Chapter 478: Exhaustion and Preparation

“Hey, wake up.”

Jadis did her best to ignore the annoying voice buzzing in one of her several sets of ears. She was tired. Exhausted. Completely worn out. She was not yet ready to wake up. Even if it was time, it wasn’t time. She was going to sleep for possibly the next month if she could—

“I’m not joking around, you big lug! Time to rise and shine and smell the demonically baked bread!”

Jay twitched. The persistent voice was closest to that self she realized, as the fog of sleep was starting to lift from her brain. She still didn’t want to get up, but she was starting to pull the pieces together of where she was and what was going on around her. As she did, she felt an oddly small and light person get onto her bare back, standing upright somewhere around her shoulder blades.

“Gods, this is a weird bloody thing to do if you’re the pregnant one…” Jadis heard the voice grumble.

Suddenly, the person started to pound her feet down onto Jay’s back in a rapid, staccato beat. It was like she was running in place while using Jadis as a landing pad.

“Wake up!”

“God dammit, I’m up!” Jay roared as she flipped over. “Gah!”

Jay’s shout was accompanied by a scream as Sorcha was sent tumbling by the Nephilim’s abrupt movement. Before the goblin’s butt could hit the bed, Jay had already caught her and brought the flailing woman to her chest. Firmly squeezing the blue-haired witch between her boobs, Jay stared down at her much, much smaller lover and glared at her.

“What is it? I’m trying to sleep for the next decade, if you don’t mind.”

“Ah, yeah, well, I do mind,” Sorcha grumbled as she pushed herself upright. “And so does everyone else. We’ve already let you sleep in an hour; we can’t wait any longer if we want to meet our launch time.”

Sorcha’s struggle to raise herself to an upright position despite Jay holding onto her had the unintentional consequence of forcing the goblin to put her hands on top of Jay’s pale breasts in order to leverage herself onto her knees. Jadis definitely didn’t mind the touch, but when Sorcha noticed what she had done, her green face flushed a darker shade.

“Oh, shut up you pervert,” the witch said before purposefully tweaking Jay’s right nipple to distract from her own embarrassment. “Did you forget we’re leaving today?”

“Leaving?” Jay murmured, her thoughts momentarily preoccupied by how good Sorcha looked in that travel coat she was wearing. “Where are we—”

Abruptly, Jadis’ mind whirred to full life as she remembered what day it was. All three of her selves shot upright from their various positions scattered across their large bed, fully awake and suddenly in panic mode at the thought of being late.

“Fuck!” Sorcha shouted as she was tossed across Jay’s lap by the sudden action.

“Sorry!” Jay apologized while she picked her goblin lover up and set her down on the edge of the bed. “Shit, I must have been really out of it. Just let me throw some pants and a shirt on and I’ll get down there and help with the pre-flight checks. Oh, and the final packing, we didn’t finish everything, did we? And I still need to talk to Vraekaea about the baby! And I—”

“No, no, you don’t need to do anything!” Sorcha interrupted Jay’s hurried words, stopping the naked Nephilim in her tracks. “We’ve already got everything handled! Aila got everyone else up a little earlier and we took care of it. All of it. All you need to do is, put your armor on and meet us downstairs.”

Jay stared down at Sorcha as her other two selves paused in their places. After a second, Jay blinked and then grinned brightly at the smaller woman.

“What would I do without you,” she said in a loving tone before bending at the waist to give the goblin a soft kiss.

“I don’t know, find some other goblin to focus your wanton lusts on?” Sorcha grumbled as she tried not to show how happily she accepted the kiss. “Anyway, Aila’s the one who coordinated everything. The rest of us just did what she told us to do.”

“And I am very thankful for that,” Jay smiled at the witch. She gave her one more peck on the nose before straightening up in a businesslike manner. “Okay, give me a few minutes to wash up and get dressed, then I’ll be right down.”

“You can let the others know I’ll be down in a few minutes,” Dys added as she headed for the bathroom.

