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:

thought mine was bad... but if I survived the First Nightmare only to

did not understand

staring at the stone roof

the assessment. Actually, I did not survive the First Nightmare. I was young, and

her head and looked at him across

didn't remain completely dead. 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

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

the possibility... he had been the one to

about her Flaw. What would happen if

about these things. Jet would indeed come back to

mockingly, was the only thing that allowed

his

not for the inability to lie. Would it have been

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

lesson he was supposed to

you hypocrite. Weren't you

waste of time. He would still choose to get

breaking the

can imagine, it's not easy for a Sleeper to find things to kill before entering the Dream Realm. I ended up having

Sunny shifted slightly.

"Who did you ask?"

She chuckled.

for the details of my Aspect... on a voluntary basis, of course. But what would an ignorant kid from the outskirts