Chapter Sixteen - Surprise

There was a brief staredown before Camille sighed and gestured to the two guards. “I guess they’re tagging along too.”

Considering for a moment, Jade shrugged. It didn’t make much difference to her; they’d be stationed outside the room regardless, so if they wanted to stand there, that was on them. “All right. Let’s go.” She led the way to the break in the roof, then gestured for them to get closer. “Crowd in. Cami, you’ll need to direct me, because I have no idea where I’m going.”

“I can do that.” She responded cheerfully as Hunter took up his sentinel position on her bad side, pulling Hayden next to him so he could still give Eris attention. A little shuffling and everyone was ready, so she lightened their gravity, called on the wind and sent them up, up and away!

And yeah, she was totally still calling in light. She’d gotten to about three-fourths full while messing with the bushes, but because she was still outputting a decent amount she hadn’t been able to refill entirely. She just did it by sticking her hand out to the side so it wouldn’t obscure their vision or make the guards panic by doing it overhead and casting them into shadow. If they still looked unnerved, that was on them. She did it often enough that the personal guards should be aware.

“That way.” Cami pointed their general direction as they lifted into the air. Surprising no one, she was pointing back at the city. Given that Dracona was on the edge of the city and the zoo was on the edge of that, well, it only made sense. She even stopped herself from rolling her eyes as she followed the girl’s directions, which thankfully got more nuanced as they left campus.

They ended up in a sector that was full of upper-class manors just south of the castle. Along the way, Cami pointed at a plot of land that was surrounded by a wall, but empty. “And that’s where your place is going to be. We still need to talk about that at some point.”

Nodding, she made a mental note of the land, quickly memorizing the few features and dimensions. She didn’t know when the princess had talked to her parents since this morning, but they had mentioned that she was involved in suggesting places, so even if they just said something in passing, it was sufficient for the girl to know what she’d chosen.

“Sounds good. We can do that whenever we make it to the library.” That seemed like an appropriate place for paperwork. Acquiescing, Camille kept pointing the way until they arrived above a grand estate surrounded by glades of something like bamboo. It had a blue tint to it, which she thought was quite pretty. Hana and the other rooda lounged around the open space, and it was easy to spot little Umeru, Baobao, and their third sibling, whose name she’d never caught, running around and using their elders like a jungle gym.

“So, uh. Do we land inside or at the gate?” She asked awkwardly, not sure where to set them down. Lochlann was expecting them, and likely knew they’d be coming from the sky, but she didn’t exactly see a party waiting to welcome them. A glance at her watch showed she was seven minutes early. She’d factored in extra time just in case, but it hadn’t taken long to find the place.

“Courtesy dictates we land outside the gate.” Camille answered quickly, but Jade had already set them on a course for the rooda.

Sheepishly she stopped, giving them a plaintive glance as she asked, “How bad would it be to land with the cuddlies?”

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Jade could tell she was slightly stressing the princess out as she replied, “Not great, but it’s you, so they probably either won’t care or dare to say anything.” Huzzah! She’d taught the princess to tell it to her straight, and with a grin, she quickly lowered them above the lounging animals.

The guards visibly tensed as the giant pandas looked up at their impending arrival and one of them, who she recognized as Hana, lumbered to her feet. Setting them on the ground and naturalizing their gravity, Jade bounced forward as she called out, “Hana! I’ve come to visit with some friends! Oh, who’s a good Baobao?” She scooped up the tiny cub that came racing up to her with her good hand, snuggling the furry baby and laughing as Umeru and their sib tried to climb up her pants.

All around them, the rooda relaxed as Hana let out a soft greeting rumble, nudging Umeru with her head to make the kiddo stop pawing at her legs. Hayden had handed Eris back to Hunter when she got nervous, but he and Tisha quickly saved her from an awkward situation where she needed her second arm by scooping up the remaining cubs and showering them with affection.

Smiling at the mama bear, Jade asked happily, “How’ve you been, Hana? Settled in here?” She knew the panda couldn’t talk, but would understand her because of her status as a bonded. A contented rumble was her reply, and Jade could hear noises coming from the house, fully aware that the bears snitched on them to their companions. She was content to enjoy their fluffiness until the entourage arrived.

Setting Baobao back down, half of her little ones took flight to play with the baby, which made the other two struggle until the royals released them as well. Grinning at their antics as they chased butterflies, she turned back to Hana and said cheerfully, “Well, it sounds like Lochlann’s people are nearly here. Good seeing you again, take care.”

She could tell the rooda was actually a little confused that she knew what was going on, but she just waved and nodded to her companions. “They’ll be at the door momentarily, so let’s go.”

To be fair to Hana, the humans were equally confused as to how she knew that. But given that the royals followed her unquestioningly, the guards trailed behind them initially, before hustling to at least flank in an attempt at professionalism. These poor dudes were not ready to deal with her shenanigans. The kids were at least used to her crazy. She couldn’t help but wonder how they pulled the short stick today.

