Hours later, as Eir continued to regale Jadis with stories of Seraphim and Lares she’d met or heard about in the past, Aila opened the door to their joint bedroom and interrupted them midway through an amusing tale.
“—and then the priest pulled the rat from the bowl of soup and—Oh! Hello Aila!” Eir exclaimed with a smile and wave.
“Hey Blue,” Jadis sent a shining grin at her girlfriend as all three of her selves greeted the freckled mage at once. “What’s up?”
“Dinner’s ready, if you two are hungry?” Aila announced, one eyebrow raised.
Jadis’ trio of rumbling stomachs answered the redhead’s question succinctly and with a good-natured laugh, she and Eir slid out of bed to join the rest of the group waiting for them down the stairs.
“So, what were you and Kerr talking about?” Jay asked Aila as they let Eir and her other selves go down the steps first.
“Boundaries,” Aila answered dryly. “Mostly. But also about, well, us.”
“Us?” Jay asked with her own brow raised.
“What we did in that restaurant was… fun. Stupid and risky and I’m not doing that ever again, thank you very much. But it was fun,” Aila said, giving Jay a wry smile. Then her face morphed into a more serious expression. “But it was the first time I did anything sexual with Kerr, or anyone else in our little team, that didn’t relate to a ritual in some way. Or at least my Nephilim class, I suppose.”
Jadis had to think for a moment, but upon review she had to agree. Jadis and her lovers had engaged in plenty of lewd and gratuitous acts of fornication, but she couldn’t think of a situation where Aila had done anything with one of the others that wasn’t at a minimum during the confines of a sex ritual.
Frowning with worry, Jay leaned in close to Aila.
“Shit, did I fuck up? I didn’t really think about that and I—”
“Shh, no, it’s fine,” Aila hushed Jay. “Really, I’m not upset. I could have stopped what Kerr was doing at any point, that was my choice to go along with it. I just wanted to, well, make it clear that what Kerr and I did earlier today was something… different. It wasn’t sex with a purpose, like your rituals. It was just… for the fun, I guess.”
Jay let out a soft sigh and gave Aila a tender kiss. When she pulled back, she was grinning and had a twinkle in her violet eyes.
“And boy was it fun, huh? Getting away with getting your cock sucked in a room full of strangers?”
“Shut up,” Aila huffed with no real anger. “I am being serious though.”
“I know you are,” Jay readily agreed and gave Aila another kiss. “And thank you for bringing it up. I guess we should all talk about it, but so I’m clear with you, I see sex as something fun that I enjoy doing with friends that I care about. You and Kerr having some fun together without me directly involved doesn’t bother me at all, because I know you and I know Kerr and I trust you both. Implicitly and without reserve.”
“Thank you,” Aila said, maintaining her cool composure in all ways except the blush spreading to her ears. “I feel the same way about you.”
“Good,” Jay said with a small laugh. “Now, we better get down there before the other two of me eat all of this grilled manticore tail we’re having cause holy balls it smells good.”
The two quickly joined the rest gathered downstairs and took part in a truly wonderful meal made from the strangest ingredient Jadis had ever heard of, hands down. Kerr hadn’t been joking, grilled manticore tail was absolutely delicious. She still didn’t like to think about what the rest of the monster looked like, but the taste of the char-grilled tail definitely made it worth the hunt.
After the pleasant dinner and Sabina had said her farewells to go back to her own apartment, Jadis and her lovers retired to their bedchamber where they spent the rest of the night telling more stories about the other avatar races. Jadis even told a few stories from Earth about Dryads and Dwarves and Golems, which the rest found to be both strange and entertaining.
Of course, Jadis couldn’t talk about dwarves without bringing up a certain dwarf and elf duo from her favorite movie trilogy of all time, which naturally meant Jadis had to explain the typical Earth concept of elves. Kerr had so much fun teasing Eir with that info that Jadis felt as though she had to explain the idea of cat girls in maid outfits to the group.
It was nice to see Kerr on the receiving end of some teasing.
Indeed, considering how badly the morning had gone, the rest of the day had more than made up for it. A saucy lunch, a good talk with great company, wonderful meals, and tons of new information to occupy her mind as well as some more defined goals for the near future. Jadis couldn’t complain at all about how well the day had ended. It was almost enough to make her forget about Noll. Almost.
But she didn’t forget about the frustrating old therion. Nor did he forget about her, as it turned out.
Early the next morning, just as Jadis’ selves were starting to wake on their own, a deep and growling bellow finished the job for her.
“Wake up you pups! I’m not growing any younger out here!”
All three of Jadis shot bolt upright, displacing a few women who made their own displeasure known.
“Fucking crap baskets, he’s going to do this every time, isn’t he,” Syd grumbled as she apologetically extracted her arm from the grip of a somehow still sleeping Kerr.
“Seems like it,” Aila sighed, then rolled off the bed and onto her bare feet.
“You don’t have to get up,” Jay told her as she got to her own feet on the cold stone floor. Shivering, she made a mental note to invest in some kind of rug. “We have to get up for this training, but you can rest for a while longer.”
“I’m awake,” Aila shook her head. “No sense in not getting something useful done now that I am.”
Looking at the others, Jadis saw Thea also roll out of bed, looking the most awake out of any of them. Eir stared with sleepy eyes and drooping ears, while Kerr still refused to wake.
“I—I’ll join you, for the t—training,” Thea told her as she pulled a pair of pants on. “It will be easier in a g—group, I think.”
“Alright, thanks,” Dys told the shieldsworn before giving her a kiss on the top of her head.
The stammering blush that act of endearment prompted from Thea did more to wake Jadis up than any bellow from Noll. Still, she didn’t particularly want to hear Noll shout any more than necessary, so Jadis quickly got her clothes on and was down the stairs and out the back door in short order.
