Sense: A Fantasy LitRPG Saga (A Touch of Power Book 3)

by Jay Boyce

  She paused, reaching over to run her fingers across the petals of a beautiful rose-like flower. “He wouldn’t tell the nurses what was wrong, and since he wasn’t causing a ruckus, they left him alone. I could hear him sniffling, and finally, I asked what was wrong. He seriously needed someone to talk to, because he finally broke down and told me that it was his fault. His dad was going to be sent out of the country because the hospital looked into his housing and family situation after he was brought in. His father was there illegally, and because he’d been messing around and fallen from a tree, his family was going to be torn apart.”

  Her fingers wandered gently over the thorns of the flower, careful not to prick herself as she looked up at Lucas with saddened eyes. “He told me that if he hadn’t needed so much help, they wouldn’t have even come in. That most of the families he knew had kids who got sick or injured, but never came in because of things like that. They wanted to be together, but because they were poor and afraid, they didn’t get the help they needed.”

  Letting go of the flower, she let Lucas begin leading them forward silently again as she finished, “So for me...healing is a sort of therapy. It’s giving back to the world, now that I’ve been given so much.”

  They were approaching a different part of the castle than she’d been to before, but the giant balconies and windows reminded her of Cinderella's ball. This must be the west ballroom. Lucas paused at the bottom of the steps, looking down at her seriously.

  “I understand that you want to give back, but you need to be careful. I realize the healers have been helping you, and the royal family has paid them for their services. But if you keep healing everyone you come across without charging them, you might cause the healers to lose their livelihood. You have to be careful. Eric is worried that if you upset the balance too much, people will start to come after you. Instead of helping them, they’ll blame you for taking away their ability to live. So please, please, be careful. You don’t need anyone or anything else targeting you.”

  Jade was silent, staring at the bright glass that led to the ballroom above her. It shone in the sunlight, reflecting the brilliant rays back at them. Eric’s worries, that he’d apparently shared with Lucas, weren’t unfounded. It was why she’d asked them to find those who were already in the business and utilize them, to not rush into her creations. If she took over the market, it didn’t help anyone. She didn’t want to be the disruptor who threw the lives of many into chaos because of thoughtlessness or greed.

  “I’ll be careful.” She finally reassured him, and he nodded, pulling her up the steps as she reached her free hand out, the darkness spreading around it as she absorbed light to replenish some of her lost energy.

  The doors to the ballroom burst open, the light reflections blinding her momentarily as she heard the pattering of running feet. Beaming as she recognized the giggles, she let go of Lucas and braced herself in time for a tiny blonde angel to crash into her for a hug, the thinnest of wind walls there...just in case. “Jade! You’re here!” Tisha glommed onto her instantly, her bubbly personality shining through. No one would have suspected from her reaction that it was this same move which had gotten her stabbed the day or so before.

  She dropped the wind wall almost immediately after realizing no harm was coming her way. She didn’t want Tisha to feel any guiltier than she probably did for what she’d done while under the mesmer’s hypnotism. It wasn’t her fault. Even Jade had trouble resisting them at times. Absently, she wondered if there was something she could make that would help. A ring of clear thought, or something like that. It was worth looking into.

  “Hi Tisha, didja miss me?” Jade teased Tisha gently, letting the girl tug her up the remainder of the stairs to the ballroom, where she could hear music, now that the doors were open.

  “Always! Did you hear the ball has been moved up? Papa says it’s a celebration and also because of the delegations coming, but I want to dance! Sharon’s here too because she needs to finish our dresses! They’re going to be SO pretty!” Tisha’s mouth moving at a mile a minute, Jade wondered where she’d gotten the breath as she saw the waiting crowd inside.

  Most of them retained their composure and were still sitting around the small area of couches that were set up at the side of the room like a little reception area. There was a long table full of delicious looking food, and almost everyone had a plate in hand as they mingled. There were far more people here than she’d anticipated, and she realized someone decided that they might as well give the lesson to everyone who needed it at the same time, rather than do individual lessons.

  As talent students, she wasn’t surprised that Evanna, Chloe, Travis, Jeremy, or Steven were there. Scott, the third year librarian who was also a talent student was there as well, along with several other people she assumed were in similar positions. They obviously didn’t practice dancing very often, so it made sense that those who hadn’t been born to it wouldn’t mind extra lessons.

  Aside from the talent students, pretty much every first year she considered a friend was here, plus the royal children, a few more people who looked like they were also students, and some of the older students she knew were smiling from afar. She noted with wry humor that for every talent student there was a partner. It made sense, honestly. It was far easier for people to get help from someone who knew what they were doing than for two beginners to bungle along together. Camille did an excellent job organizing the whole thing, in her opinion.

  There were also several older people wandering around. From the way they held themselves, she could tell that these were the teachers. Practically no one walked around like they had a rod holding their back that straight otherwise. Sharon set up in a corner, measuring one of the girls, with Tina bouncing around and a small group of musicians playing light music in the background rounded out the company there. The ballroom was huge, with lavishly decorated walls and crystal chandeliers hanging with light globes over the smooth wooden floor that covered the vast room from wall to wall.

