Jade smiled ruefully at her. “As you saw this morning, it’s the side effect of my learning. I have an insanely high metabolism because my body is burning through energy in order to change and grow. Basically, I tried to learn too much and didn’t have the energy to support it, but my body was still trying to change and thus was draining me without really having anything left to drain.”
She heard Stephen mutter darkly, “I was right. You do need a keeper.” Jade winced and glared at him.
“I do not need a keeper. I just...didn’t know my limits yet. I do now and therefore won’t make the same mistake. I’m fine. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!” She held up her now slightly-muscled arm. “Besides. Look, I’m better than fine, I’ve got muscles!”
Almost everyone laughed at this. It was Eric who asked curiously, “So what exactly did you learn that overloaded you so much?”
She pondered for a moment, then started ticking them off on her fingers. “Dark, earth, fire, illusion, life, lightning, nature, and metal magic. Plus glasscraft, herbology, and tailoring.” She decided to lump dark and metal magic in there, even though she’d learned them the day before. It made it seem more dramatic, plus they’d never seen her use it yet, so hey. Less suspicion on her? Maybe? Judging by their incredulous stares, maybe not.
Eric was one of the few people who seemed to keep his cool, having been surprised by her several days in a row now. “So you’re telling us you learned how to do eight magics and three professions...in a single night.”
Jade smiled. “Technically, yes. But it’s not like I’ve had the chance to try any of them, and I’m not quite sure how all of them work. It’s more like once I figure out how they do work, it’s much, much easier for me because it’s already on my list. Does that make sense?”
There were a few nods from around the table, and she sighed in relief. Tisha looked a little confused, then seemed to have a light bulb moment as she blurted, “Oh, I get it! It’s like how we don’t get any skills on our list until we’re ten, but everything we learn helps our stats. Then when we get the actual skills, it’s easier to get past the first levels. Right?”
“What the what?” Jade gawked at Tisha, then at the other people around the table. “You’re telling me you guys didn’t get any skills until after you were ten?” Various nods confirmed her statement. She studied them curiously, then asked again, “Do any of you have walking or eating as skills?”
Will outright laughed while everyone else was watching him with perplexion and shaking their heads. “Hah, eating and walking as skills! That’s a great joke! Who needs to have a skill to learn to eat or walk?” He just kept laughing and laughing, not noticing that Jade was now giving him a death glare and everyone else was silent. When he finally noticed, his laughter died immediately as he asked in astonishment, “No, seriously? You have…?” Miffed, Jade decided to ignore him and went back to eating what was on her plate. He belatedly seemed to remember that she’d said she couldn’t walk in her world, and he apologized, “Jade, I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking…”
“Obviously,” she muttered darkly. With a sigh, she smiled at him because he looked really, really sorry, and she couldn’t handle the feeling that she’d just kicked a puppy. “Don’t worry about it. I already knew I was different.”
“But in a good way,” Stephen chose that moment to interject. Jade just smiled a little helplessly at him. How was different good? She had just wanted to be normal...
Speaking of, how had they all magically appeared here so quickly? Unable to come up with a good explanation, she decided it was easier just to ask. “By the way, not that I’m not grateful for your concern, but don’t you all have better things to be doing? How did you even know something was wrong with me in the first place?”
“Well, most of us were at the library getting ready when that boy came tearing in to inform Stephen that Will had made a spectacle of himself by practically dragging Doctor Mike to The Green Dragon. Will doesn’t get worked up about much, so we figured it was important and decided to come investigate. Then we found you looking all dead and everyone kinda freaked out.” It was Tisha who answered, apparently a little thoughtlessly from the dirty glances thrown her way after she finished speaking.
Jade was grateful at the moment for her loose lips, though in the future she made a mental note to be careful what she said around Tisha. Still, her explanation illuminated a couple of things for Jade. First, Eric, Stephen, Camille, Tisha, Lucas, and Damian had all been preparing something at the library. She guessed, given the dirty looks, it had something to do with her new study room there.
Second, Stephen had a group of people who reported to him about unusual things. She upgraded him from rogue ninja to spymaster in her mental inventory of everyone. Third, Will had personally run to fetch a healer when he found out something was wrong, which was definitely out of the ordinary and kinda sweet. Fourth, everyone had freaked out that she almost died, which granted, she could have guessed given their reactions upon seeing her in decent health once more.
She could feel the warm fuzzies tingling in her heart. She hadn’t known them long, but they’d shown her kindness and given her their friendship and concern. She felt her eyes starting to water and quickly took a drink, tilting her head up to the light as she did so to try and blink away the potential tears before anyone noticed.
Putting her drink down, she smiled deeply and murmured as she made eye contact with each of them, “Thank you, for everything.” She glimpsed at least one other person discreetly dab at their eyes, and she decided to lighten the mood.
“Still, the day must go on! I know I was supposed to meet Eric and Damian at the library, but what are the rest of you doing today?”
Chapter Twenty-Eight – Cursive
“We’ve been doing some research at the library. Lucas and Stephen were kindly helping us out,” Camille interjected with a smile. Her expression was guileless, as if she hadn’t told a bold-faced lie. Jade just let it be, grinning.
“I see. Well, If you’re all ready, why don’t we take a trip over to the library then? I think I’m going to take it easy for the rest of the morning, so some research and reading sounds lovely.” She smiled at Damian and Eric. “After, of course, we get the contract done.”
“Yes, let’s go!” Tisha jumped up in excitement, and Jade’s smile widened a tiny bit. She could see Camille mentally hitting her head against a wall. Everyone started to get up, preparing to leave while Jade snuck over to Kaylee and Jessica.
They were tidying up and getting ready to clean up after the rest had left when Jade hugged them both from behind. Surprised, they tensed until they turned and saw it was her, relaxing again. She said softly, “Thank you, really. If you two hadn’t been looking after me this whole time, I would probably be dead. If I can ever do anything for you, you tell me, okay?” They mutely nodded, hugging her back. She knew they wouldn’t ask her for anything, so she’d have to find her own ways to repay them.
She let go and they went back to tidying. Turning back, she saw Stephen and Eric watching her speculatively. She fluttered her fingers at them, raising a brow. “Whatcha looking at?”
Stephen chuckled softly and shook his head. “Just wondering when you’ll stop surprising me.”
She shrugged innocently. “Maybe when I’m dead.” They both frowned and she just grinned, speaking softly so only they could hear, “I’m not scared of death. For most of my life, I’ve been told I’d die within a week. No one knew why I was alive, but I went on living despite their predictions. I’ve already lived a fuller life in the last three days than I was able to in eighteen years. If death should come, it comes. But until that day, I choose to truly live, and I shall do it without fear of an end.”