“Just that little bit there and… done!”
Sabina held up the leather collar proudly. It was her fifth one and she was getting faster every time. Carving the intricate patterns for the enchantments into the bones and scales was the hardest part, but since it was the same pattern every time she was starting to know it from muscle memory. If her production time continued to improve at the same rate as it had compared to the last four collars, then Sabina calculated that she should be done with the last two collars that were needed in a few hours, just before nightfall. Definitely in time for Jadis’ return to camp.
Would they use the collars that night? A little shiver went down Sabina’s spine at the thought. Sex with Jadis and, by extension, the other beautiful women in Fortune’s Favored, was a great bonus. She thanked Svaroga every day for giving her the opportunity to meet the gorgeous Nephilim. Or should she be thanking Lyssandria? Or was she supposed to thank Destarious?
That was the odd thing, wasn’t it? Sabina was no scholar but she knew enough from talking with Eir that the Nephilim were supposed to be Lyssandria’s Children, yet Jadis had a class given to her by Destarious. For that matter, Eir had an oracle class given to her by Destarious, too, which was odd for a priest dedicated to Lyssandria to have. Sabina would have asked about it, but she was fairly certain she wasn’t supposed to know about Eir’s oracle class, so she kept her lips tight on that one. Though, maybe she should just ask since their group talked about everything else pretty openly all the time anyway? They all had sex all the time, which was a very intimate act by most people’s standards, and they also talked about all of their skills and level-ups too, which was even more intimate to some people, so didn’t that mean that Eir and Jadis and the others probably wouldn’t mind if she brought up the pretty priestess’ weird class? Or should she let Eir be the first to bring it up, same as her apparent love for Jadis? Jadis, Aila, and Kerr were now in a three-way relationship, Sabina knew, so that meant Eir was probably going to become a fourth in that equation once she asked to be. At least, she thought she would since it was so obvious that the elf was head-over-heels in love with the Nephilim. Or would a fourth be too much? Sabina wasn’t sure if there were limits to those kinds of multi-partner relationships and she wasn’t sure if she should be the one to ask. Those kinds of personal questions never had easy answers in Sabina’s experience.
“So, uh, what are you making?”
Sabina shook her head to clear it of the tangent she’d gone off on and glanced over at the little goblin woman, Sorcha.
“It’s an enchanted collar,” she answered with a smile. “It’s pretty basic, needs a magic boost from the user or someone else to get going, and it won’t last more than a single use, which is a shame since I’ve worked so hard to make it and the others. But I guess that just means I’ll have fun making a redesign once we get back to Far Felsen! I could make it way more comfortable with better materials, plus with some eleria I could make it a permanent enchantment—oh! Can’t forget about style! I’m not very stylish or anything, but I know some of the others care about that so I can do some research into what colors and designs are popular right now and make something that’ll look good as well as work good!"
Sorcha blinked at Sabina, her eyes having that glazed-over look that so many people gained when they talked to her. Oh dear. She’d done it again. Sabina knew she tended to ramble, especially when she was excited or nervous. She didn’t mean to and tried her best to avoid the bad habit, but sometimes she didn’t even know she was doing it.
“So, uh, that all sounds good,” Sorcha finally said. “But, what does it do? What’s the point?”
Sabina considered, then scooted across the wagon floor to get a bit closer to the goblin woman. They were both sitting inside the Behemoth, as Jadis liked to call it. The left wall was open since it had been set up for their sleeping arrangements, though only half of the tarps were in place. It had started to snow earlier, so the soldiers had set up a huge bonfire to keep everyone warm, its heat easily reaching into the wagon where Sabina was working with her tools.
Sorcha had been put in the wagon earlier, along with that human man, Jonas, since Jadis and Willa wanted to keep them safe from the captured Reavers. Well, Jonas wasn’t there anymore, since Willa had moved him back to her wagon, though Sorcha had stayed with their wagon on Jadis’ insistence. Sabina wasn’t sure, but she thought that maybe Jadis felt like the goblin deserved some special treatment since she’d surrendered and offered up information willingly that helped them avoid another bad ambush. That made sense to Sabina, at least. The priests of Valtar were always saying that one’s honor could be redeemed through honorable actions. Jadis probably felt the same way. Maybe.
Wait, was turning on your own mercenary company honorable, or would that be considered dishonorable? Or would it actually be honorable since the mercenary company had turned against the empire and so by turning against the mercenary company, Sorcha had done the honorable thing?
Sabina shook her head. She’d have to ask Eir what she thought about the situation later.
“Here, take a look,” Sabina said as she offered the collar to Sorcha. “You’re a witch, right? That’s sort of like being an enchanter, so what do you think it’s meant to do?”
Sorcha took the collar in her small hands, the manacles around her wrists clinking together. Sabina frowned at those chains, not happy to see someone she was talking to chained up. She understood the reason since Sorcha was a criminal after all. But that didn’t mean Sabina had to like it.
