Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
12 - JASINA
Everything about waking up next to Finn Scott is comfortable. It’s not a word I recall using much in my previous life. Growing up down-city wasn’t meant to be comfortable. Comfort is a prize you win after making a vow to the god in the tower and becoming his Pledge.
Once that’s out of the way, all down-city Pledges are invited up-city for etiquette classes in the Canal District. I think they had them there on purpose. To tease us and taunt us with all the luxury these up-city people had. Because every week the five of us—Lucindy, Britley, Harlow, Ceela, and I would have to walk past all those shops.
It was a lesson in what we lacked.
And it made us crave things we never knew we wanted. Like jewelry, and pretty dresses, and tiny cakes served with tea.
Of course, we knew these things existed, everyone in Tau City has the right to attend the outdoor Extraction parties in the Extraction District. They just… don’t.
Every girl goes once. Usually when they’re around eight or so. You have to go once, or you’re kind of a freak. But it’s such a hassle to get up the canal. Boat rides for down-city Pledges are free. But it’s a dear price to hire a boat to take you all the way up to the Extraction District. Typically, when young girls would get the itch to see the parties, families would pool together resources and groups would go together.
Often on a fishing boat.
I didn’t have to do that, thankfully. Auntie Bell had been telling me for years that I would be a Pledge long before I got the itch to see the festivities for myself.
So I went every year. She would send a boat, and someone would meet me at the dock, and then I’d be taken to her. She would buy me things. Spun sugar and usually a little trinket, like a bracelet. I realize now that the spun sugar was meant to imprint the day into my memory. A form of mind control, maybe. So that each year, when I got that sugar high, it cemented my resolve to be a part of the Rebellion into my tiny brain.
But the trinket was to take with me back down-city so I could show it off to my friends. That’s how I got them all to agree. They would ooh and ahh over whatever it was that year. Telling me I was so lucky.
And I did feel lucky. I felt special.
That was the early days, back when I was small.
But once I actually made the vow to be a Pledge, the trip up-city became all about envy. Even for me. It’s a wicked emotion. It makes you crave things and resent others who have what you desire.
As Pledges on our way to etiquette classes, my friends and I would walk past those shops with a hunger. We wanted everything behind the glass. And while we didn’t dare dream about such things while in the Canal District—we had far too much pride to show our jealousy off in front of the up-city girls—once we were on that boat, on our way home, that’s all we talked about.
We designed dresses in our heads. Imagined jewels on our fingers, and dangling from our ears, and draped around our necks. We would discuss fabrics, and lace, and stitching. Because even though we knew that the up-city girls didn’t really make their own dresses, never in a bazillion years did we ever dare to dream that we’d have enough coin to purchase one of those exquisite garments behind the glass. Even if we were chosen in the Choosing.
We were going to make them. We were always going to make them.
But you can only imagine so many dresses and necklaces. It only gets that envy so far.
Auntie Bell—Matron Bell—is not stupid. Of course, she knew this. That’s why she resorted to comfort.
Conditioned air.
I had no idea what a comfort this was until I was three weeks into my Pledge because it’s a supreme luxury. Perhaps the Maidens have it in their rooms, but it’s not in the lobby of the Maiden Tower, that’s for sure. It’s as hot in there during the day as it is outside.
We were up-city for our etiquette classes that day, sitting outside having tea as a Matron gave us a lesson in table settings and silverware. Which was much more complicated than it sounds. The group of Pledges was very big back then because that was only four years into the current Extraction period—almost two thousand. So we didn’t all have our lessons in the same place. We were scattered about the Canal District in various cafes.
The first two weeks of my Pledge, we had our tea party lessons in outdoor cafes. It was always blazing hot, but on week three the heat was unbearable because the tables at this café didn’t have umbrellas to shade us from the sun.