Leaving them with thoughtful looks on their faces, she made her way over to the door where Tisha was bouncing impatiently. “We’re going, we’re going. Hold your horses.” Jade laughed as she poked Tisha in the side, causing her to squeal and squirm away.
Tisha scream giggled, “What are horses?”
Jade rolled her eyes, then deadpanned, “Don’t worry about it. It’s an expression from my old world. It’s basically telling you to be stable.” She held her serious face for a moment, then couldn’t help it and started giggling at her terrible pun. A few other people were chortling quietly while Tisha whined that she didn’t get it.
Eventually they got out the door, moving as a larger group to the library. She had tried to maneuver towards the edge of the group so she could maybe siphon a few people along the way, but every time she tried, it seemed like they corralled her right back into the middle. She gave up, just enjoying the burble of conversation as they walked and watched the expressions of those around them as they saw the noble party passing by. Many people gave tiny bows to them as they passed, and those in her group who were nearest would generally nod and smile at them.
She was grateful to get to the library as she vowed to start walking around on her own. So far, she hadn’t obtained a single notification today for siphoning. If she was going to be able to siphon a person more than once, it obviously took longer than four days for the invisible timer to reset. She wasn’t going to try and overdo herself like she had last night, but she still wanted to be able to make progress. Would she run out of targets to siphon eventually?
Oh well. That was a problem for another time. Right now, she was just enjoying the presence of people around her who cared. She had a sunny smile on her face as she gazed around at them. These were busy, important people, who should probably all be doing other things, but these last few days they’d seemed to drop everything to help her. She couldn’t help but feel warm fuzzies as she thought of how they’d all rushed about when they perceived she was in danger. She couldn’t do much for them right now, but she’d remember.
She wasn’t quite sure how she’d gotten so lucky to have such amazing people around her, but she wasn’t going to question it either. Having a circle of people she could trust as friends…to her, it was utterly priceless. Her thoughts of being able to leave easily if things went south were dissipating in the wind. She would probably still be able to do it, but leaving behind the only true friends she’d ever known would practically kill her anyway. No, if things weren’t great, she’d just have to find a way to fix them. She owed it to them to at least try and stick it out if the going got tough.
“Well, we’re going to continue our research project while you figure out the contract with Eric and Damian, but we’ll come find you for lunch, okay?” Camille grinned and hugged her before dragging Lucas, Stephen, Tisha, and Will away into the depths of the library. Eric grinned and led her and Damian to his office instead. Jade had watched the five of them disappear behind bookshelves with a warm smile. She wouldn’t ruin their surprise. It was a little strange for her not to have to show her card at the desk though. Apparently, arriving with the assistant head of the library and royalty was pass enough, because the poor boy behind the desk hadn’t even dared to ask them for their library passes as they entered. She’d just smiled brightly at him, realizing that he was looking seriously intimidated. Sadly, it was the same guy who had watched her steal Will’s library card. She’d get his name and apologize at some point.
“Now then, let’s get down to business,” Eric said as he sat behind his desk, she and Damian taking a seat on the other side.
She couldn’t help it, she grinned and sang under her breath, “To decide–the terms.” They both gave her strange stares and she stuck her tongue out at them. “Don’t mind me, one day I’ll teach you the awesomeness that is altered Disney music.” Still grinning, she continued, “Well then! Back to glass…”
It only took them a little over half an hour to come to an agreement. It helped that Eric was firmly on her side and trying to get her advantages, given the whole, Damian had tried to rip him off thing. Still, Damian was a little surprised by her because she didn’t actually accept the higher percentages Eric was trying to get her.
“Look, I understand that Damian is doing most of the hard work for the figures. I’m just adding light to it after, which while it’s something not many can do because of the magic involved, it doesn’t take me a whole lot of time. Just energy. Forty percent of the profit margin is plenty. He’s the one selling them, and he’s doing the glass for my side projects at cost. Believe me, I’m not losing out.” Especially because they didn’t realize how much she would likely be asking him to help with her side projects. Granted, the items she was asking for were much, much easier to make than the glass figurines, but still. She was stealing a master craftsman’s time.
“Fine, as you wish.” Jade stifled a giggle as she imagined Eric rolling down a hill while dressed as a pirate yelling that. He ignored her silly grin as he put the two copies of the contract facing them. “Just sign both of these, I’ll put my seal on them, and then we’re good here!” She watched as Damian took the quill and managed to artfully write his name in cursive that was almost, if not quite as pretty as Eric’s handwriting.
When Damian handed her the quill, she took it as if she was touching a live snake. It was just a pretty feather, but… She sighed. Until she got her pens made, she’d have to figure out how to do this eventually. She dipped the quill in the ink like she’d seen them do, then went to write her name, creating a considerable blotch of ink on the paper immediately. She stared in dismay at it. It was like an ugly blemish on otherwise beautiful paper.
Eric seemed to hesitate, then asked quietly, “Jade, can you write?”
She put the quill down for a moment, frowning as she tried to blot the giant ink stain away with the cloth they’d been using for a similar purpose, but she mostly succeeded in spreading it instead. With a sigh, her eyes flashed up, meeting Eric’s eyes. “I can write just fine, just not with a quill. It’s the reason I was trying to reinvent the instrument we used from my old world. Although I admit, my writing also isn’t the pretty cursive you guys use.”
Eric seemed puzzled. “What’s cursive?”
She laughed, shaking her head. “It’s the swirly letters that you use. There were many fonts, or different ways of writing letters, in my old world. Some of them much simpler. By the time I was born, such fancy writing was uncommon, and almost everything was done in styles that were much easier to both read and write.” He looked fascinated by this knowledge, but at this point, she’d gotten the splotch to stop spreading and mostly dried it. Ignoring it, she dipped the quill in the ink again, this time making sure it wasn’t dripping. She quickly scratched her name out on both parchments in her best approximation of cursive. Usually, people practiced writing their name in cursive for when they signed things, but she hadn’t needed to do that as a minor who didn’t leave bed.
Smiling triumphantly that she’d done it without splotching again, she glanced up at them. “There! Done. You can notarize them now.” Her writing was seriously out of place on the paper, but she no longer cared. She hadn’t made any more splotches!
Damian was the one who asked curiously, “What do you mean, notarize?”
She laughed. “Oh, basically what he said earlier, put a seal on it. A notary in my world was someone who witnessed two parties signing a legal document and signed it saying that it was official. It’s pretty much just a special term we had for it.” She didn’t add that it had more or less gone out of use for most people. She didn’t even know where you could find a notary, other than maybe a bank or a city hall. Electronics had taken over the world.