“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.”
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?”
“No, you’re not,” Dys easily agreed. “But as Aila has thoroughly informed me, mercenary companies need support staff. We’re going to need someone who can make repairs to our weapons and armor on a regular basis, plus handle all the extra odd crafting jobs that I know I’ll come up with. We can always hire other people to do the work, but we agreed that it would be way better to have someone who’s actually a part of our team rather than an outsider.”
“Plus, we thought it might be a help to you,” Syd continued when Dys was finished. “You’re probably still level sixteen, right?” At Sabina’s nod, she continued. “Then as part of the deal, if you join our mercenary company, we’ll take you out in the field and power level you up to twenty so you can unlock your secondary class faster. Consider it both a thank you for doing such awesome work as well as a signing bonus of sorts.”
“Really?” Sabina squealed, her voice pitched so high it made Jadis laugh.
Rushing forward, Sabina wrapped her arms around Syd in a surprisingly strong hug. A second later, she switched to Jay, and then Dys and then back to Syd, darting back and forth between the three Nephilim in her excitement.
“Yes, yes! I’ll join! I’m going to make you so much armor and weapons and once I can I’ll make you enchantments and you won’t ever need anyone else I promise I’ll be the best smith you’ve ever had and—”
Sabina’s onslaught of gratitude continued for several more minutes. Once she had finally calmed down enough, Jadis went over the details with her, to make sure she was fully on the same page. Jadis would be registering Sabina as a combat mercenary since she currently needed another three to join her guild before it could be granted official status by Magistrate Vraekae. Sabina would be number eight. She didn’t actually need to have a combat class or be active in the field if she didn’t want to be, just as long as she was registered as such on paper. It could lead to problems further down the line if her company was called to action during an “all hands required” situation but considering Jadis now had something of an in with the local city leader, she didn’t think it would be an issue.
With Sabina enthusiastically on board with the plan despite the potential for some danger, Jadis discussed a few more future ideas and then finished up her business with the smith. She left her with the promise of bringing her the necessary paperwork the next day. New armor slung under several sets of arms, Jadis headed back to her new base of operations.
The question of where her mercenary company would file its physical headquarters had been a challenge, at least for a short time. While they had the money to rent or even buy property, it would have taken a large chunk out of their finances, larger than Jadis was comfortable with considering how much she had planned to do. Fortunately, the answer had presented itself in the form of a certain wild and foul-mouthed archer.
Since Kerr’s bar had been burnt out in the battle and she had no strong desire to rebuild it back to what it had once been, Aila had suggested she sell the property to Jadis at a low price so it could be remade into their company hall. Kerr had been happy to accept the plan, so long as Jadis promised to hire Hans on as support staff, which Jadis had readily agreed to.
The man was an amazing pie maker, after all.
Jadis had actually offered the same deal to Hans as she had to Sabina if he was willing to list himself as a combat mercenary. Unfortunately, the stoic man had declined the offer, apparently having no desire to even risk the possibility of being called out into the field. He was also already close to CLR fifty, much to Jadis’ surprise considering he wasn’t a combatant at all. Power leveling him to a combined level rating of sixty would have taken a lot more effort.
In any case, Jadis’ nascent mercenary company did have a guild hall. Sort of. The Tipsy Mule had needed to be gutted first and then the roof had needed to be rebuilt. After three weeks, it was finally a whole building and Jadis had been able to transfer her meager belongings from her old inn room to the second floor of the new building only a day before. Sadly, the place barely had any furniture yet and was mostly just bare stone floors and walls. Still, it felt like a good start.
“I—It’s very nice armor,” Thea spoke up from where she walked in Dys’ shadow. “It must weigh as much as a h—horse though.”
“Probably,” Dys answered her shieldsworn companion. “But we can handle it. With this upgrade to our equipment, I feel like we can probably just charge straight through a hundred bone thieves. No weapons needed, just our mass and our boots!”
“P—probably,” Thea agreed with a small smile.
Thea had elected to accompany Jadis on her errands around town that day while the rest of her guild had been busy with their own business. Magistrate Vraekae was no longer assigning teams of city guards to trail Jadis everywhere she went, but she had insisted that Jadis keep at least one of her teammates nearby at all times just in case of trouble. Jadis wasn’t exactly sure what kind of trouble Vraekae was expecting to come Jadis’ way in Far Felsen, but ultimately it didn’t matter much to her. Always having one of her guildmates and lovers nearby was no burden at all.
Jadis sent a grin of her own Thea’s way as they walked. She had been happy when the former soldier and city guard had thrown in her lot with her. So far, she felt it had been the right choice for the both of them, even if they hadn’t seen much combat yet outside of demon stragglers in the fields surrounding the city. Jadis felt as though she was much closer to all of her companions now that they were an official guild, especially after she had revealed to them her extra-dimensional origins. Aila and Eir had, of course, been the first to know, but Jadis hadn’t wanted to leave either Thea or Kerr out. She felt she owed them honesty; if she was to trust them with her life and their lives with her, she should be able to tell them about her reincarnation.
Thea had accepted Jadis’ revelation with relatively little fuss, considering. But she supposed that was just the quiet woman’s way. She wasn’t the type to make a lot of noise.
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.”
471