Page 6 of Jeweler to the Blessed (Champions of Chaos #1)

When we arrived in Woodside at our building, I waved to Jasmine and Serena as they dipped into their first-floor apartments.

Since Mother couldn’t work and Father spent much of his time caring for her, we all lived together.

While it made sense financially, I counted having my own space as a fringe benefit of leaving the city.

The building held twenty units, most of which were filled with families like mine. I sighed in relief as I leaned against the cool stone wall and looked up the empty staircase. Scaling the three floors to my family’s apartment was much preferable to the streets of Lower Hill.

Though I doubted many shared my assessment, I found our hallway welcoming.

Sure, the walls were gray stone, covered in a dinge that never entirely scrubbed clean, but each doorway had its own attempt at comfort.

Some doors boasted white banners that matched those in the streets, representing the Blessed and the Selection celebration.

Our door had vines arranged into a circle.

These were from the Oldwood too. A further attempt to surround myself with the enigmatic forest, to soothe my reaction to it.

The door was unlocked.

“Father, what have I said about the lock?” I walked down the entryway into the open room encompassing the kitchen, dining room, and living space. He still hadn’t turned from where he stood by the hearth, a fire crackling and a skillet set up to make breakfast.

“Father.” I tried again. He looked so disheveled. His hair was uncombed, and his tunic untucked, the buttons off by one all the way down.

“What work do we have today, Emberline?” He finally glanced up as I silently took his place and ushered him to a seat in the living space.

“We have two rings to finish today.” I was most excited to finish the one Matthew had commissioned for Jasmine.

He waved away my accomplishment as he sat on the chair. “Anything after that?”

I shook my head. “All eyes will be on the Selection and the ceremonies starting tomorrow. I’m sure commissions will return when it’s over.”

I frowned. At least, I hoped business would return. Alaric would take care of Mother and Father. I couldn’t worry too much about my decision to leave, though, as with Jasmine’s teasing that I wouldn’t really do it, I wasn’t sure Father truly accepted my imminent departure either.

Father cleared his throat, pulling me from my thoughts. “I hate this time of year too.”

The Blessed who took too much from Mother did so the night of Selection Festival. While Mother’s condition was never far from my thoughts, it hadn’t been the focus of my current melancholy. I empathized with Father anyway. “I know.”

“She asked about you—after the earthshake.”

“I was at Alaric’s. We were fine.”

Father’s face hardened. Whether from the mention of Alaric or the earthshake at the mines, I couldn’t be sure. I was confident Father would have cut off contact with Alaric years ago if he wasn’t essential to Mother’s treatment. They never quite saw eye to eye—especially about me.

I returned my attention to breakfast. “A Blessed man came by Alaric’s shop today, while I was there. It seemed like they were … friends.”

No matter how much they disagreed, Father knew more about Alaric than I did, and I was desperate to see if he knew anything about the stranger.

“Alaric doesn’t have friends. He has projects.”

I couldn’t help but hear the implication that I, too, was only a project to Alaric.

“Do you know where Uncle gets the herbs for Mother’s medicine?”

Father stood from the chair, heading for the desk in the corner of the room. “Why do you ask?”

Was that worry etching his voice? He rifled through the desk drawers. It didn’t surprise me since it concerned Mother’s health.

“The man said Alaric was late picking it up.”

Father’s back was to me, but his shoulders visibly tensed, and I could hear his following words through clenched teeth. “How late?”

Immediately, I knew this line of inquiry had been a mistake. It would only anger Father and further distance him and Alaric. I really should have seen that coming, but I’d been driven by my desire to know whatever Father did about Alaric.

“Just a day. It sounded like he would pick it up tonight,” I said.

“What exactly did they say?”

I considered this. The man had been very clear that he expected Alaric this evening. Had Alaric responded? The earthshake had cut off the conversation. “I’m not sure, but Alaric has never been late with Mother’s medicine. ”

“He’s also never been late picking up the youngleaf,” Father grumbled.

The stranger had said that too.

“Ember, is that you?” Mother called from the bedroom.

No matter how hard I tried not to, I flinched at the lack of inflection in her voice.

She had been such a vibrant woman. Mother had once confronted the Blessed daily as a cook in one of their households and still brought a radiant happiness home with her every evening.

We’d prepare the evening meal as a family and sit around the hearth telling stories from the day.

Her rich laughter had been my favorite part of our evenings together as a child.

Sometimes, I’d make up adventures of stealing away from the shop, braving the Oldwood, and running deep into the mines.

I’d tell Mother that something called to me there.

That there were more than snakes slithering down pathways, chasing after mice.

There was an animal out there that was meant to be my friend.

A glint would shine in Mother’s eye, one I was always excited to bring forth.

