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!"

voice was clear and strong, full of arrogant confidence… and deep animosity toward the two of

word, the Lost left, once again locking

and glanced at the food that rolled down the slope of the dome to his

he threw his

thought I'll be

blue glow of the

their shape all too

***

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

had not missed the damned sludge

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...

without the essence sustaining their bodies,

flat space 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, Sunny could feel the

but at least

silence for a while, trying to fall

did, however,

"Sunny…"

voice was quiet and

how is she doing?

for a few moments, then said with no particular

doing great. She is a devil already. Now stop

and didn't say anything

— 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 blind girl's body tense up, her breathing rugged and

turned around

face seemed white and bloodless. It was contorted in a tortured grimace, with beads of

knowing

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 do more harm

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

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

making Cassie flinch, and said

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

a while, Cassie took a

"...I'm alright."

go, picked up the mostly empty waterskin, and put it

blind girl drank the last of their water and closed her eyes, her breathing slowly returning to