“Or… you can hang around and watch us do a reverse striptease,” Syd joked while jiggling her body seductively towards her lover.

“I… might stick around,” Sorcha said as she tried to hide the growing bulge that was starting to show under her robes. “Just to make sure you get your asses moving and don’t waste even more time.”

“Of course,” Jay nodded in understanding. Then, lowering her voice in a conspiratorial way, she whispered in Sorcha’s ear. “And, if you need help with that meat log between your legs, just ask. I think you know I’m great at multitasking.”

Sorcha laughed at the absurd wording of Jay’s teasing reminder. However, when Jadis saw the way the goblin squirmed in her seat, she grinned widely. Something told her that the witch might just take her up on that offer, time crunch be damned.

Twenty minutes later Jadis was cleaned up, refreshed, dressed in her full armor, and heading down the stairs to the main floor. Sorcha followed behind Jadis’ selves, a somewhat glazed, happy look in her green eyes. When they reached the bottom of the stairs and entered the main hall, they found that the room was largely empty except for a large platter of food that was being guarded by an angel and a demon.

“We’ve been waiting for you,” Severina smiled beautifully at Jadis as she entered the room. “Come, eat your breakfast. We don’t have much time before we need to join the others outside.”

“Yes, you will need to stop dallying if you wish to make your planned destination before nightfall,” Vraekae advised with her usual icy coolness. “Based on previous experiences, I did not think you were one to waste the morning light by sleeping in. Was I incorrect in my assessment?”

“Ah, hey Vraekae,” Jay greeted the devilish elf with a grin while Syd went to kiss Sev. “Good to see you. Is everything okay with, um, you know?”

“The infant is healthy,” she replied, briefly placing her hand over her stomach. “Priestess Bertha has assured me there should be no complications.”

“That’s great,” Jay deflated slightly as she let out a sigh of relief. “I’m really glad to hear that.”

Instinctually, she almost went to kiss the blue elf, but stopped herself since she knew that wasn’t something Vraekae would want. Instead, Jay settled for a hug, which the magistrate patiently tolerated. The elf even went so far as to press the side of her head against Jay’s cheek, a gesture of familiarity that made Jadis tingle for two reasons. The first being, it was an earnestly sincere moment of affection.

The second reason for the tingle was the feeling of Vraekae’s ear brushing against her. Or rather, the memories that slender, pointed ear stirred inside of Jadis. It wasn’t just memories that stirred, either, as Jadis felt her members stiffen inside of her armored suits.

The night before last had been, in a word, intense. Even after Jadis had managed to take control of the encounter with Vraekae, the woman had still managed to press her to her limits. Switching from the slow, methodical, almost meditative sex that the elf had led Jadis through to the hard pounding Jadis was so good at had not necessarily been a good call. While Jadis had elicited multiple orgasms from the blue beauty, she had not tired the woman in the least. Even after the Wanton Replication ritual had completed, Vraekae had goaded Jadis into continuing. Another two hours later, and even Jadis needed to take a break from the punishing pace she had set. And even then, Vraekae had not let her rest. She’d simply taken charge once more, pushing Jadis’ bodies into another position, undulating her body in another tantric, slow-burn assault on the Nephilim’s over-sensitized nerve endings.

By the time they finally called it quits, the sun was already rising. Jadis had left the thoroughly satisfied elf in a messy, partially collapsed, cum-soaked, bed. Somehow, despite everything, Vraekae had still been awake; she’d even still been able to maintain her cool mask of icy politeness. Though, with the way she was barely able to move her limbs, Jadis felt that she had at least accomplished the challenge the elf had set before her to make sure she was fucked hard enough that she wouldn’t be able to walk straight. Jadis wasn’t walking straight either, but that was beside the point.

Of course, Jadis would ever admit that Vraekae had worn her out. Even though she would have been happy to collapse on the magistrate’s floor and sleep for a couple of months to recover, she had managed to say a few hopefully coherent words that she couldn’t quite remember before stumbling out of the mansion and back to Fortune’s Favored headquarters.