As she entered the open area of the courtyard behind the building, Jadis saw that Noll was back to wearing nothing but his pants and belt. No shoes, no shirt, but he did have his sword with him. The man had a mug of something that steamed in the cold morning air and with how nippy the sea breeze was, Jadis was tempted to turn back inside and get her own hot mug.
Instead, she approached Noll with as much polite humility as she could muster.
“Good morning, Noll,” Jay greeted the old therion. “So, uh, thanks for coming. I mean, still not super thrilled about you basically spying on us, got to be upfront about that, but uh, yeah. We were jackasses yesterday. That’s on us. Sorry.”
“And also, you were right, are right, about our level of training,” Dys chimed in from Jay’s left. “We don’t really have it, at all. So any pointers you can give us are truly, truly appreciated.”
“Also, just going to toss this out there, but can we dispense with the whole waking up before the sun has even fully come up thing?” Syd added from Jay’s right side. “We’re all basically self employed here, so we don’t have to rise at the crack of dawn, yeah?”
Noll eyed the trio of Nephilim gravely. He took a long sip from his drink before answering.
“Good morning,” he finally said with a slight nod before waving his free hand in Jay’s direction. “It’s fine. The world’s filled with jackasses. I’m one of them.”
Turning towards Syd, he pointed at her and shook his head.
“It’s because we’re self employed that we can’t afford to be lazy. And I’m too old to let my daylight waste. If I’m going to be training you pups, we’re doing this at the crack of dawn.”
As Syd heaved a sigh, Noll turned his pointing hand upon Dys, then snapped it towards Thea who was just then coming out the door. She’d taken longer to get dressed, Jadis realized, because she’d opted to don her full armor as well as her spear and shield.
“And here’s your first pointer. If you’re going to be training for combat, come prepared for combat. Won’t do you any good to learn how to move if you aren’t wearing the weight you’ll be bearing when actually out in the field. Follow that one’s example. At least she knows what she’s doing.”
Jadis blinked, feeling a little confused.
“We aren’t going to be doing some kind of physical training first?” Dys asked with a tilt of her head.
“Yeah, like, running up and down the streets or push ups or something like that?” Syd said while waving her hands expressively.
“Why?” Noll snorted, amusement evident on his face. “What good would that do you? You’re already too strong for any kind of basic exercise to make a difference. We’re skipping that shit. Get your gear on and let’s get to it.”
By Noll’s command, Jadis rushed her selves back inside and up the stairs wherein they donned their armor as quickly as possible. Aila had only just exited the bathroom and upon seeing Jadis throwing her armor on, she and Eir both helped her with the straps and buckles to speed up the process. With all the clanking of metal on metal, even Kerr couldn’t sleep through the noise and she groggily got to her feet.
“Je déteste les matins,” she mumbled nearly incoherently before sticking her head out of the window. “Hey, Noll!”
“What?” came the gravelly response from outside.
“Don’t fucking break any of my girls! I didn’t get to fuck any of them yesterday and I plan to make up for that tonight!”
“No promises,” Noll answered without a hint of humor in his growling tone.
“Okay, I tried,” Kerr sighed before collapsing across a corner of the bed. “Wake me up when there’s breakfast.”
“Thanks,” Jay rolled her eyes.
Some minutes later, all three of Jadis were back down in the courtyard where Noll and Thea waited for them. Fully equipped in her plate armor and carrying her giant club and iron axe, Syd also carried Jadis’ trusty old makeshift maul since her lance had been bent out of usable shape.
Noll gave the cobbled-together construction an odd look, but otherwise made no comment.
“Alright,” he started. “Line up over here. First thing we’re going to work on is your footwork. You lot have any skills like ‘Solid Footwork’ or ‘Stable Footing’ or the like?”
“Uh, yeah,” Syd answered in surprise. “We do. How’d you know?”
“You three don’t move your legs right, but your feet are still stable when planted, more than they’d be if you didn’t have a skill aiding you.”
Noll grabbed hold of Thea and led the shy woman out in front of the line of giants.
“Ready your stance, soldier,” Noll growled.
With military speed and precision, Thea snapped into a guarded position with her shield up and her spear pointed out.
“Look at her feet. Her legs and hips, too,” Noll pointed as he spoke. “Never mind the rest, that comes after. Copy her. Get in that stance.”
Jadis did her best to copy Thea, falling into a comfortable stance of her own. Before Noll could say anything, she noticed that while she’d put her feet in the right spots, the way her knees were bent and the angle of her hips wasn’t quite the same. If she’d been just one body with one perspective, she probably wouldn't have noticed. But since she could physically see both Thea and herself at the same time, she could tell that she wasn’t quite matching what the guardswoman was doing.
After a few self corrections, Jadis had adopted a stance that looked identical to Thea’s. Much to her chagrin, even with her limited experience, she could feel the difference between the two stances. Copying Thea, she felt perceptibly more stable.
“Good,” Noll nodded his head as he examined each giant in turn. “Quick studies. Good. That skill you have will work better if you know how to stand, too.”
At that he abruptly shoved against Dys’ side. She barely swayed.
“Good,” he repeated, nodding his head in approval. “Now, we work on the shoulders.”
Jadis paid close attention to every word Noll spoke as he went over the fundamentals of how to stand, shifting her through several positions, some with and some without her weapons. She was so absorbed in the lesson that she barely even noticed when Aila called to them from the back door.
“It’s breakfast time!” she shouted and waved one hand at them. “It’s been two hours already, take a break!”
“Two hours?” Jay said incredulously. “We haven’t even swung an axe yet!”
“Get used to it,” Noll grunted. “You pups have a lot of bad habits I’ve got to train you out of. This is going to take a while.”
399