Jaded Series (Books 1-2)

Basima awoke to the sight of silky black hair covering Jin's face as it finally relaxed in sleep. It was the only time Jin ever looked at peace, and she remained quiet to savor the view. As gently as she could, she brushed the strands of disheveled hair away to see more of that beautiful face.

She knew she was partially to blame for the messy state of Jin's hair after last night, but she didn't regret a moment of it. Jin's touch made her feel more special than any dress or piece of jewelry ever would. They had been stealing intimate moments every night for a week now, and she didn't think she'd ever tire of it.

During the days she controlled herself enough to focus on their hunting and learning more Whisper signs, but the nights she took for herself and Jin. She quickly discovered that wrapped in Jin's arms was her new favorite place to be as she felt warm, safe, and loved. Well, maybe not love love but definitely cared for. She wasn't quite sure where the line between infatuation and real love lay, but she was pretty sure she was quickly approaching it.

They had successfully done another trade with the Workers yesterday, even visiting their base briefly to help drop all the supplies off and stocked up on more potions and even a set of leather armor for herself. It wasn't enchanted since Carter had died, but it was definitely more protection than just the Sliksilk she wore underneath it.

Jin and Hadia both had purchased Crystal Caste Chest armor, and Basima glanced toward her feet to where the dark red leather rested atop the chest. She didn't care for that color on Jin, but as she recalled the stats it had, she couldn't argue that it was worth it.

Basima looked back up at Jin's sleeping visage and gave a small sigh of content. She debated about staying here for the rest of the day, ignoring the fighting and killing and fear for a day… but she knew Jin wouldn't allow it. Jin was determined to ensure their survival and that meant getting more points to gear up and finding those other Trials.

Today, though, they would finally be going somewhere new. Basima had finally convinced Jin to use her Pathfinder Talent to reach the center of the floor and scout out the floor boss they would need to face if they had any hope of reaching the second floor. They had debated for days about the risk. The Fighters were avoiding it for a reason but Alim had pointed out repeatedly that if they didn't get strong enough to fight the boss themselves, the Fighters would kill them at the Ascent. There was always only one door to the next floor which created the bottle neck.

The only saving grace is if they could make it through that door, there was a good chance that they would be teleported away from the other teams. The current complication from that, however, was Liraz. While Basima was fairly certain that as long as Liraz was holding on to a Servant she would be teleported with the group, she wasn't positive since there were so few instances of people branching away from their Sect.

As the sunlight began to peek through the tiny window above the bed that wouldn't even fit a head through, Basima decided waiting any longer would only make Jin grumpier. Luckily, she had found the perfect trick to avoid that morning grumpiness.

She gently kissed the sleeping Wayfarer and felt her stomach do a flip at the soft moan it elicited from Jin. Pulling back to see her face, Jin blinked a few times before quietly whispering with a small smirk, "Why did you stop?"

"Because you hate when Alim teases you for being late to breakfast."

Jin huffed. "It was bad enough when I thanked him for the sound barrier. Now he always teases me before bed."

Basima chuckled and couldn't help but ask, "What did he say last night?"

"He reminded me that just because nobody can hear us doesn't mean it stops the cabin from shaking," she replied with a grimace. Jin shifted to turn onto her side and asked, "We're not really that bad, right?"

"I wouldn't have said any of it was bad," she said with a mischievous grin. "I rather like it when you shake the whole cabin."

"You are so not the innocent girl everyone thinks you are," Jin playfully accused her as she sat up and stretched before searching the bed for her discarded clothing.

"Maybe the naughty woman from another world stole that innocence."

Jin snorted a laugh. "I definitely didn't teach you that thing you did with your tongue."

"Are you complaining?"

"I never said that," Jin retorted with a grin, climbing out of the bed to don the armor over the silver uniform. "Come on. Let's go make sure Alim doesn't get a chance to scold me for staying up late again."

Basima finished getting her own leather armor on before taking Jin's hand and letting herself be led downstairs. Sure enough, Alim and Hadia were both working on breakfast already while Liraz was placing some smaller plates they had bartered for onto the low table they all normally ate around.

