Despite Jadis’ intentions to go back to the temple as soon as possible and put as much of the terrible night behind her as she could, she ended up staying in the pastry shop for close to an hour longer. She wanted to make sure that every single person was checked by Lucia, which took some time, and she also wanted to make sure that Severina got somewhere safe.
The badly injured Seraphim had been unconscious ever since she had fallen in combat, even after Eir stabilized her with some significant healing. However, not long after Prince Hraustrekr had made his appearance and subsequently departed, the paladin had come out of her faint. Despite being obviously unsteady on her feet, the now one-armed, one-winged woman insisted on checking on the status of the defense efforts before being taken away to a temple for further healing. While Jadis was certain that Severina wouldn’t have been able to put up much of a fight in her condition, Jadis wasn’t interested in arguing with her. Instead, she got a hold of a soldier who fetched Magistrate Vraekae.
Vraekae was a bit rough looking herself, with red hair out of place and grime smeared across her face and clothes, but she was still actively coordinating the guards and soldiers in the area. When she came to the shop, she spoke quickly with Severina, answering a lot of questions about what was happening with the soldiers and the Hero who were working on rooting out any last remnants of the Demons. While she was present, Jadis asked a few of her own questions, just to make sure that nothing was missed.
She made sure to tell Vraekae about the jewelers who had crafted the three flower pendants and given them to her as a gift. Jadis had no idea if the two were involved or just unsuspecting pawns who had been caught up in a greater plot orchestrated by the cultists, but they definitely needed to be checked out. Vraekae sent word to have the jewelry shop investigated immediately, and also made sure that the soldiers being sent were prepared for a potential fight. If the two were actually cultists, they could have fled already, or they could have lain traps for anyone who would come to search their home and business.
Jadis also made certain that Vraekae knew where to look for the other two pendants that had been discarded on the second floor. She had the one at hand and had every intention of having it checked with all of the high priests to figure out how whatever curse was on it was missed, so she didn’t necessarily need the other two, but she didn’t think they should just be left lying around where anyone could take them, either. For all Jadis knew, the cultist who had hit her a second time might have already grabbed the other two, but it was best to make sure.
One of the things that Severina asked for an update on was the casualty list, specifically who had died. Jadis had only a little knowledge about the people who had attended the ball, but that was news she wanted to hear as well. While an exhaustive search had yet to be done, Vraekae did have some preliminary reports she could share, both for Trummelton’s and the other sites that had been hit.
The largest attack had been on the northern bridge leading to the palace island, though the number of wounded and dead there were minimal. The guards had been able to respond to the attack immediately, and Prince Hraustrekr and his personal cavalry unit had been on the scene quickly enough to prevent the stymied Demons from spreading beyond the gatehouse and surrounding square. Similarly, the attack on the temple district had been relatively unsuccessful. There had been many powerful clerics and paladins present, including Runar’s order, and so they had been able to deal with the Demons there with minimal casualties.
The attacks on the city barracks, the academy, and the northern river port had been far more deadly. Most of the guards in the barracks had been either asleep or relaxing while off duty, so the Demons had killed hundreds before any kind of effective defense could be made. The port had suffered similarly, as there weren’t many guards present; most of the people who had been there had been civilians. The academy had also seen lives lost, though not as many as the other targeted locations. The main damage in the academy had been to the library and the stock of magical enchanting supplies that were kept in the ancient building.
While Demons were vicious and attacks on key figures and weak spots weren’t unheard of, the fact that the academy’s books and records were purposefully targeted was practically unheard of. Demons almost exclusively attacked life. To have an assault made directly against objects, even valuable ones, just didn’t happen. But in this case, destroying knowledge seemed to have been the whole point of the attack on the academy.
From what Jadis was learning of the current Demon Lord, she wasn’t quite as surprised.
The attack on Trummelton’s had not been the worst in terms of lives lost, but several of the known victims were important political figures. While Jadis’ first instinct was to scoff at the idea of political figures being overly important to anyone but themselves, she had to remind herself that in this case, they truly were of significance. These were nobles who were not only part of the chain of command of a massive empire and were thus directly involved in the coordination of supplies, taxes, military recruits, and countless other aspects of rulership, but they were also members of the political factions that supported one prince or the other. With the deaths of even a few of those nobles, the balance of who was receiving the most support could easily change, leading to a significant shift in the empire’s future. Hraustrekr was the current crown prince, but that had the potential to change, depending on how many nobles supported his rule, among other considerations.
One of those shifts that Vraekae could already tell would cause chaos was the death of the magistrate who oversaw the capital city, Magistrate Holcomb. Jadis had only briefly met the man; he had been the older, sour-faced human whom Vraekae had been talking with when Jadis had arrived at the ball. She couldn’t say that she was sorry he was dead, since he had been one of Prince Hraustrekr’s supporters and had used his political clout to inconvenience her when she had first arrived in Eldingholt. However, the loss of one of the primary legal administrators in the empire was going to cause ripples that could be felt for years to come, as many would be jockeying to take the dead man’s position.
