Chapter 22

Ariel spent a restless night tossing and turning as the day's events replayed in her mind, her hand scratching at the spot where the pendant should've been. I knew I should've hidden the necklace. Self-fulfilling prophecy? Do I make things worse with my thinking? But my thinking can't control other people's behaviour, and how would I stop these thoughts?

Beep, beep, beep. Her alarm went off a couple of minutes after she finally fell asleep.

Ugh... How am I supposed to face a school day with no sleep? She rolled out of bed and hit the floor with a thud. "Ow..." To her surprise, Jade didn't come running.

No sounds came from the house other than her light breathing and the buzz from electronics.

Maybe he's still asleep.

Ariel got changed in the bathroom and did her morning routine before climbing up and peeking into Jade's room. "Jade?" He wasn't there, and his bed had been done up neatly. "Hmm?"

Downstairs, she walked into the kitchen and heard the front door open. Oh crap.

"Hello?" Ariel called out.

"Hello," Jade replied as he kicked his shoes off and came in with a reusable cloth bag with the school logo of a snake on it.

"What is that?" She pointed at the bag.

"My uniform and schedule for today." He smiled.

"As in... for my school?"

"Naturally."

"How?"

"A little bit of magic on some easily influenced people. No trouble at all." He winked at her. "You should focus on eating your breakfast. Fuel for the day." Jade walked off with his bag.

He was serious? Ariel sat down in front of a beautiful bowl of yogurt with berries on display in the middle alongside a thin, cut pastry, with a milk tea on the side. Why does he bother with the fancy plating? She picked up the pastry. What is this? She bit into it. Is it phyllo dough? When does he have time to make this? How'd he have time to set things up with school when it's just after seven now?

"Oh." It's like having flaky piecrust. She re-dipped it into the yogurt and took another bite. "Mmm..."

"Am I to assume that sound means you're enjoying breakfast?" Jade came back to the kitchen with the school uniform on. A tucked-in button down white shirt, brown trousers, and school blazer. "I've never been fond of neckties, but I prefer to be proper." He slid up the tie to its spot.

Damn, he should be a model for those clothes. Ariel, what are you thinking?! He does look more his age and less like a CEO, though. "B-breakfast is delicious."

"Well, how do I look?" He readjusted the cuffs.

Afraid of staring too long, Ariel looked away from him, back at her food. "Handsome. Very handsome."

Resting his hand on the back of her chair, he leaned in close. "Thank you."

"B-but your hair will stand out. It's long than most females have it."

"I'm not cutting my hair."

"I wouldn't suggest that!" She turned to him, wide-eyed. "I meant use magic like you did with your ears."

"Oh. I don't think it's worth it, since humans can grow their hair long, too." He combed his fingers through her hair.

"I guess that's true. I can get you a scrunchie to keep with you to pull it into a ponytail when you need to."

"Sure, that would be helpful." Jade backed off and sat beside her at the table. He pulled a paper out of his bag and set it on the table.

"A schedule?" She read through it. "All of your classes are the same as mine? It's a wonder how you got into a school without ID, and you got them to match it... As you suggested you would do." A man of his word, but I suspected as much.

"It was easier than I expected it to be. Humans are much too susceptible to manipulation."

"Maybe because we don't have magic, so we don't have any defences against it."

Jade nodded.

"Did you eat breakfast?" Ariel asked.

"Yes, because I didn't know how long it would take to set things up. If I knew I would be done already, I would've waited and ate with you."

"Do you like eating breakfast with others?"

"Yes, though it's mostly with Orsted, who is a messy eater. No one is allowed to comment, and I'm the only one who eats... ate directly with him. We always ate right near our squadron, though." Jade gritted his teeth, thinking about him, wondering if he's eating properly. "Do you dislike eating with others?"

"Well, no, but it doesn't happen often. My brother's either away or eats before I'm awake, and... I'm alone at lunch and dinner." Geez, I sound pathetic. Not alone by choice.

"I suppose this will be a twist for you, then. I hope you don't grow tired of me."

"Ha... I don't think that'll ever happen. You've been the highlight of my day since you've arrived. Oh!" She gasped and covered her mouth. Learn to filter yourself!

"Thank you." Jade smiled. "I've never been told that. Orsted would usually complain I'm too stiff and need to learn to lighten up."

"Well, you're serious most of the time, but you've teased me and joked a little bit." Ariel bit her lips and stared into her empty bowl.

"That's not a part of my usual behaviour, I assure you, but you can't help but act differently depending on who you're around. I am Orsted's knight; I don't think I should joke around with him much. Especially since his sense of humour leaves a lot to be desired."

"Likes to joke, but isn't funny?"

"Basically. The rest of the knights will laugh at his jokes, though."

"I think that's a sign of how close you two are. You don't feel obligated to laugh at his jokes because of his status, but they do."

Jade nodded and stared at the scar on the back of his hand. "We are like brothers. I hope he's okay."

"I bet he's wishing for the same thing."

Orsted swiped his arms across his desk, knocking everything tumbling off of it, and scattering the papers. "He's still alive. I know it!"

"But Your Highness, we haven't been able to find any trace of him or his magic," his next-in-command, Erik said.

He slammed his fist on the desk. "Then you haven't been looking hard enough. I saw what happened to Jade, and he wasn't killed. That witch must've teleported him somewhere."

"We have the best magic trackers in the world, and not one can find a trace of his magic. You have to face it, eventually; Jade's gone. He's likely dead."

Orsted jumped out of his seat and slammed him into the nearby wall, gripping his throat. "Jade isn't dead. I can feel it. I know he's alive somewhere."

Erik struggled to breathe, but made no move to stop Orsted.

"Your Highness! Please stop this. It's not Erik's fault." Arnid, who was assisting Erik, dropped to his knees and bowed to Orsted, his head against the ground.

"Tch." Orsted tossed him aside and took a deep breath as he paced beside his desk and rubbed his face. "Don't you think I know that? But what am I supposed to do?" He tapped his chest. "I can feel that Jade is alive, so we must keep searching."

"Ahem," Arnid cleared his throat, still bowing. "If I may suggest, I think he might be on a different plane or a different planet. I'm confident in our abilities to find one of our own, but only on this planet. I don't think he's on Asath anymore."

Orsted stopped pacing and turned to him. "What was that? A different planet? Do you know of another inhabited planet nearby?"

"Not nearby, but we know they exist. If the witch teleported him to another world, we wouldn't be able to track him."

"When will the witch finally wake up? We need to question her."

"Her wound was severe, and her body went into a recovery state to preserve herself. We're still not certain she will survive."

Erik bowed down beside Arnid. "Until the witch wakes up, we will keep searching, and we will expand our research into other worlds if we can. If there is such powerful magic, it might be recorded somewhere. And if someone knows about it, they might be able to reverse it."

"I see... We're going to have to spread our resources, and I'll deal with the witch."

"Your Highness, that's not advisable. If she were to break out after waking up, she might find a way to attack you."

"Who do you think wounded her in the first place?"

"With Jade's help."

"Then I won't go alone, but I will question her. How do we wake her up?"

"She should wake up when she's done healing, which is slowed by our seals around her."

"Then lift the seals."

Arnid shook his head. "We can't do that, or the risk of her breaking out increases. It's too much of a risk."

"Tch. Then we'll have to heal her ourselves and increase the binding." Orsted flicked his hand up and both of them stood. "I want this done as soon as possible."

They saluted, about faced, and left.

Once the door closed, Orsted fell back into his chair and sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. "Jade, I hope you're okay."