The next morning, as soon as the sun crested the eastern horizon, Jadis got right to work. There were still a lot of preparations to be made ahead of their trip to Glanum, as well as various matters around the compound that needed to be addressed before they could leave. Based on Sabina’s estimations on when the second airship would be completed, Jadis only had a couple of days to make sure everything was done. She could delay their trip if necessary, of course, but Jadis didn’t want to do that if she could help it. A big part of the whole reason they were heading to Glanum was to secure Sabina’s father and brothers. She didn’t think the three were being targeted by cultists considering their location in a heavily defended city with military everywhere, but that was no guarantee. The sooner they retrieved Sabina’s family, the better, and Jadis didn’t want her own lack of effort to be the reason why they were late.
Aside from helping Sabina and her construction crew finish the second airship, tentatively designated as the Leviathan, Jadis had to introduce Meli to the rest of the team as well as show her how things were done around the headquarters. There were a lot of people for the reclusive Dryad to meet, greet, and get acquainted with, which was a bit overwhelming for the woman. However, it was necessary, since not only did Meli need to know who everyone was, they all needed to know who she was, so they could avoid confusion and miscommunication. Making sure that everyone living and working at Fortune’s Favored was familiar with everyone else was an important step to securing their facility against infiltration. Maeve had made that point very clear when she had gone over all of the security flaws that had the potential to hurt the company. Everyone was told that if they saw a stranger walking around the compound, they were to tell the closest available guard or combat-capable individual so that the stranger could be safely confronted and their identity verified.
Speaking of strangers, Maeve also had her report to give that morning. Fortunately, the weird Fetch’s debriefs were generally short and to the point, though some of the comments she made could come across as cryptic. Maeve had yet to identify the specific spy who had been selling information about the goings on in their company, but she had been able to confirm that there actually was one primary individual who had been gathering intel on them. There were other, less competent spies who Maeve had rooted out around the area, but there was one single agent, likely a Fetch by her assessment, who had thus far eluded her.
“There is a woman who has been hired in the pottery workshop to the left of Building Four,” Maeve explained while wearing the guise of a stolid guardswoman decked out in full imperial armor. “She actually works for Duke Brunholt. She has no classes related to pottery or crafting of any kind. She was formerly one of his maids and often warmed the duke’s bed when his wife wasn’t present. She is now in her late thirties, has likely lost the tender affections of the duke due to her increasing age, and has been sent away from his country estate to serve as a spy. She has some training in that regard, most likely as a result of informing the duke on the activities of his guests in his manor, but she possesses no spy classes. Nor is she particularly good at keeping her cover.”
“I guess not,” Jay nodded along to Maeve’s report. “What’s her name?”
“Lydia of Tinderwood.”
“Any family?”
“One son. He is not the duke’s bastard; I can confirm with certainty. He joined the military and is doing well as an assistant to the quartermaster of his division, by all accounts.”
“Do we need to talk to our neighbors about her?”
“I don’t believe that is necessary,” Maeve shook her head. “The neighboring workshop never would have hired her without accepting a sizeable bribe from the duke to do so. Why deprive them of a steady income? The same goes for Lydia. She will only learn the information that I allow her to learn and she will draw a decent amount of pay doing so. Duke Brunholt is surprisingly generous towards his servants, despite his other failings. I doubt he will send additional agents as well, since he will think that Lydia is sufficient so long as she sends him regular reports. Duke Brunholt is nowhere near as competent as Duke Colgrave. He will not think of redundancies, so long as he thinks his first attempt has succeeded.”
“Alright, that works,” Jay agreed with Maeve’s advisement after a few seconds of thought. “How are you going to pass her bad information while keeping her from learning anything useful?”
Maeve grinned widely, the human face she had chosen lighting up a strangely manic glee.
“Oh, don’t you worry about that. I have my methods. But if you really want to know, I’d be happy to trade the information with you if you tell me how you guessed I wasn’t Severina last night.”
“Nah,” Jay shook her head, a smile playing across her lips. “I’m keeping that under wraps for now. Any other business I need to know?”
