Silver Elite: Chapter 49
Nov. 28th, 2025 02:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penwallaThe Jubilee begins.
I feel like this book treats "not liking parties" as having the same moral weight as genocide, which is weird. These digs at the General being fake are meant to signal to us that he's a villain, but like, he literally did something called the Silverblood Purge with a five digit death count. Why do we need them?
Wren has been tasked with planting some explosives, which she believes are for a decoy explosion because they're not very strong. She does this, but on her way out is caught by...Jayde Valence.
Jayde Valence knows about the charges Wren set, because she saw them in a vision. Jayde is bewildered, because her visions tell her one thing and her previous interrogations of Wren have told her something else, and she apparently trusts her own power so much that she's come to confront Wren without telling anyone else.
That's very dumb, and certainly convenient for Wren, who immediately reaches out to Cross for help.
Meanwhile, Jayde holds Wren at gunpoint, makes her disarm herself, and starts penetrating her mind.
While Jayde reads Wren's mind, Wren takes advantage of the momentary distraction to attack her mentally. She succeeds, sort of, but Jayde starts trying to recruit her.
I'll say it now: this book is going to end with some unsavory revelation about the Uprising that leads to Wren turning against them. And it will probably be a stupid one.
Wren then incites Jayde, successfully, into shooting herself in the head and it would have great if she would have practiced this ever in the preceding several hundred pages. Especially since Wren was torn up about it the first time.
Chapter end.
That was all very convenient for Wren, huh.
The General, of course, is not about these frills. His trusty Command base will do, even for celebrating such a monumental feather in the cap of his rule. According to Cross, he doesn’t care one lick about this Jubilee. The General believes all parties are self-indulgent, period, but hosts them for appearances’ sake. Tonight he’ll be giving a speech. There’ll be dancing. Refreshments. And then everyone will be dismissed in military fashion before midnight and ushered off the base.
I feel like this book treats "not liking parties" as having the same moral weight as genocide, which is weird. These digs at the General being fake are meant to signal to us that he's a villain, but like, he literally did something called the Silverblood Purge with a five digit death count. Why do we need them?
Wren has been tasked with planting some explosives, which she believes are for a decoy explosion because they're not very strong. She does this, but on her way out is caught by...Jayde Valence.
Jayde Valence knows about the charges Wren set, because she saw them in a vision. Jayde is bewildered, because her visions tell her one thing and her previous interrogations of Wren have told her something else, and she apparently trusts her own power so much that she's come to confront Wren without telling anyone else.
That's very dumb, and certainly convenient for Wren, who immediately reaches out to Cross for help.
Meanwhile, Jayde holds Wren at gunpoint, makes her disarm herself, and starts penetrating her mind.
I’m weaponless as I rise to my feet. Keeping her gun trained on me, Jayde’s emotionless eyes seek out my gaze. I feel it the moment she penetrates my mind, but I don’t react.Why the hell is Wren admitting to anything?
“Fascinating,” she murmurs. “You don’t feel the shock?”
“No, I feel it.” I’ve officially given up on denying the truth. At this point I’m only insulting her intelligence.
“You do?”
“Yes. I just ignore it.”
Amazement floods her expression. “We’ve performed tests on other Aberrants. Do you realize the shock you receive when another Aberrant infiltrates your mind is the equivalent of almost five hundred volts?” She starts to laugh. “You just ignore it.”
While Jayde reads Wren's mind, Wren takes advantage of the momentary distraction to attack her mentally. She succeeds, sort of, but Jayde starts trying to recruit her.
Setting my questions aside, I focus on pushing a command into her mind.
Lower your weapon.
“Stop straining yourself. You don’t need to try to read my thoughts,” Jayde assures me. “I’ll enlighten you myself. You’re fighting for the wrong team, Darlington. We’re not the villains here.”
That momentarily makes me lose my focus. I stare at her, incredulous. “You’ve murdered thousands of your own people.”
“They are not my people. Especially not the ones you’re working for. They’re unnatural. They’re corrupting minds.” Her gray eyes become oddly magnanimous. “If you surrender right now, I won’t kill you.”
I'll say it now: this book is going to end with some unsavory revelation about the Uprising that leads to Wren turning against them. And it will probably be a stupid one.
Wren then incites Jayde, successfully, into shooting herself in the head and it would have great if she would have practiced this ever in the preceding several hundred pages. Especially since Wren was torn up about it the first time.
Chapter end.
That was all very convenient for Wren, huh.
