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!"

strong, full of arrogant confidence… and deep

saying another word, the Lost left, once

few moments, then slowly lowered his gaze and glanced at the food that rolled down the slope of the dome to his

his head back and

I'll be eating

in front of him, reflecting the blue glow of the runes, two colorless tubes of

their shape all

***

supper, which consisted of a synthetic paste that had the consistency of mud and tasted about the same. Still, this vile invention was

the

pack. It contained a tube of synthpaste, a cheap water filter, and several dry, tasteless crackers. This was what he

Such irony...

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

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

and chilly, but

lay in silence for a while, trying to fall

did, however, Cassie

"Sunny…"

was

she doing? Do

for

a devil already.

didn't say anything

outside — he suddenly woke up, disturbed by a sudden change in her breathing. Through the thin fabric of their clothes, he could

around and looked

was contorted in a tortured grimace, with beads of sweat appearing on her forehead. Her eyes were

not knowing

most of her visions, this one was painful and terrifying. Was he supposed

she suddenly sat up with a stifled yelp. Her chest was rising and falling wildly, and there was a

her hands and tried to feel her surroundings, clearly not quite

of them, making Cassie flinch,

yourself, damn it. You're in

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

"...I'm alright."

up the mostly empty waterskin, and put

their water and closed her