Page 37 of Petals for Vicious Secrets

How the courtrades had put cameras on the outside of the membrane of the vessels would have been interesting, for sure.

Marcus pointed towards the glass wall next to the screens, the one showing the living map of the wider vessels net. “The way the vessels connect to each other is by merging membranes, so when we want to redirect some cargo to another destination, all we have to do is push it away. Physically redirect a vessel to connect to another one.”

Aurora nodded, her index finger on her chin. “And if someone or something is in the vessel that you move?”

“They would feel the vessel shake, sort of like a magical wave, the sorts of a panomquake, except on a very small scale, and only for a short time. I bet most times they think it's some sort of malfunction or a sea creature hitting it,” Marcus scratched his dark hair.

Aridian chuckled from another spot in front of the screens, “And thank Llunal for that.”

Nina's breathing had finally eased a bit, so Hope offered her a hand to stand up and they got closer to Marcus, Aurora, and Aridian.

Feeling the familiar sensation of her stomach rumbling, Hope asked, “So the plan is to get into a cellholt from the tunnel you have down there, and then someone will push vessel after vessel, over and over, until we reach Thyria? What if we reach a dead end?”

“That, my friend,” Marcus' dark eyes shone, “is the key to this game. The vessels always reconnect. Their nature makes them crave the connection to another one nearby. Their net exists to ensure the flow of the magic above them. There are no loose ends. Ever. And as for who will push the vessels, it will be me. Each cellholt has a living map that can be unlocked with panom blood. Your blood, in this case.”

Hope frowned without meaning to. The fact of having to go into a system of never-ending underwater magical-fueled tunnels was everything but promising.

Nina's blue eyes were wide and her eyebrows raised as she slowly shook her head. Two firm believers in this plan, they were.

Marcus stood up clapping his hands, “Lunchtime, everybody. Shall we?” Without looking backwards, he walked towards the dining room a few rooms down the corridor.

Courtrades of different ages and profiles occupied multiple long metal tables in orderly rows. All of them wearing black, the color these shadow-dancers seemed most comfortable in. All of them interacting with each other like a big family reunion.

The shock at how non-silent these meals were, how everyone seemed cheerful about being part of the group, had made Hope stop dead the first time she had entered the dining room. She hadn't even considered that this would be the normality for some people. Hadn't even realized it was an option.

She missed the peace of her meals in the treehouse, or by the lake, or in the woods. This was just... Too loud. Too overwhelming. It was almost impossible to avoid thinking way too much about her own life. About all the what-ifs. About what a mess of a life she had ended up living, how many times her soul had broken, and how many more it would be shattered again.

Bowl of hot soup and fresh piece of bread in hand, Hope and Nina found a spot in the middle of the unfamiliar social chaos.

Nina wiped her mouth with one of the cloth napkins distributed across the tables. Black napkins with white spirals and half circumferences sewn into them. “You will regret not eating this when we are en route and eating cold tinned meat and peas for Cardinals know how long.” Nina’s top lip curled in disgust at the thought.

Knowing how much truth those words bore, Hope forced herself to taste the soup. Which wasn’t an easy feat, considering the knot in her stomach had only grown exponentially since they had entered the courtrades’ quarters a few days ago.

A mix of emotions, that ever-increasing knot was. The strongest being the feeling that something in her was missing, but she couldn’t identify what. Overall, it was a big damned cocktail of emotions that threatened to implode sooner or later.

21

Lenna

Lenna wanted to throw the fucking orb across the room.

The main reason she was resisting the urge to smash the damned sphere was because she knew precisely which smug smile of satisfaction Jake would have if he realized she was so fucking pissed.

“Maybe it's not me, you know,” she said, her voice sharp as she put her hands on her hips. “The one who is useless at this.”

She half regretted her words immediately. Because how very mature of her to pass the ball of whose fault it was that she was so damn slow at learning to control her magic. But she needed to vent. They had been at this for days. For so many hours every day. It was fucking draining.

Jake snorted. “Of course it’s not you, sweetheart. Controlling your magic is everyone else’s responsibility but yours,” he smiled.

“Fuck off,” she spat. She was so done with this shit.

Except—no. Damn every single Cardinal one by one, but if there was anything she actually wanted was to control her powers, to learn how to use them, and to make a change and feel powerful enough to do so.

“I tried, okay? But clearly, this orb business is not working for me.” Lenna waved her hands across the room, at all the orbs floating or spread on the floor, most of them with golden sparks inside them. All she had done until now: Give them useless sparks in their very useless center. Not even close to Healing, probably what would be more useful in order to help Raoul.

Jake walked towards her as he said, “The original power of your House and the North Cardinal was Giving. It is expected that you will be more prone to gaining the control of this power.”

He put a hand under her chin, slowly lifting it until her golden eyes met his silver ones. He was so close she could smell his leather and ginger scent. Lenna had the impulse to push his fingers away from her skin, but his grave whisper stopped her. “You are harsh on yourself. And that, sweet fire, will take you very far.”

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