Chapter 148: All Work and No Play

Chapter 148: All Work and No Play

“Sabina, this is absolutely amazing. Whatever we paid you, we need to pay you more.”

The half-elven smith smiled bashfully, her pride in her hard work evident. Her callused hands rested on top of one of the new helmets she had crafted, fingers playing with the etched contours.

“There aren’t any enchantments in any of them because I don’t know how to do enchantments but I hope I’ll be able to do enchantments if I get a class for it with my secondary class but even though I couldn’t do them I left channels on the inner parts where enchantments can be added later so you won’t have to order entirely new armor since this was already expensive to make and while I would appreciate the extra business I don’t think you should have to pay for it all again since there are three of you and that is a lot of armor since you’re all so huge and I mean that in a nice way but still that’s a lot of area to cover and any way it’s not perfect but I tried to add a little bit of flair to it and I’ll shut up now.”Diiscover new stories at novelhall.com

Once again, Sabina’s words tumbled out of her like a landslide. One simply had to ride along with it until it was over. Jadis grinned, enjoying the way the well-muscled half-elf became ever more flustered as her talk went on, seemingly fully aware that she was rambling, but no more able to stop the tide of words than anyone else.

“They’re beautiful,” Jay insisted, picking up one of the helmets to inspect it more closely. “I don’t know how you managed to make all three suits of armor so quickly.”

“I had some help,” Sabina admitted. “While you three were missing everyone thought you were all dead but I figured you probably weren’t since you’re all so strong so I kept making your armor since you paid for most of it up front anyway. I managed to finish the one set right before that demon army attacked and then afterwards I knew you three were still alive since everyone was talking about how incredible you all were to kill that Burning Rancor greater demon and then when I got back to making your armor some of the other smiths lent a hand since they knew it was for you and they wanted to show some gratitude for what you did and it helped a lot so I was able to get the other two suits done in just three weeks which is really good and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without their help so you should thank them if you want but you don’t have to if you don’t but you all are really nice people so you probably will.”

Sabina was right about Jadis’ intentions. The armor was both beautiful and impressive and she was going to make sure she thanked the other smiths busy at work in the shared smithy workshop Sabina used for her crafting. Though as far as Jadis was concerned, the exuberant woman deserved the majority of the credit. The thick, darkly colored plate armor Sabina had designed entranced Jadis, even before she had put it on. The material it was made from wasn’t common steel, but some kind of alloy Sabina had called “Cold Flame Steel” which even just the name had Jadis’ inner nerd excited. She could already tell the extra cost had been absolutely worth it.

“Did you just finish them?” Dys asked while admiring the heavy breastplate she’d picked up from the workshop table.

“The last piece was done yesterday,” Sabina confirmed with a rapid nod of her dark-haired head. “I was going to go looking for you today but I guess you have good timing since I haven’t seen you since you came back to the city but I figured you were probably busy just like everyone has been and I didn’t want to be a bother.”

Jadis had indeed been busy. Founding her new mercenary company, Fortune’s Favored, had taken up a lot of her time, though it hadn’t been the only drain on her days. Besides working on tasks related to establishing her fledgling guild, issues like helping with the cleanup of the battlefield, clearing the surrounding area of straggler demons, and working out new accommodations for her and her four companions had been priorities. Vraekae hadn’t been joking when she’d said she didn’t have the manpower to spare anymore. The blue-skinned elf had immediately roped her into helping with the cleanup and, much like the rest of the mercenary companies in the city, she and her companions had been worked to the bone to help secure the area from any future attacks. They had all been so busy, Jadis had barely had any time alone with her girls, at least not as much time as she would have liked. They hadn’t even had a chance to experiment with her new rituals yet.

Despite having so much going on, Jadis still wished she’d had the time to check up on Sabina sooner. But with so many different things vying for her attention, the cute half-elf smith had been pushed to the back burner, much to Jadis’ chagrin. She was just glad the perky woman hadn’t done the same to her and delayed the forging of her new plate armor. She would have been well within her rights to, considering everything that had happened with Far Felsen in the past month.

“Well, sorry for keeping you waiting,” Jay told the smith, grinning at the way Sabina fervently waved off her apology. “I have had a lot to do. Which actually brings me around to reason number two for why I came to visit you.”

