by Jay Boyce
She smiled and shook her head, saying simply, “Not really. I did want to say hi though. I didn’t catch your name earlier, but I’ll probably be here a lot. I’m Jade.” She held her non-glowing hand out to shake, only remembering as he took it and bent over that shaking hands wasn’t a thing here. She was a little happy with the first blinking dot she’d gotten all day though.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady Jade. I’m Scott Weber.” He was peeking at her shyly through a mop of brown hair that needed a trim. His clothes were a little too big for him, like he was wearing hand-me-downs. His voice was quiet and maybe a little nervous, and she figured the last few times she’d come by had intimidated him. She also figured he was a commoner working his way up, due simply to the fact that he hadn’t dared say anything to the nobles or even her when she’d steamrolled her way into the library.
Taking her hand back, she smiled brightly at him. “The pleasure is mine. I’m sure I’ll see you around, Scott. And sorry for coming in without showing my card yesterday. Have a wonderful night!” She nodded in farewell and continued on her way out of the library. Instead of going straight to The Glass Phoenix, she wandered among the crowd, casually brushing against people as she observed the various stores and what people were coming out with.
When she’d gotten around twenty notifications, she finally turned and made her way to Damian’s, humming softly to herself. As she slipped through the door quietly, she heard a woman asking with a sigh, “Well, when are you going to have more? My daughter’s birthday is tomorrow, and all she can talk about are the lighted sculptures.”
Jade smiled, walking further into the room. Damian was shrugging a little helplessly and the woman looked a bit frustrated. She didn’t look mean, just…defeated. In front of her was a lovely oak tree sculpture Damian had made. Damian was so involved with the woman that he didn’t notice her, besides the fact that she had snuck in so the bell wouldn’t ring. Making sure neither of them were holding something that would break, she made her footsteps a little heavier so she wouldn’t startle them as she walked up.
Inspecting the figure in front of the woman, she smiled as she asked, “This is the one you wanted to get your daughter? It’s beautiful. May I?” She asked, knowing the woman might be feeling a little protective of the sculpture.
She was a little surprised when the woman, who was obviously startled at her sudden appearance, nodded with a discouraged expression. “Yes, go ahead. My daughter only wants a lighted one.”
Jade smiled comfortingly at her and proclaimed, “Then that’s what she’ll get.” Holding the glass gently, she concentrated on what she wanted, lighting the tree from within and making the leaves glow with the multi-colors of fall as she heard the woman gasp in shock. When it was fully lit, Jade set it back on the counter and smiled at Damian. “There, now everyone is happy. You go ahead and finish helping her; I’m going to light up a few more.”
“Thank you! I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were the light mage!” The woman’s face was full of relief, and Jade reached out, patting her on the arm congenially and getting the coveted blinking dot.
“It’s okay. No harm done. I hope your daughter enjoys her present.”
“I’m sure she’ll love it!” The woman gushed, a bright smile painting her face. Jade just nodded and wandered off, leaving Damian to finish the transaction. She had lit up about ten other figures by the time the woman left, and she was still gushing gratitude.
Damian came over, smiling with relief as well. “You came at the perfect time. We’ve been sold out of the lit figures all day, and she kept checking back, more frantically each time. But I didn’t want to disturb you.”
Jade smiled, pouring light into another figure as she said softly, “Sorry about that. I’ll try and come earlier next time. I was a little distracted today.”
He laughed and patted her shoulder. “It’s been a long day for you, I’m sure. Don’t worry about it. As long as you take care of yourself, that’s the best. We can’t have a long and fruitful partnership unless you’re here and healthy.”
Jade laughed softly, nodding. “I’ll do my best to oblige.” With that, she lit up a couple more figures before taking her leave. She could do more and more magic without tiring now. She wasn’t sure which stat or skill made the most difference, but it was probably a combination of a bunch of things: magic, intelligence, stamina, the magic skill itself, mental fortitude, perseverance… She could think of a lot of things that might be contributing to it. Either way, she was happy it was getting easier and less draining. She had stopped pushing herself until she felt sick as well. After the scare this morning, she was being a bit more careful.
Stopping at a small restaurant called Danny’s, she chose a seat in the corner before ordering another huge dinner. She was content just to keep a low profile and take in the ambiance. She was watching the people around her with curiosity, watching how the non-royalty acted. She was gratified to see most of them appeared happy. She had been wondering if all was only well in the nobles’ world. There was less for her to worry about if the kingdom wasn’t built on the oppression of the poor. She was hoping it wasn’t, given how nice the royal family was, but she had wanted to see for herself.
So she wandered. After she finished eating and quietly paid with a hefty tip, she slipped out of the restaurant and onto the darkening streets, pulling her hood up to hide her face. She began to wander among the areas that still had people, just listening to their conversations. They were talking about their families, their jobs, their neighbors. While there was some grumbling, it was over what so-and-so had done generally. She noted that there were several guards wandering the streets in pairs as well, but they were there to keep public safety, and they didn’t seem to be abusing their position.
