Rebirth of the Nephilim

After breakfast was wrapped up, Jadis was faced with a myriad of tasks that needed doing. There were a great deal of things she needed to get done; some of them personal, others a matter of duty, and most related to her lovers. Since she needed to decide on what to tackle first, Jadis mentally ran down a list of her choices following no particular order.

First on her mind, she needed to discuss her level twenty-one progenitor skill choice with her lovers. Or spell choice, she supposed, after taking a quick look at the options. Both were intriguing in multiple different ways, and it would be genuinely difficult for her to decide between the two. Especially with the potential implications that the spells presented for her and Alex’s child. Every time she thought she knew which one she wanted, the other would start calling to her, pointing out how useful it could be.

Another task on the same track, she wanted to talk about Eir’s level twenty-one skill choice as well. The newly anointed saint had reached the next level in her Oracle class, so she had to have a couple of options to pick from, if she hadn’t done so already.

Then there was Severina. The paladin had put off discussing her new levels partly because she had not gone over all of her previous levels with the group yet, and because she wanted to perform Lewd Lover’s Bond with Jadis before even looking at what had been offered to her on the chance the boost to her attributes would affect the options made available. Jadis wasn’t sure if it worked that way, and neither was Aila or anyone else for that matter. Skills that boosted attributes to such an extreme degree the way Jadis was capable of doing were exceedingly rare, so the study of how such skills affected level up choices was limited. Especially when it came to a large number of level ups all at once.

Which, when thinking about skills and levels, brought to mind all of the rituals that they still needed to perform. If nothing else, Jadis was still walking around with five bodies instead of her typical three, so that was a ritual in need of a repeat performance just to get her back to the status quo. Then again, was that the best option? Jadis had been sticking with duplicating her Fraction Spread passive skill, but after talking over the numbers with Aila and the others, it might be better to move away from that choice. Applying it to Paladin of Jadis’ Boldness was potentially the better choice overall. That was still something to discuss, though, if for no other reason than Jadis wasn’t even sure if she could duplicate the borrowed passive, since it wasn’t originally hers to begin with.

Moving away from thoughts of rituals and levels, Jadis needed to get Sabina down to the corpse of Vinea. The Demon Prince’s remains were already being dismembered, with valuable parts salvaged and the rest discarded. Sabina wanted to get down to the wall and help, in part because she was a good person and for a non-combatant like here, it was a way she could be helpful. More so than altruism, though, Sabina wanted to be able to pick out the best parts for her to use when crafting enchantments. Jadis was absolutely in support of her mission and would fight anyone who said her crew didn’t deserve first choice.

Then there was Eir and Alex to consider. Eir intended to spend the day at the temple they had just vacated, curing those who were afflicted by poisons and diseases. Having come up over their mid-morning meal, Eir had asked Alex to join her since the Demon’s new spell would be a major boon to her efforts. Paladin’s Focal Shift would allow the saint to cast far more of the expensive anti-disease spells so long as Alex was with her. Plus, Alex would get the chance to practice with her own basic healing spells on anyone who needed more healing than Eir’s sacrament ritual had provided. Hopefully the Demon would gain a little more good press in the process, showing the soldiers that she was no one to fear or hate.

Speaking of Demons, Jadis still had the chest full of unhatched eggs under lock and key. She needed to ask Sev where she had left them under guard and then get them looked at. She wanted Alex’s help with eggs, especially if any Demons hatched. The hope was to talk with the newly born Demons and try to convince them to not immediately fall in line with Samleos’ destructive ideology. Perhaps that was something she could do at the temple while Eir and Alex were working together to heal soldiers?

Jadis’ armor and weapons needed to be looked at. That issue was already being addressed by Sabina’s father and brothers, at least, so she could move that concern far down her list for the moment. She hoped she could recover her giant maul from the pit of Demons, but something told her that she probably wasn’t going to be getting that weapon back anytime soon. Jadis didn’t know what plan the army had in place to deal with those mire hound corpses, but she wouldn’t at all be surprised if the removal was low priority for them since the pit was a contained space compared to the streets of Glanum.

Violetta’s birthday was just a couple of days away, which meant Jadis needed to start planning a foray into the Demon-infested lands beyond the river. She had promised to power level the young half-elf, and she was going to follow through. Though, Violetta wasn’t the only one who needed power leveling. Alex, Thea, Bridget, Sabina, Sorcha, and even Eir now that she had unlocked her tertiary class, all needed to gain some levels so that they could catch up to the higher levels she, Aila, Severina, and Kerr had achieved. Ideally, Jadis hoped to get everyone their tertiary class unlocked while they were in Glanum, though she couldn’t guarantee it. Fighting regular Demons wasn’t going to have the same effect as slaying the massively powerful Greater Demons and Demon Prince had.

Which reminded Jadis that the hunt for Twisted Desire was still on. That cockroach of a Demon, along with any potential cultists in the city, was really more Noll’s duty than hers. Not that Jadis gave a shit about who’s responsibility it was. Twisted Desire had attacked her twice, and the cultists had outright declared war on her when they attacked Thea’s home village. There was no chance Jadis wasn’t going to aid her mentor in tracking their quarry down while they were in the city together.

Taking a deep breath to calm her selves, Jadis put aside the anger she felt towards the cultists and the centipede Demon. There were still other items to add to her list.

Sorcha’s wands needed to be looked at. Not a priority, and not something Jadis needed to take a direct hand in, but still something she wanted to help with. Sorcha had a lot of new wands to make and the better materials she had to work with, the stronger the effects would be. She would have make sure to bring the little witch as many good ingredients as she could, which was a task she could probably merge with her trip alongside Sabina to Vinea’s corpse.

