Shadow Slave

Sunny remained motionless for a while, then shifted slightly, causing the chain of his cage to rattle. Attracted by the sound, Elyas woke up from his restless sleep and stared into the darkness, a tired expression on his young face.

"...Demon? What happened?"

In the next moment, he heard the sound of a heavy body slamming against the iron bars, and then another crash. His partner's cage swung widely, and at the highest point of its swing, a long arm suddenly shot from between the bars, claws scraping against metal as Sunny took hold of the youth's own gibbet.

Elyas flinched.

"Wha... what are you doing?"

Sunny growled, trying to express his intention as best as he could. The young Awakened didn't know how to read the runic language he knew how to write, so this was the only way of communication between them. Luckily, an honest effort to answer truthfully was enough for the Flaw. It didn't punish Sunny for not being able to deliver the truth, as long as he really tried to.

Their cages hung diagonally, connected by his hand. Sunny groaned, straining his muscles to pull them even closer together. Then, staring at the young man's pale face, Sunny took hold of the bars with two more hands, and stretched the fourth one to grab the Awakened by the throat.

Elyas's eyes widened slightly, but he didn't even try to struggle. The youth simply looked at him, no fear written on his gaunt and emaciated, but still childishly soft face. Instead, there was only confusion... and trust.

Sunny sighed.

'What a fool. If I wanted to, I could have snapped his neck right here and now…'

Of course, he had no such intentions. Instead, Sunny brought the youth closer and stared intently at the steel collar wrapped around his neck, studying it. He couldn't really see his own, so this was the next best thing.

Elyas remained motionless for a while, then said:

"I don't know what you are trying to do, Demon, but you better stop it before the priest comes to check on the noise."

mere seconds left before the Ascended showed up, judging by how long it had taken

that he needed to see. The pattern of runes carved inside the collar, and the stream of soul essence running through it… this was what he

was going to have

***

of black strings was weaved together, forming

world. However, they could interact with his flesh, which was

offered the essence strings any resistance. All that remained

and mangled, but still in place. Considering that there were eighteen of them left, he still had

instead of doing it with his bare hands… something like a needle, perhaps. Coincidentally, he had one of those in his possession, a needle used by Weaver themself, no less. But it was locked away in

to endure and be very, very careful, lest the number of

was another problem,

do. All he had was his memory of the spellweave patterns he had seen before, and a vague feeling of

enough to master sorcery… but it was at least a

draw parallels between them and extrapolate how

be summoned and dismissed, the ability to repair themselves unless completely destroyed, and the connection to the

exact same across all Memories, and thus were responsible for

so recalling even a single pattern perfectly was a challenge, despite him having a very good memory. Sunny, however, had to recall not only many, but also do so with a

then, he had to somehow rebuild the repeating parts of those weaves with nothing but

by obsession, resolve, and desperation,

…And also failed.

able to perfectly recreate one of the three patterns he had managed to isolate. But as soon as the

hold. It wasn't

Something was missing.