Sense: A Fantasy LitRPG Saga (A Touch of Power Book 3)
Page 16
“No, you’re responsible for your own actions. No one should take the blame for what other people do simply because of their existence. You’re not responsible for that. They are. It’s not like you’ve ever even had contact with the Dark One. On the contrary, you’ve been doing everything you can to make this world better. So no, you don’t get to blame yourself for the mesmer’s actions.” Ashanna hooked her arm through Victor’s as she joined the conversation, staring down at Jade in admonishment.
“But if I wasn’t here, then--” she began, only to be interrupted by Ashanna again.
“Then Tevon would still have been taken months ago and known how to get into the secret passageway. There would still have been an attack on the palace eventually, because it has one of the highest concentrations of magic in the city. That was coming, regardless of whether or not you were here. You being here? It meant that my children were returned to us safely instead of being lost forever. It means we’ve been able to learn more about our enemies and enhance our defences.”
Tisha spoke up from behind her, “None of us blame you, so you shouldn’t blame yourself.”
She wanted to refute their statements, but found she couldn’t. If they didn’t blame her, she should stop borrowing trouble for herself. It wasn’t her responsibility to take care of the whole world, even if people thought she was some avatar of the gods. Everyone was entitled to their own beliefs as long as you didn’t shove them down the throat of others. She had no interest in being called a hero. That was the classic definition of someone who got other people killed.
Shaking her head, she finally nodded tiredly. “Okay.”
Victor raised his brows. “Just okay?”
She nodded again. “Yeah, just...okay. I’m tired enough that all I want to do is sleep for a few days. I doubt I’m thinking clearly.” Looking down at Tevon’s body, she asked quietly, “I’m curious, though. What will you tell people?”
Derrick’s voice was confident as he stated, “The truth. We’ll tell them the truth. They’ll find out anyway, so it’s better to hear it from us. Now that we know where they get their information from, we can work to make things better. Change whatever we know they knew before they were taken. However, what Tevon said will be kept to those in this room.” She nodded absently. It was true, people would find out. She’d experienced firsthand how fast the gossip mill spread information. She wasn’t surprised that they wanted to hide the fact that she was the concentrated target of a Dark One. After all, half of writing history was hiding the truth.
Brushing a hand absently through her hair, she detangled the ends as she decided, “I should go get some sleep. I don’t even know what day it is at this point. Do I have school tomorrow?”
Ashanna and Derrick exchanged glances, then Ashanna spoke, “No, school has been cancelled for the next week. We’ll have a small funeral for Tevon tomorrow, which you’re welcome to join us for, obviously. However, we’ve received word that there are several delegations from other countries waiting to use the gates to arrive on Monday. In consideration of them, the ball has been moved to Wednesday, partially in celebration of the safe return of those taken. There will of course, be several smaller gatherings with the delegations before then, and your presence will be requested for many of those.”
Nodding absently, Jade tried to organize her thoughts. She mused aloud, “Do the delegations have anything to do with my arrival in this world?”
There was an obvious pause, then Ashanna shrugged. “We aren’t sure, but it’s likely.”
“Okay. I need sleep then.” She knew she was repeating herself and didn’t care. If she was going to have to deal with political intrigue, she wanted to be not tired. Maybe when she was rested she’d be able to think more clearly. She couldn’t remember how many times she’d drained her magic, only to eat or use the sunlight to recharge again. Everything was blurring together.
“Let’s get you home.” She vaguely realized that Mike was trying to lead her to the door.
“Mommy, the birds.” Ramoth’s voice in her head made her look to the side, noticing the golden birds she’d left on the floor in their cage when they unloaded the capall. She didn’t know at what point it had been removed. Probably before the attempt. She realized her babies were watching over the golden creatures, almost tauntingly, as they stared hungrily at her little ones.
“Right. The birds.” Her mumble preceded the finger of wind she sent out, grabbing the cage and bringing it over to her. Her fellacai winged along behind it as she clasped the cage, settling down on her hair as they reached her.
From her side, she heard Will ask, “Would you like me to carry that?” She glanced uncomprehendingly at him for a moment as he gestured to the cage. Belatedly, she nodded and he pried her fingers from the metal. “Don’t worry, they’ll be fine.”
“Fine, yeah. That’s fine.” She nodded absently, squinting as they crossed the threshold and into the sunlight. Shouldn’t it be not bright outside? Or was that just the fact that she was exhausted and thought the sky should be too? Her sense of time was all messed up at the moment.
Despite how out of it she was, she still managed to notice the looks they got as they passed. In all honesty, most of them were directed at her. The guards nodded respectfully, bowing to the royalty, but keeping their eyes trained on her. She plastered a smile on her face, trying to nod back to them when she met their gazes. It felt fake, but she was too tired to care. She wasn’t going to scowl at them no matter how tired she was.
