Shadow Slave

Several days passed with nothing disastrous happening. Sunny and Cassie spent them inside the small room, eating the food Welthe or one of the Echoes brought them and restoring their strength. Even though they were constantly watched, both remained calm and somewhat relaxed.

Outside, things weren't as peaceful.

Of course, Mordret had not killed again… doing so would have only compromised his efforts to frame Sunny for the murders. However, the air was so full of tension that one could almost cut it with a knife. With every day of nothing happening, the already frayed nerves of the Lost drew tauter and tauter.

Fear, unease, and anxious anticipation built and built, mixing under the pressure of uncertainty into dark, viscous, and volatile dread.

Sometimes, doing nothing produced the best result.

...Mordret knew when to push and when to pull too well.

With nothing to do but wait for an inevitable attack and nowhere to release the tension, the Lost spent a lot of time staring at the closed doors that led to the quarters where Sunny and Cassie were kept, their face growing darker with each day.

Something had to give… at this point, even Pierce and Welthe didn't seem confident in their ability to keep these soldiers under control and battle-ready. The two Masters spent the time making their own plans. Sunny didn't know what these plans were, since he didn't dare to send one of his shadows to spy on the formidable knights of Valor.

…He had a pretty good guess, though.

On one of these days, he noticed that the Lost seemed especially restless. Pierce and Welthe were behaving a bit strangely, as well.

Sunny frowned, then walked to the door, picked up a tray of food that had been delivered by an Echo a few hours earlier, then brought it over and handed one of the bowls to Cassie.

"Eat well today."

The blind girl gave him a short nod. To an outsider, this exchange would not have looked like anything, but the two of them knew each other very well… no matter how complicated this relationship was.

Sunny had let Cassie know everything he needed to convey, and she had signaled that his message was received.

Not saying anything else, they concentrated on the food.

Although the Night Temple was sealed and cut off from the outside world, it seemed as though the temperature inside had dropped by a lot in the last few days. The cathedral was chilly before, but now, the cold felt intrusive and everpresent.

It was at least one week past the date when Sunny and Cassie were supposed to rendezvous with the rest of the cohort on the Shipwreck island, in case Valor denied them access to the

Kai were doing right now. Were they worried, or waiting patiently, not knowing that everything had

was no way

sitting silently, staring into nothingness. They were close enough for him to see the reflection of his pale face

Sunny smirked.

'Huh… not bad.'

terrible after crawling out of the iron cage, but by now, his appearance was more or

store for

room opened, and Welthe appeared outside. The Master looked at

Sunless. The situation has changed a bit. It is… not safe for the two of you to

stared at her for a few

is everything

lingered, then

"...It will be."

Not ominous at

Cassie stood up and followed the red-haired Master. They were led into the main hall of the fortified encampment and through it,

and left, as if to protect them

them from escaping, depending on how one

of the inner sanctum. They walked through

looked around tentatively,

"Where are we going?"

Welthe gestured down.

"The bell tower."

if her answer had explained everything. Sunny scowled, but didn't press

What was the point?

With each revolution, the spiral became narrower. From time to time, they saw closed doors to their left, but never to their

and waited as Welthe opened

a massive bell was swaying gently on an ancient iron chain.

door was slightly