Syd arched her back and stretched her arms high over her head, working out all the stiff kinks that were trying to set in. The spring day was warm but there was a light breeze, which helped cool her off in combination with the bucket of water she had splashed over her head. She had spent the past five hours acting as the big muscle in Sabina’s forge and while she wasn’t exactly tired, the heat and constant effort had worn her out a bit.
A silly laugh welled up inside of her at the realization of the unintentional innuendo she had come up with. She wanted to tell the crude pun to Kerr right away, since she knew her favorite therion would appreciate the raunchy humor, but much to her disappointment her horny lover wasn’t near any of her selves. She’d just have to find some way of working the lascivious word play into the conversation the next time she ran into Kerr.
Speaking of favorite therions, Syd caught sight of her second favorite therion as she twisted her torso back and forth in a wide stretch. Noll, the wily old dog, had shown up on her doorstep after weeks of no word. She knew that the powerful warrior could take care of himself, but she had still worried a little when she had stopped getting any news of his whereabouts for more than a month. His mission to hunt down the Greater Demon who had gotten away after the attack on the capital was not without danger.
Syd’s broad grin only grew wider when she noticed the figure standing next to Noll. Meli, the Dryad from Cold Brook, was with him, looking all wide-eyed and nervous. When the Dryad hadn’t been at Falk’s Reach, Jadis had figured that she wouldn’t be seeing the Dryad again for a long time. Yet here she was.
While their first impressions of each other hadn’t been great, Jadis was glad to see Meli. They had fought together on the battlefield against terrible enemies. That automatically improved Jadis’ opinion of the woman. Plus, she still kind of owed the Dryad for her help with the cultists. She hadn’t been able to pay her back yet, at least not enough to settle Jadis’ conscience on the matter. Hopefully Meli’s presence in the capital meant Jadis would get her chance to repay her.
“Noll! You old grump, where have you been?” Syd called out as she strode over to the two.
“Elsewhere,” the therion replied in his typically short and blunt fashion.
“No shit,” Syd grinned down at the wolf as she came to a stop next to Thea. “Did you catch that piece of dick cheese who ate Severina’s arm and wing?”
“No,” Noll growled as his expression darkened. “I lost the trail after it crossed the border into the Rubaline Dominion. Too many Demons and too much destruction.”
“Well that sucks,” Syd sighed in disappointment. “Do you need help going after it?”
“No,” Noll shook his head. “I’ll find it. I just came back to gather some supplies before I go in deep. Rubaline won’t be easy to travel through.”
Syd dismissed the unhappy talk from her mind as she turned her gaze onto the Dryad standing quietly to Noll’s side. Renewing her grin, she addressed the woman with all the warmth of an old friend.
“Hey there, Meli! I’m glad to see you again! What brings you all the way to the big city?”
When there was no immediate reply to her greeting, Syd tilted her head to one side and raised a questioning eyebrow.
“Meli?”
“You might want to give this one another minute to pick her wits up,” Noll grumbled as he stepped past Syd to take a closer look at the new airship under construction. “You’re distracting her.”
Distracting? Syd looked down at herself and realized that the way her wet shirt was clinging to her chest and torso was rather… revealing. Glancing at Thea, Syd could see that her dear little voyeur was having a hard time keeping her eyes off of her body. That was not an unexpected reaction from Thea, considering her predilections. Jadis hadn’t expected such a response from Meli, though. The Dryad hadn’t given off that sort of vibe in any of their previous interactions.
Then again, the only times they had been around each other had been pretty stressful. Perceptions could change, depending on circumstances.
“Sorry,” Meli finally responded. “Yes, hello. I was distracted by your body. You’re very beautiful, which only makes sense since you’re an avatar of Lyssandria. But that’s not important right now.”
“Okay, glad we cleared that up,” Syd’s mouth twitched as she tried not laugh at the ridiculously matter-of-fact reply Meli had given her. “So, what’s up? Are you here to see Tegwyn? Do you need help rebuilding your grove?”
Meli shook her head, causing the long strands of her willow-branch hair to rustle.
“I’ve already done all I can for now. The seeds will grow without me. I came here because I want revenge.”
Syd tensed slightly at the declaration.
