Shadow Slave

Sunny stared at Cassie, struggling to believe how deep the roots of her mysterious scheme went. He noted recently that the blind girl's personality changed drastically after the cruel words he had thrown at her at the underground level of the Academy's medical complex, right after the Forgotten Shore.

That was when she had begun to weave her spiderweb, most likely.

Looking at the young woman sitting across from him, meeting his gaze with dark and defiant pride, he felt a chill running down his spine.

'...Which one of us is worthy of being called the heir of Weaver, even?'

Cassie had just as high of an affinity to fate as him, after all, if not higher.

He took a deep breath, feeling stifled.

"Yes... it was back then. Looking back, it didn't make a lot of sense, did it? You had just been burned by blindly believing a vision of yours, to catastrophic results. And yet, you seemed to not question the validity of us dying come winter, even though that vision of yours could only be called vague, at best."

Cassie had seen the two of them falling into a bottomless abyss, surrounded by snow. She told Sunny that they would die in the winter... but, in the end, the events of that vision happened in November, when the Night Temple was destroyed in a terrible battle between Sky Tide and Saint Cormac.

"You already knew that it did not mean our deaths. And yet, you made me think otherwise. But... why?"

remained silent, but Sunny's eyes widened, a flash of frightening

winter. But you needed me to move the plan forward, and aim to reach the Seed in the Ivory Tower by the end of autumn. What changed because I listened to your vision and adjusted the timing of

ignited in the depths of

Cormac... was away from the Night Temple until the end of autumn. Which meant that he wouldn't have been able to stop Mordret from escaping his

shifted slightly, continued to face him without saying anything. But she did not need to... once Sunny pulled on the thread, the tangled web of her hidden actions started to unravel itself. All he needed to do to understand all of it — or at least most of it —

of them endured in the Night Temple, side by side, Sunny shuddered

you nor your cohort were allowed to enter the inner parts of the Citadel. Later, you left for the Sanctuary and then went on an expedition

of the great clan to escape, and for them to be embroiled in

for a few moments, stunned by the ruthlessness with which Cassie had treated herself. By then, he had already been an Awakened Monster, and armed with the power of

that could augment

in stunned silence, he

did you want him to

Nothing, as well. ?ìg??օ???w????~?օ?. The very fact of his escape had put a crack in the potential relationship Sunny could have had with the great clan Valor... putting

turn, pushed her into accepting their terms and becoming an adopted daughter of