Waking up around dawn the next morning, Jadis went about cleaning up and getting dressed. With her shuffling of skills and subsequent stat increases of the night before, Jadis was eager to get back out into the wilds and fight some more demons. Not only was her strength looking good at a solid eighty-five points, but the increase to her other stats seemed like they’d make a big difference in the way her next encounter with a pack of wretches went. Of course, what would make an even bigger difference would be new, more reliable, weapons and armor. A shopping trip was definitely in order.
Gathering up the poor-quality weapons she’d salvaged from the wretches, Jadis tied them into a bundle. She figured she could sell the weapons at the same shop she’d bought her big mallet at. Even if they weren’t worth much, every penny counted. Digging through the boxes of supplies she’d taken with her from her starting village, Jadis also pulled out the bag of plundered jewelry she’d found on the dead adventurer’s remains from the basement in the mining village. She wasn’t sure what they were worth, but silver was silver and she was sure she’d get a decent amount of coin from selling the little bag of rings and bracelets.
Now that she thought about it, she supposed the dead man had likely been an independent mercenary, just like she was now. She’d have to be careful not to become a pile of old junk in a dingy basement somewhere, too.
Jadis also planned to check on Aila. This morning was the moment of truth. Either she was going to be joining up with her or they would be saying farewell to one another. Jadis earnestly hoped it wouldn’t be a goodbye today.
“Let’s skip breakfast for now and find Blue,” Jay said after finishing getting her damaged makeshift armor on.
“Also, let’s see if this town has something like a bathhouse. Wiping ourselves off with cold water is way worse now after having a hot bath at Bernd’s headquarters,” Syd said, rubbing a towel in Dys’ hair to dry it.
“Fuck, warm water would be nice,” Dys sighed.
The inn, while chosen for its tall ceilings and decently sized rooms, did not have private baths. The communal restroom on the second floor had plumbing, but it did not have heated water and the tub was even smaller than the one at the mercenary HQ. Jadis was forced to pour cold water over her heads and give herself wipe-downs with towels. No worse than bathing in the streams out in the pine woods, but now that she was in a city, Jadis hoped for better.
Coming down the stairs, Jadis was greeted by the smell of freshly baked bread wafting from the open kitchen door. The plump innkeeper came bustling out with a tray of steaming rolls upon Jadis’ morning greetings. Breakfast came as part of the cost of the room she was renting, but considering her appetite, Jadis decided not to take advantage of the pleasant woman’s hospitality beyond snagging a few of the, to her at least, bite sized rolls. If Jadis ate her fill, she was fairly certain the kindly woman would take a loss on the deal.
Slipping out of the inn door with her weapons and looted gear over her shoulders, Jadis breathed in the slightly salty air of the port city. A breeze was blowing in from the sea, tickling her noses and ruffling her hair.
“Beautiful day!” Jay said with a white-toothed grin, stretching her arms high overhead.
“Yup, lots of sun, lots of fresh air,” Dys agreed.
“Lots of guards walking our way,” Syd added, glancing to the left at the double column of eight city guards marching down the road, led by a taller man in slightly fancier-looking armor.
“You three!” the lead guard shouted as the retinue neared her, “You three are Jay, Dys, and Syd, the so-called Nephilim.”
The man wasn’t asking a question so much as he was making a statement. Jadis supposed it would be difficult to mistake her and her mirrored selves for anyone else.
Turning to face the — guard captain? — Jadis put on her most respectful expressions and made sure not to look like she was about to use any of the many weapons she was currently carrying. She didn’t know why the guards were looking for her, but she was sure things were likely only to get worse if she made herself look hostile. No way did she want to start a fight with a whole city filled with guards and soldiers.
“Yes, can we help you?” Jay answered, taking the lead from her middle position.
“Present your badges for confirmation,” the guard captain commanded gruffly.
The man was shorter than either Gerwas or Ludwas and had to crane his neck far back to look up at the three giants. Jadis figured he was probably only an inch or two below average height, comparing him to the soldiers lined up behind him, but they were all dwarf-like in size to Jadis anyway. His salt-and-pepper beard was neatly trimmed and his nose was bent. As brusque as he was, Jadis got the impression he was an experienced soldier.
“Okay,” Jay agreed readily to the guard’s demand.
