by Jay Boyce
“I was not being creepy, I was admiring her!” Melvin countered with the air of the abused and forlorn.
The boy laughed, and like Glen, he had a military look. His hair was a bit longer, though it was still only about an inch long and nicely styled. He turned his hazel eyes on Jade and rebuked, “She’s been trying to pull her hand back for a while now.” Jade blushed a little and he gave her a deep bow. “I’m Jayce Morris, third year.” He didn’t wait for her to respond before returning to his seat.
“Not that it matters, but I’m Seamus,” a bored voice came from just over her shoulder and she turned in her seat to look at the boy sitting directly behind her. He just nodded to her, then went back to picking at his nails, which were already impossibly clean. His dark hair was longer, half covering one dark brown eye in a more emo look than she was used to seeing here. She smiled half heartedly at him, but he paid her no attention.
The guy next to him, a big brawny guy who was extremely tanned and calloused saluted her with a smile as he drawled, “Ahm Angus Doyle.” His voice was a deep baritone, and he seemed so chill and relaxed. She smiled brightly at him and he ducked his head with a small smirk.
She heard someone approaching her from the front again, so she turned back around to take in the tall willowy girl approaching. She wore a heavily embroidered dress, her light brown hair was perfectly combed over one shoulder, and she walked with a quiet air of dignity as she stepped forward, kissing Jade on both cheeks as the customary greeting. Her voice was quiet and composed as she said, “Lady Jade, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Lady Samantha Castillo, third year and daughter of the minister of trade.”
Jade smiled back at her, but it wasn’t her normal smile; it didn’t reach her eyes. It was merely polite as she responded, “It’s lovely to meet you, Lady Samantha.” Seemingly satisfied, Samantha nodded and turned to return to her seat, at which point Jade looked at Camille, raising a brow with a look that said ‘really?’ Camille shook her head, giving her a look that Jade interpreted as ‘I’ll tell you later.’
Next, another boy approached stiffly. His voice was polite and proper as he took her hand, brushing it lightly before immediately letting go as he said primly, “Lady Jade, I am Lord Gilbert Snyder.” His dark brown hair was parted and lay neatly atop his head, his clothes were immaculate, and his very manner just screamed propriety.
Jade nodded gravely to him, matching his extremely serious demeanor as she remarked, “The pleasure is mine, Lord Gilbert.” He nodded, then stiffly turned and walked back to his desk, where he sat ramrod straight, head held high. She glanced at Camille again, who mouthed the word ‘later.’
A guy two seats to her right leaned forward so he could see her, smiling nonchalantly as he said disparagingly, “I’d get up to greet you, but I’m not so great at walking. The name’s Kevin.” At her confused look at his first statement, he moved his leg, holding up his left foot, which wasn’t a foot. It was a metal boot that was fastened to his shin. She nodded thoughtfully, which seemed to be all he needed because he put his foot back down and went back to reading. She pondered for a moment, in a world where healing magic was a thing, how did he lose his foot?
Could she fix it? Her musings were interrupted by a melodious voice as a girl with dark black curls walked forward, lightly kissing her on the cheek. A strong smell of roses almost overwhelmed her for a moment; she struggled not to cough and smiled instead at the girl whose melodious voice was almost like music. “I’m the one and only Bryoni, the best singer you’ll ever meet.” Her smirk was cheeky and a little haughty all at the same time.
Jade smiled a little shakily back at her, still trying to get over the overwhelming scent as replied politely, “I look forward to hearing you sing, Bryoni.” Satisfied, Bryoni nodded and moved back to her seat, while Jade took a second to quickly create the tiniest breeze around her face to get rid of the smell.
The girl seated in front of Kevin looked up, and Jade finally realized that she and Kevin each had a BOOK, and they weren’t in the library! She needed to be friends with them. The girl’s crazy light brown corkscrew curls were wild around her head, and her light blue eyes seemed to focus on Jade for a moment as she deadpanned, “Marie.” Then her head went right back to her book, ignoring the room once more. Jade was a little at a loss; she wanted to read too! She needed to make friends with the people who had books! Unfortunately, it seemed that Marie wasn’t interested in her.
