Shadow Slave

Effie stared at him with no amusement whatsoever on her childish face, which only made her attempts to appear serious look more comical. Then, she scowled and said evenly:

"Wanna die?"

Sunny shook his head with a grin, then went into more detail about the things he had learned, including various pieces of information he had gleaned in the nightmares, his experience with the Warmongers, and his observations about Solvane and Noctis.

When he was done, there was silence for a while. The others were digesting all the information he had shared with them, full of thought. Well… everyone except Effie.

The somber silence was soon broken by the sound of loud chewing. The little girl swallowed a piece of meat pie, then blinked a couple of times, noticing that everyone was staring at her. Finally, she wiped the oil off her lips and said:

"What? I am a growing child, you know! I need to eat well to grow big!"

Then, she wiped her oily fingers on the tablecloth and shrugged.

"Well, anyway… I guess I'll go next."

The little girl glanced at Sunny, made a face, and turned away.

"There's not much to tell, anyway. My three months in the Temple of the Chalice were not at all as exciting as Sunny's wild misadventures. Although…"

face suddenly grew dim

very

lingered for a few moments, and

entrusted to the Maidens, for better or worse… but mostly worse. As I already said, their teachings had grown cruel and perverse over the centuries. Now that I know about how Hope is manipulating everyone's desires, I finally understand why. That Solvane…

The little girl trembled.

that nothing they did to me would make me obedient. So, they punished the others in my stead. After that… well, I did not try to escape

silent for a bit,

stuff. How to endure pain, how to endure fear, how to steel your will. How to be a perfect, merciless, lethal vessel of War.

little girl's face

end, everyone turned out to be weak. Except for

a bite out of her piece of meat pie, chewed

mostly, it was just combat training. They trained us ruthlessly. There's a lot you can achieve with a few Awakened healers and no regard for whether your disciples survive or not. If we broke a bone, the healers would

Effie shook her head.

saw her as their promised chosen one… a prodigious warrior fated to

little girl looked away,

intentions. On the contrary, the older Maidens treated us like their little sisters — when they were not torturing and killing us, of course. My teacher… Hilde… I think she thought of me as her own daughter. She cared. A lot of good

a

the other girls because of me. My presence… reignited their fervor, I think. After everyone else died and the Maidens had nothing else to hold over my head, I started planning my escape. I had