The boy had just left the nursery, leaving behind him the girl in a room that lacked the warmth of a human being. A living one, an emotional one. This room had become the place where her mind was at peace, without the need to be worried about anything else except for the flow of time that forced her to keep moving.
She had done it, showing Sunless her most precious secret.
In here, Nephis's though were clearer. Lighter.
It was not like she didn't have any other idea before this one, taking him to a duel like she usually did with her grand-mother. Or just asking him directly, since he was simple minded, he would have surely answered her question.
But she didn't want that, did she ?
She had been wrong about him, Sunny was not lacking conviction. He was just himself, true to his nature. Which was quite funny since he tried to be distant with almost everyone, only to be an open book like Plume.
For Nephis, Sunny was an anomaly.
He was clearly broken. His innocence and naivety had been tainted just like her had been. Even now, he had no assurance about his sister. Rain could clearly be dead right now that he wouldn't even know about it.
He has seen things, just like her.
So why did he feel so much… alive ?
It's not like she didn't have a goal herself.
So why did she feel empty compared to him? Like she wasn't truly alive to begin with?
She knows that her path is the right one, but even when they have lived similar experiences, Sunny was still different.
He had nothing but still held onto something.
Was he just blindly following something? If so, maybe Nephis wasn't wrong about him, maybe he was just still not at his final form.
Because he refused to let go.
Because he was still having hope.
Maybe that was the difference between them, that he was crazy enough to hope for something even after being alone all this time.
Because, when she looked at him, what she saw was not a free man. He was a caged crow, longing to fly into the sky. Even when he was talking to someone else, talking about his will to do more, he was still behind those bars.
And now she knows why…
[Nephis]:"Punishing himself, huh…"
The floral smell came to her, as Nephis turned to her mother.
She had… a peculiar feeling about her.
Experiencing all her life looking at her, being gone and still here at the same time. It was a long time ago where she fled her room to sleep in her arms. Still now, she craved to feel those same arms around her.
Before every hard choice, Nephis tried to come to see her. Weirdly enough, after that, she always had found the answer to her question. Today was no exception, she had found what she had been looking for.
But still, even now, she had a question, one she wasn't even sure to consider.
Should she fight with others in mind ?
Did she want to protect them ?
The response to this one was quite simple…
But it would hurt.
'That's a proof that it was worth it'
To kill or being killed was still at the base of her mindset, but a base was supposed to be used to support something. To kill to protect herself or those she cared for… To not be killed to see them once more.
That sounded good enough to her.
[Nephis]:"Maybe he is a bit more than a princess after all… "
His voice echoed through her mind, making her chuckle in silence.
Him ? Protecting her ?
Let's wait until he can defend himself, then she'll take him seriously. But still, it felt nice to hear him tell her that. He was dumb, too emotional, weak, chaotic… but was not a bad soul. Just a harmed one.
The time had moved too fast for her own taste, she had to talk to Jeanne to find something to help with her sleep since her nightmare had returned once more.
Her black hair danced while moving toward the door, she took a last look toward her kin.
[Nephis]:"See you later, mom."
The room was left empty of life once more.
Without wasting more time, Nephis was already moving toward the doctor's room. She had memorized the entire palace since their arrival, it was something she was now used to doing. It had been hard at first but after a few months of moving from place to place, she started to grow into it.
For example, in the next twenty meters, she will have to walk down the stairs to turn left. Then after two doors, turn left again to finally enter the first door at her right.
Simple, right ?
Not if said Doctor came to run right in front of her with so much speed that she almost fell down.
[Jeanne]:"What happened !? He was fine a minute ago !"
Nephis was only able to hear this part as Jeanne kept talking to herself with far too much energy to not take this situation as an urgency. But there were two points that forced the girl to be afraid.
The first one was the fact that Jeanne had run and jumped through the stairs at full speed while being a Master.
The second was that she said "he"…
In the Palace, there are only three men. Vincent was living close to the kitchen on the ground floor, her teacher was still outside, which left only…
'Sunless !'
Moving without thinking, she was already running toward his bedroom.
'Upstair, right, left, last door'
She was trained, her endurance was very good for her age. And still, her heart was beating too fast and too hard. She knew that it wasn't the effort that made her like this, she was afraid.
She was scared.
Why ?
Why did she feel this urge to run to see if he was alright ?
AAAAAHHHHH
A scream of terror. A boy's voice.
BOOM BOOM
A second later, something had exploded and then crashed, making the area around tremble. Nephis was nearby when she heard the screaming.
[Jeanne]:"ASHE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! WAKE UP ASHE! YOU HAVE TO WAKE UP!
Clap
CLAP
CLAP
The girl had just arrived in front of the door. Or at least where it should have been. Jeanne was holding Ashe by the collar of her shirt, hand already in movement to give the matriarch another set of slap.
The door had been snatched away from his hinge and thrown into the nearest wall. Where it still resided, halfway into it.
Nephis had lived her share of problems and urgency, so she had faith in her mind to handle the situation rapidly. Until now.
The door, her grandmother being urged to wake up by Jeanne, the scream-
It was his voice !
Leaving the doorway to enter the bedroom, she was instantly stopped by Jeanne. Her eyes turned against her the instant her feet were about to cross over the threshold.
[Jeanne]:"Nephis. I forbid you from getting in. I need you to-"
AAAAAAHHHHHHH
Another gut-wrecking scream came from this room…From the bed where Plume was standing.
It felt as if the person behind that scream had just been disemboweled alive, and now Nephis was able to see it…
Plume's hands were holding something in place…Someone.
Him.
