Siphon (A Touch of Power Book 1)
Page 26
Getting up, she glanced out the window, seeing the town as it just started to awaken. It was only dawn, but the light was comforting, even though her room was already lit up like noonday. People were just starting to go about their business, and she heard the distant toll of the bells from Priom Square welcoming the day.
Turning back to her room, she collected her clothes and made her way to the bathroom, where she drew a bath. It was time for a good soak, something she hadn’t done in seemingly ages. She just luxuriated in the warm water, enjoying the time to relax as she checked her profile.
Name: Jade Winward
Age: 18
Strength: 11.02
Dexterity: 12.01
Constitution: 10.97
Intelligence: 17.64
Magic: 13.06
Charisma: 11.53
Luck: 14.74
Special Abilities: Siphon
Skills: Acrobatics, Appraisal, Archery, Athletics, Blood Magic, Bluff, Compulsion Magic, Dark Magic, Deception, Diplomacy, Dodge, Earth Magic, Eating, Engineering, Fire Magic, Glasscraft, Haggle, Healing Magic, Heat Resistance, Herbology, Illusion Magic, Information Gathering, Insight, Intimidate, Life Magic, Light Armor, Light Magic, Lightning Magic, Mana Sense, Mathematics, Mental Fortitude, Metal Magic, Modeling, Nature Magic, Navigation, Perception, Perseverance, Persuasion, Running, Sense Motive, Singing, Sleight of Hand, Small Blades, Speed Reading, Stealth, Tailoring, Unarmed Combat, Walking, Water Magic, Wind Magic, Writing
Acrobatics
Beginner 8
79%
Appraisal
Intermediate 4
39%
Archery
Beginner 7
44%
Athletics
Intermediate 4
30%
Blood Magic
Beginner 10
19%
Bluff
Intermediate 3
54%
Compulsion Magic
Beginner 6
92%
Dark Magic
Beginner 3
7%
Deception
Intermediate 2
99%
Diplomacy
Intermediate 6
9%
Dodge
Beginner 5
6%
Earth Magic
Beginner 9
43%
Eating
Intermediate 2
47%
Engineering
Beginner 4
10%
Fire Magic
Beginner 6
5%
Glasscraft
Beginner 3
53%
Haggle
Intermediate 2
45%
Healing Magic
Intermediate 3
78%
Heat Resistance
Beginner 3
57%
Herbology
Beginner 10
73%
Illusion Magic
Beginner 4
10%
Information Gathering
Intermediate 8
41%
Insight
Intermediate 5
87%
Intimidate
Beginner 10
27%
Life Magic
Beginner 8
23%
Light Armor
Beginner 2
50%
Light Magic
Intermediate 6
94%
Lightning Magic
Beginner 5
6%
Mana Sense
Beginner 1
20%
Mathematics
Beginner 7
4%
Mental Fortitude
Intermediate 5
5%
Metal Magic
Beginner 10
18%
Modeling
Beginner 6
60%
Nature Magic
Beginner 4
48%
Navigation
Intermediate 1
99%
Perception
Intermediate 6
35%
Perseverance
Intermediate 4
32%
Persuasion
Intermediate 4
81%
Running
Beginner 4
18%
Sense Motive
Intermediate 4
14%
Singing
Beginner 3
67%
Sleight of Hand
Intermediate 2
0%
Small Blades
Beginner 7
0%
Speed Reading
Intermediate 7
26%
Stealth
Beginner 9
56%
Tailoring
Beginner 8
18%
Unarmed Combat
Beginner 5
86%
Walking
Intermediate 6
73%
Water Magic
Intermediate 3
94%
Wind Magic
Beginner 8
74%
Writing
Beginner 2
25%
Studying her stats, she decided she’d just take con from the first person she touched that day so it would bump up. After all, on day one she’d been fine with a little tingling, and it wasn’t until she tried to siphon a bunch of people, and namely Mike, that she’d passed out. She was pretty happy though. She’d finally passed average on everything, and was a little higher than an ordinary person now!
With a smile, she got out of the tub and quickly dried off with magic. It was super convenient and she couldn’t help but giggle. Sure, some scary things had happened yesterday, but it was as she’d said in the morning. She wasn’t going to be frightened, not of death. She had been given the gift of magic, and she had no idea why, but she was going to treasure it! Laughing, she sang softly as she skipped back to her room. “Here’s a little song I wrote. You might want to sing it note for note. Don’t worry, be happy!”
She kept humming as she got back to her room, digging out her money pouch for the pins there so she could shove the hair on top of her head and pin it in place. It was a messy style that a lot of the nurses had favored because it looked good mostly without effort, and if it got messier throughout the day, well, it just looked normal! It wasn’t until she was inspecting one of the pins, admiring her work with a grin before she frowned and wailed softly, “My sunglasses!” In the excitement last night, she’d completely forgotten about them, but they’d been on her head when the mesmer grabbed her. Most likely, they’d fallen somewhere and were long gone.
