by Jay Boyce
“So, what’re the best options?” She was studying the menu—they had a real menu! Well, sort of. It was more like those fast food restaurants that had boards behind the counter that listed what was available, but close enough. Since everyone here could read, it made more sense that this was where something like that would show up.
Brady looked thoughtful before shrugging. “Everything on this floor is good. It won’t be the case with the other floors, but here you can’t really go wrong unless there’s something you dislike.” Jade nodded and he looked at the counter lady. “Estelle, I’ll have the steak, medium rare, baked potato, and cooked veggies.”
“Very well, Viscount. We’ll have that right out for you. And what will you have, miss?”
Jade grinned, still looking at the menu before she finally decided. “Alright. I’ll have the steak medium rare as well, and then the battered chicken, the ribs, the chicken salad, and the sausage chili. For sides, I’ll take a baked potato, the cooked veggies, the fresh fruit, mushroom soup, three rolls, and the meat pie.” She looked at the menu, then thought for a moment. “Oh right, and two glasses of juice, one of milk, and two of water.”
Estelle raised her blond eyebrows at her. “Are you trying to feed an army?”
Jade laughed and shook her head. “Army of one, at your service! No, honestly it’s all for me. I did a bunch of healing this morning and I’m going into four hours of magic classes, so I promise I’ll eat it all.” Both Estelle and Brady looked dubious, but finally Estelle nodded when Brady gave her a shrug with the ‘just do it’ look.
“Alright. We’ll get that out to you, miss…?”
“Jade. It’s lovely to meet you, Estelle. You’ll probably be seeing a lot of me.”
Estelle laughed. “You’ve got guts, that’s for sure. What makes you think the professors will use their passes on you?”
Jade shrugged and spoke honestly, “I’m in fourteen magic classes and I’m a traveler. Brady and Carter are both basically giving me private lessons. I’m good friends with Camille and Will, and I’m pretty sure they get to eat on this floor too. Between all of them, I’m pretty sure I can coerce someone to get me meals on this floor. I’m too much of a foodie to want to eat on the fifth floor.”
Estelle was staring at her with astounded light green eyes. Finally, she laughed and shook her head. “I stand corrected. We’ll have your food right out, Lady Jade.”
“Just Jade is fine. Thank you, Estelle. It was lovely to meet you.” Jade grinned and Brady dragged her away to an empty table as he raised his brow at her.
“Really, fourteen magic classes? Which professor did you snub by not taking their class?”
Jade just stared at him. “I’m taking all of them, what do you mean?”
He laughed. “There are fifteen magic classes offered right now.”
She blanched, then reached into her bag to yank out her schedule and show Brady. He looked over it, then winced. “You’re missing Nature with Viscountess Delaney. Good luck with that one. She’s going to be…unhappy, to say the least, that you’re taking every magic class but hers.”
She laid her head on the table, groaning softly. “I forgot that it didn’t fit! I was thinking I had them all covered! I even met her! What am I supposed to dooooooo?”
“What’s the problem?” A new voice came from behind her, and suddenly it was no longer just her and Brady at the table as Eric and Stephen both sat down. Stephen looked concerned at the fact that she was gently banging her head on the table.
Pointing at Eric, she wrinkled her nose as she accused him teasingly, “This is partly your fault! Why didn’t we remember I’d missed a magic class!?”
Understanding dawned on them, and Stephen pulled her class schedule over from Brady, looking over it. He shook his head once he realized who’d been left out. “Delaney is going to be mad.”
Eric winced. “We didn’t put in Delaney’s class?” Jade nodded and he sighed. “We can… I have no idea what to do. Count Edmund is expecting you in his geography class, too.”
Jade winced. “We have to fix this somehow!” She pulled her schedule back, looking at it. “Oh, what if… She’s here on Tuesdays, and I have Tuesday mornings free. What if we asked her to tutor me before lunch?” She was a little loathe to give up the little bit of free time she’d managed to grab for herself, but she wanted to learn nature magic. It would also depend on if Delaney was willing to come early for her.
