Landing inside the city walls of Eldingholt pushed Aila’s new piloting skills to the limit. The problem wasn’t just the density of the many tall stone buildings and towers, but also that the city was largely overshadowed by the colossal tree that grew from the island in the center of the river. The tree’s branches spread out over a good two thirds of the city, creating a natural cover that made flight inside the city limits a challenge. If the two bickering princes wanted to create fleets of airships, they were going to need to build a staging ground outside of the city limits, or at least in the lower section at the base of the waterfall and cliffs that the city bordered on its western edge.
One of the interesting aspects of the city’s defenses Jadis hadn’t known about was revealed as the Behemoth gently floated its way through sky just under the tree boughs. Looking out the side ports, she could see that there were soldiers stationed along the branches of the tree. There were bridges, platforms, and even a few small buildings that were probably used as guardhouses or the like. Even so high up, the city was defended.
Idly, Jadis wondered if some kind of aerial port could be constructed in the branches of the great tree. She supposed it might work with airships, since she remembered seeing photos of zeppelins docking with skyscrapers back on Earth, but the fact that the tree led down to the imperial palace meant routing traffic through there probably wasn’t a great idea.
Whatever the future solution to docking airships would be, Aila handled the Behemoth’s landing inside the city without causing any major accidents. Not without a few minor ones, though. Those accidents weren’t really her fault, however, since really the blame rested on the city folk who stopped to stare at the descending airship rather than get out of the street and out of the way of oncoming horses and wagons.
At least Eir got some more healing experience out of the deal.
It took a couple of hours to check in with the city guards, disassemble the Behemoth’s balloon, pack up and then drive the wagon back to the Fortune’s Favored headquarters. Fortunately, since they had landed in the wagon yards where caravans parked their vehicles, they were able to quickly retrieve the giant goats from their pens and use them to pull the wagon.
Aila’s mother and father, Senta and Vikwas, both showed up at the wagon yard around the time the goats were being hitched up. A giant black blimp descending from the sky was a fairly notable event, so the two had heard the news and rushed over to meet them. It was a nice gesture, especially since Vikwas offered to drive the wagon for Aila so she could get some rest.
The meeting between Vikwas, Senta, and Vera was a little awkward at first, but by the time the wagon was rolling the two mothers were deep in conversation discussing how to make cheese, of all things. Vera was a cheesemaker by trade, and while Senta didn’t have a class for it, she did make homemade cheese from goatmilk on a regular basis. Jadis was glad that the two managed to find a point of interest and get along. She hoped that would be the case for all of Jadis’ lovers’ families, considering her plans for the future.
When asked where Eir’s parents were, Vikwas had quietly explained that Einer had been gone all day attending to business matters regarding the glass manufacturing that was done by his estate while Svana had gone to the temple district to pray at Ulya’s temple. Vikwas wasn’t sure of the elf’s reasons, but Jadis had no trouble guessing that Eir’s mother was probably offering up prayers to the goddess of hearth and home on behalf of her daughter.
In all likelihood, both of the two elves would show up at Fortune’s Favored headquarters later that night, eager to check up on Eir. If they didn’t, Jadis planned on seeking them out. Einer was a margrave and thus had no small amount of power and influence. Not to mention capital that Jadis could use for her plans. While she didn’t expect the two nobles to move into the compound that she planned on creating for the rest of the more vulnerable families, Jadis hoped that Margrave Einer would be willing to enter into a beneficial partnership with her. She needed funding, and while she was sure she could probably get it in other ways, she liked the idea of getting her gold by making good deals with people she could trust.
All those plans were still running through Jadis’ heads when the Behemoth finally rolled to a stop in the storage yard behind the headquarters. Taking in the sights, she could see that everything looked the same as how she had left it, barring the sole difference that several more loads of timber had been delivered and set near the workshop, likely recently since they still needed to be properly stacked. Otherwise, all looked to be in perfect order.
“You own the whole building?” Vera asked as she was helped out of the wagon by her daughter. “It’s so big!”
“Yes, ah, the whole thing,” Thea smiled at how impressed her mother was. “You’ll m—meet the rest of the company.”
“Yeah, they should be—ah! Here come a few now,” Syd said as she waved at a few figures who came out of the workshop.
“Welcome back!” Terrance, the former city runner, called out while waving a hand high over his bald head. “You’re a little late, we were starting to worry!”
Behind the man, Jadis could see that Violetta, Chace, and Humbert were with him. It looked to her like they had just been taking a break from moving the timber.
“We had a little trouble,” Jay said as she walked up to the four and shook Terrance’s hand. “We’ll tell you all about it in a little while. Everything good here? Where is everyone?”
“All is well,” Terrance smiled as he gestured at the rest and then at the lumber. “No issues at all, beyond finding places to store all the new materials coming in.”
“At least fifty people have come by looking for work since you left,” Violetta said with a slight scowl. “Some of them were a pain to keep away when we told them you weren’t around.”
