Chapter 519: Chapter 516: Malleability

“Hold on, read that out for me again,” Jay asked after Aila finished reading her first ritual spell description. “Does it not have a time frame?”

“It sounds indefinite, yes,” Eir mused as she carefully shifted her seat in Jay’s lap. “That is quite something.”

“Yes, it is,” Aila agreed before reading the spell description for Jadis to hear again.

“The effect is semi-permanent, in the same way many of the rituals that directly effect you are,” Aila motioned towards Jay after she was finished reciting the ritual’s notes. “I am looking forward to trying out new elements.”

“Your base element in Arcane is Force,” Sorcha mused. As she spoke, she started counting with her fingers. “With that ritual, you can switch to Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Ice, and Lightning. Unless I’m forgetting one?”

“Aren’t water and ice the same thing?” Dys asked.

“Not for purposes of magic,” Aila answered. “Getting hit with a water bubble is different from a block of ice. They are certainly related, but not the same thing when it comes to schools of magical theory.”

That was fair enough. Jadis was no expert on Arcane magic, so she was more than willing to defer to those with better understanding. Even if the distinction didn’t make much sense from her perspective.

“Well, I imagine since it’s a ritual spell, you would need to know well ahead of time what element you’ll want to use before going into battle,” Jay continued her line of thought. “That sort of limits its usefulness, since you can’t change the uh, attunement, was it? The attunement on the fly.”

“It does,” Aila agreed readily. “But the ritual is still more than useful in this initial form. If we know we are going to an area where there are a lot of cindermen Demons, then I can switch my spells to the water or ice element in preparation. There are many types of Demons and magic beasts that have elemental weaknesses that can be taken advantage of, so long as I have a little foreknowledge. And if what we encounter is unexpectedly resistant to the pre-chosen element, I can immediately switch back to Force.”

Those were good points, and it was clear that Aila had already thought out the uses and viability of her new class’s initial spell function. Jadis didn’t see any flaw in the logic, though she did spot a different component to Aila’s argument that called for attention.

“What do you mean initial form?” Jay peered at the redheaded mage with some amused suspicion.

“Initial, as in… there is a skill available to me that enhances its function,” Aila admitted. “I haven’t taken any of the options presented to me as of yet, but I have already gone through them all. And I believe I’ve confirmed all of the ones that I want to take.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

“I was too curious to not look,” Aila muttered somewhat defensively. “Once I started looking, I couldn’t help but analyze the options, and then I ranked them, and then—”

“I’m just teasing,” Jay poked at the other woman. “I’m pretty sure everyone here has already at least skimmed their own options, if not already made strong opinions on what they’re going to take. Not judging you for doing it too.”

“I have… Not….” Alex admitted plainly.

“Well, maybe you should take a look,” Jay giggled at the earnestness in Alex’s expression. “They’re your levels. Your opinion matters most.”

“Anyway,” Dys addressed Aila. “Lay them out for us. What are you working with?”

“Well,” the arcanist-turned-magister exhaled slowly. “This is the skill I was referring to. I didn’t technically unlock it until my ninth-level options, but I’m definitely selecting it.”

“Oh!” Sabina exclaimed with excitement. “That’s a great addition! You could get three different elements in one battle with that! Start with fire, switch to ice, then cancel the change so you revert back to force! Or water to earth to force, or wind to water to force, or lightning to earth to—”

“Yes, we get the idea,” Sorcha slapped both of her hands onto Sabina’s thigh and shook her roughly. “We don’t need to hear every combination!”

“Right!” Sabina smiled down at the goblin woman, unperturbed by her interruption. “If you start with force, you could do a quick swap to another element if the occasion calls for it, then back to force, which isn’t really three elements, but it’s still very useful! Usually, it’s just wizards who have that kind of versatility, not quick-casters like sorcerers, which is similar to what your arcanist class is. Being a magister really does make you flexible!”

“Aila is plenty flexible for other reasons, too,” Kerr purred as she stared heatedly at the redhead.

“True,” both Jay and Dys agreed in unison.

“Moving on,” Aila pushed past the lecherous gazes cast upon her. “The other three skills are—”

“Actually, hold on,” Jay apologetically interrupted her lover once again. “Sorry. My ritual is about to do something funky, and I think we might want to watch.”

All eyes turned to the naked Nephilim in the room. Syd had largely been forgotten in the excitement of talking over Aila’s new class and levels, but that part of Jadis had continued to perform the ritual as her mind instructed. Not much had changed since she had started, as she was still just standing in the middle of the room, nude, eyes closed,and with her hands held out before her face. However, Jadis could feel the change coming, since she was the one performing the ritual.

