Shadow Slave

Sunny stared into the void suspiciously.

"Yeah? And how come you are so concerned about my well-being?"

The voice remained silent for a bit, then answered wistfully:

"I haven't really spoken to anyone in a long, long time. It would be a shame to finally find someone to talk to, only for them to die soon. Don't you think?"

'That guy is definitely not just a simple Lost… what is his deal, really? Is he actually a human or only pretends to be one?'

Sunny thought for a bit, then said:

"I guess. And since we're on the topic… how is it exactly that we are able to talk?"

He expected the voice to change the subject or ignore the question, but to his surprise, it actually answered:

"I am not really sure. This has never happened to me before, either."

After a while, it added hesitantly:

"Have you… have you perhaps found a piece of a broken mirror somewhere?"

Something clicked in Sunny's mind.

"Broken mirror… Mirror Beast… Beastie…"

The Ascended Reflection! The shard of a mirror that the strange creature had left behind was still inside the Covetous Coffer… smeared with his blood…

'Crap!'

So the owner of the voice was the creator of the murderous Reflection Sunny had encountered on the Reckoning. That… that gave him as many questions as it had given him answers.

He couldn't really think about it right now, though, because the pressure of the Flaw was already building in his mind, forcing him to speak.

"Now that you mention it, I did, indeed, recently find a piece of a broken mirror. With the word "Beastie" written on it in a child's handwriting."

The voice remained silent for a while, then asked quietly:

"Oh? How exactly did you find it?"

not answer for as long

I killed. I took it with me,

it finally spoke, there was a hint of anguish in it. The owner of the voice tried very

dead.

it fell silent once

a while, he

angry with me

resounded from

I be angry with you? You are not to blame for what happened to

—

Then, he asked cautiously:

I have

control of itself when it answered

Echo, you can say. I… I created him when

tilted his head,

a kid? A kid

The voice laughed bitterly.

Nightmare when I was twelve. It's rare, but does happen sometimes.

Sunny blinked.

the Nightmare at twelve… of

infected by the Spell were outside of the usual age range. The entire first generation of the Awakened had been, for example. And there were cases of this anomaly

thought that I was

his throat,

for your loss. If it makes you feel any better, the creature

its owner had once again spent all of his soul essence… or whatever it was that allowed him to communicate

Sunny sighed.

even have time to ask him how to survive

strategic with how he

***

felt like, to not be falling. The darkness seemed to be eternal and everpresent, as though he had always been here, in its empty embrace, and all of his actual life was

'Maybe it was?'

no, it wasn't. He was

slightly. Not only were the distant shimmering lights now

flow of shadow essence. On the surface of the lid near him was a dark longbow and

"...You practice archery?"

and glanced into the