“How do you even get a class that can do this?” Aila asked, staring at the cut on Jay’s hand as it disappeared, reappearing at the same time on Syd’s hand.
“Lots of self-reflection,” Dys quipped.
After the initial shock had worn off, Aila had firmly grabbed hold of Jay’s arm and dragged her to the inn, Dys and Syd trailing behind. There was a slight awkwardness when Aila had to ask Jadis where her room was, which Jadis pointed out with some bemusement, but as soon as it had been indicated Aila shoved all three of Jadis inside and had demanded an explanation.
Aside from reading her Improved Mirrored Body skill verbatim for her, Jadis had also asked Aila to whisper a random word into Jay’s ear while Dys stood on the other side of the room with her ears plugged. Instantly Dys repeated the word, showing access to knowledge only Jay could have. Finally, she used a knife to make a small cut on her hand and used her Mirrored Body’s Shifting Reflection skill to transfer it between her three bodies.
“That’s bizarre. Bizarre! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a stranger class skill in my life,” Aila shook her head in disbelief.
Demonstration finished, Jay wrapped a cloth around Syd’s hand. “Which? The wound transfer or us being three in one?”
“Both!” Aila cried out in exasperation. “I’m not sure I even want to know what other skills you have. I’m not sure I can handle any more surprises.”
That drew a concerned look from Jadis. She did in fact have another surprise, namely her Earthly, non-Oros origin. Was now the time to explain that she was a reincarnated soul, put into the body of an apparently extinct race, sent on a mission by the mysterious god D to disrupt the established order?
Instinct was telling Jadis that maybe now wasn’t the time. At the least, she should probably wait to explain something potentially devastating to Aila’s world views until she understood the situation a little better. Still, the thought of continuing to hide things from Aila was making her skin itch.
“What?” Aila asked, catching Jadis’ attention back to the moment. “Is there something else insane you’re not telling me?”
“Yes,” Jay admitted. “There is. But I don’t really want to tell you about it.”
“Not because we don’t trust you!” Syd was quick to interject. “It’s just, it’s such a personal matter that honestly, we kind of want to keep it to ourselves for now.”
“It’s not harmful to you,” Dys added. “We swear. It’s just not something we’re ready to talk about with anyone.”
Aila took Jadis’ explanation in somberly, nodding her head slightly at the end. “Okay, I can understand that.”
All three giants looked at Aila then, faces serious. “Are you mad at me for hiding the truth?” Jadis asked, speaking in perfect unison.
Head drawing back and looking confused, Aila pointed at Jay and said, “Don’t do that, it’s confusing. Just, one at a time, okay?”
“Okay,” Jay agreed. “But, are you mad? I get it if you are, at least when it comes to my weird duplicating body skill. I just don’t want everyone knowing about my class and what I’m capable of, you know?”
“I get it,” Aila said, visibly calming as her composure returned. “I don’t blame you. I’m—well, I’m a little angry. You’ve been flirting with me for the past couple days and I thought it was three different women, er, Nephilim doing the flirting which was very confusing, I’ll have you know. Now that I know you’re just one person, it’s kind of a relief?”
“Yeah, sorry, I can see how that would be confusing,” Jay nodded. “That’s why we said something, we wanted to show you some trust. It didn’t seem fair to hide what we are if you’re going to become involved with us, even from a practical, business kind of standpoint as mercenaries.”
“Why do you keep saying ‘we’ when you don’t have to?” Aila interrupted, glancing between the three of Jadis.
Dys shrugged. “Habit, I guess? We—I am just kind of used to thinking of myself that way. We’re one person, but when you have a skill that lets you compartmentalize your mind so you don’t get confused about which hand is doing what, I guess it’s just easier to think of it as ‘Dys’ hand or whatever.”
“Compart—No, wait, I don’t want to know. I’ve got enough to think about as is.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Aila sighed. “Really. I’m not mad. Shocked and confused and a bit relieved, but not mad.”
There was a single small desk with a chair in the bedroom. Pulling the chair over, Syd offered it to Aila who took a seat facing the bed-nest Jadis had made. Sitting down cross-legged in the nest, all of Jadis’ bodies faced Aila with apprehensive smiles.
