“You’re shitting me.”
“No, I assure you, no shit involved.”
“Yes, there is! That is the biggest bullshit of a skill I have ever heard of! Extra bodies? Bull-motherfucking-shit!”
Jadis sighed as Kerr continued to rant, as she had been for the past several minutes, about the unfairness of how some people had all the luck when it came to classes and their skills. She’d been at it ever since Jadis had given her the most basic explanation she could. The therion’s voice was barely contained to reasonable tones and she was limited to a small space to pace due to the size of their alcove, but she still managed to make it abundantly clear exactly how strongly she felt about the topic.
“Fucker fucky fucking fuck!” She screamed her frustration into her arms, muffling the noise somewhat. “I want a cool-ass class that gives me extra bodies! Why in the Pits can’t I get skills offered to me like that?”
The last was said in the most petulant tone Jadis had ever heard come out of a grown woman, additionally highlighted by Kerr flopping to the ground and lying spread eagle on her back. She actually kicked her heels against the stone floor.
“Are you going to be alright?” Jay asked, watching Kerr’s over-the-top reaction with some mild amusement.
“No,” Kerr sulked. “I hurt my tail dropping like that. Ow.”
Jadis rolled all of her eyes and with Dys reached over with her foot and flipped the archer onto her front, letting her abused furry tail swing free.
“Thanks,” Kerr said, voice dampened by her face pressing into the cave floor.
Jadis had been shocked when Eir had suddenly woken her Dys self and started reassuring her worries and self-doubt. She had not expected the woman to be awake to overhear their conversation, much less be able to hear their whispers when they were so far apart. As it turned out, elf ears weren’t just for show.
She was less surprised that Eir had figured out her secret. Well, her class-based secret. Jadis was still successfully hiding her rebirth and non-Oros origins, a fact she was keeping in confidence even from Aila, though she was becoming less and less certain as time went on that she needed to, or even should. In any case, with what she and Aila had been discussing, combined with how Dys had forced Eir to heal her in order to heal Jay, it wasn’t truly a shock that Eir had figured out her multi-body gimmick. She didn’t mind the priestess knowing the truth anyway, honestly. It would certainly make any future conversations about their budding relationship easier.
Kerr overhearing the whole exchange and learning her secret as well? Definitely had not been expected.
“Is it because you’re some kind of chosen race?” Thea spoke up now that Kerr was no longer raving about class injustices. “Nephilim are one of the Gods’ children, one of the lost ones, right? Is that why you have a powerful and unique class?”
Of course, with how loudly Kerr reacted to the revelation, Thea had been woken and was quickly made aware as well. Jadis was seriously considering dropping the act once they got back to Far Felsen. There was no way her secret would remain one now that the number of people who knew it had increased from two to five.
“Nephilim are Lyssandria’s Children,” Eir answered Thea’s question before Jadis could, “but Mirror Knight is no class I’ve ever read of in any of the scriptures regarding Nephilim and their ways. I doubt her race is directly linked.”
Eir was, to Jadis’ bemusement, still sitting in Dys’ lap. She had turned around and was sitting facing out and she had wrapped herself back up in one of the somewhat damp blankets, but she hadn’t left her spot on top of Dys, seemingly loath to relinquish the seat now that she’d claimed it.
“I would think it’s because of her connection to Destarious,” Aila added her own thoughts to the discussion. “Being the mischievous god that he is, I can well imagine that his influence would have something to do with what classes she was offered.”
Aila had, once Kerr’s shouting had started, left Syd’s side and rejoined the group in the center of their tunnel campsite. Jadis honestly felt bad that the moment she and Aila had been sharing had been interrupted by Eir. While not saying much, Aila had been doing her best to comfort her while her spirits were low. Eir’s words had been what she’d needed to kickstart her confidence and get her out of her funk, though, she couldn’t deny.
When Aila had sat down with the group to watch Kerr rant, she had sat close to Dys, silently slipping her hand into hers and intertwining their fingers. The gesture was appreciated, all the more since she knew Aila wasn’t one for public displays of affection.
“Yeah, good ol’ D definitely played a part,” Dys said with a mirthless chuckle. “That guy has a strange sense of humor, going by my second class if nothing else.”
“You act like you’ve met him,” Kerr mumbled, face still smushed against stone. “You’re not a cleric and you’re not that high level so no fucking chance.”
