Jaded Series (Books 1-2)

Zendri was obsessively cleaning the already spotless kitchen as she thought over those room options that she and Pax hadn't fully agreed on. Not that those upgrades were exactly necessary, but it gave them something to think about other than the constant monster hunting or the larger problems outside of the tower. It also let her not spiral with anxiety over the fact that Pax still hadn't returned after going to spy on the Fighters last night, and it was almost midday, where she'd be checking the Tally again to make sure his name wasn't on it.

She knew that her public betrayal of the Speakers by joining Pax was putting her brother, Petal, in a very awkward spot that she felt guilty about, despite them both knowing it would have been an inevitability during the Season. Still, she had hoped to make it a few more floors before needing to do it.

However, the rest of her family suddenly being scrutinized had been part of their goals. Petal was the only full-blooded sibling she had, despite them looking very different from each other. Their half-siblings, on the other hand, along with their mother, were all Speakers that the rebellion wanted the public to drag further into the light.

Zendri shook her head, trying to get those thoughts out of her head, and wandered from the kitchen, which apparently couldn't distract her well enough at the moment, to the main room they had converted into an Artifice Workshop. That hadn't been nearly as long a conversation with Pax as the other room upgrades or conversions had been so far. While she wasn't exactly suited for any practical skill beyond gardening due to her Talent, Pax had much more use for the room that could support his creation of various magic items that assisted with his job as a Whisper assassin.

The room had various worktables and also had a decent amount of starting tools and materials, but they had still struggled to find some of the more specific things Pax required, and finding base materials that could support the infusions and enchantments he knew, like ones that could store his Minor Explosion Enchantment. That's what had led them to try using the golden stones they had found after the pedestal had identified them.

The best thing about this particular room, however, was that it was always dirty and disorganized, which meant it was perfect for her to go into mindless cleaning mode.

Zendri was about halfway through organizing the bins of Elemental Shards by color in rainbow order when she heard the front door slam open, followed by some oddly squelching boots sprinting down the hall, until Pax was standing beside her, dripping wet with flushed cheeks peeking out of the top of his mask.

She barely had the chance to blink, let alone scold him for worrying her so much, before he was yelling in her head, "I found them! Well, sort of. I was completely badass and saved Jin from drowning, but I ran into their group in the swamp—by the way, I was definitely right about the water being full of evil horrors—and they defeated this huge slimy tentacle horror thing that had nasty gas—not the kind of gas but like a breath weapon type, though, now that I think about it, it definitely could have been that kind of—"

"Pax! Get to the reason you were running through the door and why you look so flushed. You obviously weren't sprinting hard enough to dry yourself," gesturing up and down at his soaked clothes, "so you definitely shouldn't look so red as a Crystal Caster…" Zendri paused as she noticed her question making the normally suave assassin turn even redder as he blinked at her like a naughty toddler trying to think of an excuse that wouldn't get them punished. "Oh my gods, are you blushing?"

He scoffed, which was admittedly weird to hear mentally, then rolled his eyes and said completely unconvincingly, "What? No. You're blushing. I mean, nobody's blushing. Why would I be blushing? I don't blush. I'm a bloodthirsty and cold-hearted killer, remember?"

"Then why is your face all red?" she asked with a raised eyebrow and smirk.

"My face is masked and hidden in the shadows, so I'm not sure what you're talking—"

"Pax!" Zendri scolded, putting her hands on her hips now as she stared him down.

Unfortunately, that seemed to be enough to break his fluster as he laughed and pointed at her stance. "Oh, look at you! You just went full-on strict-angry-mama, didn't you? Please tell me you plan to adopt kids when we get out of the tower. You have that entire look nailed down perfectly."

She rolled her eyes towards the ceiling and almost prayed to the Tortoise for patience. She let her crimson gaze fall back to his golden one and calmly said, "Pax. I'll let go of the blush for now if you explain the wet running. You said you saved that Wayfarer from drowning, so I'm assuming that's why you're wet, but it doesn't explain why it's been over twelve hours since you left me here to clean alone."

