by Jay Boyce
Laughing, the four of them moved towards the door, Melody trailing silently behind them, trying to be unobtrusive as she listened to their conversation with a wistful look.
Chapter Fifty-Seven – Smoothies
“You should see her at the archery range. It’s a little bit crazy. She went from not knowing how to hold a bow to super-shooter in a few days. I’ve put in a ton of hours at the range just trying to keep up.” The conversation had shifted as they walked towards the cafeteria, with Jeremy regaling them with her archery exploits after Jayce had given a rundown on the morning’s obstacle course.
Will agreed vehemently. “I know what you mean. Almost everyone has been picking up their game trying to keep up with her. She’s just so blasted good at everything and picks it up so fast, it puts the rest of us to shame.”
Jade smiled apologetically at them. “You don’t have to try to keep up with me, you know. My ability is basically a cheat, and I’ve been pushing myself so hard because of the hunt. I wouldn’t be training so much otherwise.” It was true. She hadn’t wanted to learn how to fight when she came to this world; she’d wanted to learn how to make life better for herself and those around her. She wanted to create, not kill. Just because she was becoming adept in it didn’t mean she wanted to make something like the mesmer hunt a regular thing.
Truthfully though, if she was successful, she’d probably be asked to do it more. She couldn’t even blame people for that. If you had someone who was super good at killing monsters and could save a ton of lives by exterminating them… Yeah, she would ask them to do it too. Unfortunately for her, she was that person. Shaking off those gloomy thoughts, she smiled at them. “But really, the only person you should be comparing yourself to is you. Are you better than you were yesterday? If the answer is yes, that’s good enough.”
“That’s a…unique way of looking at things.” Jayce obviously held reservations, but coming from a military standpoint, could she blame him? The military of her world had been all about outstanding service, and it was relative. It was going above and beyond what was normally expected of you. Therefore, it was a direct comparison. Not to mention from what she’d seen, titles could be bestowed meritoriously, so people were encouraged in that direction. The whole self-improvement mentality for its own sake wasn’t big here.
She shrugged. “I don’t think there’s any one right way. People are unique individuals, so how each person responds to anything will be different based on their circumstances, training, and history. Sure, it’s way easier to standardize training, but when push comes to shove, everyone has to make an individual choice on what they do. Keeping a positive mindset helps a lot of people. If all you think is, ‘I’ll never measure up to her,’ then of course you won’t. You’re reinforcing your own failure mentally, and it’ll just drag you down in the end. But if you think, I’m a better person than yesterday, and I’ve made progress in X, Y, and Z, you start to see the improvements and it motivates you to do more. That’s one theory of positive psychology, at least.”
“What’s positive psychology?” Jeremy’s voice held slight confusion, and she shook her head.
“It was just…something people studied back on my old world. Psychology was the study of the mind and behaviors. Positive psychology…it’s more the study of strengths that help people to not only survive, but thrive. It’s looking at what you can do, rather than what you can’t.” To be honest, it hadn’t been super effective for her in the past. She’d focused a lot on what she couldn’t do, but then again, there hadn’t been a whole lot she could do. It didn’t mean the psychologist hadn’t tried, though. At least his efforts hadn’t totally gone to waste now.
Will nodded thoughtfully. “That makes sense. Focusing on the good. I like it.” He grinned as they arrived at the cafeteria. “And now, the good says, I’m happy my strength is being royal so I get the good food.” He ducked beneath Jayce’s retaliatory strike at his head as he walked backwards. “Enjoy your dinner!” He smirked impishly while Jayce and Jeremy cursed him under their breath.
“I’ll see you later. Have a good night!” Jade smiled consolingly and followed Will as they shook their heads and started up the stairs, Melody trailing silently behind them, though she kept glancing back over her shoulder at Jade until she was out of view. It was strange, to say the least. She hadn’t even tried to join their conversation at all. Will was already in line by the time she entered, and with a smile she joined him.
