by Jay Boyce
She stopped talking as an idea struck her. If her creations could draw in energy from their surroundings, could she do it to? Like one of the cultivators in the wuxia novels, would that alleviate her need to eat so much in order to support her magic and her changes? If it was possible, it would make life waaaaaaaaaaay easier. Still, she’d just barely been able to see the thread, and mostly had only been able to see auras around people that denoted their magic. Perhaps when it was a higher level, she’d be able to see more and that would help.
Lost in thought, she only realized they were trying to talk to her when Will tugged the fire tree out of her hand for a closer look, evidently fascinated by it. Camille, Eric, Victor, and Stephen were all talking about what it might mean to have energy being drawn in by anything permanent. Realizing that she’d come back to them, Camille teased, “You space out a lot.”
Jade shrugged. “Bad habit from my last world. I was left alone a lot, so staring into space and introspecting was quite common for me.” This seemed to kill the conversation, so she smiled grimly. “Don’t worry, I’ll get over it eventually. Probably. Anyway, Victor, you said you needed to call your dad! Can I see the mirror now?” Her excitement had started bubbling over again with her change in conversation, and Victor laughed, nodding.
Pulling a mirror out, it was round and about the size of his palm. Because Jade had forgotten to turn her mana sense off, she could see the pure white energy flowing from him into the mirror, giving it the magic to make it work. Curious, she walked over, staring down at it from the side. It seemed to be filled with fog, until finally, the fog cleared and she could see an image of King Derrick and Queen Ashanna sitting side by side, seemingly at a dinner table as well.
Derrick looked a little confused as he asked quickly, “Victor! Is everything okay? Did something happen to Will?” Apparently, this was something that was normally only used in emergencies, which made sense. She giggled softly that his first concern was that Will had gotten into trouble though, and she glanced up, sticking her tongue out at him.
He groaned, walking over and grabbing Victor’s hand to point the mirror at himself. “No, Dad, I’m fine. What gives? Why would I be causing trouble?”
Ashanna laughed softly, teasing him, “It’s your first day, Will. Also, when have you ever not caused trouble?” Will groaned, let go of Victor’s hand, and walked away. Looking at Victor again, Queen Ashanna smiled and asked calmly, “So if it wasn’t Will, why did you scry us?”
Victor grimaced a bit, then said hesitantly, “Jade had a small altercation with Brodie…in which he tried to kill her.”
“What!?” The double shouts of both Derrick and Ashanna came through loud and clear, and they were obviously startled by the news.
At this point, Jade moved closer to Victor so that her head would be in view of the mirror as she smiled at them and said quickly, “Don’t worry, I’m fine, and he was fine when I left.”
Derrick and Ashanna both seemed to sit back, at least temporarily mollified by seeing her and her quick reassurance. Derrick spoke with a somewhat strained voice, “Jade, it’s nice to see you, though I confess this is a surprise. Would you please tell us what happened?”
Jade nodded, taking the offered mirror from Victor as she began her story, telling them the abridged version like she had the others. When she finished, she said confidently, “Therefore, I’d like to put him under a contract so that I don’t see backlash from this. I understand he’s going through a hard time with the loss of his father, and I get that. I just lost my whole family too, but I’m not going around trying to kill people. It’s just a precautionary measure on my part. I understand that it’s not normally done, but I won’t be able to rest easy until I have some assurances in place.”
Derrick and Ashanna looked thoughtful, and it was Ashanna who asked in a tiny voice, “What would this contract entail?”
Jade glanced at Eric, then said quickly, “One second, I’d like Eric to write it down so I don’t forget anything.” They nodded their agreement in the mirror, and Eric quickly followed her over to her little sitting area where Camille was already pulling out her paper, ink, and quill. Camille had it set up and everyone had drifted over, immensely curious what conditions she wanted to impose on a royal family member.
“Alright.” Jade looked at the people around her, smiled a little sadly, then looked back at Derrick and Ashanna. “First off, he can never try to kill or harm me, physically or mentally, intentionally in any way, unless it’s self-defense. This includes ordering anyone else to do anything to me. If he becomes aware of any plots against me in any way, shape, or form, he must do what he can to stop them. If he doesn’t believe he is able to stop them alone or without harm, he must report it to someone who can, and I must be informed of all such plots.”
She took a breath, then continued, “He cannot take his frustration or anger with me out on anyone else and will be under the same obligation to not cause harm to the royal family or anyone he perceives he could emotionally hurt me with. I would also like to add in that he is not allowed to use his power and position to bully others and must stop bullying whenever he is able, but he doesn’t need to endanger himself.” She stopped, then shrugged and concluded, “That’s it, or as best as I can come up with.”
She had been trying to think of any loopholes she might have left in. She was protected, she had included the royal family and her friends, and hopefully put an end to his bullying ways. Nope, that was it.
Derrick and Ashanna looked surprised, and as Jade glanced around she realized it was a common look among them. Finally, Ashanna collected herself. “I see. That actually sounds…quite decent of you. You hold no grudge against Brodie?”
