Chapter 117: Frank Discussions

As Jadis had expected, Kerr kicked up a furor of expletive punctuated commotion upon the reveal of her secondary class’s nature. However, this time, Jadis wasn’t willing to just sit by and watch the archer rant for minutes on end. As Kerr jumped to her feet, a multi-lingual mixture of foul curses already spewing from her pretty lips, Dys lunged. Grabbing a hold on both of Kerr’s upper arms, she held the woman suspended a few feet in the air, putting the horned woman’s head level with her own.

“Let’s skip the angry outbursts and cut straight to the questions this time, okay?” Dys commanded, staring sternly into Kerr’s eyes.

“Fuck you, I want to yell about this.”

 “If you don’t cut it out, I can promise you I won’t fuck you.”

That dire prediction bought a moment of silence.

“But I want to rant about how its scheisse that you got two fucking amazing classes,” Kerr replied with an amusingly serious tone. “And I want sex too.”

“Then save the ranting for after I answer any questions and we’ve had a discussion with everyone, okay?”

“Acceptable…” Kerr growled out after a short delay, though she did visibly calm down.

Distracting and time-consuming outburst dealt with for the moment, Dys set Kerr back down. Then, deciding that standing in such a looming posture over her and the others was probably kind of rude and unnecessarily intimidating, Dys took a seat across from Kerr, Eir, and Thea, with Aila on her right. Her Jay and Syd selves were still watching either exit to their alcove throughout the whole discussion, but Jadis only needed the one body to talk.

“Okay then. So,” Dys said, hands on her knees. She looked around for a beat, then shrugged. “Any questions about the whole sex ritual class thing?”

“Yeah, how come long legs over there isn’t surprised?” Kerr immediately asked, pointing a clawed finger at Aila.

For her part, Aila had maintained her typical cool composure during the whole reveal so far. She sat somewhat primly next to Dys, staying silent and observing. At some point she had retrieved her pack and had pulled a canteen, the non-lewd kind, out of it and was taking a few light sips.

“I’m sure a creative person such as yourself can use her imagination to make a guess,” Aila answered the question, giving Kerr a droll look.

“Yeah, okay,” Kerr nodded, green eyes squinting at Aila, “I figured you were probably fucking one of them. I guess you’re still technically sexing it up with just ‘one’ of her, but we’ll come back to that. So that means the reason why your spells are so unusually strong for your level is because you’ve got triple-butt here boosting you with some kind of weird fuck magic?”

Aila paused, taking another sip of water, then set the canteen down before meeting Kerr’s eyes with her own level gaze.

“Exactly. I am having sex with Jadis, which does mean all of her, and she does have absolutely bizarre yet powerful sex magic rituals that have in fact boosted my arcane power. I can testify that the rituals are completely perverse in nature but do in fact work and provide amazing benefits.”

As coolly as Aila delivered her answer, Jadis had been around the redhead long enough to get a good read on her. Talking so openly about sex stuff with people she didn’t know well was clearly causing some embarrassment for her as even in the low green light of the cave Jadis could see Aila’s ears turning red. Still, she was doing her best to support her partner in this discussion by being honest and open, a fact that Jadis truly appreciated. She would definitely have to thank Aila in some way later, probably by finding a way to make it up to her for putting her in such an awkward position.

“Shit. And I thought the only benefit would be that she’s stunningly attractive,” Kerr mused, giving Jadis an assessing look. “But that brings up another big question. How the fuck is your eldritch stat at ninety-one points? You’re sub-forty in level. That’s way, way higher than normal. As in, that just doesn’t happen.”

“I don’t know, honestly,” Dys shrugged. “When my system unlocked, my eldritch attribute was already at seventy. It’s just how I came out of the box.”

“Fuck,” Kerr cursed, swallowing back a load more of angry words. “The highest I ever heard a natural attribute being was thirty! How did you get more than double that? What did you do, suck a god off or something?”

Just wandered into his living room by accident, actually, were Jadis’ thoughts on that question. Not that she was going to reveal that much at the moment. Thinking back on what little she’d learned about the nature of her race from Eir back at the bathhouse a few days ago, Jadis drew on that knowledge to deflect the incredulous question.

“Probably because I’m a Nephilim,” Dys did her best to bullshit. “Lyssandria’s Children and all that, though I’m not exactly sure since no one else I’ve ever met has started with an attribute that high, so far as I know. Eir might know more about that sort of thing than me.”

Eyes turned to Eir who shrank slightly under several intense gazes.

