"Didn't try?! Of course, I tried! I tried everything I could to make the future I saw change! But no matter how much I tried, it never did. It always remained the same! Even worse, my attempts only made it... appear even more inevitable..."
Turning away, she gritted her teeth and remained silent for a while, her hands trembling.
"I… I… I was the first one to understand what my vision of the Crimson Spire meant. Shadows devouring a dying angel… I understood it on that very day."
Cassie closed her eyes for a moment, then spoke again, her voice quiet.
"Don't you remember? I even asked you to promise to always protect her. And what did you say?"
Sunny stared at her, remembering. Yes, at the very start, there had been a conversation like that.
"...No. I said no."
A fragile smile appeared on Cassie's face.
"Yes. You said no. And on that day, I knew that I had to make a choice. And I made it. I chose Neph."
She shivered and hugged herself, as if dying of cold.
"I had to betray one of my best friends to save the other. And I did. I chose to sacrifice you to save Neph. Of course, I fooled myself for a while, telling myself that nothing bad would happen. That if I help Neph, maybe both of you would survive. But deep down, I knew that it was just one of the possible outcomes, so what was the difference? I betrayed you. And you know what?"
A small, bitter laugh escaped from her lips.
"It was for nothing. I betrayed my best friend, and nothing still changed. I sacrificed you, but couldn't save anyone. Despite it all, I couldn't… couldn't change fate."
Sunny stared at her for a while, then snarled:
"...That's it? That's your speech? That's what you have to say for yourself? What do you want me to do, pity you?"
A furious gleam appeared in his eyes.
"After everything I have done for you, after I saved your life countless times, took care of you as if you were my sister, this is how you chose to repay me? By giving my biggest secret to Neph, so that she could use it against me when the time came?"
Cassie remained silent, not saying anything.
"Do you even know what you've done?! Do you even know what you've taken from me?!"
She hesitated for a bit, that answered quietly:
"I didn't know why, or how my vision would come true. I only knew that it would happen in the Spire. So I gave your secret to Nephis, hoping that she would survive thanks to it."
Sunny laughed, then grew quiet.
An oppressive silence settled between them, and remained unbroken for several minutes.
After a while, he finally said:
"...I can understand. Rationally, I do. You were forced to make a terrible decision, with both choices being a betrayal. And you chose to help Neph, who was with you first. Who saved you when I would have just left you to die."
But then, a cold gleam appeared in his eyes.
"But that doesn't mean that I can forgive it. You go to hell, Cassie. Go to hell and die there, for all I care. I hope that I will never see you again."
With that, Sunny turned around to leave, but then stopped.
He couldn't help but be cruel to her one last time.
"Oh, and that secret? It was the reason why she got stuck there all alone. So, in a sense, you have doomed both of your friends."
As he spoke those words, Cassie flinched.
A satisfied, vindictive smile appeared on Sunny's face.
...But why did it hurt him so much to say those words?
"So, congratulations. You've made it back, Cassie. Go back home, spend time with your family. Didn't you tell me that your mother makes the best eggs? Eat your fill. Try to enjoy them, knowing what you did."
As the blind girl paled and turned away with a broken expression on his face, he smiled bitterly and dissolved into the shadows.
Bonds of friendship were such a fragile thing.
They were so hard to create, but so easy to break.
All it took was a moment...