“Was because I didn’t exist in this world until yesterday morning when I woke up here.” She was watching his reaction in particular, since this was the first time he’d spoken. The way he was lounging on the chair felt more like he was a panther at rest, but ready to strike at any moment. His dark clothing probably lent to that assumption, given that he was mostly wearing black with a few hints of blue, like his very dark blue eyes and a handkerchief sticking out of his pocket. He was only lightly tanned, and his black hair was neatly trimmed. All in all, he seemed to fit the tall, dark, and handsome stereotype pretty well. Unlike the gladiator, he wasn’t plainly wearing weapons, but she could see small bulges where she figured they were concealed.
It seemed probably Eric’s curiosity was peaked at this point, because he leaned forward, asking intently, “You don’t seem like any of the travelers that have come before you, but let’s go with it and say for the moment that you are a traveler. Did you have magic in your old world?” Okay, so they didn’t believe her, but they were at least giving her the benefit of the doubt.
She shook her head, deciding to be honest. “Only in stories.”
Probably Jarom interjected at this point. “Then how did you heal that girl? One day isn’t enough to learn magic.” He sounded rather proud of himself for figuring out the hole in her logic, glancing triumphantly at the other two.
Here, she smiled smugly and quipped, “Maybe for you. I may not be strong right now, but the magic of your world seems to come decidedly easily to me. Part of that may be the special ability I was given when I got here though.” Okay, she threw in the last part to seem humble, plus she figured she needed to give them a reason for her future growth because hello, people were going to notice the changes.
“You have a special ability? What is it?” This was Eric chiming in again. Probably. Ugh, she needed to know.
“Before I answer, Raphael said your names, so I know what they are, but not which belongs to who. You’re Eric, right?” The book-man in the middle nodded. Okay, so that was the easy one. Generally, people in the middle are mentioned in the middle, but which one was first or last? Turning to her probably Stephen, she questioned, “And you’re Stephen?” She thought Raphael had looked at him first. When he nodded and gave her a charming smile with his very white teeth, she smiled more confidently. “So you’re Jarom. Okay. Thanks. I didn’t want to start calling you the wrong names.”
She paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts and preparing to lie with a completely straight, relaxed face. She cooed sweetly, “My special ability is called accelerated growth. It’s pretty straightforward; I’m growing and learning at a pretty amazing rate. So maybe that’s why magic is easier for me.”
Eric was making a note on the paper, and Stephen questioned further. “Raphael mentioned you were a dual mage. We know you’re a healer, but what else can you do?” Jarom seemed to be sulking a little bit that his reveal that she was a fraud might be wrong.
She glanced at the table, where Stephen had a glass of water in front of him. She indicated it, asking quietly, “May I?” He nodded, and she put her hand above it. She focused on calling the water, and it started to slide into the air, creating a water blob that she hovered and made spin around a bit before it went back into the cup. “I learned to heal first. I was taken to meet the healer Mike when I was experiencing sudden growth pains. I could feel what he did to me a little bit, and then when I tried to reproduce it later, I could. The water I learned on my own when I...” She paused, a little embarrassed to admit that she’d forgotten her towel. So she tweaked her story a little bit. “I wanted to dry my hands and didn’t have a towel.” There, no need to mention she’d been naked and cold.
“Fascinating.” Eric had stopped scribbling long enough to watch her demonstration, but he’d immediately started taking notes again as soon as she put it back. She smiled sweetly at them. The more they liked her, the better off she figured she would be. Plus, she still had to make them forget she’d been late, which at this point, it seemed they had. They also seemed to have forgotten their skepticism that she was a traveler in the wake of her story. “Tell me, you mentioned growing pains. What changed?”
She laughed softly. “What hasn’t changed is the better question!” She paused, considering. “As skinny as I am now, I was pretty much still a skeleton yesterday. You can ask anyone who saw me. I actually have muscles now!” She grinned infectiously while thinking about it. “My stats have even gone up a little.”
“Your stats changed? What were they before versus what they are now?” Eric had his quill poised above that section of the profile sheet now. She figured he’d have asked anyway eventually, but she didn’t want them to reject her because she was weak. Thus she had chosen to state some of her improvement directly, mostly because Jarom was still grumbling as if he was put out.
“Yeah, my strength went from a 7 to an 8, my dexterity from an 8 to a 9, my constitution went from a 7 to an 8, my intelligence from a 15 to a 16, my magic stayed at 11, charisma from 8 to 9, and my luck from 13 to 14.” She had pulled up her sheet to take a glance at it while she recalled what she’d started with yesterday. She’d spent long enough poring over her profile that she’d memorized the basics of her numbers because she wanted to see how they’d change.
Eric had been dutifully noting her numbers down, pausing only for a brief second when she uttered what her intelligence was. He’d glanced at the others and then gone back to jotting down numbers until she arrived at luck. It was Stephen who asked incredulously, “You have a fourteen in luck?” She nodded, and they exchanged glances.
Jarom seemed more of a straight shooter, and he retorted brusquely, “Well your physical stats suck, but we can work with those. You have abnormally high mental stats.” She gave a mental sigh of relief that he was letting go of his earlier annoyance, at least for the most part. Or at least enough that he wasn’t going to block her from entering just because she was currently weak.
She smiled and shrugged, deciding to share just a little bit more. “I was a cripple in my world, so my mind was all I had.” They had all winced at this, looking at her with what appeared to be a touch of pity. With a smile, she forged on, trying to change the subject a little bit. “So, is that enough for me to pass muster? I was really hoping to get a library pass from you guys.”
Eric let out a surprised bark of laughter, and the others soon joined in. It was Stephen who said, “You pass. I’ll get you a library pass.”
He stood up to move towards a cupboard at the side when Eric intervened. “Not that one. I’ll give her one of mine.”
Stephen and Eric seemed to be communicating silently as they stared at each other, and she could almost see the speech bubble above Stephen’s head going ‘Are you sure about that?’ Eric glanced at her smiling innocently and nodded, and Stephen seemed to shrug and give up. “Okay.” Meanwhile, Eric had pulled out a silver almost credit card like thing. He wrote her name so prettily on it, and she watched in fascination as he concentrated on the metal, and it was almost like…oh wait, it totally was magic.
Her name had been engraved on the freaking metal, and when he got up and handed her the card, she made sure to brush against his fingers ever so lightly so she could confirm her suspicions. She quickly mentally clicked on the new little pulsing light in her vision.