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

saying another word, the Lost left, once again locking

glanced at

suddenly, he threw his head back and laughed

I'll be eating

the runes, two colorless tubes

shape all

***

the consistency of mud and tasted about the same.

not missed the

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

Such irony...

tired and weak without the

the cage was so small that Sunny and Cassie had to settle with their backs against each other. With nothing but two layers of thin fabric separating their skin, Sunny could feel the heartbeat reverberating through

and chilly, but at least his

a

did, however,

"Sunny…"

was quiet and

is she doing? Do you

his eyes closed and remained silent for a few moments, then

doing great. She is a devil already. Now

didn't

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

around and looked

seemed white and bloodless. It was contorted in a tortured grimace, with beads of sweat appearing on her forehead. Her eyes were moving

lingered, not knowing what to

this one was painful and terrifying.

decide, she suddenly sat up with a stifled yelp. Her chest was

and tried to feel her surroundings, clearly

one of them, making Cassie flinch, and said

it. You're in a cage in Night Temple. Stop thrashing

iron grip. After a

"...I'm alright."

up the mostly empty waterskin, and put

the last of their water and closed her eyes,