Thankfully, Jadis had been able to get at least an hour or two of sleep after the exhausting night. However, she hadn’t been able to rest for long. There was a schedule to keep and an expedition to prepare for. The Leviathan was basically done by that point, with only minor adjustments needed. Once she’d been roused out of her brief nap, Jadis had rushed around the compound, getting everything ready for the trip to Glanum. She had also made several trips to other parts of the city, including the temple district in order to both update Aurea on all of the big news and get her pregnancy paused by Bertha, among other errands.

Jadis still internally chuckled at the memory of the high priestess’ reaction when she had told the blonde about being pregnant. She was pretty sure the priestess had been serious about setting up a temple-wide celebration. Fortunately, Jadis had managed to convince Aurea that such an extravagance wasn’t necessary, and that a few simple well-wishes from the priests and priestesses was more than enough. Of course, that had still turned into a several hour-long event where literally every priest, acolyte, scholar, and paladin in the whole temple district had shown up to offer their congratulations to Jadis. At one point, Jadis was pretty sure some random soldiers and citizens who had just happened to be in the temples at the time had shook her hands, but it was really all a blur so Jadis wasn’t wholly sure.

When Jadis had returned to the compound that evening, she was even more exhausted than after she had spent the night with Vraekae. Still, sleep was not available to her. Since they were about to depart on a long flight, Jadis and her lovers had to be sure to have a few sexual encounters, if for no other reason than to refresh the timer on Lewd Lover’s Bond. It would have been awkward if the ritual had worn off while they were in a place that they couldn’t get a free moment.

By the time Jadis had finished with her lovers, she was completely drained of all energy. She collapsed into bed and had, apparently, slept for nearly twelve hours.

All that was to say, that while Jadis had truly enjoyed the night spent with Vraekae, if they ever did it again, she would need to make sure her schedule was cleared for the day after, just to give her selves time to recover.

“I have a present for you,” Vraekae said as Jay sat next to her.

“Really?” Jay exclaimed with surprise. “You didn’t have to get me anything.”

“I felt you would likely want to read this,” the noble explained as she passed Jay a leather-bound book. “Hopefully, I have saved you a few hours of searching.”

Looking at the title, Jadis saw that it was written in a language that she didn’t understand. However, when she flipped open the cover, she saw that the title had been written inside in the common language of the empire.

“The Complete Guide to Nephilim Lovemaking,” Jay read the words out loud. “Seriously?”

“Do not lose that,” Vraekae warned her with a glint in her red eyes. “I would hate to have to go through the trouble of finding a replacement.”

“Thank you, Vraekae,” Jay grinned as she hugged the elf for a second time.

“You are welcome,” she said quietly.

“Hey, I’ve got a question for you, actually,” Jay said as she pulled away from her hug with the elf. “I never got an answer the other night.”

Vraekae raised a scarlet eyebrow, waiting for Jay to proceed with her query.

“What exactly is that tattoo supposed to represent—”

Jay’s words were cut off when Vraekae’s red ball of doom smacked into the side of her head, using just enough force to jar her.

“You should really be focused on eating, rather than asking unimportant questions,” Vraekae said as she shot her a meaningful look.

“Yup!” Jay didn’t argue as she immediately sat and started chowing down on her breakfast.

Sometimes, Jadis realized, discretion was the better part of valor.

Once Jadis had packed away a sufficient amount of food to get her through the day, all the while kept company by the elf, Seraphim, and goblin sharing in the meal with her, she made her way out of the company hall to the construction yard behind the building. Her first sight was of the huge fuselage of the Leviathan airship. It truly was an impressively gargantuan vehicle. Maybe not as big as the Hindenburg, which was something like eight hundred feet long if Jadis remembered correctly, but it was still huge. The length of the rigid balloon was over two hundred feet, making it about the size of a commercial passenger jet. Of course, the balloon wasn’t what the passengers would be riding in.

