As it turned out, Finding Kerr wasn’t the issue. She found Jadis all on her own. The problem instead became the clear reticence the archer showed towards explaining the interaction or really talking about anything at all.
“…did you need something?”
Sorcha’s question was directed at said therion, who had spent the past ten minutes lying silently in the corner of the room, staring up at the ceiling. Kerr had entered the guest bedroom where Jadis’ Ida self and Sorcha had laid out all of the materials that they had gathered thus far for her wand crafting. She hadn’t said a word to either of them, just dropped down onto a pile of blankets and pillows, kicked her boots off, and sulked. Both Ida and Sorcha had stared at her, expecting some kind of greeting or further action from Kerr, but when nothing was forthcoming, they both shrugged their shoulders and went back to their work. It wasn’t until Kerr had quietly taken one of the long wooden dowels from a stack that the goblin woman had arranged that Sorcha felt compelled to ask her question.
“Nope,” Kerr replied shortly. “Not a thing.”
“Okay…” the witch drew out the word as she watched the archer slowly nip pieces of wood off the end of the dowel. “You do what you’ve gotta do, I guess.”
Ida managed to catch Kerr’s eye, though her questioning glance was both acknowledged and rejected. No words needed to be said for Jadis to get the message. Kerr didn’t want to talk. Not yet, anyway. For the moment, Jadis was willing to let the matter slide. If her horned lover needed time to think things through, then Jadis would give her the space she needed. Not that she was going to let the matter drop completely. Whatever had happened between Kerr and those two therions needed to be discussed at some point. For the moment, though, Jadis would let sleeping dogs lie.
In the meantime, there were other tasks to focus on. Aila and Jay could continue with their travel preparations without Kerr. Dys was still in the cellar with Maeve, hammering out the details of the Fetch’s personalized appearance. Syd was with Sabina, Bridget, and Thea, who were all still collecting materials from Vinea as well as helping with the cleanup effort. Dia was in the temple antechamber where she, Eir, Alex, and Severina were trying to explain to a newly born Demon that one could not simply take someone else’s shoes without asking. Which left Ida in the bedroom with Sorcha and Kerr.
“Ah! Not that one!” Sorcha lunged at Kerr to stop the grumpy therion from taking another smooth stick from the stack. “That’s black oak! It doesn't grow around here and is a pain in the ass to get!”
“You can get a thousand of these for nothing,” Kerr complained, though she let the goblin snatch the stick from her hand. “Aila can pick them up for you in Eldingholt.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t want to have to wait a week when I have the bloody branch right now! Unless you break it into pieces, that is. Look, if you need to gnaw on a stick, take one of these,” the witch glowered at the archer as she shoved several more common pieces of wood into her hand instead. “That, or I’m sure Jadis has a different stick for you to gnaw on.”
“Hmph,” was the only noise Kerr made in response before she returned to her process of snipping apart the new branch with her claws.
Ida and Sorcha shared a look between themselves. The fact that Kerr hadn’t risen to bite at the bait of a dirty joke was concerning. Still, they couldn’t force her to talk. Hopefully she would open up soon, but until then, there was nothing either of them could do. Leaning towards the array of wands that had been laid out on the ground in front of them, Ida motioned at Sorcha with an open hand.
“How about you review the wands that you have? That way I know what you’ve got already, and I won’t make suggestions for effects you’ve got covered.”
“That’s a fair start,” Sorcha agreed, though not before sending a final glance to Kerr. “Alright, where to begin…”
Before the goblin witch could decide on which wand she wanted to review first, a knock came from the door. Motioning for Sorcha to stay seated, Ida went to greet whoever had come knocking. Her suspicion of who had caused the interruption was proven correct as the woman waiting in the hall smiled up at her as soon as the door was opened.
“Good afternoon, Jadis,” Meli said in a warm tone that Jadis had not yet heard from the Dryad thus far. “I have collected many ingredients, as asked.”
“I can see that,” Ida laughed as she noted the several large baskets that were set around the tree woman’s feet. “Thank you for going through all the trouble! I don’t know how you managed to carry so much.”
“On my back,” Meli replied. “It is easier that way when the baskets are large.”
“No, I meant—never mind. Please, come in.”
Picking up two of the three surprisingly weighty wicker baskets, Ida led Meli into the bedroom. The Dryad carried the third basket in herself, greeting both Sorcha and Kerr as she did. As soon as her delivery was made, Meli did as Jadis suspected she might and moved back to the door in an obvious retreat.
“I hope those are helpful,” the thin woman said as she backed away. “I will keep watch for anything else of use.”
