Shadow Slave

Sunny had a lot to do before the sunset.

The parts of the plan spun in his head, making it ache. He had to constantly remain focused, straining his will to its limits, just to keep himself from forgetting everything. When it was not enough, he had to use pain to augment his concentration.

His hands and arms were covered in ghastly bite marks. Without the Blood Weave, Sunny might have fainted from blood loss already. Still, with his pale face turning even whiter from exhaustion and feverish light burning in his eyes, he must have looked like a zombie.

Luckily, Cassie couldn't see any of it.

It didn't take much to convince her to join their strange endeavor. The blind girl's state was way worse than his or Neph's. She seemed to be barely holding on, her thoughts slow and meek. Sunny's heart was gripped with worry.

'Why is she affected so much more than us? Is it because we have True Names, but she does not?'

Names were anchors of one's sense of self, after all. Could it be that True Names served a similar role, only in matters having to do with the Spell?

He didn't know.

Sunny guided Cassie to the carcass of the Carapace Demon. Nephis was already busy stripping plates of armor from its back. Her silver sword was seemingly able to cut through the deteriorated metal, making the task not as hard as he had been afraid of.

Gently sitting the blind girl down in a spot where Neph could see her, he climbed atop the dead demon and evaluated the progress of Changing Star's work.

She looked at him with a frown:

"Aren't you going to help? This was your idea, after all."

Sunny shrugged.

"Maybe later. You seem to be enjoying yourself, anyway. Some people might say that it's a fun little project to chase the boredom away, right?"

She blinked a couple of times, then said:

"I guess."

Sunny nodded a couple of times, looking down at the spots where, stripped of armor plates, the demon's flesh was laid bare. The azure blood had coagulated, turning it dark and as hard as stone. Here and there, though, white layers of fat remained in pristine condition.

have another

Nephis raised an eyebrow.

"Oh really?"

closer to the gap in the creature's

want to

separating the

few times

Cas. Has Sunny lost

at the

I'm not sure. I

attention. For a moment, he entertained the idea of cutting himself with the Midnight Shard's razor-sharp blade, but then dismissed it. Cutting through the Puppeteer's Shroud would have been

to be more precise, he didn't want

demon's fat in his hands, Sunny jumped down from the

not very hard. He just needed fire, water, and time. The wick could be made out of seaweed fibers. It was not going to be pretty, but

behind, Sunny rushed back to

already high in

things: watching over the process of making the candle and running around the island, gathering as much fallen leaves

would catch a glimpse of Nephis working on the boat, sometimes instructing Cassie to help her with menial

convinced her that this was just something he wanted to do for fun. In the girls knew that Sunny was planning to use the boat to escape the Ashen

one who knew the true purpose of the boat. That's why he was forced to bear the full weight of Soul Tree's mind

drop dead of exhaustion. His head felt like it

stubbornly, Sunny refused to give up. No matter how tired he was, how much he wanted to let go and ease this suffering, returning to the bliss of not knowing, he kept his thoughts

clutches of

evening approaching, the boat

was as though a mad vivisector had visited the island

at him with

"Sunny… are you alright?"

a crooked smile, he

"I'm fine. Comparatively."

specify what exactly he was comparing his