Eric sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I’ll ask. If she realizes that’s the only way to have you as a student, she might agree. At least the fact that you want to take lessons should mollify her…” He looked a little stressed out at the prospect. Jade tried to smile reassuringly at him. She had the feeling he was going to get an earful about signing her up for every other magic class and missing Delaney’s.
After all, Hell hath no wrath like a woman scorned…
Chapter Five – Spymaster
Their food arrived shortly after, with Estelle coming out with another younger woman to drop off the very full trays. Even Eric and Stephen looked surprised at the sheer amount of food in front of Jade, and Eric asked tentatively, “Did the amount you need to eat go up?”
Jade already had a mouthful of food at that point, so she had to quickly chew and swallow the delicious goodness before she responded, “I pretty much convert food into magic. Did a lot of healing this morning and lost a bit of blood too.” It was only now that the two of them seemed to take into account the fact that her clothes had a bunch of gashes on them.
Looking sternly at Brady, Stephen asked pointedly, “Why didn’t you start with wooden blades? Was cutting her up really necessary?” His voice held just a tinge of menace and warning, and she smiled brightly at him. It was nice that he was so concerned, although it wasn’t necessary in this case.
Brady grinned and shrugged. “She’s a healer and she’ll learn faster with real consequences. She already made vast improvements, and now she won’t freeze up if someone comes at her with a blade. She already knows what it’s like to be cut, albeit shallowly. That’s not something you get with wooden blades.”
Jade was just happily munching because it was true. Had someone come at her with a knife, she’d probably have frozen up. She hadn’t even tried to dodge the mesmer when it came at her, though that might have been because of the hypnosis, which she’d had to fight extremely hard to just do a few things. The more non-lethal combat experience she got, the better off she would be. She’d probably need to find a skimpier training outfit so she didn’t tear up all of her clothes. If she kept using the same ones, they’d end up as rags.
Stephen seemed to look at her to check if she was okay with that, and when she didn’t raise any objections, he let it drop, only to pursue a new line of questioning. “Alright. So Jade, I hear something interesting happened at the gate yesterday.” He looked at her with a raised brow, as if he wanted her to confess.
She raised her brow right back at him, then replied sweetly, “Sure. I guess finding a doppelganger can be counted as interesting.” Since he hadn’t specified, she’d go with that rather than her trapping Christopher behind a wind wall. She was quickly scarfing her food at this point since she had a feeling of what he was trying to get at and it wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have in public.
Thankfully, Eric and Brady looked surprised. It was obvious they weren’t as well informed as Stephen, which made sense to her, given that they weren’t spymasters. Brady, obviously flabbergasted, asked, “You went up against a doppelganger yesterday?”
Jade laughed, shaking her head as she eyed the professors and students coming in. Most of the students were streaming past the doors to the upper floors, but a few of them entered with professors. She saw the royal trio of Will, Camille, and Victor coming in as well. Dismissively, she said, “No, of course not. I just identified it and then had the guards put a bunch of arrows in it.”
Brady and Eric were looking thoughtful, though Eric looked more relieved that she h
adn’t personally fought it. “How did you figure out what it was?” Now that he knew she hadn’t been in immediate danger, he was curious.
She smiled. “I’ve got mana sense now. The mana around it was very different, almost shimmering with changing colors. It made me suspicious, and then when I touched it, I could feel it wasn’t quite human. After that, we just played Sherlock until we figured it out.”
“Sherlock?” Oh right, she needed to not use names from her other world.
“Ah, he’s the greatest literary detective of my old world.” She smiled and cleaned off her second plate.
“What’s a detective?” She almost choked when Stephen asked this question. Sure, she understood them not getting a Sherlock reference, but…to not even know what a detective was? That was just sad.
