Chapter 297: Crate Trained

Jadis preferred not to live her life by a plan. That wasn’t to say she didn’t make plans at all. She had plenty of ideas for what she wanted to do in the future. Most of those ideas involved leveling up, getting stronger, having lots of sex with her girls, and having an obscene number of children. Those were more goals than plans, though. In her experience, details were something that could usually be ironed out in the moment. Quick wit and quicker reactions generally saw her through most days.

However, Alex was going to need planning.

The confirmation that the demon was neither hostile nor being controlled by Samleos for hostile intent settled a lot of the nerves floating around Fortune’s Favored. Not all of them, but a lot. No one was going to just forget about a lifetime’s worth of taught caution, backed by literally thousands of years of knowledge reinforcing a specific idea. That would be too much to ask of anyone. But having a literal god give the word that Alex was friendly helped a lot.

With Alex’s intentions confirmed innocent of harm, the conversation was able to move on to other matters. Such as, what were they going to do with a friendly demon? The floor was opened, so to speak, so that Jadis could get the opinions of her companions. She had some ideas, but hearing what her friends and lovers thought was important to her.

Kerr’s suggestion of indulging in the demon’s request for sex was almost immediately quashed. Jadis wasn’t comfortable engaging in lewd activities with Alex, not just yet anyway. They could barely understand each other and she wasn’t even sure the demon truly understood what sex was. Besides, she had been carrying the demonling around since it was an egg. She didn’t have any maternal feelings towards Alex, not really, but it was still a jarring change to go from what was basically an intelligent pet to a sexy demon lady. That was going to take at least a little while for Jadis to come to terms with, no matter how intriguing the idea of all those tentacles were…

The only point that Jadis could admit in Kerr’s favor for the fucking plan was D’s answer to her third question. Teaching Alex how to speak would apparently benefit from “body language” according to D. Now, that could have been just a teasing jab from the mischievous god, and it certainly didn’t explicitly mean that sex would make Alex a better communicator. Jadis couldn’t even imagine how that would work. But it did imply that meeting Alex on her terms of direct physical interaction would help with their communication. That was something Jadis wanted to explore.

Aside from Kerr’s proposal, other ideas of what to do were suggested by the group. Once her issues with the potential dangers Alex represented had been allayed, Aila in particular bent her mind to the subject like a true scientist. There were many profoundly impactful possibilities that Alex represented from a research perspective. The most interesting of which to Aila’s viewpoint was how exactly demon classes worked.

The assumption was that demons used a different system for leveling compared to the rest of mortal kind. That thought stemmed from how magic beasts worked: a magic beast gained levels, but they didn’t have any choice in what skills they gained. Every manticore would have the same abilities as every other manticore. The only difference between them would be the strength they gained from levels. Scholars assumed this to be the case since magic beasts weren’t intelligent and therefore did not have the reasoning ability necessary to make skill choices. Many such scholars agreed that this was likely the case for demons as well, since their intelligence had always been considered on par with most magic beasts and there have always been a distinct lack of variety between the individual members of any particular demonic group. A bone thief matriarch only ever produced bone thieves, and bone thieves all had the same skills and abilities, with the only noticeable differences between individuals easily attributed to levels.

Alex threw a big fucking wrench into all of those notions.

Aila’s idea, which Jadis found herself agreeing with, was to get Alex a mercenary license. Not that Aila was suggesting Alex become a mercenary and member of Fortune’s Favored. Induction into the group was something that Jadis was considering privately, but that wasn’t Aila’s reasoning. Aila wanted Alex to get a badge so that her status sheet could be examined. If her status sheet could be inspected, then a lot of questions about how demons work in general and how Alex got to be the way she was specifically could be answered. Worthy goals, Jadis couldn’t deny.

From the communication front, Jadis also thought that getting Alex a badge would help them learn each other’s languages faster. If Alex had a status sheet, then that meant that had to have some kind of written language that she understood. If they could gain access to Alex’s sheet, then that meant that they could use it as a sort of Rosetta Stone. Hopefully communication between them would be much easier from that point forward.