On the thought of low priority tasks, Jadis remembered that she still needed to get the Leviathan off the sacred tower or whatever it was called. As Severina had pointed out, the giant building was some sort of local monument, and parking the airship on top for an extended period of time would be a little disrespectful. She was sure that the locals were more than willing to cut her some slack considering all she and her companions had done during the battle, but that was no reason to insult their pride. She would coordinate finding a new parking spot as soon as possible.

Then again, as a sudden thought struck Jadis, parking elsewhere might not be necessary. Not if the Airship was sent back to Eldingholt. The whole point of the airships was for rapid response transportation. That went both ways. Not just for getting her and her team to the frontlines of the war, but also for getting anyone who needed to return to their base of operations quickly back to Eldingholt as fast as possible.

Eir needed to go back. First and foremost, so she could confirm that her pregnancy was real and healthy. Secondly, presuming she was pregnant, which Jadis did, Eir needed to get the pregnancy paused by Bertha. The sooner, the better. Jadis didn’t want there to be any extra risk for their child by pausing the development at a later stage.

There were more reasons for a return visit as well, practically speaking. Jadis and Severina, as well as Tegwyn, had all reached CLR one hundred and needed to get their official badges that denoted the achievement. Kerr would be needing one soon, too, though she probably couldn’t apply for one early. It would also probably be a big help if they transported some needed supplies from the capital city to Glanum. The local administration had to be running low on resources after such a major attack. Also, if there was anyone who needed to get back to the capital quickly, Jadis didn’t mind serving as transportation. The Leviathan had the room. Word of the battle probably didn’t need to be carried by them, since the Seraphim who served as couriers could fly faster than an airship. Still, if there were more messages to be delivered, less urgent ones, then the Leviathan could serve that purpose, too.

While all of that was true, what was also true was that not everyone needed to go back to Eldingholt. A round trip would take four days. Five, if the airship docked in the city for the night. That was almost a full week, which was far less travel time than if they crossed the thousand-mile distance by land, but still a significant factor. Eir had to return to the capital for a brief period, but in all honesty, Jadis and the others didn’t. A lot of power leveling could be done in that time. The idea of letting Eir travel alone to Eldingholt made Jadis anxious, though. Besides which, who would fly the airship for her? That was two of her group gone, at a minimum. Probably four, just to be safe. Was splitting up, even for a brief period, the best idea?

“Jadis, are you alright?”

Jay was pulled out of the inner thought discussion she was having with herself by Aila’s question. She realized that she had been standing silently in the hallway for far too long. Not just Jay, but all of her selves had been lost in thought.

“Sorry, I’ve been thinking about all the stuff I still need to do,” she answered while dragging her fingers through her long white hair. It really was getting too long; she needed a trim. “There’s just a lot to do.”

Aila smiled knowingly, then held up her journal to reveal an open page where a list was already forming.

“Perhaps we should coordinate?”

“Great minds think alike,” Jay chuckled, her keen eyes quickly taking note of what Aila had written down. “I’m glad to see we’re already on the same page with a lot of things.”

Aila rolled her eyes at the terrible pun before lightly slapping her notebook against Jay’s stomach.

“Let’s go back to our room and do a quick review. We should be able to prioritize what comes first just by timing factors.”

Jadis readily agreed to the plan and followed behind Aila and the rest of her group who had already started down the hall. Tegwyn and his team were also mostly out the door as well, since they had their own tasks to accomplish. Mainly, they were heading out into the city to help with the cleanup as well as to patrol the streets for any straggler Demons that could still be hiding within the walls. With their group heading out, and Sabina’s family already heading for the workshop, everyone was accounted for.

Everyone but the one person who Jadis had been purposefully putting off on her list of things to do until she was sure about where she had disappeared to.

While the rest of her selves and her lovers headed into their shared bedroom to do a quick rundown of what tasks to tackle and in what order, Dys stayed behind. Lingering in the open doorway to the dining hall, she watched and waited as the small serving staff cleared the table of the various plates and trays that were left behind by their simple yet filling breakfast. As a young woman with brown hair rounded the end of the table and made eye contact with her, Dys gave the woman a pointed look before motioning with her head to follow.

Without looking back, Dys headed down the stairs and out into the shaded courtyard in the middle of the manor. Leaning against one of the pillars, she waited patiently for the other woman to join her.

“How do you keep spotting me?”

Dys turned her head to look down at the brown-haired servant. The woman was looking up at her with an intense expression in her gaze, the frown on her lips both frustrated and cute.

“You aren’t as good at blending in as you think you are,” Dys replied glibly.

“What a joke, coming from someone who couldn’t blend in among the blind.”

“Does that maid know you’re pretending to be her?”

“No,” Maeve admitted after a short pause. “But I haven’t done anything in her guise that would get her in trouble.”

When Dys silently raised an eyebrow at that statement, the Fetch’s eyes slid away.

“I haven’t been caught doing anything.”

“Please change into someone else, Maeve,” Dys asked, making sure to keep her tone even. “You can be me, if you like.”

Maeve’s form rippled as she shifted, changing shape and color so that she looked like a small, or rather, average-height version of Jadis. The servant’s outfit stayed the same, which meant those were articles of clothing Jadis would have to make sure were returned to their owner.

“Thank you,” Dys said as she smiled at the doppelganger.

“So…” Maeve murmured, her gaze still not quite meeting Dys’ eyes. “Time for a talk?”

“Yes. It’s time to talk.”