On the day of the winter solstice, Sunny woke up feeling tired and drowsy, as if his body was made of lead and his mind was wrapped in wet cotton.
No matter how much he tried to shake off this listlessness, it clung to him like a second skin.
He tossed, turned, groaned into his pillow, and even tried slapping his own cheeks.
Nothing worked.
In the end, he just stayed in bed for a while, wrapping himself in the blanket until only his ssy black hair stuck out.
The warmth was pathetic compared to what he knew was coming, but it was all he had.
He was already familiar with this feeling of never-ending, ensnaring sleepiness.
It was the sa in the days before his First Nightmare, when every morning felt like drowning in syrup.
It was also quite similar to what he had experienced while slowly dying of hypothermia on the slopes of the Black Mountain, where each breath had been a battle and sleep had promised a quiet, white death.
Rembering the cold embrace of approaching death, Sunny couldn't help but shiver under the blanket.
The mory wasn't distant.
It lived in his bones.
This was his last day on Earth… at least for a while.
By nightfall, the Spell was going to take him away once again, this ti to challenge the vast expanse of the Dream Realm.
Not a trial designed for one sleepless night, but an entire world.
A ruined, magical, broken world where entire cities had died screaming.
What was he going to face there?
A desert of bones?
A forest of glass?
Another mountain that wanted him dead?
Would luck be on his side this ti, or would there be another disaster waiting the mont he opened his eyes?
'Ugh.'
There was no point in guessing.
Speculation was a luxury for people who had options.
He had already done everything in his power to prepare for the inevitable.
He studied until his eyes burned, trained until his muscles gave out, and kept his secret buried so deep that sotis even he forgot it was there.
His Aspect was better than most.
His will to survive was long tempered by the harsh reality of the outskirts and the even harsher ordeal of the First Nightmare.
He had killed.
He had nearly died.
He had seen things that would break a normal kid.
All in all, he was ready.
Or at least, as ready as a seventeen-year-old orphan could be.
With a sigh that felt like it dragged his soul out with it, Sunny got out of bed and went along with his morning routine.
If this was going to be his last hot shower in a long while, he was going to really enjoy it.
He stood under the water until his skin turned red and the steam fogged the entire bathroom.
If it was going to be his last scrumptious breakfast for the ti being…
Actually, he had no appetite.
The thought of food made his stomach turn.
The cafeteria was full of Sleepers, but no one was talking.
The usual clatter of trays and chatter was gone.
Everybody was in low spirits and seed to be uncharacteristically introspective, staring into their food like it held answers.
There was no usual laughter or boisterous conversations.
Only the Legacies remained calm and collected, eating with perfect posture and quiet efficiency.
However, even they kept to themselves today.
The weight of the solstice pressed on everyone equally, bloodline or not.
Sunny thought about the last ti he was preparing to enter the Spell and, with a bit of trepidation, approached the coffee machine.
During his stay in the Academy, he had long discovered that a lot of people were in the habit of adding sugar and milk to their coffee.
The idea had offended him at first.
Coffee was supposed to be bitter.
Like life.
So, on this auspicious day, he decided to give it another try.
After all, it was nice to have a tradition, even a stupid one.
A few minutes later, he had taken his usual seat near Cassia, the blind girl.
Strangely enough, the pointy-eared woman who had practically been the reason Sunny both wanted to stay at the Academy and leave it for the past weeks was nowhere to be seen.
Despite their compulsory closeness, they had not talked to each other even once, just like two strangers forced to share the sa space by circumstances beyond their control.
Sunny did not see a reason for anything to change today.
Well, that wasn't entirely true.
Despite their usual silence, they had only talked to each other whenever Elysia tried to pull Sunny into the conversation.
Which always failed.
He would grunt, Cassia would give a polite nod, and Elysia would eventually give up with an exaggerated sigh.
However, as soon as he took the first sip of coffee, Cassia suddenly turned her head and stared at him with her beautiful, unseeing blue eyes.
There was nothing behind them, and yet the weight of her attention was physical.
Unnerved, Sunny looked around, checking if soone else had attracted her attention, and after making sure that there wasn't anyone standing behind him, asked:
"W—what?"
Cassia was silent, as though hesitating if she should reply.
Her expression was serene, but her fingers tightened slightly around her cup.
Then, suddenly, she said:
"Happy Birthday."
'What?' Sunny frowned, trying to comprehend the aning behind her words.
His mind blanked for a second.
Then, a flash of surprise appeared on his face.
'Oh, right. It's my birthday today.'
He had completely forgotten about it.
Birthdays weren't sothing you celebrated in the outskirts.
They were just another day you didn't die.
He was turning seventeen today.
'Wait… how did she know about this?' Sunny gave the blind girl a strange look, opened his mouth to ask, and then decided to let the issue go.
She was just too creepy.
And asking questions about how a blind girl knew things never ended well.
"Uh… thanks."
The word felt awkward in his mouth.
With a nod, Cassia turned away and seemingly lost interest in having a conversation once again.
Which was for the better.
Sunny wasn't in the mood to unravel another mystery today.
Sunny returned to his coffee, finding it not too bad this ti.
Of course, sugar and cream were doing most of the work.
The bitterness was still there, but it was buried under sothing sweet and soft.
However, he did feel a little bit more awake after drinking it.
Or maybe that was the shock.
'Seventeen, huh?'
Sunny was never sure that he would make it to this age alive.
In the outskirts, seventeen was old.
Most kids didn't see sixteen.
And yet, despite everything, he did.
Life was sure unpredictable sotis.
Cruel, but unpredictable.
If anyone would have told him a year ago that he was going to celebrate his seventeenth birthday by drinking real coffee with real milk and sugar in a place with heating and clean walls, he would have laughed in their face.
Or maybe stabbed them for mocking him.
But now it was reality.
Unwillingly, Sunny rembered all the people who used to celebrate his birthdays with him, a long ti ago.
His sister's smile.
His mother's hands, rough but careful as she divided a single piece of scavenged candy.
The mory was warm, and that made it hurt worse.
Before his mood turned sour, he decisively dispelled these thoughts and forced himself to smile.
It felt fake on his face, but he held it anyway.
'This is not bad. Let's do it again next year, when I'm already an Awakened.'
Cheering himself up with that hollow promise, he finished his coffee and left the cafeteria.
The sweetness lingered on his tongue, unfamiliar and wrong.
There were no classes today, but he still visited the Wilderness Survival classroom and said his goodbyes to Teacher Julius.
The old man got pretty emotional when sending him off, his eyes suspiciously bright.
He gave Sunny "one last tip" a dozen or so tis in a row, each one contradicting the last, and even promised to apply for a research assistant position to be opened after the young man had beco a full Awakened.
Sunny left thanking him for his ti and patience, feeling a strange tightness in his chest.
It was the closest thing to a father's send-off he'd ever get.
After that, there wasn't much to do.
He walked the halls of the Academy, morized the cracks in the ceiling, the sll of disinfectant, the way the light fell through the windows.
He was saying goodbye to safety.
When the sun was close to setting, casting long blue shadows across the snow, Instructor Rock gathered them in the foyer of the Sleeper Center and led them outside.
The cold hit him imdiately, sharp and clean.
It slled like endings.
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