Sleeping with the mercenaries in the barracks was more of a challenge than Jadis would have thought it would be. Having spent so long with only the sound of her own breathing and movements, every little noise any of the dozen or so strangers made in the long bunkhouse style building brought her to full wakefulness, same as if she were under attack by bone thieves in the night.
She might have been on more of a hair trigger than she had realized.
Keeping one of her awake and on watch, switching out the same as she had done when alone turned out to be the only way she could comfortably get some sleep. Jadis didn’t want to seem as though she didn’t trust the sanctuary she’d been offered, though, and kept whichever one of her that was awake lying on the mat the mercenaries had provided for the three of her to sleep on, in addition to her own blankets and fur.
As she drifted in the haze of semi-wakefulness, not quite fully conscious but still mostly aware, Jadis listened to the goings on of the camp at nighttime while thinking over her options for her next steps.
Captain Renz had given solid advice, clearly intended for persons that had a grudge to settle with demons, but still useful. The question wasn’t so much whether or not she should take his advice as good, so much as it was whether or not she should stay in the area or head to safer lands. She could see advantages to both.
On the one hand, if she stayed, she’d likely have to follow Renz’s guidance and register as mercenaries, maybe independent ones. That—That sounded a lot like being an adventurer to Jadis and the thought thrilled her. Sticking around, what had he called the place? Weigrun? Sticking around in Weigrun seemed like it would afford a lot of opportunities to level faster fighting demons from what she understood from the earlier conversations. On top of that she could earn money doing bounties.
On the other hand, there wasn’t anything that said she couldn’t do all of those things elsewhere. Jadis doubted Weigrun was the only place with demons attacking it, even if she didn’t yet have a full picture of what was going on with the Demon Lord and all that business. Heading to the ‘Central Lands of the Empire’ as Renz had called it didn’t mean she’d have to stay there necessarily. Or maybe it did? Would it be harder to leave than it was to enter? Jadis wasn’t quite sure on that count, but if she could join a mercenary band here, she was sure she could do the same in the Central Lands, whatever that meant.
Still, Jadis was drawn towards the idea of staying in Weigrun for at least a little longer. It felt like there was a lot more to see and do in the primeval-looking lands. If bone thieves really were the relatively small fry of the demons running around Weigrun, then she was definitely interested in seeking out some of the other demons to challenge herself, push her limits. Growing stronger was a huge pull for Jadis.
Staying at least until the mercenaries verified her story about the demon matriarch seemed a given. She wanted whatever reward was on offer for that feat. She’d go to Far Felsen, maybe join up with a guild or something like it, play it by ear. Staying adaptable had worked out well for her so far. So long as she didn’t just rest on her laurels, doing nothing, she felt fairly confident she couldn’t really make a wrong choice.
Besides, after her talk with Renz, she now had a good excuse for reasons why she’d want to stay in a demon-infested land. Revenge was a strong and easily relatable motivation. She could definitely sell the story that she was sticking around for personal vendetta reasons, hopefully garnering little pushback with that as her purpose for sticking around.
As she jointly slept and considered her options, Jadis listened to a few whispered conversations among the mercenaries. None were particularly worrisome, most of what she heard were snippets of conversations between mercs that were going on night watch or coming off of it, discussing the day’s events. Generally, the comments she heard were some variations on how strange the three pale giants were, how none of them had heard of Nephilim or the like, and how unbelievable it was that three level thirty people were able to take down a bone thief matriarch. Interestingly, one of the mercenaries, Jadis couldn’t be sure who, had rather impassionedly insisted that it was entirely possible, but it had to mean the three sisters had powerful, rare classes.
That was a useful tidbit of information. Not all classes were necessarily equal. Ludwas had said she’d had a ‘combat’ class when he identified her with that stone of his, whatever that thing was, which implied there were non-combat classes. If there were combat and non-combat classes, and there were different rarities to classes, that could mean that conceivably, a level thirty in one class did not equal the same amount of power as a level thirty in another class.
Would admitting to having a rare class improve her situation? Did she even have rare classes? It felt like she did, especially when she compared what she knew of her classes to what she could observe of the soldiers around her. Even now, as she shared this building with a dozen or so mercs, a couple of them women and the rest men, there weren’t any crazy empowerment rituals going on, sexually charged or otherwise. She doubted ritual spells like what she did with her selves were common occurrences, at least from the limited interaction she’d had with the locals so far.
Wouldn’t it figure D would give her an utterly ridiculous class just to mess with expectations?
Whatever. She wasn’t complaining. She liked both of her weird-ass classes.
One other topic of conversation Jadis did overhear among the occasional whispers she picked up on was commentary on her looks. Jadis had been rather narcissistically enamored of her own appearance ever since she’d come to Oros, a fact she now freely admitted to herself but absolutely would not be voicing out loud. It seemed others agreed in her appraisal, though. She was turning heads, not just for reasons of height or odd backstory.
The comments on the three of her looking like vagabonds were a little cutting, though.
At dawn, the camp came back to full life and the three of Jadis joined the mercenaries for their breakfast, sitting down with Gerwas, Ludwas, and the still pensive-looking Aila. Sitting down at one of the long tables with benches was… challenging, but she made it work.
As her three selves ate a tasty vegetable stew, she learned from the affable brothers that Aila would be driving a wagonload of loot the mercenaries had collected from their battles with demons to Far Felsen, and also to get more supplies. Gerwas and Ludwas and a couple of other mercenaries would be going along to guard the wagon and Jadis was welcome to follow along.
