Adapt (A Touch of Power Book 2)

by Jay Boyce

  Ren was smiling in excitement. “That was marvelous! Your magical control is simply extraordinary. What you just did, infusing the soil with your magic, is exactly what I was talking about. The soil might not have enough nutrients, but by using magic, we’re able to change that.” She looked at the seed in her hands, then back at Jade as she asked, “This is a maple tree seed, but is there another tree you’d prefer instead?”

  Jade pondered this for a moment before finally nodding. “I’d like a cherry tree, if possible.”

  Smiling, Ren nodded before putting the seed back in one of her many pockets and pulling out a new seed before handing it to Jade. “Go ahead and plant it, then infuse it with your magic, willing it to grow.”

  Taking the seed, she gently pushed it beneath the soil before covering it again. Hands on the dirt, she called to the life within the seed. She imagined it growing into a beautiful cherry tree that radiated life. She steadily fed water to it as she saw it begin to sprout and grow before her eyes. Ren had gotten up, walking over to grab the vial of blood Jade had put on the shelf earlier before she walked back and poured it into the dirt. At Jade’s curious look, she explained. “Blood contains many nutrients that are extremely beneficial to plants. Also, putting your own blood into a plant marks it as yours, and it will more easily follow your commands.”

  She paused, then started explaining more. “While we can cause the rapid growth of plants, we can also decay them or grow them into any shape we wish. We can manipulate plants to become our weapons. We can grow them into the shape of furniture we want, then have the excess wood separate and come off. We watch over the food supplies and greenhouses of the city. Most of the time, we just use our magic to accelerate the growth or add to the soil, but otherwise let the plants grow naturally. It allows us to harvest fresh fruits and vegetables at any time of the year. We often use the bodies of the slain monsters for fertilizer so that nothing goes to waste.”

  Jade grimaced, not sure she liked the thought of having monster bodies beneath the trees. To her, that sounded like a good way to get a haunted forest. However, it probably did solve the problem of over-farming the land and stripping it of nutrients.

  Trying to focus, she concentrated on making her mini tree. She was going to have her own cherry bonsai for the fellacai to play in. When it was about two feet tall, she capped the growth and instead focused on having it become sturdy and blossom. The fellacai were drawn by the scent of the blossoms, alighting in the tiny branches.

  Ramoth mentally called out, “Our home?”

  Smiling, Jade mentally replied, “Yes, this is home.”

  Despite everything that had happened, she was beginning to claim this world as hers.

  Chapter Twenty-Two – Dirt

  Ren was looking at her strangely, and she asked curiously, “Why did you make it so small?”

  Jade smiled and shrugged. “In my old world, we had something called bonsai trees. It was considered an art form to be able to grow trees in perfect miniature form. I might have made it larger, but I primarily wanted to create a home for my fellacai. They’re not large, so I thought something that matched them would be perfect.”

  Ren smiled, nodding. “Creating something in miniature is actually much harder than growing it normally. The tree seeks to expand, and to be able to forcefully control it at the level that you want is much harder. Not to mention you have to make sure that you grow it in such a way that nothing is lost in the process.” Jade nodded thoughtfully. “Go ahead and put that down, we’ll stand for this next part.”

  Standing up, she walked carefully over to where she kept the fire tree and put her cherry tree next to it so they could play, then went back over by the windows where Ren was waiting. She turned as she looked at Jade, nodding to herself as she lectured, “The plants we grow are a very important supply for the city. Food infused with a touch of magic tends to have a richer taste and better recovery ability for magic depletion. However, we’re capable of doing far more with our magic. It’s not just growing plants to look pretty or feed us.”

  Jade was looking at her curiously as Ren took out a handful of seeds. “These are seeds of the Ivala Vine. They look harmless enough, but they can easily be used for a different purpose.” Jade turned on mana sense to see Ren infusing the seeds with a dark green magic sheen. She was so fascinated by the magic going into them that she was surprised by Ren’s next action, which was to throw the seeds at her.

