Spring of Discovery (Celestia Chronicles Book 1/Seasons Arc: Book 1)

Chapter 2: Jade of Cresalda

Cresalda was a small village in the forests of the mid-northwestern region of Hegasha. The kind of town where everyone knew everyone else. It was in this village that Jade lived.

Jade was a young woman of seventeen years who currently lived alone in the house she was raised. It wasn't that she was a loner it was that her mother and father had left to take care of their jobs. Her father was a very highly ranked General at Fort Balstar. As for her mother, she only knew that she was was doing some important business for the Elven Kingdom. The Elven kingdom was located to the deep woods of the east.About a year earlier her father had left for Fort Balstar and had yet to return. His letters stated that he was hard at work maintaining the peaceful state of the land.

Jade considered that now she had become seventeen she should enlist for the army, but although she was a great swordsman and quick witted in combat, she didn't think she could ever take a life.Her mother on the other hand was a highly respected sage and was considered the authority on magic. She knew that her mother had at one point worked on the Atlantean counsel but left Atlantis almost twenty years ago. Though Jade asked her mother many times both her mother and father avoided the question. Her Mother left the house five years earlier and though Jade got the occasional letter, she hadn't seen her mother since.

This particular morning she woke up abruptly without any idea why. She tried to remember what caused her to wake up.Feeling a burning pain, she noticed a mark on her right hand shaped like a flower. Her mother, aunt, and uncle were skilled at magic and she also knew a few friends of the family who were skilled at magic, soshe knew that if something strange happened for unknown reasons it was magic at work. She pulled out a pair of gloves and covered her hands, deciding to keep this to herself until she learned more about it.

Jade heard a commotion outside and left her house to see a group of people running past her house to the edge of town. She Followed them to see a bunch of people huddled around something.People were murmuring among themselves until one woman noticed her."Oh thank goodness you're here, this man's been injured!"exclaimed the woman.

The crowd parted to reveal a man on the ground,unconscious. He wore green robes and held a scepter with a green orb on it. There was a deep cut on his arm that looked a little blackish. This was definitely the work of dark magic. The thing that caught her attention was who he was: Saje, a friend of the family. She had a few people carry the man to her house. One man asked if he could help but Jade insisted she would be fine.

She took a closer look at the wound and could tell that it was a type of cursed weapon wound. She needed to assess what the curse's side effects were to properly treat it. She wasn't one to brag atall and would probably never admit it herself, but many people consider her to be an amazing healer of non-magical talent.Whenever someone in the village was sick she was the one to turn to and when people passed through the village and needed medical attention they would praise her skills as "better than magic."

After seeing the side effect was a tracker spell Jade got the ingredients she needed. Going through her supplies she realized she didn't have enough blue moss. She left the house to go to the rocky outcropping where it grew. The trick was to find the softest of the moss so she took off her gloves and started to feel the different patches until she found an especially soft one on the side of a rock. She pushed the rock on its side but upon contact with the rock itself she felt a curious sensation. It was like she could feel the very soul of the rock.

What was she thinking? Rocks don't have souls. She Picked up a different smaller rock to see if it was some kind of magicon that one rock but she felt it again. It was like she and the rock were linked somehow. She was so focused on the rock that she didn't hear the footsteps behind her.

"Jade," said the voice.Surprised by how Saje crept up on her, she turned to him as the rock exploded in her hand. His eyes widened in disbelief. She Quickly threw her gloves back on determined to hide the mark on them.

"Saje, you should be lying down," said Jade.

"I was trying to-"

"Don't worry," Jade reassured. "I have the blue moss to finish the antidote. You should be healed up and on your way tonight."

Jade helped Saje back to the house. She knew what he saw and she needed answers concerning what was going on. She never had a talent for magic. She tried magic many times but never could use it because she did not possess the power from birth. So the question on her mind was, if she did have magic now, why?