Silent Jade

by Wanderer D

Chapter 5: Jade

Silent Jade

Chapter 5: Jade

By Wanderer D

Rarity was gently—but firmly—woken up from a dreamless sleep by Gaius shaking her shoulder. "It's time to get up. We have a lot of work to do the next few days."

She shook her head and yawned, before pushing herself up and shaking the sleep away. Still groggy, she sniffed the food that her grandfather passed over to her. It smelled good. She took a bite, then a second. "Oh, this is delicious! What is it?"

Gaius shrugged. "Fruit bat. It was one of your mom's favorites."

Rarity stopped chewing. "Wait, aren't fruit bats animals?"

Gauis gave her a look. “They’re Fruit Bats. They’re just like timber wolves… plants. Only these fly and eat more fruits."

”You can't possibly expect me to believe that," Rarity said, narrowing her eyes.

Gaius grinned. "It was worth a try, but you should eat them, they taste good and will give you the extra energy you'll need today."

Rarity huffed but after a few seconds resumed eating, her thoughts drifting to the conversation they had last night, and what her new role in life was going to be.

"A legend?" Rarity asked, eyes wide.

Gaius nodded, staring at the flames of their campfire. "Her real name, as you probably figured out, was not 'French Seam'," he said slowly. "It was Silent Balm, just like my real name is Silent Stride.

"Your mom was an assassin,," Gaius said bluntly. "I still am. And that is what you will become too."

"A-assassin?" Rarity gasped. "You mean I'll have to ki-kill ponies?"

Gaius sighed. "If necessary, yes."

"B-but…" Rarity closed her eyes. "I-I can't, I shan't! It's too—"

Gaius held her shoulder firmly. "You will and you must," he said carefully, looking into her eyes. "This is what you were born into. Even if things were different, your mother intended to train you in this art." He pulled back, sitting up and looking down at her. "It is your heritage. It's not fair, it's not nice, but it is what you have gotten yourself into, in the end. And it's not something you can back out of now."

When Rarity simply whimpered, Gaius relaxed and lay down on his stomach, crossing his front paws in front of himself and smiled a little. "It's a scary thing, I understand," he said gently. "But this is why I asked you to be sure you wanted to follow your mother's hoofsteps. Understand Rarity, that if it had been up to me, you wouldn't have needed this, but circumstances have forced my claw. I must honor your mother's wishes, help your father and sister in the best way I can, provide you a future where you can forge your own way... and you must honor your own word to me, yourself and your family."

Rarity looked down, unsure. "What type of pony was my mom? Really?"

Gaius chuckled. "She was a great pony, beautiful, smart, deadly… full of grace and compassion, but able to take action if needed. She was to be my successor in the Order of the Wraiths."

Rarity glanced up curiously at that. "Order of the Wraiths? What's that?"

"All in due time," Gaius said. "It is getting late and tomorrow we'll have plenty to do. Suffice it to say that despite your mother's occupation, she was, in the end a good pony."

Rarity nodded. "And you're a good griffon, right grandpa?

Gaius had simply smiled. "Time for bed."

"Well, it seems you do like them."

Gaius' voice snapped Rarity out of her reverie, and she looked down to see all of her food was gone. "Huh."

"Now we get to work," Gaius said, come on… Jade."

Rarity stopped. "Jade?"

Gaius nodded. "That will be your name from now un, until you come back to Ponyville. Remember, you cannot reveal your name to anyone at all. Only you and I will know it, no matter how much you might trust anyone at the Hall of Silence."

Jade nodded, frowning. "I understand." She had expected having to hide her name to be exhilarating, maybe even fun… but now that she had to be somepony else… she felt sad.

"It makes it a bit easier," Gaius said, once more as if he was reading her mind. "If you're a separate pony… Jade is the assassin. Rarity is… whoever Rarity wants to be."

"I understand Gra—"

"Call me Silent Stride," Gaius interrupted. "Or Master Stride. We can't let the fact that we are family be discovered, and my name is something that would raise red flags immediately."

