Chapter 403: Chapter 401: Silver Lining

When Jadis woke up sometime later, it was to the sound of the noon bells ringing in the city and a goblin staring at her face.

“Good morning, Sorcha,” Syd said sleepily.

“Oh! Uh, morning,” the goblin woman yelped, though she quickly stifled her volume since the rest of the group was still asleep. “Sorry. It’s afternoon, now, anyway. I’m going to go and see if we can get some food delivered to us or something.”

As Sorcha tried to slip away, Syd reached out and took hold of her arm, gently stopping her retreat.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Sorcha said after a slight pause. Her face scrunched up a bit after a moment, then she continued, “Well, not nothing. There’s lots wrong with the world right now. I was just… thinking about you and everything you are.”

“Heavy stuff to be thinking about before having a cup of coffee.”

Sorcha’s head tilted to one side.

“Is that an… Earth thing?”

“Yeah, it is,” Syd smirked. “Sorry if this is all a bit much to deal with.”

“No, it’s fine,” Sorcha sighed. “I’ve kind of gotten accustomed to the weird. Not that I think I’ll ever be used to it, but I can handle it. Do you want anything in particular to eat?”

Her question made Jadis realize that she was starving, and she felt her stomachs rumble in protest for being ignored for so long.

“Triple of everything,” Syd told her goblin girlfriend. “Whatever can be gotten.”

“Should have bloody well figured that,” Sorcha grinned before sliding off the bed and making her way to the door.

“Did someone say food?” Kerr mumbled from somewhere underneath Jay’s right arm.

“Yes, time to get up,” Jay announced with a yawn. “We’ve got to go see if the world ended while we were asleep.”

“I hope not,” Kerr continued to grumble into the bedsheets. “I don’t want the world to end while I’m hungry.”

“The world… Did not… End…” Alex reassured them both. “I would have… Noticed…”

Indeed, a quick look out the window showed that the world had not ended. It was still snowing, a constant curtain of white covering the gray sky. The wind had picked up, too, and Jadis could see that huge snowdrifts were starting to form along the sides of buildings, some as tall as she was. Jadis was glad they had come north. Apparently, the winters in Weigrun were far worse than in the mainland, and this harsh snow was already worse than most winters she could remember from back on Earth in Pennsylvania.

Despite the heavy snowfall, Jadis could see lots of activity outside. Pathways had been dug by magic and by hand, allowing priests and soldiers to continue to rush about on their business. There was no general panic, so far as Jadis could tell. Last night had been hectic, but today the people she could see were far more orderly in appearance. There were still a lot of people running around considering the blizzard conditions, more than Jadis would expect, but she took the lack of chaos as a good sign. Hopefully it meant that the city had things under control for the time being.

Jadis and her lovers needed time to talk. They still had lots to discuss as far as her tertiary class selection went, but they also needed to go over everyone’s levels. That was going to take a few hours at least, she was sure, since no discussion concerning skills and stats was ever quick, especially not with Aila around.

At least the discussion of Jadis’ extra-planar origins was over. Bridget and Sorcha had taken the news relatively well. No shouts, no faints, and no anger. Disbelief and denial, sure, but acceptance came quickly enough. Mostly it was the fact that everything else in Jadis’ life was so insane. What was one more bit of crazy?

Some twenty minutes later, a fairly simple yet overly generous amount of breads, cheeses, and soups were laid out on every available flat surface of the living room area of their suite. The foods being prepared in the kitchen weren’t the usual gourmet dishes but were instead simple fare that could be made quickly and in large quantities. Sorcha had spoken to a few of the acolytes and apparently all of the temples were churning out as many provisions as possible to the areas that had been struck by the Demon attack. With how many families had been impacted by the attack, the priests were making sure that no one went hungry and all had a safe place to stay.

