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:

"How did you end up with such a wicked Flaw, anyway? I thought mine was bad... but if I survived the First Nightmare only to be killed by the Spell during the assessment, I would have been pretty upset."

He really did not understand how it would work.

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

"No, it wasn't during the assessment. Actually, I did not survive the First Nightmare. I was young, and weak, and frightened. And so... I died."

Soul Reaper turned her head and looked at him across the fire.

"But I 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 Spell seemed rather impressed with the result. Otherwise, it wouldn't have given me a Supreme Aspect."

Sunny did not answer, considering what he heard. 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 not have responded to his unintentional call. And if he did not have the [Fated] Attribute, he would have never unwittingly climbed on that altar, most likely.

Many things had come together to create the possibility... he had been the one to grasp it, though. Anyone else would have failed.

Sunny looked at Jet silently, thinking about her Flaw. What would happen if he gave her Weaver's Mask? Would she come back to life?

In his heart, he knew the 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 souls, she would instantly die. This time, forever.

Her cruel Flaw, mockingly, was the only thing that allowed her to exist.

What about his own Flaw?

Sunny tried to imagine the life he would have had if not for the inability to lie. Would it have been easier? Would it have been harder?

He would not have become enslaved, that was for sure. But he also would have never gotten close to other people, choosing to lie and manipulate them instead of trusting them, out of fear of being rejected and betrayed. And for that reason, he would have probably died a long time ago. Or at least turned into something ugly and twisted.

Was that the lesson he was supposed to learn?

'Weaver... you hypocrite. Weren't you yourself the master of lies?'

Sunny shook his head and concentrated on not burning the meat. These philosophical questions were a waste of time. He would still choose to get rid of his Flaw in an instant, if he could.

Jet sighed, breaking the silence.

"Actually, learning 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 costing me a lot."

Sunny shifted slightly.

"Who did you ask?"

She chuckled.

"Who do you 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 from that moment, they had a wonderful leash to keep me on."

Jet remained silent for a few moments.

"...That is fine, though. Even without it, I would have chosen the same. I'm happy with how things turned out. Still..."

She grew quiet, and then added wistfully:

"It would have been nice, to have had more of a choice."

Sunny did not speak for a while. Eventually, he said:

"Yeah. I would have been nice."

With that, he judged that the meat was ready and took it off the fire.

"Here, your dinner is ready."

They concentrated on the food, content to be safe for the moment, with something tasty to eat.

Sunny could vividly remember the times when eating anything, let alone actual meat, had been a cause for celebration. Jet could, too.

Those times were gone, and no matter how complicated and hard their lives had become...

Sitting in a damp cave located in the depths of a dying continent, Sunny stared at the fire and thought:

'...I guess it's an improvement.'