Jin had managed to get Marcus covered with a cloak and over to the Pleasure Sect’s area of the city easily enough, all things considered. Nobody really paid attention to the Servants normally, but her current red dress made her look more like she belonged in the Pleasure Sect, and she was able to blend into the crowd there even more.

  It was on her way back from dropping off Marcus that all of that mysterious Whisper’s efforts to keep her out of trouble were wasted. Apparently, the same dress that helped her blend in invited wandering hands, and she ended up punching and kicking three more people on her way back to her room.

  The Whisper didn’t step in for those ones, but that was probably because she hadn’t tried to stab them to death in the crowded streets.

  She was in the shower of her tiny room, trying to relax her sore and bruised muscles, when a furious knock came from the front door and she called out for them to wait.

  Jin wasn’t exactly surprised to find a fuming Salman staring down at her as he shoved his way inside and started yelling, “You attacked three innocent people in the middle of the streets after the lord you were supposed to be serving was murdered?!”

  “They were hardly innocent,” she muttered. “You don’t just grab people like that and—”

  “You are a Servant!” he shouted directly in her face. “You are meant to serve and be grateful for doing so!”

  “Yeah… That’s nice, but I’m not gonna bend on this one. Find me a job that won’t let entitled pricks order me to fuck them, and I won’t fuck them up instead.” At his slack-jawed stare, she added, “Really, this is all your fault for not understanding how I’d react to something like that. Aren’t you supposed to be better at managing us or something?”

  Salman’s jaw snapped shut, and she swore a vein on his forehead was going to explode with how furious he seemed as he said, “Thirty lashes and a day in confinement for the people you attacked. Then you’ll get your next assignment.”

  “Well, that’s not fair,” she muttered. “We just went over how this was all your fault—”

  Jin didn’t even see the hand that hit her before she slid down the wall that had stopped her flight through the air and was now gasping for breath.

  “Unlike you and Lord Nabil, I am not a Mundane. My job is to keep all of you working and obedient, and I demand the respect due to a Crystal Caster. I’ve put up with enough of your mouth, just like with Hadia. I’ll see to your punishment personally, and I hope it will be enough to teach you to hold your tongue before you lose it.”

  Jin had never been punished physically before. Her parents would take away things before they would ever resort to a spanking or anything like that, which some of her friends dealt with. She had gotten into a few fights in grade school when she was much younger, but nothing that caused a major injury. She had also gone through the pain of sickness that cancer had brought her, but nothing equated to the type of sharp, stinging instant pain that the lashes brought down on her exposed back.

  Salman didn’t go easy on her, and she suspected it was an effort to make her never want to experience this again. She had to admit it was pretty fucking effective as she found herself thinking of how she could have avoided this all if she had just ignored the grabby pricks earlier.

  She wasn’t exactly sure when or how she had passed out, but she woke up back in the dungeon cell she had been first brought to, or at least a very similar one. When she slowly sat up and looked around, she was surprised to find she wasn’t alone.

  “Oh. My. Gods! You really are that new Wayfarer everyone’s talking about, aren’t you?” the young blonde woman practically squealed in excitement. “Now I’m totally glad I ended up here tonight. Is it true that you fell from the sky onto the prince and shoved cake into his face?”

  The stranger had the palest complexion Jin had seen so far. That slightly suntanned skin and way of talking had her imagining the girl was a beach bunny from California.

  “Um, not quite, but close. I did fall from the sky, apparently,” Jin finally answered the outrageous rumor.

  “That’s so cool,” the cheerful girl said as she scooted closer to the bars of the cell directly across from Jin’s. “I’m Basima, by the way. A Servant like you.” She gestured to the gray dress she wore and added with a blush, “But I guess that’s, like, totally obvious.”

  She snorted a laugh. “Just a bit… I’m Jin.”

  Basima gave a brilliant smile. “Hi, Jin!”

  “Okay, you are way too cheerful for someone locked in a prison.”

  The blonde laughed. “I’m just so happy I got to meet you. Plus, that means I don’t have to be alone here again tonight.”

  Jin raised a brow. “Again? What did you do to wind up in here?”

  Basima blushed in embarrassment again as she muttered, “I broke another vase. This one had one of Lord Nabil’s flower arrangements in it, and Salman got super pissed off because, apparently, those are suddenly hard to get now? It’s not like anyone told me to be extra careful with it, and it’s not like I tripped on purpose.”

  “You said another vase?”

  “Hey, those are heavier than they look!”

  “Exactly how many vases have you broken?”

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  “I don’t know. Like, nine?”

  “Okay, I’m definitely going to say this latest one is Salman’s fault. Nobody should be letting you anywhere near a vase with that many deaths,” Jin said with a dramatic shake of her head.

  Basima laughed. “I know, right? But they’re always just like, ‘Basima take this, Basima move that,’ and then they get mad when I fall!”

  “They should be getting angry at their own lack of foresight,” she replied with a heavy sigh. “You don’t get angry at the cloud for raining, just like you shouldn't get mad at the klutz for falling. That's just what they do.”

  Basima snorted a laugh. “Not sure I like being called out like that, but thanks for understanding. So, what exactly did you do to end up here? Anger another prince?”

  “Oh god, please don't tell me there’s more than just the one royal asshole.”

  “There’s three princes and two princesses currently,” the blonde informed. She then added with a grin, “But don't worry, their birthdays are a few weeks out still.”

