Sense: A Fantasy LitRPG Saga (A Touch of Power Book 3)

by Jay Boyce

  Her lips twitched into a slightly devious smile before she controlled her expression back to simply pleasant. She was glad that they made what she considered the ‘right’ decision. It made things easier and slightly reassured her that she hadn’t started a war because of a tea party. She might be revolutionary in this world, but she wasn’t really fighting the monarchy. Grinning at her own silliness, she skipped forward as she replied, “On my way!”

  She stopped skipping after a few steps, mostly because both the new guard and Sir Taron were giving her strange looks and she couldn’t be bothered, plus her fellacai were landing in her hair once more. Carefully moderating her expression of silliness back into neutral lest she seem like she was gloating over her victory, she quickly rapped on the door to the delegation, which opened a second later.

  “Lady Jade, please come in.” The maid curtsied politely to her as she stepped out of the way, and Jade nodded to her before walking briskly into the main room. Several people jumped to their feet, but she quickly waved them down.

  “Sit, sit. I don’t actually enjoy all the pomp and circumstance.” Although most of them sank back into their seats, she realized they didn’t understand the saying by the confusion on their face, so she clarified. “Oh for heaven’s...the formality. I don’t like formalities.” Enlightenment stole over their expressions as she casually settled into the chair she’d taken previously. Looking at Lochlann, she asked, “So I assume by the fact that I’m here that you’ve made your decision?”

  Glancing over at an older gentleman who was obviously his advisor, her gaze followed his to see the slight nod from the man, almost imperceptible. If she hadn’t been watching closely, she’d have missed it. Taking a deep breath, Lochlann nodded as his eyes returned to her. “Yes. We’ve discussed it, and as a show of good will and to prove that we mean no harm, we will sign the contract.”

  She nodded solemnly, until the gravity of the discussion was slightly ruined by a tiny rooda who chose that moment to start climbing her leg. He’d obviously been hiding beneath the chair or somewhere behind her, as she hadn’t noticed him until that moment. His actions startled a laugh out of her, and she reached down, scooping little Baobao into her arms as she instinctively whispered in a baby voice, “Well hello there. Did you come to visit me?”

  The tiny rooda seemed to nod in understanding, but her gaze was fixed on Jade’s hair, or more precisely: the fellacai in her hair. Recognizing the look of someone who was about to pounce, she quickly held the rooda up in the air as she said firmly, “No. My fellacai are friends, not food. You are a nice rooda, not a mindless eating machine.” Little Baobao stared back at her, whuffing slightly as Ramoth flitted from her head, landing on Baobao’s nose, who whuffed again.

  “Put her down, Mommy.” The tiny voice resonated in her head, and curiously, Jade slowly set down the tiny rooda. Her cloud of fellacai took flight, and she heard another question, “Sparkles?” With a wry grin, she added sparkle trails to her little ones, watching as Baobao trotted off, chasing around and playing with the sparkle trails of her babies flitting around her. It was rather adorable, and everyone watched with wry grins as they chased one another.

  Clapping her hands together, she drew back the attention of the room as she smiled at Lochlann and said, “All right, let’s do this thing!” Thanks to the little ones, the atmosphere of the room was much lighter as he nodded. He walked over, handing her the contract she’d given him. She took a moment to set up the table before her with the other two contracts, pulling out ink and quill as she explained, “So, we’ll have everyone sign the bottom of all three. One for you, one for me, and one for the Ri’Clochs.” There was something to be said for redundancies, after all.

  The next half an hour was filled with people filing over one by one, signing the bottom of each sheet as they took the oath. She bound each one with her contractual magic, feeling the binding fall into place before she moved on to the next person. It was all very amiable, though a few people still looked slightly uncomfortable when doing so, setting off her sense motive BS detector. They were the ones she noted, secretly making images of them in crystals to give to Stephen for further investigation into their past activities in the kingdom. They wouldn’t be magically punished for their past, but it didn’t mean she could completely ignore what they might have done, either.

  Once everyone passed through, she put away two of the copies, handing the last one to Lochlann with a smile. “That should do it.”