Without opening her eyes, Syd reached her arms out to either side of herself, keeping her hands level with her head. With her palms facing towards her center, Syd slowly clenched her fingers to make them into fists and, in doing so, a strange thing happened. Where before there had been nothing but air appeared thin strands of white light. As she closed her hands, the strands of light gathered together so that it looked like Syd had bundled together dozens of floating strings in either hand. The strings went nowhere, their light only extending for a foot or so out of Syd’s hands before disappearing or becoming translucent, Jadis wasn’t sure which was the case. However, with how the strings were oriented, they appeared to be connected to every wall, angle, and corner of the room.

Slowly, and with a visible effort that made the muscles in Syd’s arms bulge, she brought her hands together before her face so that the two bundles touched. As soon as they did, the strands of light flashed brightly, causing everyone to look away for an instant. When Jadis looked back at her Syd self once the flare was gone, she saw that the bundle had fused into a knot of floating strands that hovered in front of Syd’s face.

That part of the ritual done, Syd changed her stance and put her hands in a new position, with her left under the bundle and her right over it. Otherwise, she remained silent, still, and with her eyes closed.

“Fascinating ritual,” Eir murmured. “It reminds me of one I saw performed in Metethys’ High Temple once.”

“Did they have to be naked, too?” Sorcha asked as she leaned back into her pile of pillows. “Or is that just a Jadis thing?”

“Probably a Jadis thing,” Eir restrained her laugh. “The priests I saw perform the ritual were fully clothed.”

“I think it’s just nice to know that not all of Jadis’ rituals involve fucking,” Bridget made no attempt to hide her laughter. “Not that I’m complaining, but not every situation calls for cocks and cunnies.”

“That does bring up one of my other skill selections,” Aila cleared her throat to bring the attention back to her. “As it relates to rituals and Jadis.”

“Interesting,” Jay tapped her fingers against her half-emptied glass of sweet tea. “Cutting ritual times in half for no price by my participation is a steal. Especially since I have bodies to spare. Unless all of my bodies are needed?”

“Probably not,” Aila shrugged. “Though I don’t know for sure. I haven’t actually taken it, yet.”

“So, you don’t know what my participation might mean yet, either,” Jay grinned at Aila.

“Oooh, that sounds like you’re having the same ideas as I’m having,” Kerr speculated. “There are all sorts of ways Jadis can ‘participate’ in a ritual.”

“I suppose we’ll just have to see, won’t we.”

There was more teasing to be had, even with Aila’s attempt at stoicism. However, with only two skill slots left to cover, the conversation soon turned back to Aila’s remaining selections. Aila had already done the work of analyzing all her options, so Jadis trusted that the intelligent woman had made good choices. She still wanted to hear what was being sidelined, but she was happy to focus on the skills Aila found most promising first.

“Another ritual, but a potent one,” Aila added her commentary after reading the spell description. “Having a free spell to call upon in emergencies where I’ve already expended all of my magic reserves could make the difference between life and death. A lesson I think we all learned last night.”

“No argument from me,” Jay said as she began stroking her fingers through Eir’s purple hair. “I’m just a little surprised it’s another ritual. I thought the magister class can do active spells, too?”

“It can, and I was offered two of them,” Aila admitted. “However, this ritual appealed to me more. One spell was a halo of spinning force blades that would encircle my body for a short duration. The other was a long-range disc-shaped projectile. Both strong options in their own right, but I have plenty of attack spells. Utility seems more important at the moment.”

The disc projectile tickled a half-remembered thought in the back of Jadis’ head, but she couldn’t quite place the memory. Mentally shaking the feeling off, she nodded in agreement with Aila’s decision, as did the rest of the group.

“It does work with spells other than your magister class, right?” Sorcha asked. “Just making sure you aren’t taking something that you can’t actually use until you get one of those active spells.”

That brought some pause to Aila, who opened her mouth then closed it. Her eyes went unfocused for a second as she reread the description before answering.

“It should work with any spells I am capable of casting. The wording doesn’t specify magister spells. It’s possible I might be mistaken, but usually those sorts of limitations are clearly defined in the spell or skill descriptions.”

“Still sounds worth it,” Kerr waved the concern away with one hand. “Even if you’re wrong, you still have one slot left, yeah? Just take one of the active spells if you need to. Once you take the ritual, you should automatically know what works and what doesn’t.”

It was a good point, made strange by the fact that Kerr was the one making it.

“My arcanist spells will work,” Aila said after a moment of concentration. “So there is no need to fill my last available slot with one of the other active spells.”

