The Green Bone Saga, #1
Jade City
by Fonda Lee
Contents
CHAPTER 56: Graduation Day
Overview
At graduation, Anden is publicly honored as the Academy’s top student and as a hero of No Peak, but the moment forces him to confront his fear that jade will make him violent, addicted, and useful only as a weapon. Anden refuses his graduation jade, an unprecedented act that humiliates Hilo and fractures their family bond. Hilo disowns Anden in rage, while Shae recognizes Anden’s choice and finds him grieving at Lan’s grave.
Summary
The city later remembers the holiday fighting as the New Year’s bloodletting or the vengeance of the Kauls. No Peak has not defeated the Mountain outright, but the Kaul grandchildren have stopped annexation and secured their authority within the clan.
Anden, still recovering from the battle at the Twice Lucky, leaves the hospital two days before graduation. At Kaul Dushuron Academy, the other students treat Anden with new formality because word has spread that Anden was with Hilo when Gont Asch died. Master Sain places Anden last in line, revealing that Anden has ranked first in the graduating class, but Anden feels damaged, unstable, and frightened by his jade craving and SN1 treatment.
During convocation, students take oaths according to their futures: religious service, healing, teaching, or loyalty to No Peak. Hilo, now fully recognized as Pillar, departs from ceremony and invites a graduate to lead the warrior’s oath. Lott steps forward, and Anden watches with grief and relief, feeling that Lott has taken the place Anden himself was expected to occupy before the clan.
After the oaths, graduates receive the jade they have earned. As top student, Anden is called last and is offered four stones. When the crowd cheers him as a Kaul, Anden is overwhelmed by shame and fear. Believing that wearing jade will make him crave power, enjoy killing, and become like his unstable mother, Anden refuses the jade in front of the entire assembly.
Hilo drags Anden aside in fury after the ceremony ends. Anden explains that he does not want to be turned into a weapon, while Hilo insists that Anden is family, needed by the clan, and raised to be a Green Bone. Shae defends Anden’s right to decide, but Hilo takes the refusal as betrayal and disowns Anden, calling him a traitor and ordering him out of sight.
Anden runs from the Academy, discarding his robes and wandering through Widow’s Park until he reaches the cemetery. He collapses at Lan’s grave, apologizing and weeping in the rain. Shae finds Anden there, shelters him with an umbrella, and tells him that Lan would have been proud of him.
Who Appears
- Emery AndenTop graduate who refuses his jade, fearing addiction, violence, and becoming a weapon.
- Kaul HiloNo Peak Pillar who honors graduates, then furiously disowns Anden for refusing jade.
- Kaul ShaeWeather Man who defends Anden’s right to choose and comforts him at Lan’s grave.
- LottGrieving graduate who leads the warrior’s oath before Hilo and joins No Peak.
- Grandmaster LeAcademy head who oversees graduation, oath-taking, and the awarding of jade.
- Master SainAcademy instructor who confirms Anden’s top rank by placing him last in line.
- Kaul WenHilo’s wife, present with the Kaul family during Anden’s graduation ceremony.
- Maik KehnNo Peak Horn who attends the ceremony beside Hilo and Shae.
- Kaul LanDead former Pillar whose grave becomes the site of Anden’s grief and apology.