Tarakudo left Jade to finish up breakfast, no doubt tracking down the slimy serpent to arrange the meeting in the afternoon. That gave her a few hours to herself, something she desperately needed. It was a precious time alone and she debated falling back to sleep when she crashed back against the surface of the plush, expensive mattress. She didn't know why she was so tired, but she attributed it to stress and pushed it out of her mind. She had bigger things to worry about than herself.
First things first; a change of clothes would do her good. Her body did ache and feel a little constricted from sleeping in the Chinese dress, so she roused up enough strength to push herself off the bed and pad towards the paper dresser. Did she even pack any clothes? Hell, what did she pack anyway?
A little inspection of the room answered her internal line of thought, and something that resembled a suitcase was present in the corner. Guess pre-Jade Queen had intended to stay multiple nights. She rummaged around in it, trying to find something that was passable as casual. Everything looked more expensive than the entirety of Uncles' rare antique shop, even if half of the items he sold were kitschy knickknacks.
"I feel like I'm going into mondo-debt with everything I touch," she groaned quietly to herself, trying to take care of pushing the neatly packed silks aside. The style of clothing started to take a more unrecognizable appearance until she truly concentrated, noting that they must have been some sort of Japanese historical fashion. She'd always thought that the Shadowkhan were Chinese, given the fact that Shendu had power over them, but it seemed the truth revealed otherwise.
As if dealing with one set of mythology and folklore was bad enough, there was the entirety of Japanese magic and lore that she needed to know. Jade rubbed at her face. What else was true – Greek mythology? Mythical beasts like phoenixes? Religious figures?
Deciding that headache would be best not dealt with, she finally settled on one of the least formal looking kimono. She figured the less complex layers, the less formal it was. She remembered watching a tutorial on how to accurately fold one and dress herself in it; though she still needed quite some time getting the hang of it.
Habit drove her to check the time once she was doing, however a bit of searching showed that there were no clocks. She scoffed to herself and smacked her forehead.
"Duh, Jade. Demon World. No technology. No clocks, watches, phones.." She grumbled. She was aware that she was talking to herself, but hey, anything to keep her from melting her brain from all the thinking she had been doing lately. "How does anyone tell the time around here? Tarakudo said it was mid-morning.. so I guess I'll just say it's sunny o'clock and get on with it.."
There was one thing Jade wanted to do before she had to meet with Shendu. Though she hadn't acted on it at the time, seeing Uncle Jackie again made her heart feel like it was in her throat. She really needed to see him – to talk to him. The fleeting glance at the banquet wasn't enough.
But Shendu's palace was huge. Who knows where he was? She couldn't wander around forever, and she definitely couldn't ask for him lest she drew suspicion. If only there was a way to locate him.
Jade blinked. Right. There was. The Shadowkhan.
She supposed now was a good time as any to see if she still had the powers that came with her title. She was hesitant to tap into that side of her again, fearful of what she might find if she did. Then again, if she didn't have the ability to summon them, then it was only a matter of time before her subjects found out, and she really didn't want to find out what happened to Queens that got overthrown.
She took a deep breath and exhaled, extending her arms out. Jade centred herself, hands splaying and eyes falling closed. She focused on that little bead of darkness inside of her, on her dream, visualizing herself in that inky black sea, letting the shadows wrap around her like a secure blanket. She focused on her breathing, hands tense, brows furrowed and knitted together tightly in concentration.
"Come to me," she called, straining. Jade could feel as though a drift had entered her room, her ears pounding and thundering with her pulse. She risked opening her eyes for a moment, spotting a dark shadow amalgamating in front of her, though not yet quite formed. She focused everything on it, staring hard enough to make it feel like her eyes were bugging out of their sockets.
"Come," she tried once again, inviting the darkness into the realm. She couldn't keep it up much longer, but thankfully she didn't need to, for from the shadows did the ninja rise in a kneel, ready to serve.
"I did it!" she whispered gleefully, before the fact of the matter hit her. "Oh, no.. I did it.."
Well, that confirmed she had her powers back, but she had to admit, that was far, far more difficult than it had been when under the influence of Tarakudo's mark. Logically, she knew it was a good thing she could control the Shadowkhan, but it made her upset to think she had enough dark chi within her to be able to do so.
Then again, Uncle did say that light chi could not exist without dark – there always needed to be a balance. That was the whole point of the Tiger talisman, and she'd seen first-hand what happened when both light and dark were split.
There was a lot of work to be done, and there was no easy cheating tattoo to do it for her. At least this way it seemed she was keeping her sanity, consciousness and self in check.
