Jace opened his eyes. A few days had passed and he was a little more accustomed to the time on the world though he was still disoriented by it's speed. He was tired more than he'd like but had decided to deal with it. He was curled up in the corner of the couch. He yawned and looked around. Ral was sitting on the couch munching on a bowl of pretzels. Jace growled, "My god you eat like a cow." He kicked Ral in the leg, "Get off my couch."
"It's not your couch," Ral responded.
Jace hissed, "It is when I'm sleeping on it! It is now that I'm going to continue sleeping on it!"
"It doesn't have your name on it, Cat Ears," Ral bit into another pretzel and chuckled at the shape it made.
Jace growled. He sat up and glared at Ral, "Are you even listening to me? It is my couch and I can write my name on it if that'll make you feel better!"
"It's not your couch. It's our couch. Anyone can sit on it."
Jace gritted his teeth, "Fine." He got to his feet and went looking for the permanent marker Elspeth had used to label the cubby systems the day before. He found it on a shelf of one of the kitchen cabinets he couldn't reach. He climbed onto the counter and grabbed it before jumping down. He returned to the couch. Ral was still eating his pretzels in the middle of the couch. It's no wonder I was curled up so tightly. Jackass. He glanced at the marker. I shouldn't write my name on the couch. Elspeth will kill me. He growled, "Get off my couch!"
"It doesn't have your name on it," Ral said. He bit into another pretzel and made a different shape than the last on Jace had seen him eat.
Jace hissed, "And if I put my name on it Elspeth will kill me!"
"Exactly," Ral nodded, "It can't be your couch because it is our couch."
Jace gritted his teeth and clenched his fists at his sides, "Why don't you go eat pretzels in your room? Isn't your computer up there?"
"I was lonely," Ral whined dramatically.
Jace took a deep breath though it didn't help him calm down much. "Like I give a damn," he hissed through gritted teeth.
"But Cat Ears," Ral whined.
Jace ground his teeth together, "You're supposed to be older than me! What the hell are you doing?"
"I'm avoiding isolating myself and getting drawn into the internet."
"By bugging me? Go get lost in your damn computer!" Jace's voice rose as his anger started to boil over, "And get off my couch! I don't care if you're lonely! Go piss off somebody else!"
"C'mon Cat Ears. At least let me finish eating."
"Go eat in your room!" Jace hissed.
"But Cat Ears-"
"Stop it! Get off my couch! Go get lost in your computer! And go eat in your room!" Jace insisted angrily.
"Cat Ears-"
"Who's yelling and why," Elspeth asked. Her voice was hard as stone and both boys could see her eyes reflecting the light of predawn that lit the room. Jace realized he had switched his glare over to her and lowered his gaze, "Ral woke me up."
"You're the one that tried to shove me off our couch and then got all bent out of shape about it," Ral snapped.
"You're the one that's woken me up three times sitting on my couch, eating your damn pretzels like an obnoxious little-"
"That's enough," Elspeth said, "Jace, language."
"Which one? I don't see how my age affects what I can sa-yes Ma'am," Jace cut himself off when he met Elspeth's gaze.
"Ral," Elspeth turned her attention to him, "Two things. I have told you not to eat before dawn how many times now?"
Ral swallowed nervously, "Like ten."
"Exactly. That's enough. Also, if someone is asleep on the couch don't sit on it."
"But it's got six cushions on it! And he only takes up two at-yes Ma'am," Ral sighed once Elspeth's gaze hardened into a firm and intimidating glare.
Jace felt a triumphant smile forming on his face. It faded instantly once Elspeth fixed him with the same hard look. He glared at Ral and flipped over the back of the couch. He landed on the seats and curled back up, "Go away. I'm going to try to get back to sleep after you so rudely woke me up."
"Jace, if you're not going to be polite about it I can very easily take back everything I told Ral," Elspeth warned, "As it isn't your couch."
