6th Interlude: Happy Memories

Jasmine listens to her friends' encouragement, smiles, then stands up and says, "Thanks... I'll go get myself a tray now."

"Okay, we'll wait for you!" Breeze responds.

As the girl leaves the table, the whole room shifts once more and the adventurers now find themselves in the inner courtyard of the Citadel, lounging around on the grass in the shade of an oak tree. Looking at the position of the sun in the sky, Steve deduces that classes are over for the day and that supper time should be in an hour or so.

"Hey, guys!"

When they turn around to look at the person calling to them, they see Jasmine, now a late teenager, walking towards them with a huge smile on her face. She sits down next to them and with a conspiratorial look, she tells them, "I gotta show you something."

When the adventurers look down at their own bodies, they seem they've changed to their teenager selves as well.

Her smile widens.

"Can't talk about it here. We need somewhere private. Steve?"

She looks at him, expecting him to come up with an idea. He's lived almost his entire life here after all.

Meanwhile, Breeze stares at the inner courtyard and the students playing within with wonder.

Steve's curiosity is written all over his face and he nods, saying, "Very well. One secluded spot what's suitable for secrets coming up."

He hops to his feet and leads everyone to the library, up the main flight of stairs, through several study areas, a shortcut through the servant's passage, where they emerge into a storage room with a ladder that leads to the roof. While a bit windy so high up, the view it offers of the surrounding area is second to none, but more importantly this as secluded as one can get while avoiding authority figures.

Breeze's eyes wander all over the place as Steve leads them through the Citadel. Mihai and Konrad have never been here before, but they are certain that they have never been in anything so massive before. This is even more impressive than the Arena or the Faculty in Odwaz.

Once they've reached their destination, Jasmine looks over the edge of the roof, but then suddenly steps back and says, "Okay. Never doing that again." She then looks at her friends instead and says, "So... you might be wondering why I've been secluding myself these last few months. Well, that's because I've been working on a new spell."

She smiles, embarrassed and proud at the same time.

"Hmm? What does she mean?" Breeze asks.

Konrad looks out across the land and oceans. "Wow, I can see my home from here."

He turns to Jasmine. "Can you show us?"

Steve mutters to Breeze, "Making new spells is time consuming and dangerous work, Blue. One mistake and you could drive yourself Mad or blow up the surrounding area."

"Oh, I see!" Breeze replies. "Wait, she did what?!"

"Yes," Jasmine answers. "I'll need your help though. Steve? Come here a sec. You don't mind being the subject of an experiment, right?"

With a smirk on her face, she gently takes him by the arm and places him five meters away from the rest of the group.

Steve looks nervous but goes along with it. He says, "You've done all the calculations, right? I don't want to grow an extra head or something."

"You'll be fine!" Jasmine promises. "Probably."

"Probably?!" Breeze suddenly looks anxious. "Wait, this is all a dream, right? Nothing can hurt us here, right?"

Jasmine moves away from Steve to stand with her two other friends. As she prepare to cast her spell, Breeze hovers in front of her face and says, "Listen here, mother figure. You better not hurt my Snowstorm, okay? I love him a lot, and he writes very good poems. They're a little naughty sometimes, but they're still—"

Before she can finish the rest of her sentence however, Jasmine casts the spell at Steve and the magical energy hits him right in the chest.

"Whoa!"

But it doesn't hurt him. He doesn't even feel different. Jasmine however looks at the young mage with a triumphant smile.

Konrad watches for a few seconds. "Okay? Um, do you feel any different?"

Steve feels around to check things out but ends up saying, "Everything seems okay. What did your spell do, Jasmine?"

To Konrad's, Mihai's and Breeze's surprise, they can't hear Steve speak. From Steve's perspective however, nothing seems wrong.

Konrad laughs.

"It's a Silence spell!" Jasmine declares proudly. "A tweaked version of it anyway. Steve can hear us just fine, but we can't hear him as long as he is in that area of effect. He could say the most outrageous thing or scream at the top of his lungs, and nobody would know."

"Ooh!" Breeze looks very impressed. "Wait, that's totally the spell I used! Steve, say something outrageous!"

Steve lifts his arms and shouts, "Something outrageous!"

"I can totally read his lips," Breeze says, giggling.

Jasmine is smiling as well. "Okay, come on out, now." She then turns towards her friends. "So! What do you think? I can totally present this to the professors and get a school recommendation letter, right?"

"Absolutely! You're a bloody genius, Jasmine. There are potentially a dozen uses for this."

The black mage rejoins his friends and says, "Great work. They'll have to recognize your achievement, alright."

Jasmine starts to blush under the barrage of compliments. "Thanks... Do you want me to show you how to cast it? If you promise not to show anyone else."