“So. Count Holtz or Countess Voclain?”
“What about them?” Aila asked distractedly as she sorted through her travel pack, looking for her brush.
“Which one do we go punch first?”
“We don’t punch either of them, first of all,” Aila held up a finger. “And second, why one at a time? We should just arrange a meeting so that we can all sit down together and work this out.”
“I would actually advise against that,” Eir spoke up as she passed Aila her own brush. “It could take days to try and arrange a formal gathering between two nobles. It is not uncommon for bickering nobility to purposefully cancel appointments as a petty means of furthering their dispute. I would not attempt a joint meeting unless I had some means of guaranteeing that both parties would be present.”
“She’s right,” Severina said as she entered the room. “Though I would argue a more important reason not to meet with them both at the same time is because we will want to hear each of their stories separately. On the chance that they are in fact in collusion with each other, we want them to speak separately so we can more easily catch out any discrepancies.”
Jadis eyed the Seraphim appraisingly. She made a good point, one that Jadis had only half-considered so far.
Everything Bridget’s grandfather had told Jadis after dinner had been something of a repeat of what her cousin, Bree, had already explained to them, only in greater detail. Countess Voclain had purchased the ancient map from a court mage who had come from Hamarrholt, looking to relocate her household and seeking employment. The source of the map didn’t appear to have anything to do with Egilhard, but the fact that Voclain was using the dispute to specifically go after a branch of Jadis’ now rather extensive family had to have been prompted by the general. Maybe it was just bad luck that the map happened to mess with Clan Warsong farmland specifically, or maybe the court mage, Leonore Gielgud, was an agent working for Egilhard, or Prince Hraustrekr, or any number of other possibilities, and had counterfeited the map. Whatever the case, both of the counts and both of the dukes involved were treating the map as though it were genuine. The dispute was past the stage of whether or not the countess’ claim was legitimate, but was entirely focused on who should have to pay the countess.
The sum of money Countess Voclain was demanding was no small amount. Jadis could easily understand why anyone would try to avoid paying it. The Warsong farms weren’t small and sixty years of taxes and land rights payments was a lot of coin. That said, Jadis could pay off the amount Voclain was asking for with Fortune’s Favored funds. She had the money, or would have it soon, since she was being paid handsomely by both princes for the flight enchantments.
Jadis had no desire to do that, though, and had stated as much during their discussion with Bridget’s family. Fortune’s Favored needed those funds to pay for the expansion of their headquarters as well as the fleet of new airships she was planning on producing. Giving all that coin away to someone like the countess would be a huge waste, as well as a detriment to her plans for the company. Everyone else had agreed, especially Grand Da Morley, who didn’t think any money should come from his clan or anyone linked to his granddaughter. As he put it, all that coin had already been paid. He wasn’t going to pay the same bill twice.
The real issue was the fact that Count Holtz was refusing to pay the disputed cost to the countess. Maybe he was sour over the fact that he was already losing a swath of land to his rival. Maybe he genuinely didn’t have the money. Or maybe, as Severina had suggested, Holtz was secretly working with Voclain and the entire thing was a setup. After all, both of the dukes who the two counts reported to were in Prince Hraustrekr’s faction. It was entirely possible that they could be manipulating the situation.
One argument against the idea of collusion, however, was the fact that the person who seemed to have started this whole thing was General Egilhard. Jadis didn’t think that fat-headed idiot could manipulate a mouse into eating cheese, much less a couple of dukes into doing his dirty work. It was possible he was just the first stone that started the avalanche, but she doubted it.
The idea that the whole thing might even be some kind of plot invented by the Cultists of Samleos had crossed Jadis’ mind, but that idea felt farfetched. Too many high-ranking nobles seemed to be involved for all of them to be working with the cult, though Jadis was open to being proven wrong. Well, she dearly hoped she wasn’t wrong on that front, since she had no desire to have cultists targeting any of her lovers’ families. But she wasn’t going to dismiss the chance of those crazed fanatics being in some way involved.
The point that Jadis had come to after the long discussion she and her companions had had with Bridget’s family was that they really didn’t know enough about why Clan Warsong was being attacked in such a roundabout way. Supposedly it was to exert pressure onto Jadis. But why? What was this situation going to ultimately accomplish beyond pissing Jadis off? To extort some kind of concession out of her? Or was it some ploy to maneuver her out of position while nobles acted in some other, unseen way. That certainly sounded like something Prince Kestil would do, though Jadis didn’t think their relationship was bad enough that he would start messing with her like that again. The fact that such a stupidly short-sighted manipulation could be a lure for someone to spring a trap was one reason why Jadis didn’t wholly discount the thought of cultists being involved.
“I agree with that idea,” Jay said after a brief pause. “I want to get back to Eldingholt by the end of the week, but meeting with them separately is probably the best idea. They’re probably going to say things about each other and the situation that they might not say if both were in the same room at the same time. We’ll do what we can over the next few days and if we can’t resolve the situation by then, that’s fine. We can always take this to court if we have to.”
“By the end of the week?” Aila asked as she started brushing her long hair. “I believe we told Gunnar that this may take up to two weeks. We don’t have to rush back.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want Severina to miss her appointment,” Jay motioned towards the Seraphim. “She’s getting a limb regrown. That’s super important, and I don’t want her to have to cancel just because she was kind enough to come with us on this errand.”
