“I think that went well,” Bridget commented as she walked next to Jay with her arms stretched high over her head. “Villum has some real talent. That jump attack his secondary class gave him is surprisingly strong.”
“Humbert needs b—better armor,” Thea added from Jay’s other side. “But I think he did a, ah, great job t—today.”
“Yeah, we should commission him something sturdier,” Jay nodded. “In fact, we might want to establish some kind of Fortune’s Favored uniform. But speaking of armor, what are we going to do about Meli?”
“I don’t know if she’d be able to run as fast with armor weighing her down,” the orc warrior shrugged after finishing her stretch. “She’s entirely reliant on her speed.”
“Yeah, but she got knocked around like a leaf when that Simulacrum Demon ambushed us. She doesn’t have the Vitality or Fortitude to make up for going without armor, either. She needs something more than that toga she wears, regardless of how good she looks in it.”
“She should participate in that Vital Overflow ritual you’ve got planned.”
“Definitely going to ask her to,” Jay nodded at Bridget’s suggestion. “That won’t happen until we all make it back to the capital, though.”
“Maybe there are other rituals she should be participating in, too?” Bridget said with a slyer tone.
Jay noticed how Bridget’s dark eyes were pointed towards Thea as she asked her leading question. The shieldmaiden, for her part, was keeping her eyes on the road, though the light blush coloring her cheeks was visible even in the low light of twilight.
“Maybe,” Jay answered in a purposefully casual way. “She has a certain aura about her, doesn’t she? Sort of wild yet reserved at the same time. Those orange eyes are captivating. And the way she moves…”
Thea made a strangled noise that wasn’t quite a word.
“But yeah, at least the Vital Overflow ritual if nothing else,” Jay continued as though Thea hadn’t just made a sound like she was choking on a pickled plum. “I wouldn’t want to make any presumptions about anything more… at this point. Anyway, I don’t think I said it earlier, but congratulations on your level, Thea!”
While the foray into the Demon controlled territory north of Glanum had been more of an exploratory scouting mission than a true combat expedition, there had still been a fair amount of fighting. Most of said fighting had been done by the secondary team, since Jadis wanted to aid in their training, but she and her lovers had stepped in when needed. Even though Thea hadn’t done too much herself, the number of Demons slain over the course of a few hours provided enough incidental bonus experience points that she had gained a single level in her new tertiary class. Jadis was sure that she would have gained more levels if the shieldmaiden had participated more, or if the group had been smaller, but even just the one level was a welcome improvement.
Villum’s secondary class had gone up by two more levels, likely due to his more active participation compared to Thea, though it was also possible that he was just on the cusp of another level from the battle a few days prior. Nevan also went up a single level, which was definitely due to being right on the edge. He and his wife always had the same CLR, and both had been eagerly looking forward to another fight so that the disparity between them could be evened out. Once they were both CLR seventy-five, the two had become extra lovey-dovey for the rest of the trip.
Having returned from the scouting mission with better knowledge of both the terrain and the potential complications they might run into once they went out fighting with a purpose, Jadis had a good idea for how she wanted to tackle power leveling over the next few days. The Demons roaming the hills in Volto were scattered and disorganized, not at all dissimilar to the way the bone thieves and twisted wretches behaved in Weigrun. Some of them moved in big groups, others traveled solo. The main difference between Volto and Weigrun were the ambushes. Far more Demons in the north waited for prey to come to them, rather than searching enemies out to destroy. That meant her tactics would have to focus more on hunting for the hostile Demons, rather than drawing them to her.
Those plans were for the next day, though. For the evening, Jadis’ mind was centered on what she was going to say to Kerr’s brothers.
“Is this the street where he said the clan was camping?” Bridget pointed at the next intersection.
“I think so,” Jay said as she squinted at the stone pillar that served as a street sign. “Yeah, Black Fir Street. This should be the turn.”