“So, is there anything else you want to ask about?” Dys asked.
“Might as well get it all out there,” Syd added.
“In the spirit of trust, as long as you don’t pry into my one private matter, you can ask any questions you want,” Jay offered.
Aila looked at the three seated Nephilim consideringly before leaning forward slightly, putting her right elbow on her knee and her chin on her fist. Humming softly, her face didn’t betray her thoughts. Seconds dragged out into a minute, then longer.
“What?” Dys asked, grinning anxiously. “You’re starting to make us a little nervous.”
“Considering the confusion you’ve put me through, I think you can bare a few more seconds,” Aila admonished, eyebrow raised over piercing blue eye.
“Fair enough…” Dys trailed off.
All in all, Jadis didn’t think her reveal to Aila had gone too terribly bad. In fact, she’d consider her reaction to be far better than she feared, especially compared to the nightmare possibilities of bad reactions she’d envisioned when she’d first started thinking about how others might react to her class. It didn’t seem like anyone was going to try to burn her at the stake. Or at least, no one she cared about was rejecting her outright based on her class alone.
“So. First question,” Aila finally spoke, holding up one finger on her free hand, her chin still settled on her right.
“Go for it,” Jay encouraged.
“Are you really the only Nephilim to survive from your village? No others?”
“I’m the only one so far as I am aware,” Jay answered as truthfully as she could.
“Two. Is three the limit? I don’t normally think of mirrors in threes so the fact that you have three bodies is odd.”
“I started out with one double,” Dys answered. “I only recently got the improved version of Mirrored Body. Before I was using a skill from my ritualist class that lets me duplicate one passive skill of my choice.”
Aila paused at that information a moment before continuing, putting up a third finger.
“Three. Which of you is the original?”
“No idea,” Syd shrugged. “I know I’m not because I only appeared when I used the passive duplication ritual. The original is one of these two,” she motioned towards Jay and Dys, “but we’ve got no clue which one.”
“Interesting,” Aila murmured, chin rising from her hand as she leaned back in her chair. “No way to turn the passive skill off and confirm?”
“Not that we know of,” Jay said, shaking her head. “It doesn’t matter much to me anyway at this point. I’m me, no matter which body you’re talking to.”
“Alright,” Aila said, nodding and taking a deep breath. “Then, number four. What’s your real name?”
Oh. Jadis blinked, all of her violet eyes widening in realization. She hadn’t actually told Aila who she really was yet, in the most basic meaning, had she?
“Jadis,” all three of her said at once. “My name is Jadis.”
“But you can keep calling us by whichever nickname we’ve given ourselves, if you like,” Syd said, smirking a little at the way Aila startled at all of her speaking at once.
She needed to speak in synchronized form more often. It was kind of fun to provoke reactions.
“Jadis,” Aila repeated, seeming to taste the word on her lips. After a moment, she said the name again, then smiled. “Jadis. Alright. Five. If you have a ritual spell that improves the result based on the number of participants, why haven’t you already involved more people in the ritual? Even if it’s sexual in nature, you could just hire a few prostitutes, you know? There are a few brothels around.”
That was a genuinely good point. Jadis couldn’t help but frown at the simple solution Aila pointed out. In all honesty, the idea of visiting a brothel and hiring a few ladies of the night hadn’t occurred to her. She had never made use of such services in her previous life; in fact, she was fairly certain she’d never even seen a prostitute in person before, just on television or similar mediums.
While she didn’t have any particular moral compunction against prostitution, the idea of paying someone for sex was throwing Jadis for a loop. She didn’t hate the idea, in fact, it made a lot of sense. She just felt as though whoever she was going to be with in such an intimate and carnal way would be someone she had more of a connection to than just a monetary transaction.
Was she being dumb? She was potentially locking herself out of a power boost by shunning the idea of paying for sex. The whole concept just felt wrong to her though, on an instinctual level. She’d need to think about it.
Not wanting to leave Aila waiting any longer than she already had by lapsing into internal debate, Jadis brought her gaze back up to the redhead’s and gave her a sheepish grin on all three faces.
