“Logs? You killed a demon matriarch with logs?” Renz repeated, having listened to Jadis’ slightly edited recounting of her fight with the bony behemoth.
“You three have got to be the luckiest ladies I’ve ever met,” Ludwas exclaimed, shaking his head.
During her explanation, several more of the mercenaries had come closer, listening in on the story. Jadis could hear them whispering their disbelief to each other, some tossing her looks that clearly implied they thought she was making the whole thing up.
Aila didn’t bother to imply.
“I don’t believe you,” the redhead stated flatly. “It takes on average a team of six with a CLR of forty or more to take down a bone thief matriarch, and even then, it’s no guarantee they won’t take loses. There’s no chance the three of you, without any proper equipment or weapons or even a plan, managed to slay a demon mother.”
CLR? That was a bit video-gamey sounding. That aside, Jadis was more than a little offended by Aila’s accusations. True, Jadis was kind of lying about certain details, but she really had slain a bone thief matriarch. In fact, she’d done it with just two of her, so she if anything, her lies were just playing down the apparent awesomeness of her feat. Jadis felt her hackles rise as she frowned.
“Well, we did,” Dys said, glaring down at the woman. “Maybe it’d take six of you, but we’re not you.”
Jadis could see Aila was glaring right back up at her, not backing down in the slightest. The girl looked pretty good angry, she had to admit. The knowledge that she was assessing the redhead a certain way immediately cooled Jadis down before she fully lost her temper.
“I acknowledge that we got lucky,” Jay said, playing the role of the mediator. She didn’t want to start any fights if she could help it. “If the log pile hadn’t been there, we probably wouldn’t have lived through that. But it was and we did.”
“That’s still an utterly—”
“Aila!” Ludwas half shouted, half hissed. “Now isn’t the time for you to be talking.”
With a reproachful look, Aila seemed to bite back her words, settling back in her seat.
“If what you claim is true,” Renz broke in, taking back his command of the conversation, “Then you have done a great service to the Empire. There’s a standing bounty on matriarchs. The three of you can likely claim it, provided your story is in fact true and the body can be verified.”
A bounty, huh? Jadis liked the sound of that, though she didn’t like how much doubt there was in Renz’s tone.
“What if I have something with me that might prove I killed a matriarch?” Jay asked, a thought coming to Jadis’ mind.
“Such as?” Renz raised an eyebrow.
Jay got up and stepped over to the supply sling Jadis had carried with her all the way from the village. Rummaging around the opened crate, she pulled out a lidded jar and caried it back over. In the meanwhile, Syd wiped off her now empty copper plate, then passed it to Dys to hold. When Jay took a seat next to her, she opened up the jar and let the small round egg roll out onto the plate, the slightly glowing blue eye inside visibly twisting and turning in circles, staring at its surroundings.
“Fuck me!” Gerwas cursed, a similar sentiment echoing among the mercenaries gathered close enough to see.
“You brought a demon into my camp?” Renz growled, his voice low and dangerous.
Blinking at the hostile response, Jay wavered a bit. “Well, just an egg, but yeah. We took it from the body of the matriarch.”
“What if that thing possessed an animal, or one of us!?” Gerwas practically shouted. “Have none of you any sense?”
Moving quickly, Gerwas reached out from his seat to grab the plate, probably with the intention of squashing the egg, or maybe throwing it into the fire. Jadis couldn’t know for sure what his intentions were, as the moment his hand reached out, Syd grabbed hold of his wrist and held it, unmoving as stone. The man struggled for a moment, a look of bewilderment crossing his face as he tried to first push past Syd’s grip, then pull away. Syd’s arm didn’t budge an inch as Gerwas struggled.
“It’s our egg, our proof and prize for killing that matriarch,” Jay said with a solemn voice, putting the little demon sphere back into the jar and closing the lid. “And I’m keeping it.”
The cold anger Jadis felt at the thought of Gerwas destroying something she’d claimed as her own was actually startling to Jadis. Wasn’t she trying to play along with the mercenaries here, blend in as much as she can? It was just a stupid little demon egg, nothing to get upset over, she’d literally squashed dozens of them herself. Still, this one egg was her egg. She wasn’t going to let someone else just casually destroy something she’d taken as hers. Even the idea of it rankled her.
