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 make it there for

people back in the real world. Especially without

to split them apart. Before, they were united by necessity and the irresistible will of Changing Star. Now, nothing remained to prevent the old grievances from pulling them

hundred 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, but there was no division between them. On the contrary, every Awakened gathered in the hall seemed to share an invisible bond with all the

'...Weird.'

best to reciprocate their goodwill. After a few such encounters, he finally noticed Kai at the back

at his friend for a couple

'I'll be damned…'

could that guy become

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

'Such… such injustice!'

made his way through the crowd and approached his friend. Kai noticed him from afar, and

are

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

to her spine. Her legs seemed lifeless and weak, tucked awkwardly on the step of her wheelchair. Her

was only when the young woman smiled mischievously

doofus? You've been struck dumb by my

spun her wheelchair, as though giving him the

'Effie… that's... that's Effie?'

— tall, strong, beautiful, and full of vigor — to this weak, gaunt young woman. He only

what the hell happened to

Effie smiled and shrugged.

how I've always been, in the real

moved in Sunny's memory. He remembered how the two of them sat on

the real world was

Effie had

the strange expression on his