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

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

threw his

oh, gods! Never thought I'll be eating this crap

the

shape all too

***

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 to

not missed the damned sludge at

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 had come

Such irony...

weak without the essence sustaining their bodies, they

so small that Sunny and Cassie had to settle with their backs against each other. With

cage was cold and chilly, but at least his back was

in silence for a while, trying to fall

however, Cassie suddenly

"Sunny…"

was

how is she

for a few moments, then said with no particular

great. She is a devil already. Now stop bothering

didn't say anything

suddenly woke up, disturbed by a sudden change in her breathing. Through the thin

around and looked at

face 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

not knowing what

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

chest was rising and falling wildly, and there was a

and tried to feel her surroundings, clearly not quite remembering where she

caught one of them, making

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

grip. After a while, Cassie took a deep breath

"...I'm alright."

up the mostly

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