“Enough.” Captain Renz commanded, waving a sharp hand.
With a dour expression, Gerwas settled back and Syd let his wrist go.
“That is… certainly enough evidence that I’m willing to write Bernd for permission to send a team north to verify your claim. I’d want to check that village out anyway, from what you told me. Sweet Pine Valley is supposed to be straight north of here, following the roads, that’s likely the village you three were living in.”
Renz stood up from his seat by the fire, sweeping first Jadis’ three bodies with his dark glare, then the rest of the nearby mercenaries. “And as to that demon egg, it’s not illegal to have and poses no threat so long as it’s contained. Some alchemists and enchanters can use them in their work.” Renz stepped forward and tapped the top of the jar in Jay’s hand. “Just get something more secure than a clay jar. Also, no offense to any of you, but I’m going to insist the rest of your supplies there be checked. We need to be sure there aren’t any uncontained demon spawn contaminating them.”
Jadis didn’t argue.
It seemed as though both dinner and the interrogation were over at the point. Jadis brought her crates over to one of the tents and let a couple of men there search the contents, checking for anything out of the ordinary. While Dys stayed nearby to make sure no one messed with her jarred demon egg, Jay followed Captain Renz to one of the wooden buildings.
There wasn’t a lot of room for guests to begin with it seemed, much less room for three exceptionally tall women, but Renz ordered some room made in a barracks that had a few bunks unused for the sake of any message runners or the like to use. There was no way Jadis could use the beds, so with Renz’ permission, Jay pushed a few of them to the side to make some room on the floor.
Syd stood near Gerwas, Ludwas, and the still glowering Aila. She hadn’t said anything since her uncle had silenced her objections to Jadis’ story, but she hadn’t left either. Instead, she seemed to be staying near her uncles, watching Jadis in a manner that reminded Jadis of a hawk watching a rabbit. She wasn’t sure she liked being on the receiving end of such an intense stare, not when she didn’t know what was going through the girl’s head.
“Sorry about grabbing you like that,” Syd said a bit lamely, motioning to Gerwas’ wrist. “I hope I didn’t hurt you.”
“Eh, no offense taken,” Gerwas said, waving off Jadis’ apology. “It’s just, demon spawn, you understand. Even just one can cause a lot of harm if it goes undetected for long enough.”
“Right,” Syd agreed, not really understanding but playing along.
“That said,” Gerwas murmured, looking up at Syd appraisingly, “I’m curious to know what your strength attribute looks like. You holding me back that easily can’t all be natural physique.”
“Gerwas,” his brother warned disapprovingly, “That’s more than rude. Don’t mind him, Syd. He’s just a simple oaf, doesn’t always remember his manners.”
“I’m more mannered than a brash buck like you,” Gerwas sourly replied, giving Ludwas a smack to his chest with the back of his hand.
“Not half as polite or a third as smart as any of the other old goats wandering the pastures back home,” Ludwas shot back, punching Gerwas’ shoulder.
In moments, the two men were bickering and shoving each other in something that wasn’t quite like a brawl. Jadis didn’t bother to intervene, figuring this was just par for the course for these two. Instead, the third of her that was Syd just shrugged and excused herself from the campfire, turning to go join Dys.
“Is strength your highest attribute?”
Syd startled a bit, finding Aila had followed right behind her.
“What was that?” Syd asked, turning back to face the girl. She wasn’t sure if she should be thinking of the redhead as younger than her or not, but she felt like she should be. Before she’d mysteriously died back on Earth, Jadis had been twenty-two years old. It was hard to tell, but she thought Aila was younger, though probably not by much.
“I said, is strength your highest attribute? Is it what you focused on?” Aila repeated, then clarified. “Gerwas didn’t focus exclusively on strength for his class, but he’s still fifteen levels higher than you and his physical stats are enhanced. You must have put everything into strength to be that much stronger than him.”
Jadis wasn’t sure what to make of Aila’s question. She seemed almost accusatory in her intensity, but at the same time Jadis didn’t get the feeling she had ill intentions.
“Should you be telling me about your uncle’s stats like that?” Syd asked, running one hand through her hair as she considered how to answer.
“I’m not saying anything he wouldn’t freely admit,” Aila answered, turning her chin up a bit. “His level is free to know anyway.”
