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

left, once again locking

and glanced

his head back and

Never thought I'll be

blue glow of the runes, two colorless

shape

***

paste that had the consistency of mud and tasted about the same. Still, this vile invention was cheap to produce and supposed to contain all the nutrients one needed to

had not missed the

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...

weak without the essence

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

but

lay in silence for a

however, Cassie

"Sunny…"

voice was quiet and

how is she doing? Do

remained silent for a few moments, then said with

a devil already. Now

didn't say

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

turned around

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

lingered, not knowing what

that like most of her visions, this one was painful and terrifying. Was he supposed to wake her up? Or would it do more harm than

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

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

making Cassie

of yourself, damn it. You're in a

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

"...I'm alright."

picked up the mostly empty

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