Jaded Series (Books 1-2)

Jin was exceedingly grateful for Basima's presence as she seemed to know the most about the gods than the others. Matching colors and runes to the corresponding animal ideographs, they eventually had every animal lit up and a new portal appeared in the center of the room.

The white marble archway had risen up in obvious invitation for them to move forward, and the Servants stepped through first again, prepared for a potential conflict.

They were relieved to not see any obvious enemies and found themselves in another triangular room. This time it was very different though as the half of the room they stood upon was like the bottom section of the triangle that had been cut from the tip of the pointed top opposite the portal entrance. Between them and that smaller section was nothing but a deep cavern that they couldn't see the bottom of.

On the distant platform was a singular marble pillar rising from the ground, but they couldn't see if anything was atop it from that distance. It must have been about 8 yards to the other side… Jin grimaced and shook her head as she mentally corrected herself, No, it's twenty-three feet. These obsessive gods are insane.

While she knew the distance wasn't technically impossible for a human to accomplish, the last world record she had read about in her track and field circles for the long jump was twenty-nine feet. She didn't think anyone in their group had that kind of skill, not to mention the major lack of runway distance they had in their section of the room.

"Only faith shall fuel your leap. Those who believe in the benevolent generosity of the gods and prove their worth shall be rewarded on the other side," Basima read aloud, and Jin turned to look at the instructions listed above the entrance for herself.

Sure enough, that was all it said. Jin glanced back at the chasm and shook her head; there was no way any of them would make it without some kind of magic involved.

Once everyone had finished crowding on their side of the room, Jin turned to Darya and asked, "So how do you want to try approaching this? No monsters to fight, so it's your call."

Darya frowned and didn't respond right away as she kept looking from the text to the chasm to the small platform as their obvious goal.

"Well, we obviously just need to trust in the gods and jump, letting the magic carry us across," Carter said with a sneer toward Jin. Then he shoved Miley forward and told her, "Go ahead. You need to make up for that blunder in the first room."

Miley shot him a glare and Darya tried to interject. "Now Carter, that isn't your call and none of us knew that would happen."

He scoffed at her. "It was obvious to anyone who's not a complete idiot." He shoved at Miley's shoulder again and said, "Well, go on! Show your devotion to the gods!"

"I—You're the priest!" Miley managed to retort. "Shouldn't you be the one to jump first?"

"Yeah, Carter," Jin purposefully prodded, really hoping the guy would prove his obvious hypocrisy. "Why don't you jump if you're so devoted to the gods yourself? Or would you rather I jump and prove the gods are the complete idiots and you're a complete coward?"

His face contorted in fury as he listed his wand at her again. "You dare?! You wretched—"

"Carter!" Darya snapped. "Either jump or refuse, but I said no fighting with them!"

"But she—"

"Gods help me, Carter, but if you try to fight, I'll toss you into that pit myself," she warned.

He snapped his mouth shut and lowered his wand.

Jin grinned victoriously as she asked, "So what'll it be? Devotion or cowardice?"

Carter looked at her with pure malice before crossing his arms. "I'm not a coward. Miley messed up, though, and should prove her worth like it said. For all we know, the magic might refuse to let her cross or even prevent the rest of us if she fails."

"Fine," Darya said, coming to a conclusion. "She'll jump first and you'll follow to make sure the rest of us can." He seemed to stare at her in shock for a moment before attempting to voice his protests, but Darya cut him off before his first word. "You are the most devoted among us, Mister Priest of the Tiger."

That seemed to shut Carter up and the group rearranged themselves to give Miley some more space to do a running jump from the entrance. The woman seemed upset by it but resigned to her fate as she sprinted forward and lept.

No magic seemed to trigger like Jin thought might happen. Instead, Miley fell screaming into the dark pit. A flash of purple light similar to when she was teleported to the entrance before was the only reassurance they had that she survived.

Darya turned to Carter with a completely expressionless face and simply said, "You're turn."

The man grimaced but didn't argue again. He did choose to try jumping from a different spot though, which Jin would give him slight credit for avoiding the insanity of trying the exact same thing and expecting a different outcome.

Carter didn't fare much better. No obvious magic responded but Jin did notice something odd this time as he began to fall. She heard him yelp in pain as it seemed like his flailing arm hit something in the empty air.

When Carter was teleported away in a flash of purple light as well, Darya looked toward Jin and asked, "Any better ideas?"

"Maybe," she murmured. "Can you guys hold me to make sure I don't fall?" Jin asked her friends. Hadia nodded and gripped her left arm as she moved closer to the edge of the chasm.