  They hit her clothes and sprouted more quickly than she thought was possible. Vines that were as smooth as butter quickly wound around her, binding her in place. She looked down at them curiously. Her spidey senses had stayed quiet, so she didn’t think there was any malicious intent. She tried to shift, only to find the vines held her extremely firmly.

  “Lesson two. This is the first stage of the Ivala vine. They’re very good for binding a target in place and subduing them. In stage two, they grow thorns.” Ren gestured, and on any surface facing away from her body, wicked looking thorns started to grow like tiny knives. If they were growing into her body at all, she’d be dead in minutes at most. Jade studied them, feeding her magic into the vines to feel them.

  Ren went on, “From here, there are two things I want you to try. First, take control of the vines. If you are ever against a creature that uses nature magic, you need to be able to free yourself by imposing your will over theirs. The closer proximity you have, the easier it should be to wrest control.”

  “Understood.” Jade concentrated, feeling the magical power. Her eyes blazed with green light as she activated mana sense again. She could see the tiny tendrils of power that flowed from Ren to the plants. The thin strings were becoming more clear to her by the day. With a thought, she reached through the plants and snapped those strings, releasing the vines from her influence and quickly connecting her own. She mentally told the vines to release, and with a whump, they slumped to the ground in a circle around her from which she carefully stepped, given that they were still sporting wicked thorns.

  “Well done.” Ren looked excited again. “You severed my connection instead of fighting me for it. I wasn’t expecting you to try that. Most people have to go through a power struggle to gain control. How were you able to see where to sever my magic?”

  Ah, it wasn’t supposed to be that easy, and she’d probably cheated. Well, it wasn’t exactly cheating. It was using the resources you had available. “I have mana sense, so I could see the connections of magic and target them.” Jade smiled as she replied and Ren nodded.

  “Well, that would certainly make things easier. So there’s another way you could have escaped, and I want to go over that. As we give life to the plants, we can also take life from them. This is also a way to recover energy if you’re ever extremely depleted and in a dangerous situation.” She walked over, picking up one of the vines gingerly. Jade quickly activated mana sense again, then watched as Ren literally called all of the magic and life out of the plant. It began to wither, crumpling until it fell from her hands as nothing more than lifeless dirt.

  “You can also draw smaller amounts and thus avoid killing the plants, but this is also helpful for if you need to clear a path in the forest. You can return obstacles to dust while replenishing your own energy. Go ahead and try on the rest of the vines.”

  Jade nodded, gingerly picking up one of the vines where there wasn’t a thorn. She concentrated, and in her mind, she could feel its life, almost like she did when she sent her healing magic through someone to get a mental picture. It was the same principle, just for plants and not people. Once she had the life energy of the vines firmly fixed in her mind, she focused on drawing it in, replenishing her energy while leaving the vine to crumble behind her.

  She opened her eyes, looking down to find that there were no more signs of the vines anywhere but merely dirt in her hands and at her feet. She crumbled the dirt slightly, frowning. “It’s completely devoid of nutrients.”

  Ren nodded. “Yes, that’s what happens when
you draw the magic out of it. You take everything unless you stop yourself. It’s something I only teach to my very advanced students, simply because I can imagine them going around touching every tree they find and sucking it dry.” Her tone was wry, and Jade laughed softly. Yes, she could see how some people might try it like they would a new toy.

  Seemingly ready to move on, Ren clapped her hands free of the dirt and decided, “Now then, since you have so much space, I think we’ll have you start a garden here so that you can grow any seeds you need. It’s always better to have your own source than to have to create what you want from magic. While it’s possible to create the seeds from nothing, we often don’t have a complete understanding of the plant, and thus they come out twisted. It’s much safer to use seeds taken from the plants themselves.”

