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

by Jay Boyce

  Camille seemed to realize that this was all she could offer for the moment, and instead chose to move on. Brushing off her spotless dress, she stood up and gestured to the side, where Jade could see that Sharon and Tina were setting up. Camille smiled as she said, “Well then, Sharon is here to do some last fittings for your dress and the rest of the clothes we commissioned, since you seem to be staying about the same size these days.” It was true. Her overall body shape stopped making drastic changes, leaving her at what she would have called her own ideal. She was pretty sure the only reason Tina hadn’t come bounding over was because Tisha was already bombarding them with questions and a flurry of excitement.

  Laughing softly, she nodded and the two of them walked over to the trio, most of the rest of the room having filtered out, save the servants who were cleaning up. Jade was still going over the massive dissemination of information that occurred when she greeted Sharon. “Hello, my lovely ladies!”

  “Jade!” Tina rocketed from Tisha’s side with her normal fervor, throwing herself into Jade’s arms. Jade laughed as she scooped her up. Settling the little girl on her hip, she smiled indulgently as Tina started babbling, “Isn’t it pretty here? Mommy said we can go see the flowers after!”

  Jade nodded to the little girl happily. “The flowers here are lovely. Hi, Sharon.” She smiled at the little one’s mother, who grinned and bobbed a little bow to her before coming closer and kissing her on the cheek.

  “Hello, Lady Jade. You look absolutely stunning. I’ve got your dress here, so we need to make sure it fits or if I need to make any final alterations…”

  It was time to play dress-up, it seemed.

  Chapter Twenty-Three – Body

  “Are we done yet?” Jade’s voice was helpless and slightly hopeful that the torture was ending soon. She wasn’t sure if she could take much more, and now that she’d gotten through this latest pile of clothes, she could only pray it was the last.

  Camille, Sharon, and Tisha were all laughing at her while Tina wandered around the garden outside the doors, watched closely by one of the guards. Jade was intensely jealous of the little girl at the moment, not having expected the spectacle she’d been dragged into. For HOURS. “You’re done now. You can take home everything on this side now, and I’ll get the rest altered and then deliver them to you.” Sharon’s voice was soothing now, much different from the drill sergeant she turned into when it came to trying on and altering clothes.

  Looking at the veritable mountain of clothes to her left, Jade asked in a tiny voice, “You guys know that I don’t have a walk-in closet, right? Like...there’s enough clothes there to fill my entire room, and then some.”

  They burst into laughter again, and Camille pointed out, “You know, you of all people are the only one who shouldn’t have a problem with that! You can just make your closet bigger. Or carry them in your ring.”

  Blinking owlishly at her for a moment, Jade groaned and flopped into the nearby chair, covering her eyes with her arm. “Right. Yeah, I can do that. I’ve tried on so many clothes my brain turned to mush.” She should have remembered that Camille was determined to outfit her completely. And that she’d had access to Jade’s designs for the weekend while Jade was gone. A weekend where Camille didn’t have classes and she needed something to do to take her mind off of what Jade was doing. She and Sharon basically made prototypes of everything for her to wear first, since they were her designs, and according to them, ‘anything she wore would be in high demand afterwards.’ No wonder Sharon’s shop was closed when she’d walked by earlier.

  So she’d been forced to be their doll for the last few hours, helping explain what did and didn’t work, what was or wasn’t comfortable, and what she did or didn’t like. It was like clothes shopping, marketing, and product design all shoved into one supremely long afternoon. She half wondered if they hadn’t been trying to distract her from the night to come. She’d been watching the sun as it crossed the sky through the windows, and she knew sunset was approaching.

  With sunset came the funeral. She peeked out from under her arm to find the three women busying themselves straightening out the piles of clothes she’d tried on and then handed to them. Camille was pulling out a pair of beautiful brown pants with a dark green shirt as well as a pair of dark brown boots she’d liked. A dark green cloak followed, and Jade realized she was pulling out what she needed to wear to the funeral.

