Jaded Series (Books 1-2)

Alim let Jin lead them the rest of the way back to their base, his mind distracted by the fact that he had heard something again. A voice that sounded bright and confident. His voice. Giving sound to more words that he had never heard before, but could luckily understand through the telepathic connection, tying meaning to the language he already knew.

Only Butterfly had done something like that before when the deity had visited him and Jin. He hadn't been expecting anyone else to replicate the phenomenon. It had startled him, fundamentally shifting his understanding of those words and letters, and had him mentally looping through what the Whisper had… well, whispered to him.

"I wish we had both gotten this wet under better circumstances, but thank you for helping me drag Jin to shore. My name's Pax if you didn't catch it or figure it out earlier, and I hope the outfit and death tally haven't made you too afraid of me." Those golden eyes had quickly looked him up and down. While Alim had been wet, he was still wearing the magically weightless blue armor. "I doubt there's much that truly scares you, though, from everything I've seen and heard of the former Whisper Alim." When Pax's gaze returned to Alim's eyes, he teased him with a wink. " I look forward to getting to know each other better in the future, Mister Teach-the-Wayfarer-How-to-Cast-Fire."

He hadn't realized that Pax had known anything about him, let alone that he had been the one to teach Jin the Cantrip that had burned Lady Shahara's house down. As far as he knew, Jin had never told anyone. That meant either Jin had told him in confidence at some point, or he had been watching, which wasn't exactly surprising for a slip to do. It was also probably the answer to another mystery that had been bothering him before he entered the tower the day after that mess.

Alim hadn't believed his luck when Lady Shahara had been the one punished for hurting him. He had tried once before to report what she had done to him when it made him go visit the Health Coterie. She had broken his hand after pushing him to get his attention and startling him so badly that he dropped a glass jar of very rare Flame Salamander blood.

The Lover Healer he had seen at the open clinic had asked what had happened, and he had been truthful, saying a foot had stepped down on it. The healer had called for a Speaker Steward who knew the Whisper signs and had asked him questions like "Was he safe at home?"—which he did because he lived alone—"Did his partner attack him?"—which was a no since he didn't have one—and, "Was this the first time it had happened?"—which was technically a yes since he had never had a hand broken before.

When the Speaker Steward had learned his attacker was Lady Shahara, who had transferred into the Silence Sect but was a descendant of a noble Speaker family, Alim had been told that it was clearly an accident. That a Lady would never do something like he described, and that he should have just explained better instead of besmirching the noble's good name, with a warning that he might be punished further if he spread lies and slander.

If that was always going to be the result, then why would he ever try reporting again?

So when he heard that Lady Shahara would be punished for abusing him simply based on his and Jin's testimony of what had happened to cause the fire, he couldn't figure out what made them believe him this time. If Pax had been watching, though… Perhaps the Whisper had given testimony? After all, the words of the assassins who slipped through locked doors, watched from the shadows, and whispered in the dark usually weighed heavier than even a minor noble's.

Alim almost ran into Jin's back as she suddenly halted in front of him, and he looked up from her boots to the face that was raising an eyebrow at him. He looked around them and realized they were standing in front of the makeshift bridge he and Liraz had put together on the north side of their little island. He had been pretty proud of what they had managed to cobble together with wood, slime, rope, and just a couple of enchantments. They had made it into a two-way drawbridge that split in the middle, with activation runes on each side tied to their specific Aura signatures. That kind of locking enchantment had been a common enough one, since most doors and chests worked that way in the city.

The others were already crossing, but Jin was standing in his way and signed to him, "Did Pax say something upsetting to you?"

His hazel eyes widened in surprise, and he hesitantly replied, "Why do you ask that?"

"Uh, 'cause you've been staring at your feet since he obviously spoke mentally to you," she replied with a flat look. "We probably could have all been eaten by a monster, and you would have just kept on walking."

"Of course not," he signed with a roll of his eyes, then smirked. "I was watching your feet the whole time so I wouldn't walk into any water or mud traps. I would have noticed if you got eaten, at least."

"I should throw you in the moat for that one," she threatened, but it was offset by the smile tugging at her mouth. "So did Pax make fun of you or something?"

Alim paused for a moment to think about that, but shook his head and said, "No, he just… Introduced himself, I guess? Then made it clear he knows more about me than I know about him." He rubbed the back of his neck for a moment before admitting, "It was also a revelation to hear certain words for the first time. To hear another voice…"

Jin tilted her head with a mix of curiosity and sympathy as she asked, "Does experiencing it now make you wish that the Ascension to Crystal had given you hearing?"

He let out a heavy sigh and shrugged. "I don't know… but I… I think I want to experience more of it. To talk with him again. He did imply we'd be meeting up again in the future."

"Yeah. I'm not sure what's really holding him back from joining up yet, since it doesn't look like he's been hunting people anymore, with the death tally not updating with his kills at all on this floor. Anyways, are you ready to go and unlock a new ability?"

The question surprised him, and he had to make sure she had signed that correctly. "New ability for me? From what?"