Jadis internally shrugged. If she wanted to know so badly, she’d tell her. Maybe it’d help her accept how she, or rather, the ‘three’ of them had been able to take down the demon matriarch.
“It’s not my highest. It’s my third highest attribute right now, actually. Though it’s not far behind the other two,” Jadis explained truthfully without giving away any numbers. Strength had always been her second highest stat, behind eldritch, ever since she’d come to Oros. Now that she had her Eldritch Overlay ritual, that made it her third highest stat.
Aila looked almost crestfallen at the explanation, her expression flashing between mixed emotions of frustration and disbelief. Without another word, the redhead stormed off, leaving Syd behind to stare.
As confusing as that interaction had been, Jadis wasn’t entirely upset to see the oddly confrontational girl go. She had a great butt and watching her walk away afforded a pleasant view.
That was a rude thought, Jadis acknowledged, but hey, she wasn’t catcalling or anything gross. Just a thought. Just a long, long thought about how good that ass would look bent over and—
Woah, she really needed to get control of herself. Jadis shook Syd’s head, careful not to do the same with Dys and Jay since it wouldn’t have made sense for them and what they were doing. She might have spent a little too much time ‘pleasuring’ herself. Her thoughts were twisting to the erotic far too easily when she had more important things she should be focusing on.
Syd joined back up with Dys and helped put all their supplies back together, nothing untoward having been found. In the meantime, Jay had her own conversation going with the captain.
“Thank you again for the hospitality,” Jay said, smiling at the dark-eyed man. “It’s very kind of you.”
Renz gave a simple nod in response, gesturing to the space made in the barracks. “It’s nothing. Bernd’s Blades has always held themselves to the highest standards. In the morning, we’ll send you along to Far Felsen and you can make your way back to the central lands of the Empire. It’s far safer there than here in these dark times.”
That was interesting. Central lands and Empires. Jadis was eager to explore the rest of Oros, but she had a few different ideas though.
“What if I’d like to stay here?” Jay asked. “The mountains are my people’s home. I’m not sure if I want to leave—if any of us want to.”
Renz squinted up at Jay, firelight gleaming in his eyes. After a few silent moments, he spoke slowly. “Wanting to avenge what happened to your village is an understandable impulse, and you three have done well for yourselves so far. It might seem a fair idea to stay because of the success you and your sisters have had, but don’t walk into danger with one eye shut.
“Bone thieves are a dangerous demon, but among the many variations we’ve seen here, they are the lesser of them. Numerous, vicious, but stupid in their maliciousness, bone thieves can be tricked and trapped the same as a wild beast. There are many demonic monstrosities that have far more cunning, with power to match it. As strong as you three appear to be, you’re underequipped and I would hazard undertrained as well, at least so far as fighting demons goes, or else your village might have had a different fate.”
The mercenary captain inspected Jay’s face, assessing her reaction to his words, then let out a huff of a sigh.
“With all that said, if you and your sisters are set on staying in harm’s way, then I still would tell you to go to Far Felsen. Prince Kestil has ordered all civilians out of Weigrun until the lands are made safe, but in Felsen you can register with a mercenary company, or even as independent mercenaries, unaligned with any of the official guilds or companies. That would give you the lawful right to stay here and slay demons for bounties.”
Jay nodded in acknowledgement of Renz’s advice. It seemed like genuinely good guidance, and the part about getting revenge, while not applicable to Jadis’ true situation, felt like it was coming from experience. Regardless, Jadis took the information the mercenary captain was giving to heart.
“Thank you for the advice and information,” Jay said, holding out her hand to shake Renz’s. Belatedly, she realized that shaking hands might not be a thing on Oros, or at least not among this particular culture.
Fortunately Renz only hesitated a moment before clasping Jay’s forearm, the Oros version of a handshake more of an—arm shake? —than what Jadis was used to.
“I’d recommended you visit an armor smith second after you register with the magistrate,” Renz advised, giving Jadis’ arm a squeeze before parting and heading for the barracks door. “I don’t know where you found that armor, but it looks like a blindman stitched it together.”
“Hey…” Jay frowned, looking down at the leather bit’s she’d sewn together herself. “It’s not that bad.”
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