The next morning went by quickly. Bonded Saint’s Lustful Restorative Sacrament took a lot of preparation but, with Jadis’ Sleep of the D ritual in place, they all got their full night’s rest in only a few hours. By the time the mass of wounded soldiers had gathered up outside the temple, Jadis and her lovers had already set everything up for the ritual and had taken the time to get a babysitter for Hope. Noct had shown some doubt over the prospect of watching the baby on her own, but Hope had giggled and cooed while playing with the woman’s black feathers and thus all reluctance had fallen away. Jadis would have asked Maeve to watch Hope, or quite possibly to join Eir’s ritual, but after receiving her “punishment” from Kerr the night before, the Fetch had slipped away with the excuse that she needed to meet with a few local informants. Jadis wasn’t one hundred percent sure of the veracity of that claim, but she didn’t see the need to call Maeve out. Not when they were still having so much fun dancing around each other.
Aside from using lewd sacraments to power magical healing, Jadis and her lovers had a variety of tasks to attend to, though they could all ultimately be sorted into one of two categories. Preparation for the coming campaign against the Demon-held Kastoria on the one hand and providing aid to Volto’s citizens on the other. Such tasks overlapped directly with the Hero and his companions, so they coordinated their actions as much as possible.
Eir, Jocelyn, and Amarantha set up shop in the temple to Charos where they worked with the local priests on healing the many people who were suffering from illnesses that had been spread by the demonic invasion. Alex, with Hope in her arms, joined them to act as a kind of battery thanks to her magical regenerative capabilities, though they both stayed away from the front of the temple and out of sight of the crowds. Partly to avoid stirring up the locals who wouldn’t be used to seeing a friendly Demon like Alex, but mostly because none of them wanted Hope anywhere near the diseased people who would be coming and going through the temple.
Thea and Bridget stuck with the temple crew to act as bodyguards just in case any trouble started, but the expectation was not that the regular civilians posed a risk. The fact that there were definitely cultists in the city was the main reason for concern. Jadis and her lovers weren’t going to passively wait for an attack, though. They were there to hunt the cultists down.
Aside from Maeve quietly gathering information from the shadows, Kerr and the mercenaries of Clan Nox were also working on finding cultists via their own avenues. While a large group of therions stood out like sore thumbs in a population that was almost entirely human, they were still mercenaries who were used to slumming it with the dregs of society. There were all kinds of less than reputable contacts that the group had or was able to get in touch with just by the nature of the service they sold. Kerr joined her estranged clan, seeking what information she could, though she wasn’t alone. Noll accompanied her, using the anonymity of being just another therion in a crowd of therions to blend into the background. With any luck, an overconfident cultist would make an attack at what appeared to be a more accessible target, only to find a true beast hiding among the wolves.
Aila and Severina joined Wilhelm, Lucia, and Rein in the Aurum Senaculum, or the senate hall, where they continued to plan for the attack on Kastoria. The meeting with General Salvius had gone well, but his agreement to join them in the attack was only one part of a multifaceted effort. They also needed to get the support of as many senators as possible so that they would receive as much manpower and resources as they could get. As Salvius had explained to them, the main reason why the first attempt at taking Kastoria back had failed was because of a lack of soldiers and supplies. Jadis and Wilhelm both agreed that if this third attempt failed, it would not be for that same reason.
Along those same lines, Sabina and Tiernan were working together to set up various enchanted siege weapons as well as magical protections for the common soldiers who would be moving through the lands corrupted by Demons. Jadis was all but certain that the whole first day would be spent just on the two mad inventors brainstorming utterly insane spells and enchantments, but she was equally as certain that once the two got to actual work, the world would not be ready for what they produced.
Ludger and Halvor were also working on preparations for the attack, though their efforts were more practical. The two men had been tasked with inspecting the troops, which sounded like something unnecessary at first, but as Severina explained to Jadis, was actually a vital part of planning the coming battles. Knowing which soldiers were experienced and which were barely trained would affect where those troops were positioned on the battlefield. What kind of equipment did they have, and what was the quality of those armaments? What were the CLRs of the men and women in each company, and how many elites did they have in their number, if any? Skills, spells, health pools, defensive stats, abilities that coordinated with each other, and many more factors all played a role in determining how those troops would be used. And considering the state of things in Volto, no one on either Jadis or Wilhelm’s teams wanted to rely solely on the records that were being given to them by the local leadership. And so, direct inspection was needed. Fortunately, both Tacitus and Noct were able to provide transportation for Ludger and Halvor so that they could view not only the reserve troops in Thracina, but those who were stationed on the line and elsewhere.
