Seishan, the former lieutenant of the Bright Lord Gunlaug and leader of the handmaidens, was standing in front of them with a calm smile. Sunny had not seen her after the tumultuous escape from the Forgotten Shore, where she had held the line as the commander of the second defense bulwark of the Dreamer Army.
He had thought that becoming a Master would make him less susceptible to her presence, but it did not. Her striking beauty, her exotic looks, and the aura of mystery that surrounded Seishan were just as compelling as ever. The knowledge of how frightening her true nature was also made it impossible for him to remain unaffected.
Not to mention the most important fact of all…
Seishan was one of the adopted daughters of Ki Song, the ruler of the great Song clan and one of the three Sovereigns.
If anything, knowing more about her background only made Sunny pay the beautiful woman extra attention.
'What the hell is she doing here?'
Seishan, meanwhile, looked at the other members of the cohort and said with a small, but seemingly sincere smile:
"Athena, Kai, Cassia… Sunless. It is good to see you doing well, too."
Effie gave her a long look, then shrugged.
"Likewise. How have you and your girls been?"
After the return from the Forgotten Shore, half of the members of the former Dreamer Army had decided to follow Cassie and became known as the Fire Keepers. Of the remaining half, most had chosen a different path, either remaining independent like Sunny and Aiko or joining various Legacy clans. All the surviving handmaidens, however, had followed Seishan back to Song.
Just like that, the great clan had not only received its lost daughter back, but also earned the utmost loyalty of a dozen extremely promising recruits.
Come to think of it, that might have been one of the reasons why Valor wanted to gain the allegiance of the Fire Keepers so badly.
A group of exceptional and supremely battle-hardened Awakened might not have been able to change the balance of power between the two great clans immediately, but in a few years, when the survivors of the Dreamer Army started becoming Masters or maybe even Saints, eventually, that could easily change.
Seishan responded in a serious tone:
"We are doing well. My clan embraced us with open arms. After reuniting with my sisters, I was also able to bring a lot of value to the Song family with my unique knowledge and experience… the long years I had spent on the Forgotten Shore were not for naught."
She had been stuck in that hell for far longer than any of them. In fact, Sunny did not know how many years Seishan had spent in the Dark City, exactly, but it might have been as high as nine or ten.
Being able to survive and hold on to power for so long spoke a lot about how resourceful and dangerous the daughter of Ki Song was… especially considering that, in the end, she was the only one of the old guard who had managed to escape.
No wonder the great clan was so eager to get her back.
Seishan looked at them and smiled.
"Of course, we have yet to achieve the same measure of success as the five of you. Reaching Ascension so soon after becoming Awakened is no small feat. You have my respect."
Her smile paled a little.
"...I will be going away to challenge my own Second Nightmare in a few days, as a matter of fact. This ball is the last opportunity I have to experience the wonders of the waking world before that."
She looked around wistfully and sighed.
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