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 animosity toward the two

saying another word, the Lost left,

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

he threw his head back and

I'll be eating this

of the runes, two

their shape all

***

of mud and tasted about the same. Still, this vile invention was cheap to produce and supposed

had not missed the damned sludge at

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 felt as though his

Such irony...

without the essence sustaining their

of 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

cold and chilly, but at least his back

a

did, however, Cassie suddenly

"Sunny…"

was quiet and

is she doing?

closed and remained silent for a few moments,

is doing great. She is a devil already. Now stop

and didn't

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

around and looked

in a tortured grimace, with beads of

not knowing what

one was painful and terrifying. Was he supposed to

with a stifled yelp. Her chest

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

making Cassie flinch,

hold of yourself, damn it. You're in a cage in Night Temple. Stop

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

"...I'm alright."

let her go, picked up the mostly empty waterskin, and put it onto her

drank the last of their water and closed her eyes, her