"Now go! Get more information about them! Then you can get back to the castle."
Tessai yelled at Harper, making the scrawny boy tremble in fear. He walked away in shame.
It's been almost two months since the Changing Star arrived in the Dark City and the ward of the guards ordered Harper to spy on them.
Not only did she surprise all for having a True Name, but she was also the daughter of Immortal Flame, legends of humanity.
She started to organize the outer settlement, getting the huntress into her side, then sharing the fruits of her hunts.
Not to mention her companions, who were powerful in their own right.
Changing Star sheltered and welcomed anyone to help her, she became the one who opposed Gunlaug, the alternative. Even though she herself never said that.
The outer settlement started to grow, become more powerful, multiple hunting parties formed, and, even if they did not reach the level of the ones of the Bright Castle, they started to hunt. And succeed.
It was becoming such a big problem that even residents of the Bright Castle went to Changing Star's side, abandoning the castle's comfort and embracing Immortal Flame.
And different from Gunlaug's kindness, it didn't require a soul shard.
But that didn't mean you could just stand around doing nothing, if he wanted someone to trust him, he needed to work. That way, if he did find something important, he could return to comfort, to the Castle, the only safe place in this hell hole.
After all, Changing Star's actions are a fool's errand, no one could stand up to Gunlaug.
"No one…"
Harper felt a strange feeling, like someone was watching him. He turned around, searching for the culprit.
Only to find dust and mist.
"I really am paranoid…"
He gave himself a self-deprecanding smile and continued walking to his new post.
—
The buildings were in a much better state than before. Things were looking up for the outer settlement.
And you could tell just from the people. Not as much depressed, now, they were hopeful, determined, some were even excited.
Some were training, others cooking, distributing food, reconstructing buildings and more.
He recognized some of them, they were the handmaidens, guards, hunters…
All following Immortal Flame.
The main cohort of the outer settlement had arrived, getting all the attention of the settlement.
Effie, the experienced huntress.
Caster, the scion of Han Li.
Nephis of the Immortal Flame.
And Sunless, the mysterious Shadow.
He didn't appear much in the settlement, but all knew that, if Changing Star had a second in command, he would be the one.
No one knew exactly why he didn't appear, some believed that he lived in the Dark City. They were insane according to Harper, no one would be crazy enough.
He used the appearance of the cohort and got closer to the main building, it was mostly empty since it was eating hours, he entered it in search of something, anything to guarantee his presence in the Bright Castle.
But he only found a blond haired, blind girl sitting at a desk, her head turned to nothing but air, seemingly looking at her runes.
Cassie, the one who came with The Immortal Flame and The Shadow. Many saw her as useless, dead weight that they carried through the two months on the Crimson labyrinth.
Harper was one of them. What he was really worried about was the Echo she possessed, a Carapace Scavenger.
He tried to be sneaky, not making sound was difficult, even though it was cleaned, some debris were still there, and if he made sound, the girl would hear, and the Echo she had was anything but useless.
He still had a memory of a knife in his soul sea that he got in the First Nightmare, he could try and take her hostage… Pretend he was something he was not, get information without anyone knowing it was him, she was blind, a dead weight, he could take her! ... No, he couldn't, the Echo, she could kill… But he needs to get back to the castle!
'... No…'
He hesitated, this wasn't him, he wasn't like this…
'Agh!! What… Am I thinking?! I…'
"Hello Harper, is there a problem?"
He froze, fear creeping into his eyes.
'How did she know?!'
Her voice was friendly, calm, she didn't see him as a threat, maybe… He could use this… Discover something.
Harper made his friendliest voice he could muster and moved to sit across Cassie.
"Hello Cassia! How have you been?!"
She smiled, if she had any distrust of Harper, it wasn't apparent on her face.
Her glassy eyes moved over the room.
"You know, Sunless doesn't appear much around here, and Nephis is too occupied either training others or hunting, I end up handling the administration part of this place."
Harper barely managed to calm down, it was his chance to learn more about the hierarchy of the outer settlement.
He forced his best oblivious and curious voice.
"So what would be their functions, Cassia? I am sure most people think Lady Nephis or Sunless are the ones who lead everything!"
Her smile became more forceful, her tone almost mocking.
"But they do! Neph leads, protects, inspires and brings justice…
Sunny meanwhile…"
She let silence creep in, the atmosphere seemed to get darker some sort of mist started to spread into the room. Dread creeped into Harper, a chill ran down his spine and he started to tremble.
Cassie continued, her tone now indifferent, indifferent to Harper's fear.
"... He's the one who makes sure Gunlaug has no presence here."
Wind passed on Harper's nape. He couldn't even turn around, strong arms started to choke him from behind before he could.
He tried to break free, but it was useless, soon, he lost consciousness.
—
As Harper awoke, he noticed there was a veil around his head.
He was tied up to a chair by chains, he felt weaker, like something was stripping away his strength.
He could start to hear voices around him, multiple people were talking.
The first one was a restless, yet rough voice of a male.
"...at do you mean 'wait'? Did he really just order for us to stand around?!"
A similar, yet much calmer male voice responded to the first one.
"He may want to show us something…"
The third was female, excited and playful.
"Maybe it has something to do with him!"
There was a brief moment of silence, looking like they noticed that Harper woke up.
Someone grabbed the veil on his face, bringing light into Harper's world once again.
In a dark room, 9 people stood. It was a dirtied room, full of debris, and dust. A crack in the roof revealed the darkness of night, it was the only entrance or exit, the supposed door had been destroyed, leaving a giant rock in its place, the windows only that there were no nearby buildings. The light came from a small memory, the light was strong enough to illuminate Harper's kidnappers, but weak enough to not alert anyone that there was something happening there.
