by Jay Boyce
Jade frowned. "Did you hit your head?"
Christopher looked confused at the question. "No, of course not."
She sighed. "Then why are you questioning my identity? You spent enough time with me that it shouldn't be a problem." Eyes narrowing, she turned on her mana sense to double check that nothing was off. She realized she'd completely forgotten to do this at Dracona yesterday. She was going to have to remedy that today as soon as possible and make it a habit. She didn't like monster surprises that much. Still, they had normal auras and she breathed a silent sigh of relief, letting it go.
Christopher had a bit of a helpless look as he confessed, "You look a bit different than when I last saw you." Ah right, the changes. To her, she still looked like her, but normal people didn't change that fast. Satisfied, she nodded.
"Alright, I suppose that's fair." She turned to his companions, looking at them. She smiled at Dalton, saying cheerfully once more, "You look like you're doing much better. It's Dalton, right?"
He nodded, looking surprised. "Y-yes, I am. Thank you for your help!"
She laughed. "It was only fair. You got injured saving me." She met his hazel eyes from behind her sunglasses, her grin sparkling. Now that he wasn't all covered in blood, he looked to be a healthy twenty-something-year-old who was fit from the active life of the guard. His light brown hair was lightly tousled, and a stray lock curled over his forehead like a comma. She then turned her attention to their other companion and asked hesitantly, "Sorry, I'm not sure if you were Tanner or Bick. We never got introduced."
He took her hand, bending over and brushing his lips against it with elegant movements. He was thinner, and she now noticed the bow held in his free hand. It looked much stronger than what she'd been using yesterday. I wonder if I'd be able to use it now? Maybe I can switch over to my jade bow now that my strength went up? Bit of a waste to have that beginner bow for only a day though. Her thoughts wandered for a moment before snapping back to the brown eyed, black haired man. "I'm Sir Logan Bick, but you can just call me Logan. It's a pleasure to officially meet you, Lady Jade."
She smiled back at him. "Just Jade is fine for me as well. It's nice to meet you, Logan." She glanced at them, then asked, "I assume you got word that I was heading to the gate and are my escort this time. Why the numbers increase?"
Christopher looked at her with a little consternation, then finally replied, "Since you trapped me at the gate last time, it was mentioned that one person might not be enough. Also, since you're a walking target for the mesmer, it was also indicated that you might need more guarding." Jade winced.
Finally, she said softly, "Look, I'm sorry about that, but I'm not huge into being babysat. I like to explore and do things that require me to not have an escort." Looking up at the sky, she conceded, "I appreciate that you want to keep me safe, and I'm fine with you escorting me to and around the gate, but I'll need to talk to your superiors so you don't get in trouble again when I say no to more than that. I killed or incapacitated three mesmer last night. I'm not without weakness, but I can at least take care of myself until guards can come to the scene. I'm not going to live my life afraid and followed. It will stunt my growth."
Dalton snorted a little at that, and she raised an eyebrow at him as he sheepishly responded, "You don't uhmm…seem to have a problem in the growth department." His eyes flickered down her body almost too quickly for her to catch, and she might've missed it if she hadn't been staring at him.
Suddenly in a much better mood again, she just shrugged. "I'm having good results, and I don't want to stop it now. But please, let's walk and talk. There's only so much time in a day and I have a lot to do." They nodded, quickly forming around her as she groaned inwardly. How was she supposed to touch new people if she couldn't even get close to them? Looking at her escorts, she said frankly, "Can you guys…not surround me? I feel like I'm being escorted to prison."
They exchanged startled glances, and Christopher noted the glances they were getting. He might also be considering her penchant for 'bumping' into random people on the street. Finally, he conceded, "Alright. Dalton, you walk ahead with her, we'll follow." Dalton nodded, offering her his arm now that they weren't surrounding her, and she smiled at him as she took it. Now that the guards weren't actively carving a path out for them, it was a little easier for her to casually brush against people. She activated her mana sense briefly every time a new group of people came into view, making sure to scan for any threats. Still, her spidey senses remained untingled, which she thought was a good thing.
