She smiled beautifully at him, and he coughed in embarrassment when he recalled he’d just been complaining about her. He went white with shock when Princesses Tisha and Camille walked out from behind the other guards, and Tisha looped her arm through Jade’s. “Well, that’s all settled then. Let’s go!”
Camille merely gave the guard a very, very cold smile as she said simply, “Thank you for the information. I’m sure both Father and Eric will be happy to know that their orders are being followed so...willingly.”
The guard bowed low, his face now a military mask of detached calm, though his eyes betrayed his panic. “I apologize if I have caused any offense to Lady Jade or the princesses.”
Jade put a hand on Camille’s arm, then turned to the soldier. “It’s fine, no harm done. Thank you for moving the unnecessary things out for me.” With that she gently pulled on Camille, saying simply, “Time to go.” Camille looked a little reluctant to leave without enacting some more mental punishment on the soldier, but seemed mollified that Jade wasn’t upset. She led them towards the building mentioned, and Jade stared in awe at the massive structures on the way. Every building was huge, at least 4-5 stories each, and she counted at least four different training fields.
Welcome to Dracona, where apparently everything was at least three times bigger. This was no school for ants.
Chapter Twenty-Four – Workshop
Camille led them to one of the largest buildings with a grin. “So, this is the Magnus Crafting Center, named after the third king, King Magnus. He’s the one who founded the academy. I’m a little surprised they got you a room here, because this is where most of the afternoon classes are held.”
Jade and Tisha stared in awe as they entered the giant building, though Jade quickly neutralized her expression. There were a few people coming and going who all gave the princesses little bows of respect as they passed, gawking curiously at the girl walking with them. As the subject of their curiosity, Jade just smiled enigmatically and tried not to show how much she was in awe of this place.
It was a huge square building with two stairwells that impressively went all the way to the fifth floor from what she could see from the bottom. In the center of the building was what she assumed would be a courtyard, but it only went up two stories. Thankfully, Camille interjected. “There are three practice courtyards, one on floors 1-2, one on 3-4, and one that’s open air on the fifth. There are twenty classrooms per floor on floors 2-5. Floor one is mainly offices and personal workshops of the professors. There’s also a few shopfronts where you can buy the things other students have made in their classes.”
She led them up the stairwell, pausing on floor two. “This is where all the Magic Classrooms are. It’s actually quite strange that your room is…” She paused in front of the first door, which distinctly read ‘2A.’ With a look of understanding, she smiled. “Nevermind, it makes sense now. They gave you the blood magic classroom. We haven’t had a teacher for that in ages, so it hasn’t been used.”
Jade winced inwardly. Did they know? This felt like bad karma. Still, she took the key and inserted it into the lock, drawing the curious scrutiny of a few people who were lounging in the hall nearby. They were taking a rest, and she figured they might have been the ones moving the furniture because there was a stack of desks still sitting next to them as if waiting to find a new home.
Upon walking into the classroom, she forgot all about her supposed bad karma. Huge windows let in copious amounts of the light emitted by the setting sun. She realized she was on the west side, so she’d always be able to see the sunset. Happy with that realization, she took inventory of the rest of the room.
The desks she’d seen earlier had left their marks on the stone floor, the places where they’d been appearing lighter, protected from the wear of time or the collection of dust. Speaking of, she could tell they’d done a light cleaning, but the layer of dust wasn’t something a light brush off was going to fix.
She was happy to find that she had almost an entire wall of shelves and several large tables new to the room were spread about evenly. There was also a small section of the room that was a little different, given that there was a small couch, chair, and table, creating a cozy little sitting area in one corner near the window. The room was big and perfect!
“This is amazing!” She couldn’t help but gasp out her admiration. Camille and Tisha had been walking around inspecting everything too. They grinned and nodded.
“They did a good job at getting you the right room. This way, you’ll be close enough that you can come over between classes if you need to without having to run all over campus!”
Jade grinned, “I know, it’s great! Let’s get everything out! I can’t wait to start playing with it! I mean...practicing. I want to practice.” She grinned ruefully as Camille just stuck out her tongue.
Camille walked over to the little sitting area, trying to pull out the coolbox when she frowned and hesitated, “Uhm… We may have a little problem? I don’t quite think I’m strong enough to get all this out without breaking it…”
Jade frowned. This was a problem. Strength wasn’t the forte of any of the girls, though she knew Camille and Tisha were still stronger than her… Thinking of something, she grinned. “No worries, I got this!” Walking to the door, she opened it to find the group of men still sitting there, occasionally glancing at her door. It appeared they were waiting on word of where to take the desks. She smiled innocently at them and called out, “Excuse me, but we could use some help unpacking a few things that are too heavy for us, and we don’t want to accidentally break them. Can someone come help us?”
She wasn’t usually a fan of acting like the damsel in distress, but she really didn’t want her stuff to get ruined before she even got to use it! She was gratified to see that her little ploy had worked though. They had all been watching the room far too curiously, especially once they saw her enter with the princesses. It looked like they were having a staring match before a few of them won out. Four of them started walking over smugly, having stared down the others with their intimidation.
“We’d be happy to help you, miss…?” The guy who exhibited the most authority had both offered their unpaid labor and asked for her name without blinking. She nicknamed him Tarzan in her head because his dark brown dreads were tied back in a ponytail and he more or less had the same muscled physique, as far as she could tell.
She grinned and articulated, “Lady Jade. It’s a pleasure to meet you all, and thank you for the help. If you’ll just follow me, Camille and Tisha are waiting.” Let them think what they would of her leaving off their titles. They nodded and she led them inside. Camille looked a little startled that she had come back so quickly, then quickly smiled and turned princess mode back on.
“Baronet Tristan, Sir Darian, Sir Dashiel, Sir Prescott. It’s lovely to see you again. Have you come to help us settle Jade in?” Camille had greeted them in turn so Jade could see exactly which one was which on purpose. Jade smiled gratefully, having quickly caught on to what she was doing. She promptly offered each of them her hand as well, intent on collecting her blinking dots.