Chapter Forty Five - Dress

As much as Jade knew she should probably go straight to the castle to start getting ready, she walked steadily until she reached one of the practice courtyards. She glanced around, satisfied that the enclosed space was empty before she slipped inside. “Mummy’s going to make it dark for a bit.” She quietly told her little ones as she flicked her wrist, setting down a dish and pouring juice into it for them. Their little acknowledging echoes filled her head as they fluttered down to drink deeply.

Next came the last of the spirit meat from her ring. She was basically out of emergency food, which was not something she was very happy about. The decision to stop by the slaughteryard and see what progress they’d made was an easy one, as it was her last stop before she returned to the castle. In the meantime, she started shoveling the last of the meat into her maw as the entire courtyard went dark, the sunlight streaming into her.

She hadn’t dared to try and fly away after such a huge magic consumption, but the more she drew in and ate, the faster the rubbery feeling in her muscles withdrew. After about five minutes of drawing in as much bright sunshine as she could take and filling her stomach, she felt mostly normal again. Another five minutes finally got her back to full.

The fact that it took her ten minutes of unabashed absorbing to get her mana pool to full was surprising, to say the least. She knew she hadn’t been running at a full tank for a while, just getting to a comfortable level most of the time. If she had to guess, she’d been staying at around seventy five percent capacity. While that was more than enough for almost everything she did, she quite liked the almost buoyant feeling of being completely full. It was the feeling of endless possibility.

Letting go of the light, the darkness around her returned to daylight, and her little ones fluttered up to cling to her. She spent a moment basking in their presence and projected love. More than anything else in this world, she was grateful for them. There were no ulterior motives between them. There was only love and the belonging of family. Because of them, she would never again be left alone. With one last gentle finger along their wings, she let them settle before lightening her gravity and securing her wind bubble to shoot into the sky.

She pushed herself quickly above the buildings before darting forward, knowing she needed to make up lost time. The banquet, zoo construction, and her subsequent recharging took more time than she’d intended. It was a little after three and the ball started at six, so she needed to hurry. Especially because the slaughteryard was on the other side of Caoi.

Below her, the city teemed with activity, everyone going about their lives. She could see there was more activity than normal at the castle, but that was to be expected with the ball tonight. She didn’t see any special movement at the wall, nor in the plains beyond. She frowned, opening illusory windows in front of her as she flew along, once again checking through the Basaigh Woods for any activity. It was the same as yesterday: nothing to be seen. The foreboding feeling that she was missing a clue niggled at her mind, but she didn’t know what to do about it. She’d already warned who she should.

She tugged at her hair, trying to figure out if there was something else she could do. Unable to think of anything, she sighed and let it go. She hated being reactionary. Maybe tomorrow she’d see if she could take a trip out to the woods. Her brain was going over logistics and whether she should go alone or try to take another group out as she descended to the slaughteryard.

There were a few shouts when someone noticed her descent, and she caught sight of a runner heading inside as she lightly landed. Smiling, she nodded to the people around her as she waited. She had a feeling that… “Hello, Lady Jade. It’s nice to see you again.”

Jade turned around, focusing on the doorway where a stocky woman was emerging as she wiped her hands off on her apron. Smiling, she returned the greeting, “Lupa! It’s nice to see you too. I was wondering if you finished any of what I asked for?”

Lupa snorted slightly, shaking her head with a grin as she scoffed, “Finished any of it...silly girl. Of course, with you paying so highly, we finished all of it! We were waiting for word from the castle on whether or not we should send it there.” Jade faltered in her steps forward to meet the woman. They’d finished all of it? Even the tanning? And then it clicked. Magic. What a wonderful world she lived in!

“Oh, that’s wonderful to hear! But no need to trouble yourself sending it elsewhere, I can take it with me.” Her eyes glittered with glee. She was going to have a full stock again! Plus more things to play and craft with!

“Very good then; right this way. I’ll show you what we’ve done with it all.” Lupa smiled, leading her into the building as the rest of the people watched them from behind whatever projects they were working on. Lupa glanced back and called out, “Show’s over, get to work!” A flurry of activity resumed behind them as the two chuckled once they were out of hearing range. Lupa commented, “Can’t say I blame them for staring. It feels like you’ve gotten even prettier in the two days since you last came here.”

Jade winced slightly, shrugging. She’d forgotten to glamor herself to appear more normal. Lupa wasn’t wrong, though. Her charisma had gone up another two points since she’d last come here, and while they were no longer extremely obvious changes, like her chest growing or her hair becoming shinier, the effects were still there. Explaining that to a near stranger though? Not something on her docket for the day.

Twenty minutes later, Jade bade farewell to Lupa as she jumped into the sky. She was extremely satisfied with the work that was done, and tipped them again as a result. She’d expected that they would make everything into basic foodstuffs, but they’d gone above and beyond. The beann were made into a wide assortment of different stews, as were some of the tialon. They’d made jerky out of a good portion of the tialon, but she’d been impressed by the wide variety of different cuts and styles they’d done with the remainder. Since she told them preservation wasn’t a problem, they’d been able to get more creative than they were normally.

