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!"

arrogant confidence… and deep animosity toward the

saying another word, the Lost left, once again

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

suddenly, he threw his head back and

Never thought I'll be eating this crap

blue glow of the runes, two

knew their shape all

***

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

the damned sludge at

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

Such irony...

a while, tired and weak without the essence sustaining their bodies, they

in the center 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,

was cold and chilly, but at

lay in silence for a while,

did, however, Cassie

"Sunny…"

voice was

is she doing? Do

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

is a devil already. Now stop

sighed, and didn't say anything

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

turned around

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

not knowing what to

that Cassie was having a vision, and that like most of her visions, this one was painful and terrifying. Was he supposed to wake her up? Or would it

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

girl raised her hands and tried to feel her

caught one of them, making Cassie flinch, and

it. You're in a cage in Night Temple. Stop

grip. After a while, Cassie took a

"...I'm alright."

the mostly empty

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