Jadis looked around wildly, startled and confused. Only a millisecond before she had been resting her head in Eir’s lap while simultaneously cramming her cock into the lovely elf’s tight core while also sitting to the side watching the sexual ritual with her naked girlfriend Aila sitting in her lap. Now she was experiencing a bizarre lack of sensation. She could still see and hear and feel, but for some reason everything felt wanting, or lesser somehow. It took her a moment to figure it out, but eventually she realized the issue.
She only had one body.
Yes, that was the problem. Jadis was sitting on a comfortable seat in a pleasantly decorated living room, but that was all. Just the one of her experiencing the situation from a single body’s perspective. It had been so long since she’d had such a limited viewpoint on the world around her that Jadis felt exceedingly disoriented, almost to the point that she nearly missed the words that had come from the sole other occupant in the room.
“Huh? What was that?”
The man smiled at her words. Not that she could see his face, but she knew he was smiling.
“That’s one! I said ‘Well hey there, little gal. It’s been a while.’ What’s your next question?”
“D!” Jadis exclaimed, shocked that she could have forgotten the deity’s face—er, well, his presence.
D’s face couldn’t be forgotten because he didn’t have a face. Or rather, he did have one, it was just that it was only a face. She knew he had one. She could see it. But just like the rest of him, all that came to her mind when she tried to focus on what it looked like was the concept of a man’s smiling face, with no details whatsoever. It was the same for the rest of him as well, and even the room they were occupying. D lacked specificity. He simply was.
“Holy shit, it actually worked,” Jadis mused aloud, still orienting herself. “I don’t know why I doubted it, I just, I guess I didn’t expect to be back in your living room for this. Like, I figured you’d just speak through Eir or something—”
Jadis cut herself off halfway though her rambling. D’s response to her question had finally penetrated her befuddled mind.
“Hey! You can’t tell me you’re counting that as one of my three questions!”
“That’s two! And yes, I am. That’s how the ritual works, you silly goose. Three questions are all you get.”
“Stop that you fucker! That was a rhetorical question!”
“Rhetorical questions are still questions,” D grinned in a sing-song voice that was decidedly masculine in an unidentifiable kind of way. He lounged back on his indescribable couch as he continued. “You’ve got one left, baby. Better make it count. Also, I’m not sure about the wisdom of calling your godly benefactor a ‘fucker’ to his face. We gods usually let a little blasphemy slide when you mortals are just putzing around on whatever mortal plane, but really. Right in my living room? For shame.”
The smile on D’s face had become no less describable, yet Jadis could tell that it had become somehow less relaxed and more maniacal by the end of his admonition. Apparently, Jadis really did need a reminder that she was talking to a literal god. And not just any god, but the one who had plucked her soul from the cosmic soup of the void on an errant whim and given her a second life with as little effort. She had no doubt that if he wanted to, he could change his mind about her and set her adrift any time he liked.
“Okay, yeah, sorry,” Jadis backpedaled. “You’re not a fucker. But seriously! Those two questions did not fucking count. Uh, with all due respect.”
“They count if I say they count,” D said with the idle confidence of one who knew they were always right. “Next time, be more careful.”
“Oh come on! Don’t be such a dic—I mean, seriously!”
D laughed, wild and high-pitched, seemingly delighted by Jadis’ distress. As she watched her patron deity mockingly giggle at her stupid mistake, a voice Jadis had never heard before cut through D’s laughter.
“Stop torturing the poor thing, dear,” an impossibly perfect woman’s voice said. “You’re being cruel for no reason.”
Jadis’ jaw dropped as the enchanting voice was followed by the most gorgeous woman she had ever seen in her life. From a non-descript doorway behind where D sat, the unbelievable woman entered the room. Unlike D or his living room, this woman Jadis could see, though she still couldn’t describe her. Not because she lacked discernable detail, but because she was simply so beautiful, so elegant, so flawless in every aspect of her being that Jadis simply had no words that felt like they could do her justice, though she still tried to find them. Her waist-length wavy hair glowed with every color of the rainbow at the same time, shimmering to new and mesmerizing colors with each small movement. Her figure was so achingly gorgeous that Jadis had to force her eyes away from the mouth-watering cleavage and hips that were highlighted by a flowing golden gown. Her face was captivating, her eyes awe-inspiring, and her lips so enticing Jadis had to stop herself from unconsciously leaning towards them for a kiss. She was the perfect embodiment of beauty and even that statement felt paltry and unworthy of her.
“Yes, mother,” D acknowledged the woman between stifled snickers.
Those words were enough to kickstart Jadis’ brain into the realization of who had just entered the scene. D’s mother. The goddess of beauty, love, and art. Eir’s patron deity and the supposed mother of all Nephilim.
