Adapt (A Touch of Power Book 2)

by Jay Boyce

  71%

  Illusion Magic

  Intermediate 8

  67%

  Information Gathering

  Advanced 3

  76%

  Insight

  Advanced 2

  23%

  Intimidate

  Intermediate 8

  34%

  Life Magic

  Beginner 10

  73%

  Light Armor

  Beginner 10

  38%

  Magic Resistance

  Intermediate 5

  35%

  Mana Sense

  Intermediate 5

  39%

  Mathematics

  Beginner 10

  9%

  Mental Fortitude

  Advanced 3

  81%

  Modeling

  Intermediate 5

  31%

  Navigation

  Intermediate 5

  89%

  Pain Tolerance

  Intermediate 10

  63%

  Perception

  Advanced 1

  65%

  Perseverance

  Intermediate 10

  43%

  Persuasion

  Intermediate 9

  94%

  Poison Resistance

  Beginner 6

  63%

  Resilient

  Intermediate 7

  62%

  Riding

  Beginner 8

  81%

  Running

  Intermediate 8

  79%

  Sense Motive

  Intermediate 9

  43%

  Shock Resistance

  Beginner 9

  34%

  Singing

  Beginner 8

  18%

  Sleight of Hand

  Intermediate 10

  33%

  Small Blades

  Intermediate 8

  62%

  Spatial Magic

  Beginner 8

  68%

  Speed Reading

  Intermediate 7

  85%

  Stealth

  Intermediate 4

  37%

  Stun Resistance

  Beginner 8

  25%

  Summoning Magic

  Beginner 2

  80%

  Swimming

  Beginner 2

  35%

  Tailoring

  Beginner 8

  25%

  Tracking

  Beginner 8

  99%

  Unarmed Combat

  Intermediate 8

  21%

  Walking

  Intermediate 10

  39%

  She frowned. She supposed she didn’t have as many movement skills as she thought: only flight, riding, running, swimming, and walking. She was pretty happy with her skills though. Athletics, healing magic, insight, mental fortitude, and perception had all made the jump to advanced. Still, Elementalist now took the cake at advanced level seven. If she had to guess, she figured that all the experience from the ten elements that she’d accumulated had been combined into one. That was hopefully helpful, though she didn’t know exactly what the consequences would be at this point.

  She was happy that a few other things had made the jump from beginner to intermediate: accessorycraft, flight, hypnotise, illusion magic, magic resistance, resilient, running, and unarmed combat. Then there were her three new skills: climbing, shock resistance, and stun resistance. She stopped for a moment, pondering. Was her ability to heal herself reduced because of her rising magic resistance? It probably wasn’t the whole story, but it could explain it at least partially. She supposed that might be a double edged sword if it was true.

  Frowning slightly, she stood up, controlling the water and wind to dry herself before she got dressed. She was happily surprised by how much easier the elements bent to her control now. It even seemed to cause slightly less of a drain on her. She didn’t know if it was because they’d been combined or if it was that the combination had boosted them to advanced, but she didn’t care. She was just happy she had improved!

  Her stats hadn’t gone up as much, between half and a full point each. It proved her theory that while she might be able to siphon more fellacai, their actual stats were much lower. The skills were great though, and she’d seen that nine of them were even at advanced, so she didn’t care. Siphoning advanced magic meant way more to her than stats at this point, especially since her body didn’t seem to have changed as much, so she didn’t feel the same need to test her limits as she had yesterday.

  Going back to her room, her voice was slightly haunting as she sang in a minor key, “Oh girls, we’re gonna have fun, oooh, girls, we’re gonna have fun. That’s all we really waaaaant…some fuuuuuuun. When the siphoning is done, this giiirl just wants to have fun.” Her babies had perked up at her voice as she entered her room and she sighed happily. She couldn’t listen to Chase’s beautiful vocals anymore, but she’d remember his minor key renditions happily. It always made everything sound so eerily beautiful when you took those bright happy songs and transposed them. It matched her happy yet melancholic mood perfectly at the moment.

  There was a knock at the door and she heard Jessica’s voice as she called out carefully, “Jade, can we come in?”

  She smiled, cheering up as she called back, “Of course, the door’s unlocked!” She was sitting on her bed, absently checking her bonsai cherry tree as the door opened and Jessica and Kaylee came in laden with way more food than even she normally ate. It was early, too. She looked it over, confused.

  “We thought maybe we could eat with you in here, since it’s still early and we heard you singing.” Jade winced a bit. She hadn’t thought she was being loud, but she supposed in the silence of the morning, it would have been fairly obvious. How much had they heard?

  Still, she smiled as Kaylee shut the door behind them. “I’d love that.” The girls busied themselves setting the food up, and Jade smiled, walking over after making sure that there was food for her babies before started to eat with the girls. After about a minute of them eating silently with Jessica and Kaylee shooting looks at each other, Jade finally sighed and put down her food, saying sternly, “Okay, whatever you’re wanting to say, just spit it out. You know I don’t bite.”

