Shadow Slave

Sunny felt that there was a hint about what manner of a creature Mordret was in the fact that only the Lost and human Echoes had been allowed to guard him, but that was too little information to make a guess.

What else did he know about the man who called himself the Prince of Nothing?

He was reasonably sure that Mordret was a human… or at least had been once, at some point. A Nightmare Creature could fake a human voice, but not the knowledge of the waking world that Mordret had shown. Sunny also felt that the mysterious prince had told the truth about conquering the First Nightmare at twelve years of age.

Other than that, all Sunny had was the description of the Cruel Edge, which told of a prince that had been given away to a monstrous Dreamspawn, and later returned only to find out that he wasn't welcome in his father's home anymore. That and the fact that the Mirror Beast had been created by Mordret, much like Saint had been created by him.

That was not much to go off of…

With a sigh, Sunny looked around the cage.

Due to the concave nature of its floor, he and Cassie were forced to stay close to each other. The only surface flat enough to sit comfortably was at the very center of the dome, and not too large in diameter. The cage was utterly empty, with the exception of a rusty bucket that was covered by a wooden lid.

Sunny stared at a bucket for a while, then grimaced.

"How long do you think they'll keep us here?"

Cassie remained silent for a while, then answered evenly:

"That depends on whether they can contain the prisoner."

A deep scowl appeared on his face.

Would a hundred elite Awakened warriors and two Masters, all in service to a Great Clan, be able to handle Mondret? Before today, he would have said yes without a moment of hesitation. No matter how powerful the mysterious prince was, how could he contend against an entire army?

…But after seeing the terror on Sir Pierce's face and how nervous the Lost were, Sunny wasn't so sure anymore.

And what would happen if Mordret somehow prevailed?

Would they be safe?

Or… would they learn that terror themselves?

'Crap…'

threw a dark glance at the door of the chamber

nothing they could do but

into hours. With no windows, it was hard to measure the passage of time. Sunny and Cassie mostly remained silent, partially because each was preoccupied with their own thoughts, and partially because there

more times, but these tremors weren't as strong as the first two. Sunny silently meditated, feeling the shadow essence dissipate from his muscles and his strength slowly diminishing. After a while, he stood up, climbed to the walls of the cage, and studied

The cage seemed to be built to imprison Masters or, perhaps, even Saints. Even at his

slide back to

doing nothing was sort of

soft and dim, leaving the

was calm

of dozing off when Cassie suddenly turned to face

"Someone is coming."

dancing flame trembled, and then disappeared for a moment when the door opened with a bang and a gust of wind entered

Five people came inside.

bloodied. One was the same sentinel who had locked

hair, wearing a black tunic… Master Welthe. There was a strange amulet in the shape

manage to

glance at

piece of

Sunny shifted slightly.

"I did."

corner of Welthe's

you to

blinked a

had no idea what that shard was. I just thought that it

glanced at one of the

truth. Or at

studied the Lost, who was a man in his thirties, with

walking lie

frowned, then pierced Sunny

in

hesitated for a few moments. When he spoke, his voice sounded frightened and a little

been told that there is... there is a special knife here, on the altar. I am interested in that knife, because it has to do with the past of the Chained Isles. I