  Smiling a bit ruefully, he shook his head. “I’m glad we were able to work it out. We never did mean any harm.” Her gaze flicked rapidly to the few people she was watching, and he smiled self-deprecatingly, understanding without words what she was saying. She appreciated when people were smart and didn’t have to have everything explicitly stated for them. In a way, it also proved her instinctive reaction towards them, as he obviously knew something about what they’d done. Then again, he could’ve also just been watching their reactions, given he’d been sitting next to her while his people signed.

  Baobao and Umeru chose that moment to race past them, and seeing the soft smile that crossed her face, Lochlann spoke again, “They’re already bonded, but you should come visit Saibreh in the spring when new ones are born. It’s not something you’ll ever forget.” There were a lot of implications in that sentence, but Jade still nodded.

  “I think I’d like that. Thanks.” She silently called back her babies, who abandoned Baobao and Umeru to fly back and land in her hair. The tiny rooda stared up at her like forlorn puppies who’d lost their playmates. She bent down, ruffling their fur briefly as she whispered, “Next time, little ones.”

  Straightening, she nodded to him. “I’ve got a few more things to do this afternoon, but I’ll see you around. I’ll make sure the guards know you’re no longer on house arrest.” Seeing the confusion on their faces at words they knew but that didn’t make sense strung together, she shook her head and clarified, “Not confined to the suite anymore.”

  “Thank you, we appreciate that. Have a good evening, Lady Jade.” Bidding them goodbye, she left, making sure to inform the guards as she’d promised. Sir Taron silently led the way back to the royal sitting room without any prompting. The standing guards knocked once before opening the door for her, letting her in with respectful nods.

  “Jade! How’d it go?” Victor looked hopefully at her, and she was a bit surprised to see that most of the family held teacups from which they were sipping. At least today didn’t seem to have ruined that for them. Ashanna silently poured her a cup as she gave Derrick the spare contract, and she took it gratefully, savoring a small sip before explaining what happened.

  “I can’t believe they actually signed it.” Tisha’s mutter wasn’t loud, but the expressions on the silent faces around her indicated their agreement.

  Only Hunter seemed to disagree. “I can. Jade basically backed them into a corner. Sign the agreement or make an enemy of your staunchest ally and the most powerful traveler we’ve ever seen. Not much of a decision to make there.”

  “Wait, Dad, let me see that.” Camille stole the agreement from her father’s hands, looking it over before she looked up at Jade in shock. “They didn’t say anything about the wording?”

  Jade grinned like the cheshire cat that got the cream. “I don’t think they thought they could negotiate.”

  Camille shook her head, then asked, “Is there a reason you said ANY traveler, and not just you?” It was obvious that, as far as she was aware, Jade only knew of the three other travelers from their kingdom.

  Giving her a thoughtful look, she glanced at Victor before she finally spoke. “Victor mentioned there have been times when relations with the traveler...didn’t go so well. I don’t know the details, but I can imagine how things might’ve gone very wrong for someone like me if you hadn’t protected and taken care of me when I was still weak and fairly helpless. If it happened here, then it probably happened elsewhere too. For me, coming here was an adventu
re, a second chance at life. But I was also reassured right off the bat that I’d be taken care of. If I hadn’t had that...trying to adapt to a strange world would be freaking terrifying. So yeah, I said ‘any traveler’ on purpose. It will probably never amount to anything, but if something tiny like a single word can change someone’s life for the better...of course I’m going to do it.”

  There were a few accusatory glances at Victor, like he’d spilled some huge secret, but mostly there was understanding. He shrugged unapologetically. “She has a right to know the truth. It’s not like she’s some uninvolved or random person. She’s the reason half our family is here right now, so I don’t feel a need to hide the skeletons in our history.”

  Ashanna sighed, lightly hitting her oldest son upside the head as she admonished him, “Yes, but tact and warning are good things.” Turning to Jade, she continued, “However, I agree with him. Jade, why don’t you stay tonight in the castle, and after dinner with the Resaigh delegation, Derrick or I will fully explain.” When Jade nodded, she smiled in relief and clapped her hands together. “Very well! We all need to change for dinner. Go now, and we’ll meet back here in half an hour to go down together. Understood?”