Raising her spear, she slowly reached the weapon out to where she had thought Carter hit something. There was a ringing sound of metal on stone, and Jin grinned. It wasn't an optically illusioned bridge, but there was definitely something solid and invisible there about nine feet out in the center of the right half of the divide.

Jin used the spear to find the top of it and tap around, trying to get an idea of its dimensions. She glanced towards Liraz with an idea and asked, "Can you make one of those slime balls only a little sticky? I don't want it preventing someone from jumping away but I don't want it to cause them to slip either."

The blue girl nodded, and Jin glanced around to see the others had caught on to what was going on. While Liraz was focused on the new task, Jin pulled her group off to the side and quietly spoke while signing. "I'm going to have to jump first to find the next step. If I fall and end up outside, feel free to keep trying without me."

"What about Carter?" Alim signed with a furrowed brow. "He's waiting outside and could ambush you. If you die—"

"Then you join Darya and Liraz," she interjected with a firm gaze at all of them. "You keep surviving and don't just give up."

The group was a mix of grimaces and uncertainty as they silently assented.

When Jin turned around again, the invisible pillar was now covered in a thin layer of sticky blue slime. Dismissing her spear to give her better balance, Jin took a few deep breaths. Shaking her muscles out in a practiced pattern before attempting a run, she tried focusing her mind on the singular goal in front of her.

Jin was the strongest she had ever been in her life and had been getting used to her body's capabilities in the last week since getting her bounty. She knew that she had the power to make that jump, she just hoped her coordination was up to the task of landing on that pillar that must have been a mere two feet in diameter.

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Completely shutting out the people and noises around her, she took another steadying breath and ran. Leaping from the edge, she managed to get her outstretched foot to land but definitely over estimated the force needed. She almost continued over the edge of the pillar, trying to compensate by dropping to try and cling to the platform so she wouldn't fall. The slime helped though it didn't offer much of a solid grip.

When it seemed like her momentum had completely halted, she finally took another breath again and repositioned herself atop the pillar. That's when she heard the claps of the others watching her. She blinked in response to the familiar feeling of teammates as an audience. After going back into the hospital that last time, she hadn't thought she'd ever experience this feeling of camaraderie again.

Basima and Karam were smiling brightly though the former was much louder in her cheering. Hadia and Alim had more subdued grins but they looked happy too at the minor accomplishment. It was such an unexpected sensation that she almost felt drowned by it at that moment, but she slowly swallowed it down and refocused on the next part of the trial. She hadn't won yet.

Reconjuring her spear, she tried her best to reach out and find the next pillar she hoped was close enough for her to jump. She couldn't find anything. It was harder for her to lean further without someone holding on as a counter-weight and her spear itself was only about six feet long. Taller than her, but not long enough to find where the next pillar was.

With another twelve feet to reach the other side, she couldn't believe there wouldn't be another invisible spot to jump to.

Liraz came to the rescue as she started launching smaller balls of slime around, flying through the air beyond Jin's reach. It didn't take too long for one of the little blue slimeballs to splatter against the hidden pillar. It was another nine feet away closer to the center of the chasm.

While Jin had almost overshot with the first jump, she wasn't certain she could make the second without any space to run with. Jumping back wasn't an option either since it was the same distance. She wouldn't be able to build up the momentum she wanted, and this time the slime would be working against her.

The others seemed to realize her predicament, but it was Basima who called out to her, "You can do it, Jin!"

Well shit, now I have to make it, she thought to herself with a smirk. She couldn't let herself fail in front of her cheerleader.

She kept the spear this time, hoping the extra Strength it gave her would help compensate. Once Liraz had finished covering the other pillar more completely, Jin steadied herself in a low crouch. It would be a different kind of jump, needing to spring more vertically to get the distance she would need.

Wiping the sweat from her brow one last time, she focused on her breathing and timed her jump at the end of an inhale. The dark, ominous chasm below sent an involuntary tremor through her, and for a brief moment, she didn't think she was going to make it.

She was so close. Close enough that she made a split-second decision to lift her spear and stab into the landing at an awkward diagonal angle. The shift in trajectory had her hands sliding down the shaft to slam her body into the side of the stone pillar.

Pain radiated through her, but she managed to hold onto her spear instead of falling into the awaiting darkness below. After taking a moment to catch her breath, she carefully pulled herself up, trying not to accidentally dislodge the weapon as she clambered onto the landing.

