Jade's Backstory

Ch 4 - A Purple Crystal

    Jade ran around the tree line, looking for a spot where his surroundings would be completely blocked, but without traversing into the minefield. The mushrooms were still invisible underneath the piles of leaves, making it way too unsafe for Jade to go in.
    Eventually, Jade found an easily accessible clearing which bordered the tree line. Jade was able to simply step in, and join the tall grass. The grass was a mix of orange, and yellow. Despite being so dried out, it was able to stand firm. Jade knew, that this was the one spot that those black mushrooms couldn't grow in. Something about awkwardly trying to growing over the tall grass.. natural selection decided it wasn't worth it. Even throughout all the seasons, the grass was resilient enough to stay year-round. Enough about the grass, what about the book?
    Jade went to the very center of the clearing, and took the book out of his sweater. It was a medium-sized book for what it was for; it was about the size of a school textbook, not that Jade could know. The leather was smooth, and there were thin leather strings holding the binding together. It's only just occurred to Jade that he had no idea what he was holding. Was it a story book? A journal? A rune book? The symbol on the front took up half the cover. It was beveled in to create bold, yet thin strokes. As much as I'd just say they were just strokes, the symbol ment way more than that to Jade. He had no idea why, but perhaps he'd find answers within? Nothing on the back of the book. He had to open it.
    The top of the first page read: "For my dearest love, Everly." Jade suddenly felt he was in the wrong place, like he really shouldn't have opened the book. That was until he read the bottom-half of the book: "The story and information you will find in this book is beyond the understanding of human magic." Human magic. To anyone, having those two words next to each other would make no sense. Jade kept reading; "Whether or not you're the person this book belongs to, whatever you learn from here is your sole responsibility to keep from falling into the wrong hands. The consequences will be disastrous if this book falls into the hands of- ..." The corner of the page was ripped off. Jade was intrigued again. The rest of the paragraph reads as follows: "... -hope this book will bring back memories if I shall fall early, and help our- ... -his full potential. With all my love, to both of you, Nair N- ..." The paragraph ends a few characters early.
Jade flips the page. "This story begins at Magiston Academy. I was forced to go here because of my mother, a powerful witch. It's a suitable title to take both literally, and figuratively. I hated it there. The snobby, rich children would always find ways to pick on me, the failed product of a powerful witch and warlock. The truth was, I didn't have an interest in magic. I never even wanted to be at that school in the first place! However, my attitude changed when I started talking to you. The first time we met was no big deal. You were trying to impress me with your low-level spells and hexes. I found it ironic how you'd wear such colorful robes and clothing, as you were studying to become a necromancer. As the first year passed, it took me some time to find out how you had stolen my heart..."
    In disgust, Jade skips pages until he finds the first illustration. The illustration showed a chalk drawing on the ground, with a boy in the center.
    "While studying the arts of creation, I had stumbled across a book in the library. Although I had found it in the fiction section, the science-fiction written in the book seemed too believable to be false. I was curious, so I set off to complete the ritual that happened in the story."
    Jade set the book down beneath the grass, and ran back to the lab. He needed to get a few things.
    Jade runs into the lab, immediately going towards the tool cabinet. "Ah, Jade. Did the wand work?" Dylan was by the heat-less forge. Jade stopped in his tracks. He had completely forgotten what he was sent off to do. Quick, come up with a lie- no, a half truth! "N-no- I mean I don't know. I couldn't find any mushrooms. They were all covered by the leaves." "Oh. That's what took so long." "Yeah, I went as far as exploring the tree line to find some exposed mushrooms." "Well, try to just point it near the trees. According to the merchant, that's all you'll have to do, and you'll know when it works." Dylan resumes his focus on his process to safely remove the paint from the trinket. Jade goes into the tool cabinet, and grabs a piece of sparkly-looking chalk. He decides to also bring a machete as well, thinking he could use it to chop the grass, and gather a certain something he might need for this 'ritual'. Jade successfully sneaks back off without Dylan looking back to see what he was doing in the tool cabinet.
