“That is most certainly Prince Hraustrekr,” Lucia said after glancing over her shoulder. “It appears that Jocelyn and Rein are with him. They were at the palace bridge, so I suppose he was involved in the defense as well.”
The Paladin was still scanning each person before letting them be escorted out of the building and her comment was spoken between instances of her spell being cast. The serious therion was focused on clearing everyone as quickly as possible, so even the arrival of the first prince of the empire came across as a minor concern.
Jadis appreciated that attitude of unbothered calm, because at the moment she was freaking the fuck out.
Alex was pregnant. They were going to have a child together. She was going to be a parent. The very thought was astounding. Jadis’ whole reason for wanting to come to the capital of the empire was so that she could safely impregnate her lovers, and she had been actively trying for a baby with Eir while also being less careful than normal with the others, so the idea that she was now most definitely a mother was good news. Great news. Incredible, stupendous, indescribably amazing news. But the reality of the situation was still hitting her like a truckload of cribs. Having actual confirmation that she was bringing a new life into the world was… It was a far, far bigger deal than she had anticipated.
Then there was the fact that Alex was the one who was pregnant. Her Demon. Jadis hadn’t even been sure that Alex could get pregnant. Now she was, and apparently the mixing of their two different sets of DNA had led to the creation of a whole new species. How was she supposed to react to that? How was everyone else going to react to that? The gods or system or whatever had already preemptively named her Demon-spawned progeny “Succubi” which was a massive basket of crazy to unpack. Oros didn’t even have a concept of what a succubus was, but now she’d apparently just… bred them into existence. What did that mean they would be like? What manner of creature was her child going to be?
Jadis felt giddy. She also felt dizzy, a little nauseous, and vaguely like she was going to start laughing, or possibly crying. Her emotions were flying every which way and she just didn’t know how she was going to handle them.
“Jadis?”
Aila’s concerned voice brought Jay solidly back onto the ground. There were more things going on at the moment than just Alex’s pregnancy. She needed to keep her cool, remain calm, and focus on the here and now. Lucia had said that Jocelyn had arrived with the first prince. If nothing else, the healer’s arrival was a major point for her to focus on. Jadis just needed to reorganize and prioritize. She would get through this. She would get Sabina and herself the healing they needed, then deal with whatever bullshit the prince was going to be bringing with him. Then she could get her girls somewhere safe and they could talk about her classes and levels and everything that Alex’s pregnancy meant.
Gods, she was about to throw up.
“You’re right, I did get some pretty crazy class options,” Jay understated the situation. “Honestly, I don’t think I should say what they are until we get somewhere safe where we can all sit down and discuss them. Let’s focus on wrapping things up here first, okay?”
“That’s a fair plan,” Aila said after a slight pause. By the look on her face, she knew that there was a lot that Jadis wasn’t saying, but she didn’t press the matter. “We do need to be careful about who overhears sensitive information, after all.”
Kerr narrowed her eyes and gave Jay a low hum under her breath, but she didn’t try to pry any more information out either. She did, however, reach up and tug Jay’s shoulder down so that she could whisper into Jay’s ear.
“Whatever’s got you spooked, lock it down. If that fat head prince sees you looking this nervous, he’s going to fuck with us.”
Jay nodded, doing her best to calm her heart and school her expression. Pivoting her thoughts away from the news of her imminent parenthood as well as the various implications of the classes she’d been offered was the best thing she could do. Kerr’s assumption about the prince was likely right. She didn’t know what kind of shit the asshole might try to push onto her under the circumstances of the night’s extreme events, but if she looked like a nervous wreck, he would probably try to take advantage of a perceived weakness. Maybe even blame her for the Demon attack, as ridiculous of a thought that was.
Forcing herself to refocus, Jadis got her three bodies back onto task. Syd resumed helping with the search of the pastry shop while briefly filling her nearby companions in on what was happening. Dys rose unsteadily from her seat on the ground, carrying Sabina with her while also whispering a few words to Eir. Jay went to the front window of the shop with Aila, Kerr, and Alex in tow. Sorcha was already there waiting for them, standing on top of a chair so she could more easily look out the large window at the goings on outside.