Glancing around, Jay could tell that they weren’t far away from the barracks she had been visiting earlier in the day. Maybe a couple blocks distant at most. This section of the city had some residences, but it was more workshops and stores than private homes. Timur and his compatriots were camped inside of a repurposed hotel, which made sense since there was no reason to force the mercenary band to literally camp outside when there were plenty of beds available thanks to the civilian evacuation.
As Jay, Thea, and Bridget turned down the street, Jadis made sure to let Alex, Sabina, and Sorcha know what she and the others were up to. Since they effectively had half the night for extra time thanks to the eldritch sign, Jadis saw no problem with seeking out Kerr’s clan before fully returning home. They had planned on performing a few rituals that night, if possible, but Jadis just couldn’t bring herself to delay talking with Timur and his yet unmet brother, Vadim. Her curiosity was burning hotter than Bridget’s lantern.
About halfway down the side street, Jay spotted the hotel Timur had described to her. It was a big building, three stories tall, with an open balcony plan on the second floor. Lights had already been lit inside and she could see the shadows of horned figures moving on said balcony, as well as through some of the open windows. Since Jadis had not seen any therions anywhere else in the city, she figured this had to be the place.
While Jadis had planned on walking in and asking to speak with Timur, she saw that seeking the man inside wasn’t necessary. Across the street from the hotel was a smaller, two-story building with an open patio. There was a commotion coming from inside the building, and it didn’t take much examination to figure out what the noise was all about. A dozen tables with chairs had been set up on the patio and several of those tables had both therions and off-duty soldiers sitting around them, drinking. Clearly, the building was some kind of a tavern or bar, and both soldiers and mercenaries were using the place as a way to blow off some steam. Whether the serving staff were civilians or more soldiers, Jadis wasn’t sure. But either way, the bar was actively in use, and Timur was sitting at one of the tables.
The foxlike therion wasn’t sitting alone, either. The gray-furred therion that Jadis had seen with Timur previously was across the table from him. Jadis guessed the bigger, wolflike therion was Vadim. Sitting between the two men was a female therion who Jadis had never seen before. Well, it was possible she had been present in the larger group during the battle, but she hadn’t stood out to her at the time. The woman had dark brown, almost black, hair and pale gray eyes. While she was fairly attractive, she didn’t look anything like Kerr, and Jadis wouldn’t have guessed there was any family relation between the two. Even her horns were different, with a sort of double twist to them. The only reason Jadis considered it a possibility was the fact that the unknown therion had the same horn decorations as the two men. Though, on a second thought, Jadis supposed that could simply mean that the woman was just a member of the clan, not necessarily a direct family member.
As Jay, Thea, and Bridget approached the bar patio, Timur and his two companions noticed them and stood up from their table. Nodding at Jay in greeting, the brindle-striped therion motioned towards the other two with him as soon as Jadis was close enough.
“Dobriy vecher,” Timur said. “Good evening, Jadis. This is Vadim, Fifth of Third, and Raya, Tenth of Ninth.”
“Evening,” Jay returned the greeting with a nod of her own. “Good to meet you both. These are two of my mates. Thea and Bridget.”
No surprise was shown on either Vadim or Raya’s face at the knowledge that Jadis had multiple mates. Honestly, it was Jadis who would have been surprised if the two had shown any shock of their own. The therion societal structure was where most of the whole harem idea came from, at least on Oros, so her arrangement was probably more normal for them than it was for her.
“Greetings,” Vadim made the same hand sign as Timur had made earlier. “I am pleased to finally meet you.”
“Good evening,” Raya said in a much more stilted accent than the two men. “Very good meet you. All you.”
Expressing some of the anxious energy that he had displayed when Jadis had seen the man with Kerr the previous day, Timur moved to make room for them at the small table.
“Pull that table over to us,” Vadim instructed, his tone and actions calmer than his brother’s. “We will need… space to talk.”
