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

by Jay Boyce

  Her fingers stilled in Camille’s hair as she digested this new information. The picture Camille painted was better than the one night stands she’d been imagining, but it also sounded like using the guys as a sperm bank. She could also imagine how it would screw up any genealogy attempts, if they even kept track of that. How did you know you weren’t getting together with a cousin? Was that why they did stuff like this visit, to try and bring new blood into the tribe? Or were there enough people that it wasn’t an issue? How diluted was the gene pool? She had so many questions and no answers.

  Shaking herself out of her spacey stupor, she finished up Camille’s hair as her little ones fluttered over, feeling her confusion. Most of them took up positions on her ponytail, but Rio landed on her arm, looking up at her with his big eyes as she heard his voice in her mind, “Babies stronger when man strong. Survive better.” She held up her little blue man as he moved to her hand obediently, thinking over what he’d added.

  It was a dangerous world, there was no disputing that. The strong were the ones able to survive and thrive. Now she had to wonder if the conditions on the Niloi Islands were even harsher. The chitin they wore was indicative of giant bugs, and she’d already seen a giant scorpion from the desert. The bugs were on the island, but what about sea birds, or heck, even sea animals? If even Rio was stressing the importance of strong offspring… She paused, inspecting the little man as she asked, “Will you have babies soon?”

  She heard the tiny chuckles of her little ones echoing in her mind as Amber’s happy voice warbled in, “No, in spring.” Taking a minute to think about it, she realized the year was somewhere in the late summer or early fall. Or at least, that’s what the weather led her to believe. For all she knew, fall was beginning and that’s why the school just started.

  Feeling a headache coming on, she asked, “When are the seasons?”

  Camille got up after she finished her hair and was puttering around when Jade asked, and she looked at her with confusion. That wasn’t really a surprise, since her question came out of the blue. Still, she only hesitated for a second before responding, “The first day of fall was the day classes started, the first of Aibrean, though true fall hasn’t come yet. Winter officially starts with Mártoz, spring arrives with the new year in Lúnasa, and summer begins with MeáFóm. Why do you ask?”

  Jade held her hand up, displaying Rio, who proudly fluttered his wings as she responded, “Got into a conversation with them about when they’d be having babies, and they said the spring.”

  Looking thoughtful, Camille nodded. “I hadn’t thought of that, but yeah. They were caught in the late spring, so they should be ready to mate next spring.” Pausing again, Jade stared at her with questions written all over her face, so Camille seemed to reluctantly go on, “They can usually only be caught in the spring, when they’re still young and inexperienced. Mature fellacai are almost impossible to catch. There were still two deaths while trapping their swarm, if I remember correctly. It was also the first time we’d caught any queens.”

  She felt her little ones quiver slightly, the barest nervous flutter of their wings. She silently released a tiny bit of life magic, letting reassurance wash over them to let them know they were safe. Slowly, technicolor images came to her mind as she tried to make sense of them. Thousands of tiny fellacai, less than a quarter of the size they were now, fluttered about anxiously, trying to send their weak little magic at the giant group of those stupid oreithers in the treetops. The ape-like creatures managed to sneak attack the largest fellacai, a beautiful silver and black queen.

  Even injured, the queen was protecting the many little ones around her, sending out waves of pollen as fast as she could. There was a male fellacai on the other side, and she felt the sense of ‘daddy’ coming through the visions as he held off the oreither on the other side. Still, they couldn’t save everyone, and a few baby fellacai would be snatched, the oreither chomping victoriously into their frail bodies with vicious grins.

  Their triumph was short lived, however, because other things were drawn to their battle. Several ioguan crept close, their tongues darting out to attack the little ones. The oreither hissed in proprietary anger at their snack being stolen, but then a beithiche pair appeared, dragging off one of the oreither carcasses that fell. It was chaos, and Jade distinctly felt the order ‘leave!’ coming from the queen.