It became even more obvious as they left the compound. Her enhanced hearing picked up on the whispers of the people as they passed. “She brought back the taken. The traveler returned with the taken!”
Smile fixed firmly, she ignored the cacophony that broke out as they passed. Head held high through sheer determination, she was supremely grateful when The Green Dragon came into view. They’d left most of the healers and royal family behind, with only Mike, Will, and a few guards accompanying them. It was funny, but when Mike said ‘home,’ the first thing that came to mind was The Green Dragon. This world had grown on her so quickly, her experiences so vivid that they were quickly claiming priority over her feelings.
Stepping through the familiar door that Will opened, her fake smile broadened into a real one as she saw Jessica, Kaylee, Raphael, Stephen, and Eric waiting for her. Mike released her as she stepped into their open arms one by one.
“You did it, just like you said you would.” Kaylee’s voice was dreamy, and Jade could tell she was fantasizing about it being some grand adventure. She could disillusion her later. For now, she nodded.
It was Jessica who began mother-henning her, “You can tell us all about it after you’ve slept. You look like you’re about to drop.” She turned to the others admonishingly, “Help her up to her room while I grab some food.” Jade mouthed thanks to her as she winked and bustled off, obviously feeling like food was the appropriate comfort.
Stephen put an arm around her, guiding her up the stairs to her room as Will followed behind them with the cage of her birdies. He spoke conversationally, “It’s good to have you back. Everyone has been a bit on edge while you were gone.”
Tiredly, she acknowledged his statement, “This was merely the beginning. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be back, though. You’ll have to catch me up when I’m a bit more awake.”
He patted her shoulder as she flicked her key out of her ring into her hand with a tiny bit of magic. Opening her door for her, he led her inside, Will coming in and setting the birds down on her desk before he grinned at her and backed out. He passed Jessica, who’d made quick work of bringing food up. She must’ve been walking slower than she thought if Jessica was already here.
“Eat something and then take a good rest. You’ve earned it.” Jessica beamed warmly at her, setting the food down and shooing Stephen out of the room. He nodded to her while Jessica fussed, helping her change into more comfortable clothes and making sure her fellacai were taken care of. She
left Jade alone only when she’d finished eating and was securely tucked into her bed.
Her last conscious decision was to go through all the notifications she’d suppressed. The red dots indicating dead siphon targets were dismissed summarily, and she smiled as she made her choices of the active options, peaceful as the pain took over and sent her into sweet darkness.
Chapter Seventeen – Insight
Day Twelve
It was rather amazing what a good night’s sleep could do for your sense of well-being. Having been so tired, she passed out super early the night before. However, that allowed her to siphon all the people and creatures she’d touched in the last few days, wake up in the middle of the night to eat everything in sight, and then go back to sleep for some real rest.
Despite having been passed out or asleep for probably ten hours, she was now awake at the crack of dawn and snuck into the bathroom for a long soak. Her babies were still fast asleep, so she simply enjoyed sinking into the hot water as her muscles relaxed and she checked the new notifications, as was becoming her usual. The first thing she did was glance over all the red notifications telling her that her targets died mid-siphoning. Those were from the mesmer and two tialon she’d captured, so there was no surprise there, and she dismissed them once more.
She was happy to note that her decision on what to siphon from the beann gave her two new yellow boxes. She liked the yellow boxes. They were all cheery and bright and indicated fun things for her growth.
Alert. You have siphoned a species ability incompatible with your body. Correctional action has been taken. Special ability Adaptable has been updated.
Alert. You have siphoned a species ability incompatible with your body. Correctional action has been taken. Special ability Instinctual Insight has been added.
The first one hadn’t actually been a surprise for her. When she’d taken camouflage from some of the other animals before, adaptable had been updated then too. She figured she’d probably have another single word change. Last time it had been somewhat easily to more easily. What came after more easily? Just easily?
Instinctual insight, however, was weird to her. She’d taken the ability called genetic memory from a bunch of them, realizing that she didn’t have the genes to support said memory. The real question was, how on earth did that translate into instinctual insight? How was that different from the insight skill she’d had for so long? Curious and confused, she skipped going over her main sheets for now to pull the two special abilities up.
Adaptable²: Your body accepts change more easily. You require 25% less energy to accommodate changes and learn skills 25% faster.
Well, that was certainly new. Adaptable had gotten that lovely little two by it that she associated with getting more information! The original wording hadn’t changed at all, but that whole new sentence explained ever so much about what had been going on with her. The drain was significantly lessened, an entire quarter! She figured it’d been less than that before, given the sheer amount of camouflage she’d siphoned last night. The fact that it’d gotten so much easier was probably also due in part to her rising constitution, strength, maybe even some of her skills, and who knew what else. All she knew was that she was happy it was easier.
