A particularly persistent beam of sunlight worked its way into Dys’ closed eyes, waking her from a deep, dreamless sleep. She grimaced, waking up slowly as she blinked the grit from her eyes and became aware of her surroundings. She wasn’t sure when she’d fallen asleep, having slipped into unconsciousness without realizing it sometime in the early hours of the morning.
Looking around, Dys saw that she was still in the High Priest’s quarters. Her other two selves were fast asleep, as was Aila, who had somehow wound up in Jay’s arms and was sleeping soundly on top of her. There was one more addition to the group that hadn’t been there when Jadis had last been conscious.
Eir knelt by Syd’s prone form, hands clasped in prayer. The elf must have taken some time to bathe and change, Jadis realized, as Eir looked clean and refreshed in immaculately white robes. She was silent, eyes closed as she prayed over Jadis’ injured body. Her face looked troubled to Jadis, and she wondered what the source of her priestly companion’s concern could be. Checking her status sheet, Jadis saw that her health had been fully restored, back to its maximum of nine hundred and ten. Looking at Syd, it also appeared as though all of the cosmetic damage that had been done by the cuts and burns were gone, too. Syd was back to looking like an identical triplet of her other selves rather than a melted copy. Whatever the issue was, Jadis didn’t think it had to do with her recovery.
Suddenly remembering Eir’s concerns from the day before, Syd came to full wakefulness and quietly felt the satchel still tied to her belt. Inside she could feel a gentle squirm from the demon hatchling within. Since the little demonling had obeyed her command to stay and had not tried to possess someone while she’d been sleeping, Jadis figured that wasn’t Eir’s immediate concern, either.
Mentally shrugging, Jadis decided to skip the subtleties.
Syd reached up and wrapped her left hand around Eir’s. The elf startled slightly, dark purple eyes opening wide to look down into Syd’s violet ones.
“Hey. You okay?”
Eir’s brain seemed to take a minute to catch up to Syd’s question, her face blank until she seemed to shake herself out of her haze and nodded.
“Yes, I’m fine,” she said, then her nod turned to a shake and her face fell. “Actually, no, I’m not fine. I’m not fine at all.”
“What’s wrong?” Syd asked, sitting up fully to face Eir while Dys also scooted forward to be closer. Jay was awake by then and as she stirred, so too did Aila, the redhead also waking from her much-needed sleep.
“I, um, I reached level twenty yesterday,” Eir hesitantly explained. “And—and the class options I was given were…”
“Oh,” Syd sighed, feeling less on edge immediately. She had feared something had been done to Eir, maybe an order given by the High Priest to stay away from her or something like that. “Let me guess. One of your class options is of a less than chaste nature? Probably something perverted, could also be related to Nephilim?”
“Hm? Did Eir receive a pervert class because of you too?” Aila asked while yawning. She sat up, but still remained comfortably on top of Jay’s stomach, forcing the Nephilim to stay prone on the floor. “Because if this is going to be a reoccurring thing, I think you need to start giving warnings to anyone you sleep with that they might have their class options irrevocably altered in the future.”
“No, well, I mean, yes, I did,” Eir admitted. “But that isn’t the problem.”
“Well, what is then?” Syd asked, her one hand still enveloping Eir’s two much smaller hands. “You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to, but I’m here for you, Eir. If it’s something I can help with, I will.”
“Is one of your class options bad in some way?” Dys asked, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees. “If its bad, you don’t have to take it, right?”
“No, no,” Eir shook her head, then looked up into Syd’s eyes. “It’s not a bad class. It’s a good one. Too good. Jadis, I’ve been offered an Oracle class.”
Jadis blinked, uncomprehending. She felt like she was lacking some context as other than their association with divination and gods, Jadis didn’t know anything about oracles, much less the class on Oros. By Aila’s reaction, though, Jadis swiftly realized that what Eir was saying was of significant importance.
“Oracle?” Aila slid off of Jay, going to one knee before Eir as she put a hand on the smaller woman’s shoulder. “Are you sure? It’s in the title?”
“Yes,” Eir said, her expression a mixture of happiness and worry. “It’s right there in the title. Oracle. It even confirms it in the class description. But it’s wrong! It has to be, I can’t be an oracle! I’m not… It’s not the right class!”
