Chapter 296: Unexpected Gift

Jadis blinked rapidly, her awareness briefly disoriented as she came to terms with only having one body once more. Briefly becoming a singular entity every time she performed the ritual with Eir to communicate with D truly was the most uncomfortable part of the process. Jadis was so used to experiencing everything through three different bodies that being limited to just one almost made her feel sick with dizziness.

Once she was able to collect herself, coming to terms with her own singular being, Jadis took stock of where she was. She was, she knew, visiting Destarious in his domain so that she could ask him three questions. However, unlike all the previous times, she was not in the enigmatic and mischievous deity’s living room. She was elsewhere.

Jadis stood on a grass lawn. Or at least, what she supposed was the conceptual ideal of a grass lawn. She couldn’t actually see any grass. She knew it was there, of course. Something had to be, because she was standing on it. Her brain was telling her that what she was standing on was a freshly cut, well-manicured, and definitely green lawn. However, she couldn’t describe the lawn via any other means. Like everything else she’d ever experienced when in D’s living room, the lawn was just what it was. A lawn.

There were bushes. And flowers. And a house. The house had two stories, several windows, and a door. There was definitely a roof. The color, size, shape, or any other details of the house or flowers or bushes all remained indeterminate. It was a nice day, but that was all that could be said about the weather. There was a fence of one kind or another surrounding the yard and beyond it…

There was nothing. Nothing of note or interest or of any relevance whatsoever lay beyond the borders of the yard. Not a void or emptiness; Jadis had experienced that before and knew exactly how horrible a true void was. No, there was just nothing interesting beyond the fence, so her mind slid away from even conceptual description.

What her mind could latch onto was the homeless man digging in the mulch on the side of the house.

Well, maybe he wasn’t homeless. Jadis had no idea what his property situation was, she just had a gut reaction based on the way he was dressed, or lack of dress. Unlike their surroundings, the man wasn’t just an idea. He was a very real presence that existed both within and outside of the abstract world that D lived in. She could describe this man, accurately and with detail. And he was dirty.

No, not just dirty, filthy. He was a white human male. Or at least, she thought he probably was. It was hard to tell what color his skin was under the thick layer of dirt he was caked in. His hair was a wild crow’s nest of tangled locks that stuck up in every direction, twigs and leaves and the gods knew what else mixed in. His bare back had a pack on it, though it was more like a badly roped-together cluster of various sacks, gourds, tubers. The nails on his bare feet were so long that they curled more than an inch away from his mud encrusted toes. He was not, thankfully, completely naked, though what he wore to cover his private parts was jarring.

Wrapped around the man’s waist was a bath towel. The towel was blue and covered in cartoonish depictions of smiling flowers happily waving at the viewer. The sunflowers were wearing sunglasses.

Jadis’ distracted focus was abruptly pulled away from the towel when the man wearing it suddenly let out a hoarse yet triumphant cry. Apparently, his digging in the mulch had met with success as he raised a hand up above his head, something small and slimy wriggling between thumb and finger. He turned towards Jadis and smiled.

At least, she thought he was smiling. It was hard to tell what was going on under the matted mass of beard covering most of his face. She was pretty sure something was moving inside the beard, too, that wasn’t the man.

Getting off his knees, the dirt covered man hobbled towards her on bowed legs. Once again, Jadis was struck with a bit of disorientation as his head was level with hers, even though the man was clearly stooped over with a bent back. She wasn’t used to being at eye-level with others.

“For you,” the man rasped in a voice rough as sandpaper. “Well deserved.”

Hesitating for only a moment, Jadis held out her hand, or the conceptual equivalent of it while she was nothing but her soul. Taking hold of her extended hand in one of his rough, wide hands the man gently placed the squirming thing into her palm.

It looked like a worm. Or maybe the grub of a beetle, since it was kind of thick and fat and had a face with pincers. It wriggled around somewhat before settling down, curling into a ball about the size of a gumball. Jadis felt the “gift” was mildly gross, but in all honesty, she wasn’t that bothered. She’d never been the squeamish type and had seen far, far more disturbing things than a little grub.

Looking up from the strange insect she’d been given, she found that the dirty man’s eyes were on her face, a stern and piercing gaze boring into her with such intensity it made her try to take an involuntary step back. She couldn’t move though, his strong grip still around her hand. His green eyes spoke of eons of experience, of wisdom beyond mortal reckoning. Those eyes felt older than the dream of trees.