Her eyes trailed around the room, landing on another boy who had yet to introduce himself. He was slumped in his seat, watching the room with hooded eyes. When he realized she was looking at him, he lifted two fingers to his forehead, saluting her lazily as he yawned and said, “Chase Walker, at your service.” He then closed his eyes, seeming to go to sleep.
Unused to this behavior, she cast her eyes about once more, landing on another boy who was using water magic. However, what he was doing was confusing to her until she realized the round, flat sheet of water was being used as a mirror to inspect himself. He was fussing with his golden hair, and when several other people turned to look at him because she had, he looked over, noticed her looking at him, and gave her a brilliant smile. “Ah, I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist staring at me. No one can, don’t worry. I, Lord Corey Morgan, feel it my duty to accept the adoration of my fans.”
Jade choked on her spit a little, coughing as she smiled and said, “Ah, of course…I…It’s nice to meet you.” She quickly turned away from him as he started to smirk. Her gaze landed on the last person who hadn’t introduced themselves, a smaller boy with dark brown hair and electric blue eyes. He smiled shyly at her, and she greeted him, “Hi.”
“Hi. I’m Jeffrey.” He responded mouseishly, ducking his head as his cheeks blushed. He kept sneaking glances at her, and she had to fight the urge to go and hug him because he looked like an adorable little puppy. She smiled brightly at him, which just made him duck his head further down.
Looking at Camille, she asked, “So I’m a little curious,” Camille raised a brow, as if urging her to go on, “where’s the teacher?”
Camille’s face darkened, and she ran a hand through her hair as she muttered in a frustrated voice, “He’ll probably show up. Eventually. If he’s not passed out somewhere.” The last part was so quiet, Jade figured Camille hadn’t meant for her to hear it.
Curious, Jade continued to prod, “How did we get in then, if the teacher didn’t open the room?”
Camille shrugged and spilled the beans, “The assistant opened it for the beginner class. He went to go track down Duke Vincent.” Jade nodded uneasily. She had a feeling she’d met Duke Vincent before.
Glancing down at her pocket watch, she realized it was almost 3:15. The class was now talking amongst themselves, reading, or sleeping on the desks. Jade frowned. This wasn’t what she was expecting from her first intermediate class. At this point, she might have been better off going to the nature class instead and getting practice in there. She was considering packing up her stuff and heading over there when the door finally opened.
In walked Baronet Wylder, whom she’d met in the professor’s lounge with Stephen what seemed like ages ago. Behind him trailed whom she assumed was Duke Vincent, the man from the art gallery.
He looked very different from how he’d appeared last night, to the obvious surprise of her classmates, who started muttering to each other about the change. Instead of unkempt gray hair, it had been neatly combed back into a ponytail. Instead of sallow, sunken skin, he still appeared wan but healthy. His sloppy clothes had been replaced by well fitting pants and shirt overlaid with a dark blue open wizard’s robe with rather intricate embroidery. She was impressed. He looked like almost a completely different person.
He walked into the room, standing behind the desk as he stared out at the students, Wylder taking a seat at the side. His eyes landed on Jade, clouding for a moment as he stared at her. He shook his head, seeming to dismiss something as he said simply, “Sorry I’m late. I s
eem to have lost track of time.”
He paused, looking around at his students as he said, “It’s good to see you again. Now then, let’s make sure you didn’t forget everything you were taught over the summer. Let’s start with shields and water arrows. Pick a partner and line up on opposite sides of the room.”
Jade looked over at Camille, whispering softly, “What am I supposed to do?”
Camille grinned, getting up and grabbing Jade’s arm. “You’ll be my partner. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll take to it like a fish in water.” Her eyes twinkled as she started dragging her towards the empty space.
“I wanted to be Lady Jade’s partner,” she heard one of the boys whine behind her, and she thought it sounded like Melvin.
