There were even more soldiers inside the building than the last time Jadis had checked, most of them wounded and either waiting for Eir to provide life-saving healing or for Cora’s regeneration ritual to do enough work to get them back on their feet. Not everyone was an injured combatant, though. Some were stretcher-carriers, some were healthy and whole but appeared to be acting as guards for what was basically a field hospital, and some were Jadis’ lovers.
Jadis’ eyes were drawn to her lovers first. They weren’t hard to spot in the crowd. Kerr was standing to the fore, her bow in one hand and the other clenched into a fist. She looked pissed; enraged, even. Her lips were drawn back in a snarl that exposed her sharp canines, and her gray mane of hair was puffed like a dog with its hackles up. Sorcha was standing just behind her, a worried look in her wide eyes, but Jadis noted the goblin woman had her shoulders squared and her paralysis wand in hand, ready to back Kerr up despite her diminutive size and limited melee abilities.
Behind the therion and goblin were Eir and Cora. Both were paying only half-attention to the ongoing argument, as they still had dying men and women around them to tend to. Cora had her hands clasped together in prayer as she radiated a nearly invisible aura of healing, while Eir was moving from one wounded soldier to another, eyes half-closed in concentration. Despite their focus, both were still darting glances towards the confrontation.
Beyond the two healers, at the back of the room near an open door with a set of stairs visible through the doorframe, were Alex and Sabina.
Alex’s demeanor was the calm of a predator waiting to see if blood was going to be drawn. She was completely still, her body unmoving, not even pretending to breathe. Her feet hovered above the blood-stained ground; her large mobility tentacles were poised for quick movement in any direction. Both sets of her hands were wrapped loosely around the swell of her belly, however her medium-sized tentacles were all out and were spread wide, creating a cloud of whips that could attack or defend against anything that came within range.
As formidable a figure as Alex made, what truly struck Jadis was Sabina. While the half-elf was six feet tall and well-muscled from years of working in a forge, she was not a fighter. The closest Sabby ever came to a battlefield by choice was at the distance of a crossbow shot, and even that was something she wasn’t particularly skilled at. Other than Eir, Sabina was probably the least martial of all of Jadis’ lovers, and even the oracle was a healer who strode into dangerous battles by choice. And yet, despite her utterly un-martial abilities and attitude, there Sabina stood, looking like she was ready to shoot someone in the face.
Sabina was scowling in actual anger, something Jadis didn’t think she had ever seen her lover do before. She was standing rigidly in front of Alex, putting herself between the Demon and a perceived threat. In her hands was her oversized crossbow, the cumbersome contraption set to her shoulder and, while the bolt tip was pointing at the ground, it was only a simple shift of strong muscles away from being pointed in a dangerous direction.
The idea of Sabina standing before Alex to protect the Demon from danger was laughable. Or at least, it would have been, if the sight hadn’t immediately driven Jadis to an intense, burning fury.
It wasn’t hard to spot the cause of Sabina’s protective stance, or her other lovers’ distress, or the general unease of the crowd. There, towards the middle of the room, standing toe-to-toe with Kerr were two soldiers, one passingly familiar, the other completely unknown. The man Jadis recognized as the commander she had spoken to briefly at the gate house leading to the second tier of the city. He was an elf, with pale blue skin and light green eyes. He was the voice who had been calling for calm, and even at that moment he had his hands raised, placing himself between Kerr and the other high-ranking soldier.
The unfamiliar woman was Valbjorn. While Jadis had only ever seen one other of Charos’ avatars, the look was unmistakable. She was tall, close to seven feet, and looked quite literally like a bear. Unlike Runar, the only other Valbjorn Jadis knew, this one didn’t have black fur but instead was brown with copper highlights. She had a much shaggier look to her fur compared to Runar as well, though her muzzle wasn’t as long.
By the look of her equipment, the female Valbjorn was also a commander in the imperial army. When she half turned to look at Jadis, the angry bear woman revealed that she had dark yellow eyes and a shining gold tooth instead of a proper left canine. More than her dental work, Jadis noted the silver glint on the woman’s pauldrons that drew attention to the imperial marks crafted into her armor. The woman was a true elite, having surpassed CLR one hundred.
Not that Jadis cared. From the way the Valbjorn was clutching the broadsword in her clawed hand, which had been pointing in Alex’s direction, Jadis was already preparing to rip the woman’s head off her shoulders.
“Who in the Demon’s Abyss are you?” the bear woman demanded, her tone no less fierce than it had been before three giants stormed into the building.
“As I was trying to explain,” the elf commander interjected, his voice calm but strong, “that is the Nephilim, Jadis Ahlstrom. Please, Odilia, remember the recent missives from the capital. The Demon is with them! By imperial decree, you cannot touch it!”