“I am not familiar with all the mechanics of Nephilim attributes,” the priestess said while pulling the damp blanket tighter around her shoulders. “I can confirm that other races that serve as avatars to the gods are all naturally far more powerful than mortals of comparative levels, but I don’t know how that translates to their status sheets.”

“So, what? Just born lucky?” Kerr asked, petulance creeping back into her voice.

“Seems that way,” Dys agreed, “Though I would say it balances out because I keep getting in extremely dangerous, life-threatening situations on a regular basis.”

Kerr didn’t look satisfied with the explanation, but it was all Jadis could provide, so she pushed forward.

“What about you two?” Jadis turned towards the cleric and guard. “Do you have any questions?”

Both Eir and Thea looked like they wanted to talk, but as they both started to speak at once, Thea waved the Priestess on and deferred to her.

“Well, I suppose I’m curious about what exactly the rituals involve,” Eir said shyly. “I presume from Miss Aila’s phrasing that the rituals are comprised of some… less than chaste behavior?”

 “Yeah…” Dys drew out the word. “They really are sexually charged. At a minimum the rituals require prolonged sessions of, well, fucking.”

Jadis internally winced at how Eir flinched at the word, but brutal, open honesty seemed like the best course for this situation.

“The one ritual that’ll let me boost another person’s chosen attribute takes a solid hour of intercourse, and requires swapping our, um, ‘fluids’ with a kiss at the end. It’s not the raunchiest thing I can think of by a long shot, but yeah. Not exactly chaste.”

“Oh.”

Eir’s reaction was muted, her eyes wide and unblinking. With how red her skin was, there was no way to tell if she was blushing, but Jadis was certain that the elf was either shocked to silence or so embarrassed by the whole explanation that she wasn’t able to gather her thoughts. At least she didn’t look disgusted.

Kerr certainly didn’t look disgusted either. In fact, she looked delighted.

“An hour of dirty sex followed up with some squirt-swapping? That must have been fun, huh wizard-girl?”

Aila met Kerr’s raised eyebrows and sharp-toothed grin with her own impassive expression.

“Arcanist, actually. Not a wizard.”

“Whatever.”

Since it didn’t look like Eir was ready for any follow up questions and probably needed a minute to process, Jadis directed her attention to the mostly quiet guard.

“How about you, Thea? Any questions?”

“Yes, thank you ma’am,” Thea nodded, her back straightening as she addressed Dys. “I just wanted to ask, why are you telling us all of this? It’s a, uh, unusual class and I can understand the curiosity about it, but why go into such detail now?”

That was a good question. And it was also a good segue into Jadis explaining the plan that had come to her mind in order to combat their dangerous and unpredictable situation.

“Well, like I said, one of my rituals can boost a single one of a target’s attributes by half of my eldritch stat, which is no small amount,” Dys began.

“I’ll say,” Kerr slipped in. “I’m CLR fifty-four and my highest stat is sixty-one.”

Jadis knew she was, at least stat-wise, a juggernaut compared to other people her level. She’d learned as much from Aila. But to hear how much higher she was in raw numbers compared to Kerr, a career mercenary fifteen levels above her, was another matter entirely. Jadis was glad Kerr had agreed to talk about her own class details. She was now more than a little curious to see how her and Kerr’s stats and skills stacked up.

“Right,” Dys continued, “it’s a lot. So it would give a big boost to anyone I use it on. And, per the wording of the ritual, it doesn’t have a limitation on how many people I can perform it on. The only real limitation is that it wears off after three days unless it’s recharged. Conceivably, I could cast the spell on as many people as I wanted to, within reason. Considering the situation that we’re in, I wanted to make the offer. If any of you are interested, I can do the ritual with you so you can get the temporary boost to an attribute. In all honesty, it would probably go a long way towards insuring our group survival.”

“Ha! You know Jadis, there are easier ways to ask a girl to bed than dragging her down a demon tunnel and making up this shit about empowering sex rituals,” Kerr cackled, her laughter sharp and wicked. “If you’d just asked back at The Tipsy Mule, I would have given you a romp to remember.”

“She’s not lying about the ritual,” Aila interjected, her tone stern. “On my honor, I swear that she speaks the truth.”

Kerr waved off Aila’s defense of Jadis as unnecessary, but the comment had brought to the fore a serious consideration that would bother her if Jadis didn’t address it.

“Look, I want to be very clear here,” Dys spoke seriously, holding one finger up for emphasis. “I’m offering this ritual because I’m concerned about all of your safety. Which, looking at it from one angle, makes it seem like I’m telling you to have sex with me or you won’t be safe. And that’s fucking horseshit. I’m personally only interested in sharing physical intimacy with people I care about, and only with their clear consent. I don’t want any of you looking at this offer or this situation and thinking that it’s some kind of last resort. If you accept and we do the ritual, I don’t want you looking back on it and regretting it because you feel like your hand was forced. If you aren’t comfortable with it, then that’s entirely acceptable. I’ll be doing everything in my power to make sure we all get out of this hole alive. I just felt I had to share this option with you all since it could genuinely make a difference in future fights.”

