Chapter 88: Looking Forward

Chapter 88: Looking Forward

“Where are we, exactly?”

Jay stood near the top of one of the half-hills, mallet swung over one shoulder, fist on her hip. Surveying the wider landscape, she couldn’t say for sure she knew which way was the right way to get back to Far Felsen. There were no man-made markers, no roads, and no recognizable terrain features that stood out to her. There were just endless broken hills.

“We headed north-east at the start,” Aila said, putting her hand up to block the sun. “But sort of went in circles for a while there. I’m not sure if Felsen is more south or west from here.”

“If I may suggest, perhaps we should ask the guards?”

Jadis glanced down at the diminutive cleric standing a few paces away from where her selves and Aila stood at the peak of the hill. The elf looked up at her expectantly with a sweet expression, hands clasped tightly together before her. She’d followed them up the hill while the guards remained at the base, trailing closely but not quite getting close enough to integrate into their company. Hovering like a younger kid trying to hang with the older crowd but not quite fitting in.

“Why don’t you go and ask them,” Dys said, giving the elf a nod. “We’ll meet you down there in a moment.”

“As you wish,” Eir bowed. Her expressive face showed some disappointment or dissatisfaction with the request, but she voiced no objection.

Once the elf had put some distance between her and them, making her way down to the waiting guards, Aila turned to Dys and gave her a light poke.

“Do you have to be so harsh with her? She’s clearly just trying to be helpful.”

“I’m not being harsh,” Dys frowned, rubbing her thigh where Aila had prodded her. Not that she felt any pain from the poke, but her instincts insisted she had to rub the spot.

“She’s just so... timid,” Jay said, shrugging her shoulders in a helpless gesture. “It’s kind of frustrating. If she just spoke her mind and stopped being so, I don’t know, servile? I think we’d be more comfortable with her and we could get along a lot easier.”

“Yeah, I feel like she’ll break down and cry if we say fuck or shit or any normal curses,” Syd added. She tapped her breastplate while looking at Aila incredulously. “Can you believe I said ‘darn’ earlier? Me? Fucking ‘darn’?”

“I think it was Jay that said ‘darn’, actually,” Aila replied with a smirk. “But I see your point. She does have a way about her that makes one feel like they must step carefully lest they cause her harm.”

Indeed, Eir did seem to promote an instinct to protect. Maybe that was why the magistrate and the high priest had maneuvered Jadis into accepting the priestess’ presence? Was it a part of some ploy to limit her perceived recklessness via placing a weak cleric in her care, inspiring her to use more caution lest she come to harm? Jadis wasn’t so sure. But the thought did occur to her.

Jadis hadn’t let any such concerns stop her from making as much progress killing demons and leveling that day as possible. After the success of the first force spike trap battle, she had managed to lead a couple more smaller roving groups of twisted wretches into the same narrow valley, using up as many of the traps Aila had placed down as possible. Eventually, though, they left the valley and started roaming around looking for more demons hiding in the hills. They’d found a few more groups, but nothing in the numbers of the first pack. Despite Vraekae’s concerns about Jadis finding trouble, this day they had not found any grundwyrms or corrupted magical beasts. Though one of the small packs of twisted wretches had contained a couple of bone thieves, drawing some anxious discussion between the guards.

Jadis had to admit it was nice having the cleric nearby. Any small injuries she received from the fights were healed as soon as the action was over with. Her worries about the cleric trying to dissuade her from continuing the fight or controlling her hadn’t come true, either. Eir, while constantly fixated on making sure Jadis remained at full health at all times, didn’t insist on turning back or avoiding danger. In fact, she had praised the three Nephilim throughout the day for their skill and zeal at the task of exterminating the evil servants of Samleos.

“What level are you at now?” Jay asked, taking the moment where Eir was out of range to check on Aila’s progress.

Aila smiled, her expression almost giddy. “Level seven. That’s four levels in a day, Jadis! They’re low levels, sure, but I never thought I’d see this kind of fast progress.”

Jadis’ faces lit up at the news and all three of her leaned down, planting kisses on her companion’s cheeks and lips.

“Congratulations, Blue! Can’t wait to see what new spells you’ve got now!”

The happy grin didn’t shrink, but Aila shook her head. “No new spells, unfortunately. But I did get some... interesting passive skills that should help a lot, I think.”

“Any of them my kind of skill?” Syd asked, making a ring with her thumb and forefinger with one hand, then thrusting her other forefinger in and out of the ring.

Aila blushed and tried to make a stern face at Jadis’ antics but couldn't quite suppress her silly smile.

“Maybe. You’ll find out tonight, after we both have a good bath. Anyway, what about you? Any levels?”

Jadis quickly double-checked her notifications.

Level Up!

Perverted Ritualist of D has Reached Level 15.

1 New Skill Available for Selection.

Level Up!

