Bridget took a long, deep drink of the cool wine she had snagged from one of the servers walking around with full trays. After all that dancing, she’d needed something to wet her throat. Wine probably wasn’t the best choice, since she was already feeling a little giddy and light-headed, but she had already thrown caution to the wind a few hours ago.
Thank the gods Jadis had more courage than she knew what to do with. Bridget had been feeling lost from the moment she’d been put into the ridiculously expensive dress she now wore and things hadn’t improved upon arrival at the ball. She didn’t know any nobles. She’d never spent any time around them in her life, but she’d certainly heard plenty of rumors and stories about them. Tales of power, excess, and intrigue were frequently told around the tavern in the little town she’d grown up in. Some were told by the few men and women who served as guards or soldiers for the local lord who ruled over their land, but most were stories brought by the merchant caravans that passed through the town every month. Those sorts of stories made the nobles seem like distant figures from myth; no one real or living, just a figment of imagination that had been drummed up by a half-drunk merchant who had too much time on their hands while on the road. No one really wore dresses made of pearls, or tiaras with diamonds as big as apples, or shoes trimmed with gold.
And yet, there Lady Brunholt was, wearing a dress made of pearls. Charos’ balls, she really was wearing a dress of pearls. The single gown had to cost more than her entire hometown ten times over. Abyss, even the dress Bridget was wearing could probably buy a decent-sized cottage. And there were dozens, maybe hundreds more dresses all around her that were just as expensive as her own, if not much, much more. And those were just the dresses she was looking at. There was jewelry and ornamental swords and food—gods, the food. There were enough lavish dishes of such expense that Bridget was fairly certain a whole town could be fed for a month. It was all just so ridiculous. How was she supposed to deal with the reality of nobles when what she had thought had been over the top fantasies paled in comparison.
But Jadis, gods bless her, didn’t care. She really didn’t. The dresses were nice and the food was good but ultimately, none of that made a difference to her. She didn’t see them as lords and ladies. Well, maybe she did, Bridget wasn’t sure, but she didn’t care that these were people of a higher station. To her, they were just people. And because Jadis saw them as just people, it helped Bridget see them that way as well.
The dancing had definitely made a difference. Bridget really wasn’t much of a dancer but getting out there with Jadis and just having some fun had turned the fancy ball into something more like the festivals that her little town had used to throw when she was a child. The wild movements and open laughter had actually made her nostalgic for her family, and she wished it was her mother and father dancing with her in the crowd. But Eir’s mother had turned out to be a decent stand-in, for the moment. Bridget had danced with Svana, as well as her friends and lovers without a single care for what the nobles around her might have thought. She’d even danced with Alex, which had been far more fun than she’d expected. Those tentacles were certainly dexterous…
“This has been more fun than I thought it would be.”
Bridget blinked as she was drawn out of her thoughts. Glancing to her left, she saw that Aila was next to her, a mostly empty glass in her hand and a pleased smile on her face.
“Uh, yeah, it has been,” Bridget nodded in agreement. “Not exactly the town fair, but I guess the music’s alright.”
Aila chuckled at Bridget’s joke, her face a little flushed from all the wine and dancing. Her eyes flickered to the side, and Bridget followed her gaze.
“I thought my mother was going to go into hysterics with so many nobles around, but she’s actually smiling.”
Bridget smiled herself as she watched Aila’s mother talk animatedly with Eir’s parents. The way they were getting along so agreeably gave Bridget some hope that her own parents would fare as well once she introduced them to Jadis and everyone else.
“She’s a strong woman,” Bridget told Aila. “Just like you. And I’m pretty sure that Svana could get along with anyone. Her husband’s a cold fish, but she makes up for it.”
“He’s alright,” Aila quirked an eyebrow as she watched the blue-skinned elf. “He’s just the quiet type. Or maybe I’m just used to that sort of thing because of my father.”
“Maybe,” Bridget shrugged. “My Da is a talker. It’s getting him to quiet down that’s the trick.”
Taking a second to finish off the wine in her glass, a related thought popped up in Bridget’s mind.
“I wonder what Jadis’ parents were like. I mean, I know she doesn’t talk about them much since her village was destroyed and all. I don’t want to poke a fresh wound. Still, I wonder. Do you think they were, you know, women like her? Or a man and woman Nephilim? Not sure how that works.”
Aila looked down at Bridget with some surprise, a pucker forming between her eyebrows.
“She hasn’t told you yet?”
“Told me what?” Bridget asked, confused by Aila’s reaction.
“Gods damn it all,” Aila sighed with no small amount of frustration in her voice. “Jadis told me she was going to tell you during her date time with you. It seems she forgot.”
“Well, we were pretty, uh, occupied most of that day. And night,” Bridget said as her face flushed with heat at the erotic memory. “Not that much talking going on. What was she going to tell me?”
“It’s better that you ask her yourself,” Aila said. “It’s not my place to say. But it is my place to knock some sense into our scatterbrained lover.”
“Fair enough,” Bridget let out a huff of laughter. “You’re the first wife, or however that’s supposed to work out. Look, there’s Jadis now. I can ask her before I forget.”
