Shadow Bond (A Shadow Slave Fanfiction)

His (not so) Dark Past

Is there another person inside of you?" Nephis asks.
'[Please, let me speak. Your flaw isn't built for this kind of questioning.]'
"Yes." Sunny answers before turning to Cassie.
"But how did you know?" Sunny asks.
'(How long until you can switch?)'
'[Another twenty seconds. Just stall for time.]'
"I knew because when I saw your attributes back in the academy, I noticed five attributes, which was surprising, but when I looked closer I realized that there were actually six attributes. The problem was that one of the attributes was a duplicate, the one that causes unlikely things to happen to you."
'(Do you also have the Fated attribute?)'
'[Yes, and I don't know whether I should blame you or the spell for that.]'
'(I'll ignore that.)'
"Could you tell me about the other two?" Sunny asks to Cassie's and Wyatt's shock.
"Do you.. truly not know about this?"
"I know that he exists, but he's been secretive and I don't trust him much."
This answer shocks Wyatt so much that he temporarily stops trying to take control of the body.
'After everything I've done for you!?! See if I tell you when Cassie finds out your true name!!!'
"Ohh, I see. Well, one attribute actually seems to have caused him to lose his body, while the second one appears similar to your Mark of Divinity. It looks like it gives him a mild affinity to fate."
Nephis speaks up after this.
"Does that mean he was the one telling us about the forgotten shore?"
At this point Wyatt has taken over and is able to move around in Sunny's body.
"Why yes my dear friends, that was me. And I don't like saying this but..."
A huge grin appears on his face.
"I told you so."
"You right there." Wyatt points to Cassie.
"I was going to give you a Christmas present but this betrayal has broken my heart so badly, that I might never recover." Wyatts voice dripping with sarcasm.
"And you, silver haired one, when are we going to go to the Bright Castle, I have business to take care of."
"What?" Nephis asks.
"You heard me, I'm gonna squabble with their leader. I don't like him. Or his hunchbacked servant. And it doesn't seem like you have plans to stay here, so when are we going."
Nephis look at Wyatt in confusion before giving in.
"Where is it?"
This gives Wyatt some pause.
"I don't know, I'm not omniscient. What do you take me for, a tourguide." Wyatt says with a hint of joy creeping into his voice.
"Then we stay here."
"What?! This place is unsafe."
"For now."
'She really needs to learn to speak her mind properly.'
Wyatt remembers that they found out the location of The Bright Castle from Cassie's visions.
"Ah, I know, we'll sleep on it. We might come across an answer eventually." Wyatt keeps his words vague to prevent his flaw from hurting badly.
Fast forward a few hours and they have climbed the hill that Nephis and Cassie have been staying at for a few days. They have already cooked the meat from the scavenger that Sunny killed and Wyatt and Nephis are now discussing their general situation while Cassie is already sleeping.
"You're saying that most of the scavengers are located near your statue?"
"Yes, to the west. I assume that the carcass they are feeding on will last another day or two at most."
"Well then, we need to stay away from that area."
'This is strange, I could've sworn they went back there in the novel.'
Waiting for a few seconds Wyatt responds.
"Do you mind if I ask a question?"
"Alright."
"Why did you save Cassie? You only met once after all."
"To save my friend, of course."
This answer confuses Wyatt.
"What do you mean?"
It was Nephis's turn to be confused.
"Didn't you know? I sat with her every day after you brought us together."
"Wow." Wyatt says turning out to look at the night sky with a sagely look on his face.
"I'm truly a force of pure good in this cruel world."
This response gets a small laugh out of Nephis which leaves Wyatt wanting to hear it more.
"Alright my turn."
"Hmm"
"Have you ever heard the story of Odysseus?"
"Of course, he built the Trojan horse."
"Yes he did, but that's not all he did. After his success in the war, he attempted to sail home to see his family, however the gods cursed him to stay on an island. On the island he met a beautiful fairy named Calypso, who loved him and gave him everything he could desire. His island was a paradise full of marvelous food, gorgeous views and even immortality. Yet as the days went by, he spent more and more time sitting out at shore looking at the sea with bleak eyes. So my question is why? Why would he want to give up his own personal heaven, what would drive a person to do that?"
Wyatt thinks for a moment wondering if the response in his head would satisfy her curiosity.
'Ok, I know from my time at the University of Reddit that improvements in your quality of life don't increase your happiness forever, and that the same is true the opposite way, but is that what she's looking for, is that philosophical enough to answer her question.'
He then gives his answer to her question in the wisest manner he can.
"Well, humans should always strive for growth, that is what makes us happiest. A life lived with even the most minor improvement will always be more fulfilled than a life lived in a heaven full of stagnation and complacency."
'Oh crap, was that B.S. good enough.'
Fortunately for Wyatt, Nephis seem to be smiling at his answer.
"I see, thank you for your opinion."
"Alright, it's getting dark, I'll take first watch, I can somewhat see with no light."
"No, that's alright, I'll take first watch."
While Nephis was smiling when she said that, her eyes seemed to go ice-cold.
'Oh no! She thinks I'm the assassin doesn't she.'
"Okay, if you insist."