    Jade was again, exploring the tree line. This time, he was looking for a certain type of fungi. The forest was mostly dominated by the black mushrooms that keep getting mentioned, but there were other species that were similar in the sense that they used magic to get themselves fertilizer. One specific variant was colored yellow, and shaped like a long, vertical cylinder. Jade looked along the line for a small glow through the leaves. A little less than all the way back to where he left his book, he found one. The bright, yet weak yellow glow came from about ten meters into the forest. Jade thought he could use the clearing to get closer. He was now five meters away from the glow.
    It took forever to find the glow, so Jade was determined to get to the mushroom somehow. After assessing what he had, he realized now would be the perfect time to test his wand.
    He slipped it off from his waist belt, and waved the tip over the leaves in front of him. Nothing. Jade hesitantly took a step into the leaves, and waved the wand around again. Nothing. He repeated this action about two meters into the forest, when there was a ZAP that knocked Jade onto his butt. This wasn't the work of a mushroom being set off. There was a light that came from the tip of his wand, and into a pile of leaves that sat near a tree. A mini-lightning-bolt came from the wand, kind of like a static shock. The leaves around where the lightning bolt landed had been flung into the air, making a clear patch of dirt visible. There were black mushrooms spreading out from a tree trunk to Jade's left. From what Jade could tell, it was a relatively dense population of mushrooms that spread about a meter in diameter away from the tree trunk. Leaves both clean, and dirty fell from around Jade.
Jade has managed to get himself covered in dirt and leaves.
    After getting up from his embarrassing endeavor, he realized that one of the black mushrooms now had a blue-ish shine to it. Jade waved his wand around the rest of the visible mushrooms expertly, all in one movement. The static shocks didn't feel nearly as powerful as Jade initially percieved it, as all the power apparently went into the ground where the fungi was. The leaves still flew everywhere, revealing more space that wasn't visible before, including the space where the three yellow mushrooms were. Jade was able to safely get to them. Two of the shrooms were huddled together, one blocking the other's stem. The third was sitting at a comfortable 1.5 feet by itself to the right of the two others. Something about the yellow glow looked pretty, almost like they were the forest's gemstones. Jade had to remind himself with how deadly these 'gemstones' can really be. Jade slips the wand back under his waistband. He takes the machete out of its sheath, crouches down, and tries to cut the stem, being extra careful not to touch the cap.
    ZAP! There was another bolt from the wand. This time, it went through Jade's leg. His legs forced himself to jump full force backwards into the air. The electric shock really did feel like a bolt of lightning; Jade could now tell you that much. Jade almost hits a tree, but luckily for him, his fall is broken by something soft- actually multiple, rounded soft things. Wait..
    Jade immediately recognized the sensation of falling back-first into a bunch of soft, yet deadly fungi.
    Frozen in fear, he was ready for the worse.
    He closed his eyes. The red glow came through his eyelids, and confirmed his fear.
    His life flashed before his eyes.
    He could see Dylan, showing Jade how to safely traverse through the forest. Their multiple trips would teach Jade how to be safe, eventually giving him the privilege to explore the forest by himself at seven!
    Jade remembers the countless times he and Dylan went on 'adventures', that were really just them gathering samples from plants and info from stars and people.
    Jade can see the ruined village, before, and after the incident.
    Despite how much this child has learned, he realized how little he had actually done in the past twelve years. He was disappointed. He wanted to do more. He wasn't finished. He wasn't okay with this. He... has been waiting a while to explode.
   The black mushrooms didn't burst. Of course they were big enough to, Jade could tell just by laying on them. Jade opens his eyes, only to find himself lying on his back, and staring directly at the sun.
