Sunny arrived at the little headquarters of the Shadow Watchers. Seishan chose the name… For some reason all the others insisted that she needed to choose.
Half of their members lived in the Bright Castle, the other half stayed in the outer settlement. Right now only the brothers, Lauma and Merlin were in the little house.
Merlin was lazily sitting on a chair looking at the ceiling, bored out of her mind apparently. While the other three were playing cards, Lauma was winning. You can tell by the fact that Lan was looking desperate, Kin disappointed, and Lauma… Guilty for winning…
'Why does she always look sad?'
Leaving his thoughts to himself, Sunny summoned Wraith. The wolf stretched itself and immediately jumped on the torn, yet comfortable couch.
The three playing the card-game looked up to see Sunny.
"Welcome back boss!"
"Good afternoon Lord Sunless…"
"Lord…"
Sunless sighed, what was it with his subordinates and their insistence of referring to him in different titles?
Merlin lazily started to look at Sunny.
"Heyyyy bosssss— Oh! Wolfie!!"
She immediately jumped out of the chair and went to pet the shadow, who enjoyed being spoiled. Merlin's lazy attitude disappeared in an instant.
Sunny stared, wondering how the wolf goes from a murder machine to a fluffy dog… And he's pretty sure Merlin sees both parts of Wraith as adorable.
He sighed and brought the vacant chair to the desk where the game was taking place, using make-shift cards.
"Agh! Damn it…"
Lan complained.
"Sorry…"
Lauma apologized.
"Don't apologize, Lauma. He needs to learn to lose."
Kin stated.
'Just another day then.'
Kin looked at Sunless and decided to talk about something that was bothering him.
"Lord, If I may…"
"Sure, what is it?"
"Why don't you reveal to everyone that you are the son of Song?"
Sunny hesitated, he had revealed his identity to the Shadow Watchers to form trust with them. They reacted better than expected, in the sense they believed him, although Seishan helped with that part.
"Simple, by doing that, I put more spotlight on myself. I need the outer settlement to see Nephis as the sole person that leads them. Plus, Gunlaug focuses on her, while we operate to destroy him from the inside."
Understanding passed through Kin's face, and he nodded.
Changing the subject, Sunny decided to ask how they were doing in their spy hunting.
"Any news on new spies in the outer settlement?"
Lan sighed.
"No… Tessai is probably still cursing Harper for not reporting while searching for someone else to spy… Lycon says he and Gamma had been butting heads the whole week."
Sunny put his hand on his chin in a thinking pose.
The Shadow Watchers were split in two parts.
Kin, Lan, Merlin, Lauma and Motza stayed in the outer settlement.
While Nix, Lycon, Mei and Kira lived in the Bright Castle.
The main reasons were their positions, the ones in the castle could easily get out whenever they wished and it wouldn't cause suspicion, Nix had Seishan to protect her. Mei and Lycon positions as hunters made getting out easy. And no one dared to question Kira.
Kin and Lan were guards in the castle, so they had to leave so their movements didn't raise alarms. Sunny refused to leave Lauma in the Bright Castle. Motza and Merlin's presence in the castle would be strange.
Kin gave his opinion.
"Tessai probably wants a hunter to act like a spy, well, makes sense after we dealt with the 5 he already sent."
Sunless nodded, that would be a reason as to why there wasn't any spy after Harper disappeared.
"I'll tell Lycon and Mei to pay attention. I want you two to see if any guard particularly loyal to Tessai leaves the castle."
The brothers nodded.
He turned to Merlin, who was still playing with Wraith. Stroking his fur with impressive speed.
Sunless sighed.
'What am I? A baby-sitter?'
"Enough Merlin, stop spoiling the undead wolf."
She turned to look at him, a childish look on her face.
"But bosssss…"
"Agh… Fine."
Merlin smiled happily, and continued to spoil Wraith.
Lauma chuckled.
"She really likes the little wolf, doesn't she?"
Lan laughed, looking at the euphoric girl.
"'Like' is not enough I think."
Sunny sighed, he was tired, for the past 2 months he had been hunting every single day to saturate his core and upgrade his class. And now he had to deal with something worse: people.
He took a glance at his shadow fragments.
Shadow Fragments: [1956/2000]
'If only I wasn't incapacitated when I get another core… Then I wouldn't need to have people watch my back every time I saturate it!'
As he was complaining internally, the door opened to reveal Motza, who took off his hood. His singular eye was dark, heavy.
Merlin stopped giving affection to the shadow wolf and turned to the hunter.
"Hey Motza! How did the scouting go?"
His heavy gaze passed through Merlin, then turned to Sunless.
