Chapter 263: Of Course

“You’ve been following us this whole fucking time!?” Dys hissed down at a placid-looking Noll. “You said you were staying back in the city!”

After Noll’s unexpected reveal, both Jadis, her companions, and captain Willa had had a lot of questions to ask the grizzled old veteran. Most of which were along the lines of “What the fuck?” or closely related sentiments. He had declined to answer them. Instead, he bluntly redirected the conversation back to the important topic of their upcoming battle plans. With Jack surprisingly taking the side of the therion, the disruption that Noll’s arrival had caused had been put aside so that they could all focus on hashing out the details of their upcoming mission.

However, as soon as the battle plans had been solidified and everyone had started to awkwardly separate to talk in smaller groups, Jadis had made sure to grab hold of Noll and drag him away to have a private conversation.

Not literally, of course. No way was Jadis going to put her hands on Noll and force him anywhere. She’d learned her lesson the first time.

“Yes,” Noll nodded nonchalantly, meeting Dys’ glare without a hint of shame.

“But… but you said you weren’t going to follow us!” Dys repeated herself, her thought process floundering thanks to Noll’s direct answer. “What the fuck are you doing out here?”

Noll slightly shook his wolf-like head. His expression was as difficult to read as ever, but Jadis felt like he was either amused, or exasperated. Possibly both.

“I told you the first day we met. I was sent here to spy on you.”

Dys’ eyebrows shot up, the gall of the statement both heating her anger, but also paradoxically cooling it.

“You’re our teacher, though,” Dys pointed out. “I mean, fuck. That’s stupid even as I say it. Of course you’re still spying on us while you teach us.”

“I can multitask, yes,” Noll agreed dryly.

“But why follow us out here in secret?” Dys pressed, looming over the bulky mercenary. “You’ve always been up front about shit before now. You could have just said you wanted to come.”

Noll was silent, his yellow eyes piercing. He turned away from Dys, stepping away from her and looking between the tall, dark trees towards the distant campfire. All three of Jadis’ selves had taken Noll far out into the surrounding forest and they were a good hundred yards away from everyone else. Still, his eyes lingered on the camp for a long while, his ears flicking one way and another before he finally seemed satisfied. Turning back, he addressed all three Nephilim standing with their arms crossed.

“First,” he held up one clawed finger. “I take my duties seriously. I was contracted by Prince Kestil to get as much information on you as possible while also keeping tabs on your location as well as who you interacted with. What kind of informant would I be if I let you wander off into the Great Southern Forest for a month while I sat on my haunches back in the city?”

As per usual, Noll’s direct explanation made obvious sense. Of course he would want to follow her, considering his explicit reason for coming to Weigrun in the first place. However, with even a quick examination of Noll’s statement, Jadis noticed a worrying change in his pattern of speech, in so far as it regarded her.

“Second,” he continued as he raised another finger. “I do consider myself to be your instructor just as much as an informant. And as your instructor, it’s important to observe how you do in the field when you don’t know that I’m looking over your shoulder. If you knew I was there, you might act differently than you would otherwise. I wanted to see how you perform when you don’t have someone like me to fall back on.

“Third, and most importantly, you are absolutely terrible at hiding information about yourself when you think you’re alone or with trusted individuals. If you and your companions are going to have deep conversations listing out your class information and other important personal details, then you need to learn better ways of keeping that information private. I’m not even using any magic and I overheard a lot that you probably don’t want others to know.”

Jadis’ faces fell, the implications of the last statement clear. All three of her spoke at once, not bothering to hide her unity anymore.

“So, you know about my multiplicative nature?”

“Yes,” Noll nodded once.

“…There isn’t any chance I could convince you to forget about that, is there? Or maybe not share it?”

Noll tilted his head to one side, crossing his arms across his thick chest. His dark fur blended with the nighttime shadows, making his golden eyes stand out even more.

“I see no reason to tell anyone other than Spymaster Eadgar and Prince Kestil about the nature of your class. They hired me for this, so I’ll have to tell them. But otherwise, it’s no one else’s business.”

“That’s not super comforting,” Jadis mumbled quietly. “Knowing that someone called a spymaster is going to have that kind of personal information.”