Honestly, Jadis wasn’t in the right state of mind to truly comprehend all of the ways the demonic attack had changed the political landscape. While she was trying not to freak out over it, she was still extremely freaked out over the fact that she was now an expecting parent. Then there were the class options she had been given, as well as the direct threats that had been made against the lives of her lovers. She was, all in all, a mess. Though she was at least managing to keep things together on the outside.
When rescue finally came, it was in the form of Eir’s parents. Einer and Svana had been busy in the background, assisting Vraekae and doing what they could to help the soldiers and the wounded. Jadis had honestly lost track of them for a time, though she trusted Eir to let her know if there was anything to be concerned about, just as she knew Aila would keep tabs on her own mother and father. While Severina was still peppering Vraekae with questions on who was unaccounted for from the ballroom disaster, Einer appeared in the doorway of the pastry shop.
The stern elven man smoothly managed to divert Severina, advising the paladin that the seneschal of her family’s manor house in the city had sent a carriage to bring her back to the estate, and a whole contingent of guards to escort her. Somehow—and Einer was not forthcoming with the answer—her servants had found out about her wounds and were beside themselves with worry for her well-being. While Severina was the scion of her house and technically in charge, Jadis got the feeling that the seneschal was not going to take no for an answer when it came to her return that night.
Fortunately, Severina didn’t argue too much and they were able to get her into the carriage with minimal struggle. Jadis had to admire the woman’s sense of duty. She really did seem willing to keep going, even missing an arm and a wing. The fact that it was the head servant of her family and not her parents calling for her return did make Jadis wonder what exactly the family situation was with Severina, though those thoughts didn’t linger. She had her own family to worry about.
After the wounded Seraphim had been sent on her way, Einer had quietly informed Jadis that a large wagon had been summoned that could accommodate all of Jadis’ selves and her companions. It was apparently one that his vassals used for the transportation of goods from the docks to his business' around the city. She thanked the man profusely for his good sense in getting them some transportation. It would have stunk to have to walk home after the long night they had all had. Einer also made sure to assure Aila that her parents were safely in his and Svana’s care. The two humans were, in fact, with his wife and would be joining them back at their manor house for the remainder of their stay in the city. It was left unsaid that the reason for their change in address was because of the implicit threat that was directed towards them, simply by being Aila’s family. With cultists roaming the shadows, there was a not small chance that they could try to go after Vikwas and Senta, just to get at Jadis.
The list of concerns Jadis needed to deal with was just getting longer and longer.
The ride back to the temple district was a quiet affair. None of them were in terribly chatty moods, least of all Jadis as she slumped in weary exhaustion against the walls of the wagon. All of her girls sat so that they were touching her, even Sorcha, which was a great comfort. Just having them near did help quell much of the turmoil in her mind, which had the unwanted effect of causing her to nearly fall asleep when she closed her aching eyes.
Sleep was a mistake, though. As soon as her mind began to drift, images of her family back on Earth flashed before her. Most of them were horrifying visions that had been conjured by the terrible illusion spell. The last thing she wanted was to be reminded of the horrors she had seen thanks to the cultists’ twisted magic, so every time she did start to drift, she forced herself back awake.
When the wagon came to a stop in front of Lyssandria’s High Temple and they piled out of the back, Jadis found that the district was a hive buzzing with activity. Clerics and priests were everywhere, from all the temples, and were either busily escorting people who were too injured for normal healing to fix into the temples or were themselves being escorted by soldiers out into the city where they would be providing healing directly on the scene of Demon attacks. While Jadis didn’t spend too much time outside, she did spot one section of the large open area near Metethys’ High Temple where piles of Demon bodies were visible, a thin layer of snow starting to cover them. That seemed to have been the main point of attack, or at least where most of the fighting took place, though Jadis would have to ask later about the details.
High Priestess Irene was who greeted them once Jadis and her companions entered the temple. Aurea and Aimery, the other two high priests dedicated to Lyssandria, were out already lending aid to the many injured in the city. While it was clear that Irene wanted to ask a lot of questions of Jadis, likely because of the terrible state she was in, the older woman didn’t even try to question them. Instead, she simply led them to the temple baths, calling on a few acolytes to fetch fresh clothes for all of them. Jadis didn’t even have to ask Irene or the acolytes to give them privacy. Once the high priestess had made sure that they had everything they needed, she shooed the younger women out and left Jadis and her companions to themselves in the steamy open room of the bath.
