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 could, then

was left behind by a powerful creature I killed. I

was a hint of anguish in it. The owner of the voice tried very

dead.

fell silent once

tensed. After a while, he

not going to be angry with me for killing

sigh resounded from the

you? You are not to blame

separated from its creator — and eventually dying by his hand — was extremely lucky that the owner of the voice had

Then, he asked cautiously:

exactly was it, though? I have never seen a creature like

of itself when it answered after a few long

Aspect Ability. A kind of an Echo, you can say. I… I created him when I was just a lonely kid. We were

head,

kid? A kid with an Aspect

The voice laughed bitterly.

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

Sunny blinked.

sent into the Nightmare at twelve…

in extremely rare cases, the people 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 to this day, even though it usually happened to someone older

thought that I was

his throat,

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

again spent all of his soul essence… or whatever it was

Sunny sighed.

have time to ask

he chose his

***

By now, he was having trouble remembering what it even felt like, to not be falling. The darkness seemed to be

'Maybe it was?'

wasn't.

slightly. Not only were the distant shimmering lights now closer and

spot, sitting cross-legged in the center of the treasure chest and training to better control the flow of shadow essence. On

"...You practice archery?"

his eyes and glanced into