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!"

strong, full of arrogant

left, once again locking the door behind

remained motionless for a few moments, then slowly lowered his gaze and glanced at the food that

his

gods! Never thought I'll

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

their shape all

***

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 contain all the nutrients one needed

missed the damned sludge

food 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 crackers. This was what he mostly ate before becoming an Awakened, so

Such irony...

the essence sustaining their bodies, they

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

but

for a while, trying to

did, however, Cassie suddenly

"Sunny…"

voice was

is she

kept his eyes closed and remained silent for a

a devil

didn't say anything

by a sudden change in her breathing. Through the thin fabric of their clothes, he could feel the blind girl's

hesitated, then turned around

white and bloodless. It was contorted in a tortured grimace, with beads of sweat appearing on

not knowing

that Cassie was having a vision, and that like most of her visions, this one was painful and terrifying. Was he supposed to wake her up? Or

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

hands and tried to feel

them, making Cassie flinch, and said

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

to his iron grip. After a while,

"...I'm alright."

mostly empty

girl drank the last of their water and