“Ah. Look, I’m sorry, I know the only reason the cultists attacked Cold Brook and burned your grove is because of my presence, but—”
“No! No, not like that,” Meli cut her off with an urgent wave of her hands. “I mean that I want you to help me get revenge on the Demons and cultists. Not on you. I told you that I don’t really blame you, didn’t I? Anyway, I want you to help me get my vengeance on the ones who are actually responsible. And Demons in general, I suppose. I’m still incredibly angry at them overall. So I want to join your war party.”
“You mean my mercenary guild?” Syd clarified after a moment of hesitation.
“Yes. That.”
Syd turned to look at Noll, who pretended not to notice while he continued to make a show of examining the new airship. Since he was no help, Syd glanced down at Thea, who had remained quiet up to that point.
“What do you think?”
Thea didn’t jump in surprise, but her eyes did widen a bit at the question. Looking between her and Meli, who was now watching the brunette expectantly, Thea visibly stiffened her back before nodding her head once.
“I think, ah, sh—she would be a valuable teammate. W—we should at least g—give her a t—try, I think.”
“Well, you heard her,” Syd raised her hands up a bit in a welcoming gesture. “If Thea says you can join, then you can join.”
Meli looked almost like the breath had been knocked out of her at the announcement. Clearly, she had been expecting some sort of greater process or barrier to entry. Maybe even a test of some sort? Jadis didn’t see any need for that, since she had already seen the Dryad in action and knew how strong a fighter she could be.
However, now that the idea of a test was on her mind, Jadis was reminded of something that she felt she had better bring up before Meli got any further involved with Fortune’s Favored.
“One thing,” Syd held up a finger. “I know you’ve got a grudge to settle, and I’m all for it. I can be a vengeful bitch myself when I get pissed. That said, you said you wanted to have your revenge against Demons in general. Does that include Alex?”
Meli opened her mouth to reply, paused, then started up again after a second of thought.
“No, not at all. In fact, I should apologize to your mate for attacking her. I don’t have any hard feelings towards her anymore.”
“That’s good!” Syd grinned at the Dryad, who responded with a slight smile of her own. “Now, what about Oats? Do you have a problem with her?”
The small smile that had started to bloom on Meli’s face fell away into a bramble of confusion as she scrunched up her nose and puckered her eyebrows.
“Who is that? What kind of person would be named Oats?”
“Didn’t you meet her when you came in and took the test?”
“What test?” Meli looked utterly lost.
Syd let out an aggrieved sigh before turning to look at Noll. She placed her hands on her hips as she cocked her head to one side before addressing the old wolf.
“Did Gert let you in here without having you take the test?”
Noll nodded his head in response.
“He said you gave him standing orders to allow me entry, anytime.”
“D dammit, Gert,” Syd cursed. “That doesn’t mean you don’t give them the fucking test!”
The last was shouted towards the alleyway gate where Jadis knew Bridget’s headstrong cousin was stationed. The man really was a great fighter and an extremely observant guard, but he struggled with taking orders sometimes. That was probably part of why he had quit his job working as a town guard in Brightstone. Jadis would have to talk with the orc again later. Either he had to remember the protocol, or she was going to take him off of the security detail. Actually, she might just talk to Grand Da Morley about it and let him beat some sense into his grandson. Gert respected Jadis, but he feared Morley’s cane more than her.
“Come with me, you two,” Syd motioned for Meli and Noll to follow her. “You coming, Thea? Or are you busy?”
“I’m not busy,” Thea said quietly as she followed behind the other two.
Jadis led all three back down the alleyway between the main building and their recently renovated apartment complex. Gert had the good grace to look shamefaced when she passed him by, but she didn’t stop to scold him. He was a grown man, and she didn’t think embarrassing him in front of Meli and Noll was the right thing to do. She had known bosses like that back on Earth and she wasn’t going to emulate their awful management styles.
Once back outside of the gates, Jadis led them to the front door of the main building.
“What do those two words mean?”
“Hm?” Syd paused for a moment to look over her shoulder at Meli.
“Those two words,” the Dryad pointed at the smaller sign under the main sign on the front of the headquarters. “What does ‘Ahlstrom Aviation” mean?”