There were no official numbers yet on how many had died, but some of the rumors Sorcha had overheard guessed the toll would be in the thousands. That said nothing of the people who were injured in more scarring ways like Severina, who would now have to wait for months, if not years, to regain lost limbs. Property damage was a not insignificant consideration, too. Many people around the city had lost their livelihoods to the Demons and their destructive attacks. Whole businesses had been wrecked, shipments of food or other important supplies had been lost at the docks, and there were also the many books lost at the imperial academy. The destruction of so much knowledge was a heavy blow, not just to scholars, but to people across the empire who relied on the collection of information to learn and grow as a society.

When the acolytes and priests came with the trays of food, Jadis made sure to send out some inquiries about her unaccounted-for companions. She wanted to know where Tegwyn and Noll were, of course, though she was certain those two would have made it through any fighting just fine. The gnome couple, as well as Gunnar and the young children she had hired from the undercity were more vulnerable in her opinion, though. She wanted to make sure that they were alive and well. It would be some time before she heard back, she was sure, but at least the process had started.

In the meantime, Jadis and her companions had new skills to go over as a group. While her selection of a third class was delayed until they could at the least perform Eir’s Oracle ritual, they could still discuss and choose skills.

Jadis had gained two levels in her Mirror Knight class, so her first step was to immediately put her two free attribute points into her Eldritch stat. It was a small boost, but every little bit helped, especially since it increased not only all of her physical stats, but also the keystone attributes of her lovers. After the choice was made, she reviewed her status sheet.

A slight bulk-up, amounting to only a two-point shift for most of her stats, but still useful.

Reviewing the two new options she had been given for her odd-numbered level, Jadis read the descriptions out loud so that her lovers could give her their perspectives on the skills. Both were powerful, and Jadis was having a hard time picking which she would take.

“Those are some damn good options,” Kerr said around a mouthful of bread and cheese. “I’d want to take both.”

“No kidding,” Bridget agreed from where she sat next to the therion, sipping on her own bowl of soup. “That’s a powerful strike ability. Bypassing defenses like that would make a one hundred stamina cost completely worth it.”

“Agreed,” Aila nodded thoughtfully. “However, the spell is far more powerful in my opinion. It can only be used against an enemy that has cast a debilitating spell on Jadis first, but it also bypasses all of the target’s defenses. That is an excellent means to take away an enemy’s advantage, turning their own spells against them.”

“The fact that it doesn’t require sight or knowledge of the target is incredible,” Eir agreed with Aila from where she sat next to Alex. “There isn’t even a range, which means it would be effective at any range that the enemy might target you from.”

Eir’s words triggered a thought in Jadis’ mind. If the spell didn’t need to know who the person was that was casting on her, then it had another use. If the hostile attack was being done sneakily and she had no immediate idea of who was casting a spell on her, she could use Cursed Reflection to inflict them with the same effect and potentially find out who they were once they reacted to the spell. It probably wouldn’t be the kind of spell she used frequently in battle, not the way Break the Bulwark would be, but if Jadis had learned anything from the night before, it was that having some niche skills and spells to deal with extreme situations was a good thing.

After explaining her thoughts on the matter, the others agreed that Cursed Reflection was the best choice, even if it had limited use.

“Hey, I just realized,” Syd spoke up as she finalized the skill selection. “I think I was offered that Break the Bulwark skill because I punched Ludger and stopped him in his tracks last night. His shield had some kind of spell on it, too, and the glow went away after I hit it.”

“That makes sense,” Aila agreed after a moment. “A suitably momentous event can have an effect not only on the classes one is offered, but the skills one is given. Stopping the Hero’s Bulwark in his tracks is fairly significant.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Dys mused as she leaned back against the couch that Eir and Alex were sitting on. “Which is why I think the cultist bastard that put this on me was also casting a spell to trigger the illusion effect.”

Dys held the flower pendant up for the others to see. She had been careful to keep the cursed item close, not wanting it to be lost or stolen before it could be checked.

“It didn’t trigger the illusions right away,” Dys continued. “Otherwise I would have seen them when I first wore the pendants, or when he slipped it onto my wrist. I don’t think this thing is on a timer, either, since it started working at different intervals. It could be it has some specific trigger to activate it, which was what I thought last night, but after seeing the description for Cursed Reflection, I think the cultist was actively casting on me.”