The last division of labor was the grouping of Jadis herself with Meli and Sorcha at her side. Their purpose was twofold. Primarily, Jadis was acting as both transportation and as guard for the two women as they inspected the fields and orchards around Thracina to see what aid they might be able to offer. Secondarily, Jadis was using the opportunity to get out and see Volto for herself. To her mind, the senators and the priests were one thing, while the actual average person who lived and worked outside of marble halls were another. She couldn’t just walk around the streets of Thracina, not unless she wanted crowds of people swarming her, and that sort of attention would be counterproductive to her goals. But traveling across the countryside and talking with farmers and fieldhands while Sorcha and Meli performed their inspections was far more manageable and soon proved to be a better barometer of the people as well.
“Ah, I am not from this place, actually,” Helvius said in stilted Imperial. “My home was in, ah, east of Kastoria. Ancyria. We left, ahead of the others, when the Demons came. Long before Kastoria was, ah, invaso. Invaded. My family, we were lucky.”
“You mean you left Ancyria for Thracina when the demonic invasion started three years ago? On your own initiative?” Jay asked for clarity. When the older farmer nodded in agreement, she continued. “Didn’t the senate evacuate the people in the countryside to the cities for defense? What measures were taken?”
Helvius shrugged helplessly, calloused hands gripped around a pitchfork that he leaned heavily against. The piles of old straw and manure he and his sons had been turning baked in the hot sun, letting off a stench that the farmer didn’t seem to notice. One of the boys, who had to be no more than seven, had his arms wrapped around his father’s leg while he gazed shyly up at the armored giant. The other two boys who were somewhere in their early teens were trying not to stare at Jay while also pretending to listen to the conversation, though it was clear that neither understood the Imperial tongue.
“My neighbors do not leave. They say, ‘Why go? The Demons do not come here. It has been a hundred years, and they come from the east. We are safe here.’ I do not know what the senato thinks, but that is what my neighbors say. I understand why they stay. I wanted to stay with my farm. But my brother told us to come. He heard things, ah, talk in the city. He heard that the Demons would come. I believed him, and we are alive. My neighbors…”
Again, Helvius shrugged, his expression drawn.
“Maybe some made it to the walls and I have not seen them.”
“Well, I’ll do what I can to make sure you and your family see Ancyria and your farm again,” Jay reached out and squeezed the man’s shoulder. “Things will get better.”
“Ulya’s blessings on you. Ah, and Lyssandria,” the man bowed his head fervently.
Helvius’ story was not new to Jadis. She had heard one iteration or another of essentially the same tale all day from most of the people she had met. Either they were locals who had asked their family to join them in the countryside surrounding Thracina, or they were displaced citizens who had fled the demonic invasion early because of the warnings that relatives had sent them. Regardless of source, the narrative was consistent. A majority of Voltonians had simply not taken the threat the Demons posed seriously.
After a few more words exchanged, Jay left Helvius and his sons to their work and made her way back to the nearby crop fields where she had left Meli and Sorcha. Her Dys self was still talking with Helvius’ sister-in-law while her Syd self was hovering high in the sky, overwatching the area. There had been no sign of danger thus far, but Jadis wasn’t going to let herself be caught with her pants down again. Regardless, her Jay body linked back up with her two lovers, both of whom wore unhappy expressions.
“I can fix this,” Sorcha was telling Meli. “But I’d have to use my wand on each one of these plants individually. It would take me all day to get through this field, and that’s if I had the magic pool to do this all. I don’t. I’d need Alex here helping me.”
“You would not need to use your magic on every plant. Approximately one third of this oat field is blighted. The rest should grow normally if the diseased ones are cured.”
“Right, well, the equation still comes out the same,” Sorcha let her hands flop to her sides dramatically. “I still don’t have the bloody reserves for that many plants. And this is one field. Fixing one field clean isn’t going to solve the problem the whole countryside is suffering from.”
“No one’s asking you to fix this,” Jay said as she came to a stop next to the two. “That would be unreasonable. But let’s find out everything we can so we can figure out what we can do to help.”
“What’s to figure out,” the goblin grumbled while waving a wilted stalk at Jay. “Shite’s fucked.”
