Chapter 65: Companion Acquired

“Are you alright, are any of you hurt? In trouble?” Aila asked, concern evident in her voice.

As soon as Jadis had left the magistrate’s office, she’d been escorted back to the lobby by a single guard, some secret message conveyed to the men standing watch indicating only one was needed to show Jadis the way out. When she’d exited the back corridor, she’d found Aila and her uncles waiting in the lobby, grim and worried expressions on their faces.

Aila had immediately approached Jadis, nothing panicky in her actions or movements but the worry she tried to hide behind her normally stoic mask peaked through.

“We’re fine,” Jay assured her, putting on a soothing smile. “The magistrate just wanted to talk to us about the grundwyrm we killed. Had some questions about what we saw and where it was.”

“That’s no reason to send near a dozen guard to lead you three away like common thieves,” Aila pronounced crossly. “Is that really all?”

Still standing in a public lobby with many ears around, Jadis kept her explanation to a minimum.

“No, she wanted to know more about our race, too,” Dys said in a lowered tone. “We can tell you about it later.”

“Yeah,” Syd joined in, “We haven’t eaten yet and we’ve had our fill of government buildings for now. Mind if we take this elsewhere?”

Aila nodded, motioning to the large double doors of the building. “Then let’s go. We can eat at the Archway.”

“Well, you four can,” Ludwas spoke up, reminding Jadis that Aila hadn’t come alone. “We’ve got a job to get to. Can’t delay returning to the camp, the wagon will be leaving soon.”

“Does that mean…?” Jay trailed off, looking expectantly at Aila.

The redhead nodded, a smile threatening to break through on her face. “Yes. I’ve ended my contract with Bernd’s Blades. I was coming to your inn to rent a room when we saw the guards taking you all away.”

“Nice!” Syd grinned, holding up her hand for a high five.

Aila stared in confusion, along with Gerwas and Ludwas.

Clearing her throat, Syd turned her hand towards Dys who slapped it with a resigned sigh.

“Guess that’s not a thing around here, culturally.”

“We’re really glad you decided to join up with us,” Jay brushed past the awkward moment, still grinning. “We’re going to have an amazing time. You won’t regret it!”

“Aye, you better not make her regret it,” Gerwas growled in his best impression of a bear. “I had a long speech I was going to give about what I will be doing to the lot of you if any harm comes to the Bean Pole, and that’s before her mother gets involved. We’ll have to skip it for time, but I think you three are smart enough to take my meaning.”

Aila threw Gerwas a withering look that bounced off of his thick skin harmlessly. “I know, I know, you’re a grown woman and you can make your own damn decisions. I still say it’s a wild risk you’re taking and your parents will have our hides—”

“Shut your gopper,” Ludwas interrupted. “Aila’s not one to make a decision without thinking it through a dozen times.” Reaching a hand up to put it on Aila’s shoulder, he looked Jay, Dys, and Syd each in the eye, saying “We’ll just have to trust her, and you three, that you know what you’re doing.”

“Yes, and speaking of, I believe we all need to get moving,” Aila announced with a bit of force.

Exiting the municipal building, Jadis gave Aila and her uncles a bit of space while they said their final farewells. Their goodbyes were short and sweet, over in moments. Jadis waved the two mercenaries off, a little sad to see them go. They were an endearing couple of oafs.

“Well, should we head to the Archway?” Aila asked, indicating the restaurant she’d taken Jadis to before. “Or do you mind waiting here for a little while first? I know you wanted to get away from the building right away, but I need to register as an independent mercenary now that I’m not with Bernd’s anymore. It won’t take long, I’ve already got a badge, it just needs to be re-registered.”

“Oh, that’s fine, we can wait out here,” Syd assured Aila.

The former wagon driver rushed back into the building while Jadis stayed outside, happily breathing in the fresh morning air after her stressful encounter with local leadership.

There was a lot to take in from the conversation, interrogation in actuality, she’d had with Magistrate Vraekae. Beyond the fact that Jadis’ race hadn’t been custom-made by D and had an ancient history on Oros, there was a lot more about her classes to consider. Vraekae had said her classes were rare, exceptionally so, but hadn’t evinced all that much surprise at the revelation that Jadis was one person instead of three. Was that because she’d seen other classes do something similar? Or was it just because the sharp, hawk-like elf was good at hiding her emotions. She certainly seemed better at it than Aila, and Aila was fairly skilled at the practice.

What about what she’d said about D? She’d called him Destarious. Was that his real name, or at least what he was called on Oros? He had said he went by many names, so she supposed it wasn’t too surprising, but that Vraekae also wasn’t surprised about the alternate name was interesting.

Then there was her placid acceptance of Jadis’ more racy class. Was that because there were others that also had sexualized or sex-focused classes? Did that mean Aila and others might be more open to the idea of her perverted class skills since they weren’t necessarily unheard of?