From behind, she heard Logan ask, “Are those hair ornaments moving?” As if in response, her fellacai started fluttering their wings, preening.
Jade looked back at their surprised faces as she chuckled, “Why yes, they are. These are my bonded fellacai. Cute, aren’t they?” They spluttered, looking flabbergasted at what to say.
Finally Chris choked out, “Very…nice.” They left her alone for the rest of the walk.
As they got to the gate, Dalton saluted the sentries, but they didn't stop for questioning, proceeding straight into the military compound. Since Dalton wasn't leading her to the wide area where the giant group had been before, she asked, "How are we doing this? How many people were hurt last night? Do they have a unit ready for me to do checks on?"
Christopher moved up to her side to answer her questions. Apparently, he had seniority of their group. "We're going to the infirmary. There are ten people who were injured by the mesmer last night. As for the unit, are you sure you want to do that? Countess D'Ard was hoping to meet with you."
Jade frowned, thinking. "Ten people? Don't you normally patrol in pairs? Does that mean the wall was breached five times?"
Dalton sighed, answering before Christopher could. "Yes. There were four who came into the city, and the one you didn't kill managed to leave."
She ground to a halt, staring at Dalton. "You mean they got someone last night? Who was it?" Her voice held a deep note of urgency. Had her calling the guards to her side stopped them from being elsewhere, allowing the last mesmer to go free? There seemed to be a lot of them that were drawn to The Green Dragon…
Dalton was looking at the ground. "I'm not sure of the name, I'm sorry." Jade immediately turned her gaze on Christopher.
He met her look, then finally said, "It was a second year student, Frank Laurens." Jade blanched, the blood draining from her face as she swayed, causing Dalton to quickly grab a hold of her to stabilize her. Christopher looked mad at himself for saying something, and he finally exhaled on a sigh, "You knew him, didn't you."
She nodded absently, then closed her eyes, turning her head so she could rest on Dalton's shoulder. She didn't care that she didn't know him all that well. Right now she just needed to catch her bearings and he was holding onto her. Her fellacai were fluttering anxiously at her influx of emotions, but quickly settled and left her to think. Frank. His curious gaze as he stared at her fellacai came to mind, and she thought of how he hadn't given up. Contractual magic hadn't even shown up on his siphonable abilities, but she'd noticed he had illusion magic as well. He'd been curious, kind, and explained things to them as much as he could. She could hear Christopher asking behind her, "Jade, are you okay?"
She forced herself to calm down, using water magic to briefly pull the tears that had started coming out at some point away, letting them go into the air. Her eyes probably still had a reddish tint to them, proof that she'd been crying, but she didn't care. Frank was gone. She hadn't known him well, but she’d liked him. She liked his honesty and determination. Bringing her head up, she smiled weakly at Dalton, then moved to look at Christopher. "I'll be fine. Let's go to the infirmary, then to Countess D'Ard. There's work to do." There was a steely glint in her eyes, and she stared at the wall, thinking. Don't lose hope, Frank. I'll come for you. Stay alive until then, please. She could only hope her silent prayer would reach him.
They arrived at the infirmary not much later. She found that the ten men were all
each in their individual rooms, and Countess Marcelle D'Ard was waiting in the main room. She nodded grimly to Jade as she explained, "We weren't able to get the traps set up. We thought we had time before they'd come again. It's usually a month between raids." Her voice sounded almost apologetic.
Jade laid a gentle hand on her shoulder, saying softly, "You didn't know, and this is not your fault. They broke the pattern. We just have to learn from our mistakes and stop it from happening again."
"You blame yourself, don't you," Countess D'Ard commented softly.
