Shadow Slave

Eventually, Sunny climbed out of the sleeping niche and went about the business of managing the caravan. They had made it far into the mountains and were already moving north, toward their true goal.

The blizzard was still raging, reducing visibility to almost zero. The landscape was as grim and foreboding as ever.

Surrounding areas needed to be scouted, maps needed to be updated, reports needed to be received, and a hundred other things demanded his attention.

Before getting down to it, Sunny spared a few moments to stare at the grey fabric and lusterless black leather of the Puppeteer's Shroud.

Who could have thought that he would be reduced to seriously using it again, after all that time?

'It sure is much more comfortable than walking around in a full plate of steel armor. Ah, the old me had it good...'

Actually, not really.

Sunny was ready to climb to the roof of the Rhino when he noticed Beth staring at him with a strange expression. He lingered for a moment.

"What?"

She blinked a couple of times, then pulled her gaze away.

"No, no... nothing..."

Sunny frowned.

"Just say it, will you?"

Beth remained silent for a second, then asked hesitantly:

"Are you... uh... are you wearing makeup?"

time, it was his turn to

No! Why would

young woman gave him a dubious look and shook her

just look a

Sunny grinned.

of a marble

sigh and

how is

appeared on top of the Rhino, sighing as the bone-chilling wind smashed into his

he was not that cold. His passive resistance to the

the Memory of Ice, and wrapped the

couple of seconds later, he felt even more comfortable. Sunny still sensed a slight chill, but it was in no

Huh.

on the roof and closed his

get

Antarctic Center was still hard and dangerous, but with Naeve assisting Sunny in defending the caravan, things

mostly over the chain of relays in the military vehicles. Sunny was stationed at the head of the column, while Naeve

during the rare stops and when an especially dire threat demanded both of them to fight side by side

'Ah. Finally, a professional...'

a net woven out of unnaturally durable threads to herd and decimate

restriction,

was more than

cautious than most Masters tended to be. Not overly so, but enough for Sunny to notice the difference between the two of them.

Sunny, and made him think about things that he had never

things were going... as expected. The caravan continued to grow, several more groups of Erebus Field survivors joining it. By then, Sunny was secretly starting to thank the gods that

he had enough to feed everyone and arm those who could and knew how to fight,

if anyone else would notice his subtle change, but in the end, the only other person other than Beth who showed any reaction was Kim. At some point, she gave him a very