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:

survived

understand how

laid down, staring at the stone roof of the cave. She sighed,

survive the First Nightmare. I

head and

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 wouldn't have given me

considering what he heard. It made sense... 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 did not have the [Fated] Attribute, he would have never unwittingly climbed on

together to create the possibility... he had been the one

happen if he gave her Weaver's Mask?

fate, Sunny developed an intuition about these things. Jet would indeed come back to life... but her soul would remain shattered. And like all living beings with

was the only

his

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

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

lesson he

Weren't you yourself the master of

a waste of

sighed, breaking the

solstice. As you can imagine, it's not easy for a Sleeper to find things to kill

Sunny shifted slightly.

"Who did you ask?"

She chuckled.

I've been asked for the details of my Aspect... on a voluntary basis, of