'Please don't kill me in my sleep.'
A few minutes go by with Wyatt laying on the ground, waiting for something to happen. Eventually Cassie wakes up and yells out that she saw The Bright Castle in a vision. When asked if she knew the direction it was located in she responded that it was west of them.
'So that's why they went back there.'
"See, what'd I tell you, I knew it'd work out. Just need to go back to the statue."
Cassie wonders what the statue is as she was asleep when they were talking about it.
"What statue?"
"The one I was staying on at night when the sea came out."
"But for it to protect you from the sea, it would have to be..."
"Oh yeah, it's a huge statue. I'd say its two statue of liberties tall."
Cassie is even more confused at the arbitrary usage of the Statue of Liberty as a unit of measurement.
"What?"
"About six hundred feet."
"Huh... you mean two hundred meters?"
Nephis speaks up at this.
"Who even uses feet nowadays."
Wyatt stays quiet for a brief minute and then mutters something under his breath.
"Ah hell naw, that doesn't mean what I think it means, does it."
This statement puzzles the both of them.
Cassie sympathetically asks Wyatt if his family came from the United States of America as she remembers learning that it was one of the few countries that used the imperial system before the spell arrived.
"Yes, I come from America." Wyatt comfirms.
Nephis doesn't accept this answer.
"How old are you?"
"Sixteen."
"Then you mean your family comes from the United States. You are too young to be from there."
Wyatt becomes offended and Cassie speaks up.
"Neph, that wasn't a nice thing to say, he probably struggled from his family having to emmigrate from their home country."
"My apologies, but he shouldn't say that 'HE' came from the United States when it was his parents that had to truly suffer." Nephis retorts.
Wyatt finally can't take it anymore.
"Emmigrate... Who emigrated... Emigrated where... AND WHY!?"
Both are caught completely off guard by his outburst.
"Perhaps neither of you understand, and that's fine." Wyatt says through gritted teeth.
"But I was born in America, I was raised in America, and I won't have either of you saying anything to the contrary."
Nephis digs her feet in the ground and doubles down on her belief.
"Thats not possible, you're too young to have been raised there. Cassie you know it too, right, you know that a level 5 Nightmare Gate made that country uninhabitable before he was born. He'd have to be born as strong as an ascended to be from there."
At this point Wyatt's blood is boiling and he decides to bring out the nuclear option to end this argument.
"Nephis, I want to see you succeed more than anyone, but if you can't get into the mindset that anything is possible through the power of the spell, even time travel, then you won't win your battle against the Sovereigns."
And with that last statement, Nephis goes completely still. Staring at Wyatt in shock, she runs through all the possibilities of who Wyatt is and how much he knows. She ponders whether Wyatt is truly someone who knows about her past with the Sovereigns and if he meant it when he said that he wants to see her win.
"I'm sorry." Wyatt begins.
"Please just tell me why you fought so hard to make sure that I said that I wasn't from America? I'm truly curious. And also, could you please tell me... what year it is?" Wyatt says, voice full of empathy.
"Because I hated seeing you claim to suffer."
'Not a great reason, but I suppose given her past experiences it's makes sense.'
"I never claimed to have suffered but I guess I understand, now can you tell me what year it is?"
Cassie decides to ask.
"How can you not know, even if you're a time traveler, you spent a month in the academy, you should've learnt it at one point or another."
"You'd be surprised at how rare it is to find anyone talking about the year, usually it's just the month and day. Besides after I saw that humanity was in such a pitiful state, I didn't even want to think about how little time it took to get there."
"So why do you want to learn it now."
"Just because, I suppose."
"The year is 2253, The Spell arrived forty six years ago on the winter solstice, in 2207. Nineteen years ago, in the year 2233, a level five Nightmare Gate appeared in the city of New York, rendering all of North America uninhabitable."
"I see, thank you. You must've payed attention in your history class, right? Wow, looking back on it, you probably learned about my time period in history class too, didn't you?"
This brings a smile to Cassie's face.
"Yeah, I probably did. When do you come from?"
"How about I drop some hints instead and we'll see if you can guess?"
Nephis speaks up after Wyatt suggests this.
"Hey, we're going to need to move tommorow so make sure to get some sleep."
"Oh come on Nephis, it won't take long at all. Anyway Cassie, lets start. Recession."
"That's not specific enough." Cassie pouts.
"Fine. The queen died."
"Which queen?"
"That's part of the fun." Wyatt says while smiling.
"Global pandemic."
"Ok, I think I'm getting close."
"The internet."
"I've got it, you come from the early 2000's."
"Hotdog, we have a wiener. Congratulations."
"Wow. What was it like living through a pandemic?"
"It was boring, now get to sleep, you need your rest."
Cassie looks and him incredulously.
"How mean. Can't you answer a few questions at least."
"Mmm, maybe later. Goodnight."
"Fine, Goodnight."
Nephis is glad to finally get them back to sleep so she can ponder about Wyatt's past in silence.
'(Are you kidding me.)'
'(I've been asking for a whole month and you tell these people about your past the second you meet them.)'
'[Well now you know just how boring I really am. Goodnight.]'
'(Hmph.)'

End Chapter 8