“Hold on, I’m confused,” Jay said, finally sitting up. “What’s the problem? It’s just an option you can pick, not something you have to take, right? What’s the big deal?”
Aila turned, looking over her shoulder at Jay with incredulity in her eyes. Her face spoke volumes. Something about what Jadis had just said was massively stupid and she immediately tried to backtrack.
“Well, I mean, maybe it’s a class you should take if it’s an option… But it’s your choice, right?”
“Look, I’m clearly being a dumbass right now,” Dys cut in on behalf of her other self as Aila and Eir both continued to give Jay some mixed expressions of confusion. “I am absolutely missing something here so, please. Before I make a bigger ass of myself, would you start from the beginning, Eir? Tell me about your class options and what is it about Oracle that’s upsetting you?”
Eir took a calming breath and slowly released it, then nodded her head once. Sitting back, she regarded her audience briefly, then began her explanation.
“The first class I was offered was one of the ones I expected to receive. High Cleric of Lyssandria. It’s a good class, one that many who worship Lyssandria hope to achieve. It is an uncommon class, but considering I already have a rare primary class, it makes logical sense I would be offered this one as well. Especially considering how much healing I’ve been doing as of late.
“Then there was the… unconventional class option. Debauched Devotee. I believe it may have been offered to me due to my… enthusiasm when performing certain rituals with you.”
Jadis always had trouble telling how embarrassed Eir was due to the natural dark red hue of her skin. However, in this case, there was no doubt. Somehow, despite her skin tone, Eir had somehow managed to blush an even deeper shade of red. It was honestly impressive.
“A completely impractical class. It would have no real use outside of the, um, bedchamber. I think. It, uh, doesn’t warrant any further elaboration, I’m sure you would agree.”
“Maybe a little elaboration,” Syd said, one corner of her lips quirking up in amusement. “But not now. Go ahead, continue.”
Eir took another deep breath, then said her next words in a rush.
“The third class I was offered is called Lustful Oracle of D.”
There was a pause of silence that lingered for just a touch too long.
“And that means…?” Syd asked, trying not to sound ignorant even though she was certain she was failing at it.
“I’m a beloved of Lyssandria!” Eir exclaimed. “I don’t worship Destarious! Or, I mean, I do, but no more than any of the other gods! If by some miracle of favor I was somehow to be granted an Oracle class, it should have been devoted to Lyssandria! Not D!”
“Oh.”
“Oh!” Eir repeated Syd’s subdued response. “Not just ‘Oh!’ I have the attention of Destarious! He wants to use me as a vessel for speaking to others in the world. If I refuse him, who knows what he’ll do? It's Destarious! The God of mischief and madness! Even without direct influence, there are so many ways he could take out his ire on me. But if I accept his Oracle class, what will my lady do? I’m a Beloved of Lyssandria! I’m supposed to be devoted to her service—How can I be her faithful servant and be a voice for Destarious at the same time?”
“You can’t,” Aila answered a heartbeat later. “Or rather, you can’t ordinarily. This sort of change in patron deity doesn’t happen. Not unless there is a major influencing factor.” Aila turned her gaze back onto Jadis’ three selves, her expression changed from worried to puzzled. “What exactly is your relationship to D, Jadis?”
“What do you mean?” Jay asked warily. “He’s my patron god. Perverted Ritualist of D, remember?”
“Yes, I remember,” Aila brushed past the answer and turned to face Jay fully. “Jadis, let me be clear. There is, to my knowledge, only one other person with the Oracle class in the whole of the Empire right now. Just one. And she is currently the healer of the Hero. The Hero. She was a cleric of Ulya, but she gained an Oracle class devoted to Valtar when she reached level twenty. And she gained that class because she is serving Valtar’s chosen Hero. There have been multiple times in history where a person with a class devoted to one god gained a class that was devoted to another, but in almost every single case I can think of, those individuals were companions to the Hero of their time and were granted a powerful class by Valtar to aid the hero in their quest to defeat the Demon Lord.”
Aila shook her head, expression calm but tone strident.
