Shadow Slave

Effie, who was already standing up to leave, froze, then slowly sat back down. Kai dropped his wooden mask to the floor and stared at him with wide eyes. Even Cassie seemed a bit stunned, despite knowing most of the things he had just said already.

A deathly silence settle in the room, and Sunny found himself being pierced by two dumbfounded gazes.

He scratched his neck, then coughed awkwardly and looked away.

"Yeah… that's more or less all that I wanted to say…"

Of course, the decision to reveal these secrets to his friends had not been an easy one. In fact, it went against everything that Sunny believed in… every instinct in his body screamed that he was making a terrible mistake.

But instinct was not always the best advisor. Otherwise, what was the point of having intelligence and the ability to think about your decisions?

The fact of the matter was that Sunny had already done irreparable damage to his relationships once because of his untrusting nature. Back on the Forgotten Shore, he had kept his secrets a little bit too well, failing to understand how his deceptiveness would make others perceive him.

Sure, he had a reason to behave the way he had… and yes, he had never really lied to his allies, simply withholding or manipulating the information a little to keep himself safe.

But the others did not know about his reasons. All they knew was that their trust was never returned fully, and that he was full of secrets, discrepancies, and insidiously subtle ways to keep those secrets to himself. Sunny had never explained himself… and in the absence of an explanation, the misunderstanding was bound to inevitably take its place, perhaps to dire results.

Who knew… if had been more open with Nephis, she might have not considered him a liar, absorbing that false perception into her own forming self. Would things have ended differently, then?

Regardless, currently, Sunny knew both the Aspects… and, more importantly, the Flaws of every member of the cohort. But they couldn't say the same. They revealed their weaknesses to him, but he held on to his own, failing to reciprocate this trust.

For now, everything seemed fine… but that one-sided nature of their friendship was bound to fester in the future, and the small crack it created could grow in size, eventually destroying it.

Plus… even Mordret knew his secrets. It would have been silly if the Prince of Nothing did, but Effie and Kai did not. Not to mention dangerous…

trust in

being honest with people feel

loathsome sensation… curses, I'm all

of stunned silence, Effie finally spoke, her voice sounding uncharacteristically

hold on,

small hand

of already had a general idea, after spending so much time with you. It

Sunny shrugged.

a lie aloud, and I am compelled to answer any question asked of me truthfully, or at least to the best of

question to follow immediately, but Effie remained silent, showing just how bewildered she was. Even her usual mischievousness disappeared. Instead, the little girl simply raised

You seemed reluctant to share it, for some reason, so Kai and I did

a heavy sigh, hesitated for a moment, then forced himself to

That is why I kept it a secret… and also put a lot of effort into appearing as weak and pathetic as possible, so that no one would even

face grew a bit

I'm more than fine with

remained silent for a moment, and raised a third

a few things. Now, about Lord Mongrel — we

Cassie turned to her and

"What?! I didn't know!"

meanwhile, seemed a bit confused. She

I am sorry, but who

at them with a funny

know? You were the