Jadis wanted to get a look at the man who had caused so much trouble for her.
The gathering of soldiers outside wasn’t the ornate, overblown military procession that Jadis had expected. She had envisioned the slimy snot sucker riding in with no less than a hundred knights, all with banners flying and armor polished to a mirror shine. Obviously, Hraustrekr would have been wearing elaborately decorated golden armor and he would have been safely surrounded by multiple extremely powerful guards who would do all the fighting for him while he just pretended to be a competent leader.
That expectation proved false. While the first prince had come with what looked like at least a hundred soldiers on horseback, they weren’t ornamental in the slightest. The knights were a heavily armed and armored regiment that had clearly seen battle already that night, judging by the signs of Demon blood on their shields and breastplates. There was a single banner on display, but it was just the imperial standard, acting as a focal point for soldiers to gather around.
Spotting the first prince in the crowd wasn’t hard, though he wasn’t equipped the way Jadis had imagined. Hraustrekr was not wearing gold armor, but instead something similar to what Wilhelm was wearing. The plate armor was clearly heavily enchanted with runic engravings and had also been made out of cold flame steel, judging by the dark color. His sword was unsheathed and looked like it had seen recent use. The visor of his helmet was up, revealing his face, which was how Jadis knew without a doubt that he was Hraustrekr, even though she had never seen the man before.
Hraustrekr bore a striking resemblance to his younger brother, Prince Kestil. They were both handsome elven men with golden skin. They weren’t exactly twins, but their faces were so similar that if it weren’t for the differences in their hair and eyes, Jadis probably would have had a hard time telling them apart. While Kestil had light blue hair and silver eyes, Hraustrekr had much darker blue hair and emerald-green eyes. His expression was cold, though, compared to his younger brother’s almost taunting smirk, and he looked every bit the highborn aristocratic prince that Jadis had figured he would be.
One aspect of the first prince’s appearance she had not expected was his mount. The fierce horse was the size of a Clydesdale. Its coat was a beautiful shining gray with dark dappling on its legs and black feathering around its hooves. The barding it wore was a match for Hraustrekr’s armor and looked like it probably cost more than Elodie’s ridiculous pearl-studded dress. The truly interesting aspect of the horse, though, was the curved horn coming out of its forehead. At first Jadis had thought it was just a part of the armor the animal was wearing. But as the prince rode closer to the shop, Jadis could see that it was an actual horn, not a piece of the horse’s armor, and was just capped with a sharp steel point.
“Is he riding a unicorn?”
“Shit, he sure is,” Kerr cursed under her breath. “It sure does pay to be the future ruler of the most powerful nation in the world. Unicorns are damn rare.”
“I thought unicorns would be more… delicate,” Jay said as she eyed the huge, muscular beast. “That thing looks like it could crush a tan—er, a tavern.”
“Unicorns are beasts of war,” Aila explained. “They are one of Charos’ most favored creatures. All followers of the war god dream of having a unicorn as their mount.”
“They’re so damn good at fighting,” Kerr said as she eyed the beautiful creature enviously. “They make the best mounts for war. Way better than horses. They’re aggressive and don’t shy away from blood and death. Plus, they can do some real damage with that horn of theirs. There’s a tribe of my people back in the Verdant Sea that breed unicorns. I always wanted one, but there’s no way I can afford one.”
“We’ll have to see about that,” Jay murmured at the thought of Kerr riding a unicorn into battle. Her attention was drawn to other things, though. “I think that must be Jocelyn.”
Two figures were riding near the prince, one of them wearing strangely glossy-looking blue armor and the other wearing a royal red robe with blue and gold trimming. Since the blue-armored man was wielding a long spear with a serrated blade, Jadis figured he had to be Rein, the Lancer. That meant that the smaller, robed figure had to be the Oracle, Jocelyn.