She put those thoughts aside as they reached the doors just as they were opening. Grinning at the mildly flustered Lochlann with his equally frazzled advisors, she greeted them. “Hey! Sorry we’re early, I have a bad habit of just dropping into places unannounced. Hope that’s okay.”

He took a deep, calming breath before he smiled diplomatically and replied, “It’s fine. Duchess Jade, princes, princesses, welcome to our estate.” She found it interesting that he ranked her higher than the royals, but she supposed he’d seen how they deferred to her, so maybe he was just going with the flow. Or maybe it was because she was the main lead on the interaction. Unfortunately, her grasp on foreign noble etiquette was still pretty stunted.

Not that she made it any better by ignoring the advice she was given; like maybe she should have actually, you know, landed outside the gate and knocked like a normal person instead of invading their backyard. It might be more acceptable, but she kinda took a small amount of joy in throwing people off their game if she was being honest. You saw a person’s true face when they were thrown into unexpected situations.

Just like the night of the attack. Aylin and her people stepped up, while the others stepped back and watched. Even now, Lochlann hadn’t been able to completely control his expression when she threw him for a loop. It was telling, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever really totally trust the Saibreh delegation. Not that she would actually tell them that.

Entering, she noted that most of the architecture reminded her of some art deco fusion between what she associated with Asian and Elvish culture. It had all the swirling knotwork lines mixed with bamboo influences and shinto inspired archways, all in an underlying tree theme. It was honestly gorgeous. She had always been partial to the flowing prettiness though.

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It was still the main reason why she wanted to visit one day. Not because of the people really, but because the thought of seeing a tree city brought to life sounded awesome. Experiencing the world of different cultures was still absolutely something she wanted to do.

“So, what sparked your interest in alchemy?” Lochlann probed curiously as the servants led them through the hallways past well-appointed spaces that she wanted to curl up and read a book in. They entered a dining room that was smaller, or rather, wasn’t ballroom sized.

There were still twenty placemats, and she absently wondered if, by bringing Tisha and Hayden, she’d bumped out two people who were the ‘reserves.’ The guards who came with them retreated to the sides of the room, and she couldn’t help but wonder when they planned to eat.

Bringing her rapidly wandering mind to heel, she smiled at Lochlann as he pulled out a chair for her, the brothers quickly doing the same for their sisters as everyone sat down. The other fourteen faces were familiar as eight were the youths that previously joined them for tea, two were his main advisors, and three were people who, if she had to describe them in a unified way, smelled of herbs. The alchemists.

Nodding in greeting to those present, she answered as they all seemed to be waiting for her reply, “Oh, I was just growing a few things for the zoo we’re setting up and needed to recharge. I’m not sure if you’ve been introduced to my smoothies yet?” They weren’t widespread at the moment because she was still using magic to blend them up, but at the palace they potentially had the possibility.

“I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure. But what is a zoo?” A girl she remembered as Katie Henno replied. She’d been the one making friends with Tisha, a pattern repeating itself as she sat by the young princess. It seemed Jade yelling at her for compelling people was forgotten, her demeanor perfectly positive and sociable as ever.

She’d half forgotten that most of the younger delegation had nature magic and were likely planning to sit in on the lesson. Her mind tried to wander off again on thoughts of if they had a way to improve and awaken the affinity, just because so many had it. Was it just their environment making a difference, or had they facilitated it somehow? With the addition of alchemists, she thought they had a higher probability of making it happen.

Shunting those thoughts off for later consideration, she nodded to the girl as she explained, “A zoo is merely a series of enclosures mimicking the natural habitats of creatures so they can be freely observed in a more humane way.” There were still several faces that held confusion, so she added as she indicated the four little ones still guarding her, “I didn’t like seeing their swarm trapped in a tiny cage, so I wanted to give them a home where they could stretch their wings without putting anyone in danger. I feel like bonds of consent are far more likely to happen when the animals are cared for properly, instead of living in fear.”

Understanding dawned, and she could tell they were equating it to the conditions of the rooda outside. It was a perfect example of taking care of their companions and providing them a safe, comfortable environment. With that out of the way, she added, “My smoothies are an entirely different matter.” Seeing as the food was still being brought out and they had yet to fill the glasses in front of them, one of her barrels appeared in the air above her hand, held in place by wind magic.

Opening it with another twist, she manipulated a stream of the stuff to come out before taking it back. The liquid split into twenty smaller parts, flowing into their cups to provide about an inch of goodness to everyone. She controlled the amount so that it was simply a taste, not an usurpation of the meal provider. Picking up the cup with her right hand, she toasted it to Lochlann and took the first sip to prove it was safe as she explained, “They’re mostly a mixture of various fruits, sugar, and crushed ice. I find them satisfying, but they’re also an easy way to get nutrients into your system to aid in things like magical depletion and healing.”

