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

Why would you think

gave him a dubious look

just look a little different,

Sunny grinned.

complexion of a marble statue,

with a sigh and mumbled under her

Awakened... how is

top

not that cold. His passive resistance to

the Memory of Ice, and wrapped the shadow he kept with himself around his

he felt even more comfortable. Sunny still sensed a slight chill, but it was in no way bothersome. Additionally, the winds were powerless against him. It was as

Huh.

Morgan's Warbow, he sat down on the roof and

get used to

hard and dangerous, but with Naeve assisting Sunny in defending the caravan, things became

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

stops and when an especially dire threat demanded both of them to fight side by side to vanquish it. Going into battle with the Nightwalker

'Ah. Finally, a professional...'

a long bone harpoon and a net woven out of unnaturally

powers seemed to be under severe restriction, though, so the scion of the House of Night mostly supported Sunny and made it

more than

for Sunny to notice the difference between the two of them. It was understandable... after all,

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

caravan continued to grow, several more groups of Erebus Field survivors joining it. By then, Sunny was secretly starting to thank the gods that Naeve's ship had suffered catastrophic damage. Without

everyone and arm those who could and

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 weird