Shadow Slave

Some time later, they were hidden in a small cave at the bottom of a deep canyon, sitting in front of a fire. A piece of monster meat was roasting on it, filling the cave with a delicious smell. Sunny was a bit sullen, because it had taken all his knowledge of wilderness survival to make the small fire... snowy reaches of Antarctica were not exactly the best place to search for fuel.

He had almost been forced to use the divine flames of the Cruel Sight to cook, which would inevitably result in an atrociously burned dinner for him.

Currently, Sunny was passing time by trying to play a simple melody on a flute made of emerald bone. Kai would have probably become ill if exposed to his musical talent, but Jet didn't seem to mind.

She stared at the fire, flames reflecting in her icy blue eyes. After a while, she suddenly said:

"...I can smell things too, you know. When I am sufficiently full of essence. My Aspect might only give me a semblance of life, but it's a faithful imitation."

Sunny lowered the emerald flute and looked at her gloomily.

"What I'm hearing... is that you want to rob me of some of this meat. Right?"

Jet lingered for a moment, then grinned.

"Right. That was exactly what I meant. I am hungry, too."

He sighed, then hung more meat above the fire.

"Should have just said so. Gods... what is up with me always ending up with gluttonous women? It just never ends..."

Sunny turned the meat over. After a while, following a whim, he asked:

if I survived the First Nightmare only

not understand

at the stone roof of the cave. She sighed, then shrugged

not survive the First Nightmare. I was young, and

turned her head and looked at him across

I crawled out of the grave, somehow, and finished the trial. I guess the role I played in the Nightmare, or maybe my innate Attribute, created the possibility of something like that happening... it had to be an infinitely small possibility, though, because the Spell seemed rather impressed with the result. Otherwise, it

he had also made something nearly impossible happen during the First Nightmare. If he had not been sent into the body of a temple slave, Shadow God would not have responded to his unintentional call. And if he

had been the one to grasp it, though.

her Flaw. What would happen

heart, he knew the answer. After learning about Weaver, the Spell, and the vicissitudes of fate, Sunny developed an intuition about these things. Jet would indeed come back to life... but her

Flaw, mockingly, was the only

about his own

he would have had if not for the inability to lie. Would it

choosing to lie and manipulate them instead of trusting them, out of fear of being rejected and betrayed. And for that reason, he would

the lesson he was supposed to

hypocrite. Weren't you yourself the master of

concentrated on not burning the meat. These philosophical questions were a waste of time. He would still choose to

sighed, breaking the

Nightmare and the solstice. As you can imagine, it's not easy for a Sleeper to find

Sunny shifted slightly.

"Who did you ask?"

She chuckled.

a voluntary basis, of course. But what would an ignorant kid from the outskirts know? I told