"I'm sleeping on it," Jace muttered.
"Yes," Elspeth nodded. She leaned over him and her gaze hardened further, "but I'm allowing you to. I can very easily claim this couch for myself and make you sleep somewhere else." She looked up at Ral as he snickered, "And I can very easily take every bit of technology you have to your name away from you. Permanently."
Ral's eyes widened, "Yes Ma'am."
She sighed, "Ral go back to your room and at least try to sleep." She took the bowl of pretzels from him and dumped them back into the bag before putting the bowl in the sink and filling it with water. Ral watched sullenly.
Jace closed his eyes and pretended like nothing existed but the black he saw.
"So," Lilianna sighed. Elspeth had forced them to go outside in the afternoon. Jace had decided to finally get around to teaching himself to ride the skateboard Locke had insisted Chandra give to him. Lilianna had brought out an ice cream cone and had paused in eating it to talk, "I heard you two fighting with each other this morning."
"What does it matter?" Jace snapped.
"I was just saying."
"Yeah and you aren't my mom. Get over it," Jace shrugged.
Chandra burst out laughing, "Do you want ice for that Lili?"
"Shut up," Lilianna snapped angrily.
"Cat Ears, you seem to be in a really bad mood here lately," Ral pointed out.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Jace muttered.
Ral had a bag of cereal with him and was eating it periodically.
He never stops freaking eating. It's so annoying. Everything here is supplied. There's nothing really to work for. It's pointless and stupid. I hate it. Jace crossed his arms over his chest and kicked up the skateboard, "I'm going to the library."
"You still have the card right?" Chandra asked.
Jace nodded. He grabbed the skateboard, deciding he didn't want to take the time to put it away and walked away. I'm going to look into the other realm Chandra mentioned. See what that's all about. He made it to the school a little while later and talked to the librarian about the key. He slid into the secret part of the library and skimmed through every book until he found what he was looking for. Since Chandra didn't come with me this time I can shut myself in here for as long as I like. He smirked, "Perfect."
"Didn't you say something about Shadow making pie?" Gideon asked Chandra as she helped him clean the kitchen.
"Yeah," Chandra sighed, "That night we spent at the Lotus Inn was supposed to end later with everyone getting a whole bunch of the sweet of their choice. That's why I looked into what you guys liked sweets wise. Shadow makes really awesome apple pie and an elf that lives on Ravnica was going to make a bunch of cherry sweets for Ral. I was going to buy everything else after dinner but...we ended up leaving early. Shadow was not pleased. Lock, Sea and Lotus ended up splitting the apple pie and the cherry sweets. All three of them got sick." I still have to wear that dress abomination for Sea. Wait a minute. Chandra grinned. It wouldn't fit me anymore. YES! She sighed, "My parts done." She left the kitchen and flopped onto the couch.
"When is Jace coming back?" Lilianna asked.
"I've answered that seven times Zombie lover!" Chandra glared at her, "I don't know. I'd expect he won't be back for a while. He is in a library after all."
"Guys, stop arguing. Cat Ears will be back when he's back," Ral shrugged.
"I'm just starting to worry that's all," Lilianna snapped.
"He's not helpless," Chandra hissed.
"He's not strong either."
Ral sighed, "I tried."
"Shut it," Lilianna and Chandra snapped at him in unison.
Ral put his hands up in a sign of surrender, "Shutting up." He went up to his room and logged onto his computer.
Chandra got to her feet, "Well. I'm going to go talk to Echo."
"About what?"
"Getting around our mana problems," Chandra said simply.
Lilianna looked at her in surprise, "I thought you were just going to tell the rest of us to suck it up since you've been here before."
"Being able to use our magic may important. Especially since not everyone can fight physically and others don't like it," Chandra said.
"How considerate of you," Lilianna sneered.
Chandra rolled her eyes, "I could keep it all to myself you know."
"I'm sure all of us would rather you didn't," Lilianna snapped.
