Cassie/Relationships

Back in the real world, she was waiting for him beside Nephis' body, she told him how she knew of his secret. With pain, sorrow, and anger, she did everything she could, but her attempts made no difference to their destiny. She first understood her vision the same day she saw it, which is why she asked if Sunny could always protect Nephis, but he said no. On that day, she knew had to make a choice and she chose Nephis. Betraying one of her best friends to save the other, she chose to sacrifice Sunny to save Nephis. She did not know how or why the two will fight, so she gave Sunny's secret to Nephis, hoping she could use it to survive. She felt devastated when he told her that his secret was the reason why Nephis got stuck in the Dream Realm. In a sense, she doomed both of her friends.^[12]

While it is clear that Sunny no longer thinks of Cassie as a friend, Cassie's thoughts on Sunny are unclear at this point in time.^[13][12]

She considered him as strong that she asked if he could join them in their expedition in Hollow Mountains.^[14]

After the four-year time skip of Sunny being forgotten by everyone, they met again as Master Sunless and greeted him on his birthday.^[15] He had an agreement with her to find what he is looking for in True Bastion in exchange for peeking his memories.^[16] She is also the one who orchestrated the scheme to make him a paramour of Nephis^[17] which eventually became official^[18]. As Lord of Shadows, he joined their quest to defeat the sovereigns.^[19]

During their time at the Academy, Cassie had seen a vision of Sunny's past, witnessing him quietly celebrating his birthday alone on the winter solstice inside a rusty shipping container, hiding from the biting wind and toxic smog of the outskirts. Because she had already been blind by the time she arrived at the Academy, Sunny became the only Sleeper whose face she knew, while everyone else—including Nephis—existed to her only as disembodied voices in the darkness. Hearing Sunny's voice while knowing what he looked like made Cassie feel human again, leading her to cherish his voice deeply. However, this fragile connection was darkened when Cassie overheard Sunny question Nephis, asking in a blunt and indifferent tone why she was burdening herself with Cassie, and answering "No" when asked whether he would do the same. That single word hurt Cassie and colored her impression of Sunny in darker shades, becoming a defining element of how she remembered him within that old, lightless memory.^[20]

Cassie thought of Mordret as someone she deeply understood, having seen most of his memories (refer to their arrangement in Chapter 2878) and experienced all the things he had experienced, which allowed her to witness how he became what he is today. She felt appalled and terrified by him, but emphasized that she did not hate him, explaining that it would have been hypocritical and it was difficult to hate someone whom she understood. She recognized that he was entwined with the other Mordret, both locked in their own cell of solitude and incomplete, with one detesting the other yet also longing for him. Cassie acknowledged the connection between the two Mordrets, stating that the most important memories she saw are for the other Mordret, as well, and even when meeting the lesser Mordret for the first time, she could not treat him as a stranger.^[23]