Chapter Text
1. Dead Weight and Honey
After his absolute performance in nosediving his own reputation into the ground, Sunny moved to the deserted corner of the hall. He felt the people looking at him with mockery, contempt, and pity, and nobody wanted to even get close to him.
… In retrospect, he might have been doing it too well, considering Jet’s words about needing others to survive, but he can show his worth when the time comes rather than risking his own freedom.
In the end, he extricated himself from the crowd and reached the corner. For some reason, Sleepers were unwilling to approach it: currently, only one girl was sitting quietly on the bench. Sunny gave her a look.
The quiet girl was delicate, demure, and very pretty. Her clothes were tidy. They weren't very expensive, but still rather tasteful. With her pale blond hair, big blue eyes, and exquisite face, she looked like a beautiful porcelain doll.
She was subtly breathtaking.
However, there was something wrong with her. Sunny frowned, trying to understand what exactly about the girl made him uncomfortable. After a while, he realized that her empty, expressionless stare was reminding him of the Mountain King.
Startled, Sunny understood that the girl was blind. It took him a couple of seconds to compose himself.
The nightmare spell doesn’t seem to be as ‘fair’ as people claimed.
A bit disheartened, he carefully sat on the opposite end of the bench. Feeling both pity and a sense of… not quite longing, maybe kinship due to his own Flaw.
The girl wouldn't have survived the First Nightmare if she had been blind before entering the Spell. Which meant that she lost her sight as a result of the Appraisal.
It was her Flaw.
Suddenly, Sunny felt very apprehensive. A cold sensation spread through his chest.
No matter what Aspect Ability the blind girl had received in exchange for her sight, it was effectively a death sentence. A blind person had no chance of surviving in the Dream Realm, at least not with a dormant core. In some sense, the girl was already dead.
She was effectively a walking corpse.
Feeling extremely disturbed, Sunny turned away and studied the crowd of Sleepers. Now he understood why people were trying to avoid this corner: the girl was surrounded by an invisible, but almost palpable aura of death.
Sunny’s lips twitched as he realised the irony of the situation.
After all, he did sit on that altar expecting his own death.
He looked at the blonde for a long moment before finally mustering the courage to speak.
“Hey.”
The girl turned around, facing him almost perfectly. Almost because her eyes were drifting a bit to the side, like he missed his face.
“Hi.” She replied, her voice soft, almost melodious to Sunny’s ears, as he couldn’t help but stare into her eyes even if she couldn’t see him.
“I can't help but notice you’re all alone,” Sunny stated the obvious, realising he didn’t have any idea how to hold a conversation.
“Yeah, people kind of… Left me on my own.” Understatement of the century.
He cleared his throat as the silence grew between the two.
“So, are you alright?”
“Are you asking me to be polite, or because I can’t see?”
“Both.” His flaw caught his mouth before he could filter himself.
Much to his surprise, the girl actually smiled back.
“It’s actually my flaw.”
“Yeah, figured it out already.” He sighed, looking over his shoulder at the rest. “People are avoiding you.”
“I could say the same about you, mister boot thief.”
“Hey, I did it because I had to survive. Imagine walking barefoot through snow in your first nightmare.” He argued, actually catching himself laughing.
“I guess they found each other.” A person said from the corner of the crowd, and Sunny could see the girl’s smile strain a little, hearing the comment too.
Sunny didn’t even bother looking back. “I guess we’re dead weight to them.” He said nonchalantly.
“The blind girl and the mad overachiever.”
“I guess you heard my first nightmare story.”
“You were rather loud and people got quiet to hear you. Yes.” She adjusted her line of sight, somehow managing to look Sunny in the eyes. “You know. I am almost tempted to believe you.”
He was glad the girl was blind because Sunny’s face dropped for a moment. “And why would that be?” His voice was cautious, too cautious.