"You're the one that made the unwanted comment," Chandra shrugged, "Maybe if you weren't so self centered you'd know that you're the one at fault here."
"Are you going to go or not?" Lilianna hissed, "Quit bugging me. You're annoying."
"Yeah, yeah. I'm going. Don't rush," Chandra smirked, "I'll go at my own pace."
Lilianna gritted her teeth, "Well if you're going to take your sweet time I'm going to waste no more of my time with you." She got to her feet and stalked up the stairs.
Chandra sighed. She arrived at the Black Lotus Hotel a few minutes later, "ECHO!"
"Don't scream," Wyvern snapped, "You may be younger but that does not mean you get to chose whether or not rules apply to you."
Chandra rolled her eyes, "Sorry."
"I think you have a bigger attitude now than you did as a kid," Shadow suppressed a laugh.
"You try living with those weirdos and not getting pissy," Chandra snapped.
Shadow laughed, "Echo's in her lab."
Chandra hissed, "Of course she is. That's seven flights of stairs and down a whole hallway!"
"It's always been. I don't see the problem Phoenix," Dragon said.
Chandra glared at him, "Really? It's a problem for me so shut it." She walked up the flights of stairs and down the hallway to Echo, "Echo!"
"What?" she snapped. She poked her head out of the door, "Oh hey Phoenix." She patted the redhead's head.
Chandra rolled her eyes, "Whatever. I was wondering..."
"What?" Echo asked after a moment of awkward silence.
"Is there a way for us to be able to use magic here. Maybe not mana but magic in general."
"You'd be completely exhausted by the simplest of spells. It'd be like learning to use magic all over again without the natural talent you possessed to begin with. But yes. It would be possible and over time you would be able to use it. You'd just be more limited in what you can do and you'll never be as good with it as you are with mana," Echo said.
Chandra sighed, "Really?"
Echo nodded, "There's also things called magical emblems that can give you abilities similar to magic but they are even more limited. They're also much more difficult to control."
"An emblem? What does that mean?"
"It's basically something that would implanted into your arm and it would allow you manipulate fire with that one hand," Echo explained, "It would be very difficult to control and it would be very limited. You wouldn't be able to create fire. Just manipulate it."
Chandra cocked her head to the side, "That sounds like it could work. I'll think about it and pitch the idea to Elspeth. See what she says."
"Alright."
Chandra returned to find Jace back from the library and Ral was sitting at the table playing a card game with Lilianna. "Whatcha guys doing?" Chandra asked curiously.
"Playing a card game," Lilianna shrugged. She looked at her, "By the way Elspeth and Gideon are gone. They went with Kaechia to go do something about some school thing or whatever."
"They're enrolling us in school so we can start with the upcoming school year because Gideon found out it was required by law for kids to go to school until they're seventeen," Jace snapped harshly.
"What Cat Ears said," Ral shrugged.
"Which one?" Chandra asked.
"The private school Jace insisted on going to."
"Oh," Chandra nodded, "Not surprised. You two didn't argue?"
"We couldn't decide so we left it up to him," Ral explained.
"Alright," Chandra shrugged. She glanced at Jace. He had a medium sized book and appeared to be reading it. She walked over and read some of the left hand page over his shoulder. Magic? The magic on this world huh?
"What do you want?" Jace hissed, "Can you move?"
Chandra looked at him and then at Ral and Lilianna, "You've been like this all day." It was now late evening and growing dark outside.
Jace rolled his eyes, "Maybe because you're wasting time that is much better spent somewhere other than conversation."
Chandra stopped leaning over the couch and patted his head, "Come with me."
"Why?"
"I want to talk to you. Besides, I'll get you something."
He reluctantly set the book down and got to his feet. He followed her down the street to a nearby café. "What do you want?"
Chandra looked at the waiter, "Lemonade please."
The waiter nodded and looked at Jace who shook his head, "I don't want anything."
