Page 16 of Petals for Deadly Power

Lenna wasn’t even sure she was ready to start thinking about who the striver for each ordeal would be, let alone what they would do with the crystal feathers if they never found the next step. At least they would probably make nice decorations.

Even with all the doubts, Lenna didn’t need convincing that it was still worth risking their lives if getting the Fifth was the only way to get rid of the Organ Mandor once and for all.

“Where are the ordeals?” Lenna asked.

Jake smirked. “Well, that’s a separate issue altogether.”

9

Hope

Hopewasgladthather half-brother and Ciaran had finally arrived at some conclusions.

Five strivers, one for each of the five ordeals, to get a crystal feather from each Cardinal. All so the strivers could prove their worthiness to the goddesses, in the hopes that they would be granted the Fifth Power.

Yes, there were unanswered questions. And yes, she didn’t care that much about them. Hope had lived with a lack of clear answers for almost a quarter of a century. It was not the end of the world.

The red-haired woman with golden eyes stole Hope’s next question. “Where are the ordeals?”

“Well, that’s a separate issue altogether,” Jake said.

Ciaran continued, “We couldn’t find a single book that said exactly where the ordeals take place. Maybe no one ever wrote about this. Personally, I think the Cardinals made sure no written word was on Terrha.”

“Shady bitches,” Brendon muttered, earning a stare from Lenna that could very possibly kill, and a nod from Jake.

Ciaran walked to the table and put his metallic palm flat in the center of the Core. “Everything begins in the Cardinals Temple. The crusade seems to be a recreation of how the Cardinals created Thyria. They want the strivers to understand what each of them went through, how each goddess channeled her unique power into the world. Only by experiencing what they suffered and truly owning each magic, can an ordeal be survived.”

Hope bit her tongue to keep from interrupting. She walked towards the panom shape on the table, her biceps accidentally brushing Ciaran’s metal arm and sending a trail of goosebumps up her shoulders and neck. His night and pine scent inundated her nostrils, and she fought to keep from closing her eyes. He smelled like home, and she missed the pine woods of Verdania so much.

“If everything begins with the Cardinals Temple as the pivotal reference of the land they created, it makes sense for the ordeals to be in equivalent latitudes and longitudes,” she said.

“Did anyone understand a single word?” Sasha asked, her brown, wild curls shaping her pretty face with dark eyes.

Lenna laughed out loud, some people muttered some words, and next to Hope, there was silence. She lifted her stare to meet Ciaran’s. He was looking at her as if it was the first time he had seen her.

Luckily, this time, she was not throwing one dagger after another at him.

“Imagine parallel lines that circle our planet, Terrha, running horizontally.” Hope looked at Sasha and Lenna and waited for them to nod before continuing. “Now imagine the main latitude line crossed the Cardinals Temple, as if it was slicing it from the East to the West. If I were the East Cardinal, I would put my ordeal right in that line, towards the East.”

“Like slicing a cake in four pieces,” Nina said with a bright smile that reached her ocean-blue eyes. “Except the cake is the Cardinals Temple, and the two cutting lines go from North to South, and East to West.”

Hope nodded. She took a step backwards from the table and asked, “Do you know if the ordeals are on land or water?”

Jake answered this time. “That is the issue—the ordeals clearly are notinThyria, but outside.”

“What do you mean,outside?” Lenna spat. “There is nothing outside.”

“Oh, there very much is,” Jake bit his bottom lip, as if he was enjoying seeing Lenna riled up and about to arrive to the same conclusion that Hope just had.

“Please, no.” Lenna covered her eyes with a hand. “Not the fucking Radel Sea.”

“Very much the fucking Radel Sea,” Jake confirmed.

“Onthe Radel Sea, orinthe Radel Sea?” Hope frowned.

She had spent way too many weeks in the underwater tunneled Vessels traveling in a cellholt vehicle from Verdania to Thyria. The end of that trip had ended with lots of deaths. She didn’t care about the tons of roixers they had killed, but the memory of the six dead courtrades gave her a painful sting in her chest. She hadn’t known them personally. Not like Nina, who didn’t struggle to socialize, and Hope had no doubt remembered all their names. All Hope remembered were the words of the leading courtrade, Marcus Olanett.

“May the stars not hinder their darkness. May Llunal shade them all,” he’d prayed. Llunal, the god who gave courtrades their shadows and their whispers of night.

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