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!"

full of arrogant confidence… and deep animosity toward

word, the Lost left, once again locking the

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

he threw his

I'll be

of the runes, two colorless tubes of synthpaste were

shape all

***

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

missed the

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

Such irony...

weak without the essence sustaining their bodies,

against each other. With nothing but two layers of thin fabric separating their skin, Sunny could feel the heartbeat

was cold and chilly, but at

in silence for a while,

did, however, Cassie

"Sunny…"

was quiet and

how is she doing?

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

a devil

sighed, and didn't say anything

change in her breathing. Through the thin fabric of their clothes, he could feel the blind girl's body

turned around

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

knowing what

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

with a stifled yelp. Her chest was rising and falling wildly, and there was

feel her

them, making

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

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

"...I'm alright."

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

blind girl drank the last of their water and closed her eyes, her breathing slowly returning to