“Really? They all wanted to be mercenaries?”
“No,” Terrance replied instead of the half-elf. “They want to work for the wonderous workshop that is producing the new airships. Apparently, word has gotten around the city. Both Prince Kestil and Prince Hraustrekr have started hiring expert craftsmen and enchanters to start working on their own airships, but it didn’t take the rumor mill long to figure out that the source of the new magic was you and Sabina. Or, more broadly, Fortune’s Favored.”
“Everyone wants to work for you now,” Chace spoke up somewhat shyly. “Even the kids in my neighborhood are all talking about wanting get an apprenticeship with Sabina now that they know she’s a genius and isn’t just crazy.”
While Jay smirked at the way the young orc had so casually called her unofficial wife a crazy person, Violetta came to her teacher’s defense immediately.
“Don’t call her crazy!” the purple girl said as she got on her toes and smacked the back of Chace’s head. “Be respectful!”
At that moment, a loud crash resounded through the storage yard as Sabina leapt out of the wagon carrying a large crate filled with all kinds of metal tools and parts. Since her arms were overfull with the wooden crate, she had placed a bucket filled with more parts so that the rope handle was around her neck and the bucket was hanging off her back like the world’s worst cape. Sabina also had a leatherbound notebook clutched between her teeth and a charcoal pencil shoved behind both of her pointed ears.
“Violetta! Come on!” Sabina said with her mouth full as she rushed by the group towards the workshop. “I’ve got an enchantment idea I’ve got to get down now before I forget! Come help!”
After the smith disappeared through the open door of the workshop accompanied by another loud crash, Chace turned his gaze towards the silent purple half-elf.
“Don’t,” Violetta said as she held up her hand at the grinning orc.
While Jay followed the small group into the workshop in pursuit of the crazed enchanter, Dys helped Kerr, Bridget, Alex, and Vikwas unload the wagon. Sorcha and Tegwyn both ran off almost immediately to check on the greenhouse, while Aila and Eir stuck close to Thea, Vera, and Senta. Syd took the opportunity to lean down and whisper into Aila’s ear.
“Help me gather everyone together in the main hall,” she said to her favorite redhead. “I want to have a discussion with all members of Fortune’s Favored. Chace, Dexter, and Lon don’t have to be there since they’re kids, but I’d like everyone else to be present.”
“What about Severina?” Aila asked.
“She’s welcome,” Syd replied, “but I’m not going to force her to be there. She’s not technically in the company. She has her own duties to deal with.”
Indeed, the paladin had flown off to the palace shortly after she had assured the Behemoth had landed safely. She was an important figure with many responsibilities calling for her attention. Some of those duties involved Severina’s own estate, while others concerned her allegiance to Prince Kestil. Jadis had no doubt that Sev would be reporting everything that had happened to the prince. She was fine with that, since she knew that her lover would never do anything to cause her or those she loved harm. Severina wouldn’t reveal any sensitive information.
“Alright,” Aila nodded. “What about our parents?”
Syd smiled at the way Aila had referred to them as “their parents” and not just “her” parents. She was sorely tempted to kiss her freckled lover at that moment, but she resisted in order to stay focused.
“We’ll find a way to distract them once everyone is gathered. Well, by that I mean we’ll be honest and tell them that we need to have a company meeting that isn’t for their ears. I’m sure they’ll understand.”
“Hopefully,” Aila said somewhat dubiously.
By that point, Thea and Eir were already leading Vera and Senta to the back door of the main building. Syd and Aila caught up with the four just as they walked inside. There was a break in conversation that only just registered with Jadis before a double scream of fear echoed through the open door.
Without hesitation, Syd dove through the door, her fists raised and ready to destroy whatever had caused at least two of her family to let out the unexpected shrieks. She had to pull herself up short, though, in order to avoid running over the four women who were still crowded together near the kitchen door. Looking past them, she saw what had caused both Vera and Senta to scream.
There was a Demon on the kitchen table.
And it was making bread.
“What the fuck?” Syd swore in surprise as she stared at the unusual sight.
Sitting on top of the long kitchen table was the cage that held the large possession Demon with the red eye that Tegwyn and his team had caught for questioning before the trip to visit Thea and Bridget’s families. The Demon was still firmly locked up inside the cage, but several of her long tentacles were stuck through the gaps in the metal bars. A huge wad of dough was clumped onto the flour-dusted table and the Demon’s tentacles were resting on top of the clump. While the Demon was currently frozen to complete stillness, it was easy to see that she had been in the act of kneading the dough before they had entered the kitchen.
Glancing to the side, Syd saw Hans standing at the counter, a knife in one hand and a large carrot in the other. When she gave him a look with one eyebrow raised, the mustachioed man shrugged at her. Then, pointing his carrot at the red-eyed Demon, he wiggled it around in a swirling motion before turning his back on everyone and getting back to chopping a mountain of vegetables.