There was probably also the fact that the changes were becoming a smaller percentage change for her overall. They had been huge changes at the beginning because she was starting from nothing. Now that she had amazing stats, adding a few points wasn’t the same as it had been when she hadn’t qualified for basic humanity. Grinning at the thought, she went on to the next notification with anticipation.
Instinctual Insight: Using your past experiences, you are more easily able to draw connections and make inferences about potential actions, events, and patterns.
It was still strange, but she could maybe see where it was coming from now. The birds probably passed down knowledge on predators or something like that. Realizing that the rustling of the grass meant there was a bad sign, or how to avoid the arrows of a human by dodging, the likelihood of getting squashed by a tialon, or even whatever tracks their own prey left, which allowed them to find food more easily. All of these things could be considered potential actions, events, and patterns.
How it would translate into what she could do, she wasn’t sure. Would it translate to social situations? Or was it something more geared towards fighting and food? Did it take into account what she’d read in the past? Was it something like what she’d done with Stephen, drawing inferences from past experiences to determine that he was a spymaster? Her questions were endless, but there were no answers forthcoming from the profile gods, as usual. So instead, she moved on with her life and pulled up her main sheet.
Name: Jade Winward
Age: 18
Strength: 24.87
Dexterity: 24.57
Constitution: 25.90
Intelligence: 25.91
Magic: 29.57
Charisma: 22.67
Luck: 23.05
Special Abilities: Adaptable², Instinctual Insight, Keen Senses, Siphon²
She wasn’t terribly surprised by anything on her sheet at this point. True to her word, she’d siphoned magic from all of the taken except Frank, wanting to get a head start on raising it back up. The fact that she’d only gotten two and a half points from siphoning it from so many people… It was a testament to how low the magic stat already was for most people. She’d honestly taken magic from everyone she knew personally, wanting to give them an advantage because it seemed to make the most difference against the mesmer, even if it also made them a juicier target.
Strength only went up a little over a point, but she hadn’t siphoned it from many people; mostly the mesmer. Dex went up almost two, but she’d taken that from some of the guards and beann. Con was up two because she’d concentrated on that from most of the people she didn’t know. Intelligence and charisma went up one, and luck by a little over two. She’d taken those three primarily from the beann, given how lucky they were and how much she felt she probably owed to her high luck stat in this world. It wasn’t something quantifiable, but she knew she’d gotten tangible results nonetheless.
Satisfied as she memorized the new numbers, she pulled up her skill sheet to take a gander. She’d noticed that assassination, excavation, swords, and thrown weapons showed up on her sheet all by themselves yesterday. Assassination probably came from her surprise attacks on the mesmer or beann. She hadn’t checked in between, so it could have been either. Excavation was from making the bunker. Hunting was from the many animals she’d taken down, most likely. Swords was probably from when she’d finally taken her sword out and started swinging it at the grain, though she’d helped it along by taking from King Derrick and Victor afterwards, since she’d realized it’d been over a week since the first time she’d siphoned the royal family. Thrown weapons...she vaguely recalled finally using one of her throwing knives on the mesmer.
Accessorycraft
Intermediate 4
75%
Acrobatics
Intermediate 10
45%
Animal Handling
Intermediate 7
72%
Archery
Intermediate 10
47%
Assassination
Intermediate 2
19%
Athletics
Advanced 2
44%
Aura Manipulation
Intermediate 3
25%
Bluff
Intermediate 10
77%
Cleaning
Intermediate 1
23%
Climbing
Intermediate 4
81%
Cold Resistance
Beginner 10
81%
Compulsion Magic
Intermediate 7
2%
Contractual Magic
Intermediate 10
57%
Danger Sense
I
ntermediate 10
93%
Death Magic
Beginner 7
45%
Deception
Intermediate 10
68%
Disguise
Intermediate 5
73%
Dodge
Intermediate 10
29%
Eating
Intermediate 10
70%
Elementalist
Advanced 9
43%
Engineering
Intermediate 5
16%
Excavation
Intermediate 1
2%
Firearms
Beginner 7
63%
Flight
Intermediate 8
16%
Glasscraft
Beginner 6
53%
Gravity Magic
Intermediate 6
83%
Healing Magic
Advanced 4
6%
Heat Resistance
Intermediate 7
1%
Hunting
Intermediate 4
29%
Herbology
Intermediate 4
24%
Hypnotize
Intermediate 5
11%
Illusion Magic
Advanced 1
4%
Insight
Advanced 4
9%