    He very slowly, and cautiously rolled off of the bed of death, and into the leaf-less dirt. Jade gets up, bewildered about what just happened. He looks at his surroundings. His machete was stuck in the tree he almost hit, and the mushrooms he fell on had a blue-ish shine to them. Thank. God. With the amount of mushrooms there, anyone without magical protection would be blown to bits; but even if you would have that protection (as Jade did), you'd still be sent waaay above the trees, only to come back down, and hit the floor as hard as the mushrooms would've hit you. At least this near-death experience proved that the wand works... and that it could seriously shock someone half to death. Jade takes out the wand from his waistband, gripping it tightly. He had the urge to throw that stick into the bushes, in hopes that a black mushroom would see it as a foriegn object. Instead, he dropped it behind him. Jade pulled the machete out of the tree, and went back to the yellow mushrooms to try again.
    He crouched down to make his second attempt to harvesting this yellow gemstone. This time, the third yellow mushroom was completely dimmed out. It now had a blue-ish shine to it. It was the easiest one to get, as it was by itself with the stem completely exposed. The other two were close together, one without a stem, blocking the clear cut of the other one's stem. Jade had to carefully cut the stem of one mushroom without touching the other. The thing about these yellow mushrooms, is that by touching the cap (or having the cap touch something else), it would emit high levels of magic radiation. It wouldn't blow up, but it would still take only a fraction of a second to blast the life out of any living creature. Again, there's no guarantee Jade's protection would work. He lined up the machete to the stem of the exposed mushroom, and the opposite side where the stem-less one was. He held the machete with both arms, layed on the ground, and planted his elbows into the dirt. He calmed himself and his breathing, then put the machete to the stem. He moved his hands to create a thrusting motion, which slowly, but surely, was cutting through the stem. Each slice was maybe a millimeter deeper into the stem. Slow and steady.
    When Jade had gotten near the end of the stem, he noticed the mushroom cap itself wasn't shining as bright anymore. One more slice should do it. One more slice, then he'll touch the cap of the other mushroom, effectively destroying all his cells. Jade pulled the blade out, thinking it wasn't worth it anymore. While he did this, he didn't realize it until the mushroom he was cutting fell to the floor. The stem was so weak, that the entire mushroom was basically just resting on the machete. Thankfully, the mushroom was no longer glowing. It was incapable of emitting anything fast enough to kill, and as such, didn't explode in radiation.
    After holding his breath for the mushroom to fall, Jade exhaled in a huge, relieved sigh. He rolled to the side without the still-intact glowing gemstone, and got up from his back. He looked down at the mushroom, and picked it up with his bare hands. It wasn't dangerous anymore, Jade was that sure of it.
   Although, there is one thing he wasn't sure about. The wand. What'll happen if Jade picked up the wand while he was holding the mushroom? He didn't want to chance his reward. Jade followed the dirt path back into the clearing, while maintaining his distance away from the wand. He finds where he left the book, and sets the mushroom on top of said book. Jade takes his machete back out, and starts slashing at the dried grass. The grass's brittle nature was it's own downfall; literally. It took him about thirty minutes of slashing to completely clear all the grass. Jade sits down, out of breath from swinging his machete around like a maniac. He looks up, and notices that he's been away long enough for the sun to move significantly. Jade sets down the chalk on top of the book also, and face-palms at his own thinking. How was he supposed to draw with chalk in loose dirt?
    No time to problem-solve right now. Jade had to run back home before Dylan went looking for him. Jade went back to the path he made, and grabbed the wand.
    As Jade ran along the tree line, he spotted a party of three on the horizon, all on horseback. Jade couldn't make out many details, as they were too far away to do so. Jade was curious about why they were there, but it probably wasn't his business.
     When Jade got back to the lab, Dylan greeted him with: "There you are! Did the wand work?" Jade replies: "Yep! The wand struck down all the mishrooms!" Dylan gets up from his desk, reaches towards Jade's hair, and pulls off a leaf. "So, I take it you used the opportunity to play in the leaves?" "A-ah! Yes! It was.. nice not to.. worry about getting hurt." Dylan shows an expression of confusion, and slight concern. "Jade, what really happened? Did you manage to step on another mushroom?" "Oh, w-well.." Dylan notices the side of Jade's pants has a burnt hole in it. "Whoa! How did you do this?" "The wand.." "Did it hurt you?" "Yes. I think the energy went the wrong direction, and struck me in the leg." Dylan takes a moment to think. "Give me the wand, Jade. I'll see what I can do to prevent this from happening again." Jade complies.
