Shadow Slave

Leaving the Sleeper Compound, Sunny felt as though even the winter cold could not keep him from feeling sleepy anymore. Wondering what time it was, he looked up out of habit and glanced at the sun.

The sun was all wrong.

Suddenly, Sunny was wide awake, his hand instinctively outstretched to summon the Midnight Shard. It took him a few moments to recognize his error.

'Oh. The sun is normal. It's just not the same as on the Forgotten Shore.'

He also didn't have to measure time by observing the sky anymore. He had a communicator that could show him what time of day it was, up to the exact nanosecond.

Shaking his head, Sunny headed back toward the hospital complex. He was late for a… a memorial. Of sorts.

The survivors of the Dreamer Army were supposed to gather today to celebrate those who remained alive and remember those who had fallen.

Entering the medical center, he headed toward the conference hall, but then lingered for a moment in front of a monitor attached to the wall. There, a hundred names were shown, listing everyone who had made it back.

And on the very top of it, there were three very special ones:

"Raised by Wolves"

"Nightingale"

"Song of the Fallen"

Effie, Kai, and Cassie…

Sunny stared at the three True Names for some time, then slowly lowered his gaze. Right beneath was his own name.

With a grim expression on his face, Sunny opened the doors and entered the hall.

least those who had awoken at the Academy or could

strange to see all these people back in the real world.

lot to keep them together, and so much to split them apart. Before, they were united by necessity

survivors seemed strangely united. Perhaps it was the shared trauma of their harrowing experience in the Dream Realm, or something else that Sunny couldn't quite understand,

'...Weird.'

people welcomed his arrival with warm greetings. Sunny smiled awkwardly and did his best to reciprocate their goodwill. After a few such encounters, he finally noticed

stumbled and stared at his friend

'I'll be damned…'

could that guy become even more

Kai's slender figure even more graceful, his perfect face even more handsome, and his electric green eyes even more mesmerizing. His luscious dark auburn hair was now neatly cut and styled, his clothes were simple and exquisitely fashionable, and the several pieces of jewelry he wore somehow managed to enhance every one of those features by bringing it just

'Such… such injustice!'

noticed him from afar, and then, the

You are finally

noticing a stranger next to the charming young man. A sickly, terribly gaunt young woman was sitting in a wheelchair, staring at them with a

over brittle bones and a strange twist to her spine. Her legs seemed lifeless and weak, tucked awkwardly on the step of her wheelchair. Her neck was clearly struggling to support the weight

the young woman smiled mischievously did

been

her wheelchair, as though giving him the chance to take

'Effie… that's... that's Effie?'

of moments, trying to connect the image of the mighty huntress he knew — tall, strong, beautiful, and full of vigor — to this weak,

what the hell

Effie smiled and shrugged.

always been, in

remembered how the two of them sat on the

the real world was more of

was what Effie had said, back

on his face, she