The mountains were silent, save for the hollow howl of the wind as it echoed through the narrow, jagged path. Cassie moved forward, her steps heavy, each one a weight that dragged her deeper into the abyss she had created for herself. The Night Temple loomed ahead, its dark spires reaching into the sky like the claws of a long-dead beast, a fitting destination for someone who had lost everything.

She was alone, but the ghosts of her past walked with her, haunting her every step.

Sunny had been her first kill. The thought alone was enough to make her stomach churn, her heart twist painfully in her chest. She had never wanted to kill—especially not a human, not a person she had once called a friend. She had known the horrors of the Dream Realm, had fought against the monsters that lurked in the shadows, but killing a human… killing Sunny was something else entirely.

He had been the first person she talked to at the Academy, the first to reach out to her when she had been so lost and alone. He had called her his sister, had trusted her when he was distrustful of strangers, believed in her when she doubted herself. They had shared moments, whispered conversations in the dark, and she had thought, for a fleeting time, that they might actually be friends.

But then, in a moment of fear and confusion, she had betrayed him in the worst way possible. She had taken his life, felt the warmth of his blood on her hands, and knew with certainty that she had lost something irreplaceable.

Cassie’s heart ached with the memory, the wound still raw and festering. She could still hear his voice, soft and reassuring, calling her “sister.” She could sense the intensity of his presence, the way he had seemed to understand her situation in ways no one else could, maybe because he himself had blindly navigated most of his life. And now, she could only feel the cold emptiness where he once had been, a void that echoed with the loss she could never undo.

She had killed him. She had taken his life, and in doing so, she had lost her own. The person she had been before that moment was gone, replaced by this hollow shell that now wandered aimlessly through the world. Nobody understood her, but that was fine—she didn’t understand herself anymore. The person she had become, the choices she had made, they were all foreign to her, like a bad dream she couldn’t wake from.

“I just don’t want to exist anymore,” she whispered to the cold mountain air, her voice barely more than a breath. The words felt like a confession, a plea for release from the torment she had brought upon herself.

Cassie paused, sensing the wind as it brushed past her face, and in that fleeting moment, she imagined she could almost feel Sunny’s presence in the air around her, as if he were still with her somehow. Even the very air seemed to mock her, reminding her of the life she had taken, the trust she had shattered.

“It’s all because I trusted that stupid vision,” she muttered, her voice shaking with the weight of her guilt. The vision that had led her to believe that killing Sunny was the only way to protect Nephis, the only way to save the person she had once followed so blindly. She had put her faith in that vision, and it had led her down a path of darkness and despair.

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Cassie had always known there was a growing connection between Nephis and Sunny, something that had evolved beyond mere survival. Sunny had become something important to Nephis, a rare source of light in the darkness of their world. And Cassie had ripped it away, leaving nothing but a gaping wound.

By killing Sunny, she had stolen from Nephis the one person who might have been more to her than just an ally. The realization had struck Cassie like a blade—she hadn’t just taken a life; she had broken something inside Nephis, something vital. Nephis had always been strong, her spirit fierce, her resolve unwavering. But after Sunny’s death, she had become distant, her presence as cold and unfeeling as the void.

Cassie had never felt so small, so insignificant, as she had in that moment when she sensed Nephis’s cold withdrawal. The fire that had once burned in Nephis’s soul, the unrelenting force that had driven her forward, was still there—but now it was encased in ice, the flames trapped behind a wall of cold, impenetrable indifference.

She had wanted to protect Nephis, to save her from a fate she could not endure. Instead, she had inflicted a wound that might never heal, a betrayal that had shattered the fragile bond they had once shared. Cassie had thought she was doing the right thing, but all she had done was tear apart the very fabric of their lives.

She was hollow now, her heart an empty shell where warmth and purpose had once resided. The weight of her actions pressed down on her with every step she took, suffocating in its intensity. Regret gnawed at her insides, tearing away at whatever was left of her spirit. She had been abandoned, left to wander alone in the darkness she had created.

But even as the desire for death grew within her, so did the visions—visions that refused to let her slip quietly into the void. They had shown her glimpses of the Night Temple, of the figure hidden within its depths. Mordret. The name echoed in her mind, a dark and twisted promise of something she couldn’t yet comprehend.

“Why am I doing this?” she asked herself, the question hanging in the cold air around her. Was it because she had lost her will to live? Because she wanted this journey to end her, to finally put an end to the pain that gnawed at her soul? Or was it something else, something deeper that she couldn’t quite grasp?

“I don’t know,” she admitted, her voice breaking. “I don’t understand myself anymore.”

The temple was close now, its dark stone walls looming above her, casting long shadows she could sense through the temperature changes in the air. Cassie activated the Memory she had gained in the aftermath of Sunny’s death—the Memory that allowed her to blend into the shadows, to move unseen by the world. It was a cruel reminder of what she had done, a constant reminder of the blood on her hands.

She slipped past the guards at the entrance, her presence nothing more than a whisper in the darkness. The interior of the Night Temple was cold and oppressive, the air thick with the weight of centuries. Cassie moved through the labyrinth of corridors, her thoughts swirling in a maelstrom of confusion and grief.

The visions had guided her to this desolate place, but with each step, the unsettling certainty grew—she was walking into a trap of her own making. What did she truly expect to find here? Redemption? Forgiveness? As if such things could be found in the cold, merciless shadows of the Night Temple. How could she ever earn them when the only way would be to undo the irreversible—to bring Sunny back from the dead? Perhaps that was the truth she couldn’t face: that she didn’t come here seeking absolution, but an end. Maybe she wanted to die, lacked the strength to do it herself, and so she sought death through the very vision that had once driven her to betray her friend. She wanted the vision to be her executioner, to end her suffering so she could ask for his forgiveness in the afterlife, where they might be reunited in death.