Shadow Slave

[Your Memory has been destroyed.]

Sunny snarled, then shook his head bitterly and summoned the runes, intending to check on how many expendable Memories he still had left. It was then that he decided to check on Neph\'s progress, which had long ago become a deeply ingrained habit of his.

Seeing that Changing Star was still alive and fighting brought him both relief and grim motivation.

Already sensing what he was about to see, Sunny stared at the runes and read:

Name: Nephis.

True Name: Changing Star.

Rank: Dormant.

Class: Tyrant.

Shadow Cores: [5/7].

Shadow Fragments: [0/5000].

He looked at the runes for some time, then sighed and dismissed them.

Just a few days ago, she was still far away from reaching the fifth core. After the Red Colosseum and his battle with Nightmare, the gap between them had shortened even more… but now, Neph had gone and done something crazy again, making it grow vast and infuriating once more.

He stared at the walls of his room darkly. It was as though the two of them were constantly playing an insane game of tug of war, fully knowing that one wrong move meant death, but equally unwilling to let the opponent win.

And from the very start of it, he had never been in the lead.

\'How… tiresome.\'

Sunny shook his head, realizing that he was in no mood to blindly throw himself at the impregnable barrier of weaving anymore. At least not today.

…His solemn mood changed, however, when the shadows he had stationed across from the sorcerer\'s door saw it open, and the familiar figure walk out, then wince at the bright sun.

Noctis looked a bit disheveled, with dark circles under his eyes and slightly messy hair. Considering who it was, though, Sunny could only guess whether the immortal was tired, or just hungover.

Still, this wasn\'t a chance he was ready to miss.

Wasting some essence to step through the shadows, Sunny appeared a few meters away from Noctis and looked at him with a guarded expression. The sorcerer blinked a couple of times, then put on a friendly smile:

"Sunless… you are still here? Haven\'t we just talked?"

Sunny inwardly rolled his eyes.

"...That was two weeks ago. Fifteen days, technically."

Noctis raised an eyebrow, shifted from foot to foot awkwardly, and then cleared his throat.

"Oh… really? I, uh… well, what a nice day! Can I help you with something, then?"

Sunny stared at the sorcerer for a few moments, then nodded.

"Yes. Yes, in fact, you can."

The immortal Transcendent smiled brightly.

"Well, why didn\'t you say so! We are friends, are we not, and friends are supposed to help each other… so, what do you need?"

Sunny gripped the emerald amulet tighter, hesitated for a second, and then said:

"...Can you teach me sorcery?"

***

Noctis continued to smile for a bit, then laughed.

"That\'s it? Sure, no problem. I am the greatest sorcerer in the Kingdom of Hope, after all! Under my guidance, you will become a distinguished sorcerer yourself in no time. Let me think… if we start right now…"

As Sunny smiled tentatively, he looked at the sky to gauge the time of day, thought for a bit, and then added:

"...we\'ll be finished at about the same time, a hundred years from now. Let us start!"

Sunny blinked.

"What? A hundred years?!"

The sorcerer frowned a little, then shrugged.

"Well, maybe two hundred years. That was how long it took me to learn the basics… if you mean true sorcery, of course, not those pitiful tricks others consider to be miracles. Uh, actually… what do you think sorcery is?"

Sunny hesitated, then said with uncertainty:

"The ability to manipulate magical energies through means that fall outside one\'s Aspect?"

Noctis stared at him for a bit, then sighed.

"A good enough answer, but no. Simply put, there is no such thing as sorcery. Or rather, there is no single thing called sorcery. But there are various ways to twist the underlying laws of the world to produce some effect, desirable or not. What we call sorcery is just a… a structured method of achieving a predictable result while doing so, with whatever means you possess. Usually with the help of soul essence."

He looked around, observing the landscape of the Sanctuary, and added:

"...Take me, for example. My Aspect has to do with souls, and so, I was able to learn a few things from the followers of Heart God — the God of Souls, as well as emotions, memory, hunger, and growth. However, I only became a true sorcerer after learning Hope\'s magic."

Sunny tilted his head a little.

"Hope\'s… magic?"

Noctis nodded.

"Ah, yes. The most common type of sorcery used by mortals — blindly and without a true understanding of its nature, I might add — comes from Hope. She is the one who invented writing, after all, and gifted it to us humans. What a wonderful invention it was! Writing itself does not produce sorcery, though."

He hesitated, and then added:

"Before Hope invented writing, the most common type of sorcery used by mortals, even more blindly, was the Sorcery of Names. You see, Sunless, everything that exists has a name. In fact, you might even say that a thing only starts to exist after it is given a name. A flower is just a flower, one among many, until you call it a rose. Then, roses are suddenly different from all the other flowers, and so, they come to exist."

Sunny frowned, not sure that he understood what the hell Noctis was talking about. Wouldn\'t roses exist even if they were not called roses? Well… in a sense, they wouldn\'t? Flowers that looked like roses would, but they would not be called roses, and so, there would not be roses…

\'How confusing…\'

The sorcerer, meanwhile, ignored his befuddlement and continued:

"However, not all names are equal. So are simply given and aren\'t worth much, while others have to be earned… and those names, the true names of things, hold power over them. Names are a powerful thing, Sunless… and so, a long time ago, people who learned those names could share in that power. However, their authority was obscure and fleeting, since it was only invoked when someone said the names aloud… and saying them with a mortal mouth was not an easy feat."

He suddenly smiled.

"But that was what made Hope\'s invention so ingenious, you see! Once writing appeared, one with enough knowledge could connect the names to material objects, granting the invocation permanence. Of course, it is not that simple… in fact, knowing the names of things and how to shape them into songs and phrases is incredibly hard, because with the knowledge of names comes the knowledge of everything."

Noctis let out a heavy sigh.

"Simply scribbling a rune without understanding its meaning would not do anything. So, it takes centuries to learn the very basics of runic sorcery. Unless you are intrinsically predisposed to it, of course… which no one is, except for Hope herself. But I will gladly teach you everything I know! If you have a century or two to spare, I mean..."

The sorcerer smiled brightly and stared at Sunny, sincerity written all other his obnoxiously beautiful face.

\'That slimy bastard…\'

Of course, Sunny did not have a couple of centuries to spare.

But… maybe… he didn\'t need to.

\'Names are a powerful thing…\'

Suddenly, a seed of an idea appeared in his mind.

"I… uh… maybe some other time."

Noctis sighed with regret and opened his mouth to say something… but the four-armed demon was already gone, swallowed by shadows.

The sorcerer stared at the shadows with a sour face, then shook his head and sighed again.

"What a strange fellow…"