Pulling their badges out, all three of Jadis let the guard captain check them with a device identical to the one the gate guards had used to check them the day before. As the enchanted device flashed blue, the captain grunted in acceptance.
“Right. You three come with us.”
The guards moved upon a wave of their leader’s hand, taking up station on either side of Jadis’ three bodies, lining up in perfect formation so that she had nowhere to go but where the captain led, unless she wanted to get physical.
“Why? What do you want with us?” Dys asked, trying to keep the growing concern out of her voice.
The guard captain turned back the way he and his men had come and began a brisk march. Seeing the fully armored and armed men surrounding her start to move as well, Jadis felt compelled to march to, though she had to slow her pace slightly to keep from overtaking the captain or bumping into him.
“The magistrate has requested your presence,” the captain finally answered Dys’ question. “That’s all I know, so keep quiet and don’t make trouble.” The captain’s gruff and somewhat impatient tone brooked no argument. He expected obedience.
Jadis was half tempted to start asking all kinds of questions just to annoy the imperious man. His honestly rude attitude was getting on her nerves. While she didn’t generally mind authority figures who were just doing their jobs, this guy was being a bit of a dick for no reason that she could tell.
As the merits and drawbacks of potentially pissing off a guard captain rattled back and forth in Jadis’ head, she and her guard escort passed through one of the large main roads of the city. Spotting a familiar head of red hair, Jadis focused and saw Aila watching her and the column of guards with wide eyes.
Seeing Aila instantly distracted Jadis from any thought of antagonizing the guard captain, not only because it was embarrassing to let someone she was interested in see her being led away by guards, but because of what Aila was wearing. She was wearing her typical leather pants and boots, but her tunic wasn’t the green and brown colors of Bernd’s Blades but was instead grey. She also had her large backpack on and her quarterstaff in hand. She looked like she was ready to go out trekking in the hills, not drive a wagon.
A triple grin couldn’t help but split Jadis’ faces at the realization that Aila had chosen to join her over sticking with the mercenary company. Just as quickly though, Jadis dampened the grins and gave Aila a helpless shrug, motioning to the guards as the group turned the corner and marched away from Aila.
Jadis felt just a little bad a moment later, Syd glancing over her shoulder to look, when she realized that her joy at seeing Aila equipped to partner up and adventure with her had meant she’d completely ignored Gerwas and Ludwas standing next to the redhead. The two were geared up in their standard mercenary kit and Jadis imagined they were there to see their Aila off, maybe give Jadis a strong word or two about keeping their niece safe. Now she wondered if they were about to turn her around and lead her back to the Blades, just to keep her from getting involved with a trio that was being dragged off by the city guard.
Instead, next time one of Jadis’ selves glanced back, she saw that Aila and her uncles were following behind the procession, surprisingly determined looks on their faces.
The knowledge that she wasn’t being instantly written off bolstered Jadis’ mood.
Marching quickly, the guards escorted the three Nephilim to the same large government building she’d gotten her badges from and turned in her bounties. Led inside and past the lobby area, Jadis was taken through a door and up a couple flights of stairs to the third floor. The decorations in the hallway were much more impressive than anything Jadis had seen in the city so far. A blue and white carpet ran the length of the wide hall. Detailed portraits of royal-looking men and women lined the walls, and even the doors between the paintings looked expensive with rich carvings decorating them. At the end of the hall stood a double door guarded by two more guards in what Jadis could only describe as ceremonial armor. The hall had a tall enough ceiling that the two guards’ halberds could be held at attention without any difficulty, a fact Jadis was grateful for since it meant more headroom for her.
With a word from the guard captain, the two guards opened the doors and the captain went inside while the eight guards that had been escorting her peeled off and took up positions along the walls.
Not seeing any other reasonable course of action, Jadis followed the captain and ducked through the large doors into a richly appointed study.
A woman sat behind a large dark desk, her presence instantly capturing Jadis’ attention. She was an elf, her skin a light-blue color and her hair blood-red and tied back in a braid. Her eyes had that same solid color quality as the other elves Jadis had seen and disturbingly matched her hair in color. She was beautiful, in a sharp kind of way. Everything about her intense expression and perfect posture gave Jadis the impression the woman was someone who was used to giving orders and having them obeyed.
