A/N:  Ok.  This chapter is going to be inundated with information!  I know this is what a lot of you have been waiting for since I began my second story, Uncontrollable.  You don't get all the answers, but you certainly will get a LOT of them.   I suggest you read it carefully because it's just answer after answer after answer about Jade.  Enjoy.  And I BEG of you, review and let me know what you think!

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The Secret Magic: 3: Whisperings

By: Karigan Marie

Chapter: Here are the facts (about you)

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            Justice looked at the ten year old girl with interest.  Jade looked a bit overwhelmed at the moment.  With what was anyone's guess.  The girl's green eyes seemed a little brighter than before, her face a little more alive.  Justice smiled.  "It can be a bit much as I understand it; coming into the great forest for the first time is never easy, for anyone."

            Jade looked as if she'd just noticed the red heads presence.  It took a few moments, but recognition finally registered on the girl's face again.  "What happened?"

            Justice sighed.  "You have powerful magic.  So does the forest.  It's only natural that the two combined would spark so easily."

            "I don't understand."  Jade's eyes squinted.

            Justice sighed.  This really wasn't the place or time to get into the entire explanation of just what was going on.  "It's better if we wait.  We have a bit farther to go still."

            Jade crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.  "Better now than later," was the petulant reply.  Justice felt the girl's sarcasm with a touch of annoyance.  'I wonder where she got that sharp tongue from. I don't remember either one of her parents being so acidic.'

            "You won't understand if I tell you know.  It will just confuse you more and make us both short-tempered."  With that, Justice turned to continue on through the trees.  The walking was much easier this time.  The trees, while incredibly large, held wide gaps around them, allowing for more direct pathways through the forest.  There was foliage, naturally, but none as dense as with the newer forest.  Justice heard the reluctant footsteps of the following girl.

            She was relieved when Jade refrained from asking any more questions on their long walk, though she could feel the girl's eyes boring holes into the back of her head.  It was nearly dusk when Justice finally stopped.  She turned around to notice Jade tapping her foot.

            "I think I've been patient enough," was the short clipped statement.  "I want answers.  Now."

            Justice shrugged, crossed her arms over her chest and made a little movement with her head to indicate that Jade was to walk closer.  Jade stepped up close with impatience.  "Well?"

            Justice nearly laughed at the girl's utter inability to pay attention to her surroundings.  It wasn't as if anyone was being quiet.  Red eyes rose slowly, indicating that Jade should look skyward as well.  'At least she's quick to catch on,' Justice thought as piercing green eyes slowly and carefully rose to the sky.

            Up in the trees, far above their heads, the sun bounced off bright red forms, all just far enough away so that Jade had to scrunch her eyes to see.  The girl gasped as one by one the bright red forms fell from the sky, bursting into flames of blue, yellow, reds, and gold.  She backed up against a tree, pressing herself up against it as the balls of fire came closer.  Justice smirked.

            Within seconds, Justice's colony swooped in for a landing.  Some, not so gracefully, Justice noticed with a wince, their talons were not made for the flat earth.  Justice felt the earth under her feet shift slightly.  Looking at Jade in alarm, she noticed the girl was shaking in fear.  Quickly, Justice walked over to her.  "Jade.  Calm down.  Don't be afraid."

            The girl was shaking furiously, her eyes trained on several six feet tall firebirds.  "Jus...I…"

            Justice leaned in close.  "You have to calm down, Jade.  Your magic is much more sensitive here, you have to calm down."  The words seem to startle the girl out of her fear.  She took several breaths and swallowed the panic admirably.  "They won't hurt you, silly girl," Justice chastised.  "This is my colony."

            Jade nodded.  A small hand came up to give the tinniest of waves.  "Umm, hello."

            Justice smirked when the firebirds squawked their hello's and Jade flinched back.  "They're just saying hello back."

            Jade scrunched her nose.  "How am I supposed to know that?"

            "Well, if you'd just listen, you'd be able to understand them.  Honestly, I don't really think me playing translator is time conducive."

            Jade flushed in embarrassment, and Justice noticed, with some amusement, that the vanilla orchids that bloomed not ten feet away from where Jade stood, blushed red themselves.  This would certainly be interesting.  "I don't have wild magic.  I can't speak with animals."
            Justice rolled her eyes.  What had they been telling the girl way up north? "First of all," Justice pointed out.  "You do have Wild Magic, just not the kind they're used too up north."  When she noticed the questions shooting through the girl's green eyes, Justice quickly added, "…but we'll get to that later."  She sighed.  This would be a very long night.  "Second.  Firebirds can understand and be understood by the flora.  And, seeing as you're a third flora, you should have no problem understanding the same as the regular flora."