Lyssandria.
“Have a sweet, darling,” the agonizingly beautiful goddess smiled warmly at Jadis.
She sat down on the conceptual couch next to her son and set a plate of some kind filled with edible sweets that eluded all description on the definitely-a-coffee-table-and-nothing-else between them.
“Uh, thanks,” Jadis nodded blankly, not sure of what the protocol was for meeting her patron god’s mother.
Not wanting to be rude, she took a sweet off the plate and popped it into her mouth. It was, predictably, absolutely delicious. Though naturally she had no way to describe in what way it was delicious, just that it was. Swallowing the morsel, she looked back and forth between the two, unsure of what to do next, before deciding to address the elephant in the room.
“So, I assume you probably already know, but just to make sure we’re on the same page, I’m Jadis. Your son reincarnated me in the body of one of your, uh, ‘Chosen Children’ or whatever the term is. So… are you cool with that, or…?”
“No, no, darling,” Lyssandria chided Jadis. “The ritual you just performed was so that you could ask my dear son three questions, not me. So, starting now, ask your three questions of him and he will answer you.”
The last was emphasized with a commanding look at her son. D, for his part, didn’t look the least bit bothered and was leaning to one side of the couch, scrolling through the screen of some kind of tablet held in one hand while the other held a handful of treats. When exactly he had snatched those assorted sweets from the plate, Jadis had no idea, but she could tell that he had.
After a few seconds, Lyssandria lightly slapped D on his shoulder with the back of her perfect hand.
“Yes, yes,” he waved dismissively. “Three questions, starting now. Ask away, little troublemaker.”
“…right.” Jadis nodded, still struggling to come to grips with the situation.
Even though she had known that she’d be talking to her patron god, Jadis nevertheless felt unprepared. Being brought back to D’s direct presence had thrown her for a loop, and having Lyssandria present wasn’t helping her recover her faculties. The list of prepared questions Jadis had mentally made had disappeared along with her grasp on the situation. Fumbling for an important question, Jadis asked the first one that came to mind.
“So, how am I doing? As far as the quest you gave me goes, I mean.”
“Fair,” D answered around a mouthful of something or other.
“That’s—” Jadis started, then cut herself off.
She had been about to say, “that’s all you have to say?” But considering her initial blunder with the god, she wasn’t about to repeat that same mistake again. She doubted Lyssandria would bail her out a second time. So, thinking about it, she rephrased what she was going to say into a statement.
“That’s not a particularly helpful answer.”
“No, it’s not,” D agreed, his smile growing slightly unhinged. “Not all answers are, of course. Then again, maybe you’re just too dense to interpret its deep and intricately constructed subliminal meaning? It is the word of a God given to you. It can’t just be what it appears to be on the surface, can it?”
The god of luck. Also the god of secrets, mischief, and madness. How much of what D was saying was being said just to fuck with her? After all, just because D was her illustrious benefactor and he had tasked her with a goal that he wanted, didn’t mean that he wouldn’t mess with her, too.
Jadis’ eyes stole to the right where Lyssandria leaned, watching their interaction with a faintly amused expression. There was something so inordinately attractive about the way she sat with her legs crossed and a single slender finger held against her cheek that made Jadis want to paint her, even if she’d never gotten beyond drawing stick figures. But aside from that impulse, Jadis could see the goddess’s stunning face and read her expression. She was amused, but she also seemed unsurprised by what D was saying. Did that mean she understood what D was trying to convey? Or was it just that she was so used to his antics that nothing the mad god said ruffled her anymore.
Either way, looking at Lyssandria brought her second important question to mind.
“Has my resurrection as a Nephilim caused any issues among the gods, particularly with your mother?”
“I should count that one as two,” D chided her with a click of his non-existent tongue. “But I’ll allow it. If stepdad was here though, he wouldn’t let that slide. Anyway, the short answer is, yes. The slightly longer answer is, a certain loophole in the Covenant has been sealed up because a few of my extended family members threw a hissy-fit. But, as you can see, mother dearest isn’t hissing at all.”
A lot more information, but the kind that just spawned more questions.
The other gods knew about her, then? All of them? Jadis supposed that wasn’t surprising, but the fact that at least some of them had been upset about her rebirth on Oros could be bad news for any future interactions she might have with them or their followers. What about Valtar and Samleos, the major players in this tug-of-war Jadis was meant to disrupt? Were they aware of her purpose? Was Lyssandria? She was, apparently, not unhappy with her being reborn as a Nephilim, but was she okay with what D had tasked her with, or was she unaware? Did it even matter if she had Lyssandria’s approval or not?
