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…

the Lost left, once again locking

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

his head back

oh, gods! Never thought I'll be eating this

blue glow of the runes,

knew their shape

***

paste that had the consistency of mud and tasted about the same. Still, this vile

had not missed the damned

outskirts, 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 what he mostly ate before becoming an Awakened,

Such irony...

tired and weak without the essence sustaining

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

was cold and chilly, but at least his

lay in silence for a while, trying to fall

however, Cassie suddenly

"Sunny…"

was quiet and

is she doing? Do

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

great. She is a

and 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 tense up,

around and

contorted in a tortured grimace, with beads of sweat

not knowing

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

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

girl raised her hands and tried to feel her surroundings, clearly

one of them, making Cassie flinch, and

You're in a cage in Night

surrendering to his iron grip. After a

"...I'm alright."

picked up the mostly empty

drank the last of their water and closed