            Jade's face was one of open shock.  "I'm…I'm a third what?"

            "Third flora," Justice repeated.  "Didn't your parents ever tell you about the flora magic getting into your mother's body while she was pregnant with you?"

            "Well yes…" the girl stumbled.  "But…I don't know…how am I quarter flora?"

            Justice sighed.  "It didn't just heal your mother…it healed you as well.  Your mother was barren, Jade.  She never would have been able to carry you to term by herself.  Unfortunately, foxglove is a powerful poison, powerful enough to cause permanent damage to your mother's womb.  Even if your mother hadn't been hurt that day, she would have miscarried you, so the flora informs me.  From what I understand, you were very weak in there, and they added to you, made you strong, filled in the gaps with itself."

            Justice sighed.  This is where it got complicated.  Her mother's words of encouragement gave her the strength to keep on.  "Had your mother never been poisoned by foxglove, you could have been born normally; you would have been born with normal wild magic; as your mother was born with it.  You would have been half your father, half your mother.  But your not.  You're made up of three different entities now; your mother, your father …and…the flora.  It makes for an odd combination; and odd but extremely powerful one.  You have your mother's wild magic, but your flora makes it different."

            Jade listened in rapt attention.  "Going back to the first point," Justice backtracked.  "If you just listen, you'll be able to hear not only the flora, but firebirds as well."  Jade nodded slowly, comprehension dawning.  "Well…" Justice urged.  "No time like the present to start."

            Jade nodded and chewed on the side of her lip in concentration.  She closed her eyes and Justice scrunched her nose.  What was the girl doing? Trying to think the words? "You aren't listening." Justice commented after a few moments.

            Jade's eyes opened in frustration, the tree trunks around her groaning slightly along with her.  "I'm trying.  I'm opening my mind, just like I've always done.  I'm trying to use my mind.  I am!"

            Justice looked at the girl as if she'd grown another head.  "Why do you have to think about it so hard?  All you have to do is listen."

            Jade sighed.  "I don't know how?"

            Justice stepped up to the girl, reached up and took both tan ears in her hands, pulling them lightly for emphasis.  "With these, you silly girl!"

            She looked confused.  "You mean, like I listen to you.  Just…my ears? Not with my mind?"

            Justice shook her head.  "What does your thoughts, other then processing the information, have to do with your hearing?  If you want to hear us, or the flora, use your ears!"

            She saw the girl look around nervously, as if the idea had never occurred to her.  Finally she sighed and let her shoulders slump.  She focused on sounds around her for a few moments, listening quietly.  She took a deep breath, as if to give up when she jumped back suddenly in stunned surprise, her eyes nearly coming out of her head.

*****

            She'd just about given up on the idea of just listening with her ears instead of her mind for once, something she'd been taught since birth not to do in concerning magic, when she heard various voices speaking suddenly; the booming voices startled her so badly, she felt her heart pick up a notch or two.

            Leaning back against the tree, she jumped back up when it made a comment about her short height.  She swung her face around to another tree who had been discussing the ten year itch it had suffered through a century ago.  Under her, the small grass shoots were bickering among themselves about a rather stubborn bird who would not give up its quest for a worm that had burrowed itself among them.  Jade looked up to the voices coming from the firebirds.  They were speaking quietly among themselves, curious about the small human girl that was now their charge.  There were softer voices, a patch of wild scurry violets chatted softly with the thorn bush about the lovely rays of sun they had been enjoying since that mean old red wood died a few weeks back, he wouldn't be missed.  Vanilla orchids, their soft white pedals having the tiniest residue of a blush still staining them, whispered about how proud they were that she was their daughter more than anyone else's.  Jade stared at them in surprise.

            "Parents are always boasting about their children," a voice cued softly behind her.  Jade turned her head to come face to face with a firebird.  She swallowed uneasily.

            "I'm sorry?"  The red firebird with brick red eyes motioned her head to indicate the vanilla orchid bush.  "What do you mean? What do they mean?"

            "Flora magic is connected.  All flora is one, but they have their own minds, as any individual has."  The firebirds soft words soothed Jade's nerves.  "And the flora that saved yours and your mother's life that day was a vanilla orchid bush.  You are a third flora, child.  But more specifically, you are a third vanilla orchid."

            Jade blinked.  "Are you serious?"

