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 toward the two of

word, the Lost left, once

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

threw his head back

gods! Never thought I'll

of the runes, two colorless

knew their shape

***

had a late supper, which consisted of a synthetic paste that had the consistency of mud and tasted about the same. Still, this vile invention was cheap to produce and

had not missed the

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 as though his life

Such irony...

tired and weak without the essence sustaining their bodies, they decided

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,

chilly, but at least his

a while, trying

they did, however, Cassie suddenly

"Sunny…"

was quiet

how is she doing?

and remained silent for a few moments,

is doing great. She is a devil already. Now

didn't

night — if it was night outside — he suddenly woke up, disturbed by a sudden change in

turned around and looked at

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

lingered, not knowing

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

Her chest was rising and

raised her hands and tried to feel her surroundings, clearly not

of them, making Cassie flinch, and

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

to his iron grip. After a while, Cassie took a deep

"...I'm alright."

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

their water and closed her eyes,