Severina looked surprised by the statement, then fidgeted like she wanted to cross her arms but couldn’t. She settled on flexing her wing and ruffling her feathers instead.
“I appreciate the consideration,” Severina said. “But I could always fly back on my own, if necessary.”
“Can you?” Jay raised an eyebrow as she sat down on the edge of the bed next to Eir. “With only one wing? I know magic is what’s powering your flight, but can you really fly without both wings?”
“I can,” Severina nodded, though her brow was drawn into a pucker. “It would not be easy, but it is possible. My wings are more for stability than power or speed. I can manage with just one. That’s one reason why I am choosing to have my arm regenerated first, rather than my wing.”
“Fair enough,” Jay nodded. “But I’d still rather fly you home than force you to wing it on your own. That’d be a pretty shitty way to treat one of my lovers.”
Severina sputtered over the last word, her cheeks flushing pink as her feathers puffed up like an offended pigeon.
“Lover? Who said we are lovers?” She demanded indignantly.
“Aren’t we?” Jay asked, a grin on her face from the paladin’s reaction. “Sure felt that way when we were—”
“We have an arrangement,” Severina interrupted her as her face flushed even brighter. “A mutually beneficial one! I would not say that our relationship is at the same stage as… as you and Aila and Eir, for example.”
Severina motioned with her hand towards the two other women in the room. Both were giving the angelic blonde amused looks, between meeting each other’s silent smiles.
“Oh. Well, that’s a shame,” Jay said dramatically. “Because if you were my lover, then I would be inviting you into bed to join us tonight. We really barely even got to do anything that first night together, and I was really hoping to lavish you with mind-blowing pleasures. But I guess if you aren’t my lover…”
The Seraphim looked like she was either going to burst into flames or storm out of the room, yet had instead frozen in place as indecision caught her in its dastardly claws. Her back was still to the door, so Severina could leave if she wanted to. Jadis wasn’t going to stop her. The invitation, while a teasing one, was still only an invitation. The duty-minded paladin was almost completely inexperienced when it came to anything sexual, her only encounter the one night with Jadis. Sleeping in the same bed with any of Jadis’ other lovers was something that the Seraphim would likely have to work up to, if she was even truly interested in doing so. Jadis was more than happy to give her all the time she needed.
But she still made sure Severina knew the invitation was there.
“We shouldn’t do… those things, tonight,” Severina finally said after regaining some control over herself. “We should focus on formulating battle plans for the meetings we will be having tomorrow.”
Jay grinned at the flimsy excuse, doubly so since it was not a denial of the paladin’s interest in lewd activities, just a weak attempt at a delay.
“To quote Clan Warsong’s patriarch,” Aila said as she sat down on the edge of the bed on Jay’s right side, “That is ridiculous. We’ve already discussed our plans for hours and merely need to decide which noble we intend to visit first tomorrow. We are due our relaxation time.”
“We also need to recharge our rituals,” Eir spoke up sweetly as she pressed in close against Jay’s left side, letting her ample right breast squish pleasantly into Jay’s arm. “It’s only prudent to take such opportunities to refresh our strength during moments of peace and security. I believe a paladin as experienced as you will agree with that sentiment, no?”
Jadis could practically see the wheels turning in Severina’s head. For the moment, it was just Jay, Aila, and Eir in the room with her. Clan Warsong had plenty of space in their compound for Jadis and her lovers to sleep for the night, but not all in the same bedroom. They had divided up into three groups, each group taking a different bedroom in the house that Bree and her husband Levin usually slept in. The two orcs, along with two of the other young couples who didn’t yet have their own separate house, usually lived in the building. Levin was a mercenary and wasn’t in town currently, and neither were the spouses of the other two in who normally stayed in the house. Bree and the two cousins remaining had temporarily moved back into the homes of their parents to give Jadis and her lovers the use of the three bedrooms in the same building. They had the place all to themselves.
Dys, Thea, Sabina, and Sorcha were in one room, while Syd, Kerr, Bridget, and Alex were in another room. Severina didn’t need to join in with the whole group, just Jay, Aila, and Eir. And since she had already been with all three of Jadis at once before, was being with one Jadis as well as an Aila and an Eir really all that different?
“There’s one more spare bedroom that isn’t being used,” Jay pointed out. “You can always sleep in there alone tonight.”
“You’re welcome to share Jadis with us,” Eir said with her kindest smile. “I have always admired your beauty, Lady Severina. I admit I would love to give such glorious beauty the worship it deserves.”
“I like talking with you,” Aila added. “You’re smart and straight to the point. I wouldn’t mind sharing a Jadis and a bed with you, considering I normally have to share it with Kerr.”
"Aila..." Eir tutted.
"Just a joke," the redhead shrugged with a slight smile. "Sort of."
“Your choice,” Jay leaned forward with a crooked grin. “Also, no pressure, but you kind of need to decide soon, because Kerr and Alex are already trying to have their way with me in the other room and I am about to become far too distracted to think about anything other than my lovers.”
That final admission seemed to be enough to knock Severina out of her frozen posture. Turning, her hand reached for the door, which caused a wave of disappointment to flow through Jadis’ heads. Then, Jay heard the click of the bolt lock.
“To the winds with it,” Severina said as she strode purposefully over to the bed, her cheeks still flushed pink. “Help me with my shirt, please.”
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