Jaded Series (Books 1-2)

Jin was relieved when they had all made it back to their base without running into any monsters or assassins after downing that Ironhorn. Though the extra meat from monsters would have been nice, she mostly didn't want to risk the water buckets again.

The group briefly debated about using one of the buckets to wash the blood off the floor that was no longer wet or sticky but definitely a reminder of the loss they had suffered. Practicality won out for now, and they left the stains to prolong their hydration.

Hadia had surprisingly offered to cook the monster meat for them all. She apparently cooked for herself often and had been assigned to help in a kitchen for some time before getting transferred to laundry duty. While she cooked, Alim took some time with Basima and Karam to teach them the most important Whisper signs to help communicate better. Jin knew that would come in handy when hunting later.

Heading up to her room, Jin had decided to follow the little blue girl's advice and hide under the bed's blanket before pulling out the secret note and unfolding it to read.

Hey there, Killer,

If you're reading this, you better be hiding under some covers. The countless Sense Stones in the tower might be practically invisible, but they can't see through shit even if they track the bracelets and sync the audio.

Are you hiding properly now?

Good.

I just want to let you know I'm in the tower and going to be doing some pretty crazy things to hopefully keep your ass alive. Like usual. You can thank me for it later.

The kid who gave you this note is my little half-sister, Liraz. You can trust her. I hope I can trust you to be nice to her and look out for her in return.

If you haven't figured it out by this point, not everyone agrees with the way our world works and the seasonal sacrifices we make to please the gods. A few of us made it in as Champions to help you, but there's a lot more of us outside the tower who are hiding, fighting, and hoping for things to change, and we're hoping you'll help us, too.

I know you barely know any of us, but I watched you for quite a while. I saw how you helped strangers. I saw your fierceness in the face of injustice. I saw the rebel behind your eyes.

Your favorite Whisper,

Pax

P.S. I hope you're smart enough that I don't really need to say this, but make sure this note gets destroyed. In fact, please eat it now. No, don't look at me like that. Shove it in your mouth and swallow. I know you normally hate that kind of thing, but I promise I didn't poison it. See you soon!

Jin blinked at the note, forcing her face to smooth out after definitely wrinkling it at the thought of eating strange paper that was more like thick parchment. This cheeky bastard, was the primary thought running through her head as she had been reading it. She ended up reading it at least a dozen more times to memorize it before she began to rip it into smaller pieces and eat it.

Perhaps it could help make her stomach stop rumbling so badly. Besides, she would be eating monster flesh soon. A bit of paper wasn't nearly as nausea-inducing. At least the food didn't smell bad as she returned downstairs to rejoin the others.

When Basima noticed her at the bottom of the stairs, the blonde smiled and made some Whisper signs at her that caused Alim to snort a laugh, and she grinned. "I think you just told me to 'go eat your foot.'"

"Oh, darn it," Basima said, scrunching her nose and turning back to Alim. "What was 'meat' again?"

"I'm not sure that translates much better," Jin interjected as she sat on the unoccupied chair near them. "I don't want to eat your meat either."

"At least she's not a boy, right?" Hadia said with a laugh, setting a plate of cooked meat on the low table between them all and walking over to sit on the floor by the fireplace in the center of the room that separated the sitting area from the kitchen.

Karam looked confused by her statement as he asked, "What does her being a girl have to do with—"

"Don't worry about that, Kar," Jin interjected, not wanting to corrupt the cinnamon roll. "She's being naughty. Let's just eat her meat instead."

He still seemed slightly confused but leaned forward from the chair opposite hers and grabbed a small morsel for himself.

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Jin frowned at the amount on the plate as the others all took some pieces for themselves. There was enough to likely sate them for now with only half their team left but it didn't look like leftovers were going to be available.

Hadia seemed to notice her worry and quietly admitted, "There's still more raw meat for about three more of these plates, but that's it. I think if we want it to go a bit further, we'll need to butcher the monsters the old-fashioned way rather than looting."

"I'm guessing the looting process either has natural loss or some of it gets converted into the packaging and Bits?"

"I'm not sure," Hadia said with a shrug. "Looting abilities aren't common, but they're not super rare either. All I know is that you definitely weren't given the full amount of meat on those Ironhorns."

Jin sighed and began signing as she talked; if anything, she hoped doing so regularly would help the others pick up the signs. "We'll need to go hunting again soon. I'm thinking we should try back-tracking the way we came here originally. Pick up the loot we had to leave behind."

Alim signed to her a question she hadn't been expecting and wasn't sure she really wanted to contemplate, "Did you loot Celia and Daren?"