Of course, the issue of how they were actually going to get Alex one of those mercenary badges was the real problem. It wasn’t as though they could just walk Alex up to the counter in the city hall and have her fill out a form. Fortunately, they did have a contact in the government of Far Felsen who could make almost anything happen. The question was, would Magistrate Vraekae be willing to help them?

Eir thought her cousin would be willing, with the right persuasion. Likely, Eir would have to reveal her status as an oracle to Vraekae and explain everything they had learned so far from asking D questions. And Vraekae would probably want certain favors in return. Jadis shuddered at the thought. But, considering how they had reached a sort of uneasy truce as of late, Jadis was willing to negotiate with the Magistrate. Hopefully, considering all she had done to aid her in the investigation into the eleria smuggling, Vraekae would see that she already owed Jadis a favor now and that would be enough to allow her the use of her badge making system for Alex. She doubted it would be that easy, but Jadis could hope.

Revealing her status as an oracle was bound to cause further complications. Eir had purposefully kept the information about her second class close to her chest in order to keep her autonomy. Oracles were so rare that both the empire and the temple would want to protect Eir, likely by constraining her movements. A direct pipeline to a god wasn’t a resource they would want put in harms’ way. Maybe their precautions could be downplayed to just some sort of honor guard, but even that was an annoyance that Jadis didn’t want to have to deal with. It felt like she’d only just managed to get rid of her own imperially mandated tail. Eir getting one would not make Jadis happy.

Still, Alex was worth the potential trouble. And the fact that Eir was willing to expose her own secret to aid Alex meant a lot. Then again, Jadis was fairly certain that it had more to do with Eir wanting to help Jadis than Alex, but she’d take the assistance either way.

By that point in the discussion, the sun had set and it was getting far too late to continue the talks. They had a plan, though, one that essentially boiled down to introducing a demon to Vraekae and asking for her permission to sign said demon up as a mercenary so that they could read her status sheet. Oh, and also, they needed Vraekae’s guaranteed protection for the demon in question. A minor detail, really. Still, it was a plan.

Now, to get the plan started, they just had to convince Alex to get back in her box.

“Alex, please get in your crate.”

“Alex… Fuck… Now…”

“No, Alex. No fuck now. Please, we need to go back to camp,” Jay begged while motioning towards the crate. “Alex. Crate. Stay.”

“No…” Alex said in her first explicit act of disobedience Jadis had seen her display. “Crate…No… Fuck… Yes…”

“No fuck, crate yes,” Jay said sternly, emphatically pointing at the open wooden box. She even stomped her foot down for emphasis, just to keep up with the idea of body language. “Now.”

Alex’s otherwise blank face morphed into an expression of dour unhappiness. Her brow furrowed and the corners of her lips turned down to an almost comical degree. Contorting her body, she pulled her legs up so that her knees were tucked up against her chest and her arms wrapped around them, making her into a rough ball shape. Her tentacles, on the other hand, spread out wide around her as they began to flail wildly. She twisted and turned like a spinning top as her larger tentacles tossed snow into the air while her smaller tentacles whipped around in erratic patterns.

“Is she throwing a temper tantrum?” Kerr asked incredulously, watching the display with one hand on her hip.

“Yes, I would say so,” Jay sighed.

“Well, shit. What do we do now? Bring her back to camp as is?”

“Of course not,” Aila denied immediately. “We do not want everyone else on this expedition to be aware of Alex at this stage. Especially not Noll or the Reavers. Noll would no doubt report this to the Prince Kestil and who knows where the information would end up if any of those criminals knew.”

“Alex, please,” Jay tried again to appeal to the demon. “Just for a while, okay?”

The demon wasn’t listening. Alex continued to thrash about, making its displeasure known in no uncertain terms. Watching the spectacle, Jadis noticed that despite the obvious anger, Alex was still showing enough care to keep her tentacles away from everyone else. She wasn’t lashing out thoughtlessly; her long tentacles always stayed several feet away from others who were well within reach. Realizing this, Jadis figured that while the tantrum was an emotional display, it wasn’t an uncontrolled reaction like that of a child. Alex was purposefully acting in a way that made her feelings clear.