Jade smiled at her. “Not really. He’s at an age when losing a parent makes most people an emotional wreck. I’m guessing he’s acting out in frustration at the loss of his father. Everyone here has seemed surprised that he was trying to bully me. It doesn’t mean I condone his actions, but in my world, he’d be seeing a psychiatrist to help him with mental counseling so that it didn’t become a problem. He doesn’t have that here, so he’s just trying to find a way to cope. There are better ways, but it’s not like he knows them.”
She thought of the many counselors she’d seen. Some were religious men, who wanted to let her know that God still loved her and she should not despair, for she’d have a perfect body after she died. Some told her of reincarnation, which she was slightly more inclined to believe now. All of them had said she struggled with depression, which let’s face it, she probably had. Being stuck in a cage and being told you’re supposed to be dead will do that to a person. Still, most of them had treated her like the doctors had—an interesting case to study.
Quietly, she asked the question she knew they weren’t going to enjoy answering, “Is there…any chance that Tevon might still be alive?”
Sadly, Derrick shook his head. “No, it’s been several months. I’m afraid he’s gone.”
Jade nodded, mad at herself for asking the question when she saw the look of grief pass over most of the royal family’s faces. She said remorsefully, “I’m sorry for bringing up your loss.”
Ashanna shook her head. “No, it’s alright. As you said, all of us have experienced loss. We’re all dealing with it differently, but I’ll try to talk to Brodie. Eric, if you can polish that up and send us a copy, I’d appreciate it. We’ll have Brodie sign it tomorrow.”
Jade pointed the mirror at Eric, who nodded. “Of course, my queen.”
Jade made the mirror face her again and requested, “I know this is rather unprecedented, but I’d like to be the one to do the contract, since this is between him and me. I’d like to know if it’s ever broken. Speaking of which, Eric, we’d probably better put some stipulations in there about what happens if he breaks it, since Eamonn said if we don’t, people have a habit of ending up dead.”
Ashanna nodded again, glancing at Derrick briefly before she said, “Very well. We’ll take care of it a
t lunch then.”
Jade nodded and smiled. “Thank you for understanding. I appreciate this.” She could tell they weren’t especially happy about the idea, but that her demands hadn’t been enough to stop them from obliging her. She had to wonder where that invisible line was and what would happen if she crossed it.
They nodded, and she handed the mirror back to Victor, who asked quickly, “Anything else?”
“Just take care, and try not to cause any trouble,” Derrick’s droll voice rang out, and everyone laughed softly.
Victor nodded, grinning. “Will do. Right, Will?” He smirked at Will, who made a rude gesture since his parents couldn’t see him, and everyone laughed again. “Alright. Bye Dad. Bye Mom.” He bid them farewell and cut off his magic supply to the mirror after they echoed him.
That was helpful. She was going to make lots of them. She’d have a whole desk of scrying mirrors! Or maybe she’d just put them in her storage ring, once she managed to make one…
There was still so much to do!
Chapter Thirteen – Trust
Will had put her fire tree down on a nearby table during their conversation, and she turned to find it, only to see Amber swooping towards it. "No!" She started running towards the tree as Amber went straight into the fire. Her heart ached as she reached the tree, afraid she'd find nothing more than ash. To her surprise, Amber was just flitting around in the fire, as if playing with it, and she sighed in relief. She had forgotten Amber had fire magic. With a mental tweak, she reset part of the spell, so that the fire would only burn itself and nothing that entered it would be burned. She wasn't keen on burning down her workroom. She called over to the group, "Hey, Will, come here a moment." She was smiling innocently, so Will came over and she presented the tree. "Stick your hand in."
He looked at her like she was crazy. "Uhm, no thank you."
She laughed. "Please? It shouldn't burn you, but I need to make sure. Besides, I'll just heal you right away if it does. No permanent harm will be done."
"Still a no." He laughed, shaking his head and backing away as she pouted. She felt movement behind her, then a hand reached over her shoulder to touch the flaming tree. She watched as it really just passed through the fire, or the fire reformed around it, resuming its shape when the obstruction left. Sighing in relief that it had worked, she grinned up over her shoulder at Stephen.
He shrugged, smiling nonchalantly. "What? Like you said, no permanent harm would be done, and I wanted to see if what you said was true."
Eric walked over, fascinated. He started poking at the tree gingerly at first, then shoving his hand in and out, enthralled by the phenomenon. "How'd you do that?"
She shrugged, grinning. "I basically just put an extra code in the magic programming that said to not burn anything else it touched. I don't want to accidentally burn my workshop or kill any of my fellacai if they got curious."
"Safe?" She heard the tiny voice of Ramoth in her head, or at least she assumed it was Ramoth, since she was fluttering nearby looking at the fire tree.
Jade nodded, mentally calling back, "It's safe now." She heard Ramoth give a tiny mental 'wheeeee' as she dive bombed the fire tree, startling Amber who was still playing in it. The two of them started chasing each other around the flaming branches, and soon the rest of the fellacai had joined in the fun. Everyone in the room was just staring in awe at the beautiful sight, the different colors of the fire creating a beautiful sight with their glowing wings.