Jadis watched from her spot in the window as Wilhelm appeared from a cluster of soldiers, coming from the direction of Trummelton’s and heading straight for Prince Hraustrekr. The Hero drew up next to the prince, his helmet still under one arm, and spoke with the domineering presence. Jadis couldn’t hear what was said and it was hard to tell the tone of the conversation since Wilhelm’s back was to her and the prince’s expression was solid stone. But at one point Wilhelm did gesture in the direction of the bakery, and Jay saw Hraustrekr’s eyes briefly flicker up to meet hers through the glass of the window.
After a minute or two, Wilhelm broke away from the prince and approached his two companions. He spoke with them both for a moment, then helped the robed woman down from her horse. The blue-armored man leapt off his own mount and immediately headed for the restaurant where Jay could see Halvor waiting for him. Wilhelm and Jocelyn, however, made a beeline for the bakery.
“Jadis?” Wilhelm called out as he entered the pastry shop. “I’d like to introduce you to Jocelyn. She should be able to heal you and everyone else good lady Eir has not been able to cure.”
“Hello,” the Oracle said as she bowed her head and curtseyed. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Jadis of the Nephilim. I wish it were under different circumstances.”
Jocelyn was a small woman, about the same height as Eir, in fact. However, where Eir was voluptuous and shapely, Jocelyn was thin and petite. Her appearance of smallness was further reinforced by her seemingly timid demeanor. Her voice was soft, barely above a whisper, and from the way she hesitated it was clear that the words she had spoken had been rehearsed. While Jocelyn didn’t have a stutter like Thea, Jadis could tell that the Oracle had the kind of meek personality that made talking to strangers a challenge, much less public speaking.
In terms of her looks, Jocelyn had blonde, wavy hair that was cut to about chin length. Her light blue eyes and small nose gave her a doll-like quality, though for some reason her pretty face was marred by a scar that ran vertically down the right side of her forehead and cut across her eyebrow. Scars weren’t all that uncommon, but in a world with magical healing, most people didn’t have serious scarring since healing magic left little trace behind, if anything at all. Furthermore, people like Eir existed, who could cast spells that could erase cosmetic damage easily. For whatever reason, Jocelyn had elected to not have the scar on her face removed.
“It’s nice to meet you, too,” Jay said as she turned and gave the small woman a smile and a nod. “I really do wish circumstances were way, way different than they are. But I’m glad you’re here to help.”
Jocelyn didn’t respond right away to Jay’s words, and it was easy to guess why. The timid Oracle was frozen in place, staring at Alex who was still practically hanging off of her side. She looked like a deer caught in headlights, and Jadis wasn’t sure how to politely snap the woman out of her frightened trance.
“Jocelyn, it’s alright,” Wilhelm whispered into his companion’s ear. “This is Alex, the Demon we were told about. She’s really quite safe and, well, friendly.”
“Oh, ah, yes,” Jocelyn blinked as she came out of her startled condition. Audibly swallowing, she took a step towards Jay and held out a hand. “I’m… glad that you and your companions are safe. But you have been poisoned, correct? I’ll take care of that.”
Easily accepting the assistance, Jay took the Oracle’s hand and let her do her magic.
The feeling of Jocelyn’s healing power was almost indefinably different from any other magic healing that Jadis had received. While most healing was soothing, like a warm bath or a toasty fire on a cold day, Jocelyn’s magic was almost startlingly invigorating with the way it rushed through her. It wasn’t quite at the level of a cold shower, and it wasn’t like taking a shot of caffeine either. The closest thing Jadis could liken it to was chewing on fresh mint, except the tingle was across her whole body and not just her mouth.
The constant pain of the poison that had been eating away at her health was erased with a rush of magic power. Jadis almost sagged with relief but restrained herself to a small sigh.
“Goodness,” Jocelyn murmured with her eyes half closed. “What a terrible malady. That was a superior grade poison, born from a malediction. I don’t think it would have killed you, though.”
