Shadow Slave

Sunny was mostly interested in the details of what each of the two feuding clans had prepared for Antarctica... but those plans were tightly guarded by those who had been entrusted with them.

He suspected that learning the specifics of their strategy would become easier when the main forces of Valor and Song arrived in Antarctica - the more people involved in something, the harder it was to keep things secret. However, for now, only a handful of emissaries were here, all busy with rather transparent preparatory work.

That did not mean that he had failed to learn anything of use, of course.

Knowing the enemy's next move was immensely valuable, but knowing the enemy themselves was much more important. By observing his four marks, Sunny was slowly becoming familiar with how they acted, felt, and even thought.

When Beastmaster was standing on the city wall, observing a horde of Nightmare Creatures assaulting it with an eerily serene expression on her exquisitely beautiful face, Sunny's shadow was there, watching.

When Whispering Blade stopped to look at the mundane soldiers, a hint of detached pity finding its way into his calm eyes, Sunny's shadow was there, watching.

When Morgan practiced her swordsmanship, moving with grace and speed that would make the most famed warriors feel heavy in their hearts, Sunny's shadow was there, watching.

And when the bleak, unassuming Ascended Bast spent hours doing nothing, sitting like a corpse in a dark room, his shadow was there as well.

Of course, the small nuances of their personalities were not everything that Sunny learned. He gained a much better understanding of their abilities, as well.

Beastmaster was, indeed, a frightening being. Her powers lay in mesmerism and manipulation. From what he could tell, simply looking her in the eyes could be a death sentence. She could make her enemies defenseless by luring them into a state of deep trance, or bedevil them with insidious illusions. And, above all else, she could completely dominate someone's mind, making them an eternal thrall.

Whispering Blade was just as fearsome. Even though his powers were not as fiendish, they were just as deadly. His quintessential Ability was to make all weapons he wielded invisible - and his Saint Transformation was to be unseen, as well. Since Saint Madoc was not nearly as mysterious and secretive as his counterpart from the Song clan, it was widely known that when he fought, it was as though the world itself was slicing the bodies of his enemies apart.

There was no escape.

sword he wielded deadlier, then

Princess of War did not need any weapons, because her body was the absolute weapon. She could cut through armored alloy and the flesh of even the most powerful Nightmare Creatures with her hands, and rend their

she had easily cut through the adamantine breastplate of the

that she cheated? She promised to

strangely, led Sunny to discover a hint of

clothes that revealed as little of her skin and body as possible... she even wore gloves, never appearing without them. Sometimes it was the gauntlets of her armor, and sometimes it was the slim, stylish

hands cut.

powerful as her Ability - otherwise, her own armor would not be able to withstand it - but it was certainly

such luck in deducing the

there was

Sunny had not learned anything about him at all. The bleak man was like a corpse that someone was wearing as a suit. He was quiet, dull, and devoid of much emotion. He never did much of anything, but was nevertheless treated with strange courtesy... deference, even... by Seishan, Beastmaster, and Dire

just waiting and biding

that there was a menacing malevolence hiding behind the placid dullness of

your reflections doing? When are

the only one who paid close attention to Bast. Even though they did not show it, Morgan and Madoc were tracking the movements of the bleak

Mordret from the fragments of their conversations about

Welthe from being possessed

few more tools to trap and destroy his eldest child. However, both Whispering Blade and Morgan were hesitant to use

unnerved by Bast's inaction,

passed. Sunny had been gathering information like a spider sitting in the middle of a vast web. He had not made any earth-shattering discoveries in that short time, but it was a good start. In truth, he was more concentrated on finding safe ways to get closer to his marks, for now, than on actually stealing