Chapter 56: Ritual Talk

“That’s new,” Aila commented, looking Jay over.

“Yeah, just needed something to replace my old maul,” Jay said, patting the huge, wooden mallet resting on her shoulder.

The merchant Jadis had discovered carried a variety of odds and ends, half of which Jadis would have categorized as utterly useless garbage. There were wooden buckets with cracks in them, glass bottles without stoppers, chipped mugs, bent copper plates, and more all scrambled together in heaps. His stall was like a trash bin that had been turned out onto a table, hosed off to a barely acceptable degree, and then given a price tag. Not everything was garbage though. One section of the junk monger’s stall had been set aside for poorly maintained weaponry, and it was there that Jadis found her prize.

Among the decayed iron swords, bent spears, and chipped axes was a truly massive wooden hammer. The head was square and had a couple of iron bands on it, while the shaft was without any adornment at all. If she had to guess, Jadis imagined it was the kind of tool meant for hammering dock pylons into the ocean floor or some such construction related activity. It was as tall as most of the men were in the market, and the head was bigger around than Aila’s waist. No way the mallet could be handled by any normal person.

Except, the magic of stats in a game-like world probably meant that there were people out there who could use the giant hammer without issue. Unless counterbalancing the great weight of the weapon would cause problems? Jadis didn’t know how that would work out, but for certain the merchant that sold it to her wasn’t able to lift it. He had been only too happy to sell the hulking thing for what Jadis thought was probably a reasonable price. He hadn’t been shocked when Jay had easily lifted it and swung it with the same practical ease as a child with a stick, but then again, he had quite an impressive customer service smile on his face for the whole transaction.

Jadis wondered if there was some kind of skill in play that merchants used to make selling things easier.

There were other things Jadis wanted to purchase, but she only grabbed one other item she knew she’d need for her ritual with Aila since any serious purchasing of gear was something that would probably take much longer than the time she had. One other thing she did take care of right away though was lodging. Before she left the market, she asked around and was directed to an inn just a few doors down from the restaurant Aila had taken her to. The inn was large, with three stories, the first floor serving as a tavern. The place was clean and, more importantly, had high ceilings, saving Jadis from having to stoop at all times. Not every building she had checked during her search had the dimensions to hold her so easily.

The plump woman behind the bar had, after the initial shock, been quick to welcome the three giants into her establishment and had shown her to a room that, while not as large as the one in the mercenary headquarters, was certainly large enough. The innkeeper had even been kind enough to let Jadis remove the much too small twin beds from the room so she had ample space to create another blanket and mattress nest on the floor.

With lodgings secured for a price that Jadis calculated as sustainable for at least a month based on her current funds, Jadis had returned to Bernd’s Blades’ HQ and met up with Aila, the redhead already waiting for her.

Aila was wearing her normal leather pants and a green tunic, but she also had a leather pack on her back, a knife in her belt, and a quarterstaff in hand. She also wore a simple leather breastplate with shoulder pads and bracers over her tunic. Jadis didn’t know where that armor had come from, but the ensemble looked good on Aila’s lean form. She looked prepared and put together, ready for an excursion.

“I like the armor,” Jay complimented her as the two waited by the gate. Dys and Syd had gone inside to gather the supplies Jadis had brought with her. Jadis planned to drop it all off in her room at the inn before they left the city.

“Thank you,” Aila said, a small but genuine smile showing on her face. “I can show you the armor smith who I bought it from if you like. He’s not the best in the city, but his quality is good considering his level, and his prices fair.”

“I’ll take you up on that,” Jay said, tapping a finger against the poor-quality makeshift bracer on her forearm. “What I’ve got is better than going around naked, but my sisters and I could definitely use an upgrade.”

At the mention of nudity, Jadis saw Aila’s face flush out of the corner of her eye.

“The ritual you need me for,” Aila rushed to say, quickly changing the topic while turning her face away from Jay. “Will it take long? What are the requirements and what does it do? From what I’ve read, most eldritch based rituals can be quite chaotic compared to arcane or divine based rituals.”

Seeing an opportunity to learn more about magic and the associated stats, Jadis answered Aila’s questions while setting the stage to ask a few of her own.

“It won’t take too long, it’s actually one of the shorter we’ve unlocked. Should take one hour. The description reads, ‘Increases your target’s ability to move gracefully. Target of the ritual will be more likely to land on their feet, tumble without damaging themselves, and move with the deft touch of a trained acrobat. Effect persists until the spell is recast and a new target is selected.’ It’s not particularly specific on the true effects, but the result should be interesting.”

“That is interesting,” Aila murmured with the air of a scientist analyzing a new find. “I’m curious to see it in action. I presume that the ritual will let all three of you cast at the same time so long as the requirements are the same, so you should be able to cast it on each other within that one-hour timeframe, rather than repeating it three times over and spending three hours doing it. That’s really quite convenient, you all having the same ritual class.”

“Actually,” Jay said while tilting her head to one side, watching Aila closely, “we were thinking of casting the ritual on you, Blue, if you’d be willing.”

“Me?” Aila looked up, startled. Her neutral mask broken for a moment, Jay saw a gleam of longing in her expression for just a moment before she recovered her calm and went placid again.