Bridget motioned towards the stairs where she had spotted Jay, Dys, and Syd. All three of Jadis’ selves had lingered on the floor below to finish a last few dances while Bridget and everyone else in their party had gone up to the second floor where most of the food and drinks were. Seeing her Nephilim lover come up the stairs, she saw that the Seraphim Severina was walking along next to her Jay body, one hand on her arm.
Well, wasn’t that interesting? Kerr had told Bridget about the haughty paladin’s reaction to her and Jadis’ date night at the Bounding Buck and both had speculated as to whether or not the woman was interested in their Jadis. It looked like Kerr was going to win that bet, at least from the way the paladin’s cheeks were flushing pink as she talked with Jay.
“I think you should probably wait,” Aila told Bridget quietly as she leaned in slightly closer to her. “It’s not the sort of information we would want overheard by anyone in this crowd.”
“Oh, that kind of thing, huh?” Bridget said, intrigued by what the secret might be. “I’ll ask when we get back—”
“Aslan?”
Bridget looked back over at Jadis, her comment interrupted by the loud exclamation. She was immediately startled by the look of pure shock on Jadis’ face. All three of Jadis had frozen in mid step, unmoving as they stared unblinking with their mouths open. Severina was speaking to Jay, her own confusion evident as she looked between her and the person who Jay was staring at.
Glancing that way herself, all Bridget saw was Sorcha. The witch was standing with a goblet in one hand and a plate of fancy pastries in the other. She looked just as confused as Severina with her head tilted to one side as she regarded Jay.
“Aslan? What’s an Aslan?” Sorcha asked as she looked at the plate of sweets like the answer could be found there. “Is that a Nephilim word?”
Jadis recoiled from Sorcha, all three of her stepping back as her face contorted in horrified confusion. The reaction was so unlike Jadis that others began to turn towards her. Bridget took a few steps forward, as did Aila, as they both tried to figure out what was wrong.
Severina firmly took hold of Jay’s arm, her expression turned serious as she tugged on her to get her attention.
“Jadis. What’s happening? What are you seeing?”
Jay looked down at the Seraphim and immediately yanked her arm away. She stumbled back, her feet unsteady as she snarled at Severina, her voice breaking.
“What the fuck is going on!? You aren’t my mother! You aren’t real!”
Severina whipped around, her expression cold, as she called out to the guards.
“Someone’s casting a spell! All guards, take up arms and—”
Severina’s shout was cut off as the building around them shook with a sudden explosion. Screams echoed in the large hall as people lost their footing and fell to the floor. Glass shattered as stone crumbled and fell from the walls and ceiling. The air was filled with a rush of smoke and dust that billowed up from the floor below them.
Scrambling back to her feet, Bridget quickly looked over the edge of the railing and saw a cloud of noxious smoke had covered the first floor. The cloud wasn’t normal, its color a mix of black and sickly green, and she could smell a terrible stench of decay rising up from it. Only shadows of movement were visible in the gas cloud at first, but then Bridget saw various colored lights flash into existence as arcane spells were cast. Fire, water, ice, and stone spells went off as some of the screams changed from those born of fear to those made by the dying.
“Demons!” someone screamed from below.
It felt like ice water had just been dumped down her back. Bridget turned to look for the others. She didn’t have a weapon. She didn’t have her armor. People were running around in a chaotic panic, knocking into furniture and each other in a desperate attempt to escape from the danger.
How had Demons gotten into the restaurant? Into the city for that matter? It shouldn’t have been possible. Not with the magic barrier that surrounded Eldingholt.
A blast of fire struck the balcony rail near Bridget, blasting chunks of marble that peppered her exposed skin with shrapnel and drew blood. Fucking Abyss, she could worry about where the Demons had come from later. For the moment, she needed to focus on fighting back and surviving.
Looking around, it was easy to spot Jadis, even with the chaos and smoke. All three of her stood tall, back-to-backs like a pillar that towered over the horde. People in the crowd were bouncing off of her as she shoved them away, sometimes pushing them hard enough that they flew off their feet from the strength of her arms. Bridget ran towards Jadis, calling out her name, hoping to get through whatever spell was being cast on her.
“Jadis! We need to get everyone together and—”
“Get away from me!” one of Jadis shouted as tears streamed down her face. “You aren’t real!”
She swung an arm at Bridget, the motion clearly one more of panic than ill-intention, but even that caused Bridget to be knocked back by several feet. She slammed onto the cold floor, her back aching from the impact as the breath was momentarily knocked out of her.
“You can’t get through to her, she’s out of it!” a familiar voice called out to her as a pair of small hands struggled to help pull her upright. “She can’t see us!”
Bridget blinked, clearing her vision. Sorcha was above her, trying to lift her. The goblin woman had a tear in her dress that exposed her left side. Wine and bits of bread and cream were spilled all over her upper body, like she’d had a tray of desserts dumped all over her. Her expression was grim as she continued to struggle to get Bridget up.