  “Jade, you made it. Hopefully without any problems this time?” Camille’s voice was teasing as she walked over, eyeing her little sister who still clung to Jade’s side.

  “Nope, no problems whatsoever!” Her reply was cheerful, and she completely ignored the dirty look Lucas gave her. Even if she was going to tell Camille about what she did for the guard at the gate, it wasn’t going to be in front of this very large group of people, half of whom she didn’t know. He seemed to realize that, because he didn’t say anything either.

  Camille looked slightly suspicious at her bright reply, obviously realizing she wasn’t being absolutely honest, but her eyes flicked over the crowd and she, too, let it drop. “Well then. Why don’t you get some food? I’m sure you’re starving. Tisha, let go now.” She laughed and pulled her sister away from Jade’s side, and Tisha reluctantly obeyed.

  “Thanks Camille. It looks wonderful!” Jade was referring both to the food and the crowd of people, and Camille smirked smugly. Wandering over to the table of goodies, she couldn’t stop herself from grabbing a small pastry and popping it straight into her mouth. She hummed softly in pleasure as it practically melted with buttery goodness. Grabbing a plate, she began to pile it up with the delightful morsels in front of her.

  One of the nearby boys whom she didn’t recognize pointed at a small filled roll that she hadn’t gotten to. “If you liked the puffs, you’ll probably like the meat pasties.”

  Smiling broadly at him after she swallowed, she thanked him. “I’m sure I will! Thank you…” She paused, waiting for him to interject his name. She still didn’t understand why she had to try so hard to get names in this world. Seriously, people should really get into the habit of introducing themselves!

  “Lord Nathaniel Maberry. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady Jade.” He didn’t try to kiss her hand, mostly because she was already holding food and he was respecting that. It was pretty cool of him, actually.

  “The pleasure is mine. Have you don
e much dancing before this?” She was curious why he was there. He was obviously meant to be a partner for one of the talent students, but she wanted to know what the deciding factor was for Camille inviting him and not some of the others.

  Had it been politics or skill that led him to this dancing soiree?

  Chapter Twenty-One – Explanations

  “Nathaniel has been dancing since he was little. Pretty much all of us have. It’s expected of the nobles, even if we don’t use it as much as we used to. To answer your real question though, those of us who are here are the ones who don’t care if someone started out as a talent student, sometimes in spite of crazy families.” That comment seemed aimed at Nathaniel, who shrugged a little helplessly. “Camille pays more attention to how people interact than most people understand.” The throaty alto voice coming from her left caught her a little off guard as she turned to the girl there, who smiled at her and gave a little bow with her head, “Lady Alanna, at your service.”

  Alanna was beautiful, with bright coppery hair and vivid purple eyes, a coloring she’d never seen naturally before. There was something about the color that was bugging her though, and when she activated her mana sense to figure out what it was, she realized that Alanna was layering illusion magic over her eyes to make them look purple. She didn’t know what the girl’s natural color was, but the fact that she held the illusion so perfectly in place was impressive.

  Jade raised a brow as she asked wryly, “And how did you know that was my real question, Lady Alanna?”

  Nathaniel chortled softly and she turned back to him as he replied, “It wasn’t hard to guess. It’s not like you’re trying to disguise your expressions, and, well, growing up as nobles, I think our sense motive skills are put to use quite frequently.”

  Gesturing to a nearby empty couch, Jade sat down on one edge while the other two seated themselves and she asked, “Can you tell me how that works, exactly? I mean, I’ve got sense motive on my list, but I’ve no idea if there are actual things half my skills do. Is there some sort of active ability, or is it something you do passively?” She popped some of her new food into her mouth and had to stifle a groan at the pure pleasure it brought her.

  Nathaniel and Alanna were watching her curiously, and Alanna couldn’t hide the small snicker at Jade’s obvious enjoyment of her food. She covered her mouth to hide her smirk, then managed to get herself back under control as she explained, “Well, I suppose it’s a little bit of both. If you’re talking to someone, a lot of the time you’ll instinctively understand whether they’re telling the truth or lying. Sometimes you’ll get emotions that come through, like anger or sadness. How high your skill is determines how much information you get passively, and also whether or not you can see through their deception. As an example… I believe your sense motive must be quite high, because you seemed to notice almost immediately that there was something wrong with my eyes.”

  Jade nodded slowly, swallowing her food as she said, “Yeah, you’ve got an illusion on them to change their color.”

  Alanna looked surprised that she knew exactly what was going on. “How did you know that? Most people who have higher skills than my illusion magic and deception still only get a sense that something isn’t quite right, unless they’re warded...”

  “Oh, so that’s what that was? That’s basically what I got, now that I think about it. Something felt wrong with your eyes, so I activated my mana sight and saw you using illusion magic to cover them.”

  Nathaniel was looking curiously at her, and he asked, “Just how high is your sense motive, anyway? Usually only the professors even notice that something is wrong. Everyone else simply coos over how different her eyes are.”

  Thinking it through, she realized she didn’t have sense motive on her list anymore. It was appropriated by merchant, and thus was at… “Advanced ten.”