Chandra looked at him, "When was the last time you ate?"
"This morning."
"And you didn't have lunch and you haven't had dinner yet?"
"No. I don't see why that's such a problem," Jace shrugged.
"Maybe because you're in a younger body now than you used to be," Chandra shrugged. "And maybe, just maybe," her tone hardened significantly, "because you don't have the same limits here."
"Maybe I just don't feel like wasting time that's better spent elsewhere," Jace shrugged.
"If you were really worried about wasting time would you be sitting here watching me drink lemonade?" Chandra asked.
"It's not like you gave me a choice," Jace muttered, "You are wasting time."
Chandra looked at him, "There's more to it than that. I can tell. What is it?"
"We're here for a reason. We're trying to find a stupid treasure thing and I'm the only one putting any effort into trying to find it."
"You were reading a book about the magic that can be used on this world. That's not looking for a treasure."
"So? Two birds with one stone," Jace snapped, "I haven't found a book on the treasure yet."
"What's the real issue Jace. It's not just the fact that apparently the rest of us aren't doing anything about the treasure," Chandra insisted.
"That's it," Jace hissed, "They're getting closer and closer to it and we have nothing. We have absolutely nothing!"
"If that was all you were worried about you wouldn't have left the library. You wouldn't have been sitting on the couch when I got back."
"And if I had stayed in the library you would've dragged me out anyway," Jace snapped.
"You were back before I was."
"And maybe you're reading too much into this," Jace got to his feet, "See ya."
Chandra grabbed his arm, "There's more to it. I know that much."
"Let go," Jace hissed.
Chandra stood, grabbed her lemonade and dragged him out of the café. She didn't let go and led him through a field and stopped on the banks of a creek, "What is that?"
"A creek," Jace muttered.
"Ah-huh," Chandra nodded, "And what's in the creek?"
Jace gritted his teeth. You. If I shoved you. But then I'd get wet too. "A whole bunch of green stuff."
"And what's beyond the green stuff? It's algae by the way."
"I know that thank you. Pardon me for not using my full vocabulary," Jace snapped. He glared at her, "I don't know."
"Exactly."
"I don't see your point," Jace pulled out of her grasp and turned away from her, "I'm busy at the moment."
"Do you like algae? Is it pretty?" Chandra snapped.
"Not really," Jace shrugged, "But I don't care about algae."
"This conversation isn't about algae you difficult-" Chandra interrupted herself with a deep breath, "You're being a dick. You can't push yourself to the same limits here."
"I'm sleeping. What more do you want?" Jace snapped.
"You can't just sleep Jace. You're working yourself to the point of exhaustion and something about the entire situation, not just the treasure, is bugging you!"
"So now it's my fault all the rest of you are wasting your time goofing off?" Jace spun around to face her. His eyes burned angrily, "I'm not to blame for your lack of responsibi-"
"It's not responsibility you're exhibiting Jace. It's stupidity," Chandra's voice rose as her frustration shifted to anger, "You can't push yourself so far anymore."
"Why not? Because you don't like it? Because-"
"I'm not doing this for me!" Chandra hissed, "What's the bigger problem here. I understand that you don't want Bolas getting his hands on the treasure but there's something deeper. We wouldn't be having this conversation if there wasn't."
"There's nothing else!" Jace insisted angrily.
Chandra grabbed him by his scarf and pulled him closer to her. She glared down at him. He was shorter than her by a few inches.
Jace's eyes flew wide open and for half a moment he felt fear send chills down his spine. He pushed it away and hid it under a defiant angry glare.
"What's the bigger problem here?" Chandra hissed. Her voice was dangerously low.
Jace grabbed her wrist and pulled himself out of her grasp, "There isn't one." He turned and darted away.
Chandra gritted her teeth and turned back to the creek. She took a deep breath but it didn't help, "Well...this is falling apart extremely quickly."