Chapter Seventeen - Lunch? Telemar? Acupuncture/Needles? Tide?

She could see Camille was laughing at her expense, but it didn’t really bother her, given that she had been spacing out again. “Sorry, I tend to get lost in my thoughts. What am I happy to hear?”

“Oh, we just worked out a deal to trade some of our more specialized materials for you to enchant our rings.” Lochlann looked pleased, and she sat back a little so she could side eye the royals sitting on either side of her as she tried to figure out what was going on.

Taking pity on her, Camille explained, “Materials such as seeds of the rarer and more powerful herbs they grow.” OH. That did pique her interest. While she was like ninety percent sure she could grow them herself, having the base to work with would be fantastic. Not to mention they probably had things she wouldn’t think of on her own, because unfortunately, she was not omnipotent and most of her plant based research had been floral and food related.

Sure, she’d peripherally known about Traditional Chinese Medicine, which was probably the closest thing Earth got to alchemy. But to be fair, there hadn’t been anyone at her hospital who practiced it, she didn’t know Chinese and couldn’t translate it herself, and she wasn’t really sure how much of the novels she’d read were actually accurate. Could she recreate the acupoint chart because she’d been curious about it at one point? Absolutely. Did she have any idea how they actually worked and thought about trying to stick needles in people? No freaking way. Book knowledge, in this aspect, was absolutely insufficient.

And she didn’t need to worry about that, at least. She doubted needles would be more efficient than her healing magic. Although…she supposed it was worth thinking about again, because they frequently affected the chi of the body. Except no. She wasn’t going to randomly stick pointy metal into herself and hope it worked, even if she’d done objectively crazier things.

But just to be on the safe side, she nodded and asked, “Cool, that does sound great. Out of curiosity, is acupuncture a thing here?”

“Ah…no, I don’t think so. What is it?” Camille looked at Lochlann, who shook his head in equal befuddlement.

Flummoxed, Jade tried to explain, “It’s uh…a thing. Where some doctors stuck needles into you. For reasons.” They looked horrified, so she quickly waved her hand. “Don’t worry about it, healing magic is way more effective and I’m not going to try and stab anyone. I honestly don’t know what it really did, but it was just something talked about in stories.” Well. She knew there were people who did do it and swore by it, but without personal experience she wasn’t willing to vouch for it personally.

There were conversations going all around the table, having moved on from the one big muddle when she spaced out and Camille started haggling. Trying to have twenty people maintain a single conversation wasn’t exactly practical outside of a classroom setting. The rest of the royals were spread out with those they felt more comfortable with, and she could see a couple of them feeding a blissful Eris. Her own littles were sitting by various people who’d fed them, and she realized they’d gone into reconnaissance mode too. Even Gaara and Rasu had hopped onto the table and were inspecting people as they were fed and admired.

It was a good thing the table was plenty big enough to have space between the plates for the bonded to roam. The delegation seemed to find the small companions quite novel, which was fair considering all she’d seen them have so far were the rooda, and they didn’t stay small for long.

“Yes, well. I think I’ll stick to normal healing.” Lochlann replied, drawing her back in.

“Totally understandable.” Jade agreed. By the way, this is lovely.” She waved her fork of unidentified breaded meat before popping it into her mouth. The flavors were delicate, tantalizing her taste buds without overwhelming them.

Chuckling softly, he replied, “I’m glad you like it. I wasn’t sure you were even tasting anything.” A very faint blush came to her cheeks, but she tamped down the reaction. She wasn’t going to apologize for something more than once.

She continued to eat nonchalantly, glad Camille sat on her left so it was slightly less noticeable that she wasn’t really using that hand to eat. So much for staying out of sight when she was injured. Still, she used a tiny wind blade to chop her food into bite sized pieces as she admonished him, “I might be distracted, but my taste buds didn’t stop working.”

He raised his hands in surrender and she grinned, working with enjoyment through her food. She quickly finished one plate, glancing over the table at the various options on display. Not wanting to reach for things, she simply airlifted her food straight to her plate before chopping it up and beginning to devour it once again.

Shaking his head, Lochlann commented wryly, “That’s one way to do things.”

Laughing, she replied, “It’s efficient. No reaching over people or having to make them pass whatever it is. It’s also training my fine control over the elements, which comes in handy when you’re doing delicate work. I have enough tiny projects that being able to delicately wield whatever I want is important.”

