Leaning forward, the jerk whispered not so quietly, “What, too scared to even try?”
Jade laughed softly, smiling at him. “I’ve never lit anything on fire before, but how hard can it be if you can do it?” Her tone was completely innocent, in stark contrast to her biting words. He was glaring in outrage at her as she turned her back on him. Looking at the pile of wood on her desk, she concentrated.
Fire was just another form of energy. She could feel the warmth of her magic spreading into her fingers as she contemplated what she wanted to do. Something about what the professor had said had caught her attention. Try to keep it going for as long as possible. The point then wasn’t to light the wood on fire; it was to create a fire without burning it. Holding her palm out, she imagined a small fireball there, willing it to coalesce.
After a moment, a little flame flickered into existence, slowly growing stronger as she got the feel for it. Concentrating on the wood, she imagined it coating the wood without burning it. Like the light, she wanted to attach it. Still, she left about half the wood uncoated, since she wanted to be able to pick it up as necessary. Satisfied when the top of the wood was coated in flame but the wood wasn’t turning to charcoal, she grinned and started to play with it.
She’d always heard the saying, ‘I saw images in the flames,’ so she decided that’s what she wanted. Picturing an apple tree, she had the flames grow up in a 3D image of it, though the branches were more uniform than she wanted, so she started mangling them. While she left the trunk as red flame, she decided the leaves would be blue and green, with the apples being white hot. Totally absorbed in playing with the fire, she was oblivious to the rest of the room.
It was the jerk’s mutter that brought her back to reality, “Show off, tramp.” She looked back just in time to meet his eyes as they got an evil glow and he leaned forward, seemingly curious as he said, “Wow, what did you…oh!” He ‘accidentally’ shoved his wood right at her in his attempt to see her creation. For a second, self satisfied glee took over his expression when the wood went flying straight for her, but his expression quickly turned to panic.
His wood struck her wind barrier which rebounded the force directly back at him…and the wind had also enhanced the flames. Evidently, fanning the fire was easy to do. Still, the fact that a fireball basically got sent back at him had the entire class panicking as he screamed. His fancy clothes were on fire and his right arm was pretty crisped from where he’d blocked his face. His hair was also on fire. “Put it out! Put it OUT!” His yells dominated the otherwise silent with shock room.
Rachtin reacted quickly, calling the fire from his body and holding it in his hand for a moment before he extinguished it. He obviously hadn’t been watching what went down because he asked inquisitively, “How exactly did you lose control of your flame?”
“I need a healer now! Someone call the healer!” He was screeching in futility, completely ignoring the count’s question.
With a sigh, Rachtin looked at Jade and asked, “Would you heal him so we can figure out what happened?”
Jade smiled at him, then shrugged, “I’m sorry, but no. What happened was he tried to light me on fire, but I had a wind barrier around me in case of something like this. His fire rebounded off of my barrier and the wind fueled it a bit, so that’s why he got lit up so much. So no, I won’t heal him because he got injured trying to do me harm. He can wait for a healer to come, as he no doubt thought that I would have to.”
The rest of the class was listening intently to their conversation, and jerkface blanched at having her sum up the situation so cleanly. Still, his rage took over. “You’re a healer? Then by the heavens, heal me! Do you know who I am?”
She tilted her head, looking at him with consideration. “No, I don’t, but it’s not like I care who you are.”
He raged even more at her while everyone around her was looking nervous. “I’m the nephew of the king! I’ll have your head for this!”
Jade smiled serenely at him. “Oh, is that so?” Glancing around at the horrified looks on everyone’s faces, she felt like his threat might have been carried out in the past. “Well, then I suppose I should tell you that I’m a traveler, and I won’t put up with your crap. You can ask the king to kill me if you want, but I think he’ll have his own thoughts on the matter.”
“You wench, I’ll kill you myself!” Roaring in anger, he pulled his sword out and tried to stab her while she just watched him with a wry look on her face. It was rather amusing to watch him hack and slash at her wind barriers, which she’d now encircled herself with, just to be sure. Everyone else had retreated to the sides of the room during his mad rampage, save Rachtin, who stood behind her, frowning.
Jade took a seat on top of her desk and began picking at the nonexistent dirt beneath her nails as she spoke boldly, “You can throw yourself at me all you want, you’re not going to get past my barrier. It’s an effort of futility. Besides, the longer you wait to see a healer, the more likely it is that you’re going to lose your nerve endings and be permanently scarred. You’re only making it worse with your rash movements.”
He just continued to roar, though what he was trying to say was incoherent now. He looked like an ugly raging bull with his burned appearance. It went on for a full two minutes before she finally decided she was bored and wasting valuable time. Checking her pocket watch, she snapped it closed and turned to look at Rachtin. “Enough is enough. Are you going to stop the psychopath or should I?”
Rachtin sighed, looking at him. “I’d rather not go near him right now.” Jade nodded, thoughtful. He was swinging pretty wildly, so behind her or far away were the only truly safe spots at the moment.
Looking back at jerkface, she mentally grabbed the air around him, freezing it so that he could no longer move. He struggled ineffectually against the barrier, and she decided she quite liked wind. Pondering on whether or not she should just hit him upside the head, he started cursing more coherently at her again, since he could no longer swing his sword.
Annoyed, she growled, “That’s it! SHUT UP!” She pulled the wind from his lungs. She’d just take away his air until he passed out. He was going red and purple with rage and lack of oxygen, until finally, his eyes rolled up and his body went limp. She let the air flow back into his lungs. She wasn’t keen to kill him, after all, even if he was a git.
With a sigh, she moved two desks together with her wind, then placed his inert form on top. Reaching out, she healed his burns and left him unconscious. She was tempted to leave hideous scars, then sighed again and did it properly. She glared at his cronies as she said menacingly, “This is my warning. I’ll let it pass this once because he’s an idiot who doesn’t know when to stop. I would suggest the rest of you learn to discourage him from such behaviors in the future because this? This had better not happen ever again.” The last words were said slowly, punctuating each for emphasis.
Looking at Rachtin, she inquired, “Do you know where I can find Victor or Camille? They should be in private tutoring at the moment, and it seems like I need to have a word with them.”
Rachtin shook his head. “I’m sorry, but that’s not something anyone but the tutors would know.” She nodded, as that made sense. Looking at jerkface, who a quick check of her notifications told her was named Brodie, she shook her head. Of course he was named Brodie. It was a typical villain name. Still, Rachtin was staring at him with something akin to remorse. “Sorry about Brodie. He’s been…difficult since Tevin was taken by the mesmer.”