    The two spent the rest of the night going through the pile of gizmos Dylan had bought. Some emitted lights and holograms, some came to life and flew about the room, some floated in place, others fell faster than some. Most of these gadgets had no real use, but were fun to play around, and explore. There were a couple of tools, however. For example: that wand Dylan gave Jade, the magnet (which Dylan was already working on transforming it into a treasure-fisher), telescope lenses so accurate that it could show you individual pebbles from a nearby planet, and a pen that would never run out of ink.
    It was a long night, and neither of them would be able to go to sleep. Dylan was busy thinking about all the possibilities from the uses of magic that he's witnessed, and Jade was brainstorming every possible solution to his problem from earlier that day.
    It was the middle of the night, and Jade was back at the grassy clearing. The fog hid everything but the first row of trees around Jade. The (almost) full moon illuminated his surroundings. It was eerily quiet, not even a whisper of wind to keep the tinnitus at bay. A quick look around, and there was a faint orange-ish glow past the trees. Jade, being as curious as he was, decided to finally figure out what was making that glow. Going into the trees, he could only see so far in front of himself. The leaves underneath him crumbled under every footstep. Every potential danger beneath the leaves turned into a simple shock of static electricity. Every sound that was made had echoed into the forest, and back. The faint glow was now significantly bigger, going from a small torch, to a roaring flame. Jade had expected to be back at the ruins again, but instead, found himself in front of a bonfire, three people surrounding it.
    A loud, masculine voice shouted: "MORE!! I WANT TO SEE THE FIRE REACH TO THE HEAVENS!!"
    A higher pitched feminine voice called: "Hang on, Henry. Sticks won't get us much farther than this." The figure then proceeded to attack one of the thicker trees.
    The last voice was also feminine, but sounded much more mature, both in age, and in character. "Luci, quit that. You'll break your daggers before cutting that thing down. As for both of you, what happened to having a controlled fire?"
    "The worse thing that can happen is a forest fire!" Henry replied excitedly.
    "Which is a bad thing. It's dry season, and you guys are gonna destroy the town's way of living!"
    "Calm down, Alice!" Luci replies. "It isn't like this forest really cares. Look! The gashes I just placed are already healed."
    "It doesn't mean the trees are fireproof" Alice says, as she starts kicking down the fire with her metal greaves. "It sucks that our one mage prefers to start fires, as opposed to stopping them." Alice looks vindictively at Henry, who is shocking some nearby mushrooms.
    "I'm gonna save you for later.." he says as he plucks a mushroom off the ground. As he shoves the mushroom in his pocket, he picks up the sense that he's being watched. Henry quickly looks around the forest, taking a glance at Jade's direction. "Guys, I think we're getting spied on." Henry says, as he looks down at, and starts frantically flipping through a rune book.
    The other two start looking around, unable to sense anything themselves. A bright flash comes from Henry's book.
    Jade wakes up in the middle of the night to a loud boom from the forest. He thinks that he would've gotten used to that by now.
    Jade has no way of telling how late, or early it is. He decides it isn't worth trying to go back to sleep, grabs his things, and starts down the ladder.
    After getting down, Jade notices a hammock attached to the ceiling. He goes on all fours, and carefully crawls underneath to get to the other side of the room. After nearly standing back up too early, Jade swiftly makes the rest of the journey to the exit. Jade opens the door, letting the cold night air make it's way in. He looks back one last time at the hammock, to see the person inside flip to his side in response to the temperature change. This is the first time Jade has snuck out. Don't worry, it won't be a habit. He won't do it again. Jade slowly closes the door, unsure if he can really get away with this, and thoughts on the potential consequences.
