First Assignments
By Raven
Jade lay snuggled against her mom. Aurora was there, with her sister Scarlet and her brother Galileo. Mom had brought her down to the pit while she watched over her brother Duncan. He was from another reality, and needed to be with Mom and the rest of the family very badly now.
Grandfather had explained the guild to her, and that Mom had other children to help keep time flowing properly. Sometimes, Jade wanted to tell Mom that she knew about a lot more than even she knew. Grandma had given her a very special understanding and some very special teachers.
Those that were called the gods themselves were her teachers. This was to show appreciation of what all her mom and dad had done for them. But mostly Mom- she was truly unique, so unique that even creation was not able to repeat her in any way. Her soul had been the first, and Grandma had oopsed with it. Grandma made very few mistakes, but when she did, she did all that was possible to correct them. This was the only mistake she was happy about making. �That�s my Mommy�, Jade thought to herself with pride.
�Hello, Tiger!� came the voice of one of her teachers. He called himself Charley, but he was really the force called Chaos. He was one of her favorite teachers, because he always brought her pretty things to look at and to play with. Like the Darkhold Kamir, it was one of her favorite ones to hold.
�Well, kitten, I have something to show you. Your first assignment, so to speak.� Mommy had always wanted her in her heart, but felt she was being too selfish, wanting something for herself. Jade knew that she had one very important purpose, to protect Mommy. She knew all the feelings that Mommy held in her, that she shared with no one, neither Daddy nor even Salem. Grandma knew the feeling that she had; Mom was able to even keep them from the gods and Andrew. For Mom, nothing was truly impossible- she would find a way to accomplish it. She never asked why, she only accepted what was needed of her. She taught her children to do so also, and they never failed Grandmother when she needed them. One mortal soul was not supposed to be able to do that, but Mom could and did often. The gods had petitioned Grandma for a reward to be given to Mom and that was me, she thought with pride.
�I am the only one who will be able to tell Mom to stop; that it was enough and that she did good.� Mom always doubted herself and when someone got hurt she tended to blame herself. She protected those that she cared for with such force that even hell could not stop her.
She floated over to Charley and sat in his lap. Aurora floated over to her, too. Charley was helping her �Because she was still too little to jump.�.
�Watch, little one. Your sister gave me the heads up on this one for you. I don�t know when it will happen, only that it does.
�You know how Mommy sees things only when one that she cares about could get really badly hurt or even die.�
�Yes, I do Charley. Is this one of those visions?�
�Yes it is, Jade.� he told her. �This one will be about Brett.
�There is a man who is going to use very old and powerful magic to try to take away his special visions. She will see this, and stop him by putting Brett to sleep and shielding him. But, the magic will hit her, and make her lose her ability to see for a while.�
�Show me what I need to do.� she said, with all the seriousness that made Charley smile and giggle a little. The air took on an almost solid look to Jade. Then, she was watching her Mom. She was asleep- Jade could she herself floating with her blanket in the corner. Her mom's head snapped up, then she told Carl, �Site to site on Brett!�
He was in his office, and going to have his picture taken for a special thing. The man had the camera and was about to say something when mom came through the secret panel. She told Brett to sleep the special way only Mommy could. Her way talked to the soul itself- not even the gods understood how she did it, but they sure imitated her a lot. Then there was a purple shield around Brett.
The picture paused, then Charley looked at her. �Do you know why she did that?� he asked her. She thought about it, but had no idea why.
�Because Brett has something he calls five sight. It allows him to see the future in a very special way. The magic in the camera would burn it out of him in a way that could not be fixed, because it would be as if it never existed.� The picture moved once again. Mommy screamed and passed out across Brett�s chair.
�This is where you come in, little one.� Charley said to her. She was there in a purple flash, riding Salem.
�You can�t let Salem kill the man, Jade, there are questions that he has the answers to.� The scene sped up and shifted. Now she was in a hospital room with Mommy and Daddy and Stanley.
�I have her sedated, Dad. She is still in shock, and she has been having seizures while he brain tries to figure this out.� Dr. Stanley told Daddy.
�Stanley, what happened?� her dad asked her adopted brother.
�Well, as far as the mages here and I can figure, the flash of the camera literally burned out the optic nerve, along with the brain centers that process visual information. She is blind, Chris, but her own regeneration is taking care of it, because it knows that something should be there. Her brain is confused and I am worried. I have talked to the mage supervisor here, and Raya. Neither of them can reconstruct the spell that did the damage, so, without an idea how it worked, they don�t want to try magic to speed the recovery.�
Again the picture stopped. �Jade, you can not allow them to do anything to speed up your mom's recovery. Even the magic box she hides for emergencies. Remember your Mom�s special trick, the once she used on Brett?�
�Yes, I do, Charley. Am I supposed to use it now, or then?�
�When it happens, tell her �no pain� in that special way, Jade. Halea will keep your sisters informed why they can�t help either.�
�Why can�t they help?� she asked Charley.
�Because your moms' eyes are different- she can see very far and in all different kinds of light. Her body knows what should be there, but if they mess with it, then it will hurt her. It will give more of the really bad headaches that she doesn�t tell anyone about. Her body is going to have to take it�s own time to grow each cell back, so that they are all in the right places. You will have to tell your grandpa that he can�t help either, and you will have to hide her time box.
�She is going to be very scared, Jade. You will have to help her till she is better.�
�How long will that take?� she asked him.
�I don�t know, Jade, only that she needs your help, and that you have to make sure no one interferes. If they ask why, �because Grandma says so� is all you have to say, okay.�
�OK, Charley I will do it just as you said to. What about that man though, what do I do about him?�
�The man is dying, Jade. He has a very bad sickness, and magic don�t work on him, neither do the nanites. He has a little girl that he loves very much that has no Mommy. He was hired by someone who was the director of the BTO to get revenge one last time. To amputate Brett�s abilities like what has happened to him.
�The man is scared to die. He needs to talk to Adrian, so that he won�t be afraid. His daughter needs to get the money that was promised to him so that she will be taken care of. Help them too, Jade. They are pawns, and don�t deserve to suffer. One day, if she gets what she needs to survive, she will meet Duncan and they will be married.
�Well, little one, I have to go, and you need to go to sleep. Remember, it will be OK.� He was gone in a flash. She grabbed Aurora and went back to sleep. She would be ready for her job, whenever it may happen. She snuggled close again to Mommy. They stayed that way for a while- Duncan near the wall, she curled up next to him and Mommy on the outside, like a sandwich. A warm, safe, Jade sandwich.