“We spend a lot of time in temples, huh?”
Jay smiled at Sabina’s innocent comment, hugging the curly-haired smith against her chest. It was a very Sabina thing to notice, and it was a perfectly logical and reasonable observation to make. And yet, coming from her, it sounded silly. Accurate, but silly, nonetheless.
“It’s an occupational hazard, I suppose,” she murmured, hands idly playing across the smith’s bare, muscular arms. “Does it bother you?”
“No. I just think it’s funny how I’ve probably spent more time in temples ever since I met you around a year ago than I did in my entire life before that point, and also that a lot of that time spent with you in the temples has been having sex, which doesn’t seem like something anyone would be doing in a temple. If I had known I’d be having lots of sex in temples, I probably would have gone to the temple a lot more often when I was a teenager. But then again, the priestess I knew in charge of Lyssandria’s temple in Glanum was an eighty-year-old gnome and I don’t think I would have wanted to have sex with her.”
“What, you don’t find gnomes attractive?” Jay grinned with laughter, her head tilting to one side.
“Oh, no, I can think of many gnomes that are very attractive!” Sabina hastily shook her head. “I mean, look at Orla! She’s gorgeous! I just meant that Vivi was very old and wrinkled and she smelled like black tea which I don’t really like, and I saw her as more of a grandmother than anything and I don’t find old and wrinkled gnomes sexually attractive. I mean, I don’t find anyone with lots of wrinkles attractive, especially if they’re kind of flabby, but I guess that’s just my personal preference.”
“So, you won’t find me beautiful when I’m so old my wrinkles have wrinkles?” Jay teased.
“Mm, I can’t imagine you with wrinkles,” the smith answered seriously. “But if you do get as wrinkled as a raisin, then I probably won’t think you’re sexy anymore. But by that point, I’ll probably be a dried out old bag of bone dust, so I won’t be thinking about sex much anyway. That’s pretty normal, I think. I’ll still love you just as much, though. Even when we are too old to have sex.”
“I love you, too,” Jay said sincerely while placing a kiss on the top of Sabina’s head.
“I know,” the half-elf giggled while wiggling her hips from side to side. “I can feel your ‘love’ poking my butt right now.”
“You better be careful with comments like that, Sabby,” Jay smirked while giving her lover another squeeze. “If you get me riled up, I might stop caring about how open air this balcony is.”
The two were sitting on the second story veranda of the temple dedicated to Lyssandria. The covered balcony had thick vines with red and purple trumpet-like flowers blooming in abundance, filling the air with a honey-sweet smell. Several large, cushioned seats that were just barely big enough to handle Jadis’ stature had been moved onto the veranda, and Jay had occupied one. Sabina had chosen Jay’s lap for her seat, rather than one of the other benches, and the two shared a lovely view of the cloudless night sky.
Unlike in Eldingholt, which had a temple district with a huge structure dedicated to each of The Nine in equal measure, Thracina’s temples were spread throughout the city. Furthermore, some of the temples were larger than others, what with most of the populace worshipping one or two gods while the others were not as popular. Apparently, the Voltonian people had far more temples dedicated to Charos than the other deities, though Ulya, Svaroga, and Tamar were also highly venerated. The rest of the gods simply lacked the presence that those four had in the nation.
The Lyssandrian temple that Jadis and the rest of Fortune’s Favored had been given as a place to stay in was nowhere near as large as the temple to Charos that the Hero and his companions had been taken to. It was somewhat off the beaten path as well, in a nice area with stately buildings but far from the main thoroughfare of the city. In fact, the temple didn’t even have a high priest. Or at least, no one who had the class, High Priest. Just a regular priestess who filled the position because she had the highest level of anyone there. The fact that she was only CLR forty-nine at the age of sixty, despite being the person in charge of the only temple to Lyssandria in the capital city of Volto, told Jadis quite a lot about how much activity this particular place of worship usually got.
Even with the crisis of the invasion, there still weren’t that many people around the small temple. While there was a constant parade of worshippers filing in and out of the temple dedicated to Charos, day and night, there had been just a handful of young women praying to Lyssandria when Jadis and her companions arrived earlier that evening. Those women had long since left, and other than the priestess in charge and a few others who lived on the property, Jadis and her family were alone.
Well, alone except for Maeve, whom Jadis had asked to stay with them rather than go to the temple of Tamar like Clan Nox, or to wherever Noll had disappeared.
“Your father was born in Volto,” Jay murmured as her thoughts turned to family. “Was he from around here? Thracina?”
“No,” Sabina shook her head. “He was from the southwest. I was born in his home city, actually, but I don’t remember it. We moved to Glanum when I was three, so I only have little memories of what Diacta was like. I do remember the beaches. They were so beautiful, with white sand and water so blue and clear you could see every single fish swimming by the shore. Oh, there was also this super weird fruit. It was all yellow, and you’d peel the skin off and eat the inside and it was very creamy. I can’t remember what it was called…”
“Banana?” Jay hazarded a guess, though she doubted that word existed on Oros.
“No, I don’t think that was it,” the smith answered with a frown in her voice. “But I think it did start with a letter B, though.”
“Hey, I’ve got a, um, I guess sort of maybe sensitive question,” Jay said after a few beats of silence. “If you don’t mind.”
“Of course I don’t mind,” Sabina stated plainly. “You can ask me anything.”
The sentiment was so pure that Jadis couldn’t help but kiss her quirky, not-so-little half-elf right then and there. It was a quick kiss, just something to show her love, but it left the smith with a wide smile that was almost enough to distract her from her original thought. Her curiosity won out, though, and Jay composed her expression and cleared her throat before continuing with her query.