The group was quiet as Jadis’ words settled over them. Even Kerr was respectfully quiet as she and the others considered the point Jadis had made.

Jadis was without doubt attracted to Kerr. She was sexy and athletic and the animalistic parts of her added to her exotic appeal. Her attraction towards Eir went without question. She was an absolutely stunningly beautiful elf who was thick in all the right places. Even Thea was right in her strike zone now that she was seeing her without the helmet and armor to obscure her pretty face and toned body. But none of that attraction Jadis felt mattered a single shit to Jadis if they didn’t reciprocate.

Kerr seemed to be down for the fun of sex regardless of the ritual or not, which was good. Jadis loved sex and could appreciate someone who was simply happy to have a good fuck between mutually attracted adults. From what she read off the woman, she seemed open to the experience so Jadis didn’t have many concerns there.

Eir, however, was more complicated. Jadis could tell the elf was crushing on her. Aila had pointed it out previously. But was that because she had a natural attraction to her as herself? Or was it because Jadis represented some ideal that had been lost to her religion millennia ago? And if Eir did choose to go along with the ritual, was it because she wanted to, or was it because she felt she had to because Jadis was a Nephilim and her faith made her feel as though she couldn’t decline?

That was a religious mess that Jadis had a hard time even beginning to untangle.

Then there was Thea. Jadis barely knew a thing about the woman, even less than either of Kerr or Eir who were themselves only acquaintances in the grand scheme of things. How could she even begin to judge if Thea was okay with sex or if she was feeling pressured?

Ultimately, Jadis had to take a step back and let the women make their own decisions. She’d told them the true facts of how her rituals worked and the benefits but had also made it clear that they were not required to participate and she wouldn’t hold anything against them if they didn’t. They were adults with their own free will. She’d just have to trust that they could make their own decisions.

“I think I will accept, then,” Thea said slowly. “If that’s alright with you, ma’am.”

“Of course,” Dys replied with a cautious smile. “If you’re sure. You seem a little uncertain.”

“I’ve never been with a woman before,” Thea admitted. “Don’t misunderstand! I’m not unattracted to women, its just that I’ve never gone further than some drunken kissing. This would be a big step… I’m not certain if it’s for me, though I’m willing to try.”

“That’s fair,” Dys nodded. “And if you feel uncomfortable at any point, just say so and that’s that.”

“Well it’s abso-fucking-lutely for me,” Kerr exclaimed. “I don’t care if you’ve got tits or dick, I’m good either way as long as you know your stuff. And considering you’ve got a whole class revolving around it, I feel like you’ve got to have some skill at bumping bits together. Let’s do it.”

With one acceptance tentative and the other enthusiastic, all that was left was Eir. Turning her gaze to the priestess, Dys waited patiently to see which way the elf would go. There was a quiet pause, but eventually Eir raised her dark purple eyes up to meet Dys’ violet ones.

“I—I accept your offer. With you, Jadis, I think I can.”

“Are you sure? If you aren’t comfortable, I don’t want to—”

“With you I am more than comfortable,” Eir cut Dys off. “I accept because it is you.”

“Ah. Thanks,” Dys said, hand running through her hair as she sorted through that response and why it made her heart flutter. “That’s… that means a lot.”

Of course, Kerr had to ruin the moment.

“So, what, we taking off our pants now or what?”

Jadis sighed.

“No, let’s not rush into this. We’ve only gotten, what a few hours of sleep? Let’s get some rest and we can talk about the actual logistics of this in the morning. Or, uh, whatever time it is.”

The suggestion was met with general consensus and the group of them moved to return to their blankets and bedrolls. Aila immediately joined Dys at her side, wrapping her arms around Dys’, but Eir and Kerr also moved in close to Dys’ other side. Even Thea moved in closer, sharing the warmth as they all tried to get some more rest. As they settled back down to finish their pseudo-night, a thought struck Jadis, one that she hadn’t thought about at all during the whole discussion, an aspect of the situation that she felt like she probably should have covered but it had somehow slipped her mind considering all the other important topics they had covered.

“Hey, Kerr and Thea, um, did I ever actually explain to you two that I have both a cock and a pussy?”

“Gods damnit Jadis, how many fucking surprises are you going to drop on me in one night!?”

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