“Good. That’s settled. Then what made the final cut?” Jay prompted Aila to continue.

Aila’s smile went lopsided as she tilted her head to one side.

“Originally, I was going to take the ranged disc spell. However, after you revealed your Exhibitionistic Accession ritual, I realized that a passive skill that upgrades two of my attributes makes for a better option.”

“Forty points? Before level ten?” Kerr exclaimed. “Fuck me!”

“Shit, that is good,” Sorcha mumbled as others also made quiet comments on the large amount of attribute points for such a low-level passive skill. “The magister class really isn’t kidding around, is it?”

“Apparently not,” Aila addressed the goblin’s rhetorical question. “I will say, I was offered another attribute boosting passive skill for Focus and it wasn’t anywhere near as strong. Fifteen points by comparison. Still strong, just not as strong.”

“Well, other than the fact that it’s a huge point boost, what made you change your mind about the skill?” Jay asked. “Since you weren’t going to take it originally?”

Aila held up her journal, the page turned to the outline she had written of her own status sheet. Her finger tapped the Strength attribute, then the Resilience one.

“Both my Strength and Resilience are ten points, tied for lowest of my non-zero stats. Your accession ritual would apply to one of them, and I wouldn’t want it used on either. My choice would be Vitality instead. To make that work, I would have to put three points into Strength and another three into Resilience so that they were both higher. By taking the aegis passive, my Resilience will go up to thirty and be nowhere near the lowest anymore. Now I only need to spend three points instead of six, and I still get the bonus benefit of increased defensive stats. Win-win.”

“Nice,” Jay grinned at her lover’s bright smile. “That’s how you make the system work for you.”

“I’m surprised you aren’t trying to maneuver your stats so that Will is your lowest,” Severina commented as she studied Aila’s open journal. “It would allow for faster magic regeneration.”

“My Will is higher than my Strength, Vitality, and my Resilience. And it’s tied even with my Fortitude and Endurance. I’d have to spend a lot of free attribute points to make Will my lowest stat, and I’d rather use them on Arcane and Focus. With my latest upgrade to my Wellspring skill, I’m not as worried about passive magic recovery.”

“I understand,” Severina’s furrowed brow loosened as Aila explained her reasoning. “You may still want to bring your Will attribute up to a higher level soon, though. As it is, you won’t be able to cast almost all your spells after an hour of uninterrupted recovery, starting from a base of zero. Having an option that doesn’t involve Jadis and her…”

“Cum?” Sabina filled in the blank helpfully.

“Assistance,” Sev continued, “would be a wise safety measure.”

“True,” Aila conceded the point. “I’ll keep that in mind for future levels. I may use my Cart Driver class for that purpose.”

With her final skill selected, all that was left for Aila to do was assign the four free attribute points she had gained for her magister class. As she had planned, Aila put three points into her Strength, just to make sure her Vitality was her current lowest stat. The final free point was added to her Arcane attribute, which brought the new stat’s total, including all the changes caused by Lewd Lover’s Bond, to three hundred and sixty-eight.

Overall, Aila’s status sheet was showing a marked improvement compared to what it had been before coming to Glanum. Attributes weren’t everything, though, since the bulk of her power spike came from new spells and skills, not raw stats. Aila’s new rituals would need to be performed, which would take some time, but Jadis had no doubt they would be worth it.

Once she thought about it, Jadis had to chuckle. Both she and Aila had added a bunch of new rituals to their catalogue, which meant they were probably going to have to make a day out of casting them. A future task Jadis was thoroughly looking forward to, especially since Aila’s Bonded Lover’s Ritual Aid sounded like it would be making the rituals a lot more entertaining for everyone involved.

“That’s everything for me,” Aila let out a long sigh of satisfaction. “At least until the next life-threatening event we stumble into.”

“Which means it’s your turn,” Dys turned to look down at the quiet woman snuggled up against her left side. “How about it? Ready to talk about your tertiary class options?”

Thea nodded, a mix of eagerness and nervousness in her demeanor.

“I… ah, I’m really not s—sure which to pick.”

“That’s what we’re here for,” Dys smiled encouragingly at her shy lover. “To talk it through so you can feel confident that you’ve made the choice that you think is best for you. That’s what matters most.”

“Okay,” Thea nodded once, a little more firmly than before. “I’m ready.”

Sliding over to be closer to the shorter woman, Aila set her journal down in front of Thea, with a page that showed a pre-drawn diagram of Thea’s status sheet on it. As she spoke, she passed her quill into Thea’s hand.

“Here, let’s start with your current status sheet and we’ll go from there.”

“Thank you,” Thea smiled warmly at Aila before starting to write.

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