“Hey, you don’t have to run off, you know,” Ida said before Meli could touch the doorknob. “If you want to stick around and help, you’re welcome to.”
Meli turned partially back around, her expression showing clear surprise at what she must have thought was an unlikely offer.
“Truly? This seems like… a personal time. They are your wands, yes? It is a private consideration.”
“I don’t mind,” Sorcha said, grinning wide enough to show off her sharp teeth. “You just got me a shite ton of new materials to work with. I’m not going to boot you out now right after you did me a big favor. Besides, you probably know a lot more about these plants than I do. I could use the guidance, if you are willing.”
This was something Jadis had already discussed with Sorcha long before they had gotten back to the bedroom with the various components they had shopped for in the city. After breakfast, she had asked Meli if she would be willing to search for useful plant materials for Sorcha’s new wands in and around the city. The Dryad had happily agreed and had immediately sped off to who knew where to find her bounty. After telling Sorcha about the request, the witch had been the one to suggest Meli stick around and help with the wand crafting. After all, Meli had to know more about the local plant life than the goblin did.
Beyond the practical help, Jadis was fairly certain that Sorcha was trying to play wingman for Thea. She knew that the shieldmaiden had a hidden crush on the Dryad that had started years ago when Thea had seen Meli once when she was a young teenager. Sorcha knew the story, and while she wasn’t one to easily admit such thoughts, she had a tendency to try and help other people get the things they wanted, even if they didn’t ask for any assistance. Jadis supposed it was part of what made Sorcha a good supporter, both as a mage, and as someone who was part of a multi-partner relationship.
“I will help,” Meli smiled at the goblin.
Taking a seat across from Ida and Sorcha, the Dryad sent a curious look towards Kerr who gave her only a cursory wave of greeting. Seemingly shrugging the therion’s presence off, Meli focused on the collection of wands that were laid out in the middle of the floor.
“What were you doing before I interrupted?”
“Going over what I’ve already got,” Sorcha replied as she picked up a wand that looked vaguely familiar to Jadis. “I guess I could try and categorize them by function, but that sounds like more thought than I’m willing to give this little review. I’ll just go down the list, oldest to newest. Which means I start with this one.”
Sorcha launched into an explanation of her wands which was both informative and confusing. The function of each magical implement was easy enough to understand; every wand was capable of performing a single spell. There was no system message for Sorcha to read out loud describing what the wands did, but Sorcha instinctively knew what they were capable of in the same way Jadis understood how to perform her rituals. So, while the wand spells were themselves straight forward, it was the wand construction that Jadis found puzzling. Many of the wands had ingredients that were outwardly picked at random, while others had connections and implications that seemed to pair with the effects of the spell. However, why a spell worked in one particular way and not a dozen other different ways that Jadis could imagine was an utter mystery.
Wand number one was Sorcha’s Herb Preservation Wand. It was the first wand she had ever made since her primary class was all about growing herbs. Thus, her initial thought had been to make tools to help her be a better herbalist, not be a mage in a mercenary guild. The wand was made from a branch of an unknown tree that Sorcha had taken from a woodpile. Possibly oak, though she wasn’t at all certain. Leather straps had been tied to the tip, and small stone beads were attached to the ends of the straps. The wand looked like some kind of medieval cat toy to Jadis, but the spell it cast dried out bundles of herbs at a rate that was dependent on Sorcha’s Eldritch stat. It was a useful tool for herbalism but had no use beyond the humble craft.
Wand number two was the Single Target Slow Wand. A bunch of water reeds had been bundled together into a thick wand shape, with ten snail shells threaded through the reeds so that they were locked in place. The spell Sorcha could channel with the weird looking wand cut a target’s Agility attribute by half of her own Eldritch attribute. This had been the wand that had convinced Sorcha to have a go at being a mercenary. While she had initially made it so that she could more easily catch pests that were eating her herbs, it didn’t take her long to realize the tactical use her second wand would have on a battlefield. The only real issue with the wand was the high cost of magic it took to channel. Even at her current level, Sorcha could only slow a target down for twelve seconds total. That was quite a long time to be slowed mid-combat, but looking at it from another perspective, the witch could only use the spell on a few targets before her magic reserves would be completely tapped. And that wasn’t even taking into account any other wands she might want to use.
Wand number three was the one Jadis was used to seeing Sorcha work with the most: the Partial Obfuscation Wand. Made from a deer’s femur and tinted blue from a mix of various plant-based dyes, the spell could turn a target transparent for a number of hours equal to a tenth of Sorcha’s Eldritch Attribute. It was a great wand with lots of utility, and the spell wasn’t even that expensive considering the power of the effect. Only twenty-five magic points per target. Sure, it wasn’t true invisibility, but in low light or areas with impaired visibility, being translucent was almost as good.
