The Jade

I remember the day I was tested. I was only five years old, but I remember. I stood in line with all the other boys and girls. We waited, not knowing at the time what was really happening. I'd heard stories, but I was young and naive and didn't know what to believe. Some said you would melt on the spot if you failed the test. “Then where do the slaves come from?” I would ask. Others said they made you eat a bucket of worms before testing you, just to make sure. As if the worms somehow had a connection to the Celeste Cryst. “Well of course they do!” They would retort, “the worms were dug up with the gems!”

When they called me forward, I froze, wet myself, and cried. They had ripped me from my mother and made me stand in line with all these terrified boys and girls, slowly marching toward the ominous crimson doors with the emperor's palace spires looming overhead. I was terrified, naturally. The big muscular guard whacking me on the back of the head and telling me to go through the doors did nothing to alleviate my fears either.

I finally made myself walk through the great big crimson doors. Up close they were even more foreboding. They had ornate carvings of various fanged creatures baring their teeth outward toward me. I was being forced in, while the doors themselves warned me to stay away. It's amazing the details you remember from traumatic experiences.

The room beyond was mostly empty, just a long carpet leading to a table of noble-looking old people staring at me and waiting for me to come forward. I walked forward and when I reached the table I saw the box that held the Celeste Cryst. The box itself was rather plain, dark wood, neatly polished, but plain. The old man sitting in the center seat behind the table leaned forward and opened the box.

The Celeste Cryst, or star crystals, were believed to have fallen from the heavens themselves. From the shine and shimmer of them, I wholeheartedly believed it at that moment. They gave off their own light. It was bright and white, and at the same time iridescent. I forgot for a moment that this was the defining moment in my young life. This would decide if I was to be a slave or one of the Profound. But that wasn't why I hesitated, the sheer beauty of the Celeste Cryst had me awe-struck like nothing I could remember.

“Pick one up,” the old man instructed me. He was surprisingly gentle in his command.

I reached out and picked up the largest crystal in the box, though that wasn't saying much. It was barely the size of my five-year-old palm. I stood there stupidly holding this majestic awe-inspiring crystal for what felt like an hour. I wasn't sure what was supposed to happen, but whatever it was, it didn't happen for me. The next thing I knew I was in shackles and being led away to a door at the side of the room.

The next twenty years of my life I spent as a slave, mostly building massive monuments to Emperor Zaal. It was dangerous work and really easy to die from falling stonework or falling off a ledge when working up high on one of the monuments. Though I honestly believe some people have jumped, I never actually witnessed it. Sometimes I got to serve the nobles at their restaurants, but that was only as a reward for working hard at building duty.

Our barracks were a cramped and filthy building consisting of one large room, with no beds whatsoever. We were not allowed outside of them at night, so we had to relieve ourselves in the least inconvenient place we could find. Sleep was hard to come by, but I've found if you're tired enough, you can sleep anywhere.

One night, some of us got to talking about our tests and what exactly they were testing for. One of the guys claimed he knew well and truly what they were testing for.

“The Celeste Cryst gives some people the ability to do magic,” he said as we all sat around listening. He paused for dramatic effect as he looked us each in the eye. “If you pick up the Celeste Cryst and it floats above your hand, then you have it and you're one of the Profound.”

“Where'd you hear that,” I asked, skeptical. When everyone turned to look at me I sank back a little from their stares.

“I got server duty last week, remember?” He asked. I nodded. “Well,” he continued, “I overheard a couple of the Profound talking about the last batch of kids they tested. They talked about the whole process. Right as I was bringing them their plates of food. They didn't even seem to notice me.”

It was as credible a source as I could think of. Everyone else seemed to believe him too. Soon the whole barracks was abuzz with ideas of what kind of magic the Profound could do. It quickly became apparent that no one had ever actually witnessed them doing any magic. The conversations died out relatively quickly as everyone was tired from the day's labor. Soon, those who could sleep were asleep. I had to relieve myself and went to the designated corner to do so. On my way back to my spot on the floor, I saw a girl sitting awake, looking serious. We made eye contact and I decided to sit next to her and talk.

“Hi, I'm Erm,” I introduced myself.

She looked me in the eye, “I'm Vericka,” she said proudly. Then she asked, “Is Erm the name your mother gave you?”