            "Very," was the soft reply.  Jade swallowed and looked at the soft white orchids.  She had considerable trouble trying to think of the pretty plant as part of herself.  The nice firebird seemed to know what she was thinking without mention.  "You might have noticed a few traits that you inherited from them.  Perhaps some that are not from your parents.  Vanilla orchids are extremely shy, to the point of vexing many.  They hide their thoughts often, are very giving naturally, which explains why they were first to step up to the demand of healing you, and they can be very stubborn, refusing to change with time."

            Jade winced.  Some of those traits sounded all too familiar.  She sighed and scratched her head, just trying to take it all in.  Dark was settling in the great forest and Jade found herself wondering where she would sleep tonight, they were really quite far away from Solandia.  But this was her opportunity, and she was not going to give it up.  She looked at the firebird that had spoken to her and set her jaw.  "I want to know how I got here?" she asked stubbornly.  "I want to know why I'm so far away from home.  And I want to know how I get back."  She was working herself up, feeling her face flush with the heat of anger; she felt a painful prick on her hands, and stared after the short tempered thorn bush that scolded her on her lack of respect for elders.  'You're making the saplings loose their root hold!' it chastised.  'Control yourself.'

            She blushed furiously, and this time, she too noticed the vanilla orchids white velvet petals turn red along with her.  Justice stepped up and put a hand on her shoulder.  "Don't make yourself uneasy, Jade.  We didn't bring you here to make you so nervous.  It's understandable that you feel strongly right now. Natural.  But one thing you must learn is to control your emotions.  They can have powerful repercussions if you're not careful.  On the other hand, when you're older, maybe you can use them to your advantage.  But that day is far away; and for now, it's best you learn the value of calmness.

            Jade chewed on her bottom lip as she listened to the girl.  That accent really was rather odd.  Pretty, but odd.  She could hear it in the other birds as well, and it had given her cause to concern she'd miss a few of the more flowing words that they spoke.  She took a deep breath.  "Could you please tell me," she implored, "what is going on?"

            A mighty firebird stepped closer, his looming height and strength evident in his every move.  He stared at her with piercing gold eyes.  "I am Hunter, child.  Lead bird in this colony."  Jade leaned back gratefully against a redwood that offered her comfort.  "The flora came to us one day, asked us for assistance.  They told us their daughter was in danger, but they could not help her, their laws cannot be broken so easily." He looked momentarily over at the vanilla bush.  "Though some are more likely to break those rules than others."  Jade looked over and gawked when the vanilla bush flushed again, pure red, all by itself.  She turned back to Hunter.

            "We ourselves would not have stepped up to the challenge on a normal basis.  We do not leave the great forest unless absolutely necessary.  In fact, we all said no.  All accept one."  Jade looked over at Justice, who shook her head in denial.  She looked around and her eyes landed on the brick eyed female again.  She seemed to smile at her, almost.

            She stepped up and softly admitted her part.  "I was the one to fly north, child.  I flew as quickly as possible; when I got there, you had just fallen from a cliff in the night.  I could hear your fear from the sky as you fell.  I used all my magic to reach you before you hit the bottom.  Fortunately, I caught you before you hit the rocks below, though you had hit a few rocks on the way down.  You would not wake up.  So I placed you upon my back and brought you with me, brought you here.  Without my magic, which I could not use with you on me, our journey back south lasted near one moon cycle."

            Jade flinched.  A month.  A trip south lasted a month.  On a bird, a direct flight with nothing to detour them took a month.  She felt a bit ill.  How far south exactly was she? Birds flew relatively quickly if they wanted, and she had no doubt these firebirds could be quick, even without magic.  A trip north on foot could take, near half a year at least!  She was so far from home!

            "I brought you here.  To the forest, in hopes the flora would heal you.  But you were still alive; and sadly, the told me they could not heal again, that the law had already been broken once for you, and could not be again.  I was quite vexed with them at that point.  That is when my daughter mentioned the village."  Jade turned to Justice.  Daughter, huh?

            Justice smiled.  "Seeing as I can shaft shift, I can go to the village if I please.  So I did.  I asked the head shaman to look after you while you healed and promised to be back for you once you were out of danger."  She grinned.  "He agreed happily."

            Jade fidgeted with her hands, thinking hard.  It had taken a month to get down here.  Then, a month or her to wake up.  That was two months she had been completely unconscious.  She must have been very injured, though she wondered if she would have been half that bad if the poor firebird had known any human healing and not had to have taken her down as she was for a month without care.  Two months.  But then, she had been in bed for two weeks after that.  And it had been two weeks more before Justice had come earlier today.  Three months.  Three months.  It had been April when the rebels attacked, only a few weeks after her tenth birthday.  So…it was near the end of July now.  Jade had to sit down on the ground at the thought.  She had missed most of summer.  She let out a shaky breath.  Her father probably thought her dead by now.  "But why bring me here? You cold have taken me to any village in Carthak and they would have taken care of me," she breathed in question.

