Chapter 111: Brief Reprieve

Jadis woke with a start, visions of putrid demons and melting flesh lingering for a few moments as she came to terms with where she was. The sight of bare rock walls confused her and for a second, she thought she was back in the cramped stone alcove she’d spent her first night on Oros in, shivering in the cold. But then she saw that the cave was lit by glowing green moss and her memories of the past day came back to her.

“Easy job my ass,” Jay grumbled quietly under her breath.

Not that she was blaming Kerr for what had happened. There was no way she or anyone could have known that the twisted wretch matriarch would pay them a visit while they were in Alawar. That didn’t mean she was happy about how things had turned out, though. In fact, she was fairly angry. Mostly with herself for not being strong enough to handle the demon mother threat when it appeared. Instead she’d been forced to run.

Honestly, she felt like shit.

She still felt drained from the fights but now that she was awake, Jadis knew she couldn’t go fully back to sleep. She was too pent up about the whole situation to let herself fall back into complete unconsciousness again. Not now that she wasn’t passing out from lack of energy like when they’d found the hidden cave.

That was the nice thing about having three bodies, though. She could let one or two of her selves stay active while the third got some more shut eye. It wasn’t as good as all three sleeping at once, but it was possible for her.

Since that third of her self was the most physically injured, Jadis let her Jay self settle back against the uncomfortable cave wall and slip back into sleep while her other two bodies took stock of their situation.

Aila was sleeping, her head resting against Jay’s right arm. Blankets and bedrolls from her and Jadis’ packs had been spread out, giving them something of a cushion, but not much of one. Aila’s light chest armor had been removed and Jadis could see the bandages around her side were stained with dried blood. Her wound had been worse than she’d let on, her health having dropped to twenty points, but her healing salves, bandages, and a light touch of healing magic Eir had used on her from what she’d recovered while they’d traveled through the tunnels had stabilized her. Jadis had wanted to be mad at her friend for not letting her know just how bad her health had gotten, but at the same time, she couldn’t get angry when she knew she’d probably just put Aila through a worse ordeal. Jay had looked like absolute death after the corpse explosions.

Eir was also cozied up against Jay as well, sandwiched between her and Dys, her head resting in Jay’s lap. She’d been removing the remaining pieces of bones sticking out of Jay’s skin last Jadis remembered. Clearly, she’d passed out while the priestess had finished the job. Eir had tried to use more healing magic on Jadis, that she recalled, but Jadis had refused and told the priestess to save the power she had for Aila and Busch, the worst of the injured in the group. Jadis had already received more than enough healing to be out of any immediate danger.

To Jadis’ surprise, Kerr was also sleeping leaned up against Syd, one of her long horns pressing somewhat uncomfortably against Syd’s shoulder. The archer had removed her helmet and had actually wrapped her arms around Syd’s left arm. She hadn’t sustained much damage from the fighting but had expended a huge amount of stamina when using some of her skills, or so she’d said. Jadis still wasn’t sure how stamina worked exactly other than it was linked to her Endurance stat and that it was necessary for certain skills. There was no direct numerical indicator for the resource, either. It was another question to explore when she thought about it. If she remembered to.

The rest of the group was spread out a little further in the small cave. Douglas was lying flat on his back in the rear, pressed up against the wall. His face and body had been covered in cuts and lacerations but he’d refused any healing or salves, simply stating that the potion he’d taken already was enough. The four remaining guards minus Ealdread were grouped together, also asleep. Jadis felt bad that she had never bothered to learn the names of the three who’d died but resolved to not make that mistake again. Thea and Busch she knew now, and the other two she’d learned were Garver and Falk.

Ealdread was the only other person awake, the stalwart man sitting at the entrance to the alcove, staring into the darkness. Jadis supposed it made sense that the elf stood watch since he could apparently see quite well in the near darkness of the cave, but she was also sure he had to be exhausted too from the day’s events.

Slipping out from the middle of the group, Dys walked as quietly as she could to the entrance and sat down next to the—what was he, a captain? She’d never actually asked.

“You need some sleep. Go ahead, I’ve got this,” Dys whispered, motioning for the elf to withdraw further back into the cave.

Ealdread shook his head. “I’m still fine for now. I’m experienced at going long hours without rest.”

“Dude, being stoic is one thing. Don’t cross the border into stupid. Get some rest.”

Ealdread glanced sidelong at Dys, the green light of the cave moss reflecting off of his eyes.

“Is ‘dude’ an insult?”

“What? Uh, no,” Dys shrugged. “More like a different word for man, but you can use it for anyone. Kind of casual, I guess?”

The guard turned back towards the darkness, a single finger lightly tapping against the back of his shield, the sound barely audible over the rushing water just outside the alcove.

“Standing watch is boring work. If you get tired, wake one of us and we’ll take over,” Ealdread said abruptly, then stood and moved to join his men in rest.

Before he left, he put one hand briefly on Dys’ shoulder.

“Thank you for not leaving us behind,” he spoke softly, barely above a whisper.

Jadis didn’t feel like she had an appropriate response to that. So, she simply nodded, face turned into the oppressive blankness of the cave beyond.

Once Ealdread was settled and the omnipresent quiet of the cavern once again blanketed them, Jadis made sure that Dys paid careful attention to any odd sounds or noises that might echo up the stream’s tunnel. She couldn’t see if danger was approaching, but she could certainly hear it if anything tried to sneak up on them. With the brain power afforded her by Syd still being awake, Jadis also took the time to check her notifications. There were many to sift through, mostly ones letting her know about the demons she had killed, but there were a few that were more interesting.

