Shadow Slave

Behind the window, a striking vista of the cursed city sprawled far below. The morning sun washed the ruins in a pale light, making them look menacingly mysterious.

Nephis smiled.

"Besides… what can compete with this killer view?"

As though answering her words, a ghastly wail resounded from somewhere far away, echoing in the wind like a dying scream. Sunny trembled.

'I guess she meant it literally.'

With a sigh, he put Changing Star's strange choice of habitat at the back of his mind and approached the pile of meat.

"Let's eat first."

The three of them sat on the stone floor and ate monster meat, passing around Cassie's beautiful glass bottle between each other. It was just like the good old times, provided that those times were not actually that old, and there had certainly not been anything good about them.

Almost.

When all three of them were satiated, Nephis looked at Sunny with calm intensity. For some reason, he was reminded of the unseen waves of pressure that Gunlaug created anywhere he went.

"What have you learned in the castle?"

He sighed. This was going to be a long conversation.

Sunny started by describing the general order of things in the ancient stronghold. He told Neph about the six different castes and the complex relationships that existed between them, as well as briefly explaining how the members of each caste lived their lives. Sometimes, Cassie would add a few details of her own.

Changing Star frowned.

you say that there were five hundred people living in

her

around that.

thought for a

make sense. There are almost as many people here in the outer settlement, perhaps even more. That would put the human population of the Dark City at around a thousand. Most of them are

She paused.

in the slum. As far as I know, we three are the only ones to come to the Dark City after the recent

of his

four. Caster is also here. He's

grew strangely

Han Li

to be so enthusiastic, damn

not

us that there were only seven Sleepers sent

for a few moments,

when a bunch of crazy humans first laid claim to the castle, there would be just a dozen or so newcomers each year. Then a few dozen. Then a hundred. In the past few years, it was several hundred

the

with the number seven, some people believe that this marks the end of a fourteen-year long cycle and the first year of a new one. I

for a

does Caster know the

a good question, naturally. One that Sunny had asked himself many times before finally convincing himself to go find the handsome Legacy

a person had ever met. Caster paid

silent for a

"Continue."

had to witness and his own thoughts on how