Maeve’s face fell into an expression of overly exaggerated disappointment before shifting again into the blank, emotionless slate of a doll.
“Nothing else regarding security or espionage.”
Jay nodded, then stood up from her desk chair in the small office of their main building. When Maeve was all business, she truly was a great asset. How exactly the Fetch was getting so much information, Jadis didn’t have a clue. The spymaster didn’t like to reveal her secrets. Not unless doing so would be worth the entertainment value she’d get out of it, in any case. She was good at her job, and in that regard, Jadis had no complaints.
“I sense a but,” Jay stated as she looked down at the smaller woman.
“I imagine you are very good at sensing butts.”
“That did not sound as flirty as you were hoping it would.”
“Yes, I regret phrasing it that way,” Maeve nodded.
“So, what else did you want to talk about?”
“I want to come with you on the expedition to Glanum.”
That request didn’t exactly surprise Jadis. Maeve’s whole reason for joining Fortune’s Favored was her desire to experience the chaos that Jadis brought to the world firsthand. Glanum had the potential to be a perfectly standard, uneventful trip. Shit could also go sideways six different ways to Sunday. It was only natural that Maeve would want to be there, just in case. What surprised Jadis was the fact that the Fetch had asked permission.
“How are you going to keep an eye on our espionage problem if you’re all the way in Glanum? It’s something like, what, seven hundred miles away? It’s not like you’ll be able to take a flight back every night.”
“Everything is under control,” Maeve replied in her more typical dark, intensely focused tone. “The guards and workers are properly informed and my countermeasures are in place. The enemy Fetch has not shown themselves in over a week, as they know that I am here. If I leave with you, they will be tempted to infiltrate during our absence. If they do, it will make it easier for me to track them down once we return.”
Pausing for a moment, Maeve closed the distance between them. Her current form’s height was just at the right size to put her face near Jay’s crotch, which the Fetch used to her advantage as she invaded Jadis’ personal space without actually touching her. Maeve’s face shifted both in looks and expression, transforming into Aurea’s beautiful blonde visage. She gave Jay a smoldering look, her gaze heavy-lidded with desire.
“I can also make it worth your while,” the fake Aurea promised with dulcet tones. “I can be anyone you want me to be. Any hidden desire you’ve held back from your lovers, I can fulfil. I can even be someone you hate, if you want.”
Maeve shifted again, this time transforming her looks into that of Hraustrekr.
“I know men aren’t your thing,” Maeve spoke in a perfect imitation of the haughty elven prince. “But maybe this face on Eir’s body might inspire you to try some truly… creative things in bed? Or elsewhere.”
Laughing and shaking her head, Jay crouched down so that she was on eye level with the Fetch.
“First of all, no. In fact, fuck no. Never mind the man part. The idea of fucking you while you’re pretending to be someone I don’t like is… all kinds of weird and creepy. Not a chance.”
Maeve’s seductive expression disappeared as Jay spoke. She reverted to an unfamiliar human woman, which was nice, since seeing Hraustrekr pointing lovey-dovey eyes in her direction was going to haunt Jadis’ nightmares for the next few days. Her expression was a blank slate, unreadable in its passivity.
“Second of all, I don’t trust you enough to sleep with you.”
“You trust me with the security of your mercenary company,” Maeve pointed out. “Along with the safety of everyone who lives here.”
“Yes, I do,” Jay nodded. “And let me tell you, that’s a huge step considering how we started out. Now, that wasn’t technically the worst first impression ever. Sorcha tried to kill me the first time we met, but our relationship has improved since then. Maybe things will improve between us, maybe they won’t. But before I’ll even begin to think about you in any way other than as a simple ally, I’ll need to get to know the real you.”
“I’d love for us to get to know each other better,” Maeve spoke with a dark want in her voice.
“Not like that,” Jay shook her head. “I don’t know you yet. Not really. Not the way I knew Aila before we started our relationship. She was open with me, in the same way I was open with her. You aren’t. Until that happens, you might as well stop trying to seduce me. It’ll never work.”