Then the crusty skin around those eyes crinkled in a smile and the man closed Jadis’ fingers over his gift.

“Well done,” he praised her with a cheerful grin that lacked a few teeth. “Well done.”

“If you two are done over there, I haven’t got all day. Well, actually, I do have all the time in the universe, but that doesn’t mean I like waiting!”

Jadis startled at the familiar voice. Looking for where it had come from, she saw that the yard extended around the side of the house. Of course it did. Why wouldn’t it? As she looked in that direction, the dirty man let go of her hand and walked off in the same direction she’d heard the voice of D coming from. She followed behind and, turning the corner, saw that the home had a large backyard with a pool. Next to the pool was some lawn furniture, two chairs and a table, and sitting on one of those chairs was D.

Her patron was a man. Not tall, not short, not thin, not fat, not dark, not pale, not handsome, not ugly. Just a man. She’d never been able to see him as anything else, nor describe any part of him in any other sense visually. D was a man.

However.

D was wearing a speedo.

She never thought about D wearing clothes before. She knew that he did, she just had no ability to describe what he was wearing, which was likely a purposeful choice on the god’s part. Now, while she stood staring at the deity relaxing by the side of his pool with a drink in his hand, she was absolutely certain that he was wearing a speedo. Which meant he wanted her to know he was wearing one.

What a fucking weird god.

“Hello D,” Jadis called out before walking over towards the man.

“And a good day to you my little darling,” D replied with a smirk.

He waved to the lawn chair next to him, motioning for her to take a seat. Glancing around, Jadis saw that rather than join D, the filthy man that she was fairly confident was a god had chosen to sit on the edge of the pool a few yards away, his feet dangling in the water. A cloud of dirt was quickly polluting the water, she noticed.

Jadis sat down next to her patron deity and took the glass that had been set on the table next to her in hand. It was a cool and refreshing drink that tasted wonderful, though she had no idea ability to describe the flavor.

“So. You know you have gotten into a terrible habit, my little agent of chaos?”

Jadis almost asked what D meant but managed to stop herself. She only got to ask him three questions while she was here and even idle ones that he prompted would count against her. She wasn’t going to repeat past mistakes.

“I know I have a few bad habits, but I don’t know which one you’re referring to,” Jadis said, taking care to phrase a statement, not a question.

D smiled over the rim of his glass before taking a sip.

“Indeed, you do have many. The one I am referring to in this case is how lately you seem to be courting the attention of my extended family. You are supposed to be serving me and my interests, Jadis dear. Not my uncle’s.”

Jadis glanced over at the man idly kicking his feet in the pool.

“I don’t think anything I’ve done lately was specifically with the intent of serving Villthyrial. I admit that I did take action that helped some of his Dryads. And a dragon, which I’m sure he appreciates. But I’m not trying to serve him. I just did what I thought was right.”

“Hm. I’m sure you did,” D murmured. “And if that was all you managed to accomplish by doing what you thought was ‘right’ I would be rather cross with you. Saving dragons and Dryads from peril is Hero work. I didn’t put you on Oros for that.”

Villthyrial let out a loud harrumph then, momentarily interrupting D.

“Yes, yes, no offense intended, of course uncle,” he waved at his pool guest. “Everyone loves your dragons. But that is beside the point.”

D set his drink down with a clink, turning in his seat to face Jadis more directly.

“Slaying demons and saving Dryads wasn’t all you did lately, now was it?”

“No,” Jadis shook her head. “I’ve definitely accomplished other… things.”

“Yes, yes you have,” D said, his mouth twisting into an uncomfortably wide and intense grin, made all the more uncomfortable by the fact that it was an idea rather than a visual sight. “Which is why you are still my favorite little diversion on Oros. Now, go ahead and ask your questions.”

The questions. Jadis and her companions hadn’t had a lot of time to discuss what she was going to ask D. Wording was key when it came to the questions. D took a special delight in answering literally rather than in the spirit of the question. In fact, Jadis couldn’t even be certain the crazy god’s answers weren’t lies. Though, so far as she could tell, everything he’d ever said to her was truthful, if obscured.

In any case, Jadis felt like what they had come up with would cover at least the basic concerns her lovers had with their new and unusual situation.