She sat on the sticky slime for a whole minute trying to collect herself again before looking over at her friends. Basima was hugging Karam and Alim at the same time, both with an arm wrapped around their necks. Hadia seemed to be talking with Darya about something but Jin couldn't make it out from this distance. The other Workers mostly seemed pleased too, though Scarlet seemed to be eyeing Basima with apprehension.

It was only a small two foot hop onto the last landing that held the original goal. Jin was still cautious, simply reconjuring her spear instead of risking a fall to pull it out, and used it again to make sure there wasn't some invisible barrier or trap for crossing onto the final platform.

Nothing seemed to be amiss, so she took that last little leap and hopped onto the other ledge. Nothing unexpected happened so she went to investigate the marble pillar rising from the floor. Atop it, carved into the stone with a golden filigree, looked to be the same small ritual diagram that Jin had placed her bracelet upon to unlock the Trial in the first place.

With no other clue to go off of, she placed her bracelet onto the diagram. The diagram began to glow and the loud sound of trumpets sounded all around them. She almost panicked when a sheet of light appeared at the edge of the platform and obscured her from the view of the others. However, a new display was forced to appear from Jin's bracelet that gave her a message and helped her calm down.

Congratulations for completing the Trial of the Aspects! Place your hand upon the designated symbol below to claim your prize that will be custom tailored to suit your style!

Glancing lower, Jin noticed a glowing symbol of a hand outline on the side of the pillar and she placed her own within it. A soft click sounded and a drawer seemed to pop out beside her hand. A quick glance inside showed what appeared like a small marble statue of one of the demon bunnies they had hunted before.

When she touched it for more information, a smile spread across her face at the holographic information that only she could see.

She declined for now, still wary of the people potentially watching her every move from outside the tower. When she finished removing the Aspect from the drawer, it had slid shut and her bracelet pinged with a new message.

Congratulations on obtaining the Agile Aspect! Please step into the awaiting ritual diagram to absorb your latest prize then press your bracelet to the pillar once more to go back the way you came.

It looked like she wouldn't need to worry about getting her team back to their cabin with a handful of Aspects, at least. She decided to go ahead and get the ritual over with first then return to her friends. She wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but she figured anything was better than nothing.

Well, that would have helped on the way over, Jin thought with a roll of her eyes. It was still a decent ability, though, she did wonder about the Passive. She didn't exactly feel any different at first, while standing there staring at the display that was invisible to everyone else.

It wasn't until that first step back toward the pedestal that her mind instantly recognized the difference. It was like every sense was heightened regarding her movement, speed, balance, and simple awareness of everything around her. Despite nothing having changed or moved at all, she had changed enough to notice more.

A smile curved along her face and her palms almost itched in anticipation to test out how this would affect her fighting skills. She finished making the short walk back to the pillar and placed her bracelet on it again.

The wall of light dropped away to reveal not only her team and the other Workers waiting for her, but a narrow bridge made of the same white marble as the platform she stood upon. It made her pause in thought and she called over, "Bas! Try crossing over but slowly at first. Hadia, get ready to catch her if the bridge tries to drop her."

The pair nodded and the archer slowly placed one foot onto the bridge, already holding onto Hadia's hand. Then another foot. The bridge didn't react, so with a grin, Basima slowly let go of Hadia and inched her way across the narrow passage meant for a single person.

Jin held her breath when Basima reached the halfway point, wondering if it couldn't possibly be this easy, but still the bridge held her. She finally exhaled when Basima grabbed her hand near the end and made sure the last step was secure.

Basima gave a nervous giggle as she met Jin's gaze and muttered, "Sorry I took so long. I was so nervous about tripping."

Jin grinned. "It's fine. I'm just glad you made it. Try putting your bracelet on the pillar. I got another Aspect from it."

"Nice! Congratulations!" the blonde happily said before making her way over. After placing her bracelet upon it, a red display came up to hover over it, and Basima called over, "It says there can only be one person on the platform at a time to activate it."

Jin nodded and turned to make her way back. It was an odd sense of reassurance she felt while crossing, knowing that her balance felt perfect and there was no sense of dread that she might fall. It felt easy, like she had walked on narrow bridges over chasms her whole life. Hell, she felt like she could cartwheel across the thing and land exactly where she wanted to.

As soon as her last foot left the bridge, it seemed to crumble into powder and Jin grinned at the loophole she found. Looking over at Darya, the Worker was grinning back and said what they were both thinking, "Looks like taking turns is going to be what gets everyone across."