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!"

and strong, full of arrogant

Lost left, once

slowly lowered his gaze and glanced at the food that rolled down the slope

suddenly, he threw his head back

thought I'll be eating

front of him, reflecting the blue glow of the

shape all too

***

a synthetic paste that had the consistency of mud and tasted about the same.

had not missed the damned sludge

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 felt as though his life had

Such irony...

tired and weak without the essence sustaining their bodies,

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 her lithe

was cold and chilly, but at least his

lay in silence for a

they did, however,

"Sunny…"

voice was

how is she doing? Do

remained silent for a few

a devil

and didn't

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

hesitated, then turned around and looked

contorted in a tortured grimace, with beads of sweat appearing on her

knowing what to

that Cassie was having a vision, and that like most of her visions, this one was painful and

decide, she suddenly sat up with a stifled yelp. Her chest was rising and falling wildly, and there was a panicked expression on her

girl raised her hands and tried to feel her

them, making

You're in a cage

to his iron grip. After a while, Cassie took a deep breath and

"...I'm alright."

up the mostly empty waterskin, and put it onto her

of their water and closed her eyes, her breathing slowly returning to