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!"

and strong, full of arrogant

Lost left, once again

lowered his gaze and glanced at the food

threw his head back and

thought I'll be eating this

blue glow of the

knew their shape all

***

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

missed the damned

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

Such irony...

while, tired and weak without the essence

of the cage was so small that Sunny and Cassie had to settle with their backs against each other.

but at least

in silence for a while,

did, however, Cassie

"Sunny…"

voice was quiet

how is she doing? Do

silent for a few moments, then

a devil already. Now stop

sighed, and didn't

if it was 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

turned around

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 behind

lingered, not knowing

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

Her chest was rising and

to feel her surroundings, clearly not quite remembering

of them, making Cassie flinch,

hold of yourself, damn it. You're in a cage in Night Temple. Stop thrashing

iron grip. After a while, Cassie took a deep breath and said

"...I'm alright."

the mostly empty

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