The explanation of her extra-planar origins took a while. A long while. It turned out that the people of Oros, or at least Aila and Eir and the circles they were raised in, had no real familiarity with the concepts of reincarnation or other worlds. Or rather, they did have the idea of other realms from the perspective of the places, or ‘Halls’ as they called them, where the gods lived and all their faithful worshipers went to after death. But the idea of a whole different planet where regular people just lived normal lives was alien to them.
Fortunately, or possibly not, they had no trouble at all with the thought of D recreating an extinct species just for the sake of his own amusement.
“No hidden village of surviving Nephilim in Kalters Wall?”
“No,” Syd shook her head, affirming Eir’s unhappy conclusion. It hurt to see how crestfallen the priestess was at the admission, but Jadis was determined to be truthful with her companions from that point forward. “I literally began existence only a few months ago, fully grown, on the slopes of a mountain side. Just me and a loincloth. Kind of a dick move on D’s part, really. He said he’d be putting me near some of his worshippers, but I guess he hadn’t checked on them in a while because when I found the village with his temple, everyone was dead and it was overrun with demons. I didn’t have a fucking clue what was going on.”
“Were you at least close to level twenty when you were ‘reborn’?” Aila asked, openly regarding Jadis as a scientist would a fascinating and rare specimen. “Or maybe he gave you a guide or a special power…”
“No, I was exactly level nothing. Gained my primary class after I, ahem, observed my reflection in a pond of water and went from there. Pretty sure that’s why I got the Mirror Knight class. Looking at myself was kind of the sum total of everything I did when I first appeared on Oros, more or less.”
Aila’s expression had wavered between disbelief, fascination, and amusement throughout Jadis’ story. Now it had morphed solidly into exasperated resignation.
“Of course you somehow managed to gain almost fifty levels in just a few months. Why am I surprised? Gods above Jadis, do you have any idea how insane that is?”
“I’m beginning to see that, yeah,” Jay answered. “It’s not like it was easy! I have had more near-death experiences in the three months I’ve been here than all of the twenty years I lived back on Earth!”
“Are you a Fetch?”
Eir’s abrupt question so thoroughly derailed Jadis’ conversation and line of thought that she just stared at the elf, unblinking for a few seconds before eventually coming up with an intelligent response.
“A what?”
“Are you a Fetch?” Eir repeated her question with earnest seriousness. “That is, I wouldn’t think that you are considering Vraekae confirmed your race by looking at your status sheet, which was horribly rude of her, but she did look and I—I mean. You’re not, right?”
The pained look of desperation in Eir’s eyes compelled Jadis to want to reach out and hug the poor elf, but she held back. She also sensed that the priestess needed some serious answers, not physical comfort. So, Jadis faced her friend directly with her Syd self, treating her with the full respect she deserved.
“Eir, I don’t know what a Fetch is. However, I can promise you with absolute certainty that I am a Nephilim. It’s on my status sheet. I’d show it to you right now if I could. That said, if you want to tell me what a Fetch is, I’d be happy to listen and maybe I can answer your question more clearly.”
Eir let out a little sigh through her nose, some of the worry clearing from her face as she seemed to come to some inner resolution.
“The Fetch are the Chosen Children of Destarious. His avatars on Oros, in the way that the Nephilim were Lyssandria’s avatars. They’re shape changers. Tricksters and illusionists by their very nature. Since Destarious made you, for a moment I thought… No. No, you’re not. You are a Nephilim, even if your origin is decidedly unorthodox. There’s no way any Fetch could do all that you’ve done just for the sake of a trick. As unbelievable as your tale is, I don’t take it for a lie. I believe you. I believe in you.”
“Thanks,” Syd said awkwardly while running a hand through her hair. “That, um, shit. That actually makes me feel kind of, um, yeah… Ah, fuck. I’m a mess right now.”
Quite the opposite of how she’d figured things would go a moment earlier, now it was Jadis who was feeling overcome with emotion while both Aila and Eir comforted her. Eir wrapped her arms around Syd’s head, pressing her to her chest while Aila wrapped her arm around Jay’s shoulder, leaning against her in a familiar way. Relief flooded Jadis as the lie she’d been carrying around for far too long did not result in the destruction of the scant few relationships she’d made. Her chest felt a hundred times lighter than it had minutes before.
“Sorry, I just,” Jay sniffed, took a breath, and composed herself. “Sorry. I should have told both of you the truth. It’s just, kind of a hard thing to bring up. I really didn’t know how anyone would react to it.”
Jay squirmed a bit as Aila pinched her as hard as she could, which naturally didn’t do much considering how thick-skinned Jadis was lately, but still.
