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 deep animosity

the Lost left, once

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

his head back and laughed

thought I'll be eating this

in front of him, reflecting the blue glow of the runes, two colorless

shape

***

and tasted about the same. Still,

the damned sludge at

the easiest food to get was called a "universal ration pack"... or simply a rat pack. It contained a tube of synthpaste, a cheap water filter, and several dry, tasteless crackers. This was

Such irony...

weak without the essence sustaining their bodies, they decided

had to settle with their backs against each other. With nothing but two layers of thin

was cold and chilly, but at least his back was

silence for a while, trying

however, Cassie

"Sunny…"

voice was

how is she

kept his eyes closed and remained silent for a few moments,

is a devil already. Now

and didn't

night — if it was night outside — he suddenly woke up, disturbed by a sudden change in her breathing. Through the thin fabric of their

around

the pale glow of the 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 were moving hectically

not knowing what to

this one was painful and terrifying. Was he supposed to wake her up? Or

suddenly sat up with a stifled yelp. Her chest was rising and falling wildly, and there was a panicked expression on

to feel her surroundings, clearly not quite

making

damn it. You're in a cage in

After a while, Cassie took a deep

"...I'm alright."

the mostly empty waterskin, and put it onto her

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