Sorcha was right that the plants on this side of the field looked unrecoverable, except perhaps by magical intervention. Their leaves were covered in brown and black spots, and their stalks were hanging low as they wilted. Jadis doubted that any of the affected plants would live to harvest.
“How about this,” Jay said after a moment. “Is this all the same blight? Here in these fields, and the others we looked at? Or are we dealing with more than one disease?”
“The oats, wheat, and spelt are all being rotted by the same blight,” Meli answered. “The vegetable fields are being attacked by the same blight, an additional blight, and a fungus as well. The orchards are being eaten by a different, more powerful fungus that has clear magical properties. I would rate the blights as lesser diseases, the vegetable fungus as either a lesser or a greater, and the magic fungus eating the orchards as a superior.”
“There’s nothing I can do about that rot,” Sorcha shook her head. “A superior level disease is too strong for any of the wands I have, or that I can make. Maybe if I was CLR one hundred like you, I might be able to craft something, but not a chance as I am. I’m not even sure I can deal with the regular fungus killing the carrots.”
Jay sighed as she folded her arms across her breastplate, brows furrowed in thought. Food production was going to be a major problem for the people of Volto. Technically, she was only there to help drive the Demons out of Kastoria. Fixing the issues with the crops wasn’t a part of her job description. But if there was anything she could do to help, she wanted to. Getting rid of the invading Demons would be a lot of effort all for naught if everyone in Volto starved to death by the following year.
“I’ll check with Jocelyn and Amarantha when we get back, but I don’t think either of them are any better with plant-based healing than Eir is,” Jay murmured as she thought the problem over. “And if there were locals here in Volto who could fix this I’m sure they would already be doing so.”
“Maybe Tegwyn can do something when he gets here next month?” Sorcha proposed uncertainly.
“Tegwyn has more skill with φυτά than I,” Meli stated as she ran her fingers through the leaves of an unhealthy patch of plants. “His classes are directed that way. Mine are not. However, I do not believe he has the spells or power necessary to be effective over a wide range.”
“That’s true,” Jay said as she turned her gaze to the south. “Tegwyn might not have the power, but if his father was here, I bet he could do something. Elder Yorath and his wife, Olwyn, were able to make a grove that could withstand attacks from an army of Demons. I’d be shocked if they didn’t have spells to deal with these kinds of blights and fungi.”
“Alright, but they’re all the way down in Weigrun,” Sorcha pointed out. “I mean, you could sail down there in the Leviathan, but I bet my ears that neither of them would want to leave their grove to come all the way up here.”
“Maybe so,” Jay sighed and ran a gauntleted hand through her white hair. “But I could still ask. It’s not like I’m friends with any other Dryad groves.”
“I could ask my grandmother.”
Jay and Sorcha both turned to look at Meli. The quiet Dryad was still squatting low to the ground and running her fingers through the leaves, her expression blank as she gazed at something that couldn’t be found in the blighted oats. When she said nothing more, Jay knelt on one knee next to Meli.
“I didn’t think you were on good terms with your old grove.”
“I am not,” Meli replied without looking up. “But I could still ask.”
“Do you think, uh, that they’d be willing to help?” Sorcha asked with an uncomfortable look on her face. “I mean, if they’re a bunch of arseholes anyway, we can just forget about it and think up a different solution.”
“They might help,” Meli replied calmly. “I have not spoken to them since I left, decades ago. Things may have changed. But I do not think they would reject the request without consideration, first.”
“Are you sure?”
Meli finally looked up, meeting Jay’s gaze.
“I am sure.”
“Alright,” Jay nodded after a moment. “Where is your old grove located?”
“Northeast from here. Past the mountains. If you fly us there, it will not take long.”
“Then let’s keep collecting our samples,” Jay said as she plucked a blighted stalk from the ground and put it inside a glass bottle with a thick cork. “And finish our survey. We’ll see if we need to visit your family after we talk things over with everyone else, tonight.”
Meli nodded and stood up, wiping her hands clean against each other.
“We will do what we need to do.”
“Shame you’re not a plant growing type of Dryad yourself,” Sorcha said as she followed Jay and Meli to the next section of field. “Not that I’m complaining or anything. You’re really good at what you do.”
There was a short pause before the goblin continued.
“I just think I would have liked you growing plants rather than turning into a giant spider, is all.”
“You will get along with my grandmother.”
“Why? She doesn’t like spiders?”
“No. She would have wanted me to grow plants.”
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