  “Yes, Mother.” Hayden grinned and rolled his eyes at Ashanna, but everyone got to their feet, heading for the doors.

  Camille grabbed Jade’s arm, linking her own through it as she said, “You’re with me. Sharon delivered your dress for tonight, and I had them put it in my room.”

  Slightly confused, Jade asked, “What kind of dress are we talking about? Why do we have to change?”

  With a sigh, Will answered her, “The Resaigh are big on formalities. What we’re wearing to dinner is almost as elaborate as anything people will wear to the ball tomorrow.”

  Oh fun, a stiff formal event. Just her cup of tea! Not.

  Chapter Thirty-Six – Breathe

  “How often do they dress like this? I feel like I can barely move.” Jade plucked at her clothes, trying to rearrange them into something resembling comfort to no avail.

  “Stop pulling at it; you’ll mess it up.” Camille swatted at Jade’s hands, which caused Jade to make a face.

  “That’s the point. I’m trying to make it so I can breathe properly!” she quipped back, before finally letting her hands drop to her side in exasperation. It was a lost cause. She felt like she’d practically been sewn into this heavily embroidered monstrosity.

  Camille sighed, gesturing to the dress. “Part of why it’s so stiff is to keep your back straight. They view slouching as a sign of disrespect.” Smoothing out her own dress, she went on, “This is the customary garb of the royal women of Resaigh. I think it’s in part due to being underground all the time, so the layers help them to stay warm.”

  Slightly confused, Jade asked, “But don’t they live in a desert?”

  Camille nodded, then gave her the tiniest shrug--which was all that her dress would allow. “Yes, but we told you that the women stay almost exclusively in the city underground. I’ve never been there myself, but rumors indicate that over the generations, they’ve dug out at least five levels, and the lower you are, the more respected your position, because it means you don’t have a need to go to the surface and you’re the most protected.”

  Shaking her head, she traced the embroidery of fellacai that covered her clothes. They’d at least made it pretty, and her little ones were having fun jumping around pretending to be part of her dress, making it come alive. She’d very specifically warned them to stay away from where she sat though, not wanting to accidentally squish them. She’d practiced a few times to show them the danger areas, and she stopped worrying when they affirmed they understood. Sitting in this thing was enough of an ordeal without having to worry about smashing her familiars.

  Softly, she muttered, “Sounds like a horrible prison to me.” It really did. Trapped in the darkness with artificial light, never able to see the sun, unable to do anything other than what the men dictated, probably being put under compulsion… She never wanted to be that helpless again, and it made her heart ache for the women who probably knew nothing else. She once again sent up a silent prayer of thanks to whatever god brought her here that they’d dropped her in Caoi and not one of the nearby countries. She doubted they were listening, but figured it didn’t hurt to be on good terms, just in case they were. After all, she did get here somehow.

  Camille shuddered, nodding in agreement. “Absolutely.” She paused, then said in a quiet voice, “And I’m a bit worried too. You heard Alejandro. A’Udar Faris is looking for a main wife. There are only three people who would be in the running for that.”

  Jade stilled, then said softly, “You, me, and Tisha.” At Camille’s nod, she asked, “But he can only offer, right? Your parents wouldn’t force you to go?” She didn’t really think Derrick and Ashanna would sacrifice one of their children like that, but there was that whole ‘for the good of the country’ thing that the nobles actually tried to adhere to.

  “No! Of course they wouldn’t. We’re allowed to pick our own marriages.” Her voice got much quieter, “Although we are encouraged to also at least consider marrying someone who will, in turn, bring certain...advantages...to the kingdom. So yeah. In that way, if he asks for my hand… I can turn him down. I merely have to make sure to do it in a way that doesn’t insult him, so he doesn’t do something silly like declare war. If Alejandro warned us about it, it means he learned that news from somewhere, which likely makes it true. In that case, he isn’t going to be very happy about being turned down by all three of us.” She was wringing her hands, obviously distressed about the situation.