With a sigh, she explained, “A detective is someone who uses clues at a crime scene to solve the crime. So if there was a murder or someone went missing, they’d ask questions and stuff about when people last saw them, like if anyone heard anything unusual, if they were acting suspiciously, if anyone shady was nearby recently, stuff like that. They look at things like, is there some activity left half done that wouldn’t normally be there? Like food that is in the oven or left on a counter uneaten. Things like how blood splattered across the room to tell what kind of violence or weapon were used, examining the body and position to tell if it was an accident or murder, or where they were stabbed is used to determine how tall the person might have been in relation because of where they were stabbed and the angle it went in. Also stuff like if there was any hairs that shouldn’t be there at the crime scene because that can narrow things down too. Things like that.”
Ah, she missed her crime shows. Nurse Taylor had been obsessed with them; Jade hadn’t been that interested, but she’d ended up picking up a lot more than she thought, clearly out of boredom. All three of them looked fascinated by her explanation.
Brady was the first to talk. “I suppose, depending on how deep the wounds were, that would be a good indicator of strength as well, and you’re right, with the angle of wounds, you could tell more or less what weapons were used.” Jade nodded, eating happily after her explanation. She didn’t want her food to get cold!
Stephen was still pondering as he muttered, “We question people, but I don’t think we’ve ever looked for something like hair…” She grinned, glad he’d been successfully distracted. At least the concept wasn’t new, even if the word was.
In the meantime, Victor, Camille, and Will had placed their orders and plopped down at the table beside them. Brady looked a little surprised at the royal company until Camille asked brightly, “How’d your weapons practice go?”
Jade turned and half hugged the girl beside her. “It went great, but did you have to buy the whole armory?” The two of them laughed while everyone but Brady looked confused.
“Well duh. You needed to be fully outfitted! Aside from that, what’s with your outfit? Did you decide you didn’t like it after all?” Camille was plucking at her clothes, and Victor coughed cutely and looked away at the fact that her bare skin was being exposed. It looked like she might need to change…
Jade shrugged and smiled. “I thought I’d create a new fashion statement, that’s all.” She wasn’t going to throw Brady under the bus again just yet. He still had lots to teach her! Still, Camille gave Brady the stink eye all the same. Why ask if she knew the answer? Jade reached up, pushing Camille’s head gently so she couldn’t see Brady anymore and redirecting her attention to the food in front of her that Estelle had just put down with a bow. Apparently, being royal got you fast service. “Stop glaring and eat the good food.” Will choked on his food, obviously not able to eat and laugh at the same time, and Victor took the chance to pound him soundly on the back, as all brothers were wont to do.
Camille shook her head ruefully at their antics, then said to Jade, “Still, you should probably change. Do you have any spare clothes here?”
Jade shook her head. “Nope, I didn’t realize I would need any. They’re all back at The Green Dragon.” Camille looked thoughtful, then nodded.
“Alright. It’s probably fine for today, but bring spares in the future.”
“Will do.” She winked at Will as she said that, causing him to choke and turn red again, and everyone else at the table burst into laughter. With the blond angels clumped at their table, no one else dared to join them, despite their rank and influence as professors. Their meal was thus nice and peaceful, and small talk was made about everyone’s classes that morning until the food was gone.
Jade sat back, rubbing her belly happily, but glad that her body wasn’t overwhelming her with the need to burp. The whole table was still staring at her in awe as Brady said, “I didn’t think you’d actually be able to finish it all…”
She laughed. “Oh ye of little faith. I haven’t wasted any food since I came to this world.”
Eric laughed too, saying admiringly, “I’m going to agree with what Raphael told me on this one; I think she’s got a black hole in there. How else does it all fit at once?”
Jade leaned forward conspiratorially, then said quietly, “Very, very carefully.” Everyone laughed, and she shrugged. “I have no idea either. I just eat until my body says enough. I probably have something magical where it leeches the energy from the food faster. That’s my only explanation. My stomach is certainly not big enough to have fit the five plates I just ate.” Seriously, she felt full, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. The only explanation was magic. Science was stumped at this point.
Looking at the royals, she asked curiously, “So, are you guys sticking around for afternoon classes?”
