Shadow Slave

The next conference room was much larger, and there were even some refreshments for the participants of the meeting. Sunny found the darkest corner of the room to settle in and tore open a packet of sweetened snacks - after making sure that there was no honey involved in their creation, of course.

Chewing on something that felt like a dried berry, he glanced around.

The most prominent figures of the First Army were arriving one after another. There were a few mundane commanders, but most of them were Ascended. Eventually, he counted no less than twenty-one Master - including the four Irregulars.

Naeve and Roan were also present, so he gave them a wave.

Master Jet, who was relaxing on a chair next to Sunny, gave him a curious look.

"What interesting friends you keep, Sunny."

He shrugged.

"What about them?"

Soul Reaper chuckled.

"No, nothing. It's just that here's a room full of government Ascended, and the two you're waving to are both connected to the great clans. If I didn't know you better, I'd think that you have a bit of a fondness for social climbing."

Sunny scoffed.

"The only climbing I'm fond of is... actually, never mind that. Weren't you the one who helped me broker a deal to get out of joining Valor, anyway? Surely you understand that a precious jewel like me doesn't need connections to earn the favor of a great clan..."

Hearing Jet laugh quietly, he added with a straight face:

in Bastion instead of spending quality time here in Antarctica makes me feel slightly nauseous. Who needs luxury when you can have unlimited military rations,

stared at him from behind her sunglasses and

recruit you. And you refused, huh...

Sunny raised an eyebrow.

do you

Winter shook her head.

she was really ugly,

opened his mouth to retort, but at that moment, the door opened, and two

Sunny remembered her. The second was a man with smooth ebony skin and perfectly white hair, his eyes glinting with shades of indigo and

had only seen the man once, and from afar, but he knew

that had delivered the field army to the Antarctic Center, and the Saint Sunny had witnessed diving into the black water as a monstrous killer whale

also in

sense, in retrospect. The naval convoy was assigned to ferry the refugees across the strait, so of course, Bloodwave was involved. He was most likely in charge of

of the House of Night were not a part of the First Army, which was why Sunny failed to realize that there was actually a fourth Transcendent in the Southern Quadrant right

to involve themselves with the ground operation, but the situation seemed

table. Bloodwave simply leaned on the wall after exchanging a few words with Naeve, forcing a few Masters to shift uncomfortably as his presence

...Sunny felt it, too.

'What an awesome man.'

studied the mysterious Saint through his shadows, Sky

what

briefly described the overall state of the First Army contingent, the scope of tasks in front of them, as well as the enemy forces arrayed against them. Her voice was calm and composed, as though they weren't facing an

to imagine Sky Tide losing composure in any

hope to

she told them were things that he already knew to some extent, but hearing all of it listed in a