From the side, Lars piped in, “You’re really good at it. I could feel what you’re doing, but I don’t think I have that level of control.” A little sheepishly, he added, “Your skill must be insanely high. The elemental dominance was overpowering.” That meant he’d poked at her magic to see if he could control it, and she hadn’t even noticed. Probably because it was such a weak blip to her that it didn’t register, but that was something she’d have to work on. She wanted to know when people were trying to mess up her magic.

“Hmmm.” Her smirk said she knew what he was asking surreptitiously. She stared him down as he grinned cheekily before finally saying, “Yeah, it’s in master.” You could hear a pin drop.

“I’m sorry, I must’ve misheard that. You said master?” Lochlann’s eyes were wide, and he repeated it as if trying to come to terms with the enormity of the bomb she’d just dropped.

Smiling ever so innocently, she reminded them, yet again, that she was someone they didn’t want to cross as she confirmed, “Yeah. I’ve got a few things at that level, but you know, advancements really slow down once you hit those ranks.”

“Haven’t you only been here a couple weeks?” Lars asked with wide eyes. She could tell the wind mage was absolutely confounded by the thought.

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“I have my ways.” She said, and it sounded smug even to her. Lochlan was rubbing the bridge of his nose as he processed, while Cami seemed pleased that she was baffling everyone else. She was probably corrupting the people around her so that they, too, enjoyed inflicting torment on people. Probably so they didn’t feel so alone in hopping on her crazy train.

“I feel like we shouldn’t even be surprised anymore.” Lochlann admitted softly, and she put her fork down, reaching over to pat him on the shoulder.

“You really shouldn’t.” She agreed consolingly. “It’s better to just accept that nothing is ever really impossible around me.” There were always way too many weird things going on in her life. She was basically an infinite superhero. Or a mad scientist. Or a hormonal teenager. You just never knew which version of her you were gonna get.

“Okay. I’ll keep that in mind.” He said wearily, sounding a wee bit overwhelmed. She couldn’t help but wonder if he’d ever get nightmares about her. Maybe she ought to go easy on the bloke, because he kinda sounded like he was on the way to a heart attack with how much stress she caused him.

“Chin up. Things will get better.” She said optimistically as she gave him one last pat, then went back to devouring delicious food.

She made it through seven more plates and a bunch of small talk before lunch came to an end amongst the growing awe and horror about where it was all going. “Do you frequently eat that much?” Katie asked, patting her stomach as if trying to figure out what would happen to her if she tried.

Laughing, Jade glanced at Lochlann as she said cheerfully, “Yeah, sorry for trying to eat you out of house and home. My energy requirements are a bit insane and I was kinda low before we got here. But I’ve also got a skill for it, so that helps.”

“Another skill? For eating?” Lars shook his head in bewilderment. “How do you even get that?”

She couldn’t help but laugh. “Well. It’s not really something I was able to do much of before I came here, so it was something I had to learn.”

“You couldn’t…eat?” Katie sounded horrified.

Apollos chimed in as the group started to split apart, she assumed into those who were alchemists and those who were not. “That doesn’t sound healthy.”

“It wasn’t.” She realized this group hadn’t been there during her little lesson with Jamil, so they hadn’t seen her sickly visage. And while the word was slowly getting out, she doubted the different delegations spoke all that much. They were mingling some at the ball and the arena, but it seemed unlikely the Resaigh group spilled the beans. Giving a half shrug, she didn’t really feel like explaining it again right now, so she just said, “Basically my entire life before this world was spent reading books because I could do nothing else.”

There. That was fairly succinct. She could tell they still had questions, but her semi-dismissive tone warned them away from asking too much. Either that or the lack of even her usual polite smile was a clear sign she was done with the topic. Looking at the group breaking away with tiny respectful bows, she asked as she looked at those left behind, “So this is our alchemy party?”

To be fair, the group was inflated with her royal companions and their two loyal shadows, aka guards. One of the advisors, Lochlan, Tao, Katie, and Apollos were all that stayed, making them an equal dozen. She was both the most excited for and wary of Katie. Mostly because her main element was compulsion, and yet she was this completely innocent bubbly persona with the added splash of being the only spirit practitioner present. It really depended on if she’d learned to use her spiritual sight to peer into the secrets of the living. Unlikely, but the possibility was there.