  Taking as many with them as they could while their mom and dad held off the others, a swarm of itty bitty fellacai raced closer to the ground, away from the ioguan and oreither and any birds who wanted them for a snack. They’d gotten a bit further away when they felt the wind enclose them, pulling them closer to a group of humans. They couldn’t fight against it, exhausted as they were, and realizing that their pollen was being contained, so it would only hurt them. They vaguely registered that there was blood on some of the humans before they were shoved into a large box. Strange words were said over them, their magic cut off. Exhausted, they huddled together in the darkness as they were moved, and the next time they saw the light, they were in what Jade recognized as the contractual magic classroom.

  To her horror, she watched as occasionally some of them were taken and fed to the other creatures there, terrifying them. They sent her the feeling of overwhelming hunger and scary faces looking at them with greed or disdain. Finally, they sent her her own face, a look of awe and love shining through as she studied them, then brought them out of their own personal hell to a brighter world.

  When the images stopped, Jade stumbled to her bed, dropping onto it heavily. Tears streamed down her face as her little ones fluttered down to her lap so she could softly stroke and reassure them. She brought them one by one up to her face to lay a small kiss on them as she murmured, “I’m so sorry; you’re safe now. I love you.” It took a minute for her to calm both herself and her babies down, and when she finally did, she realized Camille was sitting quietly a short distance away, studying her.

  “What did they show you?” Camille’s question made her realize the girl knew exactly what just happened, and thus must’ve seen it before.

  Smiling sadly as she wiped her face, Jade spoke softly, “How they were captured. They were ambushed by a group of oreither and a few others, and their parents were fighting them off to give them a chance to escape. They were exhausted, and the direction they escaped happened to be in the way of the hunting party, who captured them when they were trying to lead their family to safety.” Jade’s voice went soft, and she looked at her little ones, silently promising that she’d try to take care of their family, and go into the forest again to search for their actual mom.

  Camille looked sad, but not as properly horrified as Jade was. Probably because she was used to that as the way of the world. It made her realize that when the time came for her little ones to become mothers of their own, she needed to take them away. Perhaps she would create a sanctuary where they could live in peace. Maybe somewhere on the mountain? Anything to ensure that they wouldn’t be raised in captivity and fed to other creatures, murdered in front of each other. She was sure now that her little ones saw them as the real monsters until she’d come along.

  “Celestial feces!” Camille’s outburst startled her and the little ones as she saw Camille looking at the time. The fluttered around before settling on her hair as Camille ran to the door, flinging it open as she yelled down the hall, “We need to leave, NOW!” Jade caught the amused look on one of the guard’s faces and the panic on a couple of maids as they hurried to their respective doors and knocked before opening them. Camille’s shout caused the rest of the royal kids to spill out of their rooms in various states of readiness, and Jade confirmed that this area belonged solely to the royal family. It was a place where they could relax and treat it as their home, which made sense. “We’re going to be late, let’s get moving!”

  Glancing at her own pocket watch as she pulled it out, Jade frowned, realizing it was 8:45 and they were supposed to be at Dracona at 9. She followed Camille into
the hallway, watching in mild amusement as Hayden was tucking his shirt into his pants and Hunter was brushing crumbs off of Tisha. Will and Victor looked more put together, though Will was still fixing his hair and Victor was double checking his weapons before storing them in his ring.

  The maid was about to close Camille’s door behind her until Jade shook her head, stopping the girl. She cleared her throat, drawing their attention to her as she pointed at the balcony door. “Come on, we’ll take the shortcut so we’re not late. Where are your parents?”

  Victor strode over, smiling as he took her hand and gave it a light kiss. “Good morning, Jade. Our parents have probably already been at the grounds for a while, making sure everything is ready. They’re early risers.” Will looked like he was going to try to follow Victor’s actions when Tisha pounced on her, whining.