Then there were the tidbits of information the magistrate had dropped about the Nephilim. Thousands of leagues away? The Final Bastion? Lyssandria’s Children? None of the info directly impacted her, but Jadis burned with curiosity. She wanted to know more about her current race’s history and perhaps figure out why exactly D had seen fit to bring her back in the form of a dead species. Was there some meaning behind it? Or did he do it because they just happened to fit Jadis’ criteria for what she wanted out of a new body, more or less?

Jadis wasn’t sure about much coming away from that impromptu, mandatory meeting, but it had given her a lot to think about. She had a lot of new questions to explore.

The thought occurred to her that she still had the holy book she’d found in the temple to D tucked away in her supplies. Perhaps she could bring it to a priest and use it as an opening to ask more about D? Maybe even turn the conversation to history so she could learn more about Oros’ history?

As she considered her options of investigating the many new threads of intrigue that had been opened up to her that morning, Aila exited the governmental building and returned to Jadis’ side. With Aila’s registration now in order, Jadis was eager to depart.

“Thanks for sticking around,” Syd said as the group headed for the main market square. “It means a lot that you did, just so you know.”

“Of course,” Aila brushed aside the comment. “Think nothing of it. Remember, you saved my and my uncles’ lives. At the very least we could pay your bail if you were arrested for some silly infraction.”

“What, not going to claim that we couldn’t possibly be at fault and were wrongfully accused in this scenario?” Dys asked.

“With how odd and ignorant of common customs the three of you are? I’ll be more shocked if at least one of you isn’t fined by the local guard within the next week.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Dys grumbled, though a smile still played across her lips.

The two quickly made their way to The Archway, finding a seat at a table in the open courtyard. This time they weren’t alone and a couple of the other tables were filled with military or mercenary types. Mostly men, the other patrons openly stared at the three giants, whispering back and forth just low enough that Jadis couldn’t make out what they said, but just loud enough that she knew they were doing it.

Doing her best to ignore the attention, Jadis ordered several large servings of food for each of her selves as well as one for Aila, insisting on paying for the meal this time. Tucking into the meal as soon as it was served, Jadis discussed next steps with Aila.

Aila was quick to agree that before they could do any truly serious demon hunting, all three giants were in dire need of a weapon and armor upgrade.

“You all seem to have a lot of health,” Aila said, motioning towards Jay’s chest, “but you got lucky with that axe. If it had dug any deeper, that could have been a killing blow. Your fortitude is probably decently high, but it’s not as high as an archetype specialized for combat without armor, I can tell. You need something better than all that.”

Jay’s fingers ran across the open gash in her chest piece. “Yeah, that one hurt like a bitch. Any suggestions on where we can go for some good armor? You mentioned a smith you know, if I remember correctly.”

“Oh, and a tailor,” Syd pipped up, swallowing a mouthful of eggs. “We still need something better than this crap,” she said, tugging on the coarse material of her stitched blanket tunic.

“Yes, I’ll take you to the smith and the tailor I know,” Aila readily agreed. “Anything they make will have to be custom crafted, though, so it might take some time before you’re fully outfitted.”

Dys hummed, fingers drumming on the wooden table. “I imagine the cost for custom armor will be high, never mind weapons. Any idea on price ranges?”

Aila shrugged and shook her head. “All good armor is custom fitted to a degree; but for you three? I can’t imagine it’ll be as simple as minor adjustments to premade gear. It also depends on what kind of armor you want made, the material it’s made from, and so on.”

Taking a bite of her fish, Aila looked at Dys consideringly before pointing at her with her fork. “My uncles once told me that a good set of full plate armor could buy a whole house in most towns, and that’s before enchantment. Multiply that by three and even that reward you got from the grundwyrm isn’t going to get you far.”

Jay sighed heavily. “Seems like we’ll have to prioritize based on what we can afford for now and then earn what we can as we go.”

“And we can’t forget about paying for room and board, food, and Blue’s cut of the profits,” Syd pointed out. “We’re going to have to budget things.”

“You don’t have to—” Aila began to protest but Jay cut her off.

“Yes, we do. You’re on the team now, right? So that means you get a cut. Even if you aren’t contributing much to the fights right now, you will be soon enough and you still need to make a living too. So don’t argue and take your share.”

Aila closed her mouth tightly, lips pressed thin, but made no further argument.

“On the bright side, once that scouting mission or whatever comes back from the village where we were staying at with the proof that we killed a demon mother, we’ll hopefully get a big reward for that. I’m sure that’ll help our savings,” Syd pointed out.

“The reward for a matriarch’s death is substantial,” Aila nodded at Syd. “I’m not certain of the sum, but it would pay for quite a lot of what you three might want, depending on the armor and the smith.”

“Then we’ll price things out for now and once we get our big payday, we can go hog wild,” Jay announced with a grin, drawing a confused look from Aila.

“Hog Wild? What do hogs have to do with shopping?”

All three of Jadis smirked and sighed at the same time.

“Never mind.”

“For now, let’s see what kind of stuff we can buy with what we’ve got,” Jay said, finishing the last of the food on her plate.

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