“Oh, is it the wagon? It’s the wagon, isn’t it. I’m sorry Jay or Dys or Syd or whichever one you are but I didn’t get the wagon done just yet because I’m not experienced with that kind of wood work and I was busy with the armor and the carpenter that was helping me has been busy with rebuilding all the roofs that were burnt by that greater demon and did I tell you I saw it swoop down and light a ship on fire? Because I did and it was terrifying and I wasn’t even that close and I don’t know how you managed to wrestle that monster out of the sky but its amazing that you did and I wish I had seen it but I’m also kind of glad I didn’t since it would have been horrible but it would have been amazing too so I’m kind of conflicted on that but still I’m sorry I couldn’t keep working on the wagon but now that I’m done with the armor I can devote a lot more time to the wagon and I’m sure I’ll have it done in a week or two depending on how much help I can get from other craftsmen.”

“There’s no rush on the wagon, Sabina,” Jay assured the half-elf, finally managing to get a word in. “That wasn’t what I was going to ask you about though.”

“It wasn’t?” Sabina asked, her expressive face almost seeming to deflate with disappointed confusion.

“No,” Dys followed up, grabbing the smith’s attention. “We wanted to ask you if you might be interested in joining our new mercenary company.”

Sabina blinked dumbly, clearly nonplused by the question. It was probably the first time Jadis had ever seen the girl at a loss for words since she’d met her. Her mouth gaped open a few times, little noises coming out as her brain struggled to catch up with her voice. After a few seconds, she found a few, though it wasn’t her usual avalanche.

“But I’m not a mercenary?”

Kerr, on the other hand, absolutely was.

The therion archer had required a lot more explanations before she had been willing to accept the strangeness of Jadis’ claims about being given a body by D just because he felt like it. Though, once Jadis had told her all about the deal she had made with the god, Kerr had become quite excited about it.

“The god of luck and tricks told you to get out there and fuck up the established order? Fuck yeah, I’m on board with that!” she had exclaimed in her typically eloquent way.

All in all, Jadis was happy with the team she had formed and the progress she had made in the past few weeks. Which was good, because she wasn’t planning on taking it easy in town for too much longer. The conversation Jadis had had with her patron deity Destarious and his mother, the goddess Lyssandria, had not been forgotten. D had told her that the things she had done on Oros so far had been “fair” in his opinion. Not that Jadis was brimming with religious zeal to meet D’s approval, but she didn’t want to leave things as just “fair” when it came to her god-given quest. Pushing ahead as hard as she could go was more her style. Even though she had needed the rest, Jadis was chomping at the bit to get back out in the world to explore new places and slay bigger and badder demons.

Besides, another reason why Jadis wanted to get moving had to do with another bit of information Jadis had gotten from D. The gods were all well aware of Jadis. Whether or not they knew about her quest to tip the scales of power, she wasn’t sure, but since the gods were aware of her, that meant that they were watching her to some degree or another. There wasn’t anything she could do about their observation, but the stronger she became, the harder it would be for any of their representatives on Oros to get in her way should they decide they didn’t want her interfering in the status quo.

Yes, Jadis was planning on getting a lot stronger than she already was. She wasn’t about to let her time on Oros come to an end any time soon.

“You know,” Dys spoke quietly so that only Thea could hear her as they walked down the street. “I still need to test out that new spell I told you all about before. Now that we’ve got a roof over our heads, are you interested in trying it out tonight?”

“T—the W—wanton Replication ritual?” Thea stuttered out, a blush creeping up her cheeks.

“That’s the one,” Dys grinned slyly. “Of course, I know you like to watch, so maybe one of the others, first?”

“M—maybe!” Thea squeaked out, obviously embarrassed as her eyes darted around, making sure no one was overhearing their conversation.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Dys chuckled. “Besides, I’m pretty sure you’re due for your ‘boost’ today, anyway.”

Thea blushed even more deeply at the mention of the ritual that required she and Jadis fornicate every three days to maintain the large boost to her stat she currently enjoyed. Not out of dislike of that act, Jadis was quite certain. Thea was a very willing participant once they were behind closed doors. She just clearly had a lot of trouble discussing such topics in public.

As the flustered former soldier struggled to find words, Jadis decided she’d teased her enough.

“Sorry, sorry,” Dys patted Thea on the shoulder and gave her a small squeeze. “I’ll stop. We’ll talk more about it later, in private. Okay?”

Thea nodded vigorously.

“T—tonight,” she finally got out. “B—but I’ll, um, watch. First.”

Jadis’ grin widened.

“I can hardly wait.”