She turned and walked out the gate, and when he moved to follow her, she turned and raised a brow. “Please stay here.”
He smiled helplessly. “Jade, I’ve got my orders…”
She smiled archly, affecting a confidence she didn’t feel. “And I’ve changed them. See you later, Christopher.” Concentrating, she imagined a wall of wind blocking the gate. When she felt it was firmly fixed in place, she mentally reminded herself to cut off the energy flow in a few minutes and then wiggled her fingers at Christopher. “That’ll come down in a few minutes.”
“What will?” She smiled and turned, walking away. She glanced back only to see him look completely confused when he ran into an invisible wall. She could feel him pushing on it, then glowering at her. “Jade, come back here and take this down!”
She smiled and kept on walking, quickly turning the corner and picking up the pace. She didn’t want to be nearby when she let the wall come down. Maybe she was being selfish, but she didn’t want to be monitored anymore. All her life, people had been watching her every move. She was finally free, and she wasn’t about to give that up! Singing softly, she made her way to the center of town once more. “I’m superhuman, I’ve got a plan, you can put the blame on me.”
Once she was what felt like an appropriate distance away, she cut off the energy to the wall so it would drop and stepped into a restaurant to eat lunch. Granted, she’d eaten a bit at the gate, but it wasn’t enough to keep her energy stores up. Ordering a large meal, she settled down to wait as she checked her notifications. There were the whole bunch from touching all the guards and the people on the way to the gate, as well as one flashing red icon and a yellow icon. Having expected the red icon, she clicked on it first.
Warning. Siphon target Doppelganger has died. Remaining siphon duration has been canceled.
Alright, that was fine, but what was the yellow icon? She clicked on it next, curious.
Alert. You have siphoned a species ability incompatible with your body. Correctional action has been taken. Special ability Adaptable has been added.
What the what? Did it fail or not? She quickly pulled up her profile, clicking immediately on the new special ability listed to bring up the description.
Adaptable: Your body now accepts change more easily.
Wait, seriously? That was it? One lousy sentence that didn’t really tell her anything. She was more than a little miffed. She had hoped she might get some cool ability like Tonks where she could change her hair and eye color at will, but noooooo, apparently, she just accepted change more easily. Whatever. If the system thought it was important enough to call it a special ability, then it would probably be useful in the long run. At least, she hoped so.
Sorting through her notifications once again, she picked two of them and clicked on her choices. She figured there were enough there that she’d be in danger again if she did them all at once tonight. Not to mention the people she’d been tagging on the street, but the fact that she had thirty-six more guards and five mages—she was going to have to be very careful.
Siphoning complete. Assimilation of Constitution and Mental Fortitude from Marcelle D’Ard underway.
Siphoning complete. Assimilation of Strength and Perseverance from Ammon Whitaker underway.
She was expecting it to still hurt, given that she’d chosen the two highest titled people she’d met today. She was surprised when it only itched like it had when she siphoned Jessica and Kaylee the first time. She resisted the first few minutes of itching, then relaxed and enjoyed her food as it went away for the time being. She’d have to wait until the stats updated, but if this new update to her ability meant it was less painful and itchy than before, well, it was actually sort of a jackpot after all.
Finishing and paying for her meal with a smile, Jade slipped out of the restaurant and set off once again, only glancing over her shoulder occasionally to see if anyone was following her. She might be a little paranoid at this point, but it didn’t really hurt to be cautious. Stopping by The Glass Phoenix, she was shocked by the fact that the door was locked and closed for the day.
She looked around and saw a small stream of people heading towards Priom Square. She merged into the foot traffic, following behind one group curiously. Once they reached the square, they made a beeline for one of the buildings she’d noticed before but never entered: the colossal pointy church building. It was Sunday, so she figured it must be service day.
Not sure if there was a dress code, she walked nearer and tried to get the lay of the land. The doors were thrown open in welcome, and she could vaguely hear some sort of heavenly choir type music.
Unable to resist, she snuck into the church at the back of another group that was entering. She couldn’t help but whisper a soft “wow” as she entered. She had been expecting some giant chapel area, and it was there in the middle. What she hadn’t expected were the different alcoves filled with representations of what she knew to be the variations of magic.
There was one alcove that was ringed by various braziers of different colored fire, one that held basins and bottles of water, one filled with all sorts of growing plants, etcetera. She almost laughed at the one she figured was light, due to the abundance of glowing globes. What made her grin was that one of Damian’s figurines, a masterful crane she’d lit up, was now presented beautifully as the centerpiece of the collection of globes.
The entire back wall, however, was very different. It contained a giant mural, and this was where most of the people were heading to sit down in the pews. She chose a seat in the middle, glancing at her pocket watch to see that it was almost one o’clock. Peering around, she looked up as she tried to pinpoint where the soft music was still coming from. Finally, she spotted an alcove near the top where a small choir was humming the light, heavenly seeming chords. She was rather impressed that they were so committed to creating ambiance music.
At one, the bell in the church tower tolled once and silence descended on the church as a man, who she guessed was in his thirties, walked to the front of the congregation. Even the singers had stopped. The man in front didn’t seem much like any of the clergymen she had seen before. He wasn’t dressed in any sort of monk’s habit or priest’s robe. He was just in nice clothes. You could tell they were of good quality, but that was it. Slightly balding, he nevertheless seemed in good shape. His eyes were kind as they scanned the waiting audience.
Taking a deep breath, his smooth baritone voice rang out over the congregation as he began, pointing to the far left of the mural, “In the beginning, the creators breathed life into the universe. Worlds without number were formed, and thus began Andara. Here, they created humans in their own likeness.” She was rather surprised at the beauty of the mural. Apparently they had some idea of astronomy because the pictures were remarkably similar to some pictures she’d seen from NASA. Two glowing figures stood there, a male and female, though they were painted indistinctly as figures of light.
“Father Earth and Heavenly Mother ruled over their children peacefully. Their children grew strong and spread to cover the earth. However, there was rebellion in the hearts of men, and some sought dominion over their brothers and sisters. Their hubris knew no bounds, and bloodshed spread. In anger, Father Earth cursed them that their outer appearance would resemble the beasts within. The world fell into a period of darkness, and the places where humans could exist peacefully grew fewer in number as the new monsters took over the land.”