“That might explain how it got past our inspections…” Eir said slowly as she gazed hatefully at the dangling trinket. “Sabina, enchantments are more your expertise. Do you know of any enchantments that support Jadis’ theory?”

“Uh, maybe?” Sabina shrugged expressively. “I mean, I’ve never tried to be sneaky with enchantments before so I’m not sure what would work or what wouldn’t when trying to do something like that, but there are spells and enchantments that can redirect, repurpose, and even amplify the effects of a spell. Those aren’t common so I don’t know much about them so I can’t say for sure but I won’t say that it isn’t possible because I think it probably is, I’m just not one hundred percent sure.”

“Well, see what you can make of this,” Dys passed the pendant to the smith. “Don’t do anything that might break it for now, we’ll probably want to have others check it. See what you can see, knowing that it probably does have some kind of enchantment inscribed on it.”

Having sorted her thoughts out on how she had possibly been compromised by the cultists for the moment, and having made her decision on her new spell, Jadis put those points aside and focused on everyone else. Some of her companions had gained more levels than others, so they started with those who had less complex decisions to make.

Kerr had only gained a single level, mostly due to the fact that she had little involvement in actual combat and because the experience leech for the bonus experience had been massive with so many people around. Her Bonded Slut Sniper had reached level eight, which meant she had a single free attribute point to distribute. Naturally, she put the point into Dexterity, though she did bring up the fact that she was feeling a little too hyper-focused on her stats.

Kerr was a specialist, and she wasn’t going to change that, but boosting some of her stats like Agility, Vitality, and Endurance would be helpful in keeping her at least a little balanced. It was definitely a consideration. Jadis hoped that she would be able to help with future rituals, or failing that, having some enchantments made that could help. Jadis was sure that stat-boosting equipment had to be a thing.

Strangely enough, Sabina’s classes had seen an identical leap in progression to Kerr. Since she was completely out of the fight, the half-elf had only gained a single level in her Enchanter Smith of the Reborn class, likely from some bonus experience tipping her secondary class over the edge. She had been doing a lot of enchanting lately with Jadis’ new sword staff.

After putting her single attribute point into Focus, Sabina’s status sheet didn’t look much different from how it had before.

Thea had gained two levels, which was something of a surprise to the quiet woman since she hadn’t been all that active in the fighting either. She’d mostly just taken a support role, protecting others, which was typical for the defense-focused former soldier. Still, both of her classes had gone up by one level, which was happy news. That put her CLR at fifty-seven, which was only three levels away from unlocking her tertiary class.

Shieldsworn Guard had gone up to level twenty-six, so that meant just a couple of free points to invest. Thea had chosen to boost her Resilience stat again, mostly because she wanted to get that attribute up to fifty points before she moved on to other attributes. Imperial Soldier had offered her two new skills, both of which were solid choices for what they were, though only one was suitable for Thea’s change in career.

While Imperial Standard Defense would be a nice boost to Thea’s overall defensive capabilities, it required her to be near someone wielding the imperial flag. Since she wasn’t in the military anymore and Fortune’s Favored only infrequently collaborated with the army, there wasn’t much point in taking the skill. Improved Vision II was just a basic upgrade to the skill Thea already had, but it was forward progression in a chain of skills that improved her ability to see and observe. It wasn’t flashy, but it was dependably useful. No one could make any argument for Thea to not take the simple skill.

Reviewing her status sheet, Thea hadn’t changed much either, but Aila insisted on keeping track.

Bridget had also increased both of her classes by a single level, though in her case she had no skills to choose from. Both Lantern Light Landsknecht and Ardent Light of the Reborn had progressed to even-numbered levels, so for her it was just a choice of where to put three free attribute points. She ended up placing two into Strength and one into Agility, which was a fairly standard spread for the warrior.