“Anyways, however I got the class doesn’t really matter. I have it and now you know. If possible, I’d appreciate it if—”
“Wait,” Kerr interrupted her, head popping up from the ground. “What’s up with your secondary class? Are you going to tell me it’s something powerful and awesome too?”
Dys and Aila exchanged a glance.
“It is!” Kerr leapt to her feet and rushed Dys, grabbing hold of her shoulders and shaking her with enough force to actually knock her head around. “You totally have a thrashkillky amazing secondary class too, don’t you? Tell me!”
“It’s rude to demand class information,” Eir admonished the archer, pinned between Kerr and Dys as the therion continued to shake the much larger giant.
“Stop behaving like a child,” Aila stood and put a firm hand on Kerr’s shoulder. “She doesn’t have to tell you if she doesn’t want to.”
“Fine,” Kerr groused as she backed off and took a seat a yard or two away. “Don’t tell me all about your super awesome secret secondary class that involves gods and shit. Who wants to know about stuff like that? Not me.”
Taking a moment to breathe, Jadis eyed Kerr where she sat with her arms petulantly crossed. She wasn’t actually opposed to telling the woman about her secondary class. In fact, with the idea Jadis was starting to formulate for how they were all going to survive the trek out of the demon-and-monster-infested caverns, Kerr would necessarily have to be informed about the nature of her ritualist class. As would Eir and Thea, for that matter. However, if she was going to tell them, she’d need to make sure that they were going to be at least somewhat discreet. Jadis didn’t want to broadcast her skills and abilities to the whole world, after all. That would likely lead to people trying to take advantage of her and she already had enough problems dealing with Magistrate Vraekae as it was.
A small flicker of vindictive amusement passed through Jadis’ mind at the thought of the magistrate. She could only imagine the absolute shitstorm she had no doubt thrown when she found out from the ship’s captain that he’d left her behind because he didn’t have the courage to wait a single minute longer for ‘expendable’ mercenaries to get back to the docks.
She’d pay good money to be a fly on that wall.
“Okay, let’s have a little talk about this,” Dys said, picking Eir up off her lap and setting her down between where Thea and Kerr sat. “Before I say anything, though, I want a promise—no, I want an oath out of all three of you that you won’t go talking about my personal information with anyone else. Including direct superiors who might demand such information in the future.”
“I would never divulge any information you might wish to tell me in confidence if you bade me not to,” Eir immediately confirmed, just as Jadis had expected she would.
“What if the High Priest asked you?” Dys pressed, looking down at the elf with her arms crossed and eyebrow raised. “Can you swear you still wouldn’t spill?”
Eir looked hesitant then. After a moment her eyes widened as she came to some decision.
“I swear upon Lyssandria, by my devotion to her and my honor as a priestess, I will not reveal any secret you share with me to anyone else unless you give me explicit permission. The High Priest would never ask me to break an oath I have sworn on my goddess’ name.”
That was a far more serious-sounding promise than Jadis had actually wanted. She’d never made Aila make any promises. She’d simply trusted that Aila wouldn’t go blabbing her personal info. However, Jadis did want to be sure these three understood that she wanted the information she was about to divulge kept under wraps.
With that, Dys nodded in acceptance of Eir’s promise and turned her gaze upon Kerr.
“I don’t have any superiors. I’m freelance, remember?”
“Kerr…”
“Yes, fine, I get it,” she rolled her catlike green eyes. “I swear I won’t spill the honey on your class information. I’ll even give you my class information in exchange so it’s at least kind of fair. Not that anything I have will be anywhere near as interesting, I’m sure.”
That was about as strong a promise as Jadis was liable to get from Kerr. It would do. She was curious to learn about classes other than her own, so Kerr volunteering her own class info was a nice bonus. The person she was most concerned about was next, though.
Thea stared up nervously at Dys, her modest body-type and frame absolutely dwarfed by Dys’ towering form, the guard appearing even smaller since she was sat cross-legged on the ground. Now that she wasn’t wearing any armor or a helmet, Jadis could see that Thea was a fairly attractive-looking human woman with brown hair tied in a bun, hazel eyes, and light skin, though not as pale as Aila much less as startlingly white as herself. It was hard to tell, what with the only light in the tunnel coming from glowing green moss, but the woman looked a bit sick. Jadis could easily deduce why.