    It was the middle of the night, and Jade was back at the grassy clearing. The (almost) full moon illuminated his surroundings. It was eerily quiet, not even a whisper of wind to keep the tinnitus at bay.
    Jade was gathering as many flat pieces of stone as he could find. He combed through the forest with his wand in search for something on the ground. Even though the moonlight could barely reach the forest floor, the light coming from the wand was enough to see with while it lasted. Flashes of the brief moments of sight would stain in the back of Jade's eyes, giving him an idea of his immediate surroundings every time he zapped a shroom. Jade could feel the leaves hitting his face as he walked through, as the static shocks did a good job at clearing the floor. Everytime Jade saw just a little-bit of gray on the ground, he would crouch down, and pick at it. Most of the stones he found were flat enough for what he needed them for.
    One to two hours pass, and Jade has gathered around a hundred plate-sized flat stones, and made a pile in the center of the clearing.
    Jade started lining up some of the stones. One segment, attached to two other segments on one end, and two more 2/3rds of the way up was formed. Jade was already tired, but he wasn't going to stop. He started making out a circle around the stones he assembled, each outward end of the segments he made was part of it. Jade took a step back, looked at his masterpiece, and went back to work out a few kinks more than once. After it was considered "good enough", Jade took something out of his pocket, and started drawing lines on the stones. He drew a circle across the stones that formed a circle, and for every segment he drew straight, connecting lines.
    He had drawn the magical symbol for "human". The chalk lines sparkled in the moonlight. Each blade of dried hardened-grass was pushed to the side away from every individual stone that crushed it. Now that Jade was admiring it, he noticed that no two stones were the same color. All the monochrome shades of gray were presented in this collection.
    Jade flipped through the book, barely able to make out the illustrations in the dimming moonlight. He set the book down right outside the circle of stones.
    Placing himself in the center of the circle, Jade was ready. He was about to confirm whether anything in this book was true or not. Whether it was worth putting multiple people in danger for it, or if it could've been a pointless sacrifice. Whether this symbol was actually worth something, or whether it was all just in his head.
    Reluctantly, Jade took out the cylindrical mushroom from his left pocket, using his left hand. It's faint glow was now visible with the lack of light. It was again, a gemstone of this forest.
    Jade reached to the sheath on his left hip with his right hand, and took hold of his machete.
    Jade put the blade to the center of the fungus, still having doubts about whether this would work or not. Something in his head reminded him that it was all worth the risk. Gripping both objects tightly, Jade was about to slice the mushroom in two, releasing all the radiation previously stored safely withing the cap. This in return would activate the magic circle he had drawn, and initiate the ritual. Jade was convinced he would be able to find answers by doing this. After thinking it over again, Jade cut into the Mushroom cap.
    Fortunately for him, the slice was very shallow. It wasn't enough to release a damaging amount of magical radiation, but it also wasn't enough to activate the circle. Why didn't he cut through? It was like a primitive instinct took over, steering Jade away from the danger. It had interrupted Jade, but it had also protected him from the black mushroom that was thrown at his feet.
    "Damn, I missed!" A loud, masculine voice shouted. Jade looked in the direction of the voice, only to realize it was now near-pitch black. The moon was gone. "I was hoping for a swift victory, but I guess we'll just have to go in guns-blazing!"
    Suddenly, an orange glow was clearly visible. The glow started where the voice was, and spread all around the clearing, separating the trees from the grass, which burned despite being fire proof. The glow was obviously fire, and it illuminated the entirety of the clearing, while simultaneously trapping the two inside. The arsonist who casted this ring of fire was wearing low-level wizard robes, and was holding a druid-staff. He didn't bother with head-ware, which made it apparent that he was blonde, and in his twenties. He had blue eyes, which despite being a cold color, had burned with the desire for destruction.
