Page 28 of Dark Witch Resurrection

After all, people were the same whether they were humans, immortals, or Kra-ell.

She tried to keep it down, and she didn't want to distract or disturb Bridget and Julian while they were working on the princess in the next room.

Later, when Bridget walked in to check on the prince, Jasmine asked, "Am I bothering you and Julian?"

Bridget smiled. "Not at all. You are very talented and entertaining. It's like listening to a Broadway show from the dressing room."

Jasmine dipped her head. "Thank you. I wish the casting directors at all my auditions shared your opinion."

Bridget canted her head. "Looks and talent are two legs of the stool. The third is luck, and the Fates had different plans for you, so they didn't make you lucky."

Jasmine chuckled. "I'd like to think that. It's so much better than thinking I wasn't good enough."

Bridget turned to look at the prince. "Everyone is smart in retrospect, and the Fates don't like to show their hand. Perhaps your future is something you haven't even imagined yet." She stepped out of the room, leaving the door slightly ajar and Jasmine to ponder what she'd said.

What if the prince was just one more steppingstone toward a different future?

Jasmine closed her eyes and tried to think outside the box. What else could her future be? She was talented in many things but not exceptional in any of them. Her voice was strong, and she had perfect pitch, but it wasn't unique. She also wasn't a songwriter, and it seemed like these days, every successful singer had to come up with original pieces of their own.

A knock on the door pulled her out of her reveries, and as Jasmine turned and saw who it was, she tensed.

"Good morning," Kian said as he walked in with William.

"Good morning. My earpieces are in." Jasmine moved her hair aside to show William that she was wearing them.

William smiled. "Good. I'm glad that you are being cautious." He pulled out a small box from the bag he was carrying. "I have a new toy for you." He handed her the box.

"What is it?" She opened the top and looked inside.

William hadn't been joking. The thing looked like a toy. A small microphone and loudspeaker were housed in a teardrop-shaped pendant, which hung from a delicate chain.

"It works on the same principle as the earpieces, just without the compulsion filtering component. It will translate your words into the Kra-ell language so the prince can understand what you're saying. You can hang the chain around your neck."

She pulled the pendant out of the box. "How do I activate it?"

"It responds to voice commands." William smiled sheepishly. "The command to activate is 'Kra-on.'"

Jasmine chuckled. "That's easy to remember." She put the teardrop-shaped device in the palm of her hand. "It's so much more convenient than putting earpieces in the prince's recovering ears. Thank you for coming up with such a clever idea."

"It wasn't mine," William admitted. "My team has been working on improving the earpieces, and they've developed more great features. The device allows you to program it with your own voice, so it will sound like you when it translates your words into Kra-ell."

Jasmine frowned. "Will there be a delay, or will it translate simultaneously as I talk?"

"Simultaneously," William said. "And before you ask, the prince will only hear the Kra-ell translation, or mostly that. The device will cancel your voice waves by producing counter waves. It's not perfect yet, so he might hear some of it, but it won't be enough to confuse him."

"That's marvelous." Jasmine found three tiny buttons on the device, probably the manual controls. "Your technology is amazing." She turned the teardrop over. "What about singing, though? Will it also sing for him in Kra-ell?"

Kian regarded her with a puzzled look. "I don't think so. Is that an issue?"

She shrugged. "I sing to the prince. I don't know if he can hear me, but maybe he likes it. I would like to keep singing to him."

"Jasmine is very good," Bridget said from the waiting room. "Beautiful voice."

William and Kian exchanged glances, and William shook his head. "If you want to sing to him, deactivate the device."

"That's what I thought." She sighed. "It's a shame, though. I mostly sing songs from musicals, so the words are important. Still, this is a miraculous little device. You could make a fortune with it."

William ducked his head, looking embarrassed by her praise. "The next generation of earpieces will automatically learn the speech patterns and voices of the people around them, so they'll sound completely natural to the listener."

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