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

word, the Lost left, once again

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

he threw his head back and laughed

oh, gods! Never thought I'll be

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

shape

***

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

had not missed the damned sludge

the easiest 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

Such irony...

a while, tired and weak without the essence sustaining their

and Cassie had to settle with their backs against each

cold and chilly, but at least his

lay in silence for a while, trying to

did, however, Cassie suddenly

"Sunny…"

voice was quiet and

she doing? Do

remained silent for a few moments, then said with

She is a

and didn't

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

around and

white and bloodless. It was contorted in a tortured grimace, with beads of sweat appearing on her forehead. Her eyes were moving hectically behind

lingered, not knowing what to

most of her visions, this one was painful and terrifying. Was he supposed to wake her up? Or would it

stifled yelp. Her chest was rising and falling wildly, and there was

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

of them, making Cassie flinch, and

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

After a while, Cassie

"...I'm alright."

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

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