Later, she would divide the stews into something like thermos she’d make for easier consumption. Right now they were in large sealed pots. Grinning, she realized that thermos were something she couldn’t totally replicate because she didn’t know the heating and cooling technology behind it, other than a double layer, but she could experiment with that. For now, even a water bottle would be nice! The flasks and mugs they still used were fine, but water bottles were convenient. Master merchant Jade was on the case again!

Grinning, she did a little jig midair as she flew towards the castle. At some point, she’d need to see how her merchant empire was progressing, but she was happy she’d thought of something new she could do. The actual production of things was likely to take years to build up, so she’d take her little victories where she could.

“Let’s get down to business--hiyah!” Doing a little jump kick as she sang cheerfully, she startled her little ones, who fluttered around in her bubble scolding her for startling them as she giggled helplessly. “Sorry, sorry, I’ll warn you next time.” She laughed, playing with them as the bubble flew over the castle gates and she aimed for Camille’s balcony. Technically, she should probably be going in through the gate, but her light orbs were still there shining in the sunlight, and she couldn’t help herself. Why go through all the rigamarole when she could go straight to where she needed to be?

Landing gracefully and dismissing her bubble and gravity spells, she walked forward, tapping on the glass door as she called out, “Lucy, I’m home!” She heard noises coming from the room before she spotted Camille rushing over with a huge grin on her face.

“Jade! You’re finally here!” The words spilled from Camille’s lips as she unlocked and pushed the door open quickly. “I told Tisha not to worry! Tisha! It’s Jade!” hollering the last words over her shoulder, Jade heard a squeal of excitement coming from the bathroom.

“Princess! Please stop moving or you’ll undo all the ribbons!” Jade burst into laughter as she heard the voice of what was obviously a frazzled maid. Grabbing her hand, Camille dragged her inside, nonchalantly kicking the door closed behind them as she pulled her towards the bathroom. Only then did she realize that Camille was wearing what she associated with Victorian England underclothes. There wasn’t a corset, but the form-fitting white chemise and loose white pants that were made of layers of lace reminded her a bit of a cloud.

Curiously, she asked Camille as they were entering the bathroom, “Why are you wearing pants? Aren’t you wearing a dress tonight? Oh, hi Tisha! No, sit down and let the nice maids finish tying up your dress.” Tisha immediately tried to bound out of the chair upon seeing her, and she had to laugh and reach forward, putting a hand on her shoulder, much to the obvious relief of the poor maids helping her.

“But I’ve been sitting here forever! And of course, she’s wearing a dress on top of that. We all wear light pants beneath for dancing.” Tisha whined slightly before answering for Camille, and Jade took a second to consider. For dancing that was more like martial arts...she supposed it made sense to have something you could move freely in.

Looking at Tisha’s dress, she realized that Sharon outdid herself for the young girl. The cloth was a rich gold, edged with lace that fell in petal-like patterns from the waist down. If she looked closely, she could see that the petals were artfully draped to disguise the fact that there were separate panels of the skirt, allowing her full movement. Beneath the skirt, she could see Tisha’s legs kicking back and forth, also covered in white lace. The crowning jewels of the dress were small clusters of golden feathers sewn on, which she recognized as being from the beann.

“Do you like it?” Tisha asked eagerly, trying to stand up to show off when she realized Jade was checking out the dress, only to be tugged back down by her maid.

“Sit! We’re almost done!” The poor maid was being rather forceful, but no one said anything because they could tell this wasn’t the first, second, or even third time she’d tried to get up. Moving to the back, Jade understood why it was taking so long. She expected the back to be some simple ribbon lacing, but what greeted her was a work of art in knotwork ribbons. She cast an admiring gaze at the women for persevering with Tisha long enough to accomplish the feat. The poor girl looked up at Camille, then at the third maid, who seemed to be there to run errands as she said, “Linnie, go help Princess Camille into her dress.”

“Jade, come on, we’ve got yours too.” Camille grabbed her hand once again and started dragging her out of the bathroom as she cast a glance back at Tisha and said sternly, “Behave.” Jade stifled her giggles as she saw the face Tisha made in return, before walking out into the main room. Camille pulled her towards her large bed, where two dresses were beautifully laid out.

Camille’s was sky blue with golden accents, also displaying tiny clusters of beann feathers. The two girls together would look like a perfect picture. The second dress, she assumed, was hers. It was a rich emerald green with panels of black lace. With an empire waist and a long slit up one side, she picked it up, examining it more closely. The other side had another long slit, but there was a cordon of lace on the underside of the dress that hung loosely, covering the gap. It would hold the dress in place and make it appear to be all one piece while giving her maximum movement.