Well, it seemed she was going to be learning here after all. She glanced at Duke Vincent again, only to find him watching her and, most especially, the fellacai sitting on her head. He seemed to be considering her and her stomach sank a little.
He knew it was her.
Chapter Twenty-Eight – Barraged
Jade stumbled a bit, stopped from crashing only by Camille’s firm hold on her arm. She glanced gratefully at the princess, who was looking at her curiously and asked softly, “Are you okay?”
She nodded quickly. “Yeah, I just spaced out a little. You know me.” She smiled and shrugged, trying to brush it off. Camille gave her a penetrating look, then seemed to think it was best to drop it at the moment.
Camille was explaining in a whisper, “You should be able to do this pretty easily. One of us creates a water shield, and the other tries to break through it with a shot of water basically in the form of an icicle. Why don’t you do the shield first, since that’s generally easier and similar to what you’ve already done?”
Jade nodded, agreeing. She made wind walls all the time; this was just using a different element, so it shouldn’t be too hard. The same principles applied, anyway. They separated to opposites sides of the room, and she watched other people drawing water from the trough to fuel their magic. She took her spot on the end, next to the still sleepy looking Chase.
Quickly, she mentally grabbed a huge amount of water, thinking everyone else had done the same. Constructing her shield, she concentrated on having a swirling mass. Water to her was a moving thing. In her mind, she figured if the water was constantly moving, any damage would be instantly repaired as the water spread to points of impact.
She stood behind her wall, grinning at Camille, who was staring at her before she pointed to the side. Jade glanced over at the rest of the line of people, most of whom were paying more attention to her than to their ‘opponents.’ It was then she realized that while she’d basically created a floor to ceiling wall of water, everyone else only had a shield like area in front of them.
Coughing slightly, seventy-five percent of the water cascaded down before flowing into the trough again, leaving her with a shield-sized wall in front of her like everyone else. Why hadn’t she looked over sooner? She glanced back at Camille, ignoring the looks everyone was still shooting at her while trying to hold an innocent, clueless smile. Nope, nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
Duke Vincent walked to the middle, ordering, “Let’s begin. Attackers, your goal is to break through the opponent’s shield. Defenders, keep it up. Go.”
Jade and Camille looked straight at each other and grinned, and Camille mouthed the words, ‘I’m not going to go easy on you.’
She mouthed right back, ‘bring it on!’ with a challenging smirk. Most of the other students had started with soft water arrows that seemed to splash against their defender’s shields without doing much damage, warming up. Camille did no such thing. Five sharp icicle shards formed from the water she held, shooting towards Jade’s shield at once.
Jade turned on mana sense, watching the icicles flying towards her, the flash of bright blue singing through the air as everyone around her used water magic. She saw the tiny strings of mana that connected the icicles to Camille, and as soon as they hit her shield, she severed the strings, grabbing hold of the ice for herself and incorporating five spikes into her shield to make it seem like some viking creation.
Jade stuck out her tongue at Camille, who seemed surprised at her appropriation of the icicles. A determined glint to her eye, Camille started tossing icicle after icicle, never letting up as she bombarded Jade as fast as she could. Jade tried to sever the strings and absorb the new projectiles with mixed success. She got more of them, but several had impacted her shield, trying to drill through. Thankfully, she’d layered it so that it would fill any gaps that appeared momentarily.
More and more ice came at her, and Jade started to breathe heavily with exertion as Camille kept bombarding her. She slipped briefly, and one icicle made it about halfway through her shield before it was stopped and absorbed. Jade was starting to realize it was harder to control the ice she’d stolen, given that it still held traces of Camille’s magic that were fighting against her. With a thought, all the ice dropped to the floor, leaving her original water unhindered.
Every time Camille threw the ice at her, it would be caught and unceremoniously dumped on the ground with the tinkle of breaking ice. She could see Camille still grinning madly and throwing ice at her, but when she saw her magic race out and towards the ice at her feet, Jade grimaced, then created a wind barrier around her, invisible. If Camille tried to go for something other than the shield in the heat of the moment, she wasn’t keen on getting hurt.