“Because nobody could come up with such a complex story on the spot.” Her head tilted to the side in an almost adorable manner if she wasn’t unnerving Sunny a little. “So you either rehearsed it, or you inspired from the truth.”
Danger.
This girl was dangerously smart.
Sunny glanced at his shadow, which was gesturing to him to just leave already, before the group behind him turned silent. He turned around, and thankfully, someone got onto the stage instead of people picking up on the blonde’s detective skills.
"I am Awakened Rock. Sleepers, welcome to the Academy." Came from the man in a deep, reverberating voice.
The Induction Ceremony has begun.
“I am Cassie, by the way.” The girl—Cassie—smiled at him, making something in Sunny’s chest move.
‘Damnation.’ He cursed himself inwardly. “I’m Sunny.”
“Nice meeting you Sunny.” Cassie said, stretching out a hand.
“… Yeah, me too.” He finally said, accepting the handshake.
***
“Do they have any tea? There should be herbal packets. And check if they have honey, it should be the viscous yellow liquid, it’s much better than the sugar."
“How is this thing even made?” Sunny asked, filling Cassie’s tray for her and mirroring whatever she’s taking onto his own.
Sunny has no clue how he found himself walking with Cassie to the cafeteria. He just… he couldn’t let her wander blind. As simple as that.
So they kind of agreed. He’s helping her, and she’s teaching him some things an outskirts rat had no business knowing until now.
“It’s made from pollen, it involves— Oh, do they have coffee? I’d like a mug of that as well if possible.”
“You like that bitter thing?” He asked, cataloging honey under plant stuff and moving on to pour her the dark-brown liquid.
“Fill it only by a half, then put milk and some of that honey in it to make it sweeter!” She instructed, and Sunny obliged, pouring himself a mug too to test the combination.
After filling Cassie’s tray and him taking twice the portion for himself, they found an empty seat and sat shoulder to shoulder.
Cassie carefully searched for her tray, picking up the mug and taking a whif. “The coffee.” She hummed before taking a sip, making Sunny do the same and—
“Oh wow.” He looked down at his mug, the light brown liquid tasting amazing compared to the one he had taken before his first nightmare. “Why is it so sweet. Not that I’m complaining.”
“That.” Cassie took another gulp. “Is honey for you!”
“Then I think I love honey.” He kept drinking the liquid, satisfied with the sweet aftertaste. “I might want to try the raw thing tomorrow.”
After a while, the appointments began with the Academy personnel.
“Hey, Cassie. Can I give you some unwanted piece of advice?”
“I guess I have to hear it first to see if it’s wanted or not.”
“I’ve talked with a Master before coming here, and she told me to dodge the psychological counseling and give them as little as possible about my ability.”
Cassie did that adorable head tilt again. “I guess it does make sense, our aspect will follow us for the rest of our lives.” Then she started frowning. “But you don’t think they would compromise us like that, right?”
“The master I’ve talked to told me that once two people know a secret, it stops being so.”
“Huh. Anything else she told you.”
“That I should take the survival training courses.”
“There’s survival training courses?!”
***
After the interviews, the day was over, and Sunny helped Cassie get to her room. They just happened to be neighbours, her door opposite to his.
Cassie actually has a social worker helping her around, but the person stepped aside when Sunny went to help her.
The next morning, he was already knocking at her door, being met with her smile. “Hello, Sunny.”
“Hey, Cassie. Ready for breakfast?” He smiled back as they walked together to the cafeteria, getting a couple of looks from the other students, but Sunny ignored them.
He honestly doesn’t know why he’s helping Cassie. His mind tells her she’s dead weight, that he could have just gone and eaten to his stomach’s pleasure, as she could have been helped by the social worker instead.
“Thank you for keeping me company.” She said, barely above a whisper, while the boy wondered if she had a telepathic power. “I know you must pity me. I’m a walking liability, after all.”
