Shadow Slave

Some time later, Sunny emerged from the ruins of the cathedral with a rucksack on his shoulder, took one last look back, and left.

Whatever his future was going to be, he doubted that he would come back here any time soon.

It was a bittersweet goodbye.

Cautiously walking through the familiar streets of the Dark City, where he knew every turn and every piece of rubble — in this district of it, at least — Sunny kept his guard up. Many things must have changed in the months he had been away traveling through the Labyrinth.

The Nightmare Creatures he knew and, more importantly, knew how to avoid might have wandered away or perished, and new horrors might have taken their place. He had to stay prudent and careful.

But still, his next and final goal was not that far away.

As he sneaked toward it, Sunny thought about the Weaver's Mask and the ways it could change his life. At first, he thought about simply never taking it off and walking around while delivering a deluge of lies. This way he would be safe from revealing his most guarded secret and becoming someone's slave, at least.

But after considering this seriously, he came to the conclusion that it was not the best decision in his current circumstances.

First of all, one couldn't be a part of any collective while lying all the time. Sunny had an unpleasant experience of being expelled from various groups for various reasons, and not being sincere and honest was one of the surest ways to make people want to avoid you at all cost… eventually, at least.

And no one was able to survive alone in the Dream Realm. Not in a way that a person would want to live, anyway.

about

able to keep this lying for long, anyway — not when dealing with people that already knew him. Kai and Cassie would notice the strange effect of the

on with him pretty quickly, too, simply because of how drastic the change in his behavior would be.

those questions — even with lies

Weaver's Mask was not a panacea to Sunny's current situation. At best, it

that he was in possession of that

for him. It would allow him to have a hidden persona that was in no way connected to an Awakened named Sunless, and as such, allow him to do and achieve things that would have been

know that the strange black wooden mask was connected to him,

his own

such

imagining Caster's face if he were to ever learn about what type of

Caster…

Sunny's face darkened.

promise Nephis had made him at the start of their journey to the Hollow Mountains. Tomorrow, he was finally going to learn what was the deal with the proud

how big were the chances of Sunny having to

he had made to get ready for the bloody conclusion of this disastrous

the

charm of his… what

defeat Caster if push came to shove. But the cost he would have to pay for that victory would be heavy... perhaps

Sunny silently shook his head and