“Why me? I appreciate the thought, but I’m certain the effects of that spell would be more useful on any of you three rather than me. Why hinder the movements of one of you?”

“Well, we’ve never had a ritual spell that let us cast on target other than ourselves before. This would be sort of a test,” Jay explained. “Plus, we’re already pretty fast, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. We’re confident we can protect you out there, but things can go wrong quickly in battle. Better you have a buff that could help you dodge and run away than us.”

Aila seemed to think about that for a moment, one side of her lips quirking downward for a second before she nodded her head. “That’s reasonable. Then, if you and your sisters are okay with it, I’m happy to play the part of the test subject.”

“Good!” Jay said with a smile.

At that moment, Dys and Syd came around the corner, Jadis having done her best to time her other selves’ approach so that her conversation with Aila wasn’t interrupted. With their arrival, Jadis headed off down the road with Aila, making a beeline for the inn. As the quartet, or duo in reality, walked, Jadis shifted the conversation about spells to probe Aila for what she knew.

“So, you said eldritch rituals are usually chaotic. Does that mean arcane and divine rituals aren’t? I can’t say I know much about them,” Jay admitted.

“We didn’t get much training on those stats,” Dys added. “We never planned on becoming ritualists so we’re kind of out of our comfort zone when it comes to magic spells.”

Zero training counted as not much in Jadis’ opinion, so she wasn’t lying.

“Never planned…?” Aila sounded a bit pained at Jadis’ admission that she had lucked into the casting class, but she quickly moved on to explaining.

“Arcane and divine rituals are rare, but the few classes that do get them follow a pattern. Since arcane spells are elemental in nature, rituals spells involving them usually involve the specific element that is being called forth.”

At Jay’s questioning look, Aila expounded, “For example, there’s a wizard in Bernd’s Blades that can create stone walls with a ritual. I know he needs specific pieces and amounts of stone that are used up by performing the steps of the spell. If he doesn’t have those components, he can’t cast the ritual.”

“That makes sense,” Jay nodded along.

So, now Jadis knew that arcane spells were based around elements. Probably the four classical ones of fire, earth, wind, and water. However, she wondered if there was more to it, like ice or lightning elements.

Aila continued her explanation, switching subjects to divine spells.

“Divine spells are, as you know, either benedictions or maledictions as they relate to the gods. Any class that gets ritual spells of a divine nature is going to be dedicated to the worship of one or more gods, so the rituals will involve specific worship practices of that god.”

“Any examples?” Syd prompted.

“Hmm…” Aila hummed, thinking about. “I’ve never actually met anyone with divine rituals, at least not that told me as much. I’ve heard of powerful, high level priests that use rituals of prayer to perform large scale benedictions of healing, but I’ve never seen it.”

Even more interesting. It seemed that three different magic stats, arcane, divine, and eldritch covered different kinds of spells. Which, now that Jadis thought about it, made sense. Why have three different stats if they all did the same thing? Arcane for elemental, divine for what sounded like healing and ‘maledictions’, whatever those were. Eldritch for… what? Buffs? That’s what it seemed to do for her.

“Then, what do you know about eldritch rituals?” Dys asked. Getting Aila’s take on what she expected should be illuminating. It would also help Jadis gauge just how likely Aila was to freak out over the more sexual nature of her spells.

“Eldritch spells usually involve physical changes and enhancements, or physical debuffs to a target,” Aila said in a considering voice. “Or, on the other side of things, they involve illusions, usually the kind that can mess with perceptions and such. I’ve never met an eldritch ritualist archetype, but from what I’ve read, most of their rituals are mixes of physical actions and sacrifice.”

The redhead frowned, turning concerned eyes on the three Nephilim. “One example I read about involved sacrificing a goat and smearing the blood on the body of the target in an hour-long chanting ritual. Is that…?”

“No! Fuck no, nothing like that,” Jay quickly denied. “No blood sacrifice or killing goats in our rituals.”

Aila looked pleased to hear no animals would be harmed in the performance of the ritual.

“What does the ritual entail? You never said.”

All three of Jadis smiled. They had reached the inn and as Dys and Syd dashed inside to put their supplies away, while Jay stayed with Aila outside and explained.

“Well, it’s not how our rituals usually go, but this one basically wants us to dance.”

“Dance?” Aila asked, a blank look on her face.

“Dance. It does have some other specifics that we’ll have to fulfill for it to count, but yeah. We need to dance.”

Aila crossed her arms, her blank expression turning slightly troubled. “I don’t really know how to dance. I mean, I’ve done the harvest step a few times, but…”

“No worries,” Jay assured her, giving the shorter girl a pat on the shoulder. “We’ve got enough experience dancing that I’m sure we can lead you along.”

“Plus, we’ve got this to help!” Syd announced as she ducked through the doorway of the inn, coming back outside, Dys right on her heels.

In her hands was a drum, a simple instrument Jadis had bought while in the market, figuring it would be much easier to dance to a beat than nothing but silence.

Aila looked doubtfully at Syd and the drum but straightened her back and nodded. “If that’s what’s required, then I will do my best.”

“Great!” all three of Jadis grinned in unison.

“Now, let’s get outside of the walls so we can do this ritual and get to the real fun,” Jay said, turning in the direction of the city gates. “I’m looking forward to seeing how this ritual goes and how powerful its effects are.”

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