  The two of them stared at her in awe. “Advanced...ten? You have an advanced skill? After little more than a week?” Alanna’s fingers trembled as she clutched her plate, waiting for Jade’s answer.

  A little sheepishly, Jade told her, “I actually have a dozen advanced skills. My special ability lets me grow a lot faster than most people.”

  They were shaking their heads as Nathaniel said, “That’s crazy. A dozen skills at advanced...it’s hard enough for most people to get one or two skills to advanced, and you’re at advanced ten…”

  Figuring that it wasn’t a secret, she explained, “That’s mostly because I had ten skills combine into one. Apparently if you get the correct ten related skills to intermediate, they combine into one skill, and I think the new skill is the combination of experience from all ten put together, so it gives you a rather large boost. I was told they were called the Heaven’s Blessed in the past.” And it makes your sheet cleaner, but she didn’t add that. She wasn’t sure if other people had to deal with ridiculous sheets like she did, but she figured they might. Well, the nobles and students of Dracona probably did, at least. Mostly because there were so many classes they could take, and most of them took classes to be proficient in all sorts of different weapons.

  “The Heaven’s Blessed...I thought that was just a myth…” Nathaniel’s voice trailed off as he considered the implications.

  Alanna seemed to have grasped the concept more quickly, however. “What were the ten skills you combined, if I can ask?”

  “Oh, yeah. They became merchant, but the base skills were appraisal, diplomacy, haggle, information gathering, intimidate, mathematics, persuasion, sense motive, speed reading, and writing.” Jade had no problem sharing her new knowledge.

  She could tell Alanna was looking at her profile when her eyes seemed to unfocus slightly and skitter up and down like she was reading something. She looked thoughtfully determined as she muttered, “Intermediate...if I can get haggle, intimidate, and mathematics up…” She focused back on Jade as she asked, “You said speed reading, not just reading?”

  Shrugging, Jade nodded. “I never got just reading. But I think it’d probably work with reading...most likely.” Alanna nodded pensively, and Jade could tell she was planning out how she could raise her skills. She felt a little bad, but had a feeling people were going to wonder if she was a doppelganger in the next few days if she didn’t say anything. Feeling obligated to try to head off potential trouble, she said softly, “I would recommend you take it slowly. I don’t think haggle and intimidate are something you want to try to raise quickly.”

  Alanna seemed to deflate a bit, realizing what Jade was implying and thinking over the possible repercussions. With a sigh, she agreed, “You’re probably right. At least now I know what direction to take.”

  Jade paused, then added, “I don’t think it’s a bad thing to take your time. From what I’ve gathered, it’s easier to raise lower levels, and gets much harder to get experience at higher levels. I would almost say raise nine of them as high as you can and hold off on the tenth until then. That way the combination can help you get over any bottlenecks you’ve hit. Besides, I know merchant isn’t the only combination skill. It’s possible you have other skills that could easily combine as well.”

  Nathaniel jumped in here, obviously catching her insinuation. “You have another combination skill, don’t you.”

  She nodded. “I do, but it’s not one that can be as easily duplicated. It’s ten magics.” Both Nathaniel and Alanna winced at that. The most magic one person claimed was usually up to five different kinds.

  “And that’s part of why we call her the Heaven’s Blessed.” Victor’s voice came from behind her, and she turned to smile at him, realizing he’d been eavesdropping on their conversation for a bit.

  “Because that doesn’t put any pressure on me at all,” she quipped back easily.

  He shrugged unrepentantly. “I’m just telling you what people are saying. You should all probably hurry and finish eating though. Camille is about ready to start.”

  Glancing around, she realized that people had begun putting down t
heir plates and drifting towards the dance floor while she’d been talking to Nathaniel and Alanna. Alarmed, she started to quickly eat, slightly annoyed that she wasn’t able to eat slowly and savor the moment. Victor laughed, sitting on the arm of the couch next to her as he told her, “Actually, you can eat at your own pace. I have a feeling you’re going to pick it up faster than anyone else, and I’m your partner, so we can go over when you’re ready.”

  She slowed down happily, but noticed that Nathaniel and Alanna were still eating quickly. It made sense; it wasn’t like they were partners. They were there to partner the talent students, after all. It seemed his ‘hurry up’ direction was more aimed at them, rather than her. She would still hurry, however. This whole thing was originally for her, after all. Looking up at Victor, she asked, “So how’d you end up as my partner?”

  His eyes flicked over to the dance floor, and her gaze followed. Some of the girls were sending him nervous or flirty looks. He spoke under his breath, knowing she could still hear him, “Girls react weirdly to me being the crown prince sometimes. You treat me normally. And I’m a better dancer than Will, much to his dismay, so I get to help you first.” She almost choked on her food because she started laughing at his last statement. She could see Will giving Victor the evil eye, now that she was paying attention to it. He was the one who said he’d teach her to dance, after all. He didn’t seem very happy that he’d been usurped by Victor.

  Smirking up at him, once she was able to breathe properly again she whispered, “You know, you didn’t even have to come. You are the crown prince, after all. It’s just a dance lesson.”