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

another word, the Lost left, once again locking the door behind

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

threw his head

Never thought I'll be eating

of him, reflecting the blue glow of the runes, two colorless tubes of synthpaste

shape all

***

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

missed the damned sludge

a tube of synthpaste, a cheap water

Such irony...

without the essence sustaining their bodies, they decided

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 heartbeat reverberating through her lithe

cold and chilly, but at least his back was

for a

however,

"Sunny…"

was quiet and

she

his eyes closed and remained silent for a few moments, then said with no

is doing great. She is a devil already. Now

didn't

was night outside — he suddenly woke up, disturbed by a sudden change in her breathing. Through the

hesitated, then turned around and looked

bloodless. It was contorted in a tortured grimace, with beads of sweat appearing on her forehead. Her eyes

knowing what

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

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

girl raised her hands and tried to feel her surroundings, clearly not quite remembering where

making Cassie flinch, and said

it. You're in a cage

After a while, Cassie took a deep breath

"...I'm alright."

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

last of their water and closed her eyes,