“Uhm, if Magistrate Vraekae orders me to tell her and I refuse, I could lose my job, or a lot worse,” Thea voiced her fears. “She could have me jailed for insubordination. She might even put pressure on my family if I don’t do as she asks…”
“Vraekae would never be so heartless,” Eir said, aghast. “I know she can be quite fussy, particularly when it comes to legal matters, but she wouldn’t be so malicious as to threaten harm upon your family,” she said, shaking her head at the human woman.
“Beg your pardon, ma’am,” Thea replied with a helpless shrug, “but I don’t want to risk it.”
“You won’t have to risk anything when it comes to Vraekae,” Dys said as she waved one hand dismissively. “She already knows about my primary and secondary classes. Question is, can you keep silent if anyone else orders you to talk?”
Thea still looked conflicted, but after a few moments nodded her head.
“I can swear that I won’t tell anyone about what you tell me unless Vraekae orders me to. She’s my direct commander in Weigrun. If someone else of rank orders me to talk, I can direct them to her, I think.”
Thea’s answer wasn’t as firm as Jadis would have liked, especially with those last couple words of uncertainty, but it would have to do. The fact that Thea had put in effort to come up with a way to make Jadis a promise told her enough about the woman’s character, just as Eir and Kerr’s promises did for them. Jadis mostly just wanted some insight into how much she could trust these three. She trusted Aila implicitly, their bond stronger than Jadis would have thought possible in such a short amount of time. Eir, Kerr, and Thea weren’t at the same level, but she was beginning to see that Eir, at the very least, was far more devoted to her than a randomly assigned temple cleric was likely to be. And, if Jadis examined her own reactions, she felt far more positive towards Eir than she had when they’d first met.
Jadis was starting to feel a little silly for how seriously she was treating the whole thing, especially with three pairs of eyes watching her, plus Aila observing from off to the side, her own inscrutable expression on her face.
“Alright then. It’s a promise,” Dys said with a nod, arms unfolding as her hands went to her hips. “So, lets get this out of the way first. My name is Jadis. To be clear, that’s my name, which means me, myself, and I over there,” Dys waved first to herself, then Jay, then Syd. “You can keep referring to each of my bodies by the nickname I gave them, but if you’re talking about me overall, I’m Jadis.”
“Such a lovely name.”
“Yeah, that’s not confusing at-fucking-all.”
“Understood ma’am.”
The three responses were about as unique as their originators. Jadis ignored them and pushed on.
“As I just explained a little bit ago, my primary class is Mirror Knight. It’s what allows me to duplicate my body into three separate forms. It’s a mostly martial archetype, but I have had the option to learn eldritch-type spells. I just haven’t learned any such spells for Mirror Knight. I think it’s because I have a naturally very high eldritch attribute, so I got a class that probably wouldn’t be offered to anyone else under most circumstances, at least not until they were getting their secondary or tertiary class, probably.”
Jadis paused, reorienting herself as she realized she’d gotten a little off track.
“Anyway. My secondary class is also eldritch-based,” Jadis continued her explanation. “It’s what’s given me the highest boosts in my power as it lets me do rituals that increase my attributes. It’s also the reason why Aila has such powerful spells despite being pretty low level in her only spell-casting class. She, um, directly benefits from a couple of my rituals.”
Glancing back to check on her companion, she saw Aila nod in acknowledgement of what Jadis said, not interrupting. Jadis had hoped Aila wouldn’t mind her revealing her involvement in her rituals since once she explained them in more detail, there was no way the three women wouldn’t put two-and-two together and come to the same conclusion.
Dys looked back to the expectant faces watching her. For some reason she felt a whole lot more awkward about her situation than she normally did. Was it performance anxiety, stemming from talking to a group rather than one-on-one? Jadis mentally shook her head. Timidity was not her way.
Fuck it. Time to be bold.
“My secondary class is called Perverted Ritualist of D and it lets me perform sex-rituals to boost attributes. In fact, I have one that increases in power depending on how many people are involved and another that lets me increase a single attribute of another person by half my Eldritch stat.”
There was a pregnant pause as Jadis’ words sunk in.
“Oh, and my eldritch stat is currently ninety-one, so that’s forty-five points to one of my target’s stats. Their choice.”
The silent moment went on a beat longer before it was broken in the most Kerr way possible.
“You’re fucking shitting me!”
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