Eir’s level had gone up three times. Once in Lustful Oracle of D, twice in Beloved Cleric of Lyssandria. With all the healing the elf had done, no one was surprised by that outcome. Because of how her levels had been before the increase, she ended up having skill selections for both her primary and secondary classes. The first choice on her Oracle class was an attribute boosting skill for her Will stat that, while powerful, was nothing special considering the attributes they all had already. The real prize was the ritual spell she was offered.

Being able to keep track of everyone’s health at all times was an amazing spell for Eir to have. With how high her Divine stat was, she could even keep track of more than just their core group. With twenty targets available, that was more than enough to cover everyone in Fortune’s Favored, or maybe other important figures as well if there was someone whose safety they were worried about. Once Eir took the spell, she made some interesting noises after examining what the ritual would entail.

“Are you not going to be able to use this ritual on people outside of our… relationship?” Jay asked delicately, though she couldn’t help but grin at the flustered elf.

“No, no,” Eir shook her head. “It’s nothing too extreme. It will require some… intimate touching. I will have to prepare myself beforehand if I were to use this on someone who is not of our harem.”

“Can’t wait to see it in action,” Syd smirked. “It must be good to get you blushing. Well, I assume you’re blushing. Hard to tell.”

“But if it’s that bad, you really don’t have to do it on anyone but us,” Dys made sure Eir knew. “Your comfort matters, you know.”

“I know,” Eir smiled as she leaned in to give Dys a kiss on the top of her head. “It’s truly not that explicit. I might reserve using the ritual for our children, actually. It isn’t technically sexual. Just… intimate.”

Intimate was interesting, but Jadis didn’t pursue the topic further. There were still a lot of skills that they needed to get through, and she was sure that she’d be the recipient of the ritual soon enough, anyway.

Eir’s cleric class had two skills on offer, and while one of them was an actual skill rather than just a stat boost, Jadis didn’t think it was a terribly useful one.

It wasn’t a bad skill. It would have certainly been useful last night when Eir was running around healing everyone constantly. The poor cleric had been exhausted from the strain and was barely walking by the end of the night. Still, Eir had Bridget to help her regenerate stamina if it was needed, so it didn’t feel like an especially necessary skill to have. In Jadis’ opinion, the stat-boosting passive skill on offer was the better option for Eir to take.

In the end, Eir agreed with Jadis’ assessment. Twenty attribute points split between two of her most valuable stats was something the elf could use far more than reduced stamina consumption.

The three levels that Aila had gained had brought her Arcanist class up to twenty-six and her Cart Driver class up to twenty-seven. At the rate her leveling was going, Jadis was pretty sure that Aila’s secondary class was going to outpace her primary class, which made sense since she didn’t do much cart driving anymore. Jadis wondered if that would change once some of the ideas she had that Sabina was going to start working on came to fruition, but that was a thought for the future.

Since only one of her levels was an even number, Aila only had two points to distribute. She put both points into her Focus, since she wanted to build up her magic reserves. Just like Kerr, though, Aila also voiced some concerns about becoming too hyper-focused. She was an Arcane caster and was never meant to be in melee situations, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be thrust into such danger. Fortunately, one of the options Aila was given for her Arcanist class was an answer to that sort of situation.

Since the other option made available to Aila was a passive skill that made her non-armor clothing more resistant to damage, the Spectral Armor Modification was an easy choice to make. When Aila immediately tested the spell, because of course she did, a thin layer of almost translucent armor appeared across Aila’s body. The shape of the armor was more akin to a body suit, in Jadis’ opinion, since it lacked any seams or plates and was quite form-fitting. Interestingly, the armor didn’t appear over Aila’s clothes, but under them. She couldn’t feel the armor herself, and her clothes passed right through the spectral spell, but when Jay poked at Aila’s arm, she could feel the cool, unyielding substance blocking her touch.

