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Lenna

W hat the Cardinals’ fuck was this woman thinking?

That Hope had asked Jake to give free reign to his imagination, creating a scenario for them, meant three things.

1. Hope had no clue her half-brother’s mind was as dark as they came.

2. She was utterly dauntless.

3. They were about to be in for a treat, and Jake would make sure it wasn’t an easy one.

The growing side smile on the face of the gorgeous man Lenna spent day and night worshiping was a dangerous reminder that Jake did not like limits or boundaries. Well, he liked them in the sense that he enjoyed stepping on them, breaking and twisting them until they were dust.

As if Jake had read the honest worry in her frown, he whispered in her ear, “Don’t be so worried, my golden girl. You wouldn’t be my woman if you didn’t like a challenge.”

Lenna wanted to threaten him and tell him to be careful with what he came up with, unless he wanted his balls to suffer challenges in multiple ways, but she bit her tongue. Maybe it would truly be a useful chance to practice the four powers they had mastered. Especially if they were planning to obtain the Fifth Power in the near future.

“Don’t break my house,” Ciaran warned from the archway.

“I wouldn’t dare,” Jake said. “I can behave like a civilized guest.”

Lenna lifted her eyebrows. “That doesn’t mean you do.”

Jake winked at her, and her blood wanted to warm up thinking about all the ways he was everything but civilized and controlled. Her blood didn’t have time, though.

Jake’s arms expanded in front of his chest, and he opened his hands—those very skilled hands— and Gave a floating red crystal orb in the middle of the Badassery Suite.

Lenna hadn’t missed the damned orbs.

As soon as it appeared, Ayla, Hope, and Lenna readjusted their positions. They formed an equilateral triangle, all of them keeping a safe distance from the orb in the middle.

From Lenna’s spot, she saw Ayla extending her arms in front of her, ready to wield her powers depending on what happened next. Lenna’s own hands were half opened closer to her body, keeping the gravitational center stable. She didn’t need to see Hope to know her hands were on her blades, the ever-present companions of the black-eyed and black-haired woman.

The orb cracked loudly, and three red-feathered arrows shot towards the three of them simultaneously.

Lenna closed her hand and Took the arrow away, making it vanish. Ayla opened her hand to Give an invisible wall, and the arrow hit against it, breaking before falling on the floor. Hope moved a step to the side and caught the arrow by the shaft mid-air and then Gave a spark of fire that combusted the whole thing in a few seconds.

“I doubt the Cardinals will appreciate the use of red feathers in arrows,” Ayla said, not putting her hands down.

“I appreciate the appreciation. Our goddesses are welcome to come and complain.” Lenna didn’t need to look at Jake to know he couldn’t care less about bothering the five red Cardinals who created Thyria.

The next crack of the orb was followed by ten arrows aimed at each of them, and Lenna was too fucking busy Taking the arrows away before they hit her to spare a glance at the others to see their strategies. Hope didn’t have ten hands to catch so many arrows, that was for sure.

Lenna Took two arrows away before realizing their speed would make it difficult to vanish all of them in time. She Gave herself a metallic shield to hold which was painfully heavy but sufficient, so the eight remaining arrows collided against it.

Now she was safe until Jake Gave them another brilliant scenario, she saw Ayla protected behind the same invisible wall as before, more arrows spread on the surrounding floor.

Lenna turned around to see that Hope had taken matters into her own hands and—

“How the actual Fifth have you cut every single arrow in half?” Lenna frowned.

“With my daggers.”

“Without magic?” Lenna asked. Hope nodded, swallowing and looking slightly disappointed. Was she disappointed in herself for not having used magic? As if she had remembered that the practice today was meant to be magic and not blades, Hope Took the twenty halves away, making them disappear.

“But how ? They were fast,” Lenna insisted.

Hope looked slightly puzzled, as if she found explaining something as basic was really complicated. Except there wasn’t anything basic in what she had done, and there shouldn’t be that much complication in explaining her steps.

“The arrows were aligned in two parallel lines and equally distant. I stepped forward a few steps to be in the middle of both lines and I cut them top to bottom when the time and distance were right.”

Lenna’s golden eyes widened. Every time she thought she got used to the extreme abilities the heir of the Organ House had, Hope proved they had yet to see so much more. “Cardinals fucking guide me,” Lenna whispered. Ayla muttered something that sounded like agreement.