"What do code and programming mean?" Victor asked curiously, finally getting back to her explanation.
She winced, then shrugged. "I don't actually know how well I can explain computers to you, sorry. They were…very complex machines that could store massive amounts of information. Like the entire content of the library a hundred thousand times over was available because of an information network, and all of it was displayed on these machines at the click of a button. A program was what ran the network, and a program was made up of tons of lines of code. It was very, very advanced, and held information collected from around the entire world. I wish I had studied it more and could duplicate it, but I didn't. It was amazing technology that had been improved for generations in my old world. It had practically taken over most things and enabled communication between anyone, like your scrying mirrors. Imagine that, but all you had to do was put in the right number, and you could literally talk to anyone in the world who had that machine, and almost everyone did." Not her, of course, but who did she have to talk to that wasn’t at the hospital?
She sighed. Computer technology would have been a wonderful thing to bring to this world, but honestly, she'd have no idea where to even start. Sure, she knew electric zeroes and ones were the base, but how did that even work? She'd not only need to know the physical components of how to create it, but the programming side too. Plus there was more than just the computer; there were routers and antennas and… It was so much information that had taken thousands, if not millions of brilliant people to create the giant conglomeration of information it was today.
Everyone seemed to be trying to wrap their minds around what she'd described, but she shrugged and explained, "There's just no way to replicate it without decades of work from brilliant people. I have no idea where to start. Again, it's one of those things in my world that had been around so long that the origins of how it started are fuzzy for me. It was ever changing." Sighing, she glanced down at her clock, one of the few real pieces of technology she'd seen. They had about ten minutes before the class started, so she alerted the others. "We'd probably better go to class or we're going to be late."
Everyone started to gather their things from where they'd set them during the course of conversations, with Eric making sure to grab the contract so he could clean it up and make copies. She motioned to her babies, and they stopped playing in the fire, flying gracefully over to land on her hair as beautiful ornaments once again. Everyone else preceded her out the door, which she quickly locked behind her. Walking down the stairs, Eric and Stephen paused at the first floor to go to their offices and Jade stopped Stephen with a brief touch, smiling softly at him. "Thanks for trusting me." She was mainly referencing with the fire, but it was also an echo of their earlier conversation.
He smiled back and conceded, "You've given me no reason not to." Bidding them goodbye, Victor, Camille, Will, and Jade now made their way towards one of the nearby buildings, and Jade realized she had no idea where she was going.
"So, uh…where are we going, anyway?" She didn't care about exposing her ignorance to these three, since they'd already seen her at her worst. Well, at least Will and Camille had. Victor, not so much, thankfully. However, he'd probably heard about it, given that Tisha couldn't keep her mouth closed.
Camille grinned, latching onto her arm as she said, "We're going to the Caldwell Education Center. It's not quite as big as Magnus, but Caldwell was apparently very insistent that people learn the basics, so this was the building he chose to have named after him. It's still the second largest building on campus. They keep it that way on purpose, out of respect for the two main founders. The rest of the buildings are mostly named after our kings, though every traveler has gotten one as well. There are a few smaller buildings that people with outstanding contributions to the kingdom got named after them."
Jade nodded, since this all made sense. It was how most universities were set up, even if technically speaking, their contributions were just mostly money related instead of services to the kingdom. She supposed in a more advanced technological state, money was equivalent, since the whole fight for your life thing wasn't the social norm. When they arrived at the building, she found it was set up pretty much the same as the Magnus Center, with classrooms around the side bordering large courtyards, which she was informed contained only fifteen classrooms per level instead of the twenty Magnus boasted. "Why do they need that many classrooms, though? Aren't there only like ten general education classes offered?" Jade asked curiously.
Victor piped in. "You're right. Technically, only the second floor is for those classes. The third and fourth floors are a large performance hall, while the first floor is mostly the professor's offices. The fifth floor is an art gallery to display the works of students and teachers of the past." Her curiosity was suitably piqued by this. What passed for art in this world? Noticing her curiosity, he explained a little further. "Only two new art pieces are added each year, and it's considered a great honor to have your work included. A grand exhibition of art happens at the end of every year, and every student and teacher is given two votes to decide what gets included."
"Hmmm. A popularity vote… I suppose some truly tragic things have managed to make their way in by people trying to curry favor," she mused to herself, and Victor winced before nodding slowly.
"You're not wrong about that, but it doesn't happen often. It's also why the royal family rarely personally participate." Jade had to laugh at his frustrated expression. The poor guy was so proud of his art gallery and seemed to be taking it personally that people had taken the honor away from others because of their personal popularity instead of having good art.
She patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, it happens in every society. Besides, in my old world, there was some truly horrendous art that sold for ridiculous amounts of money, and most people could never understand why. They looked like they were painted by a five year old with no talent, but sold for enough to let people live like royalty for years because they had the right marketing." She thought about it. Did that mean she was going to be encouraged to not participate? But she had this awesome idea in her head now—a tree made of all the elements… Oh well, she'd consider that later. She was probably going to make it anyway, just for the sheer fact that she thought her babies would like it.