The Demon in the cage was utterly motionless for a few more seconds before, abruptly, it began kneading the dough again, making loud plap-plap sounds as its tentacles struck the hefty clump in a rhythmic pattern.
“That is the gods be damned freakiest thing I’ve seen in a while,” Syd muttered as she lowered her fists and took a few steps further into the kitchen.
“How many Demons do you have here, exactly?” Vera asked with a nervous laugh as she scooted in after Syd while keeping a wide berth from the table.
“Just the two,” Syd replied while Aila came in through the door and did a doubletake. “Unless something else has changed while we were gone?”
Before Hans could answer Syd’s question, the door on the interior side of the kitchen opened and Nevan, the swashbuckling gnome, came strolling in.
“Ah! Jadis! So glad to see you have returned! We were all beginning to worry you had departed on some grand adventure without us! Orla was practically twisting her ears off at the thought of not getting to join you on your next great quest of derring-do! Ah, and I see you have brought back who could only be Thea’s beautiful mother! The resemblance is uncanny! But, I say, are you quite alright? You look peaked.”
“I’m good, thank you Nevan,” Syd shook her head in wry amusement at the boisterous man. “I was just kind of shocked by the Demon sitting on our kitchen table. I don’t think any of us were expecting to see that.”
“Ah, yes, quite the odd circumstance, isn’t it?” the gnome said with a pleasant grin on his face.
Nevan stood there, rocking on his heels for a moment with one hand in his pocket and the other twiddling his goatee. After a moment, he realized that Syd was staring at him, as were the rest of the women in the room.
“Ah, yes! An explanation would be due, wouldn’t it? The simple answer is, Villum noticed that the red-eyed rascal was getting a little bored of just playing with oats after a while. So, being the kind-hearted lad that he is, he brought the Demon a few other items of interest. He tried bowls of beans, berries, rice, and even a pudding. Eventually, he even stole some dough from Hans’ kitchen to entertain the Demon with, the rogue. When Hans retrieved the dough, he noticed that the Demon had done a good job of kneading it! So… here we are!”
Halfway through Nevan’s story, Alex slipped inside of the kitchen and approached the table. The red-eyed Demon stopped what it was doing and the two immediately engaged in a flurry of conversation that Jadis had no hope of following with her limited demonic language skills. She did catch on to the feeling that Alex wasn’t mad at the Demon, and the red-eyed Demon was oddly calm.
“Alex?” Syd called out after a moment.
“She is… Happy…” Alex replied after a few seconds of thought. “She likes… Dough…”
“Okay…” Syd drew out the word and followed it with a sigh. “We’ll talk about this later.”
“I am not eating the bread that is made from that dough,” Senta said with a scowl as she stared at the Demon.
“I assure you, madam, the bread that our Demon Baker kneads is delightful!” Nevan said as he approached Senta and Vera. “You’ve never had such a light and fluffy loaf!”
Vera smiled down at the short man, though she still looked a little lost from confusion.
“I suppose it couldn’t hurt to try some…”
Once the surprise of the Bread Demon had passed, Jadis focused on getting all employees of Fortune’s Favored gathered together in the main hall of the guild. It took some time, maybe an hour, but most of them had not strayed too far. Those that had left the general area returned as quickly as they could. Villum had been visiting his new girlfriend, but had cut the date short when he had seen the black airship descend through the skies. Cora had also been out visiting Lyssandria’s Temple, but she had already been returning when the news of the airship landing hit the streets so she got back even faster than the elf.
Senta, Vikwas, and Vera weren’t hard to distract. Once Jay told them that the company had an important meeting to discuss the recent trip, the three had voluntarily vacated the guild hall to have a quiet talk in the pleasant confines of the greenhouse. Hans made sure the three had tea and honeyed biscuits to snack on before joining everyone else in the gathering.
“So, what happened?”
When everyone looked towards Villum, the purple-skinned man just looked back with a shrug.
“What? It’s obvious something big happened. I’m pretty sure the mission wasn’t to bring Thea’s mother back to the base, right?”
“No, it certainly was not,” Jay said as she crossed her arms across her armored chest. “So you’re right, Villum. Something did happen.”
“A lot of somethings happened, actually,” Syd interjected.
“A fuckton of somethings, even,” Kerr elaborated. “Enough somethings to drown a dragon.”
“We’ll go into the details in a second,” Jay continued. “But first, a short summary. Bridget’s family is fine, but they’re giving up their farm and moving here as soon as possible. Vera is also moving here because Cold Brook was attacked by a bunch of cultists and Demons. Additionally, a duke is trying to get me to marry one of his grandchildren and is likely going to keep being a pain in my asses until he gets his way or I convince him to fuck off.”
Before the gathered group could really let Jay’s words sink in, Dys added one more point which was the true reason she had asked everyone to meet as quickly as possible.
“And one more thing. Considering the timing of the attack on Vera and how it coincided with our trip, I’m fairly certain that cultists are spying on us. Any questions?”
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