“The High Temple of Lyssandria welcomes you,” a chorus of voices echoed in the marble hall.
“Hey,” Jadis replied lamely with her three selves, taken aback by the unexpectedly formal greeting.
Despite the sun having just barely risen, it looked like the entire temple had turned out to greet her. What had to be more than three hundred people were gathered in the large central hall. Considering almost all of them were wearing robes of varying levels of ornateness, Jadis presumed they were all clerics and priests like Eir. They were all arranged in neat rows and all had bowed at the waist as part of their formal welcome.
“Please, be at ease,” a familiar voice said warmly. “You must be tired, so we will escort you to your rooms. Unless you would prefer something to eat, first. The kitchens will have breakfast ready soon and we can take you to the dining hall straight away.”
Aurea, the blonde high priest, was at the front of the congregation. The robes she was wearing were even more elaborate than the ones Jadis had seen when she had first met the woman, and she looked like she was in full “temple leadership” mode. Two other people stood to the fore with her, both of which Jadis assumed to be the other High Priests of Lyssandria that Eir had told her about previously.
The woman in the center was older, her silver hair cascading down her back in a thick braid. Her skin tone implied she was human, like Aurea, though her pointed ears indicated some elvish blood in her veins. She was a beautiful woman, the only outward sign of her aging besides her gray hair being slight crow’s feet around the corners of her brown eyes.
Her name was Irene, and she was the senior high priest in the temple. Eir had described her as being a warm woman whose classes centered around painting and art. Apparently, she had a habit of painting portraits of every cleric and priest that came to stay at the temple, and her self-made art collection was known to be one of the better ones in the empire. Jadis hoped she’d get a chance to see Eir’s portrait and planned on asking the high priestess for a viewing while she was at the temple.
The man to Irene’s right was an elf with ruby-red hair and light purple skin. He was tall for an elf, a head taller than either woman he stood with, and his golden eyes shone brightly in the light. Jadis noted that his robes were of a different cut than the rest of the priests and she could clearly see the finely-made tunic underneath.
The elf’s name was Aimery and he was the third and final high priest of Lyssandria in the city. According to Eir, the man had originally started out with a musician’s class and had only been offered a priestly class upon unlocking his secondary. He had spent much of his career composing music for both the temples and for the royal court and it was for his emotionally captivating compositions that he had unlocked a High Priest class.
“I… am not sure, honestly,” Syd replied to Aurea’s question. “Things have been moving kind of fast…”
Out of the corner of her eye, Jadis saw Lady Severina speaking with a short man wearing some of the gaudiest armor she’d ever seen in her life. The armor was covered in silver and gold etchings and it even had a plume of pink and purple feathers coming from the top of the helmet. Based on his height, she presumed that he had to be a gnome. There were other knights gathered around the man, all of whom looked far more reasonably equipped, if at least spit-polished to a mirror shine. Jadis was able to overhear a few of the words exchanged between the Seraphim and the garish knight, and from what little she heard it seemed he was the head of the order of paladins who would be responsible for watching over her during her stay in Lyssandria’s temple.
“Perhaps baths would be best,” Eir spoke up as Jadis hesitated. “We have traveled far and have had no opportunity to refresh ourselves.”
“Of course,” Aurea bowed her head. “A wise suggestion, Sister Eir. If you would all follow us, we shall lead you to your rooms where you can drop off your belongings and then proceed to the baths.”
“Speaking of belongings,” Dys said before Aurea could start to move. “We were rushed over here without any time to really get our things. Most of our stuff is back at the docks.”
“Have no fear, Lady Jadis,” the small knight in the ridiculously ornate armor stated as he took a step forward, “My men are already on their way to pick up all of your things. We’ll have everything collected and back in your possession before you know it.”
The man had a strangely familiar accent and it wasn’t until he raised the visor on his intricately decorated helm that Jadis realized who it reminded her of. The man wasn’t a gnome, but a goblin, with green skin and red eyes. His accent had that thick brogue just like Sorcha and Sholto. He was also possibly the most handsome man Jadis had ever met in her life. Perhaps noticing her shock, he smiled rakishly at her while giving her a wink.
“Sir Roy, Paladin of Lyssandria,” the goblin introduced himself with a flourish.
“Holy shit, it’s a little green man version of Brad Pitt,” Syd murmured before she could stop herself.