Victor answered easily, “Will’s got history after this, and then Camille and I come back for stonecrafting at three. We’re also all doing the business class at eight. But we’ll all be here the whole time because Dad’s arranged for tutors when we aren’t in the actual classes.” Jade nodded, pondering the information. It made sense that the royal family would be pretty strict on their education. They were expected to be the best, after all.
“Well, at least I’ll see you all tonight in business then! And probably for dinner too, now that I think about it.” She glanced at Eric and Stephen, grinning like a cheshire cat as she wheedled, “So, which of you is going to get me in here at dinner? I don’t want the bad food on fifth.”
Everyone laughed, and Victor was the one who interjected instead of Eric or Stephen like she’d expected. “It hasn’t been used in a while, so everyone probably forgot. As a traveler, you can eat here as you like. I’ll remind the staff so you don’t need an escort.”
“Oh, well that makes things easier! Is it open between meals?” Her eyes were shining as she thought of sneaking in here if she ever had a break.
Will laughed and shook his head. “Not really. They might have a few things, but they’re mostly prepping before the set times.”
Jade sighed. Too good to be true, though there was still some hope that they’d sneak her something. “Alright, I suppose I understand.” Glancing down, she took out her pocket watch to look at the time. There were still about twenty minutes before she needed to be in her fire class, but…
“Anyone else going to Magnus? I think I’m going to head off and grab my cloak from my workroom so I’m a bit more covered for the rest of my classes.” Camille nodded approvingly, but it turned out that only Stephen was going that way.
“I’ll escort you. I’ve got to grab something from my office.” He was smiling charmingly, and Jade grinned back, fully aware it was a bunch of bull. He just wanted to talk to her privately. Bidding the others farewell and laughing when Will and Victor both tried to avoid looking at her bared skin through the slits, she left arm in arm with Stephen.
They had made it outside the building and were walking through the sunshine, her sunglasses firmly fixed on her face again as he asked in a softly compelling voice, “So, do you want to tell me why you trapped Christopher at the gate? And how you
did it?”
She turned her head to look at him, studying his profile for a moment before she answered finally, “I get that you want to keep me safe, but I can take care of myself, even more so after today. I don’t like being followed and my every movement tracked. I realize that as a royal spymaster, that’s your job. I get it, and I don’t blame you, but it doesn’t mean I like it. My every breath was monitored in my old world, and I’m a little tired of it.”
She paused, then went on in a solemn voice, “I want to be able to trust you. You’re my friend, and I know you care. But I don’t want to be your job. I get that as a traveler, there’re a lot of expectations that come with the privileges I’ve received. I explored the church and heard the story. It scared me a bit.” She paused, trying to find the right words. “I just…want to be friends. I don’t want you reporting on my every move to the king, but if I can’t have that, then I’m going to continue carving time out for myself. I’ll evade your trackers and go exploring on my own, just for the freedom of not being watched.”
She sighed and realized his arm had tensed beneath her fingertips. He asked in a slightly clipped tone, “Who told you I was a spymaster?”
She laughed ruefully, shaking her head. “No one had to tell me. You may have been watching me, but I’ve been watching you too. Do you really think I’m so unobservant that I wouldn’t notice the many people reporting to you or how well informed you always are? Sure, I’ve shared some of my secrets with you, but you’ve shared some as well, intentionally or not.”
Looking up at the bright blue sky above them, she smiled as she said softly, “This is my home now. I’m doing my best to figure out my place, but that involves figuring out where everyone else fits too. So please, trust me and call off the guard dogs. I need the freedom or I might go crazy with paranoia, always looking over my shoulder for someone following me.”
Stephen looked thoughtful, then sighed. “I’ll try, but I’m going to have to run it by others.”
She nodded in understanding. “I figured. There’s always someone higher on the ladder until you reach the king, and even then sometimes there’s more.” She smiled and leaned on his shoulder as she finished, “But thank you for trying. That’s all I ask for. Try to give me a chance.”