The gondola of the huge airship was much larger in proportion to the balloon than would have been possible relying solely on Earth physics. Since Sabina’s tests with the Behemoth showed that it was capable of carrying massively larger quantities of weight than the actual physical dimensions of the wagon were capable of fitting, she changed the new airship design to take that factor into account. The Leviathan’s gondola was over a hundred feet long and could easily seat more than fifty passengers comfortably, and a lot more than that uncomfortably. That didn’t even consider the separate sections that had been made specifically for cargo storage on this particular configuration of the Leviathan design. Even more room had been made inside the cabin by having the twin magic-powered engines located on sturdy struts on either side of the made body. Sabina had even managed to incorporate railed balconies on either side of the airship, centered around the twin engines, where individuals could stand and either perform maintenance, or take action against hostiles within range.

Overall, the Leviathan was a marked improvement over the simplistic design of the Behemoth, which was really just a wagon attached to a balloon. The only real advantage that the older Behemoth design had over the Leviathan was compactness. The Behemoth’s balloon could be deconstructed and packed up into the top frame, allowing it to revert into a land vehicle as needed. The Leviathan’s solid structure fuselage could not be taken apart; not with any ease or speed, anyway. Not necessarily a problem, just a difference in features. If, for example, the crew needed to avoid air travel due to unfavorable weather conditions, the Leviathan would be stuck where it was, while the Behemoth could continue to make progress overland. Still, the sheer capacity of the Leviathan made its lack of land-based movement a worthwhile tradeoff.

Jadis’ admiration for the newly completed aircraft was interrupted by the sight of her lovers. Most were gathered around the colossal airship, talking with the huge crowd of family and workers that were present for the launch. There were quite a few small circles of anxious parents around their daughters, hugging and kissing and saying words of love and encouragement. Jadis didn’t want to interrupt those tender moments, so she instead focused on two of her lovers who were only focused on each other, rather than on the surrounding friends and family.

Sabina was standing to Alex’s side, making adjustments to the leather straps and buckles that made up the new armor the Demon was wearing. Her focus on the undertaking was razor sharp, though Jadis could see that the half-elf was talking non-stop the whole time. Alex, for her part, was standing motionless, patiently waiting for the smith to finish her self-appointed task.

“That armor looks really good on you,” Dys grinned at the Demon as she walked up to the two women. “Maybe a little like a metal pumpkin, but still good.”

“Yes…” Alex agreed in her usual way. “I am… A metal gourd… And I… Look good…”

“I don’t think you’re that round,” Sabina commented as she made a few more adjustments to the straps on Alex’s right side. “I mean, your belly is really round because of the baby but the rest of you is really still very thin, so it’s more like you’re a branch with an apple hanging from the middle of it or something like that.”

“Then she’s the apple of my eye, I guess,” Dys smirked.

“Why would you put an apple in your eye?” Sabina paused as she looked up at Dys with some concern. “You’ve got big eyes, but it wouldn’t fit, and I don’t think it’d feel good or be healthy.”

“No, it’s a—never mind. Anyway, what do you think about the armor? Your professional opinion, of course.”

“Oh, it’s amazing,” Sabina said with excitement as she turned back to Alex. “High Priest Doru is really incredible! His armor skills are so, so much better than mine and I really hope I’ll get as good as him some day. But I guess that makes sense he’s so good since he’s the high priest of the god of crafters. I still think he could have done more with the tentacles, but I guess that would have sacrificed a lot of Alex’s natural mobility and I bet you wouldn’t have liked that, huh, Alex?”

“Yes…” Alex nodded her head. “I would… Not like that…”

Jadis agreed with that assessment as well. The armor that she had commissioned for her demonic lover had been designed to protect Alex’s main body but had largely left her tentacles bare. Cold flame steel plate had been molded and formed to fit the Demon’s body, creating a sleek look that matched Alex’s ink-black complexion. Flexible, overlapping plates that could move and slide over each other had been used to give her as much mobility as possible while still offering maximum coverage. The armor overall looked like a lighter, more mobile version of the dark armor that Jadis wore, except for the stomach area which had been expanded to accommodate Alex’s belly. Those plates could be removed, however, once the baby was born, and the armor could be adjusted, so Alex wouldn’t have to get an entirely new set of armor later on. Which was definitely a bonus, since the Demon’s odd body shape did not make it easy for armor smiths to craft for her.