“What’re you doing?” Will’s voice held suspicion as he eyed her standing next to him. He’d apparently gotten so used to her just waving to order that the mere act of standing in line caused him to deeply doubt her intentions.
Laughing softly, she grinned as she spoke, “I’ve got a favor to ask Estelle, so I’m joining you in line. Is that a problem?”
“Noooo…” His voice dragged out the syllable before his hand reached up, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “It just seems out of place, that’s all.”
Shaking her head, she countered, “You can’t let the little things bother you. You’ve got to roll with the punches!” He just looked at her strangely and she rolled her eyes. So many awesome sayings were just wasted on these people, and it just didn’t have the same impact if she had to explain them. It lost the quippiness factor.
Will was back to normal and talking excitedly about the possibilities of flying with the wind wall when they reached Estelle. “Well, isn’t this a lovely surprise?” Estelle grinned at her, nodding to Will too, almost as an afterthought. He gave up even trying to look affronted at the blatant favoritism. “What can I do for you two?”
He quickly ordered his food while Jade waited. When he was done, she grinned and asked Estelle, “I actually just want my normal, but I was wondering if you could prepare something to go for me too? I’m doing a major healing tonight, so I need food that’s easy to get down in case he or I need the energy and nutrients quickly during the healing. In my old world, we had something called a smoothie…”
Jade quickly described smoothies, including what was in them and how it was prepared. Will, Estelle, and the few people who were close enough to hear/see were entranced by the illusions she used to show her points of what she wanted. “So, if you could just prepare the ingredients in a small barrell, I think I can blend them up with water magic easily enough until I can figure out how to make a blender work here. And a couple cups, I think, since I’ll have other healers there too who might need it.”
“I think we can manage that, but only if you let me try it too.” Estelle was grinning broadly at her, obviously pleased with these new recipes to try out. Jade had given her a couple different variations of ingredients and explained the theory behind matching flavors. It was a mini smoothie class. Some of the professors behind her who couldn’t hear her explanation were grumbling about what was taking so long, but it had only been just over two minutes that she’d taken. Still, in line, that was forever. Thankfully the closer people said nothing, having been just as interested in the idea.
Nodding happily, Jade chirped back, “Of course, I’ll come to the kitchen and make you some before I leave. I can just pick it up from there, too, so you don’t have to transport it, and of course, I’ll bring the dishes back tomorrow morning.”
“Sounds like a plan. Now shoo, I should help the rest of them before they start trying to eat the counter.” Estelle grinned at them, flapping her hands imperiously as Will and Jade cheerfully left to find their table. She couldn’t help but marvel at how efficient the woman was, obviously giving detailed directions to one of her helpers while still taking orders.
“Hey guys!” Jade happily greeted Camille, Victor, Eric, and Stephen as she and Will sat down at what she realized had quickly become their customary table. Her babies fluttered around, spreading to the others around the table to soak in their auras while waiting for food, now that they were more comfortable with them. She tried to tamp down her giggles at the sight of everyone sporting at least one fellacai
on their head. No one even said anything; they just continued their conversation, which now that she was paying attention, was about her business.
“What we need is someone who isn’t embroiled in their own business already. Someone who’s ambitious but still trustworthy and capable of taking point on this.” Camille was emphasizing her points by tapping her fork on her plate subconsciously. “They have to be diplomatic and business savvy.”
“You’re talking about a general manager. It’s a good idea.” Jade’s interjection was met with surprised glances, and she realized they had barely paid her any attention when she sat down, so she figured they’d tuned out her greeting too. Still, she’d only caught the last bit of their conversation. “Most businesses where I’m from had someone on top. Their jobs were basically to organize and oversee everyone else. They would have final decisions for the daily stuff, but they were still beholden to the board of directors.”