“So it goes,” Noll shrugged. “You aren’t the only one who he has personal info on. Deal with it. Information like that is only worth as much value as you put on it, anyway.”

Jadis regarded the elder mercenary. His blunt, honest words helped cool her combined anger and panic. Maybe it was time she came clean about the mirrored body aspect of her class. Everyone who’d she told about it had reacted with curiosity and amazement. No one had thought her class heretical or otherwise a problem. So long as she didn’t discuss the weaknesses that came with having three bodies, it didn’t seem like it was really that big of a deal for other people to know, relatively speaking. She still wasn’t happy about this Eadgar or Prince Kestil knowing all kinds of information about her. But as Noll put it, their knowing wasn’t the end of the world. At least since she had an in with the spy they were using, she was forewarned of exactly what information they would have. That was an advantage, in a way. She could work with that.

“We’re going to have to have a talk about exactly what you’ve overheard and are going to be reporting to your bosses,” Jadis declared, her posture growing surer of herself. “No more blindsides.”

“Fair,” Noll nodded. “I also want to talk to you about your class. Now that I know more about it, we need to revisit your training.”

“We’ll do that later, though. After everything else today, I’m kind of talked out and don’t have the mental stamina to have that kind of conversation right now.”

“Fine,” the old wolf nodded again, making no objections.

Jadis’ three selves started to move, ready to get back to the warmth of camp and her companions. She paused halfway through her first step, all three giving Noll a stern look.

“You know about the sex stuff?”

“Yes,” Noll answered. “Sex rituals that empower you and your women.”

“Right,” Jadis’ selves slowly nodded in tandem. “We need to do some of those tonight. Are you—are you going to be… listening?”

Noll snorted, his grave expression turning amused.

“I’m too old to bother with eavesdropping on a bunch of young pups at play. Do what you’re going to do. I’ll occupy myself with that Fetch. I think he and I have much we can discuss.”

“You’re not going to ask him about me, are you?”

Noll snorted again, letting out a deep chuckle.

“Not everything I do revolves around you.”

That seemed to be about the best reassurance she was going to get out of the old dog. It would have to do. Jadis made her way back to camp with Noll, quickly splitting off from him to go join the rest of her companions. They weren’t all gathered in their wagon-tent yet, but she found Eir, Thea, and Sabina already there. She also found someone she’d forgotten about in all the ruckus.

“Look, you need to slow down on what you’re carving there or you’ll mess it up,” Sorcha was saying as Jay, Dys, and Syd ducked under the tarp-covered awning. “If it’s as important as you said it is, though I don’t see how it is, then you want to get it right on the first try. Remember, slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Don’t rush the crafting.”

“Thanks!” Sabina chirped back at the manacled goblin as she etched arcane symbols into a large blue scale. “You’re right, I do need to slow down and get it right. I’m just worried about getting all this done before Jadis—I mean, Jay, Dys, and Syd get back from talking with that scary Noll and—oh!”

Sabina noticed Jadis’ entrance, looking up at her and smiling broadly. She waved, then pointed at the scale in her one hand.

“Almost done with the last collar! Then we can have sex!”

Next to her, Sorcha gave the smith a weird look, shaking her head in amused disbelief.

Rather than bother getting flustered over Sabina’s complete and utter lack of a filter or common sense, Jadis instead focused on what to do about their little green guest. She’d been keeping Sorcha in their tent for several good reasons, not the least of which being that any time Sorcha was put even remotely near the crazed blood bitch called Eike, the mad woman did everything she could to try and kill the goblin. Failing murder, Eike would just make a lot of noise and annoy everyone. So, for both Sorcha’s and everyone else’s sake, Jadis kept Sorcha separate from the rest of the Reavers.

Now, though, she needed to move Sorcha somewhere else. She and her companions were about to perform their long-awaited Lascivious Empowerment ritual and it was already going to be a less than romantic experience considering both a group of soldiers and a group of prisoners, not to mention a troublemaking Fetch and her martial arts combat instructor, were all going to be within easy earshot of their activities. While Jadis had grown comfortable with her own nudity and anything sex related was becoming less and less of a sensitive subject with each passing day, she didn’t see herself as an exhibitionist either. Having an orgy in front of Sorcha felt… weird.