  Jade nodded, studying her room. Her table that she’d dedicated to wood and nature was further from the window than she liked. However, she did have a nice open space before the window. Shrugging, she called over some rock from her earth table, choosing to make a small garden bed that covered about half of the window wall and came out about six feet. She put the dirt she had in it, but there wasn’t even enough to cover half an inch of the floor. Frowning, she stepped into her plot so she could look out the window.

  Ren pondered for a moment. “Ah right, I forgot you don’t have dirt. I’ll have to get my assistant to bring some over…”

  Jade shook her head. “No need. Just give me a minute. You’ll just have to help me apologize to the gardener for stealing his dirt.” Ren looked at her quizzically, walking over the window. Her part of the building overlooked a nicely manicured lawn edged by flowers and trees. She finally noticed what Jade had: the gardener had obviously stepped away from a project, but there was a pile of dirt to one side next to a hole where they were obviously putting something in.

  Ren frowned a little. “But how are you going to get that in here? You’d have to go downstairs and bring it…” Her voice trailed off as Jade put a hand on the wall a few inches beneath the window, and a five inch cylinder of rock was literally carved and pulled from it. Jade carefully put it aside, then reached her hand through the wall as she reached with her magic. To Ren’s surprise, the dirt pile began to drift upwards in a small stream, like a river of dirt flowing through the air towards the second floor.

  As it reached the hole in the wall, Jade stepped back, pulling her hand through, concentrating on the flow, settling it at the bottom of her newly set apart area. When the pile was gone, her area now had a nice filling of dirt. She put the rock section back into the wall, willing it to fuse perfectly with the wall once more, leaving it unblemished. When she was done, she walked back over to her sitting area, collapsing into one of the chairs while breathing heavily.

  “S-sorry,” her voice was quiet and out of breath, “I d-didn’t think it would be…that hard…” She was slightly panting and quickly dug through her food and drink supplies, pulling out juice and some bread as she started munching. Gesturing to it, she asked as soon as she swallowed a little bit, “Would you like anything?”

  Ren shook her head, sitting down with her again. “No, I’m alright. Quite impressed, however. I will have my assistant go explain what happened to the gardener’s dirt.” Jade nodded gratefully, still shoving food into her face, albeit as elegantly as she could because she didn’t want Ren to get a bad impression of her for any reason. When she finally felt sated, it had taken her about two minutes to refill her stores, she smiled and nodded.

  “Alright, I’m good now, thanks.” Ren nodded, leading the way back to her new plot as she began pulling seeds out of the many pockets that seemed to be stashed all around her person. They spent the next twenty minutes planting the seeds with Ren explaining the care and uses of each plant, how best to harvest their seeds, and any various uses she’d found for them. Jade grew everything in miniature version so they would all fit and was quite happy with her tiny garden when they were done. The fellacai were too, if their flitting about the plants was any indication.

  “Thank you so much. I feel like I understand so much more about how all of this works now.” Jade gratefully thanked Ren for her help while Ren just grinned.

  “It’s my pleasure to teach such a bright student. I’m so used to students staring at me blankly when I explain things that this has been truly refreshing!” Ren laughed gleefully.

  Jade laughed with her, glancing at her pocket watch. She had about ten minutes left until lunch officially started and she’d gotten an idea from seeing her fellacai flitting about her garden. She’d seen Ren cast them a few admiring glances, and she requested, “Will you wait here for a moment? I’d like to show you something.” Ren nodded, looking curious. Jade mentally called for Ramoth, who came flying over to perch on her head as Jade went to the door and called over her shoulder, “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  She quickly exited, walking over to the room next door and unlocking it with her new key. Randal was in there and he glanced up as the door opened, relaxing when he saw it was her. He was feeding several of the animals and the fellacai cage was set up on Eamonn’s desk. She grinned at him. “I’m going to borrow the fellacai and feed them for a few minutes.”

  He looked at her a little confused. “Borrow?”

  She nodded. “I’m going to let them fly around my workshop. It’s probably a bit better than letting them loose in here. Between me and my queens, we can control them. I just want to let them fly a bit.” He looked like he understood, nodding to the cage.