“Ahlstrom is my surname,” Syd explained as she pushed open the front door. “Aviation just means flying and stuff like that. We’ve kind of developed a second business here, since we are producing flying enchantments and things related to air travel. Did you see the first imperial airship in the sky today? We made the enchantments for that.”
“An inaugural flight,” Noll rumbled with a tone of vague interest. “And you didn’t get an invite?”
“I did, actually. But standing around watching the emperor give a speech sounded boring as mud so I skipped it. Besides, Kestil’s eating up all the praise right now because he got his airship up and running before Hraustrekr could complete his. If I was there, it’d take away from his spotlight. I’d rather let him enjoy his moment.”
Stepping inside the hall, Syd held off on any further talk of the imperial flagship and instead waved a hand in greeting at the blue elf sitting behind his usual desk.
“Hey Gunnar,” she called out. “Any visitors today?”
“No ma’am,” the muscled man replied without taking his eyes off of the ledger book on the desk in front of him. “I suspect we will not have many guests at all today due to the holiday celebrations.”
“Well, we’ve got two right here,” Syd motioned towards Noll and Meli. “I think we all know that no one is going to try and fake Noll, and I doubt anyone would even know what Meli looks like to try and fake her, but still. We’re doing this by the books.”
“Of course,” Gunnar nodded with a thin smile.
Unlike how things used to be when Noll had last visited, Gunnar was no longer alone at his desk. Two guards were stationed in the sectioned-off foyer area of the main hall, one by the front door and the other to the right side of the reception desk. Both guards were more of Bridget’s family, though with how things were currently expanding, Jadis knew that she was going to have to start hiring a few more combat-trained people who were outside of the immediate family. Unless a few more of Bridget’s cousins broke off from their mercenary companies and came to join Fortune’s Favored. They hadn’t heard back from Addie yet, after all.
“I got it,” Nelly, one of Bridget’s older cousins, said to Gunnar as she walked off to the side of the foyer where a light slapping sound could be heard.
A few seconds later and Nelly pushed a large, wheeled table out from behind the barrier that blocked off access to the rest of the main hall. Resting on top of the table was a metal cage as well as several bowls of bread dough, water, flour, yeast, and a few other baking ingredients. Most noticeably, though, was the red-eyed Demon.
“This is Oats,” Syd introduced Noll and Meli to the caged Demon. “Oats, say ‘hello’ please.”
Syd accompanied her words with a few hand gestures to make it easier for the bread-loving Demon to understand what was being said. After a moment, Oats responded with a simple wave of a tentacle at the stunned therion and Dryad.
“Explain,” Noll demanded in as straightforward a way as possible.
“So, long story short, we caught Oats and she turned out to be pretty chill compared to most other Demons because she’s more into baking than killing. I’ll explain how we figured that out later. Point is, she’s now employed as both an assistant baker, as well as our… well, illusion countermeasure expert.”
Pausing for a moment, Syd took in the reactions of her two guests. The blank looks were about what she expected. It was pretty much the same reaction everyone gave her the first time they encountered Oats. When neither Noll nor Meli looked like they were going to say anything, Syd pressed on with her explanation.
“All you have to do is let Oats touch your bare hand. Because she’s a Demon, she can tell if you’re actually who you say you are or not. Well, more accurately, she can tell if you’re the same species as you claim to be. If you say you’re a therion but are actually an elf with an illusion covering you, Oats will see through it. It’s not the perfect defense, since an orc could just use an illusion to look like a different orc, but it helps. Especially against Fetches.”
To demonstrate, Syd held out her hand towards the big ball of tentacles. Obediently, Oats reached out and touched her finger. After a short moment, she pulled back and resumed her task of kneading another ball of sourdough.
“See? If I had been a Fetch or some other fake in disguise, Oats would have rung this bell to let us know.”
Syd indicated the bronze bell that had been attached to the corner of the cage the Demon occupied.
“Since I’m me, there’s no problem. No one gets into the compound unless they either have a mercenary guild badge that Gunnar can verify,” Syd nodded to the elf who held up his own badge to illustrate what she meant, “or takes the test with Oats here.”
Clapping her hands together, Syd swung around to face Noll and Meli with a smile.
“So. Who wants to shake hands with a Demon first?”
270