Vital Overflow wasn’t quite the erotic event that Jadis’ lovers had expected it to be. Jadis had certainly had her own presumptions, considering how most of her rituals tended to go, but this one was almost innocent when compared to the rest of her ritualist spell list. The closest comparison she could make between Vital Overflow and the rest of her spells was with Dance of the D. Only, whereas Dance of the D only needed two participants and a little partial nudity to get going, Vital Overflow had more required prep work to fulfill all conditions. Hence the reason why Jadis and all of the ritual participants were gathering in Lyssandria’s High Temple.
“I was thinking,” Aila started as she walked next to Syd.
“As you so often do,” Syd replied immediately.
“Right,” the redhead suppressed a smirk. “I think it might be best if you switch Dance of the D to someone who might put it to better use.”
“Better use?” Syd echoed with one eyebrow raised. “But I love how flexible you are! Why would I want that to change?”
“I am plenty flexible without spell assistance,” Aila responded primly. “And even if I do lose a little limberness, I’m sure you’ll find ways to help me stretch.”
Indeed, ideas were already percolating inside Jadis’ brains, but she set those pleasant visions aside for the moment.
“Who did you have in mind?”
“Well, there’s not much point in someone on the backline having the extra acrobatic skill,” the mage pointed out. “So, you can rule out Eir, Kerr, Sorcha, and Sabina. Alex certainly doesn’t need help with flexibility; sometimes I question if she has bones in those limbs at all. That leaves Thea, Bridget, and Severina to choose from. Except, I know that Severina and Bridget are more inclined to block and parry blows with their weapons, and Thea has become a rock that most attacks cannot even scratch.”
Slowing down so that she could look at the group gathered on the other side of the hall, Aila inclined her head to indicate a direction without pointing.
“I think the best fit would be Meli.”
Syd’s gaze followed to where Aila was looking and spotted the Dryad talking with High Priestess Aurea. The two appeared to be having a somewhat intense conversation, though most of the excited aura was coming from the blonde woman. None of Jadis’ bodies were near the two, so she wasn’t sure what they were talking about, but she guessed it likely had something to do with babies, or the making of them.
Ever since Jadis and her lovers had returned from Glanum with Hope, the priesthood in the temple district had been in something of an uproar. While most of the priests were clamoring for a chance to meet the little Succubus, and maybe study her, a fire had been lit inside Aurea. She seemed to be even more determined than ever to find suitable candidates for Jadis to expand her progeny with. Jadis wouldn’t have been surprised at all to learn that the blonde high priestess had locked her radar onto Meli.
“I see what you mean,” Syd said after a second of consideration. “With her high Agility, the skill would enable her to dodge attacks more effectively.”
“Correct,” Aila nodded. “Also, if you perform the ritual with her, maybe one of you will finally let loose the bowstring and ask the other into their bed.”
Syd snorted, nearly choking as she gave Aila an incredulous look.
“What?” Aila shrugged. “You didn’t take nearly this long to ask me to have sex, did you?”
“Well, you are utterly irresistible.”
“And you’re incorrigible.”
“I’m just giving her time to adjust,” Syd explained between giving Aila quick and sweet kisses. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but she’s kind of resistant to sudden changes.”
“I have,” Aila admitted while nibbling on Syd’s lower lip. “However, if you don’t make a move soon, I think she’ll get stuck in a rut and then she’ll never move at all. At least not in the next few decades. And while that may be an acceptable timeframe for a Dryad, if Thea is forced to wait that long I think she might just spontaneously combust.”
That was a legitimate concern, Jadis agreed. Thea had developed a crush on the Dryad when she had spied Meli as a teenager. Now that she was around the exotically beautiful woman all the time, Thea was struggling to keep her eyes off of her. Not that Jadis thought that her position in the shieldmaiden’s heart was in danger. Far from it. However, Thea was a voyeur, and the subject who quite probably inspired that fetish in the young woman was currently hanging around the house and constantly threatening to maybe, possibly, do something sexual with Jadis without ever actually committing.
It had to be torture for the brown-eyed pervert.
“I’ll talk about Dance of the D with Meli,” Syd said as she drew back from her love’s lips. “And progress from there. But not right now. We’ve already got a ritual to complete tonight.”
“Yes, we do,” Aila agreed. “I just hope Noll still wants to be a member of our mercenary company after this is done.”
“Ah, he’ll be fine,” Syd grinned. “We made sure all the dyes will wash out of fur.”
“You had best hope so. Otherwise, I don’t think even Alex will be able to save you from his ire.”
While Aila remained concerned, Jadis was confident that there was nothing to worry about, at least on the staining end of things. She really had made sure to test the various dye mixtures that they were using for the ritual to make sure they would wash out of hair and fur. While the thought of Noll being forced to walk around for a few weeks with multi-colored fur was a funny one, she wouldn’t actually do that to the old wolf. Because she knew that if she did, after he was done shaving the offending hair off his own body, he’d shave her bald as well, and she liked her hair where it was.
