Jace: "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Damn it damn it DAMN IT DAMN IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII—"
As he falls, Jace racks his brain for something—anything—that could prevent his death.
"I could... but no... do I have to? I don't want to lose it though... I've had it for so long now..."
Despite his indecisiveness, when Jace was tossed over in the air and got a glimpse of the swiftly approaching ground beneath him, on top of feeling his skin begin to heat up as if he was about to be set ablaze, Jace quickly grabbed James's journal, four keys, the pouch of money left over after buying paints and a brush, and a vial of an odd green liquid before covering himself in the darkness of his cloak and using shadow shift to escape to the first place that came to mind.
----------------------------------------
Jace
Well, I may have managed to survive, but that doesn't mean I feel any better about anything that just happened.
Having lost my cloak, I'm already in a bad spot. Not only did the cloak assure my sarefy and obscure my face, but it also had a lot of important things hidden within... I'll have to try to retrieve it later. Luckily, I managed to grab some of the most important things and the fragilest thing I had in my cloak, but I did leave the paints back by the tree stump next to my sleeping hole so I can't use those until I get back. Well, while I'm here, I might as well put on a spare cloak before I go back. It's a good thing James forced me to get spares even though I didn't want any. I can also grab replacements for the most of hidden weapons I kept in my cloak. I should also grab my wallet while I'm here—I don't want to have to pretend to be someone else too often.
Now, where's a good place to shift back to? That chair was likely moved by now, but if I remember right, I should be able to use the shadow cast in my sleeping hole...
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
----------------------------------------
Just before Jace shifts back to Unnatrulus, he remembers something he thought of days prior and, sneaking past the various people on the premises with a slight grin, Jace puts his face up to a scanner and enters a previously locked room. After pocketing an iridescent orb about as large as the tip of one's index finger which was motionless on top of a pedestol, Jace attempts to shift back to his sleeping hole. Just after Jace disappears from view, guards rush into the room where the orb used to be as alarms begin to blare accross the entirety of the compound.
----------------------------------------
Jace
Okay, good thing that worked. Now, I've got to figure out what to do next. Do I attempt to somehow find and retrieve my cloak? No, that will have to wait. I am not arrogant enough to expect myself to be capable of tracking down a cloak that was carried away on the violent winds far up above. I guess I'll just repaint what I painted with the type of view that only someone looking off the edge of Mount Ire would be able to witness—besides, I won't be able to get the image of the view of everything beneath Mount Ire out of my head for a while, so I might as well make use of my newfound trauma.
I checked in on Quartz to make sure she was okay and didn't need anything as usual, but she was acting a little bit differently this time. It was almost as if Quartz's personality was in some sort of struggle against an outside force. I may not be very good at making connections, but even I can realize that this weird effect is the result of new threads of magic having been woven into whatever spell is cast on Quartz. I would ask Twilight, but I don't think she's trustworthy. Witches are the ones to blame for... no, I don't want to think about that. Forget what you were going to remember, Jace, I'm sure it was nothing important. Forget it. Right, painting! Haha... I'd better start now so that the paint has enought time to dry.
----------------------------------------
Although Jace didn’t mention anything about exhaustion in his writing, I know when he’s hiding something. Jace was more than likely on the verge of passing out from using too much of his stamina in order to use the grimoire complexly once and shadow shift twice to places far away in quick succession; such an exorbitant use of magic is beyond the limits of Jace.