“I don’t give two shits,” the Valbjorn snarled as she turned her yellow eyes on the man. “If that senile old fool on the throne pardoned a Demon, it just goes to show it’s been too many decades since he should have died and let one of his bastards take the reins. I will not allow that abomination to be near these wounded men! Get that monster out of this building or get out of my way so I can remove the bloody thing myself!”
Seeing red wasn’t literal. At least, it wasn’t supposed to be. But by D’s nonexistent nutsack, Jadis’ vision went crimson at the words uttered by Commander Odilia.
“You will not touch her.”
Jadis surprised herself by how calm her voices sounded. She had spoken in unison, all three of her selves acting in her usual perfect coordination. Gasps and murmurs of anxiety still filled the air, even with her apparent composure, since Jadis’ bodies had almost literally teleported to where they now surrounded the bear. She had moved so fast, she doubted anyone but the commander was capable of following her movements, and even Odilia looked surprised at being suddenly surrounded by three large, heavily armed and armored Nephilim.
“You have no authority here, you pale-skinned fuckhead,” the Valbjorn snarled with a curled lip to reveal her sharp teeth. She leaned back so she could stare angrily up into Jay’s eyes, something she probably hadn’t ever had to do before. “Get out of my face before I throw you out on your ears.”
Jadis had to give the woman some credit. She was brave. Incredibly stupid, but brave.
“I’m only going to say this once” Jay uttered the words in quiet, deadly earnestness. “Alex is with me. So is that therion, the goblin, the two priestesses, and the half-elf with the crossbow. If you or anyone else even touches them without permission, I will fold their body up like a bedroll, starting with their feet first so they can experience every second of it. Understand?”
Odilia did not look like she understood. She clearly understood the words and recognized the threat being made, but she wasn’t truly understanding the weight of Jadis’ intent, or just how literal her statement had been.
“I am the ranking commander here,” the woman said, not backing down. “You aren’t even in the army. You have no fucking authority to tell me squat. If that’s your pet Demon, take hold of its leash and get it out of my fucking sight.”
Jadis was close. So, so close. However, as angered as she was by this asshole, she knew that getting into a fight with her was counterproductive. They were in the middle of a gods-damned siege. Enemy Demons were swarming the streets and soldiers outside were dying and here this bitch was, attacking Alex, who had been helping save the lives of the men and women this idiot claimed to be trying to protect. It was completely moronic. But it was also not worth the fight.
Dys was positioned so that she caught Eir’s eye. The elf gave her a thin-lipped grimace and shook her head. Sometimes, it was better to just make a tactical withdrawal and move on to more important things. Getting into a fight with this Valbjorn, verbal or otherwise, was a waste of time.
“Fine. I was coming here to get my companions to begin with,” Jay managed to keep the growl out of her voice. “I need them to do something actually useful like pushing the Demons out of the city. You can stay here and shout orders at the dying for the rest of the night for all I care.”
“Kerr, get everyone together and let’s move,” Dys said as she motioned with one hand to the archer. “We’re repositioning closer to the front line.”
Kerr looked like she wanted to add her own biting remark but held her tongue. She stepped back and half turned towards the others.
“C’mon Eir, Cora,” the therion said while putting one hand on the elf’s arm. “Let’s go.”
Eir turned away from the mostly healed man she had been working on, while Cora cut off her prayer, causing the subtle glow around her to fade. Both priestesses moved closer to Kerr, while Sabina and Alex slowly started to shift forward from their position in the back of the room.
“Stop!” Odilia shouted, pointing her free hand at the three women. “Not them! The healers stay.”
“They’re with me, too,” Jay said, this time not doing anything to hide the spine-tingling growl in her voice. “They go where I go.”
“Their service is required by the military. I am ordering them to stay here and go no closer to the front lines, where valuable healers would be at too great of a risk of death. They stay.”
“No, they fucking don’t,” all three of Jadis replied with heat rising in her tone. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”
“I’m the ranking commander of this battalion,” Odilia snarled. “And you’re a mercenary. That means you do what the army fucking orders you to do. Now get your filth out of here and leave the healers where they belong.”
Jadis had never shown so much restraint before in her life. In all honesty, she wasn’t even sure why she hadn’t ripped the Valbjorn’s jaw from her head already. Truly, Odilia had no idea just how close she was skirting to her total destruction. The only thing holding Jadis back in that moment was the pleading look on Eir’s face.
“Fuck off,” Jadis practically spat her words. “I don’t take orders from you or anyone else in the army. We’ve got shit to do.”
As Jay turned away to approach her companions, Odilia reached out and put a firm hand on her arm, trying to stop her.