Vadim then said a few words in a language Jay couldn’t understand. Whatever he had said caused the other therions sitting at nearby tables to get up and leave the patio. Some of them went inside the bar, while others departed for the hotel across the street. Aside from a few soldiers on the other side of the patio space, Jadis and Kerr’s siblings had the area to themselves.
“I’m going to apologize now just in case this comes across as a rude question,” Jay said as Timur pulled a table over. “But I’m not super familiar with Verdant Sea naming conventions. Just guessing from context, but does ‘Fifth of Third’ mean you’re the fifth child of Nox va Ratosh’s third wife?”
“Correct,” Vadim confirmed with a slight nod. “My mother is Nelya, third wife of the clan head Nox va Ratosh.”
“So that means you’re the tenth child of his ninth wife?” Jay asked Raya.
“Da,” the woman nodded agreeably.
“Huh. You all don’t really share a family resemblance to Kerr, do you?”
“Nyet…” Raya responded, though her expression was somewhat confused. “Kerr is one of thirteen. Big difference. Of course not same.”
“She would not know,” Timur told his sister. “I do not think Kerr has spoken much of us.”
Raya frowned at her brother’s words, though Vadim’s stoic expression did not change.
“Please, sit down,” the big therion said politely to Bridget while pulling out a chair for her.
“Da, please sit,” Timur said immediately after to Thea.
Jadis appreciated that Kerr’s clan seemed to be going out of their way to be as polite as possible. She doubted the way they were talking and behaving was the normal custom for their culture; it all felt far too much like an imitation of polite imperial nobility manners. Still, the fact that they were making such an obvious effort was a good indication that the Nox clan wanted to make a good impression, which also meant that they cared about Kerr. If they didn’t care, then they wouldn’t bother trying to win over her mate.
“I get… big chair,” Raya said as she considered then quickly discarded the chair she had been intending to offer Jay.
“You don’t have to,” Jay assured her. “I’m fine sitting on the floor. I’m used to it, really.”
“Nyet! Eto bylo by grubo. Very rude! We not bad hosts!”
By context, Jadis figured that Raya meant that it would be rude of her clan to allow Jadis to sit on the ground, rather than that it would be rude of Jadis to do the sitting. Not wanting to make a big deal out of the minor inconvenience, Jay made no objection to Raya as she rushed across the street to the hotel on a mission to retrieve something that could handle Jay’s size. In the meantime, she and her two lovers were left to share an awkward silence with Kerr’s brothers.
“Well, I guess we should say thanks for—”
Bridget’s attempt at breaking the ice was interrupted by a slurred voice calling out from the door leading inside the bar.
“Jadis! The hero of Glanum!”
Turning to look at the interrupter, Jay saw another familiar face from earlier in the day. Fabio, the soldier who had been guarding the Torre Sacra, was standing in the bar’s doorway. He was still in uniform, though he also had a mug in hand and a lean to his posture that hadn’t been present previously. Fabio’s face was also a bright shade of red, making it more than obvious that he was probably already several cups deep that evening.
“Ah, Fabio, I think you’re interrupting,” Rufus, the guard’s redhaired companion said from behind the drunk man. “Let’s get back to our table.”
Putting a hand on his shoulder, the soldier tried to pull his friend back into the bar. However, Fabio shrugged the other man’s hand off and marched forward in a mostly straight line. Rufus followed behind, still trying to intervene, though it was clear that he was more than a little tipsy as well and thus wasn’t being particularly effective.
“I need to sorry say to you,” Fabio announced as he boldly approached Jay. His confidence wavered for a moment as his impaired brain caught on to the fact that some words had been mixed up, but he visibly shrugged the concern off. “You broke the statue! But you saved the city, which meant you saved the rest of the statues! So that means you did a good job. Good job!”
Jay did her best to smother her grin at the drunk man’s antics. Glancing to her side, she saw that both Thea and Bridget were doing their best to hide their amusement. Meanwhile, Timur and Vadim looked both confused and somewhat annoyed by the interruption.