  Reaching over and finding she couldn’t raise her upper arm more than a few inches, she patted Camille’s elbow as she said softly, “Don’t worry. We’ll figure something out. There’s no use borrowing trouble. Just don’t encourage him and maybe he’ll get the hint and not even bother asking.”

  Camille looked slightly hopeful. “Do you really think that’ll work?”

  Shrugging, Jade shook her head. “I haven’t the foggiest. But it’s worth a shot. A’Udar Faris did at least seem like a smart man, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he’ll pick up on social cues.” She knew her own EQ was seriously stunted at times, but she could only hope his was better.

  A loud thunk against the door, followed by several more, startled them as Tisha’s muffled voice came through. “Cami, Jade, let’s go. Otherwise we’re going to be late! Come on! What’s taking so long?”

  Camille’s maid quickly opened the door, letting Tisha spill into the room from where she’d obviously been pressed up against it to shout through the wood. The maid caught her before she hit the ground, and she thanked her quietly before looking up at Camille and Jade. “You’re ready. Why aren’t you coming?”

  “We were just talking.” Jade tried to pat Tisha on the head, only to get disgruntled again when she couldn’t reach. She settled for awkwardly patting her lower arm as she went on, “But we can go now. Come on.” When Tisha lunged for her arm, Jade neatly sidestepped, shaking her head with a little laugh as she pointed to her fellacai, three of whom Tisha had almost smushed.

  “Oops, sorry little ones. I’m used to you being in her hair.” Tisha spoke apologetically to her fellacai, and Willow flew away from her dress, giving tiny chitters as she landed on the hand Tisha put out for her. The fluttering queen rubbed her tiny head against her thumb, chittered some more, and then flew back to the dress. Tisha was staring longingly at her as she once again began crawling around the fabric and asked softly, “Do you think Mom will let us bond now?”

  Looking thoughtful, Jade shrugged. “Not sure, but I’m going to say you should wait to ask until things have calmed down a little. We’ve got enough on our plates to worry about right now without adding newly bonded on top of it.” She needed to check on Ren. She also felt a pang of guilt that she’d been in her workshop and totally forgotten to check on the caged fellacai swarm. Granted, she was suppose
d to be setting up the new area for them tomorrow so they could fly more freely at least, but she spaced visiting them in her desire to create the rings. Ugh. So many things to do, so little time to do them. She needed to figure out if time magic was a thing. Maybe she could make a time turner?

  The three girls left Camille’s room, walking side by side in the corridor, due to the fact that their full skirts prevented them walking any closer unless they wanted to swish it to the side to make room. She counted at least ten layers that started at her waist and cascaded down. She wasn’t quite at the Cinderella poof level, but maybe half that. The biggest difference was that historically, Cinderella wore a hoop to push out her dress, and instead she was wearing way too many heavy layers for her liking.

  Frowning slightly, she looked at Camille, “You said our dresses for tomorrow were even more formal? How are we supposed to dance in something like this? I can’t even move my arms properly!”

  Laughing, Tisha giggled, “Oh, this is much heavier than what we’ll wear tomorrow. Besides, most of our formal dresses either don’t have sleeves or have short sleeves so we can dance. They’re also made out of a much lighter material, so don’t worry. We’ll be able to dance all we want!” While dancing was not quite Jade’s idea of fun, she was at least relieved to hear that she’d be able to move more freely at the ball. She could only hope there wouldn’t be any vows of everlasting love or shapeshifters to ruin it. She wasn’t in a movie, after all, so she should be safe, right?

  As they approached what she’d mentally labeled the royal sitting room, Camille took the lead, nodding to the guards, who rapped sharply on the door once and then opened it as Camille peeked in. “Everyone ready?”

  “It’s about time you got here. We were about to send a search party to find you!” Will’s voice was annoyed as Camille backed up, letting her brothers and parents file out of the room. Ashanna looked the girls over, nodding in approval at their outfits and graciously ignoring Jade’s obvious disgruntlement as she tried to move her arms in an attempt to loosen the top slightly.