Page 14 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

Nina was sleeping in their house, eating at their table, and if she wanted mother and her dead, she would have probably killed them already. Or, better said, she would have tried to kill them.

Hope didn’t know how good Nina was fighting or if she was versed with weapons, but she knew how mother and herself fought, and she genuinely doubted many people would stand a chance against either of them, least to say against both at the same time. But Hope realized she did not only trust Nina because she had not killed or attempted to kill them, but also because she was… Vulnerable. And the closest thing to a friend she had ever had.

Aurora looked at Hope’s dark eyes, assessing her question and the silent statement that Nina was to be trusted, and gave the smallest nod to Hope.

“I worked in the Roix in Thyria before we were discarded here twenty-four years ago,” mother explained, looking through the window as if remembering it. Nina’s eyes widened to a point Hope could see the whole blue iris surrounded by white. “It’s not something I am proud of. I… I was obeying orders from the Rulers, but the blood landed on my hands, not theirs.” Mother swallowed and continued. “I did many things I will never forgive myself for.”

Nina couldn't keep her scared blue eyes off Aurora's. She cautiously put her hands on her lap. “Even if you... worked at the Roix. Why did you own a compassom?”

“I should have specified I was the Roix Reigner,” mother said, an apologetic plea in her semi-black eyes. “My compassom was broken on my last mission as a Reigner.”

“Fucking Cardinals,” Nina muttered and put her elbows on the table while covering her eyes with both hands.

“What's this compassom thing?” Hope asked. A small part of her was glad her mother was explaining more things. Important things. But she couldn't help and be pissed at the fact that mother had just explained more things to Nina than to her in her whole damned life.

“It's a device the five Rulers of the five Houses of Thyria and the Reigner of the Roix use to... detect panoms,” her mother said, as if fighting against herself to say the last two words out loud.

"Detect what?" Hope asked more sharply than she wanted.

"Cardinals spare us," Nina lifted her head from her hands to give a come-on type glance to Hope's mother, as if she couldn't believe she hadn't told Hope.

Aurora gave a sharp look to Nina, her mouth in a thin line. A silent warning that she would not allow Nina judging how she parented or her relationship with Hope.

“Panoms have special abilities. Magical abilities. All the Rulers are panoms and their blood lines have the potential to become one,” mother said. Well, maybe that would explain why the Rulers were so feared and respected within Verdania. That and the fact that whenever a villager crossed one of the many invisible lines, the Roix had orders from the Rulers to get rid of them. From Nina's reaction, it looked like the respect out of fear was present in Thyria, too.

“Panoms have the four-petal mark magically inked on their skin during the Fifth Ceremony. But... the symbol is present on the skin of a potential panom since birth. It's not visible, but it's there. And the compassom allows to see it.”

Hope felt a list of questions piling up in her mind, but before she could decide which one to shoot first, her mother continued, now leaning to sit on top of the lower and more robust shelves of the treehouse's main room. “Compassoms shouldn't exist. There are secrets that are best kept that way.”

Aurora got the papers out of the box. They looked a bit discolored, but the black ink was readable. Hope was handed a bunch of them. Some of them looked like drafts of maps. She continued eyeing the pages, and she realized she was reading lists of roixers’ names, ranks, physical features such as scars and permanent inks, average age, and...

“Which House owns them? Seriously?“

Mother sighed and nodded, taking a deep breath. “When we become part of the Roix, we resign to our own will and family. We resign to our freedom and we technically become property of the Houses, even though we are only allowed to answer to the Ruler of said House, the Roix Reigner, and the Organ Mandor.”

Hope remembered the political terms from the lessons her mother had taught her over the years. Only mother had clearly “forgotten” to mention that said Rulers were damned magical panoms. Hope tried to avoid rolling her eyes at the exasperating thought.

The Organ Mandor was the Ruler of the Organ House, in the circular area in the middle of the four-petal shape of Thyria. All the other Houses were connected to the Organ, and even though the cardinal Rulers, from the North, South, East and West Houses, had the power to mandate within their own territories, they ultimately had to answer to the Organ Mandor.

Hope’s mind was spinning in circles. “If you had to resign from your own family, how did you have me?”

Mother closed her eyes. Her face was unreadable, even for Hope. She simply said, “We will have this conversation another time, Hope.”

Hope realized Nina was sitting there, even though her stillness and silence had almost made her forget her presence.

Hope had been waiting for answers for years. Years. She had asked for them, only to get silence or a straight no as an answer. Repeatedly. This time, Hope did not even bother to hide her desperation.

Mother seemed to know exactly what she was thinking. “Soon, Hope. I promise,” mother said, putting her hand on Hope’s shoulder with a reassuring touch.

Hope said nothing and pretended to read the lists of names she had in front of her as if she cared about them, silently trying to avoid the tears building in her eyes. Soon. She had heard that dreaded word so many times she had lost count.

But she had made a promise. At least she had that. Her mother never broke a promise. This promise was not specific enough to mean much, though. “Soon” could be a day, a week, or a year, for all she knew. Hope breathed in and out, trying to get her frustration off her chest.

Nina moved on her chair opposite Hope and drastically shifted her position to face Aurora, who had gone back to sit on top of the shelf in front of the window. Hope appreciated the small privacy of not having anyone directly facing her as she wiped the corner of her eyes.

“So the plan is to enter the Roix quarters?” Nina said in an incredulous voice, as if she couldn’t believe what she was saying. “I can think of another hundred ways I’d prefer to die”, she said with a short panicked laugh. Hope agreed, her tears drying as fast as a lightning.

Aurora chuckled, as if realizing how stupid it sounded. “The Roix must know what happened in the cave. Especially because there was the panom symbol carved on the wall. At least the higher ranks must know. Or why that man wanted to kill you after the last Trading, for all that matters, since he knew about your brother too.”

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