The queen was the first to act as she met them halfway across the room, gracefully pecking Will on the cheek in greeting. “Will dear, welcome back. I see you’ve brought a friend?” She was studying Jade with open curiosity, so Jade did the same. Straight shoulder length hair that was perfectly in place, her heart-shaped face was beautiful and made for smiling, if the tiny crow’s feet at her eyes were any indication. Her pink dress was lavish, but still managed to look comfortable and showcase her ample bust.
Will smiled warmly at his mother and nodded. “Mother, may I introduce Lady Jade to you? Jade, this is my mother, Queen Ashanna.” He smiled and continued at her confused look, “Mother, Jade is a traveler and arrived two days ago, so I thought I’d bring her to meet everyone.”
“Mmmm, is that so? It’s a pleasure to meet you, Jade.” She leaned forward, lightly brushing her lips against Jade’s cheek as she spoke with amazing poise, despite very obviously being caught off guard, “Welcome to Abala.”
Jade smiled and greeted her in return, “The pleasure is mine. I’m sorry for coming unannounced. I was told you’d been given warning and were expecting me.” Her voice and smile were sickly sweet, but she had turned to Will to glare daggers at him, not hesitating in the slightest to throw him under the bus. He was supposed to warn them, dangitall! This was precisely what she hadn’t wanted to happen!
Queen Ashanna snickered softly at her little barb, then took Jade’s hand, leading her towards the rest of the family. “You’ll have to forgive my son. I’m afraid he loves to shock people, and I haven’t been able to beat it out of him yet.” Her eyes were glittering a little dangerously, and Will looked distinctly uncomfortable, like his plan had backfired. His mother seemed like someone who dealt in retribution, and it was likely to be painful by the panicked flash on his face.
Jade nodded with a cheeky grin. “I can see that. I’ll have to be more careful in the future.”
Ashanna laughed. “It would be wonderful if you could keep him in line.”
“I am still behind you, you know. I can hear what you’re saying,” Will chimed in, having followed them with a little reluctance.
Ashanna just smiled evilly and chided him, “You were meant to. Now Jade, let me introduce you to the rest of my family.” The others had obviously been paying attention to their conversation since they entered the room. One of the girls was giving Will the evil eye, and Jade figured she would also be meting out retribution. “Everyone, meet Jade.” They’d all stood up to greet them when they walked over, and Ashanna led her to the older gentleman first.
His eyes were twinkling with amusement and she relaxed. These people had a sense of humor and were nothing like the stuck-up pigs she’d been anticipating through years of watching royals be portrayed as stuffy pricks in so many movies. He put his hand out, and, surprised that he wanted to shake her hand, which she hadn’t seen anyone else do, she reached her hand out reflexively.
She was not ready for him to bend slightly after he captured her fingers and kiss the back of her hand. Still smiling jovially, he rumbled, “Lady Jade, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Derrick. As my lovely wife said, we welcome you to Abala. May I ask how long you’ve been with us?” She met his cornflower blue eyes that were the same shade as Will’s. His tanned skin and calloused hands led her to believe that he spent quite a bit of time outside using the fancy sword at his waist. The only thing that showed he might be getting older was that his hair was a little thinner on top than his son’s. His well-trimmed beard seemed to be his protest against the thinning hair on top.
Jade blushed a little that the king had kissed her hand and replied softly, “Thank you, and it’s my pleasure to meet you. This is my third day in this world.”
The king frowned a little, muttering softly, “Strange, why haven’t I heard anything before this then…?”
Jade smiled a little helplessly. “I believe Eric included it in his report of my admission to Dracona. Apart from that, it’s probably a case of everyone either forgetting since it’s been so long or thinking someone else had already taken care of it. They’ve all been quite helpful, so I think it truly was just an accident.”
He raised his brows. “You’ve been admitted to Dracona already?”
She smiled and nodded. “Yes, just yesterday. When I woke up in this world, I was in a room at the Green Dragon. Raphael gave me a day to adjust and explore before taking me to the examination.” Okay, she might be twisting the story just a little bit, but she didn’t want Raphael, Eric, Stephen, or Jarom to get in trouble for forgetting.
Derrick nodded thoughtfully, then smiled and conceded, “Very well. We can speak more of this after you’ve met the rest of my children.”
At his signal, one of the older boys walked forward, though by older, she meant he looked to be in his early twenties. He was a bit more built than the rest of his family, and his hair was styled into a higher swoosh than the others. He was sporting a morning shadow on his square chin, and his hands were also more callused as he too took her hand lightly, bending over to brush his lips against it. So handshakes weren’t a thing here, but kissing was. Interesting. She didn’t really want to put her lips on anyone… Well, whatever. “It’s lovely to meet you, Jade. I’m Victor, the eldest.”
She greeted him warmly in return. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Victor.” In her head, she was mentally calling him the crown prince, then had to stop herself from snickering when she realized she could call him crown Vic. Probably not to his face, though.
He grinned, straightening and pinning her with a charismatic gaze from his darker blue eyes. “I’m in my fourth year at Dracona, so you’ll see me around. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to ask.”
“That’s very kind of you. I may just take you up on it. As you’ve guessed, I have many questions, though having access to the library has helped tremendously to cut them down a bit.”
He perked up in interest at this, asking curiously, “Oh? And what have you been studying at the library?” She noted that every member of the family was paying close attention to her answers and that she was going through a mini-interview with the royal family.
A little more nervous once she realized that, she tried to mask it as she smiled, “Everything I can get my hands on, really! But I suppose my main focus has been magic.”
He smiled. “Fascinating, isn’t it? We’ll have to test your aptitude to see if you can learn any of it.” She could tell he was curious on top of trying to be helpful, but rejected the offer anyway.
“Oh, that’s not really necessary. I believe I have an aptitude for everything.” They were all giving her the blank stare. She was good at inducing that in people. She smiled and continued to cover the awkward silence, “You see, I’ve already started learning healing, water, wind, and light magic. I’ve been wanting to play around to see if I could learn metal magic since I saw Eric using it, but I’ve yet to find any scrap metal to practice on, and I don’t want to ruin something by practicing on it without permission.”
Derrick interjected at this point. “I’m sorry, did you just say you’ve already learned four magics? In the two days you’ve been here?” She nodded, and he looked incredulous before continuing, “May I ask what levels they’re at?”
She smiled. “Of course, let me just check really quick.” She mentally started clicking, but not on her profile. Instead, she grabbed the last four dots she’d gotten.