The Vital Overflow ritual was, at its most basic form, just a ritual dance. Much like Dance of the D, there were no specific movements that the participants had to perform; one only had to move to the rhythm for the dancing to count. However, unlike the much smaller, simpler ritual, Vital Overflow had additional requirements that had to be met.
The first of those was actual music. Jadis couldn’t get away with just humming a tune and clapping a beat like she had with Aila nearly a year ago. Musicians needed to put on a real performance for the whole length of the four-hour ritual, otherwise the spell wouldn’t work. Then there were the attire requirements.
Nudity wasn’t mandated, but no more than fifty percent of the body could be covered on the individuals for the duration of the ritual dance. More than that, all individuals had to cover at least twenty-five percent of their skin in brightly colored dyes in at least three different shades, though the ritual required a minimum of five different dye colors be used on participants overall, which was why Jadis had made sure to have enough body paint in red, blue, yellow, green, and purple to cover everyone who would be attending the ritual. Even the musicians had to follow the dress code, despite the fact that they wouldn’t be receiving the benefit of the spell effect.
Jadis and her lovers had performed the ritual on their own to test how it would go and, while it hadn’t been too hard, it had been both time intensive and physically draining for the less athletic members of their group. Dancing at a nearly frenetic pace for four hours was exhausting, not to mention the strain it put on the musicians. So, after some discussion, they had determined that the best way to go about the full ritual would be to do it somewhere that could both accommodate a large group of forty-five participants, as well as provide them with musicians who could handle such a difficult job.
Fortunately, Lyssandria’s priesthood was filled with artistic types who specialized in making music. They even had a big room in their temple that was ready-made for large-scale rituals. Considering Lyssandria’s domains, Jadis had to imagine Vital Overflow had to be far from the most salacious ritual that the temple had played host to over the years. She’d have to ask Aurea to tell stories at some point.
“Is everyone on our list here?” Jay asked as she checked on Thea and Bridget who were checking names off of a scroll by the door.
“Almost,” Thea answered without looking up from the parchment. “We are still w—waiting on the last group.”
Jadis didn’t need to ask who that group was. One look around the room and it was obvious. Everyone else that she had invited was accounted for, and then some.
With her current Eldritch stat, Jadis’s Vital Overflow ritual could accommodate forty-five participants. Aside from her lovers, Jadis had of course asked Maeve and Meli to join them, as well as the entirety of Tegwyn’s squad. That accounted for nineteen of the open slots, which left twenty-six yet to be filled before they could all receive the maximum benefit of the spell. An additional four hundred and fifty points of health for everyone involved would be well worth filling all positions, even if a few of them were people that didn’t necessarily need the extra health to perform their job at Fortune’s Favored.
Noll had been invited as well, of course, and so had Gunnar, their receptionist, even though he didn’t typically go out in the field anymore. Eir had restored his missing arm, though, thanks to her new limb restoration spell, after fixing Noll’s eye of course, so he was certainly capable of taking up arms again if he was needed. Besides, the elf and Terrance had just recently started dating, and Jadis couldn’t imagine inviting Terrance to what was essentially a magically fueled rave without his hard-won boyfriend by his side.
Tacitus and Noct, Aelius’ children, had also been invited. The two weren’t members of Fortune’s Favored, but they were actively working with Jadis’ company of their own accord. Neither were in the military, either; they were both officially representatives of Valtar and Charos’ temples in Glanum, technically speaking, so they weren’t going against any of Prince Hraustrekr’s orders by working with Jadis. Since they were acting as scouts and messengers to the north for her, Jadis absolutely wanted to make sure the two siblings were as protected as could be.
Two more slots were filled by the recent arrival of Bridget’s sister, Addy, and her much shorter human boyfriend, Volker. The two lovebirds had quit their jobs as mercenaries in Weigrun and sailed up to Eldingholt to join Fortune’s Favored. Leaving their own mercenary companies had cost them a penalty fee, which Jadis had offered to pay, but the two had declined her money. As the two had said, the fees hadn’t been too bad, and they were about to make a wild amount of money working for Fortune’s Favored, so they weren’t worried about the minor loss.
Nine more of Bridget’s extended family had joined the ritual list as well. Most of them acted as guards for the city compound, but the nine were the strongest of those who had joined up with Fortune’s Favored after Bridget’s family had moved from Brightstone, and all nine were on call for travel duty as needed.
By that point, Jadis’ list of possible ritual candidates had grown thin. She had offered a spot to Vraekae, but Eir’s cousin had declined the offer after she had explained what the ritual would entail. Vraekae had a reputation to uphold, she had stated, and dancing around in her skivvies while painted like a holiday gourd wouldn’t be good for said reputation. A real shame, Jadis thought, since the elf truly was a beautiful dancer, and they hadn’t spent nearly as much time together since her return to Eldingholt as she would have preferred.