  “You did Cami’s hair, but not miiiiiiine! You have to do mine for the ball tonight, okay? Okay? Promise me!” Looking at Tisha’s hair in a low side ponytail, Jade relented with a smile.

  “All right, I’ll do your hair tonight.” Tisha squealed a ‘yay’ and let go of her to do a little dance as Jade and the others chuckled. Then Jade pointed to the balcony. “Shall we?” At the various nods, she led the way, the maid hurrying to open the door for them as she stepped out into the fresh morning air once more. Glancing at Will, then the others, she grinned. “You all should practice flying yourselves while I’ve got low gravity on you.”

  Will gave her an apologetic smile. “Can we not today? We’re probably going to be challenged, so I’d like to save my strength for that if possible.”

  Jade paused, taking a moment to study the guys and realizing that they were all wearing armor, and Hunter and Hayden had obvious weapons, which Will and Victor didn’t. It took only a second for her to realize what the difference was: who she’d given spatial rings to. She hadn’t had a chance, or rather hadn’t remembered, to make the three younger siblings’ signet rings into spatial storage. She also hadn’t done it for Derrick or Ashanna. She probably needed to fix that.

  Absently, she replied, “Yeah, that’s fine. Hunter, Hayden, Tisha, give me your signet rings. I’ll play with them while we watch the tournament. Remind me to get your parents’ rings, too. Camille, I also need yours, and Victor and Will, you should hand them over when you’re not competing so I can enlarge them, now that I’m better at it.”

  Without any fuss, four of them handed over their rings, the younger three brimming with smiles as they realized they were finally going to get one of the fun advantages their siblings had. “We’ll remind you, but we’d better go.” Camille’s voice was a soft nudge. Jade nodded, pocketing the rings as she lowered their gravity automatically, wrapping them in an air bubble before she lifted them into the sky.

  The guards must have been getting used to it, because no alarm was raised when the six of them departed. Having the advantage of already being several stories up, Jade shot the bubble straight towards the large hill that housed Dracona, the other girls clutching their skirts to their legs for modesty’s sake as they flew over the town in the sparkling sunshine.

  It was a beautiful day to watch people get beaten up.

  Chapter Forty-Two – Niloi

  “It’s a good thing not just anyone could do this, or there’d be no point in having guards.” Victor’s mutter sounded like he was a tiny bit impressed, exasperated, and worried all at the same time. She could see his point though. She’d flown them over the gate without any problems or showing any identification. She didn’t think the guards even noticed them, since most people don’t look up. Especially not when you’re guarding a gate that leads into town.

  It made her wonder whether there just weren’t that many natural sky predators around here. Sure, dragons were one thing, but she assumed they were huge and hard to miss. There was that giant bat-thing she’d wiped off her bubble at night, but those probably weren’t a pest for people, since she’d never heard anyone mention them before. There were the fellacai and the beann, but they were small and not much of a threat. Maybe they stayed in their habitats. The real question was why she hadn’t seen something like pigeons, but that might be answered with the fact that unlike people from her world, who had no good way of dealing with them, the people here were combat ready and quite willing to kill pests on sight.

  “Jade, left! Go left!” Realizing she’d spaced out thinking about animals, Hunter tugged her arm to get her attention while pointing to the side. She’d been on autopilot, heading for Magnus. She paused the bubble’s forward momentum, instead turning to the left to look where Hunter was pointing. It was a part of campus she’d never explored before, and she had to laugh. The only places on campus she’d really been were Magnus, Caldwell, the cafeteria, the infirmary, her training yards, and the obstacle course. Honestly, she should probably figure out if the other buildings she’d been to had actual names. They probably did, and she simply never cared because people understood what she’d been looking for when she asked for directions by describing their purpose.

  She began their descent, heading towards what she could only describe as a small oval coliseum. Unlike the one at the obstacle course, this one was a much more open concept. It wasn’t the smooth, open ground Roman mimicry she’d been expecting, however. It felt like it was designed to accommodate all sorts of different fighting styles. There was open ground, but there were also small hills, boulders, ponds, weathered columns, and walls, along with bushes and small trees. At least there were no teenagers trying to kill each other in a death match...though she supposed the fights had yet to begin.