“Brad what?” Kerr quietly asked, having stood close enough to overhear.
Jadis didn’t bother answering, and she hoped that no one else had overheard her either. Explaining either part of her surprised exclamation was not something she wanted to do with a few hundred priests hanging on her every word.
Fortunately, it looked like no one else had heard, or at least anyone who had was politely ignoring the mumbled statement.
Without further delay, Jadis and her companions were whisked along through the halls of the temple, no longer escorted by paladins but by priests. There were many warm, even excited smiles on the faces of the men and women Jadis passed by, though she noticed there were some expressions of concern whenever any of the priests turned their gazes onto Alex. There wasn’t as much upset as Jadis would have expected, though, and she figured that probably had something to do with Aurea giving the temple some warning.
Back in Far Felsen, Aurea hadn’t been thrilled with Alex, but she hadn’t been hostile, either. The blonde woman had been far more concerned with any potential threats to Jadis’ safety than anything else. Perhaps considering how well-behaved Alex had been so far, even while Jadis had been unconscious, she’d developed some new, kinder opinions of the Demon.
Jadis hoped she had, at least, and hoped that she had passed those opinions on to the rest of the priesthood.
The temple interior was, as Jadis had expected from the outside, ornate and beautiful. The décor wasn’t gaudy like Roy’s armor, thank goodness, but there were statues, murals, and paintings everywhere. There were even alcoves along the halls where priests were playing quiet music or singing gentle hymns. Music and art were major components of Lyssandria’s domain and it seemed the temple was decorated to exemplify those qualities.
While not all of the art on display was exactly to Jadis’ tastes, there wasn’t anything she was seeing that she felt could be described in any way other than beautiful. It was all just a bit… much for her, though. She felt like she was walking through an art museum. She could scarcely imagine living in a place like the temple long-term, though she had to admit that the surroundings did seem like the kind of place that would suit Eir.
And then Jadis’ thoughts were derailed by the statue.
There, in the intersection of three halls, stood a tall, marble statue. The statue was composed of four different figures, each one of them wondrously sculpted with such detail that it looked like any one of them might step off the platform they rested on at any moment. All of them were nude, which made it easy to tell that one figure was male, another female, a third was a futanari, and the fourth had a strangely androgynous appearance.
They were Nephilim, each one representing one of the four different sexes. The way they were posed was oddly sensual without being overtly erotic. Jadis would have found it difficult to point to any one aspect of the statues that could be considered pornographic, yet there was still something innately sexual about the way the marble figures were posed, their bodies subtly touching each other, that Jadis found innately sexual.
“Until I met you, I could never be sure how accurate this rendition of the Nephilim was,” Aurea quietly stated from where she stood next to Jay. “Now, seeing you side by side, I feel as though the artist hardly did you justice.”
“Thank you,” Jay said with genuine appreciation in her voice. “That’s really nice of you to say.”
It really was. The marble figures were beautiful, exuding an air of attractiveness that felt almost supernatural. Jadis knew she was beautiful. She saw her face and body every day, all day, simply by the nature of her class. Sometimes it was easy to forget that her looks weren’t just on the high end of the scale but were literally inhuman.
The strangest thing about seeing the statues though, Jadis realized as Aurea led the group down the left hallway, was the realization that if it weren’t for the color of her eyes, she really would be identical to the statues in terms of skin tone and hair. The large statues were even the same height as her. If she took off her clothes and closed her eyes while holding still next to them, Jadis was fairly certain that no one would be able to tell the difference between her and the statues. Had that been Lyssandria’s intent when she had created the Nephilim? To make living works of art, marble statues of elegant, sensual beauty? Whether that was the case or not, Jadis had to appreciate the skill of the hands who had crafted those statues, as well as the godly will that had designed the Nephilim to begin with.
There was one difference that Jadis had spotted between her selves and the statues, though. For both the male and the futanari representations, neither were quite so well-endowed as she was.