Then she’d reach for me and say she hoped that was true, but I better not let a bigger, scaled creature get me first. The tale would devolve into a frenzy of giggling as she tickled me where the fabled creature would bite.

Thinking back on it now, it didn’t seem like a typical story for a child. But what is typical? It was ours, and I missed it—desperately.

“Ember,” she called softly again from her room.

Whatever it was, it was gone now.

“Coming, Mother.”

Father crossed the room again, meeting me before the fire. His voice was low. I almost thought I imagined it. “If Alaric misses tonight’s pickup, you must go to Forest’s Edge to retrieve it before you leave.”

My breath caught. It was the first time he’d acknowledged my plan. If Alaric missed the pickup tonight, we’d have bigger problems than me collecting the youngleaf. I held Father’s stern gaze. Something balled in his fist drew my attention: a piece of paper with Alaric’s familiar scrawl visible.

“Your mother is waiting.”

I knew a dismissal when I heard it. I shook my head and walked down the hall to her room. At least she wasn’t still in bed. She sat in the wooden chair by the window with a book in her lap.

She gestured to the bed. “I thought I heard your voice. Come sit with me.”

I perched on the corner of my parents’ old mattress.

Mother’s bright blue eyes looked a cool gray today.

It was one of the signs indicating she needed more medicine.

I knew how to use the youngleaf to make the tonic, but before today, I’d not had cause to wonder where it came from.

If it came from Forest’s Edge, it couldn’t be legal.

“How was your morning?” Mother pulled me from my thoughts.

I folded my hands in my lap, always a little unsure how much she’d engage. “It was fine. I was with Alaric.”

“How is he holding up?”

Something stung behind my eyes at the question. Mother was especially alert to notice.

She held out her hand. “I didn’t mean to make you feel bad, baby. We’ve talked about this. You have to do what’s right for you. It’s all any of us want.”

My head turned toward the living room and Father. It wasn’t necessarily true of him.

Mother reached for my hand, and I knelt beside her so she could pat it. “You know it’s not entirely his fault. He’s not protected like we are. ”

“Why not?”

“Sweetie, that’s his choice. It’s easier for him to let the magic overtake him on my bad days.”

That was news to me. I wasn’t even sure I knew what that meant.

She wasn’t immune to the Blessed taking from her.

It was hard to tell given her overall lack of energy, but I thought she was implying the mind magics like calm and persuasion didn’t affect her.

Her gaze went distant before I could ask follow-up questions, and a faint smile curled her lip. “Did Alaric give you a passage?”

He’d had one ready for her the moment I arrived this morning. “Let me grab it.”

I jogged down the hallway to retrieve the copied words from Champions of Kavios .

Whether she talked about the passage he wrote was hit or miss, but her lips usually twitched toward a smile when I read them.

Her gaze locked on mine as I returned to my seat on the bed, pulling off the ribbon and unrolling the paper.

Chaos may have cursed him, but she had bigger plans.

This was a little … useless. The Cursed King was Order’s Champion, her favored.

The text said something drove him to reject his fate, to confront Chaos instead of waiting to fight her champion—I imagined hubris.

Chaos didn’t take kindly to anyone making demands of her, especially her sister’s pet, so she cursed him .

I’m not sure anyone knew how.

The Siblings weren’t known for their care for humans, those with magic or those without. Their champions were often described as little more than playing pieces on a gameboard. Maybe Chaos had bigger plans when she cursed her sister’s champion, but I didn’t think she cared too much.

This wasn’t about my analysis. It was an exercise for Mother’s mind. I glanced at her as I finished reading the line. Her eye glistened, the rim overflowing as a tear fell to her cheek. I set the paper on the mattress and knelt before her. “Are you alright, Mother? What is it?”

She took my hand and squeezed it in her lap. Her grip was light, as if she lacked the strength to do more.

“Be careful, Ember.” She wiped at the droplet with one hand.

“What’s wrong?”

She shook her head. The hand that still held mine squeezed again.

“The meal is ready,” Father called from the living space.

I wanted to push Mother further, but she shook her head again as if responding to my unspoken prod.

“Do you want to come out for breakfast? Or should I bring you a plate?”

She let me go, her hands bracing on the arms of the chair as she strove to rise from her seat. My heart broke anew as she tried, but her body wasn’t lifting. Her strength must be at an all-time low.

I swallowed thickly, working to clear the emotion from my voice before I spoke. “I’ll bring you some.”

After delivering the food and fleeing her room, I quickly ate my own.

It was time to open the shop, and though unease about Alaric sat heavy in my stomach, the youngleaf, the Oldwood, and leaving my home, I was ready to complete my last day of work as a jeweler in Kavios.

It would be a bittersweet accomplishment to finish the final rings.

As with the one for Jasmine, I knew they’d get used at tomorrow’s festival. I just wouldn’t be there to see it.