“If you think like that, then you might as well be dead already." Sunny replied, making the girl flinch, and he grimaced back at his own words. “What I mean is that you won’t get that far with that kind of mentality. I wouldn’t have survived the outskirts to begin with if I was stuck like that.”
“That’s fair, I guess…” She mumbled as they entered the cafeteria, and the subject changed back to food.
Just like yesterday, he helped Cassie with her portion, then doubled his. This time around, they both skipped the tea in favor of coffee, and Sunny filled half a cup with honey to taste it as it is. “You know, you still haven’t told me how honey is made. I imagine it takes ages to collect so much pollen by hand, is there some field full with flowers run by a harvester or something?”
“Well, we actually use insects. There’s these things called bees that use it for food and we domesticated them to bring the pollen to our artificial hives and—” Cassie paused, suddenly looking to the side, prompting him to look in the same direction.
There was a small commotion around the large screen hanging on the wall of the cafeteria, their faces filled with excitement and awe. On the screen, a list of names was displayed, ranking the new batch of Sleepers from weakest to strongest, most likely deduced from the results of the interviews.
Not particularly interested, he quickly found his own name near the bottom of the list. The only Sleeper whom the Academy judged to be less likely to succeed than him was Cassie. “We both scored at the bottom of the list.” He mused, sharing the news with the blonde girl.
“Am I above or below your ravings?”
“I guess I didn’t look insane enough.”
That actually got a snort out of Cassie.
“Or maybe you seem so insane people think you’re dangerous to be around.”
“That’s certainly one way to say I’m murder someone in their sleep.”
“You have to accessorise those boots and clack with something.”
Sunny actually cracked a smile at the macabre joke. “Bold words for someone talking to me.”
“I have a feeling you’d be in the upper half of the scoreboard or whatever’s on that screen. You’re just an outskirts rat that likes to be underestimated.”
“And you’re a city girl that’s too clever for her own good.” Sunny quickly retorted. “Though thank you for not actually prying into me too much. For someone who lacks sight you pick up on things the rest can’t see.”
“Thank you for the compliment.” Casie smirked as she continued to eat her rice. “By the way, who’s on the top of the list? That Caster guy that you convinced you’re mentally disabled?”
Sunny’s eyes went up on the list until he saw the second place. “Oh?”
“What?”
“Caster got second.” He explained, squinting a little at the screen. “There’s this girl that listened to music during yesterday’s ceremony. I guess she’s First place and has a True Name: Changing Star.”
Sunny felt a childish desire to scream, "Me too! I have one too!" but, of course, he kept quiet.
After a bit of a commotion and someone daring to call Sunny a crazy pervert and making Cassie snort, the traitor, while everyone’s focus went to Nephis.
"Mmm. What?" Came the most uncaring reply ever.
After a couple of moments, Caster suddenly walked over and made a small bow. "Lady Nephis. I am Caster from the Han Li clan. I see that your trial went well?"
“Lady?” Sunny mused out loud, and Cassie seemed to pick up on it.
“No clue who she might be. Sorry.”
Nephis seemed to be a little bit perplexed by the question. After thinking for a while, she smiled brightly and shrugged. "It is what it is."
Caster awkwardly returned the smile. "I see. I am very glad that you returned unharmed. Uh… not that I doubted your abilities."
Nephis nodded. "Thank you."
After that, she returned to her coffee, indicating that the conversation was over or oblivious to everyone's attention.
Sunny sighed. “Well, she seems like trouble.”
“What kind?” Cassie chirped.
“The kind you want to stay away from.” That’s all that they talked about Nephis before they got to their breakfast in silence, with Sunny taking a spoonful of honey and eating it. “By the way, you still haven’t finished the talk about honey.”
“Hm? Oh right! Long story short is that the bees bring pollen to the hives like a collection hub, then we extract the honey when it’s full.”
“Huh.” So the hive must be some sort of processing plant that turns pollen into honey. “Neat.”
And with that, the day went on with Sunny enjoying his honey with Cassie.