Since Alex had an extra set of arms and a rather unique structure to her back, the armor had been designed with lots of holes to accommodate her biology. The tentacles themselves did not have plate armor on them, however, Doru had included chainmail flaps or sleeves that hung around those holes, which Alex’s tentacles fit through easily. The chainmail only covered the first few inches of any of the smaller tentacles, but it did offer some coverage for the gaps in armor if the smaller back tentacles were withdrawn inside of Alex’s body. The three large tentacles that Alex used for mobility also had some chainmail covering them, but only about a foot or so around the base.

“I can probably make some metal tips for your tentacles,” Sabina told Alex as she stepped back to look over the fit. “Since you like to strike at the enemy with them, and all. It’ll give you some protection and it would probably hurt the bad guys a lot more. Plus, you could probably just leave the metal tips behind if they got stuck, since it would be easy enough to make more.”

“No time for that,” Dys laughed. “We’re just about to leave, Sabby.”

“Oh, I know,” Sabina smiled up at her. “But maybe I can work on that once we get to Glanum. I’m sure my father can help me make them! It’ll be nice to work on something in the forge with him again after so long.”

“I’m sure he’ll be amazed to see how much you’ve grown since you struck out on your own,” Dys assured her lover while giving her shoulder a squeeze. “I mean, you’ve literally invented air travel!”

“No I didn’t,” Sabina shook her head. “I just made it more accessible. And this was all based off of your ideas, anyway.”

Dys rolled her eyes at that comment.

“No, I barely understand anything when it comes to aviation. You’re the one who came up with how to make all this work. Don’t sell yourself short, Sabby. That big brain of yours is amazing, and you should be proud of everything you’ve accomplished in such a short time.”

“Thanks,” the half-elf looked down, twisting her hands together as she blushed in embarrassment. “I couldn’t have done any of it without you, though.”

“I don’t think that’s even remotely true,” Dys insisted as she gave Sabina a kiss. “If I had never come along, you would have just found another way to make amazing armors and weapons and gods know what else. I just gave you a boost, is all.”

“Sabina is smart…” Alex added as she swept in close and gave the smith a kiss on the cheek. “Next time… You will… Make me… Your armor…”

As she spoke, Alex leaned back and put on her helmet. It was, once more, similar to Jadis’ own helm design, though it had a sweeping crest that both looked cool and also gave the Demon some more head room for her hair tentacles.

“Your armor… Will be best…”

“Thank you, Alex!” Sabina chirped as she grinned at the pregnant Demon. “You always know just what to say!”

“What, and I don’t?” Dys groused.

“Sometimes!”

“Hey! Listen up!” Jadis heard Aila yell from where she was standing near the open door on the side of the Leviathan. “Everyone who’s coming, it’s time to board! Make sure you have everything you need with you! Once we lift off, we aren’t turning back!”

“Well, looks like we better get going,” Dys said as she turned towards the airship. “Wouldn’t want to be late to our own party.”

“Oh! I’m so excited!” Sabina practically squealed. “The first flight of the Leviathan! It’s such a great name, too! Oh, it’ll be so beautiful, I kind of want to stay down here so I can watch it fly, but I want to be up there flying with it at the same time, you know? I wish I had extra bodies like you, Jadis! I’m so happy right now! Maybe this time, Aila will let me pilot the ship!”

“Uh, we’ll see about that…” Dys said with wide eyes as she corralled the excited half-elf towards the airship. “Maybe once we’re past the tree. In the meantime, let’s just make sure we say goodbye to everyone and then get on the ship, yeah?”

“This is going to be so amazing!” Sabina cried out happily as she bounced around in front of Dys. “Maybe we can even try some rolling maneuvers I theorize should be possible!”

“I do not… Want Sabina… To pilot….”

“Aw… C’mon Alex…”

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