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.

guilty? The bastard was going to sell you out to Gunlaug. He knew that he was helping to kill you. And

tried to convince himself 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, pitiful spy. No… there

don't you be honest with yourself, for once? Just admit it. Don't you dare become a

ground his teeth

'Say it!'

he opened his mouth and

him because I wanted to survive.

just like that, he suddenly

the big deal? He was already a murderer,

was planning to help Nephis kill hundreds

by the irony of the situation,

make too much noise. Breaking that table was already a

would be bad. That

was he going

with an answer, Sunny leaned forward

after a while, the door of

his face pale, stood none

stunned expression on his face, the proud Legacy was taking in the sight. The broken table, the smell of alcohol in the air, the bloodied body with a knife sticking out of its chest, and disheveled Sunny kneeling

'Oh, no!'

"This… this is not…"

he would say, the situation was not going to

him straight in the eyes, Caster asked with

did you

***

handsome young man. After a few moments, he opened his

you think? I killed the

didn't matter how Sunny felt inside. In front of Caster, he couldn't

didn't trust the proud scion of the Han Li clan one bit. There had always been something off about

a time for acting, it was now. Especially because, unlike everyone else in the slum, Caster already knew that Sunny wasn't as useless

Do you want to

up and

was asking too many

mind, stunned, then closed it again. After

"What kind of questions?"

seemed as though he

to think of it, what was he even doing

Nephis well, what her Ability is, how did she get her True