    "Now, show me what you're capable of!" He runs towards the child with full force, holding his staff almost like a baseball bat. Jade pulls out his mushroom-repellant wand, and points it at the mage. I guess he hoped it would scare him away, or zap him like one of the mushrooms. The mage showed no concept of fear though. Instead, he kept running towards Jade full force, aiming to run by Jade's side, and swipe him with the stick. Jade faltered, covering his face with the arm that wasn't holding the wand, and facing away from the attacker. The mage took the swing, but was rudely interrupted by the crackly noise of electricity, and several jolts of pain. It was shocking pain he had never felt before. Bolts of what looked like static shocks had mainly attacked his staff, but on the way had gone through the bull-of-a-mage, introducing him to multiple electrical shocks at once. The mage's muscles tensed up, forcing him to trip, and eat dirt. The druid staff flew the opposite direction of where the mage swung it. The staff now had a blueish shine to it, as if there were several black mushrooms squish down, and shoved between the crevices of the wood. It was rigged to explode on impact. The mage groans, "AAGH, you BRAT!!"
    Jade uncovered his face. As he was still trying to process what had happened, another figure emerged from the fire. From what Jade could see, it was a full suit of armor. A metallic voice spoke from it, too disordered to understand.
    The mage, still on the ground, looks at it and furiously says, "Alice! You know I can't hear you with that faceplate down!"
    The suit of armor grabs it's helmet with both hands, and lifts it off her head, revealing a red-haired woman who looked slightly older than the mage. Her voice was mature in character. "What the hell, Henry! All of this..." she waves her arms to emphasize the fire "...just for a child?!"
    Henry furiously replies: "Okay, first of all, this isn't just a child. He just shocked the CRAP out of me!" After venting some anger out, Henry continued exhaustedly. "Second, he's got our objective."
    Alice glances around, and her eye catches the book on the ground. She starts walking towards the book, although slow enough for Jade to react. He runs to the opposite side of his stone circle, and covers the book with his body. "No! You can't have it!" Jade begs. Alice replies, "Kid, you've done enough damage already. Just let me take it back to it's rightful owner, and I-" Alice stops to look at Henry, who's now heading towards his druid staff. "-we, will leave you alone." "You don't understand! I-"
    Jade stops to contemplate what was actually driving him to do these things. To go behind Dylan's back multiple times, to destroy someone's shop, to endanger multiple people, to have likely risked his life multiple times; all just to prove a point to himself. What point? That the symbol had any worth? That he wasn't going crazy? Perhaps it was the fear that all of this was for nothing. Maybe... perhaps he should take his chance to turn back before something worse happens. That was it. Jade had finally convinced himself to give it up.
    Jade, still firmly hugging the book, stands up, and faces the Paladin.
    Suddenly, Jade couldn't tell what was happening. He could only see white. He looked around, and there was just an endless white void. There was no gravity pulling him down, and not even a floor to catch him. The only sound came from his heartbeat. Every other sensation was numb.
    After his initial realization, he hears a panicked voice of a woman in the back of his head. "Stop! He's just a child! Henry, I beg you!"
    "This brat deserves every volt he can get. If he survives, this will teach him not to screw with me!"
    It was then that Jade's muscles seized to move. His body would refuse listen to him, and he would begin to panic. The white void in front of him faded out, as the feeling of being electrocuted faded in. It was nowhere near comparable to the pain Jade had felt when he shocked himself with his wand. It was so mind-numbing that he couldn't recall what was happening, or how he had ended up on the ground. The last thing he remembers was a bright-purple flash from the object he was holding tightly to his chest.
    When he awoke, he was still in the middle of the clearing. The sun was up high, and there was an obvious purple haze in Jade's vision. Jade realized he was still holding the book, and looked down at it. When his vision came to be, he noticed all the burn marks surrounding the symbol beveled into the book. The ritual was complete, although not with the magic circle Jade set up, nor with the forest's gemstones, but with the symbol on the book, and a vengeful mage's wrath. Jade looked up, and immediately realized what the purple haze was. It came from the light shining from the sun, and into what looked like a giant amethyst cluster. Jade looked around. He was surrounded by crystal spikes pointing away from where he lay. To his surprise, Jade mutters two words to himself: "It worked."