Besides, she was hoping to get another night alone with the magistrate. She had some new Nephilim lovemaking techniques she wanted to demonstrate for her sort-of sex friend and the mother of one of her children. A little dancing to act as foreplay would have been nice.
With Vraekae off the list, Sabina had suggested Violetta and her two brothers be included. None of the three were combatants, so the extra health wasn’t really all that beneficial, but the young half-elf half gnome woman was crushing hard on the two handsome brothers, so Jadis was happy to play matchmaker and drag all three into the ritual. She had wagered in Kerr’s betting pool that Violetta would end up with Crispus, so really, she was just looking out for her own financial wellbeing.
With those three included, that left eight spots open. While Jadis hadn’t been certain of who would fill those slots, she had no doubt that they would be filled. Dozens of priests and priestesses had volunteered to attend the ritual, so much so that many were willing to participate in the dancing without getting any of the benefits. Since that wouldn’t interfere with the ritual, she was happy enough to let them dance along. Their presence would certainly add to the mood, if nothing else. The only question had become which of the priesthood would get to slather on body paint.
It turned out there was no need to draw straws, as earlier that week, a group of exactly eight powerful warriors who could absolutely use the boost to their health had arrived in Eldingholt after a long journey from the southeastern border.
“Oh, here they are now,” Bridget perked up. “Good evening, Sir Wilhelm!”
“You don’t have to call me sir,” the Hero said as he led his companions into the room. “It’s really not necessary.”
“Yeah, just look at this face,” Ludger laughed as he put an arm around his friend’s shoulder and used his other hand to squeeze the shorter man’s cheeks. “Does this look like a ‘sir’ to you? More like a baby!”
“Speaking of, I heard that congratulations are in order!” Amarantha, the witchy Lares, said from her stone cauldron mount. “Is the kitten here? When do we get to meet her?”
“Yes, when do we get to meet Hope?” Lady Elodie Brunholt, Ludger’s fiancé asked from where she stood next to the ridiculously handsome Bulwark. “The whole city is abuzz with the news, and many nobles are asking when you will be presenting your child publicly.”
“She’s at our home with her grandparents,” Jay answered the first question. She was actually referring to both Thea's and Aila’s parents, who were taking on babysitting duties, but she didn’t think she needed to specify further. “And I didn’t know you’d be joining us, either.”
“I so rarely get to see my love,” Elodie sighed as she leaned against a grinning Ludger. “I must make the most of every opportunity we get while he is in Eldingholt.”
“Don’t worry,” Ludger said. “Elodie won’t take up any space in your ritual. She’ll just watch.”
“Ah, no,” Jay said with a devilish smirk on her lips. “No spectators tonight. If she’s going to be here, she’s going to be dancing.”
“What do you—”
Elodie’s question was interrupted before she could finish as Kerr, who was suddenly in front of her and Ludger, grabbed hold of them. The therion dragged the two away towards the corner where people were already starting to leave their folded clothes. Once again, Jadis thanked D for her ability to coordinate across multiple bodies.
“Truly, I want to offer my congratulations,” Wilhelm said as he offered Jay his hand. “You’re very blessed.”
“Thank you,” Jay grinned sincerely at the Hero. “That means a lot coming from you.”
The rest of Wilhelm’s group were quick to follow their leader’s example and offer Jadis their various congratulations. Some with more enthusiasm than others. Rein wasn’t much of a talker, and Lucia was decidedly reserved, but Tiernan and Halvor made up for the quiet of their cohorts.
“I really do hope to meet, ah, Hope,” Jocelyn said as she followed Jay and the others towards one wall of the large temple hall. “She sounds like a lovely little girl.”
“She is,” Jay smiled. “And she’ll love to meet you, too. I bet she’s going to love your magic aura.”
“Definitely need to know more about that stuff, too,” Tiernan, the Archwizard, called out. “You’re just a font of interesting new ideas and experiences, you know that?”
“So I’ve been told,” Jay admitted. “Now, going to need you all to strip.”
“Pardon?” Jocelyn asked with wide eyes while Wilhelm started coughing loudly.
“You’ll need to be at least half naked for this ritual to work,” Jay announced loudly enough for the whole group to hear. “Remember, at least half of your total body unclothed, or the spell will fail.”
“Done,” Halvor said after looking down at his bare, tattooed torso.
As the others of the Hero’s party began removing outer layers of clothing with varying levels of shyness, Jay tried to hide her grin as she retrieved a porcelain pitcher filled with blue dye.
“The other part is you’ll need to cover at least a quarter of your body with three different colored paints,” Jay said as she offered the jar to Wilhelm, who had just removed his shirt to reveal a surprisingly chiseled chest and washboard abs. “Having tried this already, I recommend you let someone else put the paint on for you. It helps make sure you’ve got enough coverage.”
Grabbing another jar, this one filled with yellow dye, Jay pushed it into Jocelyn’s trembling hands. Leaning her head down so she could whisper unsubtly into the furiously blushing woman’s ear, Jay made purposeful eye contact with the Hero.
“Don’t have too much fun, alright?”
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