They knocked on Karam's door on the way knowing he had the roughest shift normally in the middle of the night as second watch, but he had insisted on it so that Basima could trade the third shift off with Hadia every other night. His argument was that his abilities didn't require him to make as quick of a decision in combat as the attackers did, and it had been hard to argue against that point.

"So, you can't target the boss directly you said, but you can target a specific location like the 'center of the floor' without having been there before, right?" Jin clarified as they all tucked in to eat.

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Basima nodded, quickly finishing chewing her bite before adding, "Yeah, directions and distances are pretty easy. If I have a very clear picture in my mind of the object I want it seems to work too. I had Kar hide the flower crown in the underbrush and was able to find it instantly."

She thought back to a few of the other tests she had tried over the last week. "Liraz hid an item that I hadn't seen before and it didn't seem to work at all but I got some vague reaction the more Liraz described the item to me."

Lifting her palm up to show the others, what looked like a compass rose glowed against her palm with an arrow pointing northward, and she explained further, "I'm currently thinking about the center of the floor and believe we're in the southern section currently. We need to head almost directly north to reach the center and this little compass will let us know when we reach it. From there, we can search around until we find the boss or its lair."

"I assume the boss isn't going to be like the typical random encounters we've been running into so far, right?"

"Definitely not," Hadia interjected, not bothering to finish chewing as she spoke around her food. "It's gonna be big and nasty or small and deadly." She paused a moment to glance out the nearest window in thought before correcting, "Actually, it might be average size but creepy to match this forest. Maybe something incorporeal like a ghost?" She posed it as a question to the others, signing it as best she could, which was better than Basima was doing with the Whisper signs so far.

"Incorporeals don't usually show on the first floor," Alim wrote in the air in response while adamantly shaking his head. "It would be a death sentence to most. It usually takes a few Spirit Gems to unlock something that can counter them."

"I know but I wouldn't be surprised with the gods obviously wanting us dead," Hadia retorted, sending a pointed look toward Jin.

"Hey, those assholes decided not to Bless any of you before my name was even called," Jin said in her defense. "You can't blame me for that, Miss Flip-Off-The-Gods."

Karam snorted a laugh as Basima almost choked on her water.

"Are we going to fight the boss when we find it?" Liraz signed to the group. Basima had found it interesting that the girl seemed to prefer signing even though she could hear and speak just fine. She could only assume it was a product of her upbringing but didn't push when she noticed the pained expression Li would make when she asked about her parents.

"No," Jin stated bluntly with curt hand signs. That was another thing Basima had struggled to recognize about the silent language; how you signed something actually mattered to convey tone. Harsh, abrupt movements easily conveyed anger or annoyance while it almost seemed like a flowing script when the hands danced fluidly through the motions making their happiness apparent. It took her far too long to realize that the whole body was used to fully communicate with it rather than just stilted hand gestures.

"We're going to scout," Jin continued after a beat. "If the Fighters are nervous about taking it on, I'm not going to send us on a suicide mission just to beat them to it."

Nobody argued against that logic, and they quickly finished their meal to begin heading out for the day. It was fairly quiet for the first hour they walked, everyone remaining on alert and not wanting to attract unwanted attention.

The second hour was less quiet.

"Shit, don't let it run, Bas!" Jin called out after impaling one of the Ironhorns through the neck just as it was about to slam into Alim. The [Mark of the Aggressor] Alim had cast on it had done well to get it into a predictable position but it was always a risky move while Alim still didn't have armor of his own even with the slime on the ground creating a sticky moat around him.

Basima whipped her head around to spot the other monster that had been with the Ironhorn, already pouring mana into her [Death From Afar] ability. The rare variant of it was called an Ironhide and would flee as soon as its pair went down. They had lost one before due to the odd behavior trigger.

Narrowing her gaze onto the target, she continued pouring mana into charging up her next shot as she aimed her finger at the fleeing doe. "May the arcane arrow fly true!" she finally said before it could vanish into the mists.