Like Jadis had thought and D had confirmed, body language was key.

With a wry smile, Jay approached Alex and crouched down next to her. The demon’s flailing slowed, tentacles still twisting about her body but not as wildly. Reaching out, Jay firmly scooped Alex up, bringing her balled-up form against her chest in a tight hug.

Alex’s limbs stopped their thrashing movements, still as stone for a moment as Jay rose to her feet and stood there holding the unhappy demon. Then, either in mimicry or understanding, Alex wrapped her tentacles around Jay in her own version of a hug.

It was a little like being squeezed by a snake, Jadis mused. When she was a kid, she’d gone to a petting zoo where they’d draped a python over her shoulders for a few photos. The weight and feel of Alex’s large lower tentacles reminded Jadis strongly of that childhood experience, though there were some differences. Alex had no scales, just smooth and cool flesh, but more than that Jadis could feel the intention in the demon’s action. The snake had just lain on top of her, unmoving and uninterested. Alex was gently squeezing her, coiling about her back and arms while using just enough force to cling to her and nowhere near enough to be interpreted as harm.

“Crate,” Jay repeated in kind tones while giving Alex’s strange back a gentle pat. “Hide. Crate. Stay. Good. Okay?”

Alex didn’t respond verbally, instead squeezing her tentacles a bit tighter before loosening them. Her head lifted to look up at Jay, all three eyes locked onto her. Her expression was once again blank and emotionless, as though the demon had forgotten how to emote with it. Then, with exaggerated effort, Alex opened her mouth and let out a long and aggrieved sigh.

“Thank you,” Jay said, fighting to keep from laughing at the overwrought display.

Hesitating for half a second, Jadis considered how to reinforce her words with action. She wanted to make it clear that she was happy that Alex was listening to her again, though her body language options were limited. Kissing the demon on top of the head was her first instinct, but Alex’s head was a tangle of tentacles, not hair, so that felt a bit weird to attempt. Her forehead was also out of the question since that would mean planting her lips on top of Alex’s third eye. She wasn’t even sure Alex would know to close the eye, so she wasn’t going to risk kissing eyeball. And for sure Jay wasn’t going to kiss Alex on the lips. The demon had a clear interpretation of what that meant, based on how she had woken Jadis up before.

Mentally shrugging at the option left to her, Jay leaned her head forward and gave Alex a kiss on her nose.

Alex stiffened again, her body tensing for a solid ten seconds before the demon seemed to melt into Jay’s arms. She actually uncurled her human parts and began rubbing against Jay in a manner that reminded Jadis of a cat. It wasn’t overtly sexual, certainly, but she was worried that it might veer in that direction. Certainly, having a naked woman rub her body against her was already starting to prompt some automatic bodily responses in Jay. Before things could get out of control, Jay walked Alex over to the crate and set her down into it.

Without further protest beyond a slight squeeze of tentacles, Alex slid down into the wood box and contorted to fit inside of it, filling it completely before pulling the lid on herself.

“Freaky…”

Turning to glare at Bridget with a raised eyebrow, the orc noticed Jay’s stare and quickly amended her statement.

“I meant the crate thing,” she motioned at the box. “Not the, uh, well. You know. I don’t know how something—uh, someone that big can fit in there. How in the abyss is she even breathing?”

“I d—don’t think she is b—breathing,” Thea quietly said while staring at the box. “Demons d—don’t need to.”

“No, I don’t think she does,” Syd agreed with her meek lover. Thinking about the hug, the only time she’d noticed Alex’s chest move had been when she’d purposefully done the exaggerated sigh. “Except when she chooses to.”

Not wanting to linger longer out in the cold any longer now that they had finished the impromptu meeting, Jay picked up Alex’s crate and started walking. All of her companions quickly joined her. The walk back to the camp was a quiet one. No doubt everyone had a lot to think about; Jadis knew she certainly did. The silence didn’t last long, though. About halfway back, of course, Sabina broke it.

“So. Sex oracle. That’s weird.”

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