  Jin chuckled and then answered the original question. “I walked in on Lord Nabil being murdered by a Whisper after he assaulted one of the other Servants, then ended up punching my way home after dropping off that Servant to the healers. Salman apparently thinks that defending myself from three perverts was worth thirty lashes and a night in here.”

  “Wow, that is messed up.”

  “I know, right?”

  “I mean, you actually saw a Whisper assassinate someone?” Basima asked with wide eyes, and Jin felt a pang in her heart when she noticed they were the same green color as Phoenix’s.

  “Uh, yeah,” she replied, tearing her gaze away from those eyes. “The prick deserved it though.”

  “I mean, duh, he deserved it if a freaking slip showed up for him!” Basima said. “It’s not like the slips come for just anyone. I wonder if he was secretly some kind of traitor. Or maybe he had some kind of gambling problem and owed another Speaker money? Oh! Or maybe he fell in love with the wrong girl, and in a valiant attempt to whisk her away from a life of loneliness, the girl’s Sect leader found out and took care of him!”

  Jin blinked at the young girl in stunned silence at the wild imagination. After an awkward moment, she said, “Yeah… no… I’m pretty sure he was just a piece of shit that abused his servants.”

  Basima laughed and rolled her eyes. “Come on, Jin. If that were true, I doubt any of the Speakers or Fighters and most of the Whispers would be alive still.”

  “I think I’m starting to hate this world,” Jin muttered after realizing that the other girl wasn’t exaggerating as a joke.

  “Just starting to?” a new voice said, and both Basima and Jin jumped in surprise when a tiny glowing silver fox appeared in the aisle between their two cells.

  “What the—”

  “Lord Fox!” Basima said in surprise, interrupting Jin’s outburst as she fell forward on her knees to bow her head to the ground. “How might this one serve the gods?”

  Jin stared at the tiny fox who was staring back at her and smiled.

  “I just wanted to meet the Wayfarer here and say that I’m quite impressed by your Talent,” the little fox said, sounding like a young boy.

  “You know what it is?” Jin asked.

  “Nope! Which is why I’m so impressed! Owl has been so frustrated by it since he can usually know all of them.”

  “Are all the gods animals here?”

  “Yes, but we each have a core concept we embody. Owl is wisdom, and he doesn’t like being stumped by you,” Fox explained with a yipping laugh.

  “What is yours?”

  “Play! I love playing so much, and I’m really looking forward to the upcoming games in a couple of days! Are you going to play in the Tower with the others?”

  “I hope not,” Jin muttered. “I’ve heard it’s not exactly good for my health.”

  “I’m pretty sure Jin will be safe from the Tower,” Basima said, finally sitting up to give Jin a thoughtful look. “It just wouldn't make sense to choose someone who’s only been here a week as a Sect Champion.”

  Fox turned to look at Basima as he said, “Nobody is safe from the Tower.”

  Then his glowing gaze returned to Jin. “But I do so look forward to seeing you play! The Servants are always so boring lately, I really want to see them do better this Season!”

  “And how would my joining them help them last longer?” Jin asked incredulously. “I don’t know anything about what to expect in there or have any kind of magic. Don’t they send in those powerful Casters to—”

  “Oh, Casters can’t be chosen as Champions,” Basima said, readjusting to face her better. “Only Mundanes over the age of eight and under thirty can be selected as one of the ten Champions. The Champions are expected to become Casters during the climb.”

  “If they survive,” Fox interjected. He then bemoaned, “We haven't seen a Servant become a Caster in the climb in over six hundred years.”

  “Wait, how did Salman become a Caster then?”

  “The Speakers gifted him his four Aspects when he became the Sect leader,” Basima explained. “All the Sect leaders are Casters, even if they never entered the Tower. Usually, the winning Sect gets a bunch of rewards, which includes loot like Aspects, Spirit Gems, Shards, Mana Bits, and other magic items. It helps strengthen both the winning Sect and the city as a whole when the winners exit the Tower.”

  “If they exit,” Fox corrected as he gave Jin another vulpine grin. “It’s always fun to watch them play for a long time, only to fall before reaching the top. We don’t give rewards for just trying.”

  Basima frowned and sadly confirmed, “My mom and dad told me stories about the last season. I was only a year old when it started, but they said the group only made it to the fifth floor before all dying.”

  “Wait, what happens then?” Jin asked. “What happens with no winner?”

  “Us gods are declared the winners,” Fox answered. “This year will also have more rewards to be earned since we got to build up more power from it.”

  “The Sects have all been training harder to make sure a total wipe like that doesn’t happen again this year. They were all upset about not getting the Sect blessing this Season,” Basima added.

  “What exactly does that do?”

  “Oh, it just boosts every member’s Attributes until the beginning of the following Season. Normally, the gods would grant last Season’s blessing at the opening ceremonies, but I guess they won’t be doing that this time.”

  “Nope,” Fox confirmed. “But we will still be offering Patronage.”

  “Patronage?”

  “Yep. Basically, we offer a blessing in exchange for a bond, as some of our worshipers have. We’ll only offer it to Champions who show potential and match our concepts, though.”

  Jin raised a brow and asked, “If you want me to play, does that mean you also want me to become a Champion for you to offer Patronage to?”

  Fox laughed and said with a sly smile, “I said they have to share their concept, and as far as I know, there is no god of stubbornness.”

  Then the Fox was gone, and Jin found herself retorting to the air, “But apparently, there’s a god of assholes that looks like a fox!”