“Hah!” Camille’s triumphant shout came as the ice from the ground drove upwards, going beneath her shield and towards her legs. She deflated a bit as they hit her wind wall and were smashed backwards, most of them breaking.
“Enough!” Duke Vincent’s voice rang out harshly in the room, and Jade silently returned her water to the trough like everyone else. It was only then that Jade realized she and Camille had been the last ones still duking it out. He looked at Camille and rebuked, “Princess, the objective was to penetrate the shield, not go around it. While in a battle that would be the smart decision, it was not what you were supposed to be doing.”
She blushed, hanging her head as she mumbled, “I’m sorry, Duke Vincent.”
He snorted. “And you, whatever your name is. This is a water class, not a wind class, although creating an invisible wall is undoubtedly helpful in battle to frustrate your enemies. The point, girls, is that this was supposed to be a demonstration of your water magic, not your underhandedness.”
Jade met his eyes, nodding before she commented, “Jade.” He looked at her confusedly, so she expounded, “My name is Jade.”
He nodded, then gestured for everyone to return to their seats. Camille quickly caught up to her, flushed as she grabbed her arm and apologized, “I’m sorry, I kinda lost it there.”
Jade smiled at her, nudging her side and making her giggle a little bit. “Don’t worry, I knew you were doing it. I saw your magic going for the ice and put up a wall.”
Camille looked curious, then looked like she wanted to hit her head on the table. “Right, I forget you can see magic. No wonder it didn’t work!”
Jade laughed as they took their seats. “Did you really want to hurt me that much?”
Camille stuck her tongue out. “No, just wanted to scratch you a little to prove I could. I’ve never been unable to get through the shield before.”
Everyone had gone quiet at Vincent’s throat clearing, so her last sentence rang out in an empty classroom before she realized it and blushed, hanging her head in embarrassment as Vincent chided, “Since Camille has pointed out the difference, Jade,” he put extra emphasis on her name, “would you care to tell us how your shield managed to withstand her barrage unscathed?”
Jade looked up, smiling and shrugging. “I don’t allow weaknesses to form. If you hold the water still, weaknesses form without patching. My shield was constantly moving, so any holes were immediately patched. Not to mention the movement helps negate the forward momentum of the icicl
e, slowing it further. It probably requires more concentration than keeping it still would, but it’s also more effective.”
He nodded, then asked his next question, “And how would you get through your own shield?”
Jade paused, pondering for a moment before she said, “In a similar way, actually. Instead of a normal arrow or icicle, I would create a drill–” when she saw their confused looks at her use of the term, she expounded again, “a spinning arrow. Instead of a flat head,” she paused, then motioned at the troughs, and a spout of water shot out and over the heads of her fellow classmates, forming the shape of an arrow with a drill head, “this type of arrowhead allows for further penetration, especially if it’s constantly spinning.” She demonstrated, and he nodded.
“Very good.” She absently dissipated the water into the air, which made his eye twitch, but he said nothing, moving on. “While water can be still as a lake, that is not where the power lies. When water is moving, it’s one of the most destructive forces, carving its way through everything else.”
The rest of their class passed by in a question and answer session, with him discussing the various uses of water, how it was purified, and even the best way to use it to sneak attack your enemies. Jade completely lost track of time, engrossed in the lesson. Even sleepyhead perked up and participated, but the bookworm only listened, never participating.
Class ended and everyone started packing up their things. To her surprise, she and Camille were approached by Glen and Jayce, Jayce having good naturedly shoved Melvin towards Corey as they walked over. Gilbert and Samantha were talking seriously off by themselves, Seamus and Bryoni were helping Kevin up, while Angus, Marie, and Chase had all disappeared out the door almost immediately. That left poor Jeffrey with Corey and Melvin who started debating which of them was better and pressing him to give them an answer. Poor thing.
“So, why haven’t we seen you at any of the morning practices?” Glen brought her out of her reverie with his question, and she winced.