“I noticed that almost everyone in the senate is human,” she began. “The same with almost all of the people in the crowd when we landed. And the soldiers. And even the priestesses here in the temple. All humans. Well, except for a few gnomes. I don’t think I’ve seen a single goblin or orc since we landed, other than Sorcha and Bridget. Maybe one or two elves? It’s pretty much been nothing but humans. Is that… normal? I mean, is Volto always so… homogenized?”
Sabina bit her lip, silent for a few moments of thought. After a second or two of hesitation, she nodded her head.
“I guess so? I never really thought about it, honestly. I mean, I don’t really remember the people in Diacta; I grew up in Glanum. But I do remember that most of the traders and tradesmen who came across the border were human. My mother lived in Diacta for a few years because her jewelry crafting used the local pearls and other precious shells found in that area, so it was easier for her to just live there instead of getting things shipped. But my parents did move to Glanum because that’s where her family was. I don’t think there were any other elves in Diacta at all.”
Jadis quietly nodded along to the information. The seeming lack of other races in Volto didn’t bother her, not exactly, but it was a curious circumstance that her brain couldn’t help but pick at. She wanted to know why, but at the same time, she didn’t see any reason why it mattered. No one they had met had been rude or disrespectful to any of her lovers. Jadis didn’t sense anything beyond curiosity in the gazes of the people when they looked at Eir or Bridget. But the lack of an answer as to why so few people other than humans lived in Volto was going to bother her until she got some kind of explanation.
“Well, I guess don’t worry about it,” Jay sighed as she let the topic drop for the time being. “It’s not important. Anyway, we should head inside soon. We’ve got to wake up early tomorrow to prepare for Eir’s ritual, and you can’t sleep in shifts.”
While there weren’t a lot of people around the temple that night, Jadis knew that would change by the next morning. Both Eir and Jocelyn would be using their strongest wide-range healing spells to cure as many people with injuries as possible. Jocelyn’s ritual was going to be performed at the temple to Charos, since that was where so many of the locals flocked to on a daily basis anyway. Her focus would be on the civilians. For her part, Eir would be healing soldiers. General Salvius would be getting as many of the wounded military personnel in the city to the temple as possible, so that they could be within range of the saint’s lewd healing ritual. It was perhaps a little backward that the soldiers would be going to Lyssandria’s temple rather than Charos’ temple, but for an event on such short notice, it was easier to maneuver and direct the military than it was unorganized citizens.
“See! That’s what I was saying earlier! Temple sex! It’s so weird that we’re going to be doing that, and it’s not even some sort of strange fetish that one or more of us is just insisting on; it has a legitimate purpose! Don’t you think that’s weird?”
“I think a lot of things in my life are pretty damn weird,” Jay grumbled with a laugh. “You included.”
“Oh. Am I really wei—ah!”
Sabina didn’t get a chance to finish her question as Jay abruptly stood up, carrying the smith in her arms. Giving Sabina a rough, passionate kiss that stole the other woman’s breath away, Jay didn’t stop her lascivious display of affection until she could feel her lover’s hips squirm in telltale arousal.
“Yes. You’re weird,” Jay stated breathlessly, her lips still brushing against Sabina. “But I love your weird. Don’t ever change.”
“Okay,” Sabina whispered before insistently pressing her tongue into Jay’s mouth.
“Hey, are you two coming to bed or are you going to be making out on the balcony all night?”
Jay and Sabina broke their kiss to see Bridget standing in the doorway that led back into the large chamber that their group had claimed for a communal bedroom. The orc was wearing a tunic and absolutely nothing else, a fact that became obvious every time her arms shifted and pulled the hem of her shirt a tiny bit higher.
“We might,” Sabina chirped with her arms wrapped around Jay’s neck. “Why? Do you want to join us?”
“Yes,” Bridget admitted immediately. “Dys is getting swarmed in there and I don’t feel like waiting in line.”
When Sabina gave Jay a confused look, she explained the situation with a little more detail.
“Kerr has my Syd body all to herself tonight. I owe her. So, it’s just two of me for everyone else.”
The light of understanding illuminated Sabina’s golden-brown eyes as she nodded her head. Looking back at Bridget, the half-elf posed a question.
“Will you lick me while Jay fucks you?”
“Uh, sure,” the warrior shrugged. “I can do that.”
“Deal!”
Hopping out of Jay’s arms, Sabina took her by the hand and led her to the door where Bridget waited.
“Come on! Let’s find a corner for ourselves, unless you want to do it out here, which I don’t think would be a problem except that I get kind of loud when we’re having sex sometimes and I might attract attention. But then again, Bridget might not do that good of a job of pleasuring me so maybe it’ll be fine?”
“Hey,” the orc exclaimed with an offended look in her face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Mm, oh, I didn’t mean that you’re bad at giving oral pleasure,” Sabina elaborated in her usual cheery way. “I just meant that you’ll probably be so distracted by Jay taking you that you won’t be paying much attention to me.”
“Come here, you bloody weirdo,” Bridget snatched the smith off the ground and threw her over one shoulder. “I’ll show you distracted.”
When the warrior turned to carry Sabina inside, the half-elf was spun around to face Jay, who was watching the exchange with a grin plastered on her features.
“Come on, Jay,” Sabina called out happily. “It’s time to have temple sex!”
Jay laughed as she followed behind her two lovers. What else could she do? It really was time to have temple sex. And lots of it.
If this was how every visit went, Jadis would want to spend more time in temples, too.
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