“You’re a Nephilim,” Maeve growled, her face showing her desperate, angry desire. “You aren’t supposed to be this hard to bed.”
“Maybe that was the case for some Nephilim a couple thousand years ago,” Jay shrugged. “That’s not me, though. Just because I have a lot of lovers doesn’t mean I’m easy.”
Standing up from her crouched position, Jay patted the brooding Fetch on her shoulder as she passed her on the way to the door.
“Pack your bags. You can come. Just, please return that armor to whoever you stole it from. I don’t want angry city guards pounding on our door looking for missing uniforms while we’re out of town.”
As Jay opened the door to exit the office, Maeve spun around and called out to her. The Fetch’s grin was wide, almost manic, as she spoke in a girlishly happy and bubbly voice.
“I promise, you won’t regret bringing me along, Lady Jadis! You’ll see! You’re going to love all the things I do for you! I swear it!”
Jay gave Maeve a small wave before continuing out of the room. That had been an… interesting reaction. Jadis was fairly confident that it was a purposeful act being put on by the Fetch. She seemed to like eliciting strong reactions from people. However, since it was so hard to read the woman, Jadis couldn’t say with one hundred percent certainty that Maeve wasn’t actually batshit insane. She was an avatar of the god of secrets and madness. Luck was only an aspect of D's realm. How far those other aspects influenced her personality was hard to say.
Jadis put the thought of her possibly crazy spymaster out of her head as her Jay self made her way to Sabina’s forge. Her Dys self was already there, helping with some of the unskilled labor, but Jadis needed to have a conversation with Violetta and Dys was too occupied with her tasks to have a talk with the younger woman. The half elf, half gnome woman had just stepped out of the workshop to take a breather, so it was a good opportunity for Jadis to get her alone for a quick moment.
Jay rushed past Hans and Oats who were both hard at work in the kitchen making pie crust to get out into the storage yard. Waving at a few of the men and women who were either from Clan Warsong, Cold Brook, or the undercity who were working on the almost complete airship, Jay approached Violetta. The purple girl was sitting on a barrel just outside of the front door of the forge, a wet cloth draped over her head to cool herself off. She didn’t notice Jay approaching, so the girl jumped a little when she called out to her.
“Hey Violetta!”
“Oh! Ah, Dys, do you need help back in the forge? I’ll be right—”
“No, no, this is my Jay self,” Jay corrected the apprentice’s misunderstanding. “My Dys self is still in there, lifting metal blocks.”
“Ingots,” Violetta corrected her back.
“Right, ingots,” Jay grinned. “Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something. Do you have a minute?”
“Of course,” Violetta nodded her head. “You’re the boss.”
Violetta followed Jay around to the right side of the forge, where there were no doors or windows and the sounds of the burning fire were loud enough to make it hard for anyone to eavesdrop but not so oppressive that they couldn’t talk at a normal volume. Once there, Violetta gazed up at Jay with open curiosity, waiting for her to start the conversation.
Jay knew that the content of what she had to discuss with the purple apprentice was awkward no matter which way she approached it, so she decided to be as forward with the woman as she would be with, well, anyone else.
“So. It’s your birthday in, what, five days?”
“Six, actually, “Violetta smiled. “I’m so looking forward to unlocking my primary class. I hope all my time spent working with Sabina will count towards me gaining an enchanter class. Or at least a smithing class, that would be good, too.”
“I hope so, too,” Jay ran her fingers through her white hair as she grinned down at the excited young woman. “You definitely deserve an awesome class. I’ve seen how hard you work in the forge. So has Sabina. She actually really appreciates you. I hope she tells you as much.”
“Oh, she does,” Violetta motioned with a hand at the wall that separated them from the forge where Sabina was currently working. “She’s not shy! She’s a really good mentor for me to learn from, even if she does say some crazy things sometimes.”
“Ha, right,” Jay laughed along with Violetta before taking a breath. “She wants me to sleep with you, you know.”
Violetta’s laughter died out in an instant as she stiffened, a look of disbelief on her face. She stared up at Jay, her brow furrowed in as though she couldn’t decide if Jay had made a joke or not.
