6th Interlude: Happy Memories

Noticing Jasmine's raw talent, Konrad struggles to maintain focus on his own tiny sphere.

"That's wicked insane! How are you doing that?"

"He sure is," the black mage emphatically agrees. Steve holds up his hand and casts Petrify at Goodman.

Jasmine stares at the reflective sphere of magic, as if transfixed by it.

"I'm just... focusing on it," she explains.

The professor hears Konrad's exclamation and turns to reprimand him, but stops himself when he notices the ball of magic hovering above Jasmine's hand. It's almost the size of an apple now. He comes closer to take a better look at it, slapping Steve's hand away with his telekinesis when he passes by him, then leans towards Jasmine to examine the sphere. Many of the other students in the class turn to look at what is happening.

"Try to divide it into two balls," he says.

Startled, Jasmine almost jumps out of her chair at his command. Ripples appear on the surface of the sphere for an instant, but they disappear once the girl refocuses her attention on it. After a moment of concentration, she divides the ball in two, just like Goodman asked her to.

"Hmm. Good. Stay with me after class."

He then leaves the table and resumes his watch over the rest of the class. A little terrified, Jasmine looks at her friends with wide eyes, unsure on how to react. And yet, the spheres barely flicker.

Konrad however is just immersed in the memory and playing a role. "That's amazing. Are you Blessed, or what?"

Steve watches Goodman walk away and uses his Water cantrip to dump a large amount of water onto the floor directly into his path. If Goodman trips, he'll follow it with a Bolt spell.

Jasmine shyly shakes her head. "No. I'm not. I just did what felt like natural."

Meanwhile, Professor Goodman notices at the last second the water at his feet and prepares to slap Steve again. Before he can do so however, Breeze rises in the air and shouts, "Oh no, you don't!" before lunging at him to kick him in the face.

The room then shifts again, and the adventurers find themselves sitting at a table in the corner of the cafeteria. Few students eat in this section, preferring the tables near the windows.

"What? Where are we now? Oh, food!"

The fairy lands in front of Steve's tray and begins to examine the food in his plates: a pepper steak, lightly seasoned small potatoes, and a small piece of chocolate cake. Mihai and Konrad were served the same thing.

"That looks so yummy..."

Then, the adventurers spot Jasmine walking towards them, a thoughtful expression on her face. She sits down next to her friends without saying a word, still deep in thought.

Konrad says "hey" and starts eating around the peppers while mashing the potatoes. For fun, not because he likes them.

The black mage pushes the chocolate cake towards Breeze so she can have some. "He's right, Goodman is bad news. There's nothing good about him. He should be called Jerkman."

Breeze sits down in front of the cake and happily picks up a piece with her cantrip before she happily gulps it down. Unaware of the fairy's presence, Jasmine looks at Mihai in confusion when he speaks to her, but then realizes what he was talking about when Steve adds to it.

"But... he's the best weaver in the Archipelago," she replies. "He said that if I go to his private lessons, I could become as good as him someday."

At the same time, Konrad fails to mash one of the round potatoes and it rolls out of his plate and falls to the ground. Without effort, Breeze picks it up with her telekinesis and puts it back on his tray while listening to Jasmine.

"So what?" Konrad asks. "He's a jackass. You don't have to take that from him. Find another teacher. Or, I dunno, the library has a lot of books..." He doesn't sound convinced by that idea himself.

Mihai feels no scars under his tunic.

Jasmine listens attentively to her friends' arguments, barely noticing Steve's loud munching as he eats his imaginary meal (it is as tasty as in his memories).

"I don't know..." Jasmine mutters.

Then, four girls of the same age walk up towards the adventurers' table, their gazes fixed on Jasmine. The head of the group, a blonde with long hair and an uppity attitude, looks at them and says, "Hey, losers. You still haven't figured it out, have you?"

The rest of the girls look at them with mocking smiles, waiting for their response. Jasmine is at a loss on how to respond.

Steve doesn't miss a beat. "What, that you're a raging bitch, Stacy? Everyone already knows that."

Konrad gets out of his seat and stares at "Stacy".

Livid at Mihai's aloofness and Steve's comment, Stacy is about to retort with a scathing remark when Konrad literally stands up to her. Because he's taller than her, she has to look up at him and her resolve suddenly seems to falter. She takes a few seconds to compose herself, after which she turns around and says, "Let's go. Let's not waste time on these losers."

Her and her minions leave the adventurers behind.

As they leave, Mihai adds, "Thank you, come again."

"Yeah! Go find your own cake!" Breeze shouts, throwing the potato Konrad dropped at them.

Jasmine lets out a sigh, looks at her friends and says, "Thanks. I'm... I don't know what I would have said if you hadn't been there."

She then looks down at her hands, embarrassed.

Konrad watches Stacy as she goes, and then returns to his seat. "Huh. She just kinda lost her nerve. That's odd. I'm actually a little disappointed."

"Don't worry about it. After all, what are friends for?" Steve takes another bite of potato. "So, what now?"

"Now we celebrate!" Breeze exclaims as she bites down on another piece of chocolate cake.

Not hearing her response, Jasmine says, "I... I think I'm gonna pass up on Professor Goodman's offer."

When the adventurers look at her, she turns away to avoid their gaze, a little shy about it.

Konrad goes back to picking at the potatoes. "If you really want to get better at it, we could train together. I mean, I do too."

"We'll go with you when you tell him. He's a sore loser and a bully. He won't take it well," adds Steve.