Shadow Slave

He sat back down, waited for a while, and then turned to Cassie:

“Did you take a look at her Attributes?”

She sat down, too, and sighed.

“Yes. Her, the four Lost with her. Sir Pierce, too. I also saw the name and Rank of their Aspects.”

Sunny frowned.

“What? Since when can you read Aspects, too?”

The blind girl shrugged.

“Since my Awakening.”

He stared at her for a bit.

‘What a useful Ability…’

In worse news, if she had not known some of his secrets before, she surely knew them now.

‘…How infuriating.’

Sunny grimaced, lingered for a bit, and then said:

“Good. Chances are, we’ll need that information before all of this is over.”

He didn’t press her for answers yet, since there was a lot he had to think about.

Some more time passed with both of them remaining silent. After a while, the door of the chamber opened once more, and the familiar four Lost entered. The one with a bandaged head was carrying a tray of food and a waterskin.

He studied them for a few moments, a cold expression on his handsome face, and then threw the food and the waterskin through the iron bars without approaching the cage.

Sunny suppressed his anger and opened his mouth, assuming the persona of a cowardly researcher:

“Hey! Sir… uh… sir Awakened! Can you tell us what is going on? Please, we don’t even know what is wrong!”

The sentinel glanced at him darkly and spat in a commanding tone:

“Silence!”

His voice was clear and strong, full of arrogant confidence… and deep animosity toward the two of them.

Without saying another word, the Lost left, once again locking the door behind them.

Sunny remained motionless for a few moments, then slowly lowered his gaze and glanced at the food that rolled down the slope of the dome to his feet.

Then, suddenly, he threw his head back and laughed loudly.

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“Oh… oh, gods! Never thought I’ll be eating this crap again…”

Right in front of him, reflecting the blue glow of the runes, two colorless tubes of synthpaste were lying on the floor.

He knew their shape all too well.

***

They had a late supper, which consisted of a synthetic paste that had the consistency of mud and tasted about the same. Still, this vile invention was cheap to produce and supposed to contain all the nutrients one needed to — barely — survive.

Sunny had not missed the damned sludge at all.

In the outskirts, the easiest food to get was called a “universal ration pack”… or simply a rat pack. It contained a tube of synthpaste, a cheap water filter, and several dry, tasteless crackers. This was what he mostly ate before becoming an Awakened, so now, Sunny felt as though his life had come full circle.

Such irony…

After a while, tired and weak without the essence sustaining their bodies, they decided to sleep.

The flat space in the center of the cage was so small that Sunny and Cassie had to settle with their backs against each other. With nothing but two layers of thin fabric separating their skin, Sunny could feel the heartbeat reverberating through her lithe body.

…The cage was cold and chilly, but at least his back was warm.

They lay in silence for a while, trying to fall asleep.

Before they did, however, Cassie suddenly spoke:

“Sunny…”

Her voice was quiet and hesitant.

“How… how is she doing? Do you know?”

He kept his eyes closed and remained silent for a few moments, then said with no particular emotion:

“She is doing great. She is a devil already. Now stop bothering me.”

Cassie sighed, and didn’t say anything else.

…In the middle of the night — if it was night outside — he suddenly woke up, disturbed by a sudden change in her breathing. Through the thin fabric of their clothes, he could feel the blind girl’s body tense up, her breathing rugged and uneven.

Sunny hesitated, then turned around and looked at Cassie.

In the pale glow of the runes, her delicate face seemed white and bloodless. It was contorted in a tortured grimace, with beads of sweat appearing on her forehead. Her eyes were moving hectically behind the eyelids.

He lingered, not knowing what to do.

It was obvious that Cassie was having a vision, and that like most of her visions, this one was painful and terrifying. Was he supposed to wake her up? Or would it do more harm than good?

Before he could decide, she suddenly sat up with a stifled yelp. Her chest was rising and falling wildly, and there was a panicked expression on her face.

The blind girl raised her hands and tried to feel her surroundings, clearly not quite remembering where she was.

Sunny caught one of them, making Cassie flinch, and said darkly:

“Take a hold of yourself, damn it. You’re in a cage in Night Temple. Stop thrashing around.”

She froze, surrendering to his iron grip. After a while, Cassie took a deep breath and said weakly:

“…I’m alright.”

He let her go, picked up the mostly empty waterskin, and put it onto her hand.

The blind girl drank the last of their water and closed her eyes, her breathing slowly returning to normal.

Sunny waited for a minute, and then asked in a gloomy tone:

“Another vision?”

She silently nodded.

A dark grin appeared on his face.

“What? Did we die again?”

Cassie shook her head, then opened her eyes and frowned.

“No… no, this time I saw someone else.”

She put the waterskin on the floor, hugged her knees, and spoke again, her voice still tense, but now much calmer:

“It was one of the Lost — the man with grey eyes who advised Lady Welthe. He was in front of a large crucible, throwing shards of broken mirrors into the fire. There were thousands of them, all reflecting his image. Only… at some point, one of the reflections stopped.”

She shivered.

“The Lost stopped, too, and stared at the motionless reflection, his eyes full of utter terror. It was as though he was paralyzed by fear. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out of his mouth. After that, he didn’t move anymore… but the reflection finally did. It raised its head, and… and smiled.”

Cassie grew silent, and then added, her voice trembling:

“That smile filled me with so much dread that all I could think about was to run away. But I couldn’t. That… that was when I woke up.”

Sunny looked at her for a while, thinking. His face was cold and grim.

It wasn’t hard to understand what the vision was about. Mordret’s Aspect was somehow tied to mirrors, after all… but what did it all mean? What were his powers, exactly?

He sighed and turned away.

“It’s fine. You did well. Go back to sleep, if you can.”

She listened to him and slowly lay down. However, Sunny could tell by her breathing that the blind girl was wide awake.

He couldn’t sleep, too.

…In the morning, the door of their cell opened, and the same group of Lost brought them more food.

Only, this time, there were only three of them.

The man with grey eyes was nowhere to be seen.

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