The next wand was one that Jadis was especially familiar with, since it was the one that had once almost gotten her killed. Sorcha’s Total Paralysis Wand was capable of locking up the target’s muscles in a painful state of nearly complete motionlessness. The only defense against the spell was the fact that its duration was two minutes, minus the target's Resilience stat converted to seconds. A very long time for someone with no magic defenses, but the spell could also be completely blocked under the right circumstances. Considering how high the stats of their enemies were getting, the spell's duration was getting shorter and shorter, depending on the target.
“What kind of bone is that?” Meli asked as she examined the powerful spellcasting tool.
“Basilisk,” Sorcha answered as she passed the wand over to the Dryad for her to examine. “And there are twenty-one amber stones slotted into the surface. Those were the rarest ingredients I was able to get my hands on, at least at the time, so I really put a lot of effort into carving it right so the amber would stay in place properly. It took weeks, because I had to practice on other bones first. I’m still amazed it turned out as well as it did. Of course, this is a replica, since my first one was broken by a, uh, lucky arrow shot.”
“Basilisk makes sense, for paralysis,” Meli commented after passing the wand back to the witch. “I don’t know what amber has to do with anything, though.”
“Neither do I,” Sorcha shrugged. “This skill didn’t come with any instructions or guidance. I just start putting things together and sort of hope for the best. I used amber stones because it was the most expensive stone I could get at the time, and I used twenty-one because that’s how many I had. Maybe it would be more powerful if I used more amber, or a different stone. Or maybe the whole thing would have fizzled apart like most of my other wand attempts. It all feels like random bloody chance.”
“You don’t get any guidance from your skill at all?” Ida asked as she tapped the bone wand with a finger. “Not even a gut instinct or something?”
“I mean, sort of?” the goblin shrugged expressively. “Some pieces look like they go together better than others to me, but I don’t know if that’s the system giving me some subtle hints, or if it’s all just in my head. How could I tell?”
Jadis had no good answer to that question, since she still struggled with knowing her own mind versus the nudges that Lyssandria or possibly D sent her on a semi-regular basis. She had no idea if wand creation skills did anything to help guide their users towards specific outcomes or not, but either way, the mix of ingredients looked weird to her. There really wasn’t any way of knowing what mix of materials would do what, not without another wand witch around to offer some personal experience, and they hadn’t run into anyone with a class like Sorcha’s so far.
“We should ask the academy for any books they have on witches with classes like yours,” Ida mused. “Actually, I’m not sure why we haven’t done that already.”
“I did do that, actually,” Sorcha corrected. “They just didn’t have anything for me. The books they were going to give me were in one of the sections that was attacked by the Demons during the cultist shite midwinter. There are copies in other libraries, but the librarian told me it’ll take time to get those copies sent over.”
There was nothing any of them could do about the destroyed books at that point, so Jadis brushed the matter off for the moment and asked Sorcha to continue her review of wands.
The next two wands marked the beginning of Sorcha’s second round of wand crafting. They were made after she had received her Lewd Lover’s Bond boost to Eldritch. Surprisingly, the boost didn’t appear to have an effect on potency; the wands were strong, but not any more so than what Sorcha had crafted before ever having met Jadis. That led credence to the theory that what mattered for wand crafting wasn’t Sorcha’s Eldritch power, but instead the types and quality of materials used in the crafting process.
Silent Step Wand did exactly what it said on the tin. The target’s footsteps would be silent for a number of minutes equal to Sorcha’s Eldritch stat. The spell didn’t stop all noise that the target might make, though. Just their footsteps. A useful but limited bit of illusion, which seemed like it was tied to the commonness of the ingredients used in its construction. Wool wasn’t exactly rare.
The Stamina Regeneration Wand was much better in Jadis’ opinion. The spell it could cast doubled the target’s base rate of stamina regeneration. While Jadis rarely felt winded thanks to her massive attribute scores, even she could get worn out by constant activity. Especially if she used any skills that relied on stamina as a resource. She knew for a fact that she would have been out of gas long before the battle for Glanum was over if it hadn’t been for Sorcha’s stamina wand. Other than her paralyzing wand, it was quite possibly the witch’s most valuable instrument. Certainly, the cost of the various herbs and flowers that had been tied to the branch which had been taken directly from the colossal tree in the center of Eldingholt had been far from cheap.