  Her new armor was also on prominent display. Perhaps the only part of the fitting she’d truly enjoyed was realizing Camille got her the armor she’d been wishing for after what happened with Tisha. If she’d had something more substantial protecting her, the consequences of letting her guard down wouldn’t have been nearly as bad. The fitted black leather armor was supple enough to allow movement while being reinforced with metal strips for protection. Basically, the perfect blend of assassin chic and practicality for her. It was also thin enough that she could wear it beneath most clothes without a problem and people would never know.

  Now that Camille was pulling out her funeral wear, she finally noticed that there were clothes in the room that weren’t hers. It seemed at some point or another, guards had dropped off what Camille and Tisha were planning on changing into as well, judging by the brown and green colors. Camille noticed what she was looking at when she glanced back to check on her. Whatever she saw in Jade’s eyes made her explain, “We’ll go down there with you, but the others are going to meet us there. The boys already went to make sure everything is prepared.”

  Jade nodded, groaning softly as she pushed herself to her feet and walked over to the clothes Camille laid out. She started touching the piles of ‘finished’ clothes, storing them into her ring. It was a good thing she kept expanding the room in there, though she frowned slightly when she realized she still had Christopher’s body stashed inside. She hadn’t even cleaned it up. Sharon saw her pause, frowning at the clothes and asked hurriedly, “Jade, is there something wrong with the clothes?”

  Shaking her head quickly, she told Sharon, “No, there’s nothing wrong with my clothes. I just realized I’ve had Christopher’s body this whole time, and I haven’t cleaned him up at all. I don’t really want his wife to see his body like this.” Glancing at Camille, who looked a little horrified at the situation, she asked, “Can we get a new guard’s uniform jacket? That was the only thing torn up. I can use magic to do the rest.”

  “Can you bring his body out? We’ll get him a new jacket.” The low voice startled her, and she realized that the nearby guards, who’d been silent up to this point, walked forward. She thought she’d been talking quietly, but obviously those chosen to guard the palace had keen ears and were paying attention. Or maybe it was more specifically those chosen to guard the princesses, now that Tisha and her brothers had already been taken once.

  Walking over to a table that was further away from the clothes, she placed her hand over it, bringing Christopher’s body out to land gently on the table. There were gasps behind her as the smell of blood, urine, and feces filled the air. Jade grimaced, realizing that with time came the release of his bowels, and he definitely needed new pants too. She was extraordinarily glad she wasn’t a mortician. Having to deal with stuff like this constantly? No thank you, not for her.

  She was about to call up a wind to send the smell away when she felt a breeze on her face, and realized one of the guards beat her to it. Smiling gratefully, she moved forward to Christopher’s body. While Dalton may have fixed his neck, and they’d twisted his legs back the right way when they laid him out, his left elbow was still at an odd position. With gentle hands, she moved it back into the right position, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes as she felt his clammy skin.

  Whether it was from the tussle or his time in the dirt after, his clothes, arms, and face were all streaked with earth and caked with old sweat. Calling on her water magic, she started with his hair, cleaning it, her fingers reaching forward to comb it into place as she systematically cleaned
his body, even collecting the dried blood from his back. It wasn’t like the wounds would reopen at this point, and she only took what hadn’t congealed into the scabs that held the rest of it at bay.

  When she got to his pants, her nose wrinkled slightly, but she pushed on with determination. Urine and feces hung in tiny particles in the air as she collected everything into a ball, then pulled a jar from her ring and stuck the whole mess into it, capping it quickly and shoving it back into the space. Christopher was now blessedly clean and smelling a whole lot better. The stains on the clothes were still there, but at least now they weren’t plastered to his body.

  “Well, that’ll make things easier.” One of the guards nodded his thanks to her as he went on, “You go ahead and get changed. We’ll change his clothes.”

