Shadow Slave

On the other side of the sturdy door, there was a tiny room with stone walls and a single, narrow window that was closed with wooden shutters and draped in thick cloth. Harper had warned them not to open the windows during the night, but out here in the Tower of Dusk, no one would want to stare at the view anyway.

Allowing any amount of light to seep out of the castle at night was considered to be a severe crime, so he had been pretty emphatic on that point. Of course, the gaunt young man didn't know that neither Sunny nor Cassie required light to move in the dark. They could open the windows as wide as they wanted… not that they had any reason to.

Inside the room, there was a bed with a straw mattress, a flimsy chest, and a tiny desk. On the desk, there was a basin filled with water, a few strips of clean cloth and an oil lamp.

There was even a small round mirror made of polished bronze.

Sunny caught a glimpse of his reflection and flinched, as though seeing a stranger.

In these past two months, he had seen himself through the eyes of the shadow plenty of times, but it wasn't the same.

He had changed a lot.

His face was much sharper and angular now, the last remnants of youthful roundness chased away from it by the harsh gauntlet of the Labyrinth… although Sunny never had a lot of that, to begin with. It was thin and pale, with dark circles under his eyes and other signs of extreme exhaustion. His black hair was longer, falling over his eyes in a dirty mess.

What changed the most, however, were the eyes themselves. Deep in their dark depths, there was a glint of calm, heavy, bleak coldness that had not been there before.

With a startling realization, Sunny understood that he, too, now possessed the look of a seasoned fighter. The type of calculating coldness hiding in the eyes of such men was known as the "murder math" in the outskirts.

Hero and Nephis had that quality, too. Only in their case, it made them seem like true warriors.

Sunny, on the other hand… Sunny had the eyes of a killer.

And even deeper than that, visible only to him, golden threads of Weaver's inhuman legacy glowed mysteriously in the darkness.

reflection, Sunny grinned darkly and said in a strange,

"...Looking good, Sunless."

***

Sunny fell on the soft mattress, wrapped himself in a blanket, and

real bed, it was hard to believe that just a few days ago he was traveling through the cursed darkness of the deadly sea on a rickety

seemed like

'This… isn't bad.'

that thought, he

Cassie in the hallway. Even the Puppeteer's Shroud, which finally got a chance to return to the Soul Sea for a decently long period of time and

still held fast, saving his life on numerous occasions. Sunny was reminded of how lucky he had

him wait for long. Soon, she came out of her room, practically glowing with loveliness and freshness. It

and dirt in the wilderness, they finally looked and felt

"Good morning!"

Sunny blinked.

porcelain doll. The blind girl had dismissed the enchanted cloak, leaving her dressed only in a light tunic, with leather sandals on her feet. She

his

'This… smells like trouble.'

"Good morning, Cassie."

to him and wrinkled

"Uh… what?"

girl knitted her

know. You smell

a few