It was only at the next morning that Ray was notified about Sunny's leaving. Following this, his mind was in turmoil. He had known that his flaw wasn't an ability and therefore would not give him all information he would have liked to have, but this seemed to have been an important event, which normally should have at least triggered a small vision in his opinion.
'Why didn't I see anything?'
His flaw wasn't a gift, that much he'd figured out long ago. It was more like a glimpse into a chaotic stream - past, future, never really sorted out, and never when he wanted it. He had no control over it. But still… something like this? A shift like this in their group?
Shouldn't it have triggered something?
He pushed his plate away and stood up.
---
After breakfast, he made his way across the main structure, climbing the familiar path to Neph's quarters. He wasn't entirely sure why - maybe he wanted answers, maybe just a conversation - but when he got there, the door was shut and the place quiet.
Empty.
No sign of her.
'Of course not.'
He stood there for a moment, staring at the closed door, then let out a long breath through his nose and walked off.
---
Ray found her standing alone behind the ruined courtyard, where the morning mist still clung to the broken stones. She wasn't looking out at anything in particular, just standing there, arms crossed loosely, like she had all the time in the world.
He stopped a few steps away, hands in his pockets, the chill still clinging to his coat.
"You heard?"
Nephis didn't turn around. "I did."
Ray nodded slowly. "Didn't leave much behind. Just gone.
A quiet breath. "That's like him."
Ray rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess. Still… you two talked, didn't you?"
"We did."
He watched her for a moment. She still hadn't looked at him. "Anything I should know?"
Nephis didn't answer right away. When she finally did, her voice was flat. "He made a choice."
Ray shifted his weight, frowning slightly. "That's it?"
She turned, finally, meeting his eyes. Calm. Distant. "He didn't ask for permission. And I didn't try to stop him."
A pause stretched between them.
"…So you let him go," Ray said, not accusing, just testing the words on his tongue.
"I let him choose."
Ray studied her. There was something under that mask of hers – tight control, like always. But this time it wasn't about strength. It was about silence. Deliberate and practiced.
"You knew he was leaving," he said quietly.
Her gaze didn't falter. "I thought he might."
That was enough.
Ray looked away, jaw tightening slightly. The cold breeze felt a little sharper now.
"Right," he muttered. "And nothing more to say about it."
Nephis didn't reply.
He stared at the ground for a moment, then turned to leave.
"…Thanks for the honesty."
It was hard to tell if there was sarcasm in his voice or not – even he wasn't sure.
Nephis didn't stop him. She just watched as he walked away.
---
He was walking along the outer path of the hill when Effie spotted him. She called out before he could duck behind the corner.
"Well, someone looks like he just lost a bet and a boot."
Ray didn't even look up. "Not in the mood, Eff."
"That's perfect," she said, jogging up beside him. "Because I am. Mood's sky-high. Wanna know why?"
"No."
"Too bad. I got to sleep in today for once. This makes me probably the happiest person on the shore for a while now."
Ray shot her a look, but there was the faintest twitch of a smile on his lips.
Effie elbowed him lightly. "Alright, alright. You're brooding. What happened? Let me guess - Neph stole your secret ration of dried meat?"
"Sunny left."
She blinked. "Huh. For real?"
Ray nodded once, his jaw clenched.
Effie let out a low whistle. "Damn. I knew the guy was intense, but I didn't think he'd ghost us, just like that."
"Apparently he did."
"You talked with Neph?"
"I did."
"And?"
Ray looked off into the distance, jaw ticking once. "…She was herself."
Effie grinned faintly. "So mysterious, indifferent, and made you feel like an idiot?"
"Pretty much."
"Yup. Classic Princess."
She nudged him again. "C'mon. Let's walk a bit. You look like you're five seconds from throwing something off the cliff."
"…Might still do it."
"Sure, but at least let me watch. Maybe we can rate the distance."
He sighed through his nose again, but this time there was the faintest bit of warmth in it.
They walked on.
---
Calming down took quite some time for Ray.
Effie accompanied him the whole time though. In the end, the duo actually began throwing down rocks in a kind of competition.
The goal was to set a specific house, or basically anything down below, as the target to hit, and then hit it. They went at it for a while before Effie won in the end.
From Ray's perspective though, it was only through cheating.
Effie had designated some house, clearly outside of his range as the target and then just looked on in glee as he tried to hit it. Without any success.
Still, both had their fun, and Ray calmed down significantly.
When he had finally returned to normal, another thought crosses his mind; No matter how unreliable his flaw was, didn't they have a certain prophet here? One that always seemed as innocent as one person could be. Surely, she must have known something, while hiding it behind her doll-like face.
'Guess I should visit her as well then,' thought Ray, making up his mind about visiting Cassie's room after dinner, when she would most likely be there.
Normally, trying anything against someone with a prophetic ability would be a nightmare, but Ray knew that thanks to his one attribute, which made him a singular existence, meaning him not existing in any future or past, that he should not be able to appear in any of her visions of any kind, making him her perfect counter.
Of course, that was just in case anything would happen, which Ray highly doubted. He may not trust everyone around him fully, but after Effie, the others would soon follow on the ranking of his trust. Well, with Neph taking the last place among them, somehow even below Caster. As for why, it just seemed to have happened at one point.
At least what concerns this place. Outside, no one could even come close to his aunt. She basically raised Ray for most of his life, while also deepening his training that his parents had started.
She was the most important person in the world, two worlds even, to Ray.
---
The rest of his day was mostly spent training a bit and trying to decipher more of his tome. An endeavor which would take him quite a while to Ray's estimate. He finally made progress, but because many runes have different meanings, as if they were created by different people or even in different worlds, the progress was very slow.
He had only been able to learn for a month, of course that was as long as Sunny had learned as well, therefore both had a lot of missing vocabulary. For Sunny this might not be that detrimental right now, but for Ray, for him it was quite a setback.
As the evening arrived, and the dinner time came, Ray could be seen sitting together with his usual companions, while always throwing quick glances over to the blind seer. Something that didn't escape the rare guest at the head of the table.