Jaded Series (Books 1-2)

"Did you really need to stab me that much?" Petal weakly asked as he lay in a rough bed surrounded by dirt walls with protective stealthing enchantments carved into them. Lavender was sitting in a chair beside him, healing his many, many wounds courtesy of the Whisper standing before him.

"Did you really need to run your mouth that much?" Alaina snapped back, beginning to pace in annoyance. "You had an entire amphitheater packed with people watching you perform, and you spout rebellious ideas against the queen herself? Did you lose your fucking mind?! You're lucky I didn't kill you just to get the crown off my own back after the mess with Pax."

"I thought that was all taken care of?" he said before groaning in pain, feeling a rib bone being moved back where it belonged. "Gods, Alaina… you really didn't go easy on me at all, did you?"

"You're alive, so yeah, I went easy on ya," she retorted with a pointed glare. "Would have been much easier to just slit your throat and drop your corpse at the palace's front door."

"Abyss, do you have to be so graphic?"

"Do you have to be so suicidal, you bloody pacifist?"

Lavender chuckled from beside him, the older woman seeming to enjoy their argument as the best form of entertainment.

Alaina's eyes flicked to her for a moment as she said, "I vote you stop healing once he's stable and let him suffer a little longer. If he's not going to listen to my words, perhaps a little pain will teach him better."

"Come now, Alaina. No need to be cruel and petty," Petal groaned, trying to shift to a less painful position. Silas gently rubbed his silky fabric against his cheek in comfort and sent a pulse of worry through their bond. Petal smiled and whispered, "Thank you, Si, but I'll be okay."

"That remains to be seen," Alaina hissed, finally sitting down again. She rubbed her hands over her legs before explaining more. "The evidence I gave about Pax made it clear that I had no knowledge of his planned betrayal, but it didn't help me look competent for my position. They've been looking closer at me, making my job harder, and I need to prove more of my loyalty to the crown… or at least make it look that way."

She pushed back her hood in frustration, adding, "I chose to take you off the board before getting a contract to kill you."

"Alaina! How dare—That is not how we—"

"I don't want to see you dead, Petal!" she yelled over him.

He snapped his mouth shut, but he still felt the anger and indignation rise up. That kind of unilateral decision is not how their group of rebels worked. A choice like that should have been brought to their council for a vote, not made without even consulting another person, especially the one being targeted. "We don't know if that would have happened, and you might have ruined my chances of recruiting many of the people who were there watching. Now they'll believe I'm dead and that to join us will only lead to their own demise. Your worry was overblown and interfered with a promising recruitment effort I had been planning for weeks. You also broke our rules by not conferring with the council—"

"Actually, she did," Lavender surprised him by interjecting. She gave a wan smile before adding, "I've been on standby since she proposed this emergency intervention to the rest of the council, excluding yourself, which we only agreed with because she made a valid point that you would play the part of victim more believably if taken by surprise… which she proved with this particular display."

Alaina leaned forward and added, "It also wasn't as… disruptive to your recruiting efforts as you believe. My particular brand of toxin made it look like you had died on that stage… you've actually been in a sort of stasis for a couple of days. The people who were there became outraged; many had brought their own Sense Stones and, since then, have been distributing not just your attack but also your message, speaking out against the violence. Riots have been ongoing within the entertainment district and elsewhere in the city since then. The Speakers are attempting damage control, but most of the Pleasure Sect is incensed by the attack on you. The state of the nation is in mild chaos at the moment."

Petal simply stared at her for a few minutes, processing and strategizing. That wasn't an outcome he had expected, and it actually warmed his heart to think his people truly cared that much about him. On the other hand, it went against his very message of peace to know violence had been the response. He understood the anger; he had felt it when his father had been chosen as a Champion and died for it.

He let out a sigh, knowing that violence would likely happen whether he wanted it or not. That was one of the reasons he wanted to reach Emerald so much. He would be able to save lives and stand against their attackers when the fighting eventually broke out. "It's too early for something on this level," he quietly pointed out. "It will likely be two or three years before the Season ends if they don't wipe. We should have been quietly recruiting during this time. Abyss, we haven't even agreed on a name or emblem to rally around. This will only cause the crown to impose more restrictions, leading to further investigations into possible rebel safehouses or gatherings. Something like riots in the streets shouldn't have happened for at least another year."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Well, maybe someone shouldn't have spoken out against Queen Theris so soon," Alaina said with a flat look.

Returning her look with a glare, Petal retorted, "Don't try to blame me for this. You were the one who just decided I might have said something that might have resulted in a contract that might have called for my death." He carefully tried to sit up now that Lavender seemed done with his healing. "You moved too soon, Alaina. I could have taken the risk of the crown's annoyance for much longer."