Rarity nodded, feeling another slight pang of regret. "And I'm Jade. Not Rarity."

"I will always be your grandad, though," Stride said gently, smiling down at her. "But it will be our secret once we're there. Now, come, Jade, we need to harvest the ingredients for your potion. I will show you how to dry them properly and you'll practice making it until you can do it with your eyes closed."

Taking a deep breath, Jade nodded.

"I'm ready, Gr-Master Stride."

Master Stride nodded in return, then motioned with his head to follow him. The way wasn't easy. He made her climb over collapsed trees to jump across ravines, and wade through thick, murky swamp water.

She could feel the eyes of predators watching them, but they remained thankfully away, most likely intimidated by a look from Silent Stride. Still, despite the lessened danger from the local wildlife, Jade struggled.

Her hooves didn't have sharp talons to stop herself from slipping on the moss covering the downed trees. More than once she had slipped and fallen face first onto the rotting wood. Once, she landed chin first and felt her lip split when she bit into it.

Each jump across a ravine Master Stride did without effort, Jade had to attempt with plenty of running space, or she ran the risk of not making it and either crashing onto the side only roll down to the bottom, or fall all the way down.

The swamp was deep enough that she had to paddle through, struggling not only through the thick, muddy water, but also not to get entangled in roots.

"Don't use your magic," Master Stride said whenever Jade's horn lit up. "The ingredients are very sensitive, and will be affected by your magical aura if you do."

Sighing, Jade picked up the knife she had been handed and slowly started to carve the bark from a tree.

"The bark from the ash tree represents the Earth element for the potion," Master Stride explained as she worked. "It provides balance. Without its properties, it would be impossible to mix several of our most potent potions. The Wind and Magic elements are too whimsical for Fire and Water to boil into submission by themselves."

The next hour was spent in search of a clear spring. It would have been easier if the were not in the middle of a swamp, but eventually her ears had picked up the sound of running water and she had soon managed to discover a little brook in a small island in the middle of the swamp.

Next she had to wade her way out of the swamp and back into the forest itself, following Master Stride through the underbrush until they gazed at a full patch of blue flowers with deeper blue veins.

She was about to move forward to pick one up, when her grandfather stopped her. "Careful, this is the most important ingredient, it's commonly called Poison Joke, but we assassins call it: illusion's shadow. Its properties are extremely powerful, this, Jade represents the power of Magic in your potion, and you will treat it with the appropriate respect. Misusing it has never killed anyone directly, but it can put you at terrible risk."

Under Master Stride's direction, and without using magic, Jade lay down an open sack right next to the flower, and very carefully used her knife to cut the stem swiftly, tilting the knife as instructed to guide it to fall into the sac.

Once she had gathered a few flowers, she followed Gaius carefully out of the area and eventually they emerged to the edge of a cliff overlooking several miles of forest. Jade had known that the Everfree was no small patch of trees, but never in her life had she imagined how vast it truly was.

Perhaps sensing her awe, or maybe reading her mind despite his claims to the opposite, Master Stride allowed Jade to bask in the glory and beauty of the scenery in front of her for several minutes before gently nudging her with his wing.

Silently, she followed him along the edge of the cliff. Her body felt stiff and heavy after so much work… the day before she had walked a lot, but it hadn't been anything compared to this.

"The world is a pretty big place," Master Stride said after a moment, and she could only nod. "And as beautiful as this is, it's dangerous, even deadly. Down there, past the river, the forest becomes the territory of several star spawn… there's an Ursa Mayor down there that has been expanding its territory… they are beautiful creatures, but extremely dangerous."

They watched in silence as the sun slowly sank in the distance, twilight casting reddish-purple light onto the forest.

"Ursas are a good example…" he said at length. "They can seem friendly at times, allowing smaller creatures to get closer to them. They're are not prone to sudden violence either, so some foolish ponies have assumed them to actually be friendly to them. But one misstep, or getting too close to their territory, their cubs… or even if they're just hungry and those ponies quickly, if briefly, learn the folly of their confidence."