  They exchanged glances again before Kaylee looked at her and asked in an almost inaudible voice, “Is there something about your ability you didn’t tell us?”

  Jade went still. What on earth had brought this about? Sure, she’d mentioned siphoning in her song, but how would they have drawn the connection between that and her ability? She studied the two girls, who were also staring at her nervously. Finally, she smiled calmly and asked almost indifferently, trying for nonchalance, “What makes you think that?”

  They looked nervous, and Kaylee seemed hesitant to go on, so Jessica took over. “The day you first got here, we both started feeling a little off after you left. It didn’t last long, but Doctor Mike told us you passed out. Now every night when you go to sleep, you pass out like you’re dead and your body goes through all kinds of changes. I’ve been checking up on you since you almost died.” She looked a little nervous at the admission, but Jade couldn’t blame her.

  She took a deep breath to continue, but Kaylee put a hand on her arm, stalling her as she cut in, “Last night you went to bed and passed out, and we started feeling a little off again. We checked our profiles, but nothing seemed out of place that we could tell. Even Raphael said he felt a bit funny, but when I woke up this morning, my dexterity had gone up a point. There’s no reason that should have happened, unless there was something else going on…” They were both looking at her expectantly.

  Well, the cat’s out of the bag at last, she thought absently to herself, trying to come up with an explanation they would accept. Finally, she sighed. If she couldn’t trust these girls, who were watching over and constantly taking care of her, then
who could she trust? Absently, she created a wall of wind around them so that no sound would escape.

  She looked at one and then the other for a moment before she finally stared down at the food and admitted, “You’re right, I wasn’t totally honest about my special ability. I’m sorry. It’s not accelerated learning. It’s something called Siphon. I can temporarily take one percent of a single stat and skill from anyone I’ve touched that day. From my calculations, it takes about five hours for me to siphon completely, at which point you should be back to normal. I don’t know how long it takes after that, but my ability also boosts whoever I siphoned by another half a percent so that their stat and skill goes up too. It’s not much, but it adds up.”

  The girls had both gasped at her admission, staring at her with wide eyes when she finally peeked up at them from beneath her bangs. Jessica was gripping the table like it was the only thing keeping her up. Kaylee was creating wrinkles in her uniform as she clutched the clothes at her waist.

  Finally, Jessica’s strained voice softly filled the air, “So you’re telling me you can do this siphoning on anyone you touch whenever you want?”

  Jade shook her head adamantly. “No, not quite. I have to make skin to skin contact, and I can only do it once a week per person.”

  “Only.” Jessica’s voice was weak and overwhelmed.

  Jade stared back down at her hands, saying softly, “I’m sorry for not telling you and for doing it without your permission. I thought there wasn’t any real harm since I was mostly doing it while people were asleep and they’d get stronger as a result.” She didn’t add that she hadn’t been totally sure of that when she’d experimented on them. She wasn’t about to say it either, ever. That was one secret she’d be fine taking to her grave.

  She felt Jessica’s hand on her arm, glancing up at the girl. Jessica was smiling softly at her, shaking her head. “It’s okay. I understand. You were in a strange new world just trying to survive. Besides, if it means my stats can go up, I’m all for it!” She laughed, shaking her head. “I mean, I doubt it’d be anything as drastic as your changes, obviously, but you don’t have any idea how hard it is to raise them naturally! Just imagine, in something like fifteen weeks, you could gain a whole point in something!” She paused, obviously thinking something over as quickly as she could.

  Finally, her awed voice asked softly, “Can you raise any of the stats?”

  Jade paused, trying to figure out where she was going with this, before she nodded. “I can choose any one stat.”

  Jessica’s voice was jubilant as she asked, “So…you’re telling me you could raise my magic stat?”

  Kaylee gasped sharply, looking at Jade in hopeful expectation. Jade smiled at the girls in front of her, doing some mental math of her own. If their stat was under four like most people, it could take as many as fifty weeks to raise it a single point. Still, it was an exponential equation. The girls were either fourteen or fifteen, she wasn’t quite sure. Entry to Dracona was at eighteen. So that left three to four years. If she siphoned their magic every week for that time… She realized that in that time, she could take someone from around a four in magic to over a ten. Plus, she figured if they practiced it too, it would speed up the process as they grew magically. The calculations sped through her brain, and she realized for the first time how easy it was for her. That twenty in intelligence wasn’t totally for show after all.

  Despite feeling like her calculations had taken a bit, only a few seconds had passed when she answered, “Depending on what your score is, I think I can get your magic up to almost a ten in a few years if I focused on that every week.” If I’m still around that long… She tried to dismiss the thought that had come after, choosing instead to focus on their hopeful faces.

  Kaylee squealed with excitement, “Mages! Us! Can you imagine?” She stared at her food dreamily, obviously already thinking of the possibilities.

  It was Jessica who brought her back to earth. “You shouldn’t do that. From what you told us, you get more if you take the higher stats.”

