╚╩╩╩╝ Jaime ╚╩╩╩╝

“Thank you all for coming today!” Veria announced. She stood at the far end of a long banquet table covered in dishware and utensils of all kinds. Her long, light brown hair bouncing back and forth as she rapidly turned her head to meet the gaze of every guest at the table. Sitting on her left and right were Licilia and Pert, both smiling warmly at their daughter. I sat beside Licilia in a deep red dress identical to the one that Veria wore that she had insisted that I wear so that the two of us would match. Across from me, beside Pert, sat Ham. He had let his creme-colored hair grow out and had only cut it once during the past two years. It would normally hang just under his shoulders, but he preferred to keep it tied in a ponytail.

Feeling my gaze, Ham turned and flash me a quick grin before turning back to Veria as she gave her speech.

After finishing her speech, everyone around the table applauded and an attendant came in through a nearby door, wheeling in a cake large enough to feed everyone in the room twice over. Atop this cake sat fifteen white candles, each lit with a bright red flame. Eagerly, almost leaping with joy, Veria ran over to the cake, closed her eyes and blew out all fifteen candles.

The events that followed were lots of loud cheering and every guest running forward and bringing Veria the gift that they had brought for her.

The commotion and the crowd had made me uncomfortable, so I quietly excused myself to the hallway just outside the banquet hall and sat down on one of the many cushioned benches placed through it. Sinking into the cushions, I laid my head back against the bench and sighed. Sitting there, a familiar sense of dread filled my chest. This same feeling has followed me through these past couple of years, growing stronger every time I took the time to rest like this. Eating away inside of me, the dread made me doubt things that I would never have doubted otherwise. Things like if Pert and Licilia really cared about me or if the friends that I had made liked me or not. It was a terrible feeling, and I knew that these thoughts and ideas were wrong, but they were always there.

The sound of a door opening pulled me back to the present as I opened my eyes to see Ham leaving the banquet hall. Seeing me, he gave a sympathetic smile and stepped to the side, leaning against the wall just across from where I was sitting. Without fail, whenever the feeling of dread would present itself, Ham would show up and just be there. In the past, he had explained to me that he could sometimes feel other peoples’ emotions. I had no doubt that he knew exactly what I was going through. Knowing that he knew, and that he would always be there when the feeling would appear offered no small amount of comfort. Smiling back at my pseudo-brother, I closed my eyes again and attempted to organize my thoughts. I was actually doing pretty well, until a familiar voice came from not too far away.

“There you are! I hope you didn’t plan on skipping out on the dance.” Charlotte Renae accused as she strode up to the two of us. “There’s no way you’re getting out of this, so just accept it and ask me to dance.” The pompous girl explained in an almost threatening tone.

Charlotte, like many of the other guests here today, was only invited as a formality. Under normal circumstances, she would have found some excuse to not attend. However, since Ham and I had been adopted by the Warks, she had developed either affection or an obsession with Ham. She would frequently search for any reason to visit him, and would show up, often unannounced. We were willing but unable to refuse her presence due to what it would show the Watchmen. At first, Ham would just grin and bear it, dealing with the girl’s sudden appearances by himself, however, she soon began inviting herself to personal events.

Turning away from Ham, the marquis’ daughter curtsied toward me and flashed a forced smile. “How wonderful to see you, Jaime. I must say that your hair is quite well done.” She complimented me with strangely no hint of sarcasm.

Veria had put in quite a lot of effort to get it just as curly as hers. My adopted sister frequently spoke on how jealous she was of how pretty my hair was. Two years ago, my hair was a silvery gray, but it had now taken on a white color, cleaner than freshly fallen snow. I often received compliments about how my hair looked like silk woven from a summer cloud.

Standing, I curtsied back and thanked her for the compliment, responding in kind by complimenting her on how her bright pink dress matched her eyes. Despite our small age difference, I was far shorter than the two standing in front of me. They had both grown a few inches, while I stayed at the same height as before. Looking at me, you wouldn’t believe that I was almost thirteen. In fact, nobody did. We found out after I had received my identification card that we had all found out that I was older than I looked.

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Turning back to Ham, Charlotte extended out her arm for Ham to take. “Aren’t you going to ask me to dance?” She asked smugly.

After staring at her for a moment, Ham reached out and took the girl by the arm, leading her back into the banquet hall, leaving me by myself once again.