Jade sighed. "Yes. I saw the number of guards on that rooftop with me. It must have cleared the surrounding area out completely, leaving Frank without a chance. Mine were dead, or as good as. If I hadn't called for help, would Frank still be here?" She paused, then shook her head. "Either way, there's no use in what ifs. There's only the present and preparation for the future, and believe me, I will be prepared." Her voice got a little harsher at the end, then she turned and walked towards the first door, trailing guards behind her like little ducklings. She needed to DO something, and ripping the taint out of these guards sounded like a good plan at the moment.
So that's what she did. It only took her around fifteen minutes to rid all ten men of their taint, albeit, she didn't quite rip it out of them. She’d made small cuts to allow for easier exit, since she'd found that was less taxing than making them sweat blood. She returned to the main room to find that Countess D'Ard had people placing piles of metal bars out on the main room tables. She vaguely recalled asking her to gather them all in one place so she could spell them if their mages couldn't do it. She looked at the rather large amount of bars, then nodded to the countess. "No mages with both metal and light, then?"
Countess D'Ard shook her head, indicating the rather large amount of people moving the bars. "These are all of our metal and light mages, but none of them has that particular dual affinity." Jade quickly activated her mana sense, seeing bright white and gray auras mingled with a few other colors around the people. She did a quick count, finding there were thirty-eight of them. That was more than she'd thought, but she was a little disappointed that none of them had been able to replicate lighting the metal. She would still try again.
She clapped her hands twice, and the various conversations people had been having came to a halt as the men and women turned to look at her. She smiled at them and began her impromptu lecture, "I understand none of you have been able to light the metal, so I'm going to show you how I do it, and then I want you to try again." She walked over to the table, lifting one of the large bars for a moment before quickly setting it back down on the edge away from the other bars. Concentrating, she pictured what she wanted. Only the outer layer would be lit, leaving the center mass untouched. She felt the normal resistance, though it wasn't quite like it had been with stone. She stabbed at the bar with her metal magic, telling it to let itself be changed. Slowly, the bar began to glow everywhere but on the ends. It started emitting a bright light, and when she looked at it with mana sense active, she could faintly see the tiny thread of magic being pulled in from its surroundings.
She turned to the watching mages, who were staring in wonder at the glowing bar. "There are a couple of things that seem to make it easier. First," she held up the pole again, swinging it gently so they could all see the end where it wasn't glowing, "I'm not trying to light up the entire bar, but merely the outer layer of metal. Second, I’m using metal magic to convince that layer of metal to change. Just as you would mold it, you have to make it malleable to the forces acting upon it. Third, I keep a firm mental image of what I want to happen so that the magic takes shape according to my will. Then I just keep shoving magic at it until it works because I'm stubborn like that. It's not easy. You saw it just took me around a minute to light this bar up, but I think that if a light and metal mage work together, one to make it malleable and the other to light up the edge, you can still do it. Please try."
They exchanged glances, and then several of them paired off and immediately started trying to light up the bars. They'd obviously tried this before, but it was different when given such clear direction. They'd probably been trying to light the whole thing up too, which would take a LOT more energy and probably drain themselves before they could accomplish it. She decided to start lighting up more bars while they figured out their teams and got to work. She'd lit up two more bars, finding it slightly easier each time she did it as she got the hang of things, when she heard someone else yelp in joy. She looked over to find someone else had managed to light up their bar. The teams weren't all equal because there wasn't an even amount of each mage type, so she saw one light mage working with two metal mages in several cases.
Walking over to the team that had succeeded, she smiled as she saw the sweat on their triumphant faces. She complimented happily, "I'm glad to see it works. Thank you for proving my theory."
They grinned at her, and the light mage said happily, "It's our pleasure, Lady Jade. Thank you for your guidance."
