"So, what are you going to do now? Gather your courage and confess?"
Sunny threw a sharp gaze at him.
"So what if I do?"
The apparition laugh.
"Well, well. I wish you luck. Oh, there's just one problem... she's going to forget everything, isn't she? How cowardly of you. Seems rather unfair to the poor girl."
Sunny gritted his teeth.
The bastard... was right. As much as he hated to admit it, the wraith was telling the truth.
He hesitated, then spat:
"Then I'll do it after we escape the loop. Why, you think I won't?"
The Sin of Solace stared at him for a while, then sighed. Shaking his head, the sword wraith crouched and looked him in the eyes.
"Aren't you forgetting something else, though?"
Sunny frowned, unwilling to answer. However, the apparition did it in his stead:
"You're her slave, Sunless. She owns you. What kind of relationship do you think is possible between the two of you, as long as your bonds remain?"
Sunny's expression grew ugly. Angered, he looked away and uttered through gritted teeth:
"She would never use it."
The Sin of Solace smiled.
"Oh? Won't she? How do you know? If there's one thing that this Nightmare proves, it's that no one knows what the future holds. I mean, all your precious friends are right here, changed into Corrupted monsters, going around slaughtering people. Even you are no different! Have you ever expected that Jet would brutally murder you one day? Or that Effie would satiate her hunger with your flesh? Funny that you are expecting Nephis to never abuse her power over you in the same way."
The wraith leaned closer:
"After all, she already did."
Sunny's mouth twitched.
"That... was to save my life. And she swore to never do it again."
The apparition laughed.
"But she already broke that oath!"
Sunny frowned, staring at him angrily.
"What are you talking about? That time when she begged me not to die? That hardly constitutes a command."
The Sin of Solace was smiling.
"No, no... it was that time the Drowned attacked the Chain Breaker. What did she say back then? Go, I'll handle things here! And then you instantly went into the water to fight the leviathan."
Sunny looked at him in confusion.
"What? I was going to, anyway."
But the apparition's smile only widened.
"Were you?"
The mist was swirling around them, cold and suffocating. Sunny tried to remember how their first battle with the Drowned had gone, exactly, and scowled.
"Yes, I was! Even if I wasn't... it was just a slip of the tongue."
The sword wraith looked at him disdainfully.
"A slip of the tongue? Certainly, certainly... if you say so. Yet, can you imagine having a relationship with someone who can rob you of your free will with a simple slip of the tongue? How do you imagine such a relationship working? What kind of perverse partnership would it be? Are you really willing to be at her mercy, always, and absolutely?"
The Sin of Solace laughed.
"Gods. You are so odious. So loathsome. So pathetic... tell me, is there a more pathetic thing than a slave who begins to trust his slaver?"
Sunny stared at him silently, not knowing what to answer.
Eventually, the apparition chuckled, shook his head, then stood up and walked away. His dark figure disappeared into the mist, as if it had never been here.
"If you are, go and surrender!"
Sunny lowered his head.
A dark storm was raging in his mind.
'Curse it... curse it... curse my Flaw, and curse the Shadow Bond. I wish it had never existed...'
The cold mist swirled around his face, hiding it.
The world was silent.
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Erdiul's Note: My homie Sin of Solace is the reverse wingman.