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?"

did not answer for as long as he

powerful creature I killed. I took it with me, thinking that it might turn

The owner of the voice tried very hard to suppress it, but his pain seemed to

it's dead.

it fell silent once

a while, he asked

going to be angry

sigh resounded from

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

Beast becoming separated from its creator — and eventually dying by his hand — was extremely lucky that the

Then, he asked cautiously:

exactly was it, though? I have

of itself when it

my Aspect Ability. A kind of an Echo, you can say. I… I created him when I

his head, then

mean, a kid? A kid with an

The voice laughed bitterly.

that… I had my First Nightmare when I was twelve. It's rare, but

Sunny blinked.

into the Nightmare at twelve… of course

people infected by the Spell were outside of the usual age range. The entire first generation of the Awakened had been,

that

throat,

you feel any better, the creature tried to

once again spent all of his soul essence… or whatever it was that allowed him to communicate with Sunny… and was now gone

Sunny sighed.

even have time to ask him how

he chose his words,

***

even 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

'Maybe it was?'

it wasn't. He was

only were the distant shimmering lights now closer

usual spot, sitting cross-legged in the center of the treasure chest and training to better control the flow of shadow essence. On the surface of the lid near him was a dark longbow and a quiver of black

"...You practice archery?"

glanced into the darkness, then