She huffed at him, crossing her arms and legs in front of her as she leaned back in her chair. Lavender chuckled, leaning back in her own chair, and said, "What's done is done. We need to meet with the council and decide if it's worth reviving our fallen flower, continuing those recruitment efforts, and helping quell the riots. Or keep him underground and try to spur the people further. We don't require the Season to end or for that Wayfarer to reach the top to continue the rebellion that had begun long before she fell from the sky."

Menna burst into the room at that point, the young Fighter looking around wildly before rushing to Petal's side. "Oh, thank the Aether you're alive!" Before he could reply, however, she pushed back and turned to Alaina. "Captain Gerrik said to give you this message," she held out a folded paper towards the Whisper, "but I already read it. The Servants made it to the third floor, and two Fighters went rogue with the group of Lovers when Pax attacked the Fighters' base!"

"What?" Petal cried out, sitting up more to see the message for himself. "Exactly how long was I out for again?"

"The riots have gotten worse now," Menna continued explaining, while Alaina opened and read the letter. "Many of the Lovers are arguing that the defection of the Fighters to help the Pleasure Sect's Champions proves the unfair treatment that many have been arguing about since the Lovers were 'asked' to join together." She glanced back at Petal, her eyes shining with a look that he recognized among many young girls who admired him. "They have been replaying the recording of you speaking about the Order Fighters' brutality, which isn't helping subdue the rioters since that Coterie is normally the one charged with doing exactly that."

Lavender chuckled again as she surmised, "Hard to prove the words of a martyr wrong by doing exactly what he accused them of?"

"Don't call me a martyr," Petal interjected sharply with a pointed look. "I'm not actually dead, and it would be a dishonor on those who actually have given their lives in the name of our cause."

"Many others are calling you that already," Menna admitted with a blush. She got an apologetic look as she added, "Especially Captain Gerrik; however, he's still posturing on the other side. Calling you a pacifist martyr like it's a slur, but it's helping the term stick."

"Of course he is," Petal said in exasperation, throwing up his hands as he leaned back against the wall and brought his hands down to rub over his face, trying to wipe the new wave of stress away. Rubbing at his temples, he added, "Gerrik has always been cautious yet insistent on forward momentum. I'm sure he's hoping to take advantage of this to stir up trouble while planning something else in the shadows. I swear he's more conniving than either one of us, Alaina."

"Well, you can stay here and plan more while bemoaning the current circumstances to Menna here, as she's now your new babysitter," Alaina replied, standing and tossing the letter onto the tattered blanket covering his lap. "Lavender and I need to go and respond to this new change before our absence is questioned."

"Stay? I should be returning to help quell the violence and unite the people," Petal retorted, pushing the blanket off him and standing to follow after them. "You know a Crystal Caster can't keep me here."

Alaina lifted her dagger out of thin air and held it to his throat, her hard gaze meeting him as a sudden silence descended upon the room. Her voice was full of flint as she said with a deadly calm, "You try to go up there right now, and I'll make good on that threat to drop your corpse at Queen Theris's doorstep. Menna's going to keep you company and report if you make a move. Your only role to play right now, Petal, is as a symbolic martyr for your Sect while Lavender fills the role you left empty in uniting the people. This is not up for debate right now. The council will convene when possible, and if you play nice, we may include you in that meeting. Are we in accord?"

Petal could feel the anger threatening to rise again, the defiance that reared its head when his choices were ripped away from him and he was thrust into yet another cage. He felt Silas respond to those emotions, stretching and expanding around him like an ethereal phantom about to strike. The press of Alaina's dagger dug deeper into his neck, his blood welling upon its edge as they stared each other down, trying to see who was bluffing more.

With a steadying inhale, Petal finally said, "I expect to be kept up to date on events, including one of our untracked Network displays, as soon as possible. I will not be kept in the dark like you Whispers would prefer I be."

"Deal," Alaina curtly replied as her dagger vanished in a puff of smoke. "I'll send one of our messengers to be personally assigned to you. In the meantime, don't forget that you're supposed to be dead."

As Alaina and Lavender left him and Menna alone in the quiet of this tiny underground dormitory room, Petal turned away in frustration to collapse back on the bed, hearing it groan under his weight, which was much heavier than most his size due to his Caste making him denser. It was at that point that he realized he was completely naked, save for Silas attempting to give him some modesty, and he let his head fall back against the wall. After a moment and another sigh, he asked Menna, "Any chance you know what they did with my clothes?"

"Well… While you were fighting Alaina on stage… she got a bit… aggressive with slashing up your clothing. Some people were actually speculating on the footage, wondering if it was some obsessed Whisper that simply wanted to see you naked and claim you as some sort of sex slave that had actually been the one to attack you."

"Oh, wonderful. As if I wasn't already worried about enough, apparently, overly zealous fans are a legitimate concern now."