160 The Future

"Hey, doofus. You're okay?"

Sunny reacted after a second or two, raising his head and staring at Effie with empty eyes.

"...Y—yeah. I'm fine. Just… thinking about stuff."

Effie gave him a strange look, then shrugged and turned away. Everyone was too busy to pay him any attention. Not that anyone ever did.

Left alone, Sunny staggered and slowly lowered himself to the ground. In his mind, one phrase was repeating itself, over and over, growing louder and louder with each second.

"A woman with a bronze spear drowning in a tide of monster… a woman with a bronze spear..."

This was a part of the vision that Cassie had seen back at the beginning of their journey, on the night they had spent atop the giant statue of a headless knight.

The one that was so harrowing that she had almost jumped into the dark waters of the cursed sea just to run away from her terror.