The elf was not wearing armor, but what she did have on looked like some kind of military uniform and was colored in the same white and blue heraldry the guards wore. Jadis saw no sign of a weapon, either, but a red glass orb the size of a soccer ball floated in the air to the side and behind the woman’s head, glowing ominously. Jadis assumed the elf woman was probably some kind of spell caster.
“The mercenaries Jay, Dys, and Syd, as requested,” the guard captain announced, drawing himself up in a salute that involved putting his closed right fist on his chest.
“Thank you, you may go,” the elf said. Her voice had a different accent from what Jadis was used to hearing from almost everyone else she’d spoken to on Oros. While Aila and the other mercenaries had a vaguely German-like accent, this elf sounded almost like she was an upper-class Brit with how posh her tones were.
The guard bowed slightly and promptly left, the doors shutting behind Jadis with a soft click, leaving her alone in the room with the blue elf.
“So…” Syd drawled, breaking the tense silence.
The elf’s head turned slightly, dark red eyes focusing on Syd with such predatory intensity that Jadis faltered in her words, shutting her mouth with an audible click.
The tense silence resumed for another solid minute as Jadis awkwardly stood in the middle of the room. Bookshelves lined two of the walls and a huge fireplace took up another wall, a couch and comfortable-looking chairs set up in front of the hearth. A pot of what smelled like tea was sat steaming on the desk in front of the elf, untouched. Neat stacks of papers failed to not clutter the desk, barely any of the dark wood surface visible under the mass of official-looking forms. Rich blue curtains were partially drawn across the windows behind the elf, the morning light filtering in through the clear glass.
“Which of you are which?” The elf finally spoke again, her sharp tones making all three of Jadis jump a little at the sudden sound.
“I’m Jay,” she answered from the middle, then motioned to her right and left. “This is Dys and this is Syd.”
“And you are?” Dys prompted after a few more seconds of silence from the imperious elf.
“I am Magistrate Vraekae,” the elf answered, leaning back slightly in her chair. “I have received reports that the three of you were directly involved in the confirmed slaying of two grundwyrms in the hills around Far Felsen in as many days. Is this true?”
So the magistrate wanted to know about the stone demons? Jadis let out a mental sigh of relief. Aila had said the grunwyrms were unusual for the hills and that the guards would want to get more information. She hadn’t expected to be dragged to the head honcho’s office first thing in the morning for questioning, but she supposed news of demons showing up somewhere they shouldn’t be would make any responsible leader want to investigate.
“Yes, that’s right,” Jay answered truthfully. “We killed one alone yesterday, and a bigger one the day before with some mercenaries. Bernd’s Blades.”
“With that equipment?” The magistrate motioned to the weapons Jadis’ selves were armed with.
The guards had not taken any of her weapons from her yet seemed to have no problem leaving the three of her alone in a room with the supposed leader of the entire city. The realization that the guards knew the three of her were strong enough to take on a grundwyrm and yet didn’t think to disarm her while in the presence of their boss caused the hairs on the backs of her necks to prickle.
“Yes,” Syd answered, “Though I used a rock I picked up from the ground because my spear wouldn’t do much to stone…”
“And you encountered the grundwyrm where, exactly?” she continued her inquiry, drilling Jadis with question after question about where, when, and how Jadis encountered the grundwyrm as well as how she dealt with it.
The magistrate took Jadis’ explanations in without even a twitch. She simply sat with rigid posture, her stern gaze putting Aila’s sometimes icy expression to utter shame.
“And you three claim to be Nephilim, from Kalters Wall?”
Jadis blinked at the unexpected turn in the conversation.
“That’s correct,” Dys answered. “We’re Nephilim.”
“Impossible,” the elf sharply retorted. “There are no Nephilim.”
Jadis wasn’t sure what to say to that.
Hesitating, then shrugging her second helpless shrug of the day, Jay said, “But, we are? I mean, we’re standing right here, so yeah. There are Nephilim. Why are you saying we aren’t?”
Standing up from her seat and walking from behind her desk, Magistrate Vraekae approached the three giants, the glowing red ball following behind her. Hands clasped behind her back, she stared up at Jay with hawk-like intensity. When she spoke, her words were precise and cutting.
“Because all the Nephilim died nearly two thousand years ago.”
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