  As they got lower, she noticed that while there weren’t any wild hairstyles and fashion show-esqe attire, the bright colors and chitin people wore seemed to give off a similar vibe. The Niloi held themselves proudly, even as they mingled with the others. There was something about their bearing that she silently labeled as the district one mentality. Killers trained from birth, who would happily jump into the arena for honor.

  It was those same people who were the first to notice them, their stances shifting as they saw something approaching from above, which told her two things: the Niloi were used to aerial predators, and the Caoi were not. People who had to deal with threats from above would watch the skies, while those used to peace in that direction paid it no heed. Still, as soon as someone noticed them, other people obviously said something, because she saw stances relaxing as she and the rest of the royal family descended.

  “Aim for our parents if you can.” Will’s voice was quiet as he pointed out Derrick and Ashanna, and Jade scoffed slightly.

  “Aim for? You realize I have full control over where we land, right? There is no aiming wildly for something nearby.” Several of the royals around her rolled their eyes, but didn’t say anything as she set them lightly down, dropping the wind shield and recalling her gravity magic. She was tempted to increase it on Will for a second to make him stumble, but decided being petty in public wasn’t the best idea. While it would have been a small revenge for his doubt of her accuracy, she really shouldn’t make him look bad in front of a foreign delegation.

  Instead, she smiled as she nodded to Derrick and Ashanna, who stood next to several Niloi, one of whom she recognized as the ambassador. What was her name again? “Jade, so glad you could make it. I see you brought the rest of our family with you.” Queen Ashanna’s voice was warm, laced with mild humor as she raised a brow slightly at her children.

  “We wanted to be sure we were on time, and it was the fastest way here.” Jade smiled as she replied, then nodded to the Ambassador, whose name she belatedly recalled, “Ancestor Aylin, forgive us if we startled your people. I’ve become accustomed to flying in order to save time and avoid crowds. It is, however, a pleasure to officially meet you.” She stepped forward, arm held out as Aylin moved forward. Her tanned hand contrasted sharply with Jade’s as she grasped Jade’s pale forearm in the same greeting as she’d used with the queen at the portal.

  Leaning fo
rward, Aylin kissed Jade on the cheek and she returned the gesture as the ambassador spoke in her lovely alto voice, “It’s lovely to meet you, Lady Jade. I see the rumors we’ve heard don’t do you justice.” It was such a loaded statement, and she had no idea how to take it. Were the rumors bad? Good? Were they about her personality, powers, or even just her appearance?

  Shrugging, she decided to go with it, “Hopefully you aren’t too disappointed.”

  There was a twinkle to Aylin’s eyes as she responded, “Not at all. It’s good to keep people on their toes.” She gestured to several of the men and women beside her, introducing them as they each stepped forward, clasping her forearm, while the women leaned in to air kiss her cheeks or the men then bowed and kissed her hand in succession. She’d forgotten that was the tradition of Caoi partially, mostly because the people around her realized she didn’t enjoy formality and adapted accordingly.

  It made her wonder again how much she’d gotten away with without even realizing it. How much had the people around her smoothed her path and accepted her idiosyncrasies without batting an eye? Or well, she did make them drop things a few times, but really, for the most part, everyone dealt with her antics with pure aplomb. Still, she was happy to collect her little blue dots as she met the delegation, though she only got a few before Ashanna cleared her throat and announced, “Everyone, please take your seats. The tournament will begin shortly.”

  Jade found herself seated in between Aylin and Victor as the people around them quieted down, all eyes turning towards either the arena or the stand where she was. She noticed that it was raised a bit higher than the rest of the stands and concluded that it was made for the VIPs. While she was waiting, she curiously clicked on a few dots to get a sense of who the Niloi were.