That seemed to get Pax's attention as his head snapped to the worktable she was currently sitting at and he took another step closer to it before groaning loudly, "Noooo… Zen… Not the color coding again! I've told you before that I sort them by the best synergistic qualities with the ones next to them because the infusions will—"

"Oh my gods! Pax! Focus, for the love of Tiger. What happened that stalled your return?! Was it just from running into the Servants' group? You were the one who didn't want to join up with them yet. Did you change your mind?"

"What? No. I didn't stay long with them. Just a little catch-up, really. Oh, by the way, it seems like Rayyan was the Lover rebel contact, and he's joined up with them now. I don't really blame him after what I've seen and heard regarding how the Fighters are treating them."

"Well, that's one mystery problem of ours solved. What happened with the Fighters, or did something else distract you? Any chance you ran into another Whisper and crossed them off your list?"

"Sadly, no," he replied, his fingers inching towards the bins of perfectly sorted Shards. "However, today is the last day for them and the remaining Speakers to get here, so we'll most likely know by tonight's Tally who died and who's all on the second floor. I'm honestly surprised that the Whispers have been lying low so well like this."

"I'm not sure they're still all fighting solo, honestly," she admitted, pulling Pax away from the worktable and back towards the kitchen, where he wouldn't try to undo her hard work. "Otherwise, we really should have seen a death either by monster or environment. Remember when you almost died from a puddle of mud?"

"Hey! Those are really hard to see, and my spatial awareness from [Thread the Needle] doesn't tell me that the floor is squishy just if it's there or not!" he replied defensively for the dozenth time, and she wasn't planning to let him live it down anytime soon. Luckily, wanting to avoid further embarrassment seemed to get Pax back on track as he said, "I was late, though, because I stayed longer at the Fighters' base after learning they were planning to move soon and then went hunting in the bog."

That surprised her, and she gave him an incredulous look. "You went hunting without me? Why would you risk that? You should have come back here to rest, and then we could have gone—"

"Sorry, Zen," he interjected, raising his hands in surrender. However, he clearly wasn't sorry as he explained, "You know I can move faster and stealthier without you, and my goal wasn't hunting monsters this time; I was hunting these." He shifted and unslung a bag from his back that she hadn't noticed under his cloak, then reached in to pull out a golden pear.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

She poked the rather large satchel and asked, "But where did the bag come from if you weren't hunting monsters? And either way, we just talked about how you could have died from the environment without me."

Pax's eyes crinkled with mirth as he admitted, "Well, I managed to avoid the evil mud and the evil tentacle monster, but I may have hunted one goblin. The one that likes to run around with a bag of loot, remember? I managed to find another and kept the bag for myself, and kept looking for more gold because we need to finish upgrading this base to the next tier as soon as possible. We also need to figure out which of the enchantments in the main upgrade list will help turn this into a battle base."

Zendri's brow furrowed as she sat down at the table in the kitchen, and Pax set the bag atop it between them, sitting next to her. She hesitated a moment before clarifying, "Upgrade the base for battle? Like the War Room you said the Fighters had chosen?"

He shook his head and said, "I don't think that's a requirement, actually, but if we focus on the tier upgrade specifically, that will prove my theory one way or another."

"What theory?"

"That this base can move like the floor boss base. The Fighters think it will with the upgrade, and they have a station that has some direct control over the roots, but I don't think the boss base has a War Room at all, because it didn't have the arms sticking out of it like the Fighters did. I think all the bases are meant to move eventually."

Her gaze turned to the bag of loot he had brought back, and she asked, "Do you think this will be enough?"

"I think so," Pax replied with a shrug. "I know we're getting close. Oh! I also got another Spirit Gem off the goblin," he added, digging into the bag, discarding some of the golden items onto the table in a mess she knew that she'd be cleaning later. A minute later, he pulled out the small jewel, cut in a heart shape, that pulsed with a blood-red light. "I've got a good feeling about this one."

Zendri shook her head, but sighed indulgently and stood. "Well, let's go identify it, then whoever is going to use it can do their ritual in the workroom while the other starts converting this mess into tribute points."

Pax thrust a fist into the air. "Yes! It's upgrade time!" He spun on his heels, heading back towards the other room with his prize in hand.