“Got to admit, the thought just hadn’t crossed my mind before now.”
Aila frowned, then seemed to come to some understanding and nodded her head. “Of course. You’re from a small, isolated village. I don’t imagine there were many prostitutes among your small community.”
“Never met one before,” Jay agreed.
“Do you think that’s something I should do?” Dys asked, curious to get Aila’s opinion on the matter.
Aila shrugged her shoulders. “Pragmatically, it would probably be the most efficient and effective way to take advantage of a skill that just needs willing participants. As long as you have the coin for it, which you do, you could hire quite a few women for, what, a single night? Just to make sure it is completed correctly?”
Jadis watched her freckled face carefully as she spoke. Aila’s expression betrayed no hint of displeasure or consternation with the plan she was herself putting forward. Why would she, now that Jadis thought about it. They weren’t actually dating, not yet anyway. They were, at best, in the tentative stages of maybe thinking of entering into a relationship. In more honest terms, they were business partners, two mercenaries throwing their lot in with each other for mutual benefit. There was no reason for there to be any feelings of proprietary jealousy.
“Would you be upset if I did sleep with other women?” Jay asked, the words coming out of her mouth the moment she thought them.
Aila was slow to contemplate the question, turning it over carefully before hesitantly answering.
“No… But I think I’d be upset if you didn’t ask, first. Does that make sense?”
Aila’s deep blue eyes looked into Jadis’ violet ones with a plea for understanding, one that seemed to wish for an insight that she herself didn’t quite have.
“Yeah, I think I get it,” Jay said, face serious. “Let’s be blunt with each other then.”
“If we’re going to be entering into a sexual relationship, even if it doesn’t go beyond what’s needed for my rituals, we should ask what we are each comfortable with,” Dys calmly explained.
“Agreed,” Aila said, looking relieved at the concept of ground rules to work off of.
“Then, let me start by saying,” Syd drawled, a small grin appearing on her features, “That if you want to have sex with someone else other than me, then I have no problem with it, as long as I get to watch.”
“Unless it’s a guy,” Dys sneered at the thought. “Not interested in hairy man-ass.”
Aila broke out into abrupt laughter, an incredulous look on her face. “Why are you so crass all of the time? It’s as though you have some kind of secret skill for it.”
“I’m an irreverent fucker, what can I say?” Jay admitted with a casual smile and tilt of her head. “I think it’s one of my more charming traits.”
“Obnoxious, more like,” Aila shook her head.
“So? Are you okay with that rule?” Dys prompted, bringing the conversation back on point.
Aila paused, took a breath, then nodded. “Yes, actually. So long as I can apply the same to you. I won’t stop you from being with other women, but I want to at least know about it, even if I’m not directly involved. But considering your ritual and participants, it would make sense if I was involved regardless.”
“Then, if I do come across others I’m interested in inviting to participate in the ritual, would you feel more comfortable if we discussed the person together, first?” Syd asked.
Aila nodded. “I think that would make me feel more comfortable, yes.”
Jay grinned. “Good! As long as we’re on the same page, I think we’ll be fine.”
“I think so, too,” Aila smiled. Her smile grew somewhat nervous though as Jadis’ collective grin grew lascivious. “What?”
“Well,” Jay drew the word out as she leaned forward, hands going to the stone floor as she crawled forward across the ground, approaching Aila’s seated figure. “Now that we’ve established how we each feel about other potential partners in this thing we’re starting here, I think we have to ask—”
“—How comfortable are you with three of me being involved in a sexual ritual with you?” Dys asked, crawling up to the right of Jay.
“Because while I’ll totally respect your wishes on this if you don’t feel the same way, I have got to tell you I am extremely interested in lavishing you with all the attentions three of me can provide you.” Syd whispered huskily, having crawled up next to Jay on her opposite side.
With three pale beautiful giants on their hands and knees surrounding Aila on all sides, gazing at her with wanton intentions, her blush reached epic proportions.
Voice a little shaky, Aila smiled timidly.
“I’m comfortable with that.”
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