She paused, seeing that she had their attention, then went on. “So usually, there were a few departments or groups working under the director. There was research and development, which is mostly me at this point. There was production, which is the people actually making the stuff, and in our case, there would probably be several production departments. Then there was marketing and sales. Those are the people advertising products for consumer awareness and reaching out to different communities to get the product sent to new places. Then you have store management, which is the stocking and staffing of the store itself to sell to people every day. I guess we’d also need a construction department to make the buildings and shelves and things. We also need acquisitions, the people who source the different materials we use.”
Shrugging, she finished her spiel. “So the manager is usually in charge of that, and then he reports to the board of directors, which would be us, to make sure everything is going smoothly and to make sure nothing needs to be changed. Usually he’d have a couple assistants to help, too.”
Stephen was rubbing his temples as he nodded. “You’re right, Camille. We need to find someone else to do it. None of us has that kind of time.”
“We should be looking for at least a second child, someone who’s not in line to inherit but is still smart and comes from a loyal family, someone who hasn’t already become part of the academy.” Eric looked a bit stressed at the idea as he pushed his food around his plate.
“You realize there’s no rush, right? Rome wasn’t built in a day.” As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she sighed, realizing she’d been using more phrases from home than usual today. All that time spent recalling things from her old world must have gotten to her. Still, she plowed on, “But seriously, you guys can take your time. I plan on living here for a very long time. It makes no difference to me if the store is set up in a year or a week. It’s better to make sure we do it right than to make sure we do it fast.”
“But–” She shook her head at Victor, and he sighed, holding up his hands in defeat. “Fine. You’re right. We just wanted to do this for you.”
Grinning, she spotted Estelle coming over to them with a bucket and mugs, while she had two helpers behind her bringing the food. “And you will. I have faith in you, but I didn’t ask you to do this to stress you out. There’s literally no rush on this. The kingdom has lasted this long without my crazy ideas. It can wait until we figure out how to do it properly and without crashing the economy.”
They looked like they were going to say more, but Estelle had reached them. “Alright, I think I’ve got everything you asked for. I thought we should run a test trial before we put the other batches together.” The two girls behind her unobtrusively put the food in front of them before retreating back to the kitchen. “I don’t have a water mage in the kitchen, or I’d have had them try.”
Glancing into the bucket, Jade grinned. “No worries. This should be perfect!” Estelle had even helpfully put the water in with the fruits and sugar, so all she had to do was blend and chill. Holding a hand over the bucket, she began controlling the water, turning it into tiny blades of ice as she sent them whirling through, chopping and blending everything together. She mixed the ice in, chilling the whole thing as she looked down at her new smoothies proudly.
Grabbing the mugs, she scooped out smoothie using her magic. Feeling giggly, she handed them out, first to Estelle, then to her confused friends. Taking her own smoothie, she held it up. “Cheers to the first smoothie on this world!”
A little dubiously, the others clinked their mugs against hers and began to cautiously sip it. Will was the most enthusiastic, taking giant gulps as he half moaned, “Sooooo gooooood…” He kept gulping it down quickly before he set the mug down, clutching his brain. “Ahhh…”
Jade giggled, reaching over and sending a healing jolt through him, even if he didn’t need it. “That’s called a brain freeze. Smoothies are meant to be enjoyed, not pounded down.”
“But it was so good…” Will’s voice was still plaintive, and everyone laughed, drinking their smoothies in moderation now that they had his example.
“It really is quite good. Not exactly easy to drink in large quantities, though, if Prince Will is any indication.”
Jade nodded. “Well, this one didn’t have as much liquid in it. The thicker it is, the harder it is to drink. I also don’t have to make it quite that cold, but it’s how I enjoy it most. For the healing, I’ll make them a bit thinner and warmer.”
“I see. Well then, I’d best get back to work!” Estelle smiled, taking the empty bucket back with her as Jade happily sipped at her smoothie in between bites of food. She had a good feeling about today.
Things were going to be okay. Smoothies made everything better.
