Shadow Slave

Stepping over the corpse laying at the doorstep of their cell, Sunny and Cassie entered the dark, empty corridor and stopped for a few short moments. They listened tensely to the echoing silence that reigned over it, and then cautiously moved forward.

Most humans would have felt lost in the impenetrable darkness, but neither of them found it uncomfortable. Stepping softly, they walked toward the entrance to the closest stairwell, the shadows gliding ahead of them to scout for potential dangers.

Sunny didn't let the shadows go too far, though, knowing that he might need their help at a moment's notice.

In the past weeks, he had learned everything that Cassie knew about the Night Temple, so there was a clear mental picture of its interior in his head — the parts of the great cathedral that the blind girl was familiar with, at least.

Currently, they were at the lowest levels of one of its seven belfries, deep below the outward ring of the main structure. There were two other belfries in the outward ring, and both the ring itself and the three towers descending from it remained uninhabited. They were mostly empty or occupied by storage rooms, workshops, and other facilities the Lost used to maintain the Citadel.

…Still, there was no way of knowing what might have changed inside the temple since their imprisonment, and what danger lay ahead, in the darkness.

They moved from one level to another, not meeting a single living soul. Here and there, signs of battle could be seen — the furniture was smashed to pieces, the walls scraped by sharp blades or cracked, a few of them completely shattered. The floor was stained with blood, but there were no more corpses around.

All they found were a clump of torn, bloodied clothes and several overturned tables, as though someone had desperately tried to build a barricade. Whoever it had been, it didn't seem as though they succeeded — the makeshift barricade was broken, and there was a lot of blood on the floor, the walls, and even the ceiling behind it.

Sunny and Cassie walked past, their expressions turning somber.

After a while, Sunny finally discovered a storage room full of wooden crates behind one of the locked doors, each containing hundreds of tubes of synthpaste. His mouth instantly watered.

'Food…'

No matter how much he hated the muddy sludge, right now, he was ready to kill for a single mouthful.

Sunny and Cassie opened the storage room with one of the keys attached to the keyring they had picked up from the body of the sentinel, entered it, and then locked the door behind them.

Both of them were starving, but before Cassie had a chance to grab a tube, Sunny stopped her.

one. And eat

then turned to

"Why? I'm so hungry..."

shook his head and sat down on one of the

eat too much, too quickly after going without

girl

Why? How

a

"...Seen it happen."

the outskirts. However, Cassie had probably never faced real hunger — even in the Dark City, the inhabitants of the outer settlement had been fed generously by Changing Star and her

surprised, actually, that normal children didn't learn about

moments,

of synthpaste, and then rested for a while. After that, Sunny summoned the Covetous Coffer, patted it on the lid, and

little box you are!

refreshed and energized, the strength slowly returning to their starved bodies, they moved the crates around and took turns washing themselves with the help

cold water felt heavenly. When he was done, he summoned the Undying Chain, and finally felt

using one of the shadows,

silence on the stone belfry, Sunny couldn't help but hear every sound around him — the rustle of the crude tunic against Cassie's skin as she took it off and dropped it on the ground, the murmur of the water as it flowed down her petite, supple body, and the small sighs of relief she made as the

clad once

hesitated for a bit, then

"Come closer."

head a little, then did as he told. Sunny reached toward one of the extinguished oil lamps, and then proceed to rub her cuirass, pauldron, and other steel elements of the armor with

girl frowned, but didn't

trying to

He nodded.

Just… just

they were, mirrors and reflections obviously had something to do with it. The Undying Chain was forged out of bleak steel, but Cassie's