"Harper 's dead. Suicide it seems."
"....."
Silence consumed the room, they now all shared the same heavy gaze.
Lauma looked even more sad, putting a hand to cover her mouth.
Merlin's smile disappeared, becoming more annoyed than sad.
The brothers shared Merlin's sentiment.
They all understood their leader's lesson.
Sunny sighed.
"So in the end he didn't even try…"
A few more moments passed, it wasn't forged in grief, none there really knew who Harper was or had any sympathy for him.
Rather, it was made by acceptance, that any of them could have turned out like him if they had given up.
Sunless sat up.
"Get ready for today's expedition… It's going to be a long day."
Motza sighed.
"More training?"
Sunny smiled with malice.
"No, worse."
—
Lauma was afraid for most of her life.
Afraid of the dark, of fights, of the rain, of the Nightmare Spell…
But most of all, she was afraid of getting lost.
Of not knowing where she was, of not having people with her, of being alone.
It was that way that her brother lost his life after all. The day she didn't know where he was.
And ironically, the Spell gave her the ability to create maps from just seeing the environment.
When she was transported to the Dark City, it was a boon many wished to have.
Yet as time passed… Her ability became more and more ignored.
Her limit to create a single map and the fact she had to be there in person to make use of it became a problem much bigger than it was worth.
After all, no matter how many maps she created, nothing will change her flaw:
[Pacifist]:
[You cannot wield any weapons.]
She was useless in battle, it came to a point where people started to resent her. She stayed in the Bright Castle without doing anything, for some reason, Kido refused to kick her out.
Then, the harassment started, along with her torment.
Name calling, faking accidents to make her fall, destruction of her personal belongings…
She forgot the amount of times she'd been abused.
With Kido as witness, with the so-called 'Justice' of Gunlaug.
"Why Kido!? Why… You say I can stay… Yet you do nothing against them!"
Her voice was weak, fragile. Lauma had never been strong, and her traumas made it worse.
"You can stay, but you do nothing to benefit the Castle, you are not protected. I pity you Lauma…"
Her words cut so deep Lauma didn't notice the face of regret from the ward.
She just sat there, in the lonesome corridor, on her knees, crying.
She would never have a normal life, any of dreams were destroyed and humiliated by the Nightmare Spell. She would either die of hunger in the outer settlement… Or be hated for the rest of her miserable life.
"Hello… Lauma, right?"
She heard a gentle voice, raising her head and cleaning her tear filled eyes, she could see a beautiful woman, with abnormal gray skin and a gentle, motherly smile.
"L-Lady Seishan…?"
Her smile grew even kinder.
"Yes… Can you come with me? There's someone who wants to meet you."
Lauma grew confused, who would want to see her…? She was just a useless girl with the worst type of flaw for this hell hole.
She wanted to refuse, to be left alone, however, the poor girl was at her worst, she barely reacted to the lady in front of her, and couldn't object.
When they reached a room and got inside, a handsome, attractive young man sat on the sofa, he was wearing armor with such a quality it could only be of the Ascended rank.
He looked at her with his hollow, yet deep eyes and grew a smile.
"Lauma, it's a pleasure."
—
One of the courtyards of the Dark City was occupied by the Stone Saints. Different from other nightmare creatures, they were organized, precise, skilled. Even though they were mere Awakened rank, they could go toe to toe against the Fallen rank, they were considered one of the strongest groups in the City.
The rule of the Pathfinders was to always retreat when you saw one of them.
But today, there was someone who wanted to challenge them. Someone who represented much more than a simple group of hunters.
The Heir of Death and his Shadow Watchers.
Sunny observed the Stone Saints, observing their Shadows in search of something, his progress of Shadow Dance had been stalled for some time now and he was trying some new things.
He looked to his right, where a beautiful girl with long navy hair that covered her left eye was analyzing the whole area, her gaze darted to right and left in impressive speeds, looking like a blur.
Her íris had the look of a mechanical compass, with various gears moving without stop. Evidence that her aspect was being used.
'Hmp, they really never saw everything you can do Lauma…'
The rest of the Shadow Watchers were right behind them, the four residents of the Bright Castle had joined, also preparing for the difficult task they were about to face.
Lycon voiced his concerns in a low tone.
"Even if we know their exact location, how do you expect us to defeat the Stone Saints? They are much more dangerous than their rank suggests."
Sunless looked at his subordinate. His detached expression and cold logic returned. Hollow eyes pierced Lycon's amber ones.
Yet none flinched, none of the ones present were afraid of their leader's empty attitude. Sunless answered the question.
"By doing what we do best."
He looked at the enemies in the courtyard.
"By not fighting."