Its skull shattered as her attack hit its mark and she turned to give Jin a brilliant smile.

"Yes!" Jin cheered, thrusting a fist into the air. "Great job everyone!"

"Finally got one of those rare spawns," Alim happily signed. "Are you going to spend all the loot essence you've been saving up on it?"

"Hell, yeah, I am," Jin replied immediately. Then paused and corrected, "I mean, Abyss, yeah. It's going to take me some time to adjust to that. It's still weird to me that you all actually have a heaven and hell equivalent."

"I told you a dozen times by now that the Celes and Abyss are nothing like what you described as heaven and hell," Hadia retorted as she dusted off her pants.

"You literally said the gods reside in the Celes, and fucking demons live in the Abyss—"

"Daemons."

"Same shit," Jin grumbled. "And you're sure angels aren't a thing?"

Hadia shrugged and glanced at Basima and she had to shrug as well before explaining, "We have old records from Wayfarers talking about beings in other realities called Aengels that reside in the Celes, but none of the deities or their disciples in this world have confirmed it. We don't know why we might be different."

"Enough with the divinity talk and get to looting," Hadia interjected, waving Jin toward the monster corpses. "We're eating daylight if we want to scout out the center and get back to the base before nightfall."

Jin huffed in annoyance but brushed her hand against the Ironhorn first, making it instantly breakdown into grey ash to increase the loot essence before walking over to the Ironhide. Basima fell in step beside her and took the moment to slip her hand into Jin's to softly squeeze it.

"Are you okay?" she quietly asked.

"Of course. Why do you ask?"

"I saw that blank look on your face again when you thought you weren't going to make it in time to save Alim," she murmured, not wanting the others to overhear them.

Jin paused and looked at her, the mask of indifference swiftly falling into place and Basima frowned. "I'm fine," she stated more firmly. "It helps me not panic, and I did make it in time."

"I just wanted to make sure you weren't beating yourself up for—"

"I'm not," Jin interjected, but Bas was pretty sure it was a lie with the way her hand tensed. "It was almost a mistake, and either way I'll do better next time."

As they reached the Ironhide, Jin squatted down this time to brush a finger along the shimmery metallic fur. It took only a few seconds longer before the monster began to disintegrate and Basima was surprised to see not one but two items sitting on the ground at Jin's feet.

Jin picked up the sparkling jewel first and Basima gasped at the sight of it. "That's a Spirit Gem," she exclaimed.

"Looks like it. An Ironhide Spirit Gem to be precise," Jin said, lifting it up to hand over to her. "You said those unlock more abilities once we're Crystal Caste, right?"

"Right…" Basima paused, glancing back at the others who seemed to be talking with each other as Liraz cleaned up her slime mess. When she was sure the others weren't paying attention she quietly asked, "But how did you know what kind it was?"

Jin completely froze, that indecipherable mask slammed firmly in place as she glanced up to meet her gaze. For a moment, Basima was sure Jin would refuse to answer, but she eventually said, "One of my Talents. It shows me information about magic objects like the Bracelets do for your abilities."

Basima frowned. "Why didn't you tell us that you—"

"I didn't want anyone to know," she replied simply, looking away to pick up the other item before standing to face her again. "I didn't trust anyone and didn't know who was watching all of us…"

As they stared at each other silently for another heartbeat, Jin lifted a hand to brush it against her cheek as she quietly added, "But I trust you, Bas. If you want to know more about my other Talents, we'll talk tonight, okay?"

"You know what they are?"

Jin nodded. "Yes, but they're not that important right now. What is important is that this Aspect is definitely meant for you."

Basima glanced down to the little metal figurine of an Ironhide doe that Jin was placing into her hands. "What is it?"

The smile Jin gave her that broke through that frustrating mask almost made Basima's heart stop with the rush of happiness it caused. "It's a Balance Aspect. Now absorb it quickly so I can see you dance like you've always wanted to."