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 as he

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

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

dead. I

fell silent once

tensed. After a while, he

uh… you're not going to be angry with me for killing your pet,

sigh resounded from

you? You

suspecting that whoever or whatever it was that had been responsible for the Mirror Beast becoming separated from its creator — and eventually dying by his hand — was extremely lucky that the owner of the voice had

Then, he asked cautiously:

I have never seen a

control of itself when it answered

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

tilted his head, then

you mean, a kid?

The voice laughed bitterly.

It's rare, but does happen sometimes.

Sunny blinked.

into the Nightmare at

did know that, 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

thought that I was

his throat, then said

am sorry for your loss. If it makes you feel any better, the creature tried to say something before it died. Uh… we never stopped searching. Something like

It seemed that its owner had once again spent all of his soul essence…

Sunny sighed.

it! I didn't even have time to ask

he chose his words,

***

now, he was having trouble remembering what it 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

'Maybe it was?'

wasn't. He was almost

distant shimmering lights now closer and brighter, but it also felt as if the air was

his usual spot, sitting cross-legged in the center of the treasure chest and training to better control the flow of shadow

"...You practice archery?"

opened his eyes and glanced into the