As Jay went to go talk with Sabina and Sorcha, both to check on the collars as well as figure out what to do with the goblin, Eir and Thea approached Dys and Syd.

“Dys, Syd,” Eir started, looking up at the two giants. “We haven’t had a chance to speak, which is understandable considering the circumstances, but I feel I must ask. Were you able to speak with Sir Jack about any of your… connection concerns? I know that he isn’t the avatar you were hoping to find, but he is still an avatar.”

“I, uh, yeah. I did,” Syd nodded, tripping over her words a little as her mind was wrenched away from lewd logistics to a more serious concern. “His answer wasn’t great, though. And honestly, considering the source, I’d call it suspect at least.”

Syd then recounted Jack’s words, telling both Eir and Thea what the Fetch had told her about the gut instinct explanation. She left out the insulting bits that Jack had said, but she couldn’t help but inject some of her own worries. If the gods influenced the avatars through nothing more than gut instincts, Jadis’ biggest concern was how she was supposed to tell what was and wasn’t a thought influenced by an entity other than herself. The idea of either D or Lyssandria planting a notion in her brain to influence her actions in their favor was… well, it was a little frightening.

“I’m pretty sure every idea I’ve ever had has been my own,” Dys summed up. “But now, after what Jack said, how do I know for sure? I mean, right now I think saving the Dryads is a good idea. But what if the only reason I think that is because D wants me to save the Dryads and if it wasn’t for his influence, I wouldn’t be bothering.”

 Both of her lovers were quiet for a long pause after Dys finished talking. To Jadis’ surprise, though, it was Thea who spoke first instead of Eir.

“I think you’re, ah, overthinking it,” she said slowly, her words pronounced with great care. “If what Jack said is t—true, then it’s a gut instinct. Not p—possession, like a demon. Not control, like a p—puppet. Just a nudge. It sounds like it’s still your choice to, ah, do what you will.”

“I agree,” Eir said after waiting a moment to make sure Thea was done speaking. “Every scripture I have ever read have confirmed that the Covenant limits the influence that the gods have upon this world. They can point the way, but they cannot force the hand to do as they please, not even an Avatar such as yourselves. To use your example, even if it is D who wants you to save the Dryads and has thus prompted the instinctual desire to do so, that does not mean you have been robbed of your greater sense of logic and reason. When you think about this upcoming battle to save the Dryads, do you want to continue with the plan? Does the desire dwell within you? Does it make sense to you? Does it align with your own moral compass and the actions you have taken in the past?”

Jadis thought about what Eir was saying. She had just used the Dryads as an example, but thinking about her desire to save them did serve as a kind of practice. She ran her thoughts on the whole situation through the same questions that Eir had asked. Did the desire make sense? Did it align with her moral compass? Did it fit with her past actions?

For all three, the answer was yes. Jadis supposed she couldn’t be absolutely sure that the thought hadn’t come from an outside influence, but at least the idea was in line with what she herself would want. Jadis didn’t think she could scrutinize every thought she had with the same level of effort, but for now she could do so for the important choices. Besides, a little extra thought when it came to potentially life-altering decisions wasn’t a bad habit to get into.

“Thanks,” Dys and Syd both said. “That helps, really. Thank you both.”

Dys leaned down and gave Eir a kiss on the cheek while Syd did the same for Thea. Both women reacted with warmth, though Eir basked in the attention while Thea grew bashful. Jadis loved seeing both reactions, though another part of her mind was growing more and more interested in seeing other kinds of reactions. Maybe it wouldn’t be as hard as she thought to perform tonight, all things considered.

“Okay, who’s ready for a nice, hard, group fucking?” Kerr loudly announced as she slipped into the tent.

“The fuck?” Sorcha yelped, staring wide-eyed at the therion.

Even without enhanced hearing, Jadis could hear a few guffaws and other assorted exclamations of amusement or disbelief coming from outside of the tent.

“This might be harder than I thought,” Jay said as she and her two doubles slapped their hands to their faces.

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