“It’s not really the same,” Sorcha replied with her strong Dunnottaric accent. She pointed at the enchantment circles that Sabina had carved on the collar. “Witches don’t use these rune symbol things you enchanters do when we make our items. We’re closer to alchemists, honestly. Actually, I was offered an alchemist class when I reached level twenty. Sometimes I feel like I should have taken that class instead of becoming a witch…”
“Why? Being a witch seems like a good choice to me,” Sabina rattled off before pausing. “Oh, you mean because you probably wouldn’t have become a mercenary and joined up with Stavros if you were an alchemist instead, right?”
“…Yeah.”
“Okay, that makes sense,” Sabina nodded in understanding. “Personally, I would have chosen to be a witch too between being a witch or an alchemist since I’ve always wanted to make enchantments and I don’t think potions or poultices are much like enchanted items. But then again, you said that being a witch isn’t much like being an enchanter, so maybe I wouldn’t have liked being one. Hard to know, I guess.”
“…You could probably get a class as an auctioneer with how fast you talk sometimes, you know that?” Sorcha asked, one of her fluffy eyebrows raised high.
“True!” Sabina nodded in agreement. “Though I feel like a class based around auctioneering would be a total waste, even for a professional auctioneer.”
Sorcha let out a bark of laughter, grinning with her sharp teeth exposed.
“You’re a weird one, aren’t you? Alright then, stop holding me in suspense, what’s this collar supposed to do?”
Sabina took the collar back from the goblin, holding it up high to see it better in the light. Looking at it, she could already think of a dozen ways she could improve the design, from using softer leather, to working with alloyed metals and gemstones, to adding eleria. She couldn’t wait until she got back to Far Felsen and a workshop.
“It stops the person wearing it from having an orgasm for up to one hour.”
After a brief pause, there was a light shuffling noise next to Sabina. Glancing to her side, she saw that Sorcha had scooted a few inches further away from her, a look of disturbance on her face.
“It does what?”
“Prevents orgasms,” Sabina repeated, clearly enunciating the words in case she had spoken too quickly for the goblin witch. “For up to one hour, the wearer won’t be able to climax while having sex. Of course, they’ll still be able to feel all the pleasure, which can actually get kind of too intense if you overdo it, but no climax. Not until it’s either removed or the time limit is reached, at which point the enchantment will break. That’s why I really need to get to a workshop so I can use materials better suited to the enchantment, as well as eleria to make it longer lasting. It’s way, way too expensive to make these fresh every time you want to use them. I’ve probably gone through hundreds of oaks worth of coin making these so far.”
Sorcha just stared at Sabina for a while, long enough to make her think that the goblin hadn’t understood what she’d said since she tended to talk too fast and had probably started to ramble again. Just as Sabina was thinking that maybe she needed to repeat herself, Sorcha opened her mouth, closed it, held up one finger, then opened her mouth again.
“Why would you want to make a collar that does… that? I mean, I guess some people have a taste for things like that… But why make that right now? Is a, er, sex collar really a priority when you’re out in these woods?”
Oh.
It was the sex thing again, wasn’t it? It wasn’t as though Sabina didn’t understand why people got nervous or antsy or whatever when talking about sex, she felt that way sometimes too. But the context of when and why some people got squeamish about sex was genuinely confusing. Well, in retrospect, Sabina supposed the sex collar hadn’t come with much of a preface. She’d have to remember to warn people that the enchantment was sex related in the future to avoid awkward moments like this one.
“It wouldn’t normally be, no,” Sabina admitted after a couple of seconds. “I don’t normally make sex-related items and the couple of times that I have I was in a normal workshop. But in this case, these collars actually are kind of a priority because I climax way, way faster than everyone else.”
Sorcha visibly blanched.
“…And that matters because of the sex rituals. Not because it’s a pleasure thing. I mean, it’s very pleasurable, but that’s more of a side benefit and not the explicit point. If it was, I don’t think it would matter that I have a quick trigger.”
Looking at Sorcha’s reaction, Sabina wasn’t sure that her explanation had helped. The goblin woman looked confused, disturbed, and maybe a bit uncomfortable. Though the discomfort could have been from the manacles. Sabina knew she would be uncomfortable wearing those. And Sorcha was only wearing the ones on her wrists; some of the other Reavers were tied up with a lot more, especially that woman who had wielded a scythe. Sabina shuddered a bit as she looked in the direction of that upsetting woman. She couldn’t see her from the wagon, with the position of the bonfire and the tents and tarps that had been put up for the prisoners. Still, Sabina didn’t like to think about her. That was a person she didn’t think even Valtar’s priests would try to redeem.
“Did you say sex rituals?”
Sabina jumped a little, Sorcha’s question startling her out of her unhappy thoughts.
“Did I say sex rituals?”
“Pretty sure you did, yeah.”
“Oh, well, I guess I did,” Sabina blinked. Jadis had told the soldiers about the sex rituals, which meant they weren’t really a secret anymore right? That made the most sense to Sabina. “Yeah, we use sex rituals in our mercenary group to empower ourselves. We need the collars to do a big one that’ll empower us even more.”