He could recognize almost all of them.
Nix was standing close to the middle of the room, her gaze was distant, as if she was thinking of something else, she was supposed to be Lady Seishan's confidant, what was she doing there?!
At the side, the two brothers, Lan and Kin, the elite guards of the castle, the only real difference between the two was the fact Kin had long, free hair, and Lan short hair that tied up to a short pony tail. They had blue navy eyes, sharp face features and obsidian colour hair.
The tall blond man beside him, Lycon, the one who took the veil off Harper's head and a hunter of the Pathfinders. He had a strong build, his exposed wrist revealing scars, his amber eyes analyzed Harper. A gentle smile betraying his position.
Opposite to his position, in the end of the room, the lone hunter, Motza, glared at Harper. His reputation preceded him.
Mei, the purple haired huntress that always carried a katana around. With sharp purple eyes and a beautiful, calm face. She stood next to the artisan, Lauma.
A pretty girl with navy hair, and light blue eyes, she was shy, and was always hiding from the spotlight. She didn't look at Harper, preferring to look to the sky.
The last girl he didn't know, she had dirty white hair and cat-like green eyes. She had a cocky smile and was sitting at the top of a desk. Her body looked like she had just been reborn, probably receiving a lot of fragments in a short amount of time.
Finally, the last one was a fearsome armor-clad Knight that was sitting motionless, as if he was a statue, yet you could tell he was alive. Harper felt a chill just looking at him.
Harper looked at all these strong individuals, and felt fear, he couldn't even speak.
Lycon looked at Nix.
"Nix… Care to tell where our gracious leader is?"
The woman gave the tall man a mischievous smile.
"On his way here, we must merely be patient."
Lan cursed quietly.
"What are we even doing here? Why would we have to come for one simp-"
Kin touched his brother's shoulder as a sign to stop. He looked above, where the crack on the roof resided. They all did.
Their leader was there, dawning his dark armor.
Dropping into the room, Sunless dismissed his helmet, sighing as he did.
"Sorry for the wait, an abomination got in the way."
The atmosphere changed a little, the others in the room looked at Sunless with silence. Was it respect? Or something else? Harper wouldn't know.
The white sparks were gone, revealing his face, then, he looked at Harper dead in the eyes.
"Hey Harper… It's been a while."
He approached and grabbed a chair, putting it across from him.
Silence settled in the dark room. Harper couldn't stop shaking.
Sunless sighed.
"You know why you are here."
He tried, but failed to look at Sunless in the eye.
"I just want to know one thing… Why?"
Harper hesitated, what was he supposed to say? Would it even matter? The words came out in a shaky, uncomfortable voice.
"I-I… I had no choice!"
"You did. You were welcomed in the outer settlement, yet decided to become a spy."
"N-No! I needed to do it! To go back to the Bright Castle!"
Sunless voice became even, hollow, emotionless.
"The Bright Castle… So that's why…"
"Of course it is, I'm too weak! This is the only way I can live there!
Why are you even doing this?! No one can challenge Gunlaug! He can single handedly destroy everything, everyone here!
The only thing you can do is… Bow your head…"
Harper's voice died down. Silence filled the room.
Sunless just stared at him, an unreadable expression plastered on his face.
The others meanwhile, stayed quiet, yet their faces exposed what they felt: pity, disappointment… Anger. All directed at Harper.
Sunless broke the silence.
"You chose to stay weak."
"W-What?"
"Gunlaug was also weak once, he had an unusable aspect on the Dark City, even then, he got up, refused to bow, and chose to hunt, to deny fate."
He looked at Mei, the purple haired huntress.
"Mei was weak when she got here, it was only when she accepted the risks she had to take to survive that she became strong."
Then he looked at the girl with green, cat-like eyes.
"Merlin was nothing when I met her, she had to fight to become strong."
His gaze landed on Harper again.
"You accepted the place you were given, and gave up."
Harper was left speechless, all those years in the Dark City, he had put himself in his place, to survive, accepted the fact that he was weak, to stay in the Bright Castle.
All those years… He suffered.
And now, some legacy, years younger than himself, wants to grandstand about strength…
Harper wanted to scream, to yell at Sunless…
But the words died before they even reached his throat. He was too afraid, realization dawned on him.
"You're going to kill me… Aren't you?"
Sunless studied him for some seconds.
"I won't kill you."
A flash of hope ran through Harper's eyes.
"But I can't let you go, I can't trust you to keep quiet, you'll eventually go back to Gunlaug and Tessai…"
He made a signal with his hands and the others started to move.
The tall knight went to the wall that was closest to the crack on the roof and started to climb it, after getting up, he helped the others get up to the entrance. First was Merlin, then Lan, Kin…
"At the same time, I don't think you don't deserve to die a meaningless death."
The memory holding Harper was dismissed, and his strength started coming back. Sunless continued.
"We are at the edge of the north section of the Dark City, it is far from the Bright Castle, and there are many nightmare creatures here and on the way."
At that point, there was only Sunless and Harper in the room.
"If you are able to return to the outer settlement, or survive here for a month, I'll forgive you."
Harper didn't say anything, not knowing what to say. Hope already drained from his face.
As Sunless approached the wall, he left one more thing for the poor Sleeper.
"Farewell Harper. I hope you find your strength."
But Harper couldn't.
In the end, when the lone hunter Motza came to check on him 2 weeks later, all he found was a quiet room.
Harper was still in the chair, motionless, a small wound on his neck, his expression hollow and his eyes lifeless.
There was no blood, no sign of fighting, just a lone, weak corpse of a person who couldn't fight anymore.
Motza understood why Sunless wanted them to witness Harper that day.
So that the Shadow Watchers understand what true weakness really was.