Bored and not wanting to go back into the chaos of the banquet hall, I sank back into the bench and stared at the wall for a moment before standing up and stretching. Exploring down the halls, I found a quiet, solitary room and quietly slipped inside. The room was completely empty besides a couple of chairs pushed against a wall and a piano in the center of the room, illuminated by a high set window on one wall. I had no real desire to learn to play an instrument, but Ham and Veria had been eager to learn from Licilia and often played for guests. I, on the other hand, preferred to paint or draw with whatever was available. Licilia was ecstatic that I shared her love of painting, so she spent a lot of time teaching me how she did it, herself.

Sitting on one of the chairs against the wall, I activated my aura and focused, trying to remember the things that Ham had taught me about the spirits. Holding out a hand, I willed the spirits to show themselves and watched as the tiny, familiar lights appeared, floating around my hand. As a spiritualist, I could get the spirits to do what I wanted them to do, as long as they were in a cooperative mood. Focusing, I had the spirits do very minor things like changing their color or moving to a specific point. Listening to the music coming from the banquet hall, I had the little lights dance and move to the music.

Watching the spirits move to the rhythm of the music pulled at a distant memory. I couldn’t remember what had happened, and the moment that I tried to remember, an intense pain filled my mind that nearly made me fall out of my chair. The spirits, reacting to this sudden change turned to a black color and darted toward the ground and disappearing, leaving small scorch marks where they impacted. Seeing this, memories flooded into my mind of a terrifying monster standing, staring at me hungrily. The monster’s twisted flesh and gaping maw stayed front and center, turning my stomach as I nearly vomited. Shaking and terrified, I sat paralyzed in the chair and instinctively reached out for the glass pendant hanging around my neck. Feeling the cool glass against my skin, like always, worked to calm me down.

Taking deep breaths, I had calmed down some, but the image of the monster still hung in my mind. Through my blurred vision, I noticed a singular, white spirit float through the air. This spirit hovered almost hypnotically, drawing me in until it pressed against my forehead.

“Peace, my child. You have nothing to fear.” A calm, soothing voice echoed through my mind. I knew the voice as my mother’s and wanted to call out to her, but felt my consciousness fading as I felt a warmth wash through my mind, cleaning out all the horrible images and calming me down completely.

I came to a moment later, with no memory of the past few moments and no evidence of what happened besides a few tears marks on my face. Worried that I had ruined the makeup that Licilia had worked hard to put on me, I rushed out of the room and to the nearest washroom and checked in the mirror. The tears had not ruined my makeup, so I carefully dabbed the tears from my face and sighed in relief, wondering why I had been crying. Shrugging it off, I left the washroom and walked back to the banquet hall.

Poking my head through the door, I saw that I had arrived just in time as the dancing had ended and Veria was announcing that the party would end soon. Sneaking in, I quietly stepped up behind Veria and, with great effort, tapped on her shoulder. Startled, she turned around just in time for me to hold out the tiny, neatly wrapped present I had prepared for her. Visibly overjoyed, she took the present and opened it to reveal a necklace nearly identical to the one I had gotten from my mother. It had taken some effort to find someone who was able and willing to make a copy of another piece of jewelry, but I eventually found someone and was able to pay for it with the money that Ham had given me when we had first met. I stored it somewhere secret in my room and had forgotten about it until just recently. Squeezing me tightly, she thanked me repeatedly. I had figured that since she was constantly having us wear identical outfits, that she would love having matching necklaces as well.

Just as Veria let me go, I noticed two familiar figures stride over, pushing past the crowd. Damian and Astrid, both dressed exquisitely, quickly walked over to Veria and I.

“Happy birthday, Veria.” Astrid congratulated, rubbing the top of the birthday girl’s head.

“I hope we’re not too late to give you our present.” Damian spoke with a grin.

With sparkling eyes, Veria vigorously shook her head, excited for whatever present the two had gotten her.

“Well, it’s more of a present for you two and Hamil.” Astrid explained, rubbing the back of her head.

Chuckling nervously, Damian reached into his pocket and took out two wrapped packages. Taking one of them, I waited for Veria to open her own and watched her pull out a simple, iron medallion with the symbol of a sword over the sun.

“Congratulations, you two!” Astrid exclaimed. “You’re now junior Freelancers.”