  “Go ahead, but please don’t get hurt.”

  She smiled brightly at him. “Thanks! I won’t!” Obviously the fact that she was able to stick her hand in the cage willy nilly had made a lasting impression. She grabbed the cage, cooing at her pretties who had started fluttering around when they saw her and Ramoth. She smiled, taking the cage out of the room and back to her own. When she opened the door, she walked in and shut it behind her, grinning at Ren, who’d gasped in surprise upon seeing the pretties.

  She walked over to the sitting area, putting the cage on the little table there. All of her own fellacai had joined her, taking positions on her head or shoulders as they looked at the cage of their kind. Jade stared down into the cage as she layered her voice with a mental command for the fellacai, “I’m going to open the cage and let you out so you can eat and fly around for a bit. You are not to spread pollen anywhere or try to get away. You are to stay in this room and not harm anything, though you can explore. In ten minutes, you will return to the cage. Am I understood?”

  She talked to them as if they could understand her because she believed they would. It was Lilith who fluttered in front of her, bobbing up and down as her tiny voice came through. “They behave.”

  Jade grinned, then opened the cage door. Ren gasped again as streams of beautiful fellacai started swirling out and around the room, wanting to explore everything. They brushed against her in thanks as she pulled out a giant jar of juice, walking over to her metal table and quickly making a long shallow dish that she poured the juice into. They took turns flying over to grab a drink before zipping off again.

  Ren was laughing like a little girl. “They’re so beautiful!” She was staring at a couple that had landed on her arm with fascination, both of them studying the other. The room was a cloud of color, and Jade sat down to watch them play with a smile. They seemed to like her garden quite a bit, and she realized it was the first time they’d probably been in greenery for a while. Her little queens and their mates were now among them, checking on them like their little subjects. Her heart ached for these fellacai, and she wished she could rescue them all.

  She noticed that several of the fellacai that were colored similarly to Willow and Andy were the ones surrounding Ren, and she figured they must be drawn to her nature magic. Perhaps she couldn’t save them all, but maybe, just maybe she could save at least a few more.

  It was time to see if she could make them bond with someone else.

  Cha
pter Twenty-Three – Contracts

  She walked closer, studying Ren. When the other woman noticed this, she smiled and admitted, “I never realized how beautiful they were. The contractors have a few under domination bond so they can help spread the pollen to the trees, but they never seemed so…alive.” She was smiling fondly down at the little ones perched on her arms.

  Jade asked curiously, “If you were a contractual mage, would you bond them?”

  Staring at her new little friends, Ren finally responded, “I think I would. When they’re not driving you crazy or killing you with their pollen, they’re simply magical.”

  Jade paused, staring at her. “I’m sorry, what? Driving you crazy or killing you with pollen?” She glanced around the room at the swarm of fellacai, suddenly feeling like she hadn’t asked enough questions yesterday. Not that she would take it back, but she was suddenly glad she’d put that stipulation in when she commanded them today.

  Ren nodded. “Oh yes. Each of them can emit large volumes of pollen with different effects depending on the magic they use with it. You didn’t know?”

  Jade grimaced, then shrugged. “Not at all.” Looking at her queens, she mentally asked, “What does your pollen do?”

  “Blinds and paralyzes,” Ramoth responded almost immediately.

  Lilith responded right after, “Hides us and poisons others.”

  “Confuses and dazes,” Willow chimed in.

  “Itches until it burns,” Amber quipped.

  Lavender’s small voice finished the round, “Causes illusions to ensnare the mind.” Jade was a little surprised at their vocality. They were starting to talk in more words and real sentences now. Apparently, the change in their intelligence had already long begun.

  Before she could turn back to Ren, her little men started chiming in. Andy popped in front of her long enough to declare, “Turn others to stone.”

  Rio swooped in, as if trying not to be outdone. “Freeze them or fill airways with water.” Well, that seemed unpleasant, much like drowning on dry land or being asphyxiated.