            Justice sat next to her with a sad frown.  "I asked a great favor when I asked the flora to heal your mother almost eleven years ago.  I owe them just as big a favor.  And they asked me to bring you here."

            "Why didn't you come and get me, then?" Jade asked.

            Justice smiled.  "I'm still kind of little.  I can't really carry you to well, not that far anyways.  Besides, my mother was willing to go and get you."

            "Why?" She hadn't meant to ask that so desperately.

            Justice's mother spoke up softly.  "I do not owe a dept to the flora, child.  But I do owe a dept to your mother.  And to her, I repay that dept."  Lorelei sighed softly, ruffling her feathers.  She had never imagined she would ever be able to repay the wild mage for saving her child.  But the opportunity had presented itself, and she had eagerly taken it.  Now, she would watch over the small human hatchling, fulfilling the same kindness the woman had given to Justice.

            Jade shivered in apprehension.  "Why would the flora bring me here?"

            Justice swallowed uneasily and looked at her pale hands.  "They thought it best that you start to learn control over your magic.  No one up north knows anything about it.  You can't learn from them."  She swung her hand in the general direction of Jade, motioning to her.  "I mean, just look at simple hearing.  You should have been able to hear the flora and us since you were five or six.  But you can't.  That in itself says a lot.  They can't teach you up there."

            Jade scrunched her eyes.  "So, the flora wants to what? Give me a few lessons?"

            Justice took a deep breath.  Quietly, she pushed on.  "More than a few."

            Jade swallowed.  "How long?"

            Justice looked at her sadly.  "It is going to take you most of your life to learn to control this magic, Jade.  It will take years to just get out the absolute necessities.  Until that time, you are to stay here, under my care, repayment for that favor so long ago, and the flora's tutelage."

            Wide green eyes looked frightened.  "Years?"  She squeaked.  "How many years?"

            Justice shrugged.  "Seven, eight, maybe nine years." a small breath.  "…maybe more."

            The little shoots screamed in protest as green light pulsed out of Jade's hands, panic in the young girl's eyes.  She shook her head slowly.  "I can't do that." She whispered fiercely.  "I can't stay here that long.  I won't."  She stood up and shaky legs and began to walk back the way she came.  "That's too long.  And I'm too far away from home."

            Justice jumped up and followed her, leaving the other firebirds behind.  "Jade! You must learn control."

            "I'll learn at home.  With my father.  He'll teach me," she reasoned.

            "He can't, Jade! How is going to teach you about something he has no idea about?"

            Jade felt hot tears sting her eyes.  She took a deep breath and pushed forward through some trees.  "I'll figure it out."

            "You're going to kill someone with that magic of yours, Jade!"  Jade's feet stopped abruptly, the words nearly ripping out her insides.  Justice's quite voice filled her ears.  "I don't want to be cruel.  But you know it to be true.  You have magic that is too powerful to ignore.  You have to learn to use it or you're going to cause a lot of pain."

            A few seconds of silence.  "It's your choice, Jade.  In the end, it always is.  If you want to go home, you can.  But you won't ever get this opportunity again.  If you go home now, you'll never learn to control it.  You'll never have the ease of knowing that you're not dangerous.  And you are, Jade.  You're dangerous without the proper training.  I know staying means you'll be giving up the life you knew.  Giving up most of the plans you had for the near future.  But it's not the end, Jade.  It's not.  It's a beginning."

            Jade lowered herself to the forest floor, rubbing the ground with her bare hand.  "Why can't they teach me up north, why can't I just tell them how? You could tell me, and I could practice on my own," she tried desperately.

            Justice sat next to her.  "Because even we don't know it all, Jade.  You have wild magic.  And you have the flora magic.  Two in one.  That is… rare.  Truthfully, it's never happened before, and will probably never happen again.  You've been taught from the beginning to use your mind to call up your magic, because that's what the Gift and Wild Magic require.  But flora magic is much older, much more primal.  It takes a certain amount of thinking, yes.  But, the magic isn't a thought.  It's you.  It's a part of your body, as much a part as your legs, or your arms.  And just like them, it's controlled by you mind ultimately.  But it requires your body to complete.  It requires your own energy, your own self.  This is why your emotions are so dangerous."