“Right,” Sorcha nodded, her big ears flopping up and down. “I get the feeling your mercenary company has a, uh, very different dynamic from the one I’m in.”
“Hm, probably,” Sabina agreed. “I doubt many mercenary companies have big orgies on a regular basis. Though maybe some do? I’ve been told it can get pretty lonely when you’re out in the field for a long time.”
“Eh, trust me,” Sorcha said with a curled lip as she looked in the direction of her fellow prisoners. “Not that lonely.”
After that, Sabina got back to crafting the remaining two collars while Sorcha sat nearby. It was nice to have someone to talk to while she worked, especially since Sorcha was the kind of person who didn’t seem to get bored or upset when Sabina started to ramble. The goblin turned out to actually be a pretty nice person, which just upset Sabina more when she thought about how Sorcha was going to have to stand trial and receive punishment once they all got back to Far Felsen. Sabina didn’t like to think about that, so she didn’t, instead focusing on more pleasant or interesting topics, like material components for enchantments or the kinds of spells Sorcha was able to craft with her witch magic.
Sabina got so caught up in crafting and talking with Sorcha that she almost didn’t notice when Kerr shouted out a signal letting them know that she’d spotted Jadis returning from her scouting trip.
Looking down at the half-finished collar in her hands, Sabina frowned. She’d been certain that she would have finished all the collars before Jadis got back to camp, yet the last one wasn’t done yet. Looking up at the sky, she saw that it was still an hour before nightfall, at least. That meant Jadis had come back early for some reason. Sabina hoped that meant she had good news and had found the people she was looking for.
Putting aside the unfinished collar, Sabina grabbed her coat and told Sorcha that she would be back in just a minute. She wanted to see Jadis return, and while she was at it grab some of the food that she could smell cooking. She was sure Sorcha was hungry by then, too, so she would grab the goblin a bowl as well.
Coming out from the wagon, Sabina looked up just in time to see Kerr come scrambling down from one of the giant pine trees. She didn’t have her helmet on and her expression was… confused? Sabina knew the archer well enough by then to know that the woman tended to roll with the waves, not much throwing off her balance. She looked more than a little off kilter at that moment, though. Enough so that Sabina noticed, which meant the others in their group did as well.
“Is something wrong?” Aila asked, the tall mage giving Kerr a once-over. “You gave the signal for Jadis, yet you look disturbed.”
“Well, I did, yeah,” Kerr said, scratching at her cheek with a clawed nail. “But, uh, I’m not sure—”
Before Kerr could finish, the familiar rumble of Jadis’ three giant bodies in full plate armor broke across the camp. A few seconds after that, the Nephilim came rushing through trees and into the open area directly off of the road. The three Jadis bodies came to a skidding stop, just barely avoiding running into the bonfire in their haste. Looking around at the soldiers and the rest of Fortune’s Favored who were all gathering at the commotion, one of the three spotted Aila and quickly approached her.
“Aila!” Jay said. At least, Sabina thought it was Jay, since she was the Jadis carrying the giant war hammer. “Listen, don’t believe a damn word she says! Promise me, okay? You can’t listen to that asshole, she’s pure fucking chaos!”
“What?” Aila looked up at Jay, her confusion plain. “Who are you talking about?”
“Just promise me, okay? She’s so damn fast that we barely—”
“JACK!”
Sabina leapt an inch off the ground in surprise, as did several of the others around her. Jadis had shouted that one name, except, none of the Jadis bodies in front of her had said anything. A loud rumble of three Jadis’ running full tilt in plate armor could be heard coming from the road, which was extremely vexing to Sabina since she could see all three of Jadis’ bodies standing right there in front of her. A moment later, three Nephilim, identical to the ones that had just run into the camp, ran into the camp. Again.
“Jack, you bitch!” One of the Jadis’ roared. It was Jay, Sabina thought, since she was carrying the giant war hammer. “Don’t you fucking dare start talking shit and confusing everyone!”
“Excuse me!?” The three Jadis’ who had arrived first whirled on the three Jadis’ that had arrived second. “Don’t you fucking confuse everyone! You’re the fucking Fetch, not me!”
“Shut the fuck up you piece of shit!” Jadis yelled at Jadis. “We’re the real Nephilim, not you!”
“No, we are!”
“No you aren’t, we are!”
“Quit lying you colossal cunt!”
“Eat my ass you gigantic prick!”
Sabina’s head snapped back and forth between the two sets of Jadis’ as they rapidly devolved into some very crude name-calling. It was growing harder and harder to follow what they were saying as all six started shouting different insults at once, turning the scene into a confusing mess of identical giants bickering over who was real and who wasn’t.
“Alright, I think I see why you were confused,” Sabina heard Aila whisper to Kerr.
“Yup,” Kerr nodded. “So… now what?”
“I have no idea,” Aila replied with a helpless shrug. She turned to look at the others, glancing at Eir, Thea, Bridget, and Sabina as well. “Any ideas?”
Sabina could only shrug back, same as the others. For once, the smith was well and truly speechless.
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