Jade Seal Academy: An Illusion of Freedom

A sub-basement? A place most teachers weren't even allowed, let alone students? The thought only seemed to inflame her curiosity, pushing her mind on wild possibilities of what could be hidden beneath the school. She didn't - so was the body still there? That'd be a bit ghoulish, a still-living body tucked away, and it'd certainly fit with the whole endless suffering bit Mrs. Amberly had tried to drive home.

As they descended the staircase, though, something about Akari's curiosity wilted. It was still there - but there was something else. Maybe it was how deep they were going. Maybe it was the chill of the underground. Maybe it was the sight of the door in front of them, simple, plain, nothing fancy or ornate or ominous, but ominous by merit of simplicity. It was the sort of thing serial killers kept bodies behind. Shifting, Akari moved in front of Kikyo, reaching back to put a staying hand on her friend's arm.

"Is it dangerous?"

"No. It wouldn't."

Unease and excitement only continued to grow as the door swung open into a - well, not exactly a simple room. The entrance on this side looked different. Not a plain, wooden door anymore, now a deep green archway. And the floor, the floor wasn't. It was a pool. A faintly glowing pool, by the light illuminating the walls, and in the center of the pool was a girl Akari didn't recognize.

Aoife?

Her stomach twisted as the girl unraveled, skin peeling away into nothingness, a seal taking her place. It slipped into the water - then resurfaced as the girl again closer to the edge. Akari wasn't new to the whole magic thing. She'd seen girls who could shoot lightning from their fingertips, or sprouted wings, or could swim through the ground like water. This, though, was different. This had a spectacle to it. An - awesomeness she couldn't really describe - and not the cool kind of awesome. The scary kind. The big kind. The kind that was difficult to put into words.

At Mrs. Amberly's words, Akari froze, reaching out for Kikyo's arm once again.

"Be careful," she warned, giving her friend a quick sidelong glance. Whatever this was, there was danger here, and she wouldn't see Kikyo get caught in it. Shifting, she glanced at the teacher instead. There had to be a reason she was telling them this. Showing them this. This was - obviously something big. It wouldn't be locked away in a sub-basement below a school if it wasn't, would it? To risk a secret to a couple of new students without any test of character, or trial, or - or - freaking handwritten contract in blood or whatever. That was what made her uneasy, she quickly realized, and in realizing it, her uneasiness only grew.

The lollipop shifted from one side of her mouth to the other, clicking against her teeth - then cracked. She swallowed the shards, and stared Mrs. Amberly straight in the eyes.

"Why us? Be honest."

Questions, questions. Mrs. Amberly liked to encourage questions. Questions were how students learned, after all - and these girls... oh, they had so much to learn. That did not make the questions any easier to answer, though, especially with Akari's impatient demand for honestly. It occurred to Mrs. Amberly to wonder who had lied to the girl before, and how often... but that was neither here nor there, and perhaps her pursuit of truth would serve her well.

"Because I am old, my dear."

Her eyes drifted away from Akari again, watching the little interplay between Kikyo and the once-girl in the pool. A splash, and a ripple as the creature swam beneath the surface, reappearing a girl once more in front of Kikyo, ever-young face lined with concentration - concentration and, yes, pain. Perhaps the girls would see one, or both. It wasn't hers to judge what Miss Aoife chose to do, though - or, at least, it should not be for very much longer.

The girl's hands reached for the camera, curious. Cameras had been quite a different thing in Aoife's time, after all.

"It's because it's important to you that she'll be interested," Mrs. Amberly supplied, "A thing of some significance. She cannot work with nothing. Once, she was still able to speak, and tell us some of these things... ah, but all magic requires a little bit of sacrifice, now and then." Small fingers played delicately across the camera's surface, almost as if it were an instrument. In their wake, they left not trails of water, but of jade. Surely, the camera had been changed somehow. What it would do now, though, Mrs. Amberly couldn't guess. That would be for Kikyo to find out.

Aoife - or something like her - handed it back once more, with something like a smile, held for a moment longer than the rest of her features as they peeled away once more and she splashed down into the pool again, as if seeking some respite in its waters. It would not come, Mrs. Amberly knew. It was too late for that.

But back to the others, for whom it was not too late. Back to Akari, with her many questions and her burning need for honesty. "I have been her guardian for sixty years. Perhaps some day she may be set free, but until then, I try to keep her as safe as I can, as comfortable. But it is a long burden, and a heavy one. There are many who would seek her power, or seek to gain power here. Each year I wait a little longer - there was one, a few years ago, who I thought might suffice - but she didn't quite feel right. I don't know if you do either, my dear, but I am swiftly running out of time... and I believe you are the best I have available. Come here, Akari, child."

Her wrinkled hand drew forth the key of jade once more, this time turning it around and offering it as one would offer a sword. "I would name you the next Jade Seal Guardian, if you would be willing to defend us here - to defend her. The key is quite extraordinary. It will open doors... and reveal what is hidden. What you are able to make of that is entirely up to you."

"Right."

Her teeth ground the spent stick of the lollipop into pulp, clumps of soggy paper rolling loosely against her tongue.

"Right, that makes sense."

It didn't, but she wasn't smart enough to question it properly. She didn't know how these things worked. Magic played by different rules, right? Maybe - this was just a rule she didn't know yet. Besides, Kikyo wasn't hurt. Furthest thing from it. She was clutching her now glittering camera, beaming with a warmth that almost made Akari want to smile too. Something that left Kikyo happy like that couldn't be all that bad.

When Mrs. Amberly spoke to her, next, she moved forward, then paused, not sure what she'd put in the pool. She didn't have anything important. Nothing she cared about the same way Kikyo cared about that camera. Her sneakers? Her twine bracelet? Tossing the gnarled lollipop stick into the water felt more like an insult than a worthy sacrifice. Mrs. Amberly didn't tell her to put something into the water, though. Instead, she held out the key, offering it to Akari warmly. Openly.

The next guardian.

Blankly, Akari held out her hand, staring at the key as it was pressed into her palm.

Protect us.

Her shocked gaze shifted from the key, to the girl in the pool, to Mrs. Amberly's expectant eyes.

Protect her.

"With - with my life," she said, a slight quiver in her voice, hand closing tightly around the key. She nodded, giving a grunt of understanding, repeating herself with a bit more resolve. "With my life."

She cracked a smile, then, partly from the budding warmth in her chest, partly from her friend enthusiastically showing off her new camera.

"So. Um. It's magic now?"

“Oh, magic?” Kikyo’s gaze dropped back down to the camera as she ran the pad of her thumb along a trail of smooth jade. She hadn’t thought about it being magic now, that was something that happened to other people wasn’t it? Special people who lived interesting lives, not odd girls going to a school far from home because their parents didn’t… Kikyo turned the camera over in her hands slowly, a smile creeping back to the corners of her lips. A special camera from someone nice who was always trying to protect all the boring girls in the world. “I’ll be very careful with it!” She said with a bob of her head.

What that it was it didn’t seem like there was a way to tell just now. She’d have to spend some time with her camera later, maybe with Akari if she was free, to learn how Aoife had made it special. She held the camera close to her chest, her expression turning more serious as Ms Amberly continued to speak. She shifted on her heel, things that preyed on girls like them? There were the monsters, but magical girls dealt with those didn’t they?

“Are there ways we can help?” Kikyo asked, “Aoife or the other girls who need it, if there are things at this school that Aoife is protecting us from I mean.”