Shadow Slave

Pushing the knife into Harper's weak body, Sunny lunged forward. The flimsy wooden table flew aside and shattered into splinters once it hit the wall. With his other hand, he violently grabbed the young man's face and pressed him onto the floor, making sure that no sound would escape from his lips.

Harper's wide eyes were full of pain and terror, staring at Sunny with a silent, but deafening question.

…Why?

Feeling hot blood streaming down his hand, Sunny finally let the pain of the Flaw overwhelm him.

His whisper was hoarse and barely audible:

"Lost from Light! I am… Lost… Lost from Light…"

Harper's trembling fingers found his face and smeared it with blood, which then mixed with tears. He weakly tried to push Sunny away, but there was no strength in his arms anymore.

Biting his lips hard enough to break the skin, Sunny held the gaunt young man down and twisted the knife, praying for all of this to be over soon.

'Don't look at me… please, don't look at me…'

Finally, Harper's terrified, accusing eyes grew still and lightless. Sunny could feel the beating of his heart stop through the thin fabric of the young man's robe. Making sure that Harper was, indeed, dead, he finally let go of the knife and crawled away.

'Oh, gods…'

As though summoned by these words, the voice of the Spell whispered into his ear:

[You have slain Dreamer Harper.]

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

Contorted in a painful spasm, Sunny bent over and violently threw up. Then he weakly fell on the floor and tried to wipe his face, only to realize that he was spreading blood all over it.

'I killed him. I just killed a real human...'

A strange stillness took hold of Sunny. Sitting on the cold stones, he stared at the corpse of the young man that he had just killed and struggled to form a cohesive thought. After a while, he finally succeeded:

'Too much… oh, this is too much…'

All of this was too much for him. Why did he have to go through all of this? The slave caravan, the Forgotten Shore, Changing Star, and now Harper. What sin had he committed to have to go through this nightmare? Was he actually already dead, and imprisoned in the depths of hell?

'...Bullshit. He deserved it.'

Sunny gritted his teeth and forced himself to concentrate on that thought.

out to Gunlaug. He knew that he was helping

that he had the right to kill Harper, deep down, he could not accept it. There were a million ways to deal with the timid,

now… there's no one else here. Why don't you be honest with yourself, for once? Just admit it. Don't you

grimaced and ground his teeth

'Say it!'

opened his mouth and

him because I wanted to survive. I killed him…

that, he suddenly

He

to help Nephis kill hundreds

the situation, Sunny barely

much noise. Breaking that table was already a mistake. What if

bad. That would be

was he going to do

an answer, Sunny leaned

while, the door of the hut

there, in the doorframe, his face pale, stood none other

broken table, the smell of alcohol in the air, the bloodied body with a

'Oh, no!'

"This… this is not…"

mind. No matter what he would say, the

eyes, Caster

did you

***

blinked and stared at the handsome young man. After a

you think? I killed

was calm and nonchalant. It didn't matter how Sunny felt inside. In front of Caster, he

the proud scion of the Han Li clan one bit. There had always been

for acting, it was now. Especially because, unlike everyone else in the slum, Caster already knew that Sunny wasn't as useless as everyone believed. He had known it ever since that night when the

why did you kill him?!" Do you want

stood up and

was asking

opened his mind, stunned, then closed it again. After a few moments, he suddenly

"What kind of questions?"

seemed as though he

it, what was he even doing

Nephis well, what her Ability is,