“I told you, you meathead, I’m ordering the healers to stay and—”
“Commander!”
The new voice called out loudly in the silence of soldiers who had been watching the confrontation with bated breath. It came just in time to stop Dys and Syd from reaching out and crushing the bear woman in two sets of hands. Both Jadis and Odilia turned to see a young man in a runner’s uniform pushing his way through the crowd to reach them.
“Commander Odilia!” the boy shouted, panting loudly as though he had run himself to near exhaustion. “Orders from General Voss! You need to take all your available men to Timpano Street! Commander Basilio is pushing the Demons to the breach from there and needs reinforcements from your battalion!”
The runner was waving a rolled scroll in the Valbjorn’s face, completely ignoring the tension in the air in his single-minded determination to deliver his message. Glancing up at Jay one last time, Odilia snatched the orders out of the boy’s hand and started shouting orders.
“Every man and woman capable of holding a spear and shield, get up and follow me! What the fuck are you all standing around like smatterlings in the sun for!? Don’t you know there’s a fucking war going on right now? Move! Move!”
The crowd erupted into a flurry of movement as Odilia called out her angry commands. The room started clearing, with even the wounded moving out as the stretcher-carriers rightly realized that they would need to start carrying their wards up the hill to the temples for further healing. The Valbjorn waved people out, using the crumpled scroll as a baton as she shook it at anyone not moving fast enough to her liking. As Jadis moved to keep all three of her selves facing the commander, Odilia abruptly turned back to snarl a parting threat.
“Keep that thing away from the wounded,” the woman said with hatred burning in her eyes.
Jadis’ response was filled with her own smoldering rage.
“Point a sword in her direction again and you won’t be able to make the same mistake a third time.”
Odilia glared at her for one final second before turning and storming away. Standing off to one side, the elf commander who had tried to keep the peace gave Jadis an apologetic look before hurrying after the Valbjorn. As the room cleared, Kerr and the others moved up close behind Jadis.
“What a fucking bitch,” Kerr cursed as she made a crude gesture with one hand in the direction Odilia had gone. “I was just about to break her nose before you got here, Big Stuff.”
“Thank the gods you didn’t,” Sorcha said as she nervously crossed her arms over her body. “Didn’t you see that she’s over CLR one hundred? I don’t even know if my wands would work on someone that strong.”
“It’s just a number,” Kerr waved the concern off. “We would have fucked that fils de pute right up.”
“Is everyone alright?” Jay asked as the others gathered close to her.
“No… Injuries…” Alex intoned with almost no inflection, though her tentacles indicated she was feeling calmer. One hand rested protectively on top of her round, armored belly. “The baby… Is safe…”
“Are you alright?” Eir asked, her eyes filled with concern. “I saw…”
“Yeah, I know,” Jay said as she picked at the thick cloth shirt she wore under her armor. There was an exceptionally large amount of blood stains on the white material. “I had some trouble with a crab. It’s all good now, I’ll tell you about it on the way. We need to get back to the front lines.”
“Am I coming with you?” Cora asked, her brow creased with concern. “Or should I link back up with Tegwyn and the others?”
“No, it’s best you stay with Eir for now,” Dys shook her head in response to the priestess’ question. “Teg and his team are constantly moving; you won’t be able to keep up. You’ll come with us.”
As Cora nodded along to Jadis’ order, Syd turned away from everyone to look at the figure who was lurking quietly in the shadows near the southern side of the destroyed shop windows.
“You better come with us, too, before that Odilia idiot comes looking for you.”
“Me?” the runner exclaimed. “Oh, no ma’am, I need to get back to command to deliver more messages—”
“Drop it, Maeve,” Syd cut the Fetch’s words off. “I know it’s you.”
The youth’s face shifted into a blank slate, the pretense of being an earnest young man dropped like a brick through pudding.
“How did you know it was me?” Maeve asked, a woman’s voice coming from the lips of a boy.
“I have my ways,” Jay told her, not willing to let the Fetch know about the weakness she had spotted in her disguises. “Thanks for the intervention. That was useful.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Come on, let’s go,” Dys said as she reached out to gather up her companions. “We’ve wasted enough time because of that idiot’s bullshit already.”
As her other selves picked up those who would need the lift, Syd held out a hand to Maeve. She couldn’t help but ask her own question as she did so.
“What exactly is written on that scroll? Because I’m pretty sure it wasn’t orders from the local general.”
“It was a complaint about the quality of some copper a merchant had bought,” Maeve shrugged as she took Syd’s hand. “Found it in a desk across the street.”
“Nice. We better get out of here before Odilia reads that shit then.”
“Definitely.”
246