Jadis idly wondered what parts of demons were being sent back as loot, and what use those parts might have. Renz had said the demon egg could be used for alchemy and enchanting, did other parts of demons have such uses? Another question for the ever-expanding list.
“Take this with you,” Captain Renz’s voice came from behind Jadis as she voiced her intention to join the wagon heading to Felsen.
Jay shifted around in her seat, seeing the once again fully armored man standing behind her. He passed her a folded up piece of paper, which Jay took and upon looking at it, found some kind of strange script written on the inside, with a wax seal on the bottom next to what she assumed to be Renz’s signature.
“Pardon the question, but can any of you read?”
Jay looked up from the mystifying letter, a bit chagrined. Of course she could read. Just, not whatever this was.
“Not this language, no,” Jay admitted, passing the letter to her sisters to let them take an unnecessary look. “What’s it say?”
The mercenary captain nodded, pointing at the letter now in Syd’s hand. “It’s my testimony that you three have properly presented yourselves to a lawful representative of the Empire and accepted the Second Prince’s sanctuary. It will also serve as proof that you reported the slaying of a bone thief matriarch and await verification. I’ve already sent a runner off to Bernd at the third outpost. He should be back with a response by mid-morning and provided he approves, I’ll be sending a team to the Sweet Pine Valley to check on your claim. It might take a couple of weeks to get there and back, but if you stay in Felsen or nearby, and your claim is verified, that letter will ensure you get the reward.”
“Thank you,” Jadis chorused in three voices, once again causing those around her to startle. She probably needed to dial back the perfect synchronicity of her selves when she did that. Then again, causing people to jump a little was kind of fun.
“What is the reward, anyway?” Dys asked. Jadis hadn’t ever gotten any word on that.
“A matriarch of any kind is worth a fair sum of coin,” Ludwas answered, leaning an elbow on the table. “A bone thief matriarch? That’s got to be a hundred eagles I’d say. Wouldn’t you say?”
Gerwas nodded, “Aye, should be. Split three ways, that’s a fine reward to be sure.”
“That is… a lot?” Syd said, her tone questioning.
“Are you unfamiliar with coin? Duerr told me you have coin amongst your supplies,” Renz asked, folding his arms.
“Ah, we found those in the dwa—human village,” Jay explained. “We didn’t use coin in our village, we had no need. We just held onto what we found because we thought it might be useful.”
“I’m sure others can give you a more detailed explanation,” the captain said, nodding a head towards the bearded brothers, “but suffice it to say, with ten eagles, you could purchase a good riding horse with saddle.”
“Not that any of ye could use it,” Ludwas mumbled under his breath.
Jadis had Jay ignore the jibe, instead thanking Renz for being an ever-flowing font of useful information.
Syd, on the other hand, gave Ludwas a kick under the table, setting him to spitting a sip of his ale out into the face of his brother Gerwas which got the two bickering again.
With the morning meal wrapping up and daylight burning, Jadis gathered up her supplies and joined Aila at her wagon along with the four mercenaries guarding it. Approaching the large, uncovered wooden wagon, Jadis got to get a better look at the alien bovine creatures she’d seen the evening before.
Two of the large bull-like animals were yoked to the wagon. Each one was as tall as man was at the shoulder, with large shoulder humps similar to bison. Their horns were wide and covered in small protrusions. Jadis recognized those horns as having been attached to a few of the bone thieves she’d slain in the past, though there were definitely different antlers she’d seen more commonly. They had dark brown fur with green stripes, almost like a zebra, which was probably the weirdest thing about them. Jadis didn’t think green fur was even possible. Then again, compared to the literal tentacle monster egg she had in a jar, green fur wasn’t all that strange.
Thinking about the egg reminded Jadis of something Renz had said before. While the wagon prepared to depart, Dys quickly dug the pouch of silver coins out of her supplies and approached the camp cook, the man and a couple of others cleaning up his workstation.
Jadis didn’t yet know the value of the coins she did have, but she didn’t think any of them were the ‘eagles’ Renz had mentioned, so she doubted she would be giving away something she’d regret. Without trying to barter, Dys offered a handful of the smaller silver coins to the cook, asking for a sturdy container that could be easily secured.
With eyebrow raised, the cook took just two of the small coins before walking off to a little building that Jadis assumed held the camp supplies. He returned a moment later with an large empty glass jar, somewhat similar to a mason jar, but with a glass top that could be sealed tight with a metal wire clasp.
Thanking the man, Dys hurried back and rejoined the wagon just as it was ready to move out.
“Creepy bugger,” Gerwas remarked as Dys transferred the egg from the clay jar to the glass one, securing the clasp.
“I don’t know,” Syd responded, tapping the side of the jar lightly and watching the blue eyeball within spin to face her. “It’s almost cute, in a weird way.”
That comment drew some strange looks from the mercenaries.
“What?” Syd asked defensively. “It’s not like I’m calling it as cute as a kitten or anything. I just don’t think it’s all that creepy.”
“Deranged…” Jadis heard Aila whisper under her breath.
The other mercenaries chose not to comment further.
With a crack of the reins, Aila urged the zebra-bison forward, driving the loaded wagon out the gates of the camp.
Jadis followed behind, shouldering mauls and spear. Gerwas had graciously told her to put her supplies on the back of the wagon, an offer Jadis had no problem accepting. She eagerly anticipated what the day of travel with the mercenaries would bring, even if it was going to be a markedly slower pace than if she was running on her own. She had much to see, even more to learn, and depending on how safe the road to Far Felsen was, maybe some new demons to slay.
She couldn’t help the grins that split her faces, white teeth shining in the morning light. Today was going to be a good day.
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