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…"

suddenly grew dim

weren't very pleasant,

sighed, lingered for a few moments, and said spoke in a somber

was sent into the body of one of the Red Sect's younger disciples. An orphan girl who had been 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

The little girl trembled.

the time, they already knew that nothing they did to me would make

silent for

perfect, merciless, lethal vessel of War. Of course, they were very inventive in their lessons… what better way to teach someone to

little girl's face

end, everyone turned out to be weak. Except for

out of her piece of meat

so stupid. But mostly, it was just combat training. They trained us ruthlessly. There's a lot you can achieve

Effie shook her head.

that I was getting it even worse than the rest. The girl whose body I took had the misfortune of Awakening at a very young age, you see. So, the Maidens saw her as their

little girl looked away,

vile crap they did to us was done without any hint of hatred, malevolence, or bad 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

for a moment, and then

was the only one left. Actually, I think they went harder on 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 no idea if I would survive it, but luckily, before I had the chance to find out, Sunny and Kai came and obliterated