“Very well.” Seeming to just go with it, the middle one, she thought it was Eric, pulled out a sheet of paper that…well, it was basically an exact replica of her profile, just not filled out. She pondered telling him she could fill it out herself, then realized she’d never written with a quill before, so that could wait until after she wasn’t trying to impress them. After all, better scores equaled better treatment in her mind. That’s always how it seemed to be in books. Only, there were a few more lines than she had in her profile. “What’s your last name?” He dipped the quill into the inkwell and beautifully wrote ‘Jade’ at the top of the paper, pausing for her input.
The middle guy resembled the more studious type, but that was mostly based on the fact that his muscles weren’t bulging out like the bodybuilder next to him. He had short curly brown hair, hazel eyes that brimmed with curiosity, and a smirk that showed off boyish dimples. His clothing was more formal and less ‘I’m ready for a fight.’ Still, the muscles she could see as he moved were well-defined, if not bulky. No weaklings wanted at Dracona! That didn’t exactly bode super well for her.
She smiled politely and answered, “It’s Winward. W-I-N-W-A-R-D.” She watched him finish penning her name beautifully. It looked like she was going to have to learn calligraphy. Her chicken scratch from lack of practice was probably not going to cut it here.
“And where are you from?”
She smiled serenely again. “Earth.”
She thought it was the gladiator Jarom who asked in curiosity, “As in, the ground? Are you trying to be funny?”
She inclined her head, her eyes glinting. She spoke quietly as she dropped a bomb on them, “As in, the world I’m from. I’m a traveler.”
Chapter Eleven – Interview
Their expressions were a classic mix of confusion, disbelief, and curiosity. Stephen, or at least he was the one she’d labeled Stephen in her head—she should probably make sure she figured out which one was which sooner than later, so she didn’t get them fixed in her mind as the wrong thing—anyway, probably Stephen seemed a little quicker on the uptake. With a healthy dose of skepticism in his voice, he asked, “So, the reason we hadn’t heard of you until yesterday…”
“Was because I didn’t exist in this world until yesterday morning when I woke up here.” She was watching his reaction in particular, since this was the first time he’d spoken. The way he was lounging on the chair felt more like he was a panther at rest, but ready to strike at any moment. His dark clothing probably lent to that assumption, given that he was mostly wearing black with a few hints of blue, like his very dark blue eyes and a handkerchief sticking out of his pocket. He was only lightly tanned, and his black hair was neatly trimmed. All in all, he seemed to fit the tall, dark, and handsome stereotype pretty well. Unlike the gladiator, he wasn’t plainly wearing weapons, but she could see small bulges where she figured they were concealed.
It seemed probably Eric’s curiosity was peaked at this point, because he leaned forward, asking intently, “You don’t seem like any of the travelers that have come before you, but let’s go with it and say for the moment that you are a traveler. Did you have magic in your old world?” Okay, so they didn’t believe her, but they were at least giving her the benefit of the doubt.
She shook her head, deciding to be honest. “Only in stories.”
Probably Jarom interjected at this point, “Then how did you heal that girl? One day isn’t enough to learn magic.” He sounded rather proud of himself for figuring out the hole in her logic, glancing triumphantly at the other two.
Here, she smiled smugly and quipped, “Maybe for you. I may not be strong right now, but the magic of your world seems to come decidedly easily to me. Part of that may be the special ability I was given when I got here though.” Okay, she threw in the last part to seem humble, plus she figured she needed to give them a reason for her future growth because hello, people were going to notice the changes.
“You have a special ability? What is it?” this was Eric chiming in again. Probably. Ugh, she needed to know.
“Before I answer, Raphael said your names, so I know what they are, but not which belongs to who. You’re Eric, right?” The book-man in the middle nodded. Okay, so that was the easy one. Generally, people in the middle are mentioned in the middle, but which one was first or last? Turning to her probably Stephen, she questioned, “And you’re Stephen?” She thought Raphael had looked at him first. When he nodded and gave her a charming smile with his very white teeth, she smiled more confidently. “So you’re Jarom. Okay. Thanks. I didn’t want to start calling you the wrong names.”
She paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts and preparing to lie with a completely straight, relaxed face. She cooed sweetly, “My special ability is called accelerated growth. It’s pretty straightforward; I’m growing and learning at a pretty amazing rate. So maybe that’s why magic is easier for me.”
Eric was making a note on the paper, and Stephen questioned further, “Raphael mentioned you were a dual mage. We know you’re a healer, but what else can you do?” Jarom seemed to be sulking a little bit that his reveal that she was a fraud might be wrong.
She glanced at the table, where Stephen had a glass of water in front of him. She indicated it, asking quietly, “May I?” He nodded, and she put her hand above it. She focused on calling the water, and it started to slide into the air, creating a water blob that she hovered and made spin around a bit before it went back into the cup. “I learned to heal first. I was taken to meet the healer Mike when I was experiencing sudden growth pains. I could feel what he did to me a little bit, and then when I tried to reproduce it later, I could. The water I learned on my own when I...” She paused, a little embarrassed to admit that she’d forgotten her towel, so she tweaked her story a little bit, “I wanted to dry my hands and didn’t have a towel.” There, no need to mention she’d been naked and cold.
“Fascinating.” Eric had stopped scribbling long enough to watch her demonstration, but he’d immediately started taking notes again as soon as she put it back. She smiled sweetly at them. The more they liked her, the better off she figured she would be. Plus, she still had to make them forget she’d been late, which at this point, it seemed they had. They also seemed to have forgotten their skepticism that she was a traveler in the wake of her story. “Tell me, you mentioned growing pains. What changed?”
She laughed softly. “What hasn’t changed is the better question!” She paused, considering. “As skinny as I am now, I was pretty much still a skeleton yesterday. You can ask anyone who saw me. I actually have muscles now!” She grinned infectiously while thinking about it. “My stats have even gone up a little.”
“Your stats changed? What were they before versus what they are now?” Eric had his quill poised above that section of the profile sheet now. She figured he’d have asked anyway eventually, but she didn’t want them to reject her because she was weak. Thus she had chosen to state some of her improvement directly, mostly because Jarom was still grumbling as if he was put out.
“Yeah, my strength went from a seven to an eight, my dexterity from an eight to a nine, my constitution went from a seven to an eight, my intelligence from a fifteen to a sixteen, my magic stayed at eleven, charisma from eight to nine, and my luck from thirteen to fourteen.” She had pulled up her sheet to take a glance at it while she recalled what she’d started with yesterday. She’d spent long enough poring over her profile that she’d memorized the basics of her numbers because she wanted to see how they’d change.