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

would you

a

just look a little different, that's

Sunny grinned.

complexion of a marble

with a sigh

how is

shadows and appeared on top of the Rhino, sighing

he was not that cold. His passive resistance to the elements was

the Memory of Ice, and wrapped the shadow he kept with himself around his body, simultaneously circulating essence to double

seconds later, 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 if Sunny had turned into a small

Huh.

down on the roof and closed

get used to

hard and dangerous, but

vehicles. Sunny was

threat demanded both of them to fight side by side to vanquish it. Going into battle

'Ah. Finally, a professional...'

bone harpoon and a net woven out of unnaturally durable threads to herd and

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

more than

Masters tended to be. Not overly so, but enough for Sunny to notice the difference between the two of them. It was understandable... after all, the Nightwalker had a family to come back to. He carried more than

and made him think about things

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 Naeve's ship had suffered catastrophic

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

other person other than Beth who showed any reaction was