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

the Lost left, once again locking the door behind

gaze and glanced at the food that rolled down

he threw his head back and

oh, gods! Never thought I'll

of the runes, two colorless tubes of synthpaste were lying on

their shape all too

***

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 supposed to

missed the damned sludge at

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

Such irony...

and weak without the essence sustaining their

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

but at least his

for a while,

they did, however, Cassie suddenly

"Sunny…"

was quiet

is she

eyes closed and remained silent for a few

great. She is a devil already. Now stop

and didn't say

middle of the night — 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 and looked

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 the

knowing what

her visions, this one was painful

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

feel her surroundings,

of them, making Cassie flinch, and

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

his iron grip. After a while, Cassie took

"...I'm alright."

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

of their water and closed her eyes, her breathing slowly returning