A little confused, I said, “yes, of course, it is.”

“Well you shouldn't use the name your mother gave you,” she said with disgust, “she let them take you away and make a slave out of you. Your new name is Brosk. It's a good strong name and it suits you.”

Not wanting to argue and honestly conceding the point, and if I'm honest I really liked my new name, I stayed silent and simply nodded.

“So, Vericka,” I asked, “why are you sitting here looking so serious?”

She gave me a serious look, “He's right you know,” she gestured toward the boy who told them about the test and what it was for. “But he didn't have the whole story.”

“I also overheard some of the Profound in conversation. Though I was sneaking around and was somewhere I wasn't supposed to be.”

My jaw dropped, no one ever gets away with sneaking around.

She continued, “I heard them say that they are afraid of us. That we are the ones with the real power and if we ever learned it that they were all doomed. They called us the Jade, whatever that means.”

I shook my head in disbelief.

“Oh yeah,” she said nodding, “and they said the only magic the Celeste Cryst even allows them to do is to make the Celeste Cryst itself hover in the air. Hardly impressive if you ask me, least of all profound.” She said, “profound,” with heavy sarcasm.

“Honestly, I have always felt there was something odd about the way they test us so young and then force us into manual labor for the rest of our short lives.” She said contemplatively.

I ended up falling asleep sitting there with Vericka and woke the next day to the slavers barking orders. It was a quick, unsatisfying breakfast of gruel and off to work on the latest monument. We were near the top and almost finished with it. Being up this high was my least favorite part, I hate heights.

I saw Vericka working way out ahead of me, but there were so many of us that it was hard to get any closer to continue our conversation from the night before. The slavers kept us working late into the day and the sun had nearly set. It was gloomy as well so it had gotten rather dark. It was about this time when I heard some commotion out where Vericka was working. When I looked up to try and see what was going on, there was suddenly a flash of green light followed by a yelp. Then I saw one of the slavers falling off the edge. Even from where I was it was clear that whatever happened, Vericka was at the center of it.

Another slaver pushed past me making his way over to where the incident had taken place.

“Who pushed him?” He demanded. No one said a word. No one pointed or even looked in Vericka's direction. The slaver cracked his whip, hoping to scare a confession out of someone, but everyone stood still as the stone they were working on and didn't say a word.

I knew it meant trouble for the lot of us. But somehow the solidarity of it was empowering. It gave me a rush of adrenaline and I wanted nothing more than to be a part of that silent group staring down the slaver, not giving up our fellow slave. So I too stayed silent. As a result, and until they could figure out what to do with us, they locked us in our barracks and told us we wouldn't be allowed out until further notice.

Once they had locked the doors, everyone wanted to speak to Vericka, to congratulate her, to get a better look at her, or simply to be nearer to her. As it was I was already close to her.

“What happened?” I asked over the commotion of others trying to ask her questions.

She smiled proudly, “let me show you,” she said.

She held her hands out to her sides and closed her eyes. A look of pure calm came over her and what looked like jade lightning seemed to encase her arms and hands until it finally came to rest above her upturned palm in an orb of ball-lightning. She closed her fists around it and extinguished it.

She stood tall and took a sweeping glance around the room. She spoke to us as a commander of an army, “I now know the truth. We are not inferior to them. We are not even their equal. No, we are far more powerful than they are. We are the Jade. We wield magic, real magic. Unlike the hovering Celeste Cryst, they claim makes them superior. It is this very thing that proves they are the weak ones. They were not born with our power. And it is time we take back our lives, and end theirs.”

I expected everyone to cheer, I certainly felt like cheering. But I also had my doubts, so I voiced them, “but how? We can't do that magic like you can.”

She came closer to me and put her hand on my chest just above my abdomen looking me in the eye and said, “Oh but you can, mighty Brosk.”

The next thing I knew there was a burning sensation running from my sternum outward to every extremity of my body. I looked down and saw the green lightning encasing my arms and hands, and I instinctually knew it was a part of me. As Vericka stepped away, I controlled the lightning with ease and made the same orbs of ball lightning above my hands before extinguishing them.

Vericka and I each went to the others and awakened the jade lightning within them. They in turn went to the next person and so on until everyone in our barracks was finally and truly alive.

When the slavers returned to announce were all to be executed, the last thing they saw was our green light.

The End