“It wouldn’t kill me?” Jay asked, surprised by the Oracle’s assertion.
“No, ah, probably not on its own,” Jocelyn replied, her voice turned timid once more by Jay directly addressing her. “It seemed it was designed to lower your health to a specific percentage. Once there, it wouldn’t have killed you and would have instead simply kept your health under that threshold.”
That actually made some sense. Jadis was fairly certain that Sabina had been inflicted with the same poison, and she had nowhere near the same amount of health as her, yet the smith hadn’t died. Jadis suspected that the reason for the poison not being able to kill was so that the victim could be killed by other means, or possibly to make it easier for a possession Demon to take over the body. That seemed exactly like the kind of spell that cultists hiding in a city would use.
“Well, that’s good,” Jay nodded. “Sabina would have been in far greater danger otherwise.”
“Sabina?” Jocelyn asked as she continued to hold Jay’s hand. “Who is—oh gods!”
The healer’s exclamation came from Dys coming into view from the back room. She was, without a doubt, in a terrible condition. Eir’s healing had helped, but Dys was still covered in all of the half-healed wounds that Jadis had sustained over the evening. She was walking, but with the amount of dried blood and how many of the cuts were still open, she looked more like a zombie than a living person.
“Sorry,” Jay winced as she glanced at her other self. “That’s one of my other selves. I, uh, got a little roughed up without my armor.”
“I was wondering why your health looked so low and yet you looked so healthy,” Jocelyn said as she rushed over to Dys.
“Please, heal her first,” Dys said as she held out Sabina’s unconscious form before her. “I can wait.”
“No, you cannot,” the Oracle said as she put both of her hands over Dys’ where she held Sabina. “This will only take a moment.”
The feeling of tingling, minty healing rushed through Jadis. The sensation was disorienting as her injured self just… instantly healed. There was no delay at all. Jadis even checked her health to be sure, but her character sheet showed it was true. Jadis’ health had jumped from around six hundred points to two thousand and forty in less than a second. All of Dys’ wounds had sealed up so rapidly that she hadn’t even felt it. Whatever healing spell Jocelyn possessed, it wasn’t channeled like Eir’s spell, requiring time to heal. This spell had been one massive chunk that had burst her up to full health in a single go.
Before Jadis could even voice her surprise, Jocelyn laid her hands on Sabina. In the next moment, her half-elf lover’s eyes fluttered open as she came to full awareness in just a second.
“What?” Sabina uttered in a confused, groggy tone as she looked between Dys and Jocelyn. “Who? Why are you all in the bathroom with me?”
Dys immediately clutched the bewildered woman to her chest, hugging her favorite enchanter while trying not to squeeze too tightly. Sabina continued to voice a litany of questions as apparently, she had no idea what had been going on. Dys let her talk. She was just happy to hear her voice.
“Thank you,” Jay said as she drew Jocelyn away from Sabina and her other self. “Truly. I don’t think I can repay you for this.”
“There is no need,” Jocelyn bowed her head as her cheeks turned a rosy pink. “I am simply doing what is right. I think I will need to take another magic restoration potion, though. You have… quite a lot of health.”
“Here,” Wilhelm said, having been hovering nearby without getting in the way. “Take one of mine. Ama will be upset that we’ve gone through so many tonight.”
“I’m certain,” Jocelyn let out a shy laugh as she took the potion from the Hero. “I’ve already used all of mine.”
“This was a terrible attack,” Wilhelm nodded. “Too much blood has been spilled, and we still have more to do to both root out the infestation of cultists and make certain no more Demons remain in the city. Present company excluded, of course,” he hastily added as he looked towards Alex.
“Indeed.”
Jadis had been about to respond to Wilhelm’s words, but the unfamiliar voice that spoke first caused her to pause. Glancing towards the door, she saw the face of the new person and felt her hackles rise.
Prince Hraustrekr had just walked in through the door.
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