Chapter 106: Unfamiliar sensation

Stefan's POV

I stared at the floating mission text until the numbers stopped looking real.

Three days to recruit Belladonna.

A woman whose every visible stat sat at zero.

A woman who looked at me like she was calculating the most efficient way to remove my head from my shoulders.

Even Jonquil's recruitment hadn't taken just three days. I had worked so hard for it.

And failure meant three days of compulsory missions with no rewards. In my current position that was the kind of penalty that could bury me.

"No," I said under my breath. "I'm not taking that failure."

If I was going to have any chance at all, I needed to start now. Waiting would only make the hole deeper. I needed Belladonna to look at me with something other than open hostility, even if it was only mild irritation instead of active murder intent. That meant proximity. Visibility. Persistence.

'Yeah, let's get it going, dude.' I chuckled, gingering myself.

I turned and followed the group of warriors that had formed up behind her.

Lily was near the middle of the loose cluster of Flowers. Thankfully, they were around twenty or more but definitely not less. That would make me tuck in well in between them.

I slid into place beside Lily. A few of the other Flowers glanced at me, then looked away just as quickly. Their expressions made it clear they had no interest in whatever problem I represented. They kept their eyes forward and their mouths shut.

I leaned slightly toward Lily and kept my voice low.

"Hey, sweetest, what is going on with your General?"

Lily gave a small, sharp shake of her head. The look she shot me said this was neither the time nor the place to ask or answer questions. I nodded with understanding, accepted it for now and simply matched their pace.

No one at the entrance of the palace stopped me. Walking in the middle of a group of ranked Flowers was apparently enough cover to leave the palace without another interrogation. I filed that useful fact away for later. The palace had rules until it didn't. Power and association still opened doors that official permission sometimes closed.

Once we cleared the main gates the women moved to their horses with the usual efficient speed. I didn't waste the opening. I scanned the group quickly and fixed on the softest-looking Flower at the rear - younger, less rigid in the shoulders, the kind who still glanced around for confirmation before acting. I pushed Charm and Authority forward at the same time and stepped in close enough that only she would hear me clearly.

"The General told me to ride with you," I said, keeping my tone casual and certain, as if the matter had already been decided above her head.

She hesitated for a split second as her eyes flickered toward Belladonna's already-moving figure at the front of the column. The General was not looking back. That absence of immediate contradiction seemed to decide it. The Flower reached down, gripped my forearm with surprising strength, and pulled me up behind her. A moment later the whole group was moving at a steady, ground-covering pace.

"That went smooth. A small win." I allowed myself a small smile of victory knowing fully well I had a huge task at hand.

I spent the ride cataloguing every scrap of body language I could see ahead of me. Belladonna's posture never loosened. Her shoulders stayed locked, her chin high, her attention fixed forward like she was already planning the next three moves in a fight the rest of us couldn't see yet. Whatever had happened in that meeting with the Queen had left her coiled tight.

The new Body Language Analysis fed me quiet confirmation in the back of my mind: suppressed anger, controlled breathing, the kind of tension that usually preceded someone taking their frustration out on the nearest available target.

I had a strong suspicion I was going to become that target sooner rather than later. Because of the damned mission the system had thrown at it.

"Couldn't you at least wait until she recovers from whatever it is that is working her up like that?" I gritted out very lowly that the Flower I was seated behind wouldn't hear me, in the direction of where the system notifications usually hovered in my face.

[Host could wait till then.] The system replied calmly and that made me boil inwardly with rage.

"Who are you egging on? So I should wait while you're always counting down?" I scoffed.

As if to confirm I was absolutely right, the system decided to be cheeky and its notification showed the time running down;

**71:40:00**

"Thank you, dude." I muttered out ironically, glaring at the notification as if I would bury the system six feet under with my eyes.

~~~~~~~~~

Bloomhold came into view with its usual practical layout of cottages, training yards, and packed-earth paths. The moment the horses stopped, Belladonna dismounted and walked straight into her private cottage without a word to anyone. The door shut behind her with a finality that discouraged followers.

Nobody followed her. Me inclusive. I wasn't going to get my head severed from my neck this morning.

I slid down from the horse, landed harder than I meant to, and turned toward Lily again. Before I could get a full question out, a familiar figure near one of the ranked cottages caught my eye.

Jonquil.

She was standing in the open doorway of her own space, still in training wraps. Her posture was straight but somehow less settled than usual. There was a faint tightness around her eyes that most people would have missed but not me, thanks to the new skill which I was currently enjoying so much.

I wouldn't even need the beast insight before I guessed these women's mood now.

I changed direction immediately and walked toward her. She watched me come without surprise. When I reached her she stepped aside and let me into the cottage, closing the door behind us with a quiet click.

The moment we were alone I turned on her.

"What is wrong with you?" I started.

Jonquil's brow furrowed slightly. "I am always well." the response came out flat.

"Don't start that." I kept my voice low but firm. "Why didn't you sleep last night?"

She went still for a second. The question landed harder than a casual inquiry should have.

"How do you know that?" she asked.

I gave her a thin smile that didn't reach my eyes. "This Alien has his ways of knowing what you do. Everything and anything. So don't bother lying to me. Answer the question."

Jonquil studied my face for a long moment, as if weighing how much truth she felt like offering. Then she looked away toward the far wall. When she spoke, the words came slower than usual, each one measured.

"I could not sleep because I was waiting for you. You said you would come. My chest would not settle. I did not understand the feeling and I did not know how to make it stop. So I stayed awake and waited."

"And you didn't come."

The admission landed harder than I expected.

She had stayed up the entire night because I hadn't shown. No drama. No accusation. No raised voice. Just the blunt truth delivered in that flat, steady tone of hers. Something uncomfortable shifted under my ribs. I was used to people wanting things from me - sex, advantage, entertainment. I was significantly less used to someone quietly breaking their own rest because I had failed to appear when I said I would.

I rubbed the back of my neck and exhaled through my nose.

"Are you all right now?" I asked. "After not sleeping?"

"I am not. But I can deal with it." she replied.

That strange, unfamiliar guilt pulled tighter. I had spent most of my life putting my own survival and comfort first and calling it pragmatism. Feeling genuinely bad about someone else's lost night of sleep was new, and I didn't particularly like the sensation. It sat in my chest like a weight I hadn't agreed to carry.

I looked at her properly then - at the faint shadows under her eyes, at the way she still held herself with perfect warrior posture even while admitting she had spent the night unsettled because of me.

"I will make it up to you. That's a promise." the words came out of my mouth before I could stop them.

Jonquil looked back at me, waiting, her expression open in that rare way she sometimes allowed when we were alone.

"Today," I continued, "you get whatever you want. Anything. You name it and I will handle it. No arguments. No negotiations. No postponement."

She blinked once. "What?"

"Anything that will make you feel better. I mean it. Ask."

The System, of course, chose that exact moment to chime in with bright, almost cheerful enthusiasm.

[INCUBUS BOND MISSION]

Do whatever Jonquil wants.

Reward: 400 EXP

I read the text twice and felt my stomach sink with the particular kind of dread that only came from dealing with this System for too long.

Four hundred EXP was a solid reward. The mission wording, however, was the kind that usually preceded me agreeing to something deeply inconvenient, mildly humiliating, or both. Jonquil was still watching me with that calm, expectant expression, clearly taking my open-ended offer at face value.

I already knew, with absolute certainty, that I was not going to like whatever came out of her mouth next.