Shadow Slave

He sat back down, waited for a while, and then turned to Cassie:

"Did you take a look at her Attributes?"

She sat down, too, and sighed.

"Yes. Her, the four Lost with her. Sir Pierce, too. I also saw the name and Rank of their Aspects."

Sunny frowned.

"What? Since when can you read Aspects, too?"

The blind girl shrugged.

"Since my Awakening."

He stared at her for a bit.

'What a useful Ability…'

In worse news, if she had not known some of his secrets before, she surely knew them now.

'...How infuriating.'

Sunny grimaced, lingered for a bit, and then said:

"Good. Chances are, we'll need that information before all of this is over."

He didn't press her for answers yet, since there was a lot he had to think about.

Some more time passed with both of them remaining silent. After a while, the door of the chamber opened once more, and the familiar four Lost entered. The one with a bandaged head was carrying a tray of food and a waterskin.

He studied them for a few moments, a cold expression on his handsome face, and then threw the food and the waterskin through the iron bars without approaching the cage.

Sunny suppressed his anger and opened his mouth, assuming the persona of a cowardly researcher:

"Hey! Sir… uh… sir Awakened! Can you tell us what is going on? Please, we don't even know what is wrong!"

The sentinel glanced at him darkly and spat in a commanding tone:

"Silence!"

voice was clear and strong, full of arrogant confidence… and deep animosity

another word, the Lost left, once again locking the door behind

for a few moments, then slowly lowered his gaze and glanced at the food that rolled down the

suddenly, he threw his head back and

oh, gods! Never thought I'll be eating this crap

front of him, reflecting the blue glow of the

their shape all

***

about the same. Still, this vile invention was cheap to produce and supposed to contain

missed the damned

was called a "universal ration pack"... or simply a rat pack. It contained a tube of synthpaste, a cheap water filter, and several dry, tasteless crackers. This was what he mostly ate before becoming an Awakened, so now, Sunny

Such irony...

while, tired and weak without the essence sustaining their bodies, they decided

with their backs against each other. With nothing but two layers

cage was cold and chilly, but

silence for a while, trying to

however, Cassie suddenly

"Sunny…"

voice was quiet

she doing?

remained silent for a

is a devil

didn't say anything

if it was night outside — he suddenly woke up, disturbed by a sudden change in her breathing. Through the thin fabric of their clothes, he could feel the blind girl's body tense up, her breathing rugged

around and looked

and bloodless. It was contorted in a tortured grimace, with beads of sweat appearing on her

lingered, not knowing what

this one was painful and

Her chest was rising and falling wildly, and there was

raised her hands and tried to feel her surroundings, clearly not quite remembering where

caught one of them, making Cassie flinch, and said

in

froze, surrendering to his iron grip. After a while, Cassie

"...I'm alright."

picked up the mostly empty waterskin, and put it onto

girl drank the last of their water and