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!"

of arrogant confidence… and

word, the Lost left,

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

he threw his head back and laughed

thought I'll be

the runes,

knew their shape

***

the consistency of mud and tasted about the same.

had not missed the damned sludge

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 essence sustaining their bodies, they decided

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 her lithe

and chilly, but at least his back

for a while, trying to

however, Cassie

"Sunny…"

voice was quiet

she doing?

closed and remained silent for a few moments, then said with no particular

She is a devil already.

sighed, and didn't say anything

night outside — he suddenly woke up, disturbed by a sudden change in her

then turned around and looked at

of the runes, her delicate face seemed white and bloodless. It was contorted in a tortured

lingered, not knowing what

having a vision, and that like most of her visions, this one was painful and terrifying. Was he supposed to wake her

chest was rising and falling wildly, and there was

girl raised her hands and tried to feel her surroundings,

caught one of them, making

a hold of yourself, damn it. You're in

grip. After a while,

"...I'm alright."

mostly empty

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