  Jade smiled at her softly. “Yes, and so do you, but you’re my friends. I honestly don’t care what I take from you. There are so many people I can siphon for whatever I want. You’re my friends, and I’d be happy to do what you want the most.” She paused, then looked at her food as she asked in a whisper, “Still, can I ask you not to tell anyone else? I’m afraid…if people knew how my ability worked in truth that something bad may happen…”

  She still had the scenario in her mind of someone kidnapping her and trapping her in a dungeon, forcing her to use her powers on them. It was unlikely, since she could probably overpower anyone who tried something that stupid, but when she was passed out, she was extremely vulnerable. She’d had no idea Jessica had been checking on her at night.

  She wasn’t going to be able to siphon much when she left. She couldn’t leave herself passed out at the mercy of the world when she was in monster territory. That meant she could only siphon in small doses so she dealt with the pain of the changes while still coherent.

  Yes, some secrets were meant to be kept. Just because she didn’t know if she had enemies didn’t mean that she wouldn’t do all she could to protect herself.

  Chapter Forty-Seven – Replay

  Kaylee was frowning slightly. She shook her head, muttering, “We won’t tell anyone. Sometimes I wonder just what kind of world you came from, to make you so distrustful of people…”

  Jade sighed. “It wasn’t what I experienced so much as what I read. My life was…” She paused, considering something. Standing up, she took note of where everything was in the room. She pulled up a mental picture, then released her magic, letting go of her wind wall and raising her illusion. The room was filled with the soft beeps of monitors hooked up to a stark bed in the middle, where a skeletal form was hooked up to far too many tubes. Jade stared at the image of her past self and said softly, “This was my life.”

  Jessica and Kaylee had both jumped, freaking out a little at the sudden illusions and noise before they looked where she was staring at the limp form of her past self. Dawning horror crossed their faces. Kaylee kept looking back and forth between Jade now and Jade then before she asked in disbelief, “That was…you?”

  Jade nodded, staring at her Ghost of Christmas Past. Now that the girls had gotten a good look, she let the image fade, leaving the room normal without her magic once more. The hum and beeps of the monitors disappeared, leaving a heavy silence behind. She hadn’t thought about it much, but now that she could create illusions, she could bring to life her thoughts, her memories…

  Both girls jumped when she made a screen appear on a wall, replaying one of her favorite YouTube videos she’d watched over and over again. Peter’s voice rang out as his cover of Misty Mountain filled the room. There were a few parts that were fuzzier, but for a good four minutes, she stared at the video from her mind as the girls next to her did the same. When it ended, she let it fade, tears streaming down her face.

  “Jade, are you okay?” Jessica’s voice was quiet, and Jade could tell she wanted to ask about what they’d just seen, but having turned to see Jade crying had forestalled that.

  Sniffling, she reached up and wiped her tears away, giving Jessica a watery smile. “I’m fine. I just thought I’d given up certain things forever. Realizing that I can recreate them now…” Her voice trailed off as the possibilities filled her mind. Could she make these permanent? Could she create her own version of a replay dvd player? This would also make prototyping easier because she could just create the image and let someone else do the work.

  She sat down, staring down at the uneaten food. She poked it absently, realizing it was cold. She held her hand over it, releasing heat. She wasn’t sure if it was a mixture of light or fire, but within a few seconds her food was back to its heated state. She did the same for the other girls and motioned to the uneaten food. “Come on, we should eat before it gets cold again.”

  Jade started digging i
nto her food, ignoring the worried and curious looks the girls were sending her until they started eating again. Jade absently used water magic to clean her face, healing her eyes and cheeks of their redness again. There was no point in leaving evidence that she had been crying to make people ask questions.

  When she finished, she brushed at her clothes, flicking off invisible crumbs. She smiled at the two girls as she inquired, “Well then. I was planning on heading to that square with the portals this morning to study them. Can you tell me how to get there?”

  Jessica looked surprised. “You want to go to Taistill square?”

  Jade shrugged. “If that’s what it’s called, then yes.”

  Looking thoughtful, they nodded and proceeded to give her detailed directions on how to get there. It was across the river, so she needed to be sure to use one of the bridges according to them. She listened attentively, nodding to show her grasp of the information. It was a part of town she’d never been to before.

  Excited for the new adventure, she thanked the girls, helping them clean up before they ran down to the kitchen, needing to get ready for the rest of the now rousing students. It was still quite early. Jade plaited a crown braid across her head again like a headband. She liked that it looked pretty but kept her hair out of her face while still giving her babies a place to land. As much as she didn’t like being up early in the morning, she was slowly transitioning to less sleep and sunrises. Weird.

  Once she was ready for the day and had her bag packed, she did a short mockingjay whistle as she encouraged her babies to come land. With what she had planned, they needed to stick close today. They did so obligingly, clinging to her hair in a butterfly crown again. She smiled as she walked down the stairs with a bounce in her step.