Jade winced, giving the elder gryphon a look, which he returned with a small smile. "What I'm getting at, Jade, is that you will make friends, or feel that you did, while at the Silent Hall. They will have your back. They'll fight at your side. Guard most of your secrets. Die for your sake. For all intents and purposes, they will be your family… and you are welcome to be part of it. But if you expose your family to any of them… you risk losing both."

He glanced down at Jade. "Like your mother, you'll grow up beautiful and deadly, but you will have something she never did… a life under the mask. When it's all said and done, you'll always have a family. Ponyville will always be safe place to come back to... as long as you are careful and follow my rules."

Jade nodded, eyes drifting down to the woods below as Master Stride started walking again and she followed suit. She paused, eyes wide and heart beating harder. For a moment—just a brief second—she thought she saw stars moving through the trees below.

Once they had reached camp and started sorting through things, Jade groaned. "We forgot something."

Master Stride raised an eyebrow. "We did? I was under the impression that I was teaching you the recipe."

"But there is!" Jade insisted. She motioned to her hoof at the vial from the spring. "Water." The tree bark. "Earth." The campfire with the cauldron. "Fire." The flowers. "Magic." She glanced at her grandfather. "We're missing Air."

Master Stride smiled. "I'm glad you're paying attention, but don't fret, we didn't miss anything," he said, raising a talon to pluck out one of his feathers. "Air."

Jade pouted. "Unfair."

Stride chuckled and then started laughing. After a few moments, Jade also succumbed to the laughter and for a few more minutes at least that day, they were once again Rarity and her grandfather Gaius.

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Comments

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

I do feel sorry for Rarity to end up in this. At least she finds good use for it.

[Tsuguri]

"Oh, this is delicious! What is it?"

Gaius shrugged. "Fruit bat. It was one of your mom's favorites."

Rarity stopped chewing. "Wait, aren't fruit bats animals?"

Gauis gave her a look. “They’re Fruit Bats. They’re just like timber wolves… plants. Only these fly and eat more fruits."

”You can't possibly expect me to believe that," Rarity said, narrowing her eyes.

Is that a The Three Sisters reference I see? It certainly seems like one.

[Lainofthewired]

"discover a little crook"

I think you meant brook?

[Yami Vizzini]

Don't know why I wasn't tracking this... good to see more of this bizarre world.

[Joural]

So, what to say here.

Well, things have picked up a little in these more recent chapters, but the first couple chapters are really awkward. It's apparent that you're not used to writing children, especially not in heavily emotional moments, and as a result Rarity can come off... awkwardly. Luckily, this story is quickly going to force Rarity to age, which will make this issue less apparent. Still, the first couple of chapters feel less like someone writing a child, and more like someone writing how they remember seeing a child played on TV. I think the biggest thing that bothers me is... kids are smarter than you think they are. If Rarity is old enough to pick up odd jobs to make some money, she's old enough to grasp mortality. Her break down makes sense, but her not understanding what her dad said doesn't. That makes sense for a four year old, but not for a six to eight year old, which I believe is the age Rarity is intended to be here. I'm assuming six because that's the right age for her to become a novice or apprentice, and I have a feeling assassins would keep that tradition alive.

Remember, kids have big ears. They hear more than you think they do, and they understand more than you'd want them to.

[Wanderer D]

8198217 Oh believe me, I know I have a kid, remember? I thought of it with Rarity being more in denial and not wanting to believe it than truly just not comprehending it. Maybe it didn't come through that clearly.

[Joural]

8198758

I really can't think of a way to make it come across as her being in denial, unfortunately. It's really hard to write children convincingly, and the people who do know how to do it tend to only do that(Calvin and Hobbes, anyone?). Seriously, I'd sooner try to write a thousand page treatise than try to write an entire story from the perspective of a child, I'd have better luck.

[Silentwoodfire]

I picture Jade sneaking around to snag his feathers in the future.

[Sun Sage]

Ursa Mayor

Major, though in Spanish...

if the were not in the middle

they

I'm amused that poison joke is involved. An assassin in this setting could be called such a thing.