She laughed softly, "Really, you're helping me. It would take me a long time to light all of these up, and time is something I seem to forever be short on! Now, since you're already here, I want to do a quick healing check, and then I'll go." They all laughed and insisted on kissing her hand for her to check them before she moved to the next group. There were a few more successful groups, their morale seemingly bolstered by the first success. She went around to each group, congratulating and giving advice or personal help and healing where she could before she moved back to her own pile. Only two people had even needed her to heal anything, and it wasn't anything serious. A few people had low iron content, and she'd advised them to eat more red meat and leafy greens to try and bolster it.
She'd finish up her stack, then left the rest for them to accomplish. The practice and cooperation would be good for them.
Smiling, she looked at Countess D'Ard, who was watching her people with satisfaction. Jade stood next to her for a moment, looking at them with pride as well. They were working together beautifully. Finally, she turned again to the countess and said with determination, "Five days. Give me the next five days to become as strong as I can and level up my mana sense. I know what their taint looks like, what it smells like. On Sunday morning, I want to lead a hunting group to take down the mesmer and get Frank back. Can you help me arrange that?"
Countess D'Ard looked surprised at the vehemence in her soft voice, but her gaze grew determined as she nodded. "I'll not only arrange it, I'll join you. I'd like to kill the dirty mongrels myself."
Jade nodded, a savage grin echoed on her face. She was going to hunt the hunters. Her fellacai fluttered their wings in response to her thoughts, and she heard a tiny voice in her mind. “We help.”
Chapter Eighteen – Reinforced
Jade was a little startled by the interjection of her fellacai. She hadn't thought of her beautiful little babies as something that could help in combat, but it made sense. Eamonn had been saying they were tricky to catch, and there was probably a reason for it, like defenses such as their pollen. Did it cause status effects? Her fellacai were fluttering their wings as they firmly clung to her crown braid. Marcelle looked over, a bit startled. "I thought they were ornaments…" Her voice trailed off and Jade smiled at her.
"Nope, they're my bonded, and they just offered to help as well. I believe if I can learn to see through their eyes, I might be able to speed things up in finding the lair." Marcelle nodded as if that made sense. She was still staring in wonder at the fluttering fellacai. Jade had wondered why they hadn't moved much since she got here, but realized it was probably self preservation. They only really let loose when there weren't many humans around. It seemed they had an innate fear of most humans and perhaps some experience with the guards, since they'd been quieter than ever before here. She held her arm out, and they seemed to take that as an invitation for a rest from her hair.
They fluttered about her head for a moment before setting on her arm.
She gently stroked each one briefly, a loving smile on her face as she spoke to them. "Thank you. I'd like that, as long as you're careful. I don't want to lose any of you to accidents." She took a moment to just send soothing feelings to them, and they settled down, their agitation disappearing with her bloodlust. There was a reason she was waiting five days, and it wasn't because she was being callous. She needed to get through all of her classes at least once so she could try and learn the basics. More tools in the kit meant more situations she was able to deal with.
Right now, she could only see the aura around people, but the fact that her skill was called mana sense and not mana sight led her to believe she needed to learn more. She was close to leveling it up and hoped it would have increased capabilities after today. Sure, she could chase after Frank today, but she doubted it would do any good other than her fumbling in the forest blindly. As much as she didn't want to leave Frank with those monsters for five days, everyone had said it took at least a month for them to drain people. He should still be alive, though the fact that he was the only source they'd brought back concerned her. She sent another silent prayer up for him to whatever gods may be listening. She wanted to be sure that when she led the hunt, she was actually able to find them.
Looking at Countess D’Ard, she smiled quietly as her fellacai now flew around her a bit after she let them know they could. Everyone seemed fascinated, and she told them they could explore the room for a few minutes, so they did. A couple people just watched them playing with awe, leaving their bars unattended while they took a break. Jade smiled and spoke softly, "I just want to point out that these mages will probably need to eat before they can finish the project. It's fairly taxing to force semi-incompatible materials and magics to follow your will." She paused, glancing back at Christopher, Dalton, and Logan. "Also, can you tell me who's in charge of their orders?"