Chapter Fifty-Eight – Healers
Everyone got back to the business of eating except Victor, who asked curiously, “So what brought on this smoothie idea?” It took her a second to realize that the only person she’d told what she was doing was Stephen, and that was mostly because she used his mirrors. The others hadn’t heard the final outcome of her conversation last night. Communication was a serious issue. She kept having to re-explain things to everyone. It would be so nice if she could just put up a notice board with ‘What Jade is up to now.’ She’d think on that.
She paused, swallowing what was in her mouth before she could respond. “I’m healing Kevin’s foot after dinner. The smoothie is basically my fail safe for energy for both of us. It’s the easiest method to deliver sustenance into his body if the foot takes too much from the rest of him. I don’t have a way to drip nutrients straight into his blood, so this was my next best solution.” She had to hold back a shudder at the thought of an IV bag. If she never had to stick anyone or be stuck by a needle for the rest of her life, it would still be too soon. She would probably reinvent it here at some point, but she wasn’t looking forward to that at all.
“Oh, you decided to do it after all? I thought when you took him aside, you said no.” Victor was studying her curiously, and she shrugged in response.
“I just needed to make sure he was doing it for the right reasons, that’s all.” She went back to eating, somewhat ignoring the questioning look in his eyes until he shook his head and started eating again too. The rest of them made small talk about their days, and she just smiled, listening contentedly as Camille told them about how Tisha, Hayden, and Hunter had been fighting over who got to use the telescope tonight for the full moon.
“The telescope? I’ve heard about it a few times. Is it any good?” Jade stopped eating only long enough to ask her question, smiling expectantly at her friends.
Will was the one who grinned, nodding. “It’s the best! Old man Varden hardly let anyone else use it when he was alive.” He obviously caught Jade’s frown, quickly continuing, “You wouldn’t have wanted to meet him anyway. He just got meaner as he got older, but anyway, he barely let anyone use it. We got educated because we were royal, but it’s a lot more fun now that his Duke Speir took over. Only third and fourth years get
the astronomy classes normally. If you want to see it, I’m sure Dad would be fine with making an exception.” He was babbling a bit, but she just grinned, not minding in the least.
“I’d like that.” That was all she said, but Will still went bright red as he smiled at his plate while sneaking glances at her. It was kind of adorable. However, she’d finished her food by that point, so she began stacking her dishes. When the others started to get up even though they hadn’t finished, she waved them down. “No no, don’t get up. I’m going to check in with Estelle and then head over to the infirmary to set up. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
It wasn’t that she didn’t want them there, but the people there were all either going to be healers or family. “Fine, we’ll see you tomorrow.” Victor looked a bit put out. She laughed, giving all of them a quick hug before twiddling her fingers at them and taking off for the kitchen, her babies fluttering in the air around her happily before settling on her hair.
Estelle was waiting for her by the kitchen door with a grin. “We’ve got everything ready. I’m excited to see how they turn out!” Jade grinned back at her, nodding as she led the way in. “You should probably test them here in case we need to make any modifications.”
“That would be great, thanks!” She happily followed Estelle over to the counter where six small barrels were open. Two of Estelle’s helpers were standing to the side looking excited. What was there was obviously way more than she’d asked for, and she realized they had made more in the hopes of trying it. She had to hold in her laughter as she nodded to them. “Thanks for doing this! Let’s see how it tastes!”
Holding her hand out, she carefully blended each one, happy to realize they were a bit more liquidy than the last batch was, more like a smoothie than a shake. Spotting several mugs to the side, she grabbed them, filling each cup half full and handing each woman two, making sure to brush their fingers as she did. “Go on, try it.” She happily encouraged them, taking a spoon and a cloth and taste testing each briefly before cleaning the spoon off and moving to the next. The three women behind her were murmuring their thanks and appreciation while she made minor adjustments to two of them using the ingredients they’d thoughtfully left nearby.