  Jade nodded. She didn’t want to deal with the rigor mortis setting in or his naked body. It was already hard enough for her right now without doing that too. She suddenly wished she’d been able to figure out spiritual magic. What if his spirit was still hanging around until his funeral? Maybe she’d ask Ashanna…

  Giving one last glance at the pale imitation of the man she knew, she turned and walked back to the tables of clothes, shoving everything but the outfit she was about to wear into her ring. She gathered what she needed to change into in her arms, nodding to Camille and Tisha, who were each going into one of the adjacent rooms with their own bundles.

  Stepping into her ‘dressing room,’ she put the clothes down, leaning against the door for a moment and taking in deep breaths. She had to remind herself that death was normal and unavoidable. Perhaps that was a fatalistic way of looking at it, but she hoped that any of the religious people who’d tried to talk to her were right about heaven. She could only hope he was in a better place.

  She quickly whisked water over her body again, getting rid of the nervous sweat that was pooling uncomfortably. Instead of pulling her clothes off, she cheated and put them in her ring. She was happy it worked, because that meant she only had to deal with the hassle of putting things on all afternoon, and didn’t have to worry about trying to unzip or unbutton things behind her. Much more convenient.

  Grabbing her armor, she quickly pulled it on and closed the tiny hooks that fastened it together. She took a moment to stretch and move around, marveling at its suppleness. If it wasn’t for the solid weight, she’d almost think she was wearing something like an old-fashioned swimsuit. It certainly followed the cut of one. The one piece had thigh length shorts and came up into a solid strap tank top that covered all of her most vital bits.

  After she’d tried it on the first time, Camille nodded thoughtfully and said that since it fit, she’d have a few more made with different cuts so that she could rotate them out and use them with all types of outfits. In truth, she probably didn’t need to wear armor all the time, but it would make her feel better until she was a bit more comfortable with her safety. She’d been attacked one too many times in the city, not to mention there were three delegations of people with unknown temperaments on the cusp of arrival. She’d be wearing it the whole time they were in town for sure.

  Shaking off those gloomy thoughts, she quickly pulled on the rest of the clothes Camille laid out for her. The deep brown pants tucked neatly into her pretty brown boots, and the dark green shirt had light layers coming off it. She was rather impressed with the design, because it mimicked the movement of leaves on a tree, and she knew it wasn’t something she’d brought to this world. No, this was a style specifically developed to honor the dead.

  That was confirmed a moment later when she stepped out and found Camille and Tisha garbed similarly, though Tisha’s dress faded from green to brown in the different layers, and Camille’s was more of a tunic length of green above her pants. She smiled tremulously at them, then glanced around, feeling her forehead furrow in confusion when she didn’t see Christopher’s body. Sure, she’d noticed there were guards around the edges of the room nearby once more, but they weren’t the same ones who volunteered to clean up Christopher’s body. Addressing one of them, she asked, “Where did the other guards go?”

  He gave them a short bow as he responded, “They’re in a room just outside. They thought it’d be best to change his clothing in private.”

  Her frown cleared up immediately and she nodded with a little embarrassment. “Of course, thank you.” He nodded back to her, resuming his guard position when he saw she wasn’t about to ask any more questions. It made sense to take him into a private chamber, rather than subjecting him to the scrutiny of the guards and girls.

  She could tell Tisha and Camille were struggling slightly to not laugh, their lips twitching at her embarrassment. Wanting to change the subject, she glanced outside, the frown returning when she saw the light fading once more. If the funeral was at sunset, they seriously needed to be going. Then again…she shrugged mentally. If worse came to worst, she’d fly them over the city. She’d gotten enough practice at it that it wasn’t a problem anymore. Of course, Tisha was wearing a dress, but…

  “Don’t worry about it so much, Jade. Mom and Dad won’t start the ceremony without us.” Tisha was obviously attempting to mollify her, but Jade sighed, playing with the ends of her hair.