“There are dead heads coming from the first floor,” she shouted over the screams so she could be heard. “I saw them! The guards and paladins are fighting them off, but we’ve got to move! Something is happening outside!”
Bridget nodded, understanding the danger they were in. She’d never seen a dead head, but she knew they were a deadly Demon that even experienced mercenaries struggled against. The best thing they could do was rally on Aila and Eir since they could still cast spells. They couldn’t do anything about Jadis at the moment, but maybe Aila could figure something out. As she started to rise from the floor, Bridget glanced past Sorcha to the ceiling above. A flicker of strange shadows and unnatural movement caught her eye. As she opened her mouth to say something, the illusion that had cloaked the ceiling fell away, revealing the terrifying figures that had been hidden beneath.
“Crawlers!” Bridget shouted in warning as she grabbed hold of Sorcha and rolled to the side.
Her warning came just in time as one of the dozens of disgusting demonic abominations detached from the ceiling and fell right where she had been lying a moment before.
The creature was a nightmare made possible only by the twisted cruelty of Demons. The strangling crawler was a random collection of more than a dozen arms and legs, some from people, some from animals, all radiating outward from a fleshy mass in the center. The thing had no front or back, just a ring of limbs that had been taken from the dead. If the arm or leg didn’t naturally end in a hand, the demonic transformation had split the foot or hoof into a ragged, broken approximation of a hand that dripped a vile, noxious ichor. In the center of the mass was a ring of fangs that surrounded a gaping maw that went all the way through the center of the Demon, with more sharp fangs visible on the underside.
All around them strangling crawlers dropped from the ceiling, landing on top of the panicked nobles, their putrid claws tearing into the crowd. Screams were cut short as some of the crawlers latched onto people, their many hands choking the life from them.
The one that had landed nearly on top of her and Sorcha lunged for them, its filthy fingers grasping. Bridget kicked out, her foot connecting with one reaching limb and knocking it back enough to give them a second to scramble to their feet. There was no time to come up with a plan, though, as the crawler leapt forward again, trying to latch onto her or Sorcha.
A sudden bolt of semi-translucent energy struck the Demon, blasting half of its limbs off in a gory mess. It skittered uncontrollably across the floor, the remaining limbs on its body flailing as black blood poured out of its gaping wounds. Acting quickly, Bridget grabbed a chair that had been knocked over and raised it overhead. With all her strength, she slammed it down on top of the crawler, crushing the creature’s center mass. The chair broke apart in her hands from the power of the blow, but with one of the legs in hand Bridget made sure the job was done by stabbing the piece of wood into the Demon’s flesh.
| Congratulations! Strangling Crawler Defeated. Bonus Experience Points Awarded for Defeating a Demon Spawn of Samleos. |
Bridget quickly dismissed the notification, only using it to confirm the Demon had been slain. Looking around, she saw more Demons dead or dying on the ground in a circle around a cluster of people.
“Bridget, Sorcha, get over here!” Kerr shouted at them as she used a table leg to bash a wounded crawler to death. “We could use the bloody fucking help!”
Most of Bridget’s companions had gathered together in one spot, forming a protective circle. She could see Kerr with the table leg, Thea wielding a silver dinner platter, and Aila casting spells. Eir was behind them, the look of concentration on her face making it clear she was healing others with her ranged spell. Aila and Eir’s mothers were both huddled in the middle with Eir, but their fathers were standing shoulder to shoulder with the others. Vikwas had his own chair in hand and was using it to knock any crawlers that came close away, while Einer had drawn his saber and was slashing through demonic limbs with practiced calm.
Sabina wasn’t visible, nor was Alex. Glancing around, Bridget tried to spot the two but the chaos of the people and Demons running and fighting around her made it difficult to spot either. The explosions of magic going off on the floor below definitely weren’t helping her concentration, and the smoke was making her eyes water.
Deciding it was best to join up with the allies she could see, Bridget took a couple of steps towards the group before her progress was blocked by another crawler leaping in front of her. Aila pointed a hand and another bolt of her arcane energy struck the Demon, blasting it into pieces, though not doing quite enough damage to kill the abomination. Bridget briefly wondered why Aila wasn’t using her more powerful spells, before realizing that there were too many people around. There were men and women mixed in with the Demons, and many of the crawlers were only yards away from Aila and the group, if not less. If she used any of her explosive or wide-ranging magic spells, she’d risk hitting others or even herself.
The one most at risk was Jadis. She still stood in the middle of the floor, her three bodies back-to-back and her wide eyes seemingly unable to comprehend what she was seeing. Bridget could hear all three of her shouting, crying out their names. When she heard Jadis shout for her, Bridget nearly broke and ran towards her. But she hardened her heart and instead lifted Sorcha under her arm and dashed for Aila and the others. She couldn’t help Jadis by just stupidly running towards her. Whatever spell had been cast, she was being robbed of her senses and couldn’t see what was happening around her.
“Stay in the middle!” Bridget warned the goblin woman as she set her down.
“Where are you going!?” Sorcha shouted back as Bridget turned and sprinted for the nearest wall.
“To get a light!”
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