Both of her classes had gone up a level each. She hadn’t expected to gain much experience from the mission to Alawar, not with how many people were involved and leeching experience from every kill, but she guessed just the sheer number of demons slain had been enough to push her over the edge for the two classes. If she was leveling, she hoped that meant Aila had as well. Eir too, for that matter. The cleric getting stronger could only help them in their current dire straits.

Without much thought, Jadis put the free attribute point she’d gained into her Eldritch stat. While a single point wouldn’t make an immediate difference, every point she put into that vital attribute was paying dividends for the rest of her raw physical power.

More careful consideration would need to be given to what skills she had available to her. Without any fanfare she checked the first option.

Not an amazing skill, but a logical one. She’d been experimenting with shields so the system or gods or however it worked had given her an avenue to advance down the path of incorporating shields into her combat style. It was a strong contender for selection. She did want at least one of her bodies to have some form of shield for protection. And the skill description also said it was a ‘moderate’ boost. The last skill that she’d been offered that increased defensive values had been a ‘small’ boost. Clearly this one was a stronger, and probably rarer, buff.

Setting the skill aside for future consideration, Jadis checked the other option given to her.

“Holy shit,” Syd murmured as she reread the skill’s description.

The skill was powerful. A one-hundred-point boost to three different resources? That was the equivalent of increasing her Vitality, Endurance, and Focus by ten points each. Except, since it was multiplied by her number of bodies, it was more like a thirty-point increase to the three important attributes. That was, by every metric she understood from Aila’s explanations, a fucking insane jump in power.

Well, was it thirty? It said it was multiplied by the number of mirrored bodies, so maybe that meant whichever was her original body didn’t count for the calculation?

Syd shook her head. As if getting a two-hundred-point boost to her health, stamina, and magic pools wouldn’t be an invaluable boon. No further deliberation was needed. She took the skill.

Aches and pains that had lingered across her bodies receded as the skill took effect. Wounds that still looked fresh faded, though the worse ones didn’t fully disappear. As she sighed in relief, Jadis checked what her status sheet looked like.

So it had counted all three of her bodies. Jadis wasn’t sure how to feel about that but decided to take it as a win anyway. Her health, both maximum and current, had gone up by three hundred points. Her stamina had as well and, while she couldn’t see it reflected on the sheet, she could feel it as a lot of the fatigue she had been feeling up to that point melted away. The extra exciting change though was her magic.

Jadis finally had a magic pool. Before, she’d avoided taking any spells she’d been offered from her Mirror Knight class because she didn’t have the magic capacity to cast any of the spells. She would have had to invest points into Focus just to be able to make any use of them and with how low her Focus attribute was, it felt like she would have been spreading herself too thin, wasting the potential she had as a physical fighter. Now, however, with one skill, she had a greater magic point capacity than Aila did.

Aila was probably going to be pissed.

Well, she’d just have to wait until her own class gave her some overpowered skills. Considering the unique nature of the Arcanist class, Jadis was sure Aila wouldn’t have to wait too long before she too was getting some crazy power boosts.

In any case, Jadis was excited at the prospect of being able to cast some spells. The spells she’d been offered so far hadn’t been direct damage types like Aila’s, more of the kind that gave passive buffs to her or inflicted some debilitating illusion-style effects on opponents. Still, she was certain that any of them would be useful given the right situation. She’d have to review her options with Aila and see which she thought they could benefit from the most.

Though, she supposed that was a problem for later. Jadis needed to reach level twenty-five in Mirror Knight before she’d get another opportunity to select a new skill and even then, who knew what options she’d be given at that point that might alter any plans she made now. There was a lot that could change with a single skill, Jadis was coming to realize.

Distracted by her level ups, Jadis almost missed it when a splash in the water of the stream echoed in the tunnel that was definitely not the same as the normal running-water noises. Brandishing her surprisingly sturdy makeshift maul, Dys crouched on one knee, waiting to see what was coming up the tunnel while her other two bodies stirred and woke the others as quietly as possible.

“Something’s coming,” Syd whispered in Kerr’s ear while Jay did the same in Aila’s, both putting their hands over their respective sleeping companions’ mouths to prevent any sudden sounds.

In a few moments everyone was up and awake, barring Busch who was still out cold.  Syd, Douglas, and Ealdread moved up to the fore just behind Dys while the rest kept back, the tightness of the alcove preventing anyone else from getting closer. Weapons at the ready, they all waited to see what would appear from the black murk of the cave tunnel. In another few seconds, the gentle splashing sounds that had grown much closer suddenly stopped.

A familiar voice called out from the dark, barely above a whisper.

“Hey, anybody there?”

“Jana?” Dys quietly called back. “Is that you?”

“Yes, it’s me,” Jana replied. The splashing resumed and from around the corner came the erstwhile missing mercenary.

Her armor looked badly damaged, her crossbow was gone, and her hand was held over what looked like a bad wound on her right side, but it was Jana. She stopped a couple of feet short of them, her legs unsteady as she wavered in place.

“So glad I found you,” she panted, coughing a little into her left hand. “I thought my luck had run out.”

“How the fuck did you find us?” Dys asked incredulously. “We must have gone miles through those twisting tunnels.”

“I’m a tracker,” she said with a shrug. “I tracked you. Let me in.”

Seeing that the mercenary looked ready to collapse, Douglas stepped up past Dys and put a big arm around her to offer some support. As he did, the rest began moving back a little to make room as he helped the injured woman into the alcove.

“Wait,” Aila hissed from her position behind Dys, “How’d you get in the tunnel in the first place? That round door had to weigh a ton; we needed all three Nephilim to lift it.”

The weary expression on Jana’s face morphed into a rictal grin as she suddenly pulled one of the many daggers strapped to her armor off her body and plunged it into the side of Douglas’ neck.

“I had some help.”

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