It was brilliant. She grinned, noticing that instead of golden feathers, her dress had intricate embroidery of silver fellacai in discreet locations that shimmered in the light. “It’s beautiful.” she breathed out quietly, entranced by the soft feel of the fabric in her hands. If Camille and Tisha were incarnations of sky and sunlight, her dress was a dark forest. She loved it.

“Here’s your underclothes, Lady Jade.” The maid quietly collected the rest of Jade’s outfit and presented it to her respectfully, keeping her eyes down.

Jade took the clothes gently, not wanting to startle the obviously shy girl. “Thank you.” The girl quickly bobbed a curtsey, then went to help Camille as she was pulling her dress over her head. Touching her pants and boots, they disappeared into her ring, and she grinned once again at how her rings were such a cheat sometimes. Even if she was trapped into that dress with knots, she had no need to wait forever for them to take it off of her! Into the ring it would go!

Pulling on the new lacy pants beneath her tunic, she contemplated the chemise in front of her, then put it down. It had basically the same cut as her black leather armor, so she decided that she’d wear that instead. Tucking the tunic into her ring, she pulled out one of her spare armors and changed into it, since she’d been wearing the other one all day. Fresh was best.

Seeing the maid still fiddling with Camille’s dress, Jade decided to take things into her own hands, lifting her dress with wind and spreading it out above her before lowering it. Sliding calmly into the dress and holding it to her body to keep it there, she waited for assistance, given that the entire back was still split open and waiting for ribbon work.

When Camille and the little maid finished adjusting her dress and the maid was holding it closed so they could walk to the bathroom, they looked at Jade in surprise. “How’d you get it on?” Camille asked in confusion, and Jade grinned, knowing that Camille’s head was under her own dress and the maid’s back was turned when she’d pulled off her little stunt.

“Trade secret. Come on, let’s get our ribbons done.” Grinning, she used her free hand to drag Camille to the bathroom, the latter protesting that it wasn’t fair.

At quarter to six, the three girls finally stood in front of the mirror, Camille and Tisha staring in awe at their reflections. Jade helped teach the maids how to do elaborate styles in their hair, pulling half of it up and leaving the rest to cascade behind them. The pins they’d used were made out of gold, and the ends were molded into feathers to stylize each ‘do. Aside from that, she’d made fancy feather ear cuffs, since she wasn’t sure she wanted to introduce actual earrings yet, then made necklaces and bracelets to go with them. She was quite proud of how far her metalwork and sculpting had come, honestly.

She was even happier with her own silver accents. The gold didn’t stand out in the girl’s hair so much because it matched rather well, but the silver in her dark brown stood out magnificently. She’d kept with her theme and shaped the details in her jewelry to be tiny butterflies. The maids stood behind them, dumbfounded by the view.

Grinning, Jade looped her arms through the two girls as she asked, “Well, shall we collect your brothers and go down?” After all, she needed everyone to see her walking advertisements for Terraform!

“Oh, Miss, the princes have been waiting outside for quite some time now.” One of the maids timidly spoke up from behind them.

“Let them wait…” Tisha’s voice was distracted as she stared in the mirror, twirling a lock of hair in one hand and running her fingers over the rest of her jewelry with the other.

Laughing softly, Camille and Jade both grabbed one side of Tisha, pulling her away from the mirror and towards the door of the giant bathroom, which the maid respectfully opened for them.

“You’re finally do--” the words cut off abruptly as Will saw the three girls coming out of the bathroom one after another. He stared at them for a moment as they came out, but then a light bulb came on over his head and he turned to Hayden, punching him in the shoulder as he yelled, “You little cheats! You did this on purpose!”

Hayden and Hunter both burst into laughter, giving him a look that said ‘duh.’ Will and Victor were looking slightly helpless, and she figured out why a moment later when she studied what they were wearing. Victor was in brown pants and boots, a white long-sleeved shirt, and a sky blue tunic vest with gold embroidery and buttons. Will was in almost the exact same thing, save his vest being gold with blue embellishments.

The twins, however, had taken a completely opposite color scheme. Instead of the bright gold and blue, they wore black pants and shirts with green and silver vests. They managed to match her, and it appeared they’d convinced their brothers to match Camille and Tisha perfectly. Victor or Will escorting her in would make their outfits clash horribly.

Victor, looking slightly rueful himself, held Will back from inflicting any more violence on the twins as he spoke, “It’s our fault for not thinking about it.”

Hayden grinned, sticking his tongue out at his brother playfully. “Exactly, Will. It’s your fault. We actually asked Sharon what she was doing for their dresses.” For a moment, Jade felt a pang of envy. Her little brother had never smiled and joked with her like that. Just as quickly as it arose, she squashed it down. They might not be her blood family, but they still treated her as if she was one of them.

This was her new home. A home far more thrilling and dangerous, but filled with laughter and good people too. As her little ones flew over from around the room, settling on her hair like glowing ornaments, she smiled brightly at all of them as she spoke softly, “Let’s go to the ball.”

Right now, it was time to take the opportunity to experience her own Cinderella moment.