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 of

Lost left,

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

he threw his head back and

I'll be

of the runes, two colorless tubes

their shape

***

a late supper, which consisted of a synthetic paste that had the consistency of mud and tasted about the same.

the damned sludge at

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

Such irony...

tired and weak without the essence

their backs against each other. With nothing but two layers of thin fabric separating their

was cold and chilly, but at least his back

in silence for a while, trying to fall

however,

"Sunny…"

was quiet

is she doing? Do

silent for a

doing great. She is a devil already. Now stop

didn't say

— if it was night outside — he suddenly woke up, disturbed by a sudden change in her breathing.

turned around and

runes, her delicate face seemed white and bloodless. It was contorted in a tortured grimace, with beads of sweat appearing on her forehead. Her eyes

not knowing what

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

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

hands and tried to feel her surroundings,

them, making Cassie

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

a while, Cassie took a deep breath and said

"...I'm alright."

let her go, picked up the mostly empty waterskin, and

their water and closed her eyes, her breathing slowly returning to