He frowned a little at her smooth rejection, then argued, “I think he normally meets with them before the official ceremony anyways. And you won’t be a surprise; I’ll just send a note ahead telling him you’re coming with me.”
With no graceful exit in sight without offending the princeling, she held in a sigh of exasperation. “Very well, I’ll happily accept your invitation in that case. I do need to freshen up, so perhaps you’ll excuse me while you send the message on ahead?”
He finally seemed to notice that she had on the bare minimum to be ‘modest’ and that her hair was in a barely contained disarray. He nodded. “Is half an hour enough time?”
Grateful, she nodded back. “That’ll be plenty, thank you. I’ll just excuse myself then.” She glanced at Raphael. “Thanks again.” He nodded, bid Prince Will a good day, then walked off. She managed to casually bump against both of the meatheads, Evan and Adam, she reminded herself, and Jackson, who she’d conveniently and purposefully sat next to.
As she was about to walk past Britney, she saw the girl slide her foot out just far enough to trip her. Thankfully she saw it in time and was just about to avoid it when an evil plan formed in her mind. Instead of avoiding the foot, she stepped down on it as hard as she could, using the momentum to fall directly at Britney. She caught herself on Britney’s arms, discretely pinching her skin as hard as she could.
“Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t see your foot there in the middle of the walkway.” Britney had squealed a little when she’d pinched her, but the others would assume it was just from almost being run into. However, with what she said, the others began to peer at her suspiciously as Jade continued. “That’s a bit dangerous. In the future, you should probably keep your feet to yourself.” Her face was filled with innocence, all except her eyes, which had turned decidedly frosty again. “It would be a pity if someone were carrying something and smashed your pretty face.” The boys at the table openly guffawed as she straightened up, waltzing off triumphantly. She didn’t have to glance back to know Britney was white as a sheet.
She went upstairs, singing softly under her breath, “What goes around, goes around, goes around, comes all the way back around…”
Walking into her room, she searched through her clothes until she found the nicest things she had. Taking them with her to the bathroom, she stared at herself in the mirror. Now that she could see herself, she noted that she had filled out a little more. None of her bones were jutting out anymore, and her eyes had stopped looking sunken in.
She glanced longingly at the bath, but knew she didn’t have time to soak. She would kill for a shower right now though. That spurred another thought, and she grinned, stripping down. As she started the water, she focused, stepping into the tub for safe measure. Directing the water to flow over her to collect any sweat or dirt she’d accumulated over the day yesterday, she smiled and let it drop into the drain. She felt refreshed, and it had taken less than two minutes to get herself entirely clean.
She dressed in her finest, then spent the next twenty minutes struggling with her hair. The fact that she didn’t have any pins to use was a problem, but she got around it. Everyone she’d seen the last two days either had their hair down or in a low ponytail at the base of their skull. She had begun to think that was another class thing, but it could also just be that the people who had to work just found it more convenient to tie it back. She had chosen to intricately braid the top part into a crown on her head, figuring that different was better at this point. She tucked the ends in so that it wouldn’t come loose, vowing to make bobby pins if they didn’t already exist.
Vainly, she gazed in the mirror, wishing she had some sort of jewelry. She’d never been allowed to pierce her ears before, but she hadn’t seen any women here who were wearing earrings either. She was going to have to change that if it wasn’t a thing. She wouldn’t even have to wait the customary 2-3 weeks she’d heard people complain about, because she could just heal her ears up around the hole immediately. She grinned, realizing she’d never have to worry about an infection or even a cold. Before, she’d been terrified of getting infected, given that she had next to no immune system.
“Good as it’s going to get, I guess.” She smiled at her mostly normal appearance, then opened the door and made sure her room was locked before going downstairs. She held her head high as she entered the room, serenely walking across the room and towards Prince Will, who had stood up and was studying her with open curiosity. She stopped in front of him, greeting him softly. “Thank you for waiting, Prince Will. I’m ready now.”
He offered her his arm, which she took gracefully. “Then let’s go. I have to say, I wasn’t expecting quite this transformation. My sisters take much longer to do much less. I’m sure they’ll love this new hairstyle.”
She nodded as he opened the door, leading her through. She had paused just long enough while he was doing so to cast a smug smirk back at Britney, who looked ready to spew fire. She didn’t intend to start anything, but she refused to be a pushover. If the other girl wasn’t willing to be friendly, well, she figured she could figure out how to play dirty too. She had MAGIC. There were probably all sorts of things she could do, and no one would be any wiser. For her sake, she hoped the girl gave up on her petty jealousy and hostility.
They made small talk as they walked through the streets, and Will was fairly helpful. He seemed to have an opinion on every shop they passed, and she quickly learned who was known for the best quality work and who had mages working there. She realized she’d been missing a discreet little symbol on the crude shop signs that designated that magic was used in the production of their wares. It was almost like a blocky M with a little circle on top connected to the middle tine. Either that or a sideways capital E with a little circle coming out of the middle left. If she looked at it another way, it was a stick figure that instead of having legs, had their arms in that drooped robot position, and their arms were super long gorilla arms. Either way, she found it strange.
They had finally reached a part of the town she’d never been to before, coming up a hill to a giant wall and gate that she wasn’t sure how she’d missed. But given that she’d been totally preoccupied with the shops in front of her, she supposed it wasn’t too strange that she hadn’t seen it since the walls weren’t visible from where she’d been spending her time. She was trying to figure out how the walls had been put together, since they appeared to be solid stone. Turning to Will, she asked, “Were the walls made by an earth mage or something?”
He seemed surprised by her insight, then said simply, “Yes. The entire palace was created by the first king, King Alfred, hundreds of years ago. He was an earth mage of extraordinary power. It’s because of him that the kingdom has grown to be what it is today.”
She nodded, staring at the walls in awe. She’d felt the power drain just from using her water magic like she had this morning. It hadn’t wiped her out, but she’d felt it. The guards looked like they were about to stop them until they recognized Will, at which point they merely saluted him respectfully. As they passed through the grey gates, she stopped, staring.