Jade Seal Academy: A Harsh Reality

Miko feels like there’s an obvious choice to be made here, a clear ‘right way’ for this all to play out. She takes the offer, she gets magic, they do the hero thing, and everyone lives happily ever after. But Riet’s words make her hesitate, and she looks between her friend and her teacher as though scanning the page of a glossy new magazine. Like if she studies the two of them long enough she can read the answer written in between the lines. Or upside down at the bottom of the page.

Not even handstands can help her now. She’d get her hands all dirty if she tried.

Her attention snags on one word - agent. Her gaze snaps to Ms. Meehan, every fiber of her being hungry for the answer she wants to hear. A magical agent. A fairy god-mother. A kind old witch in the woods. Every good story has one. And she wants, more than anything, for hers to be a good story.

Even if she has to trade something away, she wants to hear her options. If it’s too much she can just… she can just say no, and she’s no worse off than she was before. Ms. Meehan will be the other girls’ agent, though, if she doesn’t. And that would sting.

“That’s good enough for me,” she decides, stepping forward. She walks up to their teacher with her shoulders set and her chin level. Walking the runway. Standing on the stage. Smiling for the photoshoot. This isn’t so different, right? “What’s your offer?”

Good enough? Well, it would have to do, wouldn't it. Ms. Meehan might have hoped for a little more enthusiasm, but that was the way of young women these days. They'd been taught caution from an early age, and so there was less leaping into things with eyes closed and hearts open.

Ah, well. She motioned Miko to the side, watching her approach. The girl certainly did have a flair for the dramatic, didn't she? She could have been on a stage, rather than in the middle of the woods with only three other individuals around. Ms. Meehan considered quietly, looking... almost through Miko, rather than at her.

"Ah. Yes, I think that will do nicely, won't it?" Her voice was pitched low, for Miko alone. If she chose to share with the others what happened, that would be her decision. "Hmm. You shall be... an idol, I think. A beacon to all who look upon you, brightly shining. Just as you've always wanted, I believe?" But there was more to it than that, of course. It was not just the gift, but also the cost. "Now... as for a price... oh, we cannot take your future, that would be too cruel. Your past, then. It will have to be your past. Well, child?"


She would give Miko a moment to answer, and then a few moments more to process whatever effects came of her decision, turning away to the other girl remaining, Riet, delightful Riet, who saw this all as a great bargain. Ms. Meehan did have to admit a sudden fondness for the child over that alone. Again, her words were soft, for the girl before her alone. "You do so much to support the others, don't you? I think perhaps... we can enhance that somewhat. We can give you the power to... oh, to heal - but you will have to take the injuries into yourself, I suppose, in order to make it work. They'll fade, of course, but I think the pain will linger... but you're no stranger to pain, are you? Always and forever more. Ah, dear girl... I won't even take a price from you. The gift alone, then, my dear. Will you take it?"

Riet had been straining to overhear what Meehan was promising to Miko--to no avail. She only heard Miko agree--and then a moment later the idol-in-training was looking around, her eyes a little cloudy, as if she didn't know where she was. There wasn't much time to dwell on that, though.



The muscles in Riet's shoulders felt so tense she was sure that at any moment they'd snap. Magic wasn't just staring her in the face, now; it was breathing down her neck. No price? A memory from an old computer safety class of all things lodged itself in her brain; if they're not charging you anything, you're the product. 'Linger' didn't sound too terrible on its own, but it could mean anything--maybe the pain'd be worse for her than it was for the person she was healing! How many times could she fix a cut or a scrape before the pain became too much to bear? Never mind a cancer patient, or someone with tuberculosis, or...

No matter how hard she tried to focus on the pain, she couldn't stop thinking about the rest of it.

They'll fade, of course. Did that mean just the injuries she took from other people? Would it include her own injuries? If the only problem was pain, surely she could figure out a way to live with it; you're no stranger to pain, are you? There were drugs, and technologies, and other kinds of magic, and--and the other thing.

Always and forever more.

She stared at Meehan, thin-lipped, knowing there was only one thing she could say, but trying to hold it in for as long as she could. It had to be a trap; Meehan had spoken the words like a tragedy, but what was the point of a tragedy without a hubristic heroine making terrible mistakes in the pursuit of something seemingly impossible, anyway?

"I accept."

There was, for just a moment, a feeling like the end of her. It was like someone had taken a picture of her, and it was hanging up on a wall in some studio somewhere, or on a website, and then the real her had walked off, and left her behind, trapped in the image. But then it was gone again, just as quickly as it'd come, and she was left standing in the clearing with Mrs. Meehan, Miko, and Kaya.

"Um." Her mouth had gone dry; she swallowed, quickly, and tried again. "Cool. So. About this witch?"