“No offense to you, Eir, but I am positive that D wouldn’t offer you an Oracle class for no reason. You’re just not that important, not on your own. Except, you do have some importance, in as much as you hold importance to Jadis. Which brings the question back around: Jadis, what exactly is your relationship to Destarious?”
Well, shit.
Jadis had known that someday she was going to have to come clean about her origins, at least with Aila. Her reincarnation into an extinct species was a topic she had been avoiding largely due to the fact that she wasn’t sure how others would respond to the information. Would she be thought of as crazy? Would anyone believe her at all? What if the temple decided that her being essentially a construct created by D rather than an actual descendant of the Nephilim who once lived on Oros meant she wasn’t a True Nephilim and labeled her an imposter?
What if Eir rejected her for not being a True Nephilim?
What if Aila got angry at her for lying about her origins?
What if they hated her?
Fuck. Jadis didn’t want to think about what life would be like if Aila decided to cut her ties with her. Even the idea of Eir leaving her hurt unexpectedly badly. The thought of Aila breaking up with her was too much to contemplate. But she had to tell them something. Eir’s new class had brought the issue to the fore and even discarding her personal relationships with the two women, Eir needed some kind of explanation. She was obviously distressed about the whole situation. And Aila…
Aila was as stoic as ever, but Jadis could tell that she was worried. She’d known that she was going to be involved in some crazy shit when she’d decided to throw her lot in with Jadis. But she hadn’t gotten the full truth. And for that, Jadis knew she was in the wrong.
“Okay, I do have a confession to make,” Jay started, her face serious and her tone soft. “But before I say anything, I want to make sure, are we safe here? To speak privately, I mean. I don’t want anyone to overhear what I’m about to tell you two.”
Eir nodded, then got up from her spot kneeling on the floor and went to the High Priest’s desk. From it she picked up a small octagonal metal prism. She held it with a look of concentration until a second later it began to glow a soft green color, barely noticeable in the light of day.
“A warding enchantment,” she advised as she sat back down before Jadis and Aila. “It blocks sound from leaving its radius and prevents magic forms of observation. We should be safe to speak plainly.”
“Okay, good,” Dys said, nodding. “So. Not sure how to say this. Hm. Fuck.”
“I’m confident in your ability to say the word ‘fuck’,” Aila quipped in a surprisingly humorous gesture. The teasing words made Jadis grin and eased her tension, though, and she shot Aila a thankful smile.
“Yup, I do have a handle on that one word if no other,” Dys readily agreed. “Okay, here goes.”
“I’m not from Oros,” Jadis said, all three of her bodies speaking in unison. “Not originally.”
“How’s that?” Aila asked, blinking a few times.
“I don’t understand,” Eir said at the same time, her expression a mask of confusion.
“I am, or rather, I was a human. Like Aila. But not from Oros. I was from a world called Earth. And I, uh, I died. Somehow.”
“I don’t really remember exactly how, to be honest,” Syd said, picking up where Dys left off. “Last thing I remember clearly about my life before was I was eating some noodles. Might have been pho? I don’t know, something like that. And then I was dead.”
“Jadis, what are you—” Aila began, but Jay cut her off.
“Yeah, I’m rambling. Look, the important part is I died on my home world and somehow my soul caught the attention of D. The god. He, uh, he decided to make me an offer and gave me a new life on Oros. Only, for some reason when I told him about the kind of body I wanted, he kind of put me in the body of a Nephilim. And I just want to point out that I did not ask to be a Nephilim. I didn’t even know what a Nephilim was at the time. He kind of just made that choice unilaterally. When he asked me what kind of body I wanted the whole race thing didn’t really come up. He said I could be whatever I wanted and I just wanted to be a woman with a big dick in my new life…”
Jay stopped talking, having realized that she’d begun to ramble again. Looking at the blank expressions of her audience, Jadis swiftly deduced that she may have lost them somewhere along the way in her increasingly absurd story.
“…am I making any sense?” Syd asked, trying to get a response out of her two undoubtedly confused and doubtful companions.
There was an uncomfortable silence for a long moment before Aila finally broke it with a question of her own.
“Are you telling me you met a god who offered to give you any body you wanted and the only thing you asked for was to have a penis?”
Another silence.
“Well when you put it like that…”
522