Chapter 258: Fourth

Jadis was going to have to chalk up her slow reaction to the sudden appearance of a fourth body to overstimulation. Seeing a gigantic fucking ice dragon soar by had definitely stunned her, slowing her normally quick reactions to a crawl. Seeing another version of herself that she could see back out of wasn’t helping. In fact, she was still feeling a bit befuddled, since she was focusing on why she was stunned rather than reacting to the situation that had caused her to be stunned.

Shaking off the effects of her confusion, Jadis whirled on the fourth Jadis, all three of her bodies leaping into a line, weapons raised threateningly towards the… whatever it was. Except, in the same moment that she moved, the fourth also moved. She whirled as well, facing off against some unseen threat, falling into line with Jadis’ selves with perfect synchrony. Greatsword raised high overhead, the fourth looked exactly as though Jadis herself was standing there next to Jadis, ready for battle.

“Fuck off!” Syd shouted, sweeping her lance around at the fourth.

Her weapon struck the side of the imposter, steel scraping against steel. The identical woman fell back, pointing her sword at Syd in a confused gesture.

“What the hell am I doing!?” she shouted, her voice a mirror of Jadis’ own, down to the inflection that would come with anger and confusion.

“Who the fuck are you!?” Syd shouted back as Jay and Dys moved to surround the fourth. “You are not me!”

“What the fuck am I on about?” the fourth shouted back with confused indignation. “Of course I’m fucking me, we’re all me! What in D’s name made me turn my own fucking lance on me?”

“Wha—no! You are not me!” Jay shook her head, the strange response throwing her off. “There are only three of me, and I’ve never owned a giant sword, and—fuck! Who are you!”

“I’m Jadis!” the fourth shouted, panicked now as Jadis’ three selves closed in from three different angles. “I’m me! You! I mean, we’re all Jadis! Fuck! Calm down!”

Jadis halted mid-step. This… whatever it was knew her real name. It knew she was three people. It was identical to her in every way so far as she could tell, even down to her speech patterns. This was her, a mirror image, standing right before. A fourth self that she had either manifested in the last minute or apparently forgotten that she had.

Like that was fucking possible.

“Cut the shit,” Dys growled. “If you’re me, tell me the name of my father.”

Jadis had never spoken about her parents, not to anyone, not since coming to Oros. As much as she loved her parents, she’d put most of her thoughts about them out of her mind, only occasionally thinking of them when she was feeling particularly homesick. She loved being who she was now and had no desire to go back to her old lost life, so dwelling on her family from Earth was not something she did much of.

The fourth paused, head swinging rapidly between Jadis’ three selves. Then, abruptly, the woman’s shoulders sagged as she heaved a heavy sigh. Straightening up, she put the tip of her sword into the ground, one hand resting on the large crossguard while her other hand went to her hip.

“Damn. I thought I could keep you going for a few minutes longer than that.”

She still sounded like Jadis; even her attitude was a mirror of how Jadis acted. But the ruse had been abandoned. She, whoever she was, no longer tried to pretend that she was a fourth body. No, she was a doppelganger, a fake, pretending to be something she wasn’t. She was…

“You’re a Fetch, aren’t you?” Jay murmured, the realization coming to her. “One of D’s avatars.”

“Guilty as charged,” the Not-Jadis shrugged one shoulder. “I guess that makes us siblings, doesn’t it? Or would it be half-siblings? Not sure how that would work with you being a Nephilim and all that.”

“I, uh, I don’t know,” Jay stumbled out, the whole conversation far, far different from what she was prepared for at the moment. “Wait, are you the one D sent us to look for?”

“Am I?” Not-Jadis tilted her head. “Did he tell you to come looking for me, specifically?”

“Well, not you specifically, I guess…” Dys shook her head. “But, I mean, this is the split peak mountain and—”

Another tremendous roar shook the ground and skies as the dragon screeched behind her. Jadis whirled, looking at the beast that she had almost completely forgotten with her mind focused on the imposter Jadis. It was flying near the western side of the valley, wings flapping hard as it slowed to a hover. Ponderously it sank down, landing amidst the trees as it let out another bellowing screech, more icy breath blasting the hill before it. As the dragon settled, the snow and wind picked back up, the skies filling with a white curtain once again that made it near-impossible to see.

“Shame, isn’t it.”

Jadis startled, not used to hearing her voice coming from someone else. She looked back at the Fetch, surprised to see that the helmet the woman wore was gone. She saw her face looking back at her, a surreal experience made more so since she was used to seeing her own face through multiple perspectives. To see her face wearing a rueful expression that she herself wasn’t making was… bizarre.

“It’ll probably die soon,” the Fetch continued, shaking her head in a way that affected pity, yet lacked sincerity. “It can’t last more than another couple of days, tops. Then those Dryads down there will be frozen solid and chewed into little leafy ice bits. A tragedy, really.”

“What?” Jay said, a tremendous flood of questions overwhelming her.

There were so many things she wanted to ask based on what the doppelganger had said, yet she caught herself. Confusion and misdirection seemed to be the Fetch’s intention. It wasn’t hard to figure that much out based on the shapeshifting being’s words and actions so far. Jadis needed to focus, start from a solid base and work her way from there. Letting this strange woman lead the conversation wasn’t going to get her any answers, not useful ones, anyway.

“Hold on,” Dys said, holding up a hand. “First thing’s first. Who are you? You never answered me.”

“No, I didn’t,” Not-Jadis grinned at her in a familiar way.

“And?”

“And what?”

“Fucking—who are you?” Dys demanded, raising her voice as she lost a thread of patience.

“I’m me,” the Fetch replied, the grin still plastered across her face. “Afraid that’s all I’ve ever been.”