“Thanks, Fabio,” Jay told the sloshed soldier. “That means a lot coming from you.”
“Yes, yes it does,” Fabio agreed as though Jadis had just said something immensely profound. “So. You keep… doing the good fight and all of that.”
“I will,” Jay assured him. “Now, if you’ll excuse me—”
“Why’d you come here?” Fabio blurted out along with a partially suppressed belch. “To here. The city. Not the bar. I mean, I have to know. Was it… divine intervention?”
Jay let out a short sigh. She really didn’t want to spend the rest of the night talking with Fabio. But, after making eye contact with Rufus, who was doing his best to pull his friend away, she decided to answer the question in her usual blunt way. Hopefully the truth would appease the man and he would then follow his friend’s lead and leave her be without further incident.
“No divine guidance,” she said with a half-smile. “We happened to be coming here on a planned trip. The timing was just luck.”
Fabio took a few steps back, a strange look on his red face. As Rufus pulled him another step away, Fabio’s odd expression morphed into a wide grin.
“Luck! It was only luck!” the soldier laughed while slapping his companion on his shoulder. “Did you hear that? It was just luck! Luck!”
The man’s laughter grew in both volume and intensity, to the point that not only were Thea, Bridget, Timur, and Vadim openly staring at Fabio, so were the few soldiers who were sitting at the other end of the patio. Even Raya, who had come out of the hotel across the street with a sturdy bench under arm had stopped to stare at the uproariously laughing man.
“Fabio?” Rufus asked, his voice filled with concern.
Abruptly, Fabio’s fist latched onto the collar of the redhead’s breastplate, yanking him close.
“Luck!” the laughing guard crowed. “Have you ever heard of such a terrible run of bad luck! It’s absurd!”
“Bad luck?” Bridget asked aloud while Rufus stared at his friend in abject confusion.
“Yes, you green wort,” Fabio laughed, though the glint in his eye had turned from amused to something darker. “Bad, terrible, abysmal luck! There’s no other way to look at it! You weren’t supposed to be here! None of you were!”
As he spoke, Fabio shoved Rufus away with enough force to send the other man sprawling onto the ground. Stepping closer to Jay with none of the drunken sway he had displayed before, Fabio managed to both laugh and snarl up at her at the same time.
“How!? Twice now, you have been where you shouldn’t have been! Three times if you count the damned village, though that was only a side story. Regardless, here you are! Again! Completely out of place! You didn’t wait for your cue and you don’t even know your fucking lines!”
By that point, all of Jadis companions had stood from their seats. She could sense more than see that both Thea and Bridget had their weapons out. Not that she was going to take her eyes off of Fabio for even a second to check. Jay purposefully kept her body posture loose, though she could feel the tension rising inside her to nearly unbearable levels.
“Who the fuck are you?” Jay asked, though she was already certain of the answer.
“And you don’t even know the major players,” Fabio hissed. “But my name is not what is in question right now. What is in question is why you are ruining everything I have worked towards. Again!”
Leaning back slightly, the man let out a tired sigh.
“I am truly going to enjoy the look on your face when you see the bodies of your dead lovers.”
Before the man’s lips had even fully closed from speaking the last syllable, Jay’s hand was around his neck. She had crossed the distance between them so fast she wasn’t sure that it had been a dash so much as a teleportation.
Looming over the much shorter man, Jay spoke in a tone of voice that promised a world of violence without raising in volume above a whisper.
“You really think you’re going to be able to lay a finger on my lovers with me standing right here?”
“Not these ones here, obviously,” the solider answered clearly despite the fact that Jay’s hand was squeezing his neck tightly enough to make his spinal column creak. “I’m talking about the ones you so foolishly let wander outside your reach. You know, you really should do a better job of checking your passengers.”
Fabio’s face morphed into an uncomfortably wide grin.
“At least I’ll be able to make better use of that marvelous airship of yours than you ever would have.”
212