Lenna looked at Jake, wondering if that had been the whole display and they had been lucky that evening. Jake only said, “Eyes not on me, Brachyan.”

Lenna snorted while turning around. She doubted he would say that line many other times.

The crystal orb made a gulping noise, and total darkness followed, then silence.

Lenna Gave an invisible shield around her, unable to see if anything came out of the orb but hearing a clear hiss on the ground.

Lenna inhaled sharply, her jaw tensing. If Jake had brought a slithering beast to the room, she was going to destroy him. Later. When and if they made sure the beast didn’t destroy them first.

Red sparks floated across the room, coming from Hope’s hands, illuminating it slightly. Lenna Gave her golden sparks, the same hue as the panom mark between her breasts, making them float around as well. Ayla’s came after.

She wished she could stop and contemplate how beautiful the three colors looked together. Lenna’s golden sunshine, Ayla’s silver moonlight, and Hope’s Cardinal-red sparks.

Especially as the hissing creature was nowhere to be seen and it had stopped dragging its body through the floor. Maybe it thrived in darkness alone.

The orb made another noise and Took every single spark away, as if it had swallowed them. Blackness surrounded them, and the three young women Gave another set of sparks, stronger and brighter this time, before the orb absorbed them again.

For a couple of minutes, the three of them Gave, and Gave, and Gave, only to be thrust back to darkness every time the orb ingested their lights.

Lenna could feel the balance of Giving so much without Taking tilting the inner magical balance that kept her safe. Giving and Taking were opposite poles of the same scale, as the North and South Petals, origins of said powers, also were direct opposites. The same happened with Healing and Harming, the powers of the West and East Petals, except these were harder to master and drained the panom wielder faster, in most cases.

Each panom reacted differently when their inner scale was uneven, and the slight blurriness in her mind, beginning of cold sweat on her forehead, and growing dizziness were signs that Lenna was pushing her inner scale more than she should.

There were only a few things she could Take to compensate her inner balance: the invisible shield, which she would only do over her dead fucking body until the hissing beast was gone; her own clothes, which she wouldn’t mind if she didn’t hope they were an extra layer of protection against the creature; and her own health, which was likely to happen sooner rather than later if she Gave much more, anyway.

The lights were swallowed by the orb again, and the last thing Lenna saw before the darkness and the hissing returned was Ayla pressing her palms against her eyes with a painful moan.

“Lenna, Ayla, please stop. You look unwell,” Hope said.

Lenna would have made a comment about unwell being a very kind and generous description of their ridiculous condition, but she wasn’t sure if she could talk and hold the content of her guts in at the same time.

Hope removed her shield. She Gave herself a sword and ran towards the orb, smashing it in pieces, all their sparks exploding into the room in a nebulous of red, golden, and silver light.

A hissing creature was cornered. Hope tilted her head. Was she considering letting it go?

“Out now. Please,” Lenna begged.

“I’m thinking whether to Harm it, kill it the traditional way, or Take it away,” Hope explained without taking her eyes away from her target.

Right. So many options.

After what seemed like an endless moment, Hope Harmed the beast, twisting its body over itself until it was a pile of pulp. Lenna was glad her sight was blurry. She Took away her invisible shield and felt the slightest improvement.

Hope walked towards Ayla, who was still covering her eyes with her hands with a grimace. She opened her hands until the room became a forest. Grass, moss, and flowers covered the ground, trees towering over bushes and plants. Only someone who had been raised in the woods could recreate one with magic with such precision. It was obvious Hope had lived and grown up in the woods of Verdania for twenty-four years.

Hope hovered her hands in circular motions atop Ayla’s eyes. The green-eyed twin whispered her gratitude, her contorted features relaxing as Hope Healed the consequences of her inner scale being unbalanced. When Ayla could open her eyes slightly and finally take in the forest surrounding them, her body shook with the sudden change in the Badassery Suite.

Hope asked Lenna, “Do you need Healing, Lenna? Or do you think you can Take bits of the forest away until your inner scale is reestablished?”

“I can tidy up this beautiful mess, even though a part of me feels sorry. It’s gorgeous.”

Hope smiled with melancholy. “Thank you.”

“But please Take away the hissing pulp, who thank fuck isn’t hissing anymore. I will owe you a favor for the rest of my existence.”

Hope closed her hand and the leftovers of the beast were gone.

Ciaran had stood all this time in the archway, analyzing everything as he always did. He walked towards a red rose and picked it up with his metallic arm. “We must start planning our next moves.”