She watched them curiously. It almost seemed too good to be true. It was then that she focused more closely. The guards weren’t just patrolling… There were a lot of them around, more than she had seen the nights before when she was going home. It was as if they were searching for something, but trying not to alarm anyone by being too obvious about it.
On her guard, she began to move as quickly as she could away from the alley she’d been skirting, only to give a tiny startled shriek when something hit the ground in front of her with a thud, turning towards her.
Her voice was locked in her throat as she stared in terror at the...thing...in front of her. It was vaguely humanoid, though something about the way it moved seemed wrong. Its skin was gray and its eyes were glowing slits of yellow like a wild animal’s. It was grinning at her, its mouth full of pointed teeth. It reached a hand up and she tried to step back, only to find herself against the building wall as its claw reached for her. She winced as it nicked her cheek, touching her to take a drop of blood and licking it. Its voice was oddly hypnotic as it hissed, “Ssssuch a sssweet ssscent…”
Its eyes were drawing her in and she found herself unwillingly taking a step forward. Only the new little blinking dot in her vision stopped her from stepping further. Trying to distract herself from its gaze, she clicked on the dot mentally.
You have touched a Mesmer, Siphon activated. Assessing stats and experience...
Choose a stat to siphon: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Magic, Charisma, or Luck.
Choose a skill to siphon: Acrobatics, Hypnotize, Mana Sense, Natural Weapons, or Stealth.
Its eyes were drawing her back in, and she wanted to step forward… She quickly clicked on her choices.
Siphoning complete. Assimilation of Dexterity and Mana Sense from Mesmer underway.
She welcomed the itching sensation spreading across her body because it broke her concentration on the thing’s eyes. Before it could pull her entirely under again, she mustered her voice for one small yelp. “Help!”
The thing hissed and lunged for her, grabbing her around the waist and lifting her like she was nothing as she heard footsteps and shouts pounding towards her. She felt the thing’s legs b
unch beneath her, about to make some sort of jump.
As she opened her mouth, it hissed at her again, and she found herself unable to disobey the simple command. “Sssilence…”
“Where is it!?” She heard the voices coming nearer, searching. The thing had dragged her into the darkness before she’d even realized it, moving in quick jumps that didn’t feel real to her.
Stubbornly, she tried to think. She couldn’t fight against the compulsion to be silent, and she didn’t have any weapons on her. What could she… And then it clicked.
I didn’t survive this long to die to some random encounter. Shine bright like a diamond, you freaking monster! Hoping the light would both startle the monster and draw the guards’ attention, her entire body lit up like a flash bomb that wasn’t stopping. The monster hissed and dropped her roughly to the ground, backing up and shielding its eyes against the luminosity.
“Over there!”
She saw it tense as she sat up, about to jump away from the guards who were rushing over. With every ounce of her willpower, she dropped her light and mentally screamed at it, “Stay there!”
Chapter Thirty – Cancelled
The mesmer hesitated for just a moment, but it was long enough for an arrow to lodge in its side. It met her eyes, and they no longer possessed the hypnotic quality they had before. Instead, a deep-seated rage that it had been stopped by its prey had taken root. Instead of jumping up, it jumped straight at her, claws extended. The world seemed to be going in slow motion as she watched the claws headed for her face.
Still sitting, she was about to throw her body to the side when someone rammed into the mesmer mid-leap, throwing it away from her. She heard a deeply unsettling screech and the thunk of several more arrows landing in flesh. Silently, she prayed. Hit the monster, not the man. The shrieks cut off, and the world seemed to speed up again. A new red dot appeared in her vision. The pounding of boots was all around her as people flooded the alleyway.
She stared at them blankly, still trying to process everything that had just happened. It wasn’t until she heard someone cry “Get a healer!” from the area where the monster had fallen that she seemed to snap back to reality. There was someone hovering over her, asking if she was okay. Ignoring them, she lurched to her feet, startling them. They tried to grab her, but she stumbled, the motion letting her evade the man. She grunted as she pushed her way through the people, landing on her knees next to a man on the ground.
There were people pulling off his armor, exposing the long gashes in his side. He was having a hard time breathing, and she could hear the air escaping through his wounds. “Get her out of here!” Someone yelled, and she felt a hand on her arm trying to pull her up even as she reached for the man.
She lost it. “Let go of me before he dies!” Her scream was surprisingly audible, and the person was so startled that they actually let her go. Before anyone else could lay a hand on her, she shoved her fingers towards his chest next to the wound and closed her eyes. Her magic pulsed and a picture of the gashes came into her mind’s eye. Calling the blood from his lungs and the air that had leaked into his chest, she pushed her magic into him, demanding his body reknit itself together again. She heard startled cries when the blood came gushing out with a spray of air, but almost immediately after the man’s breathing evened out, buoyed by her healing.
She worked from the inside out, pushing out the contamination she could feel was left behind from the creature’s claws. With the healing magic coursing through her body, she could feel the same taint in her cheek. She decided she might as well take care of that at the same time, and she felt the blood dripping down her face as she pushed whatever the mesmer had had on its claws out. Both Jade and the guard’s wounds began to close, and silence had fallen around them, punctuated only by the sound of harsh breathing. The tang of blood and something more sickly sweet permeated the air, though the true stench of death from the nearby body hadn’t yet set in.