“Does Alex intend harm as I define it against me or my companions?”

“Obviously not,” D laughed the question off with a dismissive gesture. “Go ahead and waste another.”

Jadis raised one eyebrow at that response. She had certainly hoped that would be the answer. She’d felt Alex was peaceful towards her and her lovers in her gut.

In her gut.

Like an instinct.

Had that been D sending her signals to let her know she could trust Alex? Possibly. She was still working on figuring out how to tell the difference between her own instincts and the ones being sent her way by D and possibly Lyssandria. D’s response made sense, though, from that perspective. He’d already given her the answer. She just hadn’t known how to interpret it.

Shaking those thoughts away, Jadis asked the next question that Aila had specifically come up with in order to cover all bases.

“Is Alex being used by Samleos to cause harm as I define it to others?”

That question prompted another grin from D.

“Better. Not great, but better. In answer: No. Samleos is not using Alex to bring about harm to others.”

A rather specific choice of words. D’s answer didn’t mean Samleos wasn’t using Alex. It just meant he wasn’t using Alex to bring about harm. It could mean Samleos wasn’t using Alex at all, or that he was using her in some other way.

Jadis considered asking for further clarification but decided against it for the time being. D’s answer was skirting the edges of being almost unhelpful in its specificity. If she pressed him, she had a feeling he would just become uncooperative. Instead, she moved on to the third question that she and her companions had decided on.

“What is the best way for me to teach Alex so that she and I can communicate with each other accurately?”

D let out a short laugh. Standing from his lawn chair, he stretched his arms out to his sides while rolling his shoulders, then stepped up to the edge of the pool. Turning to look at Jadis, he grinned at her condescendingly.

“For you, Jadis honey, body language is key.”

Without further explanation, D leapt into the air and dove into the pool, disappearing into the indescribable waters of the oddly suburban concept. As the world around her began to fade away, Jadis’ eyes were drawn to Villthyrial where he still sat on the pool’s edge. He smiled kindly at her, one hand held up in a parting gesture. As sight and sound blurred into nothingness, his croaked words managed to reach her ears.

“Say hello to my dragon for me.”

In the next instant, Jadis’ consciousness returned to Oros as all three of her bodies became aware of their surroundings. For Dys, it was an odd transition as she startled into wakefulness sitting on the edge of the open wagon. Sorcha was nearby, who gave her a funny look, but otherwise made no comment on her lapse.

For Jay and Syd, it was a little different. Jay opened her eyes, her head in Eir’s lap, aware of cold snow soaking through the cloth of her pantlegs. Syd was also knelt in the snow, but her cock was still inside of Eir’s tight pussy, throbbing from the aftershocks of her recent release. Eir let out a gasp, her body shuddering as Syd unintentionally shifted inside of her.

“Sorry,” Syd said, wrapping her arms around Eir from behind. “Fuck. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Eir assured her, the priestess’ breath still coming hard and heavy. “Cold, but well. I’d like to get dressed now, though.”

Jadis could understand. For the ritual, Eir had been forced to strip all of her clothes off and kneel in the nude in front of everyone. Even putting aside the complication of revealing the truth of her Oracle class to Sabina and Bridget, something they would have to discuss later, she’d still had to be fucked while balanced on top of a crate out in the middle of the winter-frozen woods to make the ritual work.

Jadis hoped the intense purple flames Eir’s body produced during the ritual hadn’t attracted any attention.

“So? Did it work? What did D say?” Kerr asked from where she stood next to Alex. “Also, get yourselves sorted already because it’s getting kind of hard to hold this demon back.”

Looking her way, Jadis could see that Alex was indeed squirming in place, her tentacles writhing in great agitation. Her human face and body didn’t look bothered, but her eyes were locked on where Syd and Eir’s bodies met. Jadis could also see that Kerr had a hand on Alex’s arm, physically holding her in place.

“It worked,” Jay said as she stood.

Reaching for Eir’s clothes to pass them to her, she realized that she already had something in her hand. Slowly opening her fist, she revealed a small grub curled up in the center. Only, instead of a plain and unappealing worm, the creature glowed like starlight, waves of unearthly energy radiating from it.

“It definitely worked,” Jay repeated, staring at the mesmerizing gift she’d been given. “And we have a lot to talk about.”

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