She held up a bright blue jewel about the length of a finger, cut in an intricate spiral that almost made it look more like a screw than a Spirit Gem. "We all agreed you get this Involution one. I had to ask what the word even meant, and Rayyan was the one who explained that it meant something spiraling in on itself." She leaned forward to place the gem in his hand and signed in the smaller space like a secret whisper, "Don't repeat this to anyone else, but it's so embarrassing to me when the courtesan looks smarter than me."

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Alim laughed, shaking his head and explaining, "Most courtesans are very well educated, actually. I remember you asking about schools earlier, and I believe the program that the courtesans undergo is probably the closest to what you described before. They gain some of the widest range of knowledge, aside from the Whispers in the Archival Coterie, because they're expected to be able to entertain a very wide variety of clientele."

He glanced around Jin to look at Rayyan, who was chatting with Karam again as they were watching Liraz already preparing her Spirit Bonding Ritual in the part of the yard not covered in mushrooms. Taking in the way the Lover moved and carried himself the way most nobles did, Alim pointed out, "If he was known for playing Monarch's March with clients who also enjoyed that particular hobby, he's likely very educated in both etiquette and language, at the very least." He tilted his head at her and asked curiously, "Did your old world look down on courtesans?"

"More often than not," she admitted, straightening back up and shrugging. "At least where I grew up, it was usually looked down on by religious people who liked to dictate what people were allowed to do with their own bodies, and by others who thought it was only for those desperate for money and unskilled enough to get a different job."

"I guess I can understand both of those reasons, even if I disagree with them," Alim signed back, then began following after the others with his new Spirit Gem in hand. Conjuring his own wand, he began drawing the runes in light that he could use in place of salt. With his other hand, he wrote in the air between him and Jin, "Who was getting the third one?"

"Me. Nobody else seemed excited about the Decay Spirit Gem, unless you want it."

"Well, considering it usually results in Death or Void-attuned abilities, most people tend to shy away from something like that. I don't really believe it's 'evil', per se, but I don't think it would fit well within my powerset. Do you want to do yours first?"

"Nah," she replied with a wave of her hand. "I'm curious to see what you end up with."

Alim nodded and continued, only to pause and watch Liraz perform hers. He smiled when she jumped up and down afterwards, happily clapping her hands, and showing everyone the information from her bracelet.

"You seriously got a creepy slime octopus?!" Jin asked, the incredulity plain on her face as she signed to the smaller girl.

Liraz shrugged, then held her hands out, and he assumed she was incanting for the Spell, but couldn't read her lips from this angle. A handful of seconds later, they were all staring at the ground, where a small, squishy-looking, green blob of slime sat on six tentacles evenly distributed around its round body, with large violet eyes that slowly blinked up at them. He had to admit it looked rather adorable like that, even if it was basically a baby version of the monster that had almost killed them all a few hours earlier.

Alim looked back up at the others in time to see Jin sign to Liraz, "What are you calling this one? Or do summons not normally get names since they can change each time?"

"Most people don't usually name the summons," Li answered. She looked down at the little kraken again and added, "But this one definitely goes by Wiggles!"

The others laughed, the movement of their faces and bodies making the silent sound clear to Alim, and he laughed as well, feeling the air escape his mouth, but quickly suppressed it.

Jin was the only one not laughing as she signed, "You all laugh, but I swear little Wiggles here is either going to turn into some horrific old god Cthulhu or some terrifying hentai monster with all those tentacles."

"What's a hentai monster?" Liraz asked, tilting her head and hat at Jin in curiosity.

Jin froze, looking like she was either replaying her own words again or trying to come up with a lie before finally answering with firm hand movements, "I'm not explaining that to any of you, so forget I ever mentioned it."

Shaking his head and finishing up his own ritual diagram, Alim held the gem and mentally thought the incantation for the bonding ritual. The gem shattered in his hands, embedding itself into his body and soul, and he could feel his newest Wand ability.

His eyes widened in surprise at the ability, his mind wanting to race through the much longer list of rituals in his head, trying to determine the best options.

"Does that seem as broken to you as it does to me?" Jin asked him after waving a hand through his line of sight to get his attention.

"I'm not sure yet," he honestly replied, looking down at his conjured wand in thought. "I think I'll need to do some testing with it, but that increased cost may make some things impossible for me right now. It will still be very useful, though, even if it just acts as a source of emergency barriers." He shook himself out of his thoughts and offered, "Let me get your ritual setup next."

"It's fine. I'll just do it the quicker way," Jin replied, and he watched closely as she activated that Talent of hers that allowed her to freely absorb and bond to the Spirit Gem. It looked a lot more painful for her than it did for them, but she endured it and quickly lifted her bracelet and pressed the Display rune. He didn't see anything get displayed, but he did see her lips say, "Shit, am I the creepy monster now?"

Jin blankly stared at the empty space over her bracelet for a long moment, and he assumed she was either in shock or using that [Poker Face] Talent again to hide how she really felt from all of them. She crouched down, sitting on her heels and running both of her hands through her green hair. Another awkward minute later, with the rest of them uncertain how to respond, Jin surprised him by looking up at him and letting him see an emotion he rarely saw on her face: fear.