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m sure you know all about my sex rituals by now,” Jay soldiered on. “Maybe not the details, but that the girls who are my lovers are stronger because they sleep with me.”
When Violetta nodded, her face growing a darker shade of purple, Jay hurried along her explanation before they both died of embarrassment.
“Look, here’s the short story. I have a ritual that can temporarily boost one of your stats. Right now, the boost is two hundred and seventeen. If I use the ritual on you to boost one of your attributes, there’s a very good chance that you’ll get a great class that you wouldn’t otherwise qualify for. We’ve done it before for others with their secondary or tertiary classes. Sabina really wants you to get a great primary class, which is why she said I should offer you the opportunity. What do you think?”
Violetta continued to stare at Jay like she had just sprouted three heads. Well, Jadis did have three heads, just not all on the same body. Either way, the girl looked about as dumbfounded as a person could get. Jay didn’t press her further. She just waited, giving the apprentice time to process and think the offer over.
Eventually, Violetta’s expression shifted from disbelief to a sort of worried contemplation. The girl looked at the ground, chewing on her lower lip for a while, before she inhaled deeply through her nose and brought her gaze up to meet Jay’s.
“I don’t think I can do that,” she admitted. “I mean, please don’t get me wrong. I really, truly appreciate that Sabina is looking out for me like that and that you are willing to do that for me. Really! It’s kind of weird, but also one of the nicest things anyone has ever offered to do for me.”
“Yeah, it’s definitely weird,” Jay let out an amused huff. “I’m glad you didn’t hit me with a broom for suggesting it.”
Violetta blushed again, her purple skin turning a more royal hue.
“Please, please forget I ever did that to you! I swear, I never would have brandished anything at you if I had known—”
“It’s fine,” Jay laughed. “You had every right to. I would have done the same if I was in your shoes. Anyway, I didn’t mean to distract you. Are you sure you don’t want to do the ritual with me?”
Violetta hesitated for a moment, then nodded her head.
“I’m sure. As amazing as that boost would be, I just… I’m just not attracted to you, that way. I like, you know… men.”
Jay laughed loudly at the girl’s admission. The possibility that Violetta wouldn’t be attracted to her at all had barely been on Jadis’ mind. Everyone found her attractive. However, just because they recognized her beauty, that didn’t mean that everyone wanted to sleep with her.
“That is entirely fair! You shouldn’t sleep with people you aren’t attracted to,” Jay grinned at the blushing woman. “In fact, there are probably a lot of people you are attracted to that you shouldn’t mess around with. You have every right to be selective. Especially a beautiful woman like you.”
“Oh, well, I guess,” Violetta stammered out her bashful response. “I’m, uh, not that pretty. I think I’d be happy to find a decent guy who would, you know, not mind if we don’t have any children…”
“With your looks, you won’t have any trouble in that department,” Jay assured her. “I bet you’ll be beating suitors back with a stick before long.”
“Please! I don’t hit people with sticks…”
Jay laughed again, glad that she could get Sabina’s apprentice to smile with her teasing. After a moment, she folded her arms across her chest and gave Violetta a lopsided grin.
“So, with that awkwardness out of the way, is there anything else I can do for you? It is your birthday, after all. Whatever you want, consider it a gift.”
“I… don’t know,” Violetta replied after a second of thought. “You’ve already done so much for me. Honestly, letting me work here is the biggest opportunity I could ask for. I don’t think there’s anything else you could reasonably do for me.”
“Actually, now that I think about it, that’s not true,” Jay said slowly, a thought having just occurred to her. “You know, Sabina didn’t have sex with me before she reached her secondary class, and she still got an amazing enchanter class as an option.”
“Uh, no, I didn’t know that,” Violetta admitted.
“Well, it’s true. Just being around me made a difference. Also, even if my presence doesn’t change things for you, I think you’ll want to spend some time with me and the others anyway. We’re about to do some serious power leveling. For someone who is just about to unlock their primary class, we could help you skip a whole lot of levels.”
“Really?”
“Really,” Jay confirmed. “How would you feel about going on a trip to Glanum with us?”
255