Dejected, she was full-on pouting as she made her way downstairs. “Jade, what’s wrong!?” Kaylee looked alarmed at her pout, and Jade sighed, giving it up before smiling at Kaylee.
“It’s nothing important; I just realized I lost the sunglasses I’d just made yesterday during the excitement last night. I worked really hard on them, and now they’re gone.” She was pouting again, but Kaylee was laughing at her now.
“If you made them once, you’ll make them again, but even better. Now come sit down. I’ll get you something to eat and you’ll feel better.” Kaylee grinned, ushering her into the room. Jade couldn’t help but laugh too. Seriously, food solved all ills for her. Glancing around, she saw Jackson, Evan, and Adam seated together, though Britney had joined another group. Deciding she didn’t want to deal with Britney, she headed towards the three boys.
Sunnily, she greeted them. “Good morning Jackson, Evan, Adam.” She nodded to each of them as she slid into the seat next to Adam. With him and Evan having such large frames, she could see why they didn’t sit next to each other.
“Morning Jade! Did you hear about what happened last night?” Jackson seemed to be brimming with excitement, and she
studied him for a moment. With intense red hair and freckles that contrasted his pale skin, he was pretty adorkable in his excitement. He was lanky and his movements a little jerky, like he was still getting used to a growth spurt.
She smiled and asked, “What happened?” She was pretty sure it was about her, but who knew, maybe he had some other equally important thing that had happened to the city.
It was Evan who responded, sticking out his buff chest. He had the confidence of a guy who knew his own strength, and his dark brown eyes seemed to brim with barely contained strength and excitement. “My cousin took out a mesmer! He’s one of the city guards, and he says he got the killing blow!”
Jade smiled, nodding. “He’s an excellent shot, then. I’m glad he hit the mesmer and not the other guard.”
Evan inflated at her praise, and he nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, he said he had to be really fast because the mesmer was attacking another guard at the time and… Wait. How did you know there was another guard?”
She giggled, smiling at them. In the light of the new day, what had happened last night was easier to talk about. “Well, that’s because the mesmer had been trying to carry me off before it was shot. So I had a bit of an up-close and personal view of it.” All three boys were staring at her in awe as Jessica brought her breakfast over.
She set it down in front of her, knocking Jade lightly on the head. “Don’t make light of it. You could’ve been killed. Aside from that, Stephen sent word. He said there’ll be a guard over at 8:30 to escort you to the east gate, where they’ve gathered the men you wanted to see.”
Jade smiled brightly at Jessica. “Thanks, I’ll be good as soon as I’ve eaten. And to set the record straight, I’m not making light of it. But when scary things don’t kill you, they make a good story.”
Jessica shook her head and walked away, while the boys were still staring slack-jawed at her. She grinned and began to eat as Adam rumbled from next to her, “The girl in the story was you?” She nodded, and he grinned. “They said you lit it up real good.”
Swallowing her current bite, she nodded. “It was all I could think of at the time. Their hypnotism is no joke, and it had told me I couldn’t speak.”
“So you lit up instead. Smart.” Jackson seemed to approve of her actions quite a bit judging by his grin.
Jade smiled back, then asked quietly, “By the way, where’s Will?”
They looked a little startled by her question, then seemed to remember she was a traveler. Jackson filled her in. “Oh, he’s at the palace. Whenever a mesmer is known to enter the city, the royal family gets put on lockdown in the palace. Will always grumbles about it because he wants to go fight.” Well okay, that made complete sense. She nodded, shoveling more food into her stomach. She’d spent enough time in the bath that 8:30 was fast approaching, even though she’d gotten up at dawn. Jackson finished his explanation, “Yeah, I figure since school starts tomorrow, he’ll be back tonight. But ever since Will’s uncle Tevon was taken by the mesmer, they’ve been a lot more careful.”
Jade pondered what Jackson had just told her. Ironically, it was the higher-ups in the kingdom who were the most at risk from the mesmer. The normal people were relatively safe unless they were really unlucky, because they didn’t have what the mesmer wanted: magic blood. It was rather unlike the normal stories where the people had been nameless cannon fodder for monsters. Granted, given the green things she’d seen being shot down, the mesmer weren’t the only things that went bump in the night.
Still, next time she’d be more prepared. She now fully understood why people carried weapons around with them. She needed to retrieve the daggers from where they’d put them in her Dracona workshop so she’d have them for morning classes. There was a small commotion at the door, and she saw one of the city guard entering the common room. Quickly shoving the last of the food on the plate into her mouth, she stood up, wiggling her fingers at Jackson, Evan, and Adam in farewell as she chewed furiously.