When she was done, she felt the magic seeping away and a deep ache setting in. She knew she’d overdrawn her magic again, and this weakness was the price. Still, she was gratified to see the man beneath her open his hazel eyes. He smiled weakly at her and said simply, “Thanks.” Someone was pushing matted light brown hair away from his face, and she felt gratified as his grizzled face came more into view.
She nodded, then muttered softly, “Just returning the favor…” She swayed, feeling dizzy from the multiple massive energy expenditures she’d just made. Someone quickly grabbed her to stop her from falling on her face.
“Where’s the patient!? Let me through!” She smiled wearily as she heard Mike’s voice, opening her eyes just enough to watch a pathway open up as Mike rushed through. He blanched at the sheer amount of blood that was covering her and the man as he spoke in a hoarse whisper, “Jade? What are you doing here?” He quickly dropped down, putting a hand on both of them.
She smiled and reassured him, “We’re okay...just tired…” She would have swayed again at that point if she wasn’t already being propped up.
She felt Mike’s magic going through her, checking her out, and after examining the wound site and finding nothing wrong other than her energy being overdrawn again, she felt him boost her once more. “Well, can you fix them?” She heard someone ask harshly.
“There’s nothing to fix anymore. Lady Jade did a remarkable job saving this man’s life.” He paused, and she could hear his voice become sterner as he asked, “What I’d like to know is how Lady Jade became involved in this incident in the first place.” He was using her title. Uh oh. She had a feeling somebody was going to be in trouble, and half suspected it was her. Still, she wanted to defend her rescuers in case it was them.
Now that her energy had been boosted, she opened her eyes to try and reassure Mike even as she felt herself start to shiver, “Monster grabbed me on my way home. Not their fault.” She heard several curses from the men around her as Mike frowned, then glanced at the monster and sighed.
“I’m not sure if your luck is good or bad. You’ve nearly died twice in one day, but somehow come out all right.” He shook his head, then observed the men, who had split into three groups. One was cleaning up the monster corpse, one was guarding the perimeter, and the other was hovering around her, Mike, and the man. He stood, nodding to them. “All right. Lady Jade already did the hard work. All both of them need is rest. Make sure he doesn’t go out on patrol for at least a few days so his body can recover the blood he’s lost.”
“Red meat will help.” Jade weakly interjected. Mike studied her curiously. “It helps the red blood cell count to recover because it increases iron absorption.” Most of them were now staring at her as if she was speaking a foreign language, which she supposed she was. She just smiled weakly again and said, “Just do it.”
Mike alternated between nodding and shaking his head, before looking at the commander dude, who vaguely reminded her of Jarom in his gladiator-like visage. “He shouldn’t need my help, but keep an eye on him and if anything changes, send for me immediately. Do as Lady Jade says and have him eat some beef.”
“Very well. And the lady?” The gladiator commander responded to Mike.
Mike sighed. “I’ll need help getting her back to The Green Dragon. They’ll take care of her after that.” As soon as the words Green Dragon came out, she heard a couple sharp intakes of breath. Apparently, they hadn’t connected the fact that she’d lit up like a lightbulb, healed the dude, and was being called a Lady with the fact that she was a student of Dracona.
The commander was frowning, but he nodded. “Jacobs, Tanner, Bick. Escort the doctor and Lady Jade back to The Green Dragon and then report back.”
“Yes, sir!” She felt more than heard the bass rumble of the man propping her up as he answered his commander. “Sorry about this, Milady.” Before she could protest, he’d scooped her princess style into his arms. Frowning, she reached up and pulled her hood up, then pulled her cloak up so it covered her too and the blood she
’d spilled was no longer visible. She then relaxed, just letting herself be carried. She didn’t like it, but she also wasn’t entirely sure how far they were from The Green Dragon. She didn’t know how far the monster had carried her, honestly. She didn’t want to be stubborn and try walking an unknown distance when she felt so weak.
Therefore, she pushed her stubbornness aside and whispered, “It’s all right. Thank you.”
He seemed shocked that she’d thank him, as did the two guards that were escorting them out of the alley that had also heard her. They walked in silence until she started to recognize her surroundings. Thinking of something, she absently asked Mike, “How much is everyone going to freak out about this?”
Mike gave her a considering glance while the guards all seemed to tense a little bit. Finally, he remarked, “I’m surprised you’re not panicking about this. In all likelihood though… It’s not going to be pretty.”
The guard holding her had tensed up even more, and she sighed before whispering. “I’m a new traveler, and I’ve become close with several of the royal family. You might want to warn your boss that they’re likely to freak out.” Though he looked a little baffled at her word choice, apparently freak out wasn’t something they said here, he seemed to get the gist of the message.
“Noted. Thank you for the warning.” They went silent as they continued to walk, and she took a moment to click on the new blinking red dot.
Warning. Siphon target Mesmer has died. Remaining siphon duration has been canceled.
Well, that was new, and good to know. She hadn’t even realized the itching had stopped after the creature’s death. She quickly pulled up her skills list, searching for one in particular...and there it was.