Seeing that she was going nowhere fast with that line of question, Jadis shook her heads in exasperation. Waving one hand at the Fetch, Jay came up with a name on the spot.

“Fine, I get it. You’re a jackass. I’m calling you Jack, then.”

“Sure,” Jack shrugged again. “I’ve gone by worse names than that.”

“Okay,” Jay nodded, her mind centering as she regained her equilibrium. “Okay, Jack. Now, how do you know who we are? How do you know my real name?”

Jack smiled, this time in a way that was decidedly nothing like how Jadis smiled. Her lips stretched in a peculiar, almost inhuman way as she gave Jadis a knowing look. In the next instant, Jack’s body rippled. Before Jadis’ eyes, Jack’s sword and armor melted away like snow in a heavy rain. Her body shifted, growing taller, turning gray. Her shoulders turned broad as her face shifted, stretching in some places while shrinking in others. Despite every aspect of Jack’s appearance changing, the whole transformation took no more than a second.

“Well,” Jack replied in a deep, smooth, masculine voice. “We’ve met before. You could even say that we’re old friends, since I met you on your very first day here on Oros, after all.”

“The statue!?” All three of Jadis shouted at once.

The statue of Destarious from the temple stood before her, arms stretched wide in a parody of a welcoming gesture. With his head tilted to one side and a shit-eating grin on his face, Jack nodded at the stunned Nephilim.

“My compliments, by the way,” Jack said. “Fornicating with one’s own double in a ruined temple dedicated to one’s patron god is something that I’ve never heard of anyone doing before. I’ve seen and heard a lot over the years, but that was a new one, even for me.” Jack’s stone hands came together as he loudly clapped. “Great show, by the way. I’m sure dad enjoyed every second of it.”

Jadis couldn’t help the flush of embarrassment that went through her. She had committed many lewd, debauched acts over the months, so she probably should have been past the point of feeling much shame for her licentious actions since she had known D was probably watching the whole time anyway. However, being confronted by a stranger who had, apparently, been watching her without her knowledge or consent for who knew how long… That was a step beyond her comfort.

“You—you were watching me that whole time?” Jay demanded, taking a half step closer to the Fetch. “You were spying on me while I—shit. Forget about the sex stuff. I was fighting for my life there, on the first day. On most of the days after, too. I could have died multiple times! Why didn’t you help me? What were you doing? D sent you to help and guide me and all you did was—was get your rocks off watching me fuck?”

Jack tilted his head curiously to one side. His expression shifted to bemused wonder. One hand rubbed his chin while the other rested on his hip. It was odd to see the stone robes he wore conform to his body the same way cloth ones would, flowing around him in a way stone had no right to.

“Was I sent by D to aid you?” he mused. “I don’t recall ever being told anything of the sort. I was just minding my own business when you showed up in my little village, making a big ruckus. I don’t see why your wellbeing is my responsibility. If I want to pretend to be a statue in an abandoned temple, that’s my prerogative. If you choose to diddle your own clone in a public space where I just happen to be, that’s your prerogative. Hardly my fault you have strange tastes.”

“That doesn’t make any fucking sense and you know it,” Syd shouted angrily at the Fetch. “I was level one, alone, without any help whatsoever! You had to know I was there because D sent me there! You were supposed to—”

“Why must I have had to have known?” Jack cut Syd off, taking a step towards her. “I’m no oracle. Dear old dad doesn’t speak to me in any more direct a way than you. I only know what I know about you because I watched and observed over time and you talk to yourself out loud. Besides,” Jack tilted his head again, a smile on his stony lips that did not reach his eyes. “Why should I have to do anything D tells me to? So what if he wants me to help you? Does his desire obligate me to follow his whims? Do you follow every instinct he sends you? Or do you make no decisions for yourself?”

“Are you trying to say you didn’t help me because… because D wanted you to help me?” Syd asked incredulously. “You watched me almost die as some sort of—of rebellion against D?”

“No, not at all,” Jack straightened, his tone and expression turning playful. “I didn’t help you because I thought it would be funny to watch you flounder. I think I was right.”

Rage surged inside of Jadis at the insane Fetch’s cavalier attitude toward her life. Her jaws clenched as her teeth ground together, her fists tightening so hard that the metal of her gauntlets creaked. With blinding speed, all three of Jadis lashed out at Jack, her fists slamming into his head, chest, and stomach from three different directions at once with a sharp crack that echoed like thunder.

Jack spun like a corkscrew, his body trying to fly in opposite directions at the same time. He ended up slamming into a nearby tree, the trunk shattering under his weight and the force of her multi-pronged attack. Jadis’ selves stalked up to the prone Fetch, all three seething with outrage. Over the sound of the wind howling across the mountain face and her hearts pounding in her ears, Jadis heard a distinct male laughter, high pitched and manic in way that threw her mind back to the indescribable living room where she had first met her patron deity.

“Okay, I’ll give you that one,” Jack said around his disturbing mirth. “I suppose you’re owed at least one.”

Suddenly, the prone man was gone, his body morphed into a copy of an armored Jadis once more. She surged to her feet, greatsword swinging upwards. Dys moved to catch the blade with her axe, but instead of an impact the blade passed right through, nothing more than an illusion. In the next instant Jay was knocked down by an invisible force, her feet going out from under her as something swept against them. A moment after that, Syd was tossed back, her body slamming against another tree. Before she could recover, dozens of Jadis appeared, all of them wielding different weapons, from spears to axes to swords to clubs. One was even carrying a lantern flail just like the one Bridget used, only bigger.

“Just the one, though,” the dozens of Not-Jadis said at once, their many voices echoing in the frozen air. “Do that again and I’ll show you what some real Eldritch power can do.”

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