“Yes, you should have. No more secrets from me, alright? I understand why you’d want to keep something like—like all this close to your chest, but no more. From what you just told me—us, actually,” she nodded to Eir, “you quite literally have no idea what you’re doing. From now on, you talk to us so we can give you some intelligent advice and you don’t end up making bad decisions out of ignorance. I refuse to date someone who continues to repeat stupid mistakes when they know better. Understood?”
“Yes mom,” Jadis said with all three of her selves, half-jokingly. Aila promptly gave her another pinch.
“Not to change the subject and all that,” Dys said, sitting off to the side and somehow feeling a little jealous of her own self as her two other selves got to cuddle with her two lovers. “But I had no idea D had his own special chosen race of people. Are these ‘Fetch’ common? Like, are we likely to run into them around town or…?”
“All the gods have their avatars on Oros,” Eir replied, pulling back from Syd and then, much to Jadis’ amusement, switching over to Dys to give her a hug as well. “Except for those Children who were lost in wars long ago to the demons. The Fetch are a rarity, as all such Children of the Gods are, but they are mercurial and could be found anywhere, really. There is no telling.”
“Which is beside the point,” Aila said, pulling away from Jay. She grabbed the chair she’d been using the night – morning? – before and sat down, facing the rest of them. “What matters right now is the fact that you are a Nephilim and, more importantly in my opinion, you are a soul who clearly has the attention of one of the gods. D gave you a mission to, what was it, stir things up? Is that right?”
“That’s true,” Jay shrugged. “He didn’t really seem to care too much about how I went about it or what the results were, he just wanted a change to the status quo. Something other than the constant back and forth between Valtar and Samleos, the people and the demons.”
“Well, I hope you care,” Aila said with a frown. “Because I can promise you, I am also not willing to date someone who is looking to alter the course of the war in Samleos’ favor.”
“You wouldn’t, would you?” Eir pulled back from hugging Dys and stared worriedly at the sack tied to Syd’s belt. “That’s not why you’re carrying that thing around, are you?”
“Fuck no,” all three of Jadis said in unified finality. “I would think it’d be pretty obvious by now that helping the demons take over and destroy everything isn’t something I’d want.”
“Of course not,” Eir said with a calming breath. “I know you. You wouldn’t. But then, why…?”
“Because I don’t know,” Jay said, holding up a hand to cut off Aila and Eir from responding immediately. “I don’t mean that I don’t know why I’m doing it. I mean that I don’t know enough about demons and how they work. What if they aren’t mindless? What if I can find some way of changing the war through some kind of reasonable discourse rather than strength of arms?”
When both of the two gave Jadis a look, she quickly sputtered out a defense.
“Yes, I know I’m all big and strong and I like to smash things, yes that is true. But from what I understand the Hero and all the rest of everyone on Oros has been doing that same smashy-smashy thing for millennia and it hasn’t worked out so great so far. If I do the exact same thing as everyone else, I won’t really be holding up to my bargain with D, will I?”
“That—that’s actually surprisingly sensible,” Aila admitted. "In a very ‘Jadis’ way, I suppose.”
“Thanks?” Jay said, not entirely sure if she was being complimented or insulted.
Eir spoke up after a moment, still sending worried glances at the demon-filled sack, but also clearly trying to find a solution to the problem she saw, rather than just fret over it.
“There are scholars who have made studies on the demons, back in the Capital, Eldingholt. Perhaps if you spoke with them, some of your curiosity would be satisfied?”
“Probably,” Syd nodded. “I mean, I’d like to talk to some people who are more educated on the matter, if possible.”
“Then we could go there,” Eir suggested. “You could speak with them, and with the High Priests of the capital. I’m sure they could offer some advice and guidance on what you should be doing with the, um, ‘quest’ that Destarious has given you.”
Jadis wasn’t so sure about the second half of Eir’s idea. Hearing some advice from people who had no doubt decades more experience than her wasn’t a bad idea, but at the same time she was worried that they might just insist on her doing things their way, same as things had been done since the beginning on Oros, which was absolutely not what Jadis wanted. Or D, from what she understood of her deal with the god. Plus, the more people who found out about her origins, the more attention Jadis felt she was going to get, and not necessarily the good or helpful kind. She didn’t mind Aila and Eir knowing, was happy about it, even. She wouldn’t mind if Kerr, the incorrigible reprobate, knew either. She trusted the wild woman. Thea too, she liked to think, though she still wanted to have an earnest conversation with the woman about their relationship first. All that said, Jadis was a lot less happy with the idea of people she didn’t know at all being privy to her secrets.
“Maybe,” Dys said, giving no strong answer to Eir’s suggestion for the moment. “We’ll see. I have to think about it. Actually, are you planning on telling the High Priest about this?”