"Help me find Jackie Chan." She told the Shadowkhan. Obedient, he raised and nodded, sinking back into the shadows. Strangely, Jade knew exactly where the ninja had gone, a little freaked out by the visualization and map in her mind. Shaking her head, she quickly jogged to keep up with the traveling shadow.
As expected of him, Jackie tried to keep up a chipper attitude. His morning had begun many hours prior; and he had just finished polishing an entire wing of the palace. His back and legs protested for a break, though he knew he wouldn't get one until many hours on. So he continued, collecting various cleaning supplies and materials that he would delegate to the other servants of the palace.
He considered himself to be in a great position; for a human, anyway. All he had ever known was life in the palace, having been strictly forbidden to exit the walls of it unless it was during Shendu's bi-weekly parade through his empire. He rose through the ranks until he finally reached the position of head housekeeper. That gave him some minor authority when it came to distributing who was doing what, but his responsibility was entirely in making sure Shendu was happy and that everything ran smoothly behind the scenes.
To begin with, the emperor had always been hostile and harsh to him, and Jackie did not know what he ever did to upset him. He doubled his efforts in attempt to placate his rage, and eventually he had found a routine that worked and lead to the least amount of punishment, even on the dragon's bad days. Shendu always revelled giving Jackie the worst and most humiliating tasks imaginable, some that was even beneath his station as head housekeeper, but he performed without complaint. His continued compliance always seemed to bring the dragon glee.
With his arms full to the brim and nearly obscuring his vision, Jackie closed the closet with a gentle nudge of his boot, taking the supplies down to the humble, cramped quarters of the awaiting taskforce. The so called servant wing was completely lacking in anything resembling a decent living space, but they got to take up residence within the palace, so he couldn't really complain too much. Not that he'd ever think of complaining.
"Good morning!" he chirped, beaming when he finally set the supplies down and looked around them the glum and defeated faces. He tutted and wagged his finger.
"Aw, what is with the long faces? Did you not get breakfast?"
He shrugged a little when his response from the ginger haired one was a flat glare. The three that stuck close together and mostly performed as Shendu's entertainment had been friends prior to their transfer into the palace. It hadn't been pretty from what Jackie heard; disgraced from the small villa that a wealthy human owned. Unfortunately the demon's expansion had been rapid over China, and it wasn't long before that wealthy human was turned servant too.
Speaking of..
"Valmont, Lord Drago has requested that you clean his room again." Jackie informs, shuffling through the large pile he brought out the supplies to place several cloths, polishes and spray bottles into a bucket for him. The blond-haired man grumbled something unpleasant under his breath, dragging himself forward to snatch the bucket from his hands. Without the regal and plush lifestyle to keep him kept; he was starting to get the sprouts of a blond beard.
"Great, I get to clean up after the brat." The Englishman huffed. "So long as I don't have to babysit and have my feet burned off again, I'm fine with it."
"You know you cannot speak of him that way." Jackie chastised, though he didn't really have him to punish him. That was one unpleasant side of his duties that he had to carry out if Shendu wasn't around to deal it out promptly. He seemed to take special interest in the five in a way that Jackie had no idea why.
Valmont dismissed him, pulling away and heading off towards the palace wing, hoping not to run into any dragon guards along the way. They hadn't been completely trained in the way of not eating the servants, yet.
"Ratso, Chow, you're on bath duty. It needs to be cleaned out before the master requires his next bath!" Something of that calibre required heavy duty, so along with the typical supplies were added sponges and rough bristled brushes to really scrub at the tiles of the pool. The two let out a combined groan. Unlike Valmont, they didn't mind being entertainment, at least when Shendu was in a good mood.
"Is there any point, I mean, he takes mud baths, right?" Ratso complained, taking both his and Chow's bucket. "Why couldn't it be something more pleasant, like, I don't know. Milk?"
"A milk bath?" Jackie laughed. "Don't be ridiculous. Besides, the dirty mud needs to be cleaned out, it would have hardened by now."
"What'dya mean dirty mud? Mud is dirty!" Chow exasperatingly exclaimed, trailing behind Ratso as they headed off for their duties. That left just one – Finn.
"So, what unspeakable humiliation do I have to do?" he asked Jackie, grunting slightly as the bucket of supplies was shoved into him. He grumbled something and rubbed at his chest, shifting the weight of it to carry under his arm as it just so happened his bucket lacked a handle.
"Kitchen." Jackie offered sheepishly. "The leftovers from the banquet need to be transported to the master's stables."