Both of the skill options Aila was offered for her Cart Driver class were uninteresting to Aila and she had no intention of taking either. Jadis frankly couldn’t blame her. One made sitting on carts for extended periods of time more comfortable, and the other was a five-point boost to her Endurance. While Aila did want to diversify her stats, this selection just felt wasted. Aila ended up taking another upgrade to Lesser Arcane Improvement instead.

Since that selection brought Aila’s Arcane attribute up to a nice and even two hundred points, Aila wasn’t complaining.

The one of their number who had gained the most levels was Alex. With one in Paladin of Jadis and three in Bonded Alex, she had risen four levels for a CLR totaling twenty-seven. With how the levels were spread, she had gained three free attribute points. There was some debate about where Alex should put those points since she herself was somewhat uncertain, but eventually she listened to Aila’s advice and put two points into Focus and one point into Fortitude.

Reviewing Alex’s stats reminded Jadis that she still needed to perform Lewd Lover’s Bond with her expecting Demon. There was also Wanton Replication to perform as well, something that Jadis needed to discuss with the others, though she put both of those concerns off until after they were done selecting skills and reviewing their class information.

When it came time to talk about the options that Alex had been given, Alex’s slow recitation of the descriptions caused quite a stir among the gathered.

“Thirty fucking points!?” Kerr cursed as she stared at Alex, her eyes practically bulging out of her head. “Thirty! For a level three passive skill? That’s just—that’s fucking unfair!”

“I think we can take an educated guess now as to why Greater Demons are so hard to kill,” Aila mused as she leaned forward with her chin on her fist. “If they’re all getting passive skills like that, then they wouldn’t even need to be all that high level to be absolute monsters.”

“Make sense,” Jay said with a frown. “I’d expect Samleos to try to give Demons serving him some kind of extra advantage. Not sure how that’s not against the Covenant rules, but it’s probably some kind of loophole or the like. At least Alex is still getting a benefit from it.”

“Even that Zeal passive is amazing,” Bridget commented enviously. “I would have loved to get passives like that when I was leveling alone. But I don’t think I could pass up a thirty-point boost to Vitality.”

Indeed, none of them could say no to a boost like that, either. Not even Jadis could, and her own vitality was already massive. Alex took the Ardor skill, granting herself another three hundred points of health.

Looking over the next set of options, both were also great, though Jadis knew right away that one was the better choice compared to the other.

Bonded Defense was a great defensive skill, but it was ultimately just a variation of Paladin’s Stalwart Sacrifice, a skill that Alex already possessed. While Bonded Defense cost less than Stalwart Defense, it was also only usable when Alex was practically on top of Jadis. That made it far less attractive, as it felt like a bit of a waste to double up on that kind of defensive skill.

Bonded Lover’s Sweet Embrace also had the problem of only being usable when Alex was in close proximity to Jadis, but it felt like a stronger option for the Demon. She already had a powerful regeneration skill, so having it increased by fifty percent while hugging one of Jadis’ bodies seemed like a good way to increase Alex’s survivability as well as take some of the strain off of Eir when it came to healing. Provided Jadis ever got a regenerative skill other than Knight’s Rest, or Eir got a slow regeneration spell she could cast, then the skill would be even more powerful. The choice was ultimately up to Alex, but her reasoning lined up with Jadis’ thoughts without prompting. She chose Bonded Lover’s Sweet Embrace.

Once her free attribute points had been placed into Focus and Fortitude, Alex's status sheet was looking significantly bulkier than it had the last time Jadis had seen it.

“I think that’s just about everyone,” Jay announced as she picked at the remains of a sourdough loaf she had turned into a bread bowl. “Unless someone has any other class-related business to go over?”

“Well, I mean, I leveled. Only once, but still.”

All three of Jadis’ selves blinked in some surprise as they looked at Sorcha. The goblin woman was sipping on a glass of water, one hand playing with a lock of her blue hair. When she noticed that everyone was staring at her, she scowled and gestured expansively.

“What? You all are sharing your stats with me. It’s about time I went over my status sheet with you all, yeah? I’d feel like a bloody rat if I didn’t.”

Agdistis

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my readers.

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