"You forgot the bag," she mentally called after him.

He quickly came back, not looking her in the eyes or saying anything as he shoved the golden items scattered on the table back into the bag and hefted it over his shoulder. Once he had his back to her, he thrust that fist in the air again and cheerfully yelled, "Upgrade time for us and the tree!"

She shook her head again and followed after him this time. He was already pressing the item against the pedestal in the workshop and reading over the display it had hovering over it.

"Good news! It's a Heart Spirit Gem! I think that might be good for either of us. Most likely a blood-attuned ability, so maybe better for you since you also have that attunement," he thought to her, tilting his head slightly. "Maybe give you another healing ability that focuses on keeping hearts beating or something like that?"

"I think you should use it," she interrupted. "You have a few blood-attuned abilities already. It might even be enough to trigger a Talent cultivation."

He rolled his eyes at first, but then looked hesitant as he said, "Come on, Zen. You know it's much more rare for a Spirit Gem to trigger one of those than an Aspect."

"Less rare if it's done at Crystal Caste, though, since it unlocks a foundational Class ability," she pointed out, sitting down beside the pedestal to prepare for sifting through golden loot again. "If you're hoping for that Blood Attunement to support what you already have, this is probably your best chance."

She held her hand up towards the bag for him to hand it over, like this was already decided—which it was as far as she was concerned—but he hesitated again, looking from her to the jewel in his hand. Giving an annoyed mental huff, she stubbornly said, "How about this, I refuse to use it, so either you do or we take it to the Workers and hope they'll trade with us."

"That is so unfair, Zen. This could be really good for you, and I thought we agreed that we'd go practical instead of just taking turns—"

"This is practical. Now go use it and give me the bloody bag, Pax."

He stared at her for another long moment, as if tempted to call her bluff—which she would totally win—but another 'give it' gesture with her outstretched hand seemed to be enough to get him to cave. "You cannot keep winning arguments like that. It's definitely cheating of some kind," he grumbled, but handed over the bag and moved over to the workbench that had some ritual salt and began to prepare a Spirit Bonding Ritual.

About a half hour later, Zendri smiled as she saw Pax glowing with an inner white light, marking a Talent cultivation. She would get to say that she told him so for at least the next quarterhalf. Luckily, he didn't seem daunted by that fact when he finally came over to her. "You were right, and I might have to let you be in charge of Spirit Gem distribution from now on," he admitted with a heavy sigh of mock defeat, then sat beside her to show off his new upgrades.

"These are great, Pax," she said, then gestured towards the pedestal. "Why don't you look through those enchantments next, while I keep converting all this. Where are we at for the tribute points by the way?"

He stood and pressed his bracelet to the top of it again to bring up the display. "Oh! Only ten more! Those loot goblins are seriously awesome. How much more do you think we'll have after that?"

She glanced into the bag, trying to guess based on the sizes of things and the types she had converted before. "Hmm, maybe thirtyish?"

Pax began tapping options on the floating display before she noticed his eyes light up again, and he said, "That's enough for a couple of the enchantment options, but I really like the sound of this one. It's called Dullahan Defenders. One of those was the boss for the third floor two seasons ago, right? I remember Captain Gerrik talking about it and how creepy it was to fight something that was headless."

"Maybe? I honestly wasn't sure if I'd be sent in here until about a quarterhalf before the Season started, so I hadn't studied up on the past battles. I just saw pieces of whatever somebody else was watching on the Network replays," she replied with a shrug, putting another golden flower into the pedestal's side drawer.

The base suddenly began to shudder, and a new display appeared over the pedestal that shone a glittering gold. Zendri stood to read it with Pax.

Congratulations! Your base progress has reached 1000 tribute points. The base will now Ascend to Crystal 5. Your base progress is now 0/5000 tribute points until next Ascension. Your base has unlocked its second floor. Your base now supports more enchantments active at once. Your base has unlocked Travel Mode. Your base has unlocked Follower Mode.

Zendri turned to look at Pax at the same time he turned to her. She was the first to smile and mentally say, "Looks like your theory was proven correct."

Pax grinned beneath his mask and replied, "We're going to have the best battle base ever!"