Those questions and more bounced around in Jadis’ head as she sat in contemplation, allowed time to think while the two gods regarded her silently. She wanted to ask them all, but she only had one question left, at least for the moment. She could do this ritual with Eir again in another month’s time and ask another three questions then, but being forced to wait that long made her feel impatient just thinking about it. Then again, Jadis wasn’t sure she wanted too much information from D. She was on Oros to live her own life just as much as she was there to fulfil her end of the bargain she had made. Relying on D for guidance too much felt like she’d be ceding much of her own control to the god.
For now, she needed to ask just one more question that had the potential to affect her life in the moment, but not be the kind of question where she was just directly asking for the god to tell her what to do next. Besides, she had kind of already gotten an answer to that kind of guiding question. She was doing “fair” so far. That was no glowing review, but it wasn’t a condemnation, either. Whatever she was doing, she was doing something.
A third question. She needed one more. Glancing towards the achingly attractive goddess again, Jadis decided on what it should be.
“This ritual is supposed to be a way for me to ask you, D, three questions,” Jadis started her final question by stating what she thought to be obvious. “So, with no offense intended to the present party, why exactly is your mother here?”
“Of course you would ask that,” D groused. “And here I expected you would just let her presence go unquestioned. Point to you, mother.”
“Thank you dear,” she replied smoothly. “She seems like a nice, intelligent soul, though maybe her eyes are a little lecherous.”
“Ha! You’ve been caught staring at mom’s boobs,” D laughed and pointed at Jadis, forcing her to splutter out a denial.
“No I wasn’t—”
“It’s fine, darling,” Lyssandria spoke over her in a reassuring tone. "You aren’t the first and you certainly won’t be the last.”
Jadis shrunk down a little, hotly embarrassed as D continued to laugh at her in that high, unhinged way of his. She snatched up a few more sweets from the plate and stuffed one in her mouth to chew the delectable pseudo-confection furiously as she waited for D to answer her question.
“She’s here because she wanted to see you in person,” D finally answered her, little giggles still bubbling up between words. “At least, as in person as we can be without breaking the rules. Get a feel for who you are, you know? Besides that, she wanted to pass along a little message.”
With that, he languidly waved a hand towards his deific mother.
With a level of grace Jadis didn’t think was humanly possible, and probably wasn’t, Lyssandria rose from the couch and rounded the coffee table to stand directly before Jadis. Standing so close, Jadis was even more overwhelmed by her abject beauty, her mind feeling dulled just from her presence alone. She leaned closer, her perfect, sculpted face taking up the entirety of Jadis’ vision.
With a gentle smile, she spoke to Jadis, her sweetly spoken words filling her ears and leaving no room for anything else.
“Though your birth was not of my making, you are my Child. Should you need my guidance, remember, your Mother is here for you. All you need to do is but ask.”
As the goddess’s words thrummed through her, Jadis felt her existence in whatever strange reality D had brought her soul to fade, the goal of the ritual having been fulfilled. The sight of Lyssandria blurred and bled like a watercolor until the scintillating swirl of colors became too bright to look at. The sound of a man giggling madly to himself overtook all other sounds and Jadis’s consciousness became untethered as she slipped away.
“And please,” Lyssandria’s distant voice called out to her, barely audible by then. “Tell my beloved cleric that I love her no less for her choice to accept Destarious’ offer. She is still my child too.”
The last of the goddess’s words were drowned out, overwhelmed by the maddening cacophony of D’s amusement, his fit of laugher having become so raucous that it no longer resembled laughter at all but instead a great wall of sound that shook Jadis’ sense of being to its core, removing all sense of self and awareness until—
“Did it work?”
Jadis jumped, Aila’s question having surprised her. Comically, all three of Jadis jumped at the same time, which proved to be an awkward reaction while Syd still had her turgid cock buried deep inside Eir’s slick heat. The priestess let out a noise mixed between a yelp and a moan as she was bobbed around by Syd’s unintentional movements.
Jay quickly grabbed hold of the elf as Syd froze, then went about extracting her self from her priestess lover. Dys, in the meanwhile, sat with Aila still in her lap, though the freckled redhead had turned halfway around to look Dys in the face.
“Are you alright?” Aila asked, putting one hand on Dys’ cheek.
“Huh? Ah, yes, yes, I’m fine,” Dys assured her girlfriend, giving her a quick kiss. “Just, that was, well. It was something.”
“It worked?” Aila repeated her question from a moment before. “The flames surrounding you two flared then disappeared and then you just went quiet for a few seconds. I wasn’t sure if the ritual had somehow failed.”
“No, it didn’t fail,” Jay said, holding onto an exhausted Eir who was smiling up at her with deep satisfaction. “And holy shit do I have some things to talk about with both of you.”
490