The boy was fighting her grasp on him, in a way that would make someone crazy look sane. There was a lot of cracking sound, of snapping. She thought it came from the bed itself but… His right arm was in pieces, broken in multiple parts, dislocated at each joint.
Like a broken puppet.
The doctor had to turn her focus on Plume, which was crying her eyes out. Trying her best to hold him in place while the boy was breaking his body against hers.
Because each sound produced by his body was due to him moving at full strength against her. There was no pattern, just a kid that had lost his mind.
[Jeanne]:"Plume, I know! But I can fix broken, not dead. AND YOU, WAKE UP GODDAMMIT!"
The Master had her hand closed, because Ashe was still stuck in her Aspect. The slaps turned into a punch. One that might have fractured her jaw and Nephis was stuck in place, looking at this nightmare taking place in front of her.
Her mind was unable to-
Stop.
Taking a deep breath, she had to keep herself calm…Or at least just enough for her to do something, anything but to stay in here and watch.
Her grandma's Aspect is all about dreams and nightmares.
She can read them, put someone to sleep and make them see in loop what she wants them to see.
So Ashe was using it, so why was Sunless able to move if he was her target?
And why can't she be woken up?
Without thinking, Nephis' body decided to move to get closer to Jeanne. She saw her screaming at her for ignoring her instruction but she couldn't hear it. Reaching for Ashe's shoulder, she simply told her one thing.
[Nephis]:"Grandma… I'm scared."
A gamble
To use that sentence, knowing perfectly that it was linked to one of Ashe's deepest regrets. To trigger something so violent in her that she-
A gasp of her came from the matriarch, her hand reaching immediately to feel her own face. Not for the pain that came from her jaw but for something else. All color had left her face in a single instant.
[Jeanne]:"ASHE, YOU NEED TO STO-"
"I killed him."
Everyone froze at that sentence.
The doctor was in shock, unable to say anything.
Plume had turned her burning gaze upon Ashe, and for the first time, her lips moved. She didn't care if no voice was coming out. She kept talking, insulting her, cursing her.
But the worst was Nephis…
She, who until now, had done her best to hold it together finally was starting to crack. She knew that his body was alive since he kept moving and screaming even now… But a body can live without a mind and without a soul. For her, at this instant, Sunless was dead. Just like her mother.
So a few tears started building up, until she heard the rest.
"I killed him…Over and over again."
And just like that…All the noise had stopped. Plume had to take a few steps back, refusing what just happened under her hands.
His body was…he…
His heart rate was slowing down...Too much…Too Quickly… Death was about to claim him. She felt it, she saw it.
Nephis was the first one to react, running toward the bed to see for herself. Jeanne was about to keep her from getting too close, planning to apply first aid to him, but Ashe had a last thing to say.
"His mind refused to die.
He forced the cycle himself.
He wanted to -"
Plume was trying not to fall, her head getting too light as denial was growing in her mind. So she couldn't do anything.
When that almost lifeless body was refused from death. When that heart, which had given up on that fight, had to take it up once again. When his remaining arm had moved to grab Nephis'neck to strangle her.
And yet, the young girl stood there without any reaction, if not a little chuckle. His eyes wildly open staring at her with pure hatred and fear, still in his trance. His mind wasn't there and still, his body was just holding her in place without preventing her from breathing.
[Nephis]:"It's me Sunless, you can sleep now. I'll take care of everything."
Slowly, his hand then started to loosen its grip, revealing a few bruises on her neck. And Nephis was standing there, accompanying that falling hand with hers. The boy then finally closed his eyes, leaving the room again in a complete silence.
No one moved for a few seconds, until…
[Jeanne]:"Are you alright, Nephis?"
To answer that question, the girl had to move her head, revealing silent tears falling down her eyes.
[Nephis]:"There's not enough space in here…It's too far from your bedroom too. I don't want to leave him alone for a single instant. Not until I'm sure that he'll be safe and sound."
It didn't answer the question but no one here had the force to say anything. As for once…The girl wasn't speaking as Nephis but as the heir of Immortal Flame clan.
[Nephis]:"Jeanne, I'll let you organize the rest and talk with Grandma to understand what happened there. Plume and I will be taking turns to look after him. My room is closer to yours, I have enough space to put his bed in it. Someone needs to call Vincent for him to handle it."
For the next few days, no one in the manor was able to do anything as planned.
Plume was sleeping in the Dream Realm, so it was Nephis' turn to look after him.
They had chained him like a beast.
She was against it…But each restraint had its role.
Preventing him from biting his own tongue, or from breaking any more bones even –if they had already been healed. As for the blindfold, Jeanne was afraid that even a bit of stimuli could end up with another crisis. And since light wasn't the kind of thing he loved to begin with, well...
They had also noticed that Ashe's voice and name was enough to put stress on his body while in this state so she had to stay far away from him in any possible way . Meaning that even in a coma that his body had imposed itself, they could already see how much he had been marked by all that.
Seeing him treated like that was…doing something to her that was hard to describe correctly.
So she chose to say that it pained her.
Because she had the time to think of her past reaction and weirdly enough, the answer to her question came at her easily.
He was the only one like her, the only one that may truly understand her. Both soldiers of their own self inflicted war. One by guilt, the other for revenge. Destined to lose everything at some point.
So when he grabbed her that time, she was…conflicted.
Sad and enraged that he had to go through this.
But a part of her was proud, that his will to survive was so strong that even being tortured to death multiple times couldn't keep him from trying to kill his tormentor and jailer.
Maybe he wouldn't die like everyone else…
Maybe she could grow to truly be attached to him…
Within the desolate land called her soul, a wish began to take form.
That this crow would share his cage with her so they never would have to be alone ever again.