The guard was scanning the common room, smiling when he noticed her and that she was heading towards him. She recognized him as the guard who’d carried her here last night. His hawkish blue eyes and sandy brown hair that was tied back neatly in a ponytail had made an impression on her. Swallowing her giant mouthful of food as she got to him, she grinned. “Hi again! I didn’t catch your name last night. I’m Jade. It’s nice to officially meet you!”
He laughed as he took her hand, bending over and giving it the customary kiss. She was almost used to it now, but it still took effort not to pull her hand back immediately. “The pleasure is mine, Lady Jade. I’m Sir Christopher Jacobs. I heard you needed an escort to the east gate?” She nodded, and he held out his arm, which she fairly gracefully accepted. She finally had the whole walking thing down, so she didn’t look like a baby giraffe anymore!
Just before they walked out, Kaylee ran up with a little shoulder bag, handing it to Jade as she interjected, “I almost forgot. This is the jar you asked for.” It fit comfortably over her head, resting at her hip like a shoulder bag. Inside she could feel a large glass jar, and when she peeked in the bag, she could tell that her own contaminated blood was inside as well. She thanked Kaylee before she quietly retreated.
As they stepped outside to the curious gazes of the other students eating breakfast, he said quietly, “Thank you for last night. Doctor Mike told us that he’s never seen anyone be able to heal an injury like that before. I could hear that Dalton’s lungs had been punctured, and I’ve seen men die from less before.” She nodded because she could figure out what had happened. As awesome as Mike was, he wasn’t a blood or wind magician, and she’d used both in her healing last night to clear out his body so it could heal properly.
She smiled and squinted as she explained, “I’m a bit different than your normal magician.” Also, blast the stupid sun! She really wanted her sunglasses back.
He grinned. “We’re counting on that. If you can rid the guards of the mesmer taint like Stephen said you might, then it’ll save a lot of lives.”
She nodded, smiling. “Hopefully it works like I think it will, and we can set up a trap for them that they won’t walk out of alive.” He looked surprised at her vehemence as she talked about the trap. She might be happy-go-lucky most of the time, but that didn’t mean she ever really wanted one of those things near her again. If they could be stopped at the wall so she didn’t have to deal with them roaming in the city at the very least, she’d feel better. Less paranoia was a good thing.
She wished she was strong enough now. The fact that they’d only sent one mesmer last night, based on what she’d heard, meant there were probably living people still being tortured in the forest. It didn’t sit well with her.
Silently, she thought of mana sense and felt her eyes tingle a little as she tried to activate it. Her footsteps faltered a tiny bit as she realized she could see the faintest blue aura around one of the people in front of her. Quickly recovering, she kept her eye on them and made sure to stumble when she was close, brushing her arm against them with a muttered, “Sorry about that.” Christopher was studying her with concern in his penetrating blue eyes, and she smiled reassuringly at him. “I’m just testing something with my vision, sorry.”
Silently, she clicked on the new flashing button to see if her theory was true.
You have touched Silas Dastrup, Siphon activated. Assessing stats and experience...
Choose a stat to siphon: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Magic, Charisma, or Luck.
Choose a skill to siphon: Athletics, Insight, Light Armor, Perception, or Water Magic.
Hole in one!
Chapter Thirty-Three – Fishy
Jade wanted to keep mana sense completely activated, but she was wary of using up her energy before they even got to the wall. Instead, every time they turned a corner, she’d activate it briefly and do a scan of the street. Some of the walls or windows lit up as well, showing that they had an active magic. There were occasio
nally light halos of color around people, and she kept trying to casually brush against them as they walked by. Christopher seemed a little disconcerted that she couldn’t seem to walk in a straight line, and she eventually gave up on trying to touch them and made small talk instead.
“So, if I understand correctly, what you’re telling me is that in front of each gate is a military camp area for the guards?”
Christopher nodded. “It makes it easier for them to be on site in case of an attack. It also provides an easy training area.”
She nodded. “That makes sense. So how is this going to work? Do people know I’m coming?”
Christopher paused thoughtfully. “Probably only the higher-ups. However, they called for a morning muster at nine, so they probably plan to introduce you as a healer that will be around, so people don’t question why you’re there.”
Jade quickly pulled her pocket watch out, noting the time, which read 8:50. “Uh, perhaps we should speed up then?”
Having peeked over her shoulder at the time, he laughed and assured her, “We’re almost there, no hurry.” She heaved a silent sigh of relief, having only just now realized that she apparently had a thing about being late. In the hospital, she’d had no choice. The doctors came when they came, but she’d hated when the nurses took away her computer in anticipation of a doctor’s visit and then they were late. Take away her one pleasure in anticipation of the doctor telling her she shouldn’t last the week, but somehow she was still alive? Meh.