As people picked up and studied their own glasses, the dude that she remembered as Apollos had already started downing his portion, though she could tell he was tasting it carefully. As one of the more versatile mages with six elements, she was curious how he would assess it, also coming to the conclusion that although he was one of the youngest people in the room, he was probably one of the more talented alchemists.

It almost felt like he was a sommelier, tasting the vintage and carefully rolling it around his tongue to pick out all the different flavor notes. He nodded in excitement as he swallowed, beaming at the group as he exclaimed, “You’re right! This would be amazing for healing, especially any more serious problems.” Ah yes, he’d been the only one with that bright green in the group, so it made sense that that was what he’d focus on.

Having savored his own sip, Lochlann agreed, “Longer magical workings, as well. Something like this would digest easily while still giving you everything you need to keep going. You said it was just fruit, sugar, and ice?” His words had taken on a hint of hesitation at the end, and she realized it was because he was essentially asking for the recipe.

Unlike some of the novels she’d read, she hadn’t seen the intensely jealous guarding that most of the cooking themed books contained. She was honestly happy to share something helpful and yummy, but maybe not everyone would see it that way. Regardless, smoothies weren’t exactly hard to make…

“Yeah. It’s super easy. Just get a big bowl, dump in cleaned fruit, without any seeds or cores, obviously. Add some sugar, milk or juice if you want, then I use water magic to make ice blades to blend it all together. Depending on your preference, it can be thicker if you add less liquid, and you have to be careful of temperature control because if you drink a lot of it while super chilled it’ll give you what we call brain freeze. Not all that harmful, but not fun either and not really what you want while you’re working on something. You can even add leafy greens for more nutrition, though that doesn’t taste as good to me. So yeah. You can basically just throw in whatever you have or want.” Obviously, taste would differ, but that was implied.

“And it can be kept easily?” Ryan was the one who interjected this time. A quick activation of her mana sight told her he was still breathing magic through his system constantly, training without fail. He probably wanted something he could take with him.

Giving him a wry smile, she shook her head, “Honestly, no. Mine was fine because my spatial storage has a preservation function. For most, it should be made fresh or it’ll start to separate out and go bad. The more ice used the longer you can probably prolong it, but even that has its limits. Sorry.” She felt bad for dashing his hopes, but also didn’t want to give them food poisoning.

“Ah.” His disappointment was palpable, and she realized there was a distinct dearth of spatial mages in this group. The only one with a small affinity was Tao, but she didn’t know how to explain that his ability felt more related to movement than storage. Like a poor puppy dog, Ryan gave her a hopeful smile as he asked, “And I don’t suppose there’s a way to get one of those from you?” The silence that fell was palpable as eager eyes turned towards her, waiting with bated breath.

She glanced at Camille for help, given their discussion this morning. The request surprised her, though she supposed she’d walked right into that one. Thankfully, the princess easily stepped in to save her. “Unfortunately the supply is extremely limited at the moment, as it requires Jade’s personal expertise and energy and we have many people still waiting for one.”

Translation: we don’t have enough for us; don’t even think about it for now. Which was true. Now, could she make some smaller ones for them? For sure. And maybe that’s what she should focus on for the foreseeable future. She tended to prefer quality over quantity, but quantity would help a lot more people live comfortably. Carrying around their own personal emergency to-go ring wasn’t a bad idea.

She mentally cataloged some of the ideas. One cubic foot wasn’t much, but it could hold a dagger and some rations. To hold a sword, it probably had to be at least four feet long. A bow would be five or six. A spear could be up to like eight. The two rings she’d made earlier were to help the girls move furniture, but that wasn’t something everyone needed. Just enough space to hold your weapon and some supplies would go a long way, and you could get it according to your needs.

With business and marketing plans swirling around her brain, she missed some of the conversation as the food was served, robotically moving it to her mouth and chewing as she considered the pros and cons. Mass producing would be great, but it would also make a guard’s job way more dangerous, because you never knew what people were carrying. That was a constant worry and the rings wouldn’t exactly be easy to check. Maybe she could make some spatial vision glasses to use at checkpoints? That actually wasn’t a bad idea. She could have Damian make her some more clear glass to experiment with. Most of what she had was tinted to make sunglasses or pretty colors to decorate with. She also wanted to see if she could attach mana sense to the lenses. It seemed a trip to her favorite glassmaker should be scheduled sometime in the near future.

A soft jab in her good side brought her back to present as Camille smiled across her at Lochlann. They’d been talking around her without her even paying attention, but the princess obviously wanted her present as she smiled politely, “I’m sure Jade will be happy to hear that.”

Wait, what did she miss?