"No," she signed back, not speaking out loud that time.

He frowned at her slightly and his hands moved more cautiously, "You should. I know it might seem… disrespectful, but it will help speed up the decomposition and provide us with help they would want us to have."

She frowned and leaned back in her chair, not liking the idea at all but unable to argue his point.

"Why don't you want us to know what he's saying?" Hadia asked her with a pointed look.

"'Cause I don't like it."

"So you won't let us voice our own opinions on whatever it is?"

Jin frowned but sighed in acquiescence. "Sorry. I get your point. He said I should loot our former teammates."

Silence descended again as they all seemed to contemplate that while chewing. Jin didn't think the meat was actually that bad. It was a bit tough and gamey and definitely in need of some seasonings, but still satisfying after eating nothing for a whole day.

"Jin?" Basima softly said, breaking the solemn silence. "I wanted to ask… well, it's a slightly personal question…"

She looked up to meet Basima's gaze. It made her stomach flip in a shameful way as those innocent green eyes searched her face for something. She swallowed nervously and said, "You can ask me anything."

"We all heard what you said to the Workers about why you're helping us and trying to get to the top—"

"I meant it," she interjected. "I'm not going to abandon any of you. Max was an ass who rushed toward death. Kian and Mary both chose to stay behind as well, but as long as all of you choose to keep fighting, I'm going to fight with you."

The blonde blushed slightly at her conviction but corrected, "I think we all realize that now, but I… Well, I don't really believe what you said about the gods. I was just curious if you were actually hoping to reach the top to wish yourself back home? You know, back to the world you came from."

Jin blinked at her, surprised by the question, and honestly, she hadn't thought something like that was even possible. Now that Basima mentioned it, though, if it was possible, surely it would take a god to do, right? Would she rather wish for that? Save herself and go home to her family? Would she be able to keep her stronger magical body this way? Was that the true reason she was sent here? To get magic and bring it back to her world?

She glanced at the others who seemed… apprehensive? Were they afraid of her chasing after this hope?

"We wouldn't be angry at you for choosing that, sky girl," Hadia said, leaning back and supporting herself with her hands on the floor. "I'm sure you want to get back to your family, yeah? Maybe a lover? We don't really know much about each other, do we?"

Jin gave a breathy laugh. "No, but it's not like we've had a lot of time to chat like this while fighting for our lives. I've had to focus on learning more about how the world works here more than about any of you… but I think I'd like to get to know you all more."

She ran a hand over her prickly hair again and explained, "I didn't have much that I left behind. My dad was kind of an ass, but my mom was cool. I had a crush I left behind, but she was also my best friend, and I knew it wouldn't work out for multiple reasons." She glanced back up at Basima and quietly admitted, "You remind me of her…"

Basima looked slightly surprised by that. "Oh… Well, that explains a few things," she replied before her expression softened, and she gave Jin a warm smile. "I guess I can be grateful for that, at least. It probably saved my life since you didn't leave me behind when I fell."

Jin huffed a laugh. "Hey, I didn't leave Kar behind either. I don't want to see any of you die, whether you reminded me of people I got separated from or not." She paused for a moment before adding, "Honestly, I'm probably the lucky one for getting sent here. I was very ill in my old world and was going to die any day… Ironically, getting sent here saved my life."

Karam smiled and said, "Maybe that's a sign you won't die in the tower either? Perhaps you're destined to live."

"That kind of thinking leads to recklessness," she pointed out, shaking her head. "I'm not some kind of cheating immortal, as far as I know."

"Well, you mentioned not knowing your Natural Talents," Basima said, giving a small smirk. "Maybe you are?"

Jin stared at her for a long moment, unsure if she should admit she knew her Natural Talents now, then remembered she actually hadn't checked what her last one was. She glanced at her bracelet and idly touched the Display rune, mentally asking what her last Talent was, and read the display that only seemed to be visible to her.

"I'm not," she finally told them. "I know what my Talents are, though I don't want to admit them aloud with the whole city watching us. Perhaps if we find some paper I can pass a note around so you all know at least. Aside from the translation and looting, though, they aren't that important."

Jin took another bite of the monster meat and announced, "If you're all ready to risk your lives again, we can search more around our base for more monster food. I want to leave to retrace our steps first thing in the morning. That should give us enough time to reach the wall and get back before nightfall."

They all nodded in response but didn't hurry their eating. Despite knowing every moment in the tower was already risking their lives, nobody was quite ready to go looking for more trouble.