After a flight of stairs and a few more hallways, Jadis was shown the room she’d been given for her stay in the temple. While Jadis couldn’t be sure, she highly doubted that the ridiculously large and lushly appointed suite was the kind of place most priests, or imprisoned individuals, were regularly given. Aside from the fact that the furniture and various decorations looked like they probably cost more than everything Jadis had ever owned in either of her lives combined, the bed had clearly been set up with her in mind. It wasn’t tall enough to meet her preferred sitting height, but the size was enormous and could easily fit all three of Jadis’ giant bodies as well as all of her lovers with room to spare. The presence of the bed had Jadis wondering how exactly the priests had managed to cobble together something big enough for her on such short notice. Or had this room always had an unaccountably massive bed in it? The piece of furniture hardly looked out of place in the huge room; it even had posts with curtains.
The suite didn’t just consist of the one super large bedroom. There was a separate sitting room with chairs and couches intended for entertaining guests, three smaller bedrooms attached to the grand one that had more reasonably sized beds in them and less extravagant furniture, and two different bathrooms. One bathroom was set up with the three smaller bedrooms and gave Jadis the feeling it was intended for servants, while the other bathroom was just as impressive as the giant bedroom. It even had a tub in it that was large enough for one of Jadis’ bodies to fit in it comfortably, though adding anyone else would turn it into a tight squeeze. As nice as it was, that wasn’t the bathroom where Aurea intended to take them, though.
No sooner had Jadis and her companions dropped off the few possessions they had brought with them than they were escorted to a different part of the temple, further towards the center. The domed room that Jadis was taken to made Jadis think of the bathhouse in Far Felsen where she’d first gotten a look at Eir’s voluptuous body, and Eir had gotten her first eyeful of Nephilim. The circular room was ringed with tall marble columns and there was a round hole in the roof to let in light and air. The floor was dominated by round pools of water, many of which were visibly steaming with heat, and the walls were ringed with constantly streaming waterfalls where bathers could wash the grime off before getting into the baths. In the center of the room stood a statue of a gorgeous woman, the marble inlaid with gold, silver, and a variety of precious gemstones. Since she had met the goddess once before, Jadis knew it was someone’s attempt at capturing Lyssandria’s beauty. While Jadis could easily admit that the statue was one of the most beautiful and elegant sculptures she’d ever seen, it simply could not hold a candle to the burning flame of Lyssandria’s true glory. In all honesty, Jadis didn’t think it was even possible to truly capture the goddess’ beauty in any form of art. But she knew that wouldn’t stop people from trying.
“Alright,” Kerr said happily as she rolled her shoulders. “Scrubbing off with wet cloths was getting old. This was a great fu—ah, great idea, Eir.”
“Thank you,” Eir said as she began to remove her robe. “I had fond memories of the temple bathhouse. I hoped you all might enjoy.”
“Definitely going to do just that,” Jay said with a grin. Then, at a thought, she turned her head to catch Alex’s face. “This’ll be your first real bath, huh? Might spoil you for any other after this.”
“Hot… Water… Make… Clean…” Alex commented sagely.
“Yes, yes it does,” Jay nodded as she turned to look to her left. “Soap helps a lot to—”
Jay cut off her words as the sight of at least two dozen priestesses, each one young, nubile, and completely naked, caught her off guard. The women were standing just to the side of and behind Jadis’ group and many had clearly been a part of Jadis’ escort through the temple. When Syd looked to her right, she saw even more naked women standing on that side of her group. All the priestesses were drop-dead gorgeous, which was why it took Jadis a second to realize that all of them were holding various items that would be useful for pampering and grooming. Brushes, combs, sponges, cloths, bottles of oils and lotions, and even things that looked like back scratchers were in their hands.
“Please, allow us to help you disrobe, Lady Jadis,” Aurea said, her bountiful breasts on full display as she stood there just as nude as the rest of her priestesses. “We shall attend to you and your companions’ every need.”
Jadis had honestly expected Aurea would try to toss a few priestesses her way, what with the deal she had made about making some Nephilim babies. Maybe even make a pass or two herself, since she was a very attractive woman. But she’d thought that the high priest would have been slightly more subtle, at least at the start. Instead, it looked like the sexy woman was bringing out the big guns right from the start.
Jadis was tempted to ask the priestesses to leave. She really had no intention of doing anything sexual with any of the strangers. In fact, if she was going to have any fun while in the baths, she’d be doing it with her lovers, and not in front of an audience. Still, thinking about it, she didn’t see that it was really necessary to kick the women out. They were only offering to help bathe and groom her, and the offer had been extended to her companions. Was that so bad?
Well, when in Rome.
306