The sudden sound of knocking coupled with someone calling him by his name gave him quite the scare, since he was sleeping so peacefully. But upon thinking back, he realised that he knew the voice's owner, of course it was the young master of the house, Jack.
With this newfound information, Helios got up and opened his rooms door.
"What's going on? Why are you being so loud?"
"Helios, do you know what time it is?"
"No, but I just had a small nap so it should be about....3 pm?"
"No...it's almost 7 pm."
"What, but I just took a nap, it shouldn't have been that long."
"....Wait maybe, I should have told you...sorry it's my fault. Anyways, come have dinner with us, you are our guest after all."
Jack's sudden reflection caught him off guard. So Helios had to ask.
"What did you forget to tell me?"
"I've already told you that the capital is the place where the goddess's power is at it's strongest, but I forgot to tell you that it extended to not just the fact that this place was forever shrouded in darkness, but also that the goddess's blessing of a good night's sleep is always active."
'I guess that makes sense, but I still don't get why he was being so apologetic.'
"Okay, but..why were you so...apologetic? You would have usually just made fun of me for not figuring it out myself."
"..It's because..disrupting one's sleep is looked down upon in the teaching of Remia."
'So it was religion.'
"Okay I'll come eat with you, but should I change for it?"
While Helios said that, he did not actually have any clothes to change into, nonetheless he felt like since it was some noble dinner he may need to dress up for it.
"No, it's just casual a dinner, outside of me, you and father only my mother will join, the others are elsewhere."
'By others he means his sibling. Right?'
"Okay then lead the way."
With Jack's lead Helios was led down the seemingly endless looking corridors of the Phoenix household. Finally they arrived before a door leading into a room. It had one long table in it seemingly made for family dinners, yet most seats were absent, only two people were sitting there.
At the end of the table sat the already familiar Gideon, but on the other half sat a woman yet unknown to Helios. Of course thanks to what Jack had said he was able to realise that this surprisingly young looking woman was actually Jack's mother.
Jack was able to quickly take seat, but Helios struggled to find where he should sit. He knew that noble families usually made a big deal out of seating as a way to signify their importance in the family.
Soon noticing his predicament, Gideon spoke up.
"Helios, you can just take a seat anywhere you'd wish we won't make a big deal out of it."
Hearing this Helios made himself less tense, and took a seat right next to Jack.
"So you are Helios, I've heard of you from my husband, to think that you are the new Concepter of the sun, such a great thing to happen in our lifetimes"
The woman saying this, Jack's mother was someone who looked no older than thirty, even though Helios already figured that she was around fifty in reality. She also had a long blond hair much like the one which Helios had. Coupled with her great facial features she looked like a rather beautiful, dignified noblewoman.
"Oh please, I'm not a Concepter yet, ma'am."
Their small conversation was interrupted by Gideon, who seemingly had a question for Helios.
"So, have you thought about what, you're gonna do with that offer?"
Since it's been nearly five hours since their last conversation, it was reasonable for Gideon to assume that Helios had atleast thought about the offer, and whether or not he should accept it. But he was wrong, because Helios had been sleeping rather than thinking for this last few hours.
"Actually, I haven't."
"Then you should since, you don't have much time left."
With the idle chatter coming to an end, a few servants swarmed the room bringing with them a number of great dishes. Helios was delighted to be able to eat something normal again, since his experience at lunch was something he didn't wish to repeat.
As they were nearing the end of their lunch, Gideon had one final thing to say.
"Helios, while I was the one that said that you should be careful with the offer, I would still recommend for you to accept it."
"Is it because of the war?"
"Yes...as a simple Grasper I don't think you'd be able to survive there, or atleast I still believe a guarantee of survival is better than a chance of it."
"Thank you I'll consider your advice."
"Also, if you choose to stay here I wouldn't be opposed to personally training you."
This comment left everyone in the room silent. Even Helios who knew nothing of the true strength of Gideon felt that this offer was great.
Helios already wanted to accept the offer, of course being tied to the kingdom forever felt like it had it's caveats, but with the head of the Phoenix family offering him his tutelage, there was nothing more to think about.
With the short dinner comming to an end, everyone left the dinning hall and returned to their room, at this moment the sudden sound of a bell could be heard.
Jack who was going in the same direction as him, felt he had to speak up.
"That's the night bell, in the city shrouded in eternal night it's what signifies the arrival of the true night."
Arriving at an intersection the two said their goodbyes and headed to their rooms.
Though Helios had just slept an hour ago, at this moment he felt like he could sleep for another ten, so with nothing to waste he jumped into his bed and quickly fell asleep.
And though Helios expected for tonight to be the same as the ones before, there was something different.
He was dreaming. Of course normally this would be nothing out of the ordinary, but he was lucid during it. He knew this was a dream.
What welcomed him in this land of dreams was nothing like what he had expected. He was in a large empty world shrouded in darkness, much like the one that was surrounding the capital, but even stronger, strangely though he was still able to see everything.
'Is this the goddess's authority? Was I granted an audiance with her?'
As someone who was well versed in fantasy this was what he was expecting to see, but he was wrong.
This place was an empty wasteland, the ground was moist, but also dry at the same time. Everything he could see seemed dead. In the far distance, there seemed to be a mountain so tall he couldn't see its end, but upon closer observation he realised that what seemed like a mountain was actually tree stretching infinitely across the sky.
'What is this place?'
Helios wanted to find out more about this mysterious place so he looked around. Other than the tree and the most ground, he was able to see what looked like small cavings along the ground. He figured he would approach one of these cavings in case they led anywhere.
Getting closer to it he was able to see what looked small from a distance was actually a crater so great in size that he wasn't even able to see its bottom.
Figuring that this was a lost cause he decided to walk in a different direction, but this time there was something else in the distance, something he hasn't been able to see before.
It was a half-sphere, its darkness allowing it to blend almost perfectly with its surroundings. What stood out to him out ot him the most about this object was the fact that it not only seemed to cover a rather large area, though not nearly as great in size as tree behind him, but it also seemed to exude something nothing else in this plane did. It was a strangely intangible of feeling of life.
He decided that the best course of action was to go to that half-sphere as it seemed to be the only thing that seemed, oddly real in this dreamland of his. But the closer he got the further the place felt, it was as if it was rejecting his intent of entering. It seemed that the only place that welcomed him was this place, a land of death, a land of eternal isolation.
Figuring that it was just a dream he felt like he should simply wake up, this was clearly no invitation from the goddess, it was just a bad nightmare, a lucid one, but still a nightmare. He had to leave.
He tried to wake up, but couldn't. Sudden panic came over him, he knew that there were cases where one wouldn't be able to wake up from their lucid dream, but the thought of being stuck here really filled him with a feeling of dread.
Then suddenly an unknown voice resonated inside his head.
"Found you!"