Shadow Slave

The Lost crowded near the entrance, staring at the grisly scene with grim expressions. Welthe was in the corridor. She was standing in the middle of the pool of blood, her fists clenched.

Sunny wasn't clear on who had discovered the bodies, since he only woke up due to the noise of everyone rushing to the door and the shine of the sparks of light as they summoned their weapons. He remained at the back of the crowd, using one of the shadows to study the corpses, and another to observe the surviving sentinels.

There was a thoughtful expression on his face.

'I wonder…'

Before he could finish the thought, Pierce appeared from behind the bend of the corridor, glanced at Welthe, shook his head briefly, and then growled at the Lost:

"What are you standing around for?! Clean up this mess and secure the perimeter! No one moves alone or in pairs, three people minimum! Be ready, the bastard might return at any minute!"

The soldiers glanced at each other, seeds of fear blooming in the depths of their eyes. Then, they silently got to work, following the Master's command.

Sunny lingered for a few moments, then returned to Cassie and sat down on his mattress.

The blind girl asked quietly:

"Who died? And how?"

He rubbed his face tiredly.

"The guards. One was the guy who had noticed my shadow back in the great hall. The other, I didn't know him. As to how… pretty much the same as everyone else. Butchered and cut to pieces…"

She thought for a bit, then frowned.

"And no one heard a thing?"

Sunny sighed.

fast. Or his new vessel possesses an Aspect that can

for a

"Anyway, you should prepare."

Cassie tilted her head.

for what?

purpose. However, there

He looked down.

Right now, everyone only thinks that Mordret somehow broke through the seals and got into

Sunny smiled darkly and

strangers who had miraculously escaped

Cassie gritted her teeth.

no reasonable way to pin these murders

He chuckled.

do with any of this? Reason is always the first

and, after a few

followed him. Just as he had expected, they

he put some

'...Interesting.'

might not have been as crazed as

of it, something about how the Prince of Nothing behaved had not sat right with him. Mordret had shown himself to be extremely cunning and meticulous, crafting such a masterful trap that even Sunny, who was an ingenious deceiver as well, fell into it

the morbid displays of demented butchery that the prince had left in the halls of the Night Temple, however, were utterly impractical and did not fit into this image of a cold

presence in the inner sanctum and sacrifice the invaluable advantage of surprise in exchange for

heavy gazes, dark expressions contorting their faces, he was pretty sure that

wanted them to be suspicious of each other, he wanted them to be tense and

suggested that his ability to devour souls was not absolute, and required the victim to be… what? To be defeated? To surrender? Or simply to be weaker