The next few wands were all ones that Jadis had only seen Sorcha use in passing. They weren’t meant for combat but had instead been crafted to help the goblin with the tending and processing of the various medicinal plants being grown in the greenhouse that they had built at their headquarters. There was the Fertilize Water Wand, the Granulation Wand, the Ripen Fruit Wand, and the Worm Wand. All had their uses for someone who was actively maintaining a garden, but none of them were particularly interesting otherwise.
The eleventh wand that Sorcha had to show was the first of a series of attempts that Sorcha had made towards more illusion-based spells. The Mist Maker Wand could create a thick fog that covered an area with a radius of twenty-five feet, with the caster at the center. The mist stayed where it was once the spell was cast and would last for an hour, so it made for a great way to hide from enemies. Especially when paired with the Partial Obfuscation Wand. The only problem with the effect generated by the willow-switch wand was the fact that allies couldn’t see through the mist either. Not unless they had a skill to circumvent the effect, or a Resilience score higher than Sorcha’s Eldritch stat.
There was the Bright Light Wand, which, counter to what one might think from the name, could only increase the brightness of an existing light source, not generate a new one. Then there was the Remove Scent Wand, which could remove all current scent from the target. It didn’t prevent more scents from forming on them, like if they stepped in a cow pie for example, but it did prevent body odor at least. The False Face Wand was the most advanced illusion that Sorcha had yet been able to generate, though it was still severely limited. It replaced the target’s face with another, similar face. Sorcha couldn’t actually choose which face the spell made; it sort of just did a random face every time, though it was always in line with the race and general appearance of the target. The spell didn’t have any effect on the rest of the body, though, so unless the target was already dressed up differently than normal, the wand’s effect wasn’t a terribly useful disguise.
“And then there’s this one…”
Sorcha held up a thin wand that was rather plain looking, except for the waxy sheen that covered its entire length. The wood of the shaft was a warm brown color, but the gloss running across the surface was greenish with lots of variations in hue. The swirling pattern reminded Jadis of tie-dye, except less colorful.
“I don’t think you ever told me what that one does, actually,” Ida frowned in concentration. “Is it some other type of illusion?”
“Sort of,” Sorcha scowled at the wand in her hand. “It’s more of a physical effect, like my paralysis wand, but a lot less useful. Considering how much the branch cost, I thought it would be way more useful than it turned out to be.”
“What is the name of the plant?” Meli asked. “I cannot tell without the leaves.”
“Kratom.”
Meli blinked, staring at the wand before turning her stolid gaze onto the witch.
“I have never heard of that plant before.”
“Me either,” Sorcha shrugged. “It’s supposed to be from the western continent. Apparently, they use it for medicines that numb the body. Makes for a good pain killer. I thought it might do something like that as a spell. You know, wave of a wand, remove a headache, that sort of thing.”
“What does it do instead?” Ida leaned closer, intrigued by the strange implement.
“This.”
Sorcha reached up and tapped Ida’s nose with the tip of the wand. Immediately a strange, tingling sensation radiated out from where Sorcha’s wand had contacted her skin. The feeling wasn’t unpleasant; far from it. The sensation was sort of like the bubbles of a carbonated beverage, except all over the outside of Jadis’ noses. Due to the nature of her multiple bodies, Jadis felt the spell’s effects on all five of her selves. However, the sensation didn’t spread beyond the surface of her noses, limiting its effect to just one spot.
“Oh, wow,” Ida laughed as she rubbed at her nose. “That’s so tingly! I kind of like it.”
“That’s good,” the goblin said as she idly toyed with the wand in her hands. “Because that feeling will last for half an hour. It’s completely useless, but hey, at least it only costs ten magic to cast.”
Ida blinked at the green-skinned witch as a grin slowly spread across her face.
“Did you seriously just call a wand that can make any skin it touches feel tingly useless? Sorcha, my love, are you forgetting whose harem you’re in?”
A blush darkened Sorcha’s cheeks with growing rapidity as the dawning realization of what Jadis was implying broke through the goblin’s sour mood. Turning her wide eyes up to meet Ida’s gaze, Sorcha’s mouth fell open slightly. After a heartbeat, she clutched the wand protectively against her chest.
“I must keep this thing far, far away from Sabina. She might die.”
As Ida laughed, Meli stared blankly between the two, her expression turning to confusion.
“I don’t understand. Why would tingles cause the chatty smith harm?”
Before Ida could calm her humor down enough to answer the Dryad’s question, a shadow loomed over their small gathering, catching all of their attention.
“They’ll explain the details later,” Kerr said as she loomed behind the goblin with a glint in her green eyes. “Right now, I think I need an active demonstration of what that little wand of yours can do. You willing to help a friend out, Sorcha?”
Staring at the wand in her hands with abject horror, the witch could only utter four words.
“What have I done…”
238