"I think we need a new word for that, 'stables' implies horses." Finn muttered. He knew the only animals, if they could be considered such, that resigned there were Shendu's personal flight dragons. Not that Shendu even needed them as he already could fly with the power of his magic, but it didn't hurt to arrive in style, he guessed.
With all the servants of the lower quarters sent to do their duties, Jackie mentally ticked it off as a job complete. Now he had to find Hak Foo in the slave barracks and get him ready to run drills if he hadn't risen already to do so. Humming to himself, Jackie did not get very far before he noticed that the shadow he cast on the ornate ground elongated.
"That's odd," he mused aloud, squinting at it and holding his chin in thought. He checked behind him, though nobody was present. Facing forward to the black clothed ninja –
Wait.
Black clothed ninja?
"Waaah!" Jackie cried out, stumbling back and tripping on his own feet. He was caught by the mysterious figure, none too kindly, and pulled into the darkness below. Travelling through the Shadow realm was a strange feeling; like nothingness and everything all at the same time. His vision went dark, and the only thing he could feel was the iron grip of the figure.
By the time he could see, he was disorientated and didn't recognize the grand hallway he was in. It took a few minutes to register that he was somewhere off-limits unless expressly given permission to enter from Shendu, and he quickly faced the figure. "—Take me back, take me back!"
The ninja didn't say anything or do anything other than transport him there. Now that he took the time to look at the man, he realized he had blue skin as well. Fear bubbled inside of his chest, noting the red eyes symbolic of dark chi in effect. He tried running away, which prompted the ninja to pull him back and push him to the floor with an oomph.
"Hey, be careful with him. He's .. er, well.. I mean he's –" a quieter, younger female voice sounded out. "—Well because I said so!"
His purpose done, the Shadowkhan sunk back into the void of shadows, service dismissed. Jackie groaned in pain, rubbing at his back and trying to fix his already mussed hair. With all the physical abuse he's endured, accidental or otherwise when serving a fifty foot draconic demon, he thought he'd be used to a little tumble by now.
"Thank you, um.." he lifted his head, freezing entirely when his gaze landed on Jade. He paled.
"Jade," she filled in for him, eyes full to the brim of concern. The fact he looked at her with such fright, like she too was an unrecognizable demon hurt her to her very core. She bit her lip, approaching carefully like one might do to a wild, scared animal, hand splayed out to touch his shoulder. "—Jackie, it's me, Jade."
Jackie immediately shifted to sit on his knees, head so low it touched the ground, completely bowing before her. "Q-Queen of the Shadowkhan! I am so so sorry, I do not know what I've done but I'm sorry!"
Jade could feel tears well up in her eyes, borne somewhat of frustration, mostly out of agony over what she was hearing. "Don't you.. don't you recognise me? Forget the Queen stuff, Jackie. It's me. Your niece!"
Jackie mustered up the most weakest laugh he could imagine, and Jade realized it was because he was truly fearing for his life. "Oh, Queen, you are so funny, haha! I do not have a niece, you played a very funny prank!"
Jade's lip trembled, knowing that a few tears did indeed escape. She knew, deep down, the Book of Ages must have altered something when she ripped out that page, but to wipe her from her family tree, to make Jackie scared of repercussions of upsetting her? The stress that she was barely managing to handle from this whole journey so far, as little of it as she had begun, was hammering in her chest.
Her breathing quickened, and she slowly stepped away, eyes focused on the hunched form of her uncle. Or who was no longer her uncle. She wiped her hands over her face, quickly trying to rid the presence of the tears lest she drew unwanted attention. Jackie didn't know who she was. That was all that kept ringing in her mind.
"Just.." she whispered, hoarse and weak. "Just go. Leave."
Jackie seemed quite relieved with that command, hurriedly getting to his feet, rapidly bowing to her three or four times before jogging his way out of the restricted wing.
Jade was left there, staring at the wall opposite her, as she slumped back. Alone for a moment, she heaved a quiet sob and covered her face, sinking down to the ground with her knees up, trying to make herself as small as possible. She didn't know what to expect being face to face with him, she had intentions of telling him about the Book of Ages, but..
That encounter felt like she had been punched in the gut.
Shadows gathered around her, and Jade knew that her high emotions had summoned the Shadowkhan. Several of them, in fact. She looked at their tense forms, weapons ready, believing their Queen to have been endangered.
"It's okay." She croaked, and they were at ease. "Give me some privacy."
They were happy to oblige, and she had never thought that a blanket of shadowy darkness could be warm. She truly was alone in this.
Alone.
note: :( im sorry to hurt you jade, this is the first of many.