“I think that’s it. If you find something you have a question about, feel free to ask me. I’m just going to be doing a little more cleaning.”
Camille looked startled at that. “Jade, you don’t need to clean. We can get someone to come do that.”
Jade just grinned. “No no, it’s fine. It’s good practice to raise my magic anyway.” Every single one of them looked confused, so she just waved them off. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll be here if you need me. Let’s get started!”
Unable to understand what she wanted but also feeling unable to contest her at this point, they all started to unpack the bag at Camille’s direction as she told them where to put everything, since it was boxed up and only she knew what was in each.
Meanwhile, Jade stood out of the way, concentrating. There was no conveniently available bucket of water for her to grab, but there was the air; she’d already noticed there was a bit of humidity. That was going to be miserable in the winter, if there was a winter here. Was winter coming? Shaking her head at her absent-mindedness, she held her hand out, concentrating on pulling the water out of the air. It started to form a little ball floating above her hand, growing larger until she had a ball around the size of a cantaloupe.
She heard Tisha gasp beside her, “Oooh, so pretty! Where’d you get that? It’s like it came out of nowhere!”
Directing the water to the walls first, she pushed it along the surface, mentally commanding it to dislodge the dirt and pull it free. The water began collecting impurities as it rushed across the stone, leaving the stone several shades brighter in its wake. She explained absentmindedly to Tisha as she did so, “I pulled it from the air. Much of the air around us is saturated with oxygen molecules, which when combined with hydrogen, form water. Since they both occur naturally, the water is there in the air, just invisible. We call it humidity.” Okay, her explanation may not have been perfect, but it was the best that she could remember and she was distracted. The point was that there was water in the air.
“Humidity…” Tisha murmured, staring at the magic Jade was working. Soon her water was dark with dirt, and she frowned, pulling it away from the wall. She’d only managed to clean around four feet from ceiling to floor. She held the dirty water, floating it above her hand as she studied it. “What’s wrong?” Tisha asked innocently as she too stared into the dirty globe of water like it had all the answers.
“I need to pull the dirt out, but I haven’t learned earth magic yet, and I just realized we don’t have a bucket or something I can put it in.”
“Oh here, let me!” Tisha reached forward with excitement, a concentrated look on her face as she slowly drew the dirt towards her hand. Jade helped by pulling the water away from the dirt, and then they were left with two balls, one of clean water and a smaller one of gritty dust. Jade immediately sent the water to the wall to scour some more as she glanced around, trying to see if she had somewhere to put the dirt.
With a shrug, she pointed over to an unused section of the shelves. “Just set it there for now. I’ll probably just use it to begin my practice of earth magic later since it’s not expensive.” Tisha rolled her eyes at Jade’s money-pinching, but obediently took it over to said corner to deposit it. She then followed Jade around, helping her clean the water ball every few feet and depositing the dirtballs. Jade had entirely cleaned one wall when she stopped, walking over to the couch to slump down.
“Are you okay?” Tisha was hovering over her like a worried mother hen.
When Camille noticed, she too came over, checking her with quick efficiency as she pronounced, “Magic drain. She’ll be fine after she rests for a bit.” Thinking of what Jade had said earlier, she pulled out some of the food from where they’d stashed it and handed it to Jade, who started to eat gratefully.
“Thanks. I’m just a little lightheaded. I’ll be fine in about five minutes.”
“Five minutes? It takes most people about an hour to recover from magic drain.” Tristan had walked over to see what was going on and caught their conversation.
Camille interjected in explanation to Jade, who was looking quizzical at why Tristan considered himself an expert, “Tristan is the assistant teacher for the classes on fire magic.” Well, that made more sense.
Jade smiled at Tristan and yawned before replying, “Then I look forward to your class on Monday. And I’m not sure how long it takes for other people to recover, but it only takes me about five minutes as long as I eat something. I think I drained myself over fifty times last night when I was lighting up my reading room.”
“You did WHAT?” The surprised and slightly angry exclamation came from the door, and when she glanced over, she saw a somewhat peevish Stephen. He was walking over menacingly, and she could almost see little storm clouds circling above his head. Interestingly, she saw Dashiel searching around like he wanted a place to hide from Stephen’s wrath. Perhaps there was more than just a passing similarity there?
But more importantly…when had he gotten there?
Still, she knew she was in trouble when he spoke again, “Just to be clear, you’re saying you drained yourself nearly fifty times in a row, while you were alone, when no one was checking up on you, or even knew you were practicing magic?”
Oops?
Chapter Twenty-Five – Overload
Jade didn’t want to deal with the wrath of the ninja spy. She wearily held her hand up and smiled wanly. “I solemnly swear that I was only up to good and didn’t realize it was an issue. If you guys don’t tell me the rules on this crap, how am I supposed to know I’m breaking them?”
Stephen sighed, his anger deflating as he muttered softly, “You need a keeper.” Looking around and seeing that Camille had stopped pulling anything out and that the guys were just hovering curiously, he smiled menacingly at them and said with complete innocence at the same time, “Thank you for helping out. They’ve decided where to put the desks now, so you may go. I’ll help them with anything further they need.”
“Of course, Viscount. Good day, Princess Camille, Princess Tisha, Lady Jade.” The four men bowed and then scurried out.
Jade raised a brow and asked, “Was that really necessary? They were quite helpful.” Also, good to know that Stephen was also a viscount.
Stephen sighed, tapping her on the forehead. “As a traveler, you can act differently as you wish and people will allow or tolerate it. Encouraging others to do the same is not always a good thing. There’s a hierarchy for a reason.” Jade frowned. She wasn’t fond of the whole hierarchy thing.
She decided to voice her complaint, “I don’t like it though. In my head, all people are created equal.”
It was Camille who interjected, “They may be created equal, but they don’t stay that way. People with opportunities will always fly higher. It’s an inevitable chain of events at that point. People who are elevated will help their friends and family, and each group grows stronger. Our positions come with privilege, but also with certain expectations. We protect them from monsters, we maintain order, and we maintain the city. Sure, maybe their lives aren’t perfect, but at least they’re alive to live them.”
Jade nodded slowly. “I still don’t really like it, but I understand. One thing though. You talk about monsters like they’re normal. I realize magic is probably mostly combat oriented for a lot of people, but it’s unlikely I will follow that path. I don’t want to fight monsters, and I can’t guarantee I wouldn’t freeze up and get people killed if I tried. So just in case people are getting the idea to make me into some superweapon…it’s not going to happen. I’m much happier using my magic to improve the quality of life.”