Jadis didn’t pay much attention to the quiet conversations happening around her. The silence of the bathhouse, empty except for her and her companions, gave her time to reflect on everything that had happened. She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.
“So, uh, who’s Aslan?”
Syd blinked, her eyes coming back into focus as she realized the question had been directed at her. Looking to her side, she saw that Sorcha was sitting on a small, goblin-sized stool next to her. The green-skinned witch was carefully cleaning the magically crafted prosthetic leg she had received from the Dryads, so she wasn’t looking directly at Syd as she focused on her task. Her eyes did dart up to meet Syd’s gaze for a moment, though.
“I mean, I can kind of guess, since you were talking about your family and all back there. But, uh, just curious, I guess. You don’t have to tell me. In fact, you probably don’t want to talk about that right now. Forget I asked.”
“He was my brother,” Syd said after a moment. “My older brother. Not sure why the illusion decided to make you look like him when he was a kid, but yeah. My brother.”
Sorcha nodded, her expression purposefully blank. She spoke in a casual tone, as though she were trying to avoid poking any open wounds, yet still determined to keep the conversation going.
“I’m guessing… he isn’t with us anymore.”
“No, he’s not,” Syd confirmed, though in truth she really didn’t know.
For all Jadis knew, Aslan was still alive back on Earth. He could be dead. In fact, since she had no idea how long her soul had been lost in the void, her whole family could have died years, centuries, or even millennia ago. For all intents and purposes, though, Sorcha’s assumption was accurate. Aslan wasn’t with her anymore. None of her family were.
“I’m sorry about that,” Sorcha said after a few beats. “I mean, that had to be rough, seeing him like that. Sorry you had to go through all that earlier. If, um, you need to vent about it, you can do that, you know. Vent. I’ll listen. We’ll all listen.”
Jadis could see that her lovers were all listening in, some more conspicuously than others. Their warmth and closeness, the way they so obviously cared, wrapped around her like a warm blanket that smothered her darker thoughts. Heaving a deep sigh, Syd wiped a few droplets of what had to be bathwater from her cheek and grinned down at the goblin next to her.
“I know. You were all there for me earlier. I wouldn’t have survived that shit without you all watching out for me. It’s kind of lame to put it like this, but… thanks.”
Sorcha blushed and looked away, but the tension in her shoulders lessened as the concern she had for Jadis cleared up. Knowing that her lovers worried over her was nice, but she didn’t want them to fret, either. It had been a rough night, but Jadis knew she could push past it. They had just been illusions, after all. She wouldn’t let the trick the cultists had played on her put baggage on her soul.
“There are some things that I think we should discuss before going to bed, though,” Jay called out to the group at large. “Now that we’re in private and all.”
“Yeah, there are,” Kerr said as she dunked her head under the running water and then shook her hair out like a dog. “You hit CLR sixty! You were going to tell us about your new class options.”
There were some exclamations from the girls who hadn’t heard the news yet, as well as a few murmurs that showed that others had leveled as well and had only just then thought to check their notifications. There was definitely a lot to discuss when it came to their classes, both theirs and hers, but Jadis had one topic she felt was far more important to tackle first, before they got into any of the finer details.
“I don’t know how else to say this,” Jay said as she moved to stand in the center of the bath area. “So I’m just going to say it.”
“What, you aren’t about to tell us that you got an actual Hero class or some shit like that, right?” Kerr scoffed.
“No,” Jay shook her head, even as she thought about the cycle breaker class she had been offered. “This is way more important than classes. This big news is… I’m going to be a mother.”
The room went completely silent except for the sound of the running water. No one moved. Jadis wasn’t even sure if they were breathing.
“You’re p—pregnant?” Thea asked, her expression a mask of extreme confusion.
“No,” Jay quickly corrected. “No, I’m not.”
“Fucking abyss,” Bridget let out a breath, her whole body deflating. “What a statement! We know you’re going to be a mother eventually with what you had to arrange with the temple, but I didn’t think any of us even had any cocks on lately to impregnate you.”
“Right, no, I’m not the mother mother,” Jay forged on. “But I’m sure as fuck not calling myself dad. So, yeah, I’m going to be a parent—”
Jay briefly paused halfway through her statement as literally every one of her lovers looked down at their bellies in unified shock. Even Sorcha did, and Jadis had never done anything beyond kissing the goblin woman. The only one who continued to just placidly stare at Jay was the one who most needed to be aware of the change in herself.
“—and Alex is the mother.”
Once more, all of her lovers turned their heads as one, their shocked expressions focused on the Demon. Alex continued to sit calmly on the edge of the pool, her legs and some tentacles in the water while her larger pair of arms leaned on the ground behind her. When everyone directed their attention at her, Alex slowly tilted her head down to look at her own bare stomach.
“Is that… What that is…”
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