            Jade looked over.  "I don't understand."

            Justice's gold silk covered legs shifted.  "You have to call up your magic.  Not with your mind, but with your body.  You can't just stand there and magic will happen.  It needs to get out through your body.  A lot of different options there, really.  Your body has to respond, has to let energy out.  Words for example.  Well, not necessarily words, but your breath.  It requires you to use your lungs, to exhale.  That action, the exhaling is a release of the magic.  If you snap your fingers.  If you clap your hands.  Anything that takes effort on your body is how your magic leaves your body.  Do you understand?"

            Jade's eyes scrunched.  "I think so.  But then, wouldn't my magic be getting out at all times.  Since I'm always doing something…like walking, or …breathing!"

            Justice smiled.  "Yes, if you didn't have control of your actions.  But you do them deliberately, or steadily.  They are controlled.  So your magic rarely gets out by mere every day activities."

            A few moments of easy silence before Jade ventured a soft question.  "Can they get out through my emotions?"

            Justice's lift twitched in consideration.  "Not exactly.  Your emotions are really only thoughts.  So having emotions doesn't release your magic.  But having physical responses to those emotions…"

            Realization dawned on Jade.  "…if I scream in anger, or cry from sadness, or shake in fear…"

            Justice nodded.  "…or jump in surprise, or laugh with happiness.  Emotions are often spur of the moment and rarely really controlled.  They're quick to appear and your bodily response is quick and powerful.  Having emotions doesn't let out the magic.  But it certainly provides a means for it to get out.  And since emotions are powerful and, not always controllable, neither is the magic that gets let loose."

            "So that means I have to…?"

            "Well, it means that one of the things you have to learn is serenity and poise."  Justice smiled cutely at that.  More seriously, she added.  "It means that you have to think before you scream or throw something in anger, before you start shaking in panic…"

            "…before I laugh in happiness?" Jade asked with hurt eyes.

            Justice sighed sadly.  "Until you learn to control your magic?  Yes."

            "Even if I control my emotions, I still won't have control over the magic?"

            "You can't control your magic by suppressing your feelings, Jade.  If that were the case, than you'd be cold and unfeeling and have great power.  The control has to come from you.  You have to make the conscience effort to control it."

            "I've tried!"

            "It takes time, and practice.  And even then it's not enough.  You have to find it in yourself.  It's not just going to fall into your lap."

            Jade sighed, running her hands along the dirt forest ground, listening to the small roots underneath snooze in everlasting slumber.  "My father doesn't know where I am."

            Justice nodded.  "Your parents won't know.  And I feel bad having to do this to them.  I liked your father very much. And your mother was very nice to me, she's a nice woman."

            Jade looked over at the girl.  "Justice…" Red eyes rose from the ground to meet her own.  "My mother…she died two years ago.  She walks with the Dark Lord now."

            Sky blue eyes turned icy in shock and surprise.  "What?"

            Jade pulled up her knees and settled her head on her knees.  "Two years ago, the palace was attacked by rebels.  My mother was killed that night."

            Justice stared into thin air in thought.  She swallowed slowly.  "I'm so sorry to hear that."  She looked over at Jade again.  "Your father?"

            Jade sighed.  "He's fine.  I think.  He was in Tortall fighting the war last I heard."

            Justice seemed confused.  "What war?"

            Jade sat up a bit.  "Carthak and Tortall are at war with Scanra and Serain.  They've been fighting for almost six months, now.  And last I heard, both Tortall and Carthak had closed their borders."

            "I'm sorry to hear that."

            "Those horrible Rebels make it worse.  I wouldn't have been in danger if those horrid men had left us alone."

            "Rebels?"  Justice's voice sounded strained.

            "They're some kind of rebellion army in Carthak.  They want the Emperors throne," Jade explained.

            Justice began to shake noticeable.  "I see."

            Jade scratched a pattern into the earth.  I suppose the Emperor has closed the Southern Carthaki borders as well."

            "It makes sense," Justice replied.

            Jade sighed sadly.  "So if I wanted to go North, I wouldn't be able to cross the border, not without a firebirds help."

            "None of them would take you; they don't like leaving the forest.  Hunter was reluctant enough to let my mother go.  If you really wanted, I'd take you, hunter seems to think I'm a bit different.  But you're kind of heavy.  I won't be able to carry you for a few more years at least."  Jade nodded, feeling tears begin to sting her eyes.  She got up suddenly, surprising Justice.  "Where are you going?"

            "I need to think," was the only reply Jade gave.  Jade walked into the night, Justice sighed softly.

*****