Seeming oblivious to the intense scrutiny to which Jade was subjecting her, the cheerful girl confirmed as she introduced the ambassador, “Yeah, Duke Telemar is our teacher, and Apollos is obviously his best student. The rest of us are just decent.” She stuck her tongue out at Apollos, who rolled his eyes at her antics. He might be young, but he didn’t seem overly arrogant.

Meanwhile, the duke held out his hand to her as he said, “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced before this. I’m Duke Craig Telemar.” He was an older man, mostly balding but with a bright smile that matched the neon yellow tunic he wore. It was one of the brightest colors she’d seen people wearing, and as she looked at his affinities, she understood why. Apart from the dark green of nature magic that seemed common among them, his primary element was lightning, with wind, water, earth, and metal.

He was honestly a nature mage in the truest sense of the word. Ren warned her that the affinity got stronger if they had more of the supporting elements…and he had them all. It was no wonder he could climb to the top ranks, because she couldn’t see a single type he’d neglected.

“Lovely to meet you, Duke Telemar. I’m looking forward to learning with such an accomplished teacher.” She smiled as he laughed jovially and led them out of the room, her little ones rejoining her with images and conversations that she recorded with a quick crystal from her ring before anyone could notice. “Thank you, my loves.” She sent gratefully to them. There wasn’t really a chance to process them, but her bond allowed her to record them for later. It was a weird realization, but helpful.

Meanwhile, Craig showed them to their workroom, which was only a few doors down. She could see where Apollos got his humility from, however, as the duke replied, “I can’t take all the credit. While I’ve done my own experimenting, the best alchemy is a community effort. A rising tide lifts all boats, and sharing insights with each other is how humanity will fight the flow of darkness.”

“I like that.” The words slipped from her mouth with a smile as they followed him into the room, greeting by…just about what she would have expected from an alchemist’s lab. Burners, beakers, cauldrons, mortar and pestle, along with an entire wall that mimicked a vault storeroom, each compartment meticulously labeled with ingredients. The far end held most of the mixing contraptions next to a window that could be easily opened, and she realized it was set up to fumigate if necessary. Putting it that close to glass meant they probably didn’t expect explosions, but nasty smells? Sure.

“I think maybe we’ll wait outside, if that’s okay.” Hunter suggested, and she looked at him curiously. The room wasn’t that large, but having them in there wasn’t a huge problem…and then she realized. None of them had nature magic, and Eris…was a baby raphna.

Lochlann immediately stepped up, waving one of his attendants over. “That’s fine. Are you sure you wish to go outside? We have plenty of rooms you can rest in. I’m sure we can supply anything you need.”

Shaking his head, Hunter asserted, “No, I’d like to get Eris a little more used to other bonded, and I could use a walk.”

“Oh, good. Take Gaara and Rasu with you.” Camille said, and Jade realized that cooping them up inside while they played with plants and fire was probably not the greatest idea.

“I’ll take them.” Hayden piped in, holding his arms out for the beann, who took a hopping glide to transfer over curiously. He’d won them over a bit, but they were still wary of Tisha. Maybe it was because he was the only other person who caught any of their friends instead of killing them during the expedition.

“I’ll come out too. I’m no good with this stuff.” Tisha honestly admitted, and Jade agreed that it was probably a better idea for the playful princess to burn off some energy with the rooda.

“Very well. Anderly will remain nearby if you need anything or wish to come back in.” Lochlann arranged, nodding to the middle aged man who’d come at his liege’s beckon. He’d been quietly arranging things in the background this whole time.

Camille was obviously determined to stay with her, and her talents with earth, water, and life magic made her the most qualified of the royals to actually get something out of the lesson.

“All right, you guys have fun, we’ll catch up with you later.” She sent a thought query to her fellacai, and everyone except Willow decided to go outside, fluttering over to Tisha to catch a ride with her, much to the girl’s delight. Willow chose to reposition directly above Jade’s forehead, perching there regally as she watched everyone, much to their amusement. With one last wave and a nod from Camille to the guards which sent them following the younger members, the second group departed. She had a feeling some of the other members who’d absconded would find them sooner or later.

Grinning at the remaining alchemists, she asked, “So, where do we start?”