  Her eyes traced the arc of the sun as she replied, “That’s not the point. I hate being late to things. If I make a commitment, I will do everything in my power to keep it. If I have a choice, I’ll never leave people wondering if or when I’ll show up to something I agreed to do. It’s one of my biggest pet peeves. I think it speaks to the integrity of a person how much they value the time and feelings of others.” Her tone was absent, because her mind strayed back to the hospital.

  “Of course we’ll be here for the treatment tomorrow. Don’t worry.” Her mother’s voice was convincing, but when she was scared of the new treatment she was about to go through...none of her family were there. Her brother ‘had something come up’ and they had to help him. She had doctors, so she’d be taken care of and didn’t need them, obviously. Only...she’d been so scared that day. The doctors wound up drugging her into oblivion because she’d been so stressed that her entire body was completely tense with anxiety.

  Long after the treatment was over, hours after she’d awoken alone and wondered if holding on was even worth it…they finally showed up. They’d been apologetic, of course. They always were. But Ty just looked bored. It was a day she’d never forget.

  Pushing away the melancholy memories, she smiled at the girls who were now looking at her in worry. “It’s fine. They’ll be done when they’re done. I’d rather Christopher is given the proper burial rites. Plus, we can always make up for lost time in travel.”

  “In...travel?” Camille looked confused, but Tisha immediately caught on.

  “We get to fly again!?” Her excitement was palpable. Jade couldn’t blame her, and the smile returned to her face as her spirits were lifted by Tisha’s simple enthusiasm. Flying was amazing, and she didn’t think she’d ever get completely over the thrill of it. When she nodded, Tisha squealed and half crushed Camille in an excited hug. “It’s like the best thing ever! You’ll love it! Last time, I didn’t get to truly appreciate it because we were running for our lives, but it was so beautiful to see the world from up there!”

  And there it was, a reminder of something else she’d been trying to avoid thinking about. She needed to call Marcelle. “Sorry, excuse me for a second.” Smiling at the princesses, she walked a little distance away for privacy. She wasn’t totally sure why she’d done that. Anything she knew could be shared with them, but…oh, who knew what was driving her brain at this point? Maybe it was the guards and not the princesses she was trying to escape.

  Her mana infused the mirror she’d taken from her ring, and she was relieved when it was picked up almost immediately on the other side. She was reassured when Marcelle’s face was calm as it came into view. There was no panic in her expression, and she seemed rather relaxed, in actuality. She smiled at Jade as she asked, �
��Hello, Jade. Is something wrong?”

  Shaking her head slightly, Jade smiled back at her. “No, I just wanted to check up on you. And apologize. I’m really sorry for ditching you guys. I should have--”

  “Jade.” Marcelle interrupted her, brow raised. “It’s okay. I saw how much it drained you to bring us with you. If we’d come on the raid, then you might not have been able to get everyone out. A foray into the heart of a giant mesmer mob isn’t exactly high on my, or any of my people’s, list of things to do. Sure, we knew we’d be fighting them when we came out here. We were not expecting to go against a force so much larger than ours. It’s a miracle you even made it out. So no, don’t feel sorry for not taking us along. We’re doing just fine, and when the forest calms down in a few days, we’ll come back. We’re fine.”

  Still wanting to double check, she asked, “So, there’s been no hint of the mesmer finding you?”

  Marcelle shook her head. “None whatsoever, that we can tell. We’re relaxing and taking the time to train. We’ve got plenty of supplies, thanks to you. You can relax too. Nothing is going to happen.”

  She nodded slowly, smiling at Marcelle. “Okay. Be safe.”

  “We will. I’ll see you soon, Jade.” She nodded, and the older woman cut off the connection. Jade slowly put the mirror away, staring out the windows into the blooming gardens.

  Unfortunately, she didn’t share Marcelle’s conviction that nothing was going to happen. She’d taken away the food supply of the mesmer, again. That meant it was a matter of when, not if, the next big attack would come. With that oh-so-comforting thought in her mind, she turned when she heard footsteps at the door. They opened to admit the quartet of guards, who were holding what looked remarkably similar to an open casket.