars?"
He breathed out slowly. "Yes. When we look at them from here, they seem so close. Almost touching. A whole sky full of lights, all together. But in reality, they're very far apart. So far that if one of them dies…" He turned to her. "Do you think it affects the others?"
Nephis studied him for a moment, her expression contemplative. Eventually, she shook her head.
"No," she said quietly. "I don't think it would.",
Sunny nodded as if conflicted, "So, it'll be just forgotten"
But Nephis added her eyes softening, and she added,"However… if the star wasn't just a star" she paused, almost smiling,"but something like the sun…"
Sunny's breath hitched.Nephis continued, her voice gentle but steady,
""Then everything changes. If the sun dies, its planets die with it. Worlds fall out of the sky. Lives end."
Her smile widened, and Sunny's face burned as she added,, "And the worlds become a little sun—less, don't you think?,Sunless"
Sunny lowered his eyes. He understood exactly what she meant.And Nephis understood exactly what he had been getting at.
He chuckled, " You know me far too well neph"
He had thought he was just a star, one among countless others,a small star that wouldn't matter if it vanished. Oh how foolish he was, as it turns out,he wasn't a star.He was the sun.And his choices would affect every world orbiting him.
For this conversation was neither about the sun nor the stars. It was about responsibility,about consequence.About the price his older self had paid..and the price he himself would eventually pay.
A comfortable silence stretched between them. The breeze stirred gently, making the curtains sway. Even the shadows moved with the wind, soft and quiet around his feet. Sunny exhaled, the weight in his chest loosening just a little.
He had made up his mind.
His decision..whatever it would be,was no longer just his alone.Nephis looked at him then, the moonlight catching in her pale eyes. "Sunny," she said softly, almost a whisper, "you don't have to carry everything alone."
He turned toward her. For a moment, neither of them spoke.Then Sunny stepped closer.
Nephis didn't move away. Her breath hitched, barely audible. The moonlight bathed them both in pale silver, the Mirror Lake far below reflecting the sky like a flawless sheet of glass.
Sunny reached out, hesitating only a fraction.
Nephis closed the distance.
Their lips met, as the night wrapped around them.The world below shimmered in silver light, untouched and still.The sun and the star kissed beneath the moon,and for a moment, the loneliness in both their eyes finally faded.