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:

a wicked Flaw, anyway? I thought mine was bad... but if I survived the First Nightmare only to be killed by the

really did not understand how

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

Actually, I did not survive the First Nightmare. I was

and looked at him across the

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 a

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

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

thinking about her Flaw. What would happen if he gave her Weaver's Mask? Would she

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 soul would remain shattered. And like all living beings with broken

cruel Flaw, mockingly, was the only thing that

his own

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

manipulate them instead of trusting them, out of fear of being rejected and betrayed.

lesson he was

Weren't you yourself the master

philosophical questions were a waste of time. He would still choose to get rid of his Flaw in an

breaking the

my Flaw was not the hardest part. The hardest part was surviving the time between the Nightmare and the solstice. As you can imagine, it's not easy for a Sleeper to find things to kill before entering the Dream Realm. I ended up having to ask for help... and asking for help ended up

Sunny shifted slightly.

"Who did you ask?"

She chuckled.

think? Just like you, I've been invited to the Academy after becoming a Sleeper. And just like you, I've been asked for the details of my Aspect... on a voluntary basis, of course. But what would an ignorant kid from the outskirts know? I told them everything, and