“I feel I have to,” Eir admitted. “If for no other reason than he has been planning a search of the mountains for your lost village and possibly other surviving Nephilim. Since I now know that to be a falsehood, I feel I must tell him so that he doesn’t risk the lives of others searching for something that doesn’t exist.”
“Shit. That’s a good point,” Jay said, looking to the map in the corner of the room where Eir pointed, seeing the lines that had been drawn to plot out an expedition.
“I agree, people shouldn’t be made to risk their lives on account of my lies,” Syd said with a frown. “And I won’t put any conditions on you. Either of you. If you feel like you have to tell someone about my secrets, I trust your judgement. But I’m not sure I like the idea of the High Priest knowing about me. Don’t get me wrong! Gerhardt seems like a nice enough guy, but the more people that know, the more likely I think I am to attract the wrong kind of attention. Am I wrong for thinking that way?”
Jadis looked between the two women, gauging their reactions to her question. Both took her words seriously, she could tell. Eventually, Aila answered her with a troubled look.
“No, I don’t think you’re wrong. Having the attention and support of a god is a boon, but there are those who might interpret your existence as D playing another one of his cruel tricks. Some might draw the conclusion that the world would be better off without you, for that reason alone. Some might even accuse you of being a False Hero.”
Eir looked up sharply at Aila’s words. Just by context, Jadis could tell that such an accusation would be pretty fucking bad.
“It might be best if we are cautious with who we reveal such a delicate truth to, yes,” Eir said slowly. “I believe High Priest Gerhardt can be trusted, as he is not a reckless sort, or quick to judge. But I do take your meaning, Aila. Your assessment does present some troubling possibilities that could very well come to pass, in the worst case.”
“I feel like this might possibly be the worst option, but what about Vraekae?” Dys asked. “I don’t really want to give her any power she can hold over me, but at the same time, I can see using her power and connections to sweep away a lot of problems that might come up from my, uh, background.”
While Aila frowned at the idea, Eir looked more thoughtful.
“She could be persuaded to keep your secret,” Eir mused. “If she thinks it’s for the betterment of the Empire. Which I think it is. You’ve been nothing but a positive influence, albeit a chaotic one.”
“That’s me, chaotic good!” Syd joked, then awkwardly cleared her throat as her audience stared blankly at her, the reference not crossing significant cultural barriers.
“Anyway,” Jay said, skipping over Aila and Eir’s confusion. “We’ll have to talk it out some more. If possible, would both of you mind holding off on telling anyone else for now? At least until we’ve all had more time to think about it?”
After a couple of affirmative nods, Jay continued.
“Putting aside the idea of telling others for now, I would like to bring the topic back around to what prompted all of this. Are you going to take the Oracle class you were offered? With everything out in the open between us, does the class make more sense now, or are you still uncomfortable with it?”
Eir visibly shook herself back into focus, then tilted her head in consideration. After a moment, she nodded.
“It does make more sense now, yes. You’re not the Hero. He’s already been confirmed by the High Priest of Valtar. But you’re clearly a chosen representative of Destarious and are meant for greater things. It makes sense that those who would follow you would be offered special classes, just as those who follow the Hero now as well as in the past have been offered greater power so they can better support him or her. I feel I need to pray to Lyssandria about it for a while longer, but I think I will likely take the class.”
“It’s not completely unheard of,” Aila added. “Just like there are a few Oracles outside of the Empire that exist for reasons other than the support of the Hero, there can be others who are blessed by one of the gods for the purpose of fulfilling a greater deed. I just can’t think of any involving D, or with quite so… peculiar a task.”
“I’d like to hear about those people,” Jay said, interest piqued. “Now that you two know, I’ve got to tell you I’m going to be asking a lot more stupid questions. There are so many things that I don’t have any info on when it comes to Oros. The more you can tell me, the better.”
“Fair,” Aila said with a small smile. “Now I know for certain that your lack of knowledge isn’t stupidity, but ignorance. Ignorance can be fixed. But, speaking of,” Aila said while dodging back from a flick of Jay’s fingers, “I have a lot of questions myself. You’re from, what, a place called Earth? I want to know more about it, if you’re willing to talk?”
“And I would love to tell you,” Dys said as she stood, stretching her arms as best she could in the confines of walls and ceilings not meant for someone of her height. “But we’ve been sitting here long enough for the sun to go down and I am starving. Can we find some food before we do anything else?”
When Eir’s stomach rumbled in response, it was all the answer Jadis needed to sweep her two companions into her arms and take them on a vitally important quest that took precedence over even D’s godly commands: to find something deep fried. And in very large quantities.
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