Mirror Knight has Reached Level 22.

One of Jadis’ persistent fears was the possibility of accidental impregnation. It was the main reason she had been able to resist fucking herself into oblivion, at least in the more traditional manner. Having a skill that would guarantee she wouldn’t have to worry about knocking herself up? She might not ever leave the bedroom again.

Well, no, that wasn’t true. She enjoyed brawling and leveling far too much to ever give it up.

There was also the benefit, she realized, of making certain that whoever she was with did become pregnant. Jadis’ eyes involuntarily stole a glance at Aila. The thought of the beautiful, lithesome redhead with a belly swollen with their progeny leapt to the fore of her mind. The idea had Jadis rising to attention immediately.

No. She was getting way ahead of herself. She was absolutely not ready to be a mother.

Father? Mother-father? Confusing thought.

Either way, she wasn’t ready to settle down. Maybe once the whole demon invasion thing was settled and D was hopefully satisfied with whatever Jadis managed to accomplish in her quest to ‘shake things up’ on Oros. She could see herself taking it easier at that point, finding a nice place to live, raise some kids, maybe some little pale-skinned redheads...

She needed to stop thinking about it. Jadis wasn’t even sure if Aila was interested in that level of commitment, a level that was far and above the more business-like one they’d already engaged each other in.

Still, the thought tantalized her. The skill would be useful if for no other reason than she wouldn’t need to worry about spending any coin on anti-fertility potions before performing her rituals with herself, Aila, or anyone else. That absolutely made it a worthy choice.

Jadis checked the next offering to see if it could beat the first option given.

Ritual of Delayed Empowerment

Ritual Spell. Create a point boost equal to your Combined Level Rating that can be applied to one attribute that lasts for one minute. Once the ritual is cast on a single target, boost activation can be delayed up to five days later. If the ritual is repeated before the first boost is activated, the new target will gain the boost and the previous target will lose the boost.

Honestly, not a bad choice either. Jadis could see immediate uses for the spell. One minute wasn’t much in everyday life, but a minute in combat was huge. Many of her fights never even lasted longer than a minute.

If the boost could be applied to any attribute at time of activation, she could increase an attribute value on the fly as needed in emergency situations. Even if she had to choose which attribute the boost would apply to at the time of ritual completion, it could still serve as a big boost to a stat like her eldritch attribute for times when she needed a temporary surge in power to get through a tough fight.

The spell could also serve as a safety net for Aila. Since it could be applied to a target, that meant she could put the ritual on her companion and if she were to be put into a life-threatening situation, she could apply the boost to her vitality, getting a huge number of health points to keep her alive, hopefully giving Eir enough time to heal her.

Jadis blinked at the final part of that thought. Incorporating Eir into her strategy wasn’t something she should necessarily be doing. She had no idea how long the cleric would be hanging around her. Once the guards had followed her around for a few days’ time, the magistrate could very well realize just what a waste of everyone’s time it was to send an escort after her. Or the next day it could be a completely different priest following her. Or the high priest might decide to withdraw his support for whatever reason. In any case, there was no guarantee Jadis would have a healer around her for long.

It was nice having a healer, though.

“So, anything you want to tell me about?” Aila asked, breaking Jadis out of her contemplations.

“Maybe once we get back to town. I can have surprises, too,” Jay told Aila with a smirk.

Looking at Aila’s beautiful, freckled face sealed the deal for Jadis. Without an ounce of hesitation she selected Potency Alteration. The fun she could have with her selves and with Aila now was a major draw. The potential for what could be in the future, an even bigger one.

“Then we should probably get moving then,” Aila quipped. “The sun will be down in another hour or so and we need to get back with enough time that we can visit the public bathhouse.”

As Aila walked down the hill, Jadis followed with three silly grins on her faces. Before Aila could completely distract her, she put her two free attribute points into her eldritch stat, the increase to her physical stats taking immediate effect. That was of little importance at the moment, though.

“Bathhouse? Felsen has one of those?” Dys asked, decidedly interested in the idea of seeing Aila wet and naked.

“It’s small and honestly not the best equipped I’ve ever been to, but it’s a lot better than the inn’s washroom.”

“I can hardly wait,” Syd purred in a husky tone.

The four of them rejoined Eir and the guards who had been patiently waiting. Eir was already mounted on her own horse and several of the guards who had gotten off of their mounts to stretch were remounting as they approached.

“So, which way to Felsen?” Jay asked without preamble.

“That way,” Ealdread, the elf guardsman Jadis had finally gotten the name of, indicated. “There’s a road some twenty minutes to the south of here. We can follow it back to the city.”

“Then let’s shake a leg,” Syd called out, confidently striding forward past the guards. “We’ve got a bathhouse to get to!”

Her statement drew more than a few odd looks from the guards, but Jadis didn’t care. She had a warm bath and a warmer Aila to look forward to.