“Welcome back!”

Jay let out a sigh of satisfaction as Eir wrapped her loving arms around her. Even though she had only been gone for a day, she still felt like she had been gone from her lover’s embrace for far too long. Kissing her lovely saint, Jay relished the feel of Eir pressed against her body before gently setting the small elf down on her feet.

“How was everyone at the compound?” Eir asked. “Were you able to visit with my parents?”

Jadis and her lovers were all gathered in the open foyer-like area of the side building that they had occupied at Ulya’s temple. It was late in the evening, so everyone was present, and Jadis didn’t have to go looking for anyone. They had the space to themselves, as no one else was around at the moment, though Jadis didn’t think that condition would last long. Her return to Thracina would have been noted by many, since her glowing wings weren’t exactly low profile.

“Everyone was doing fine,” Jay answered as she walked with Eir a few steps away from the open door. “But your parents weren’t in Eldingholt. I left your letter with their staff at the city house, and they told me that your mother and father left to take care of business in your family’s march. They’ll be returning to the capital from their holdings in the south in about two weeks.”

“As ever, duty calls,” Eir said wistfully. “It is still good to know that nothing ill has befallen them or anyone of the rest of our families.”

The rest of Jadis was busily greeting her assembled lovers and filling them in on the news from the imperial capital. There were letters to deliver, words of love and concern to pass along, and gossip that simply had to be discussed. For Eir, though, Jadis had one semi-private bit of news that she had to give.

“I saw Vraekae,” Jay said, lowering her tone. “And I have to admit… you were right.”

“Was I?” Eir asked, looking genuinely perplexed as she tilted her head to one side.

“Yeah, you know. She, uh, wanted some alone time with me.”

Eir blinked once more in confusion before comprehension lit up her purple eyes.

“Oh! You mean she asked to have sex with you again?”

“Yes,” Jay confirmed with an amused exhalation. “I didn’t even bring it up. She suggested it herself.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful,” Eir smiled as she squeezed Jay’s hand. “She really does need to let loose more often and find some ease in her life. I’m so glad you are her friend and can help her relax from time to time. I was worried she would deny her sexual urges until after her first pregnancy is over and she comes to you for her second child.”

“You really think she’s going to want to have another baby?”

“Of course she will!” Eir said as though it was the most obvious fact of the universe. “My cousin may seem like an entirely different species at times, but she is still an Aedraheill. She will want to have as many children as possible. In fact, I should warn you about my mother.”

“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?” Jay tilted her head in a mirror of Eir’s earlier confusion.

“Aside from our contingency plans, I told her about your aura in my letters. She will no doubt insist that you spend as much time around her and father as possible in the future, when things with the war settle down. She will want to give our babies a few aunts and uncles to play with.”

The idea that Svana, Eir’s mother, would want to have more children wasn’t surprising. That she could potentially have children for many more decades to come, and could absolutely produce siblings for Eir that would be younger than Eir’s own children, was a far stranger thought to come to terms with. Mentally shrugging, Jadis tried not to think about it too hard. Having children with an elf meant that weird age differences between family members were just par for the course.

“Hey! I thought you were dropping Hope off! What in D’s name is in this harness—woah!”

Kerr’s loud exclamation caught the attention of the room, causing the myriad eyes present to turn in her direction.

Jadis had removed the flight harnesses from her bodies shortly after landing. Alex had stuck to Syd even without the harness, and Wilhelm had departed their company almost immediately after landing, so he could meet up with his party. The third harness had not been empty, despite Jadis’ determination to leave Hope in the care of her extended family.

“You didn’t bring Hope back, did you?” Aila asked as she peered past Kerr’s shoulder.

“She didn’t, unless Hope got real fat, ugly, and green in the past day,” the archer grumbled as she held up the third passenger for all to see.

From inside the blankets and furs that protected any occupant from freezing at the altitude and speeds that Jadis flew at when traveling long distances, came a large, insectoid head. Black pincers clacked together as the light reflected off of the emerald green of the creature’s smooth flesh.

“Rolo?” Sorcha called out, recognizing the grub. “What’s he doing here—holy shite in a bucket! He’s fucking huge!”

Kerr carefully set the spirit grub down on the ground, allowing the magic creature to crawl out of the harness. Previously, before they had left for Volto, Jadis had estimated Rolo’s weight to be around sixty pounds, putting him at about the size of a large dog. Definitely not the shape of a dog, but still. Currently, as the massive grub crawled on its stubby little legs over to Sorcha’s side, Jadis estimated his weight to be somewhere a bit beyond a hundred pounds, making him the size of a much larger dog. In fact, he was probably around the same weight as Eir, more or less.

“I know this is sort of a last-minute decision, but I couldn’t really discuss it with any of you since it was just me and Alex in Eldingholt,” Dys announced as she walked up next to Sorcha and the grub she was petting. “Rolo’s getting big, and I think it means he’s nearing the point that he’s going to transform. None of Villthyrial’s priests could confirm that for me, but it’s my gut feeling. Anyway, I was originally hoping he would be a guardian for our compound in Eldingholt. But now, I think he’d serve as a better guardian for what I hope to build in Asteria.”

“You plan on bringing him to the archive?” Aila asked, understanding dawning on her face.

“Yes, I do,” Jay confirmed. “He’ll be able to help Techne protect the Hall of Memories. I know we’re all keeping its existence secret, but I’m not going to count on that secrecy lasting for long. People are going to find out about it eventually, and I don’t think one Golem is going to be able to guard it, not if the wrong sort of people come to take it by force.”

“A fully matured guardian spirit would serve as an excellent deterrent to hostile action,” Meli interjected. “They are powerful magic beasts, even in their youth.”

“Hard to believe,” Sorcha mumbled as she scratched the plump creature’s back. “All Rolo seems to be good at is demolishing gourds.”

“When he does mature, regardless of whatever form he takes,” Jay continued, “I think he will protect the archives from harm, along with the Demons we have under our protection there, along with anyone else who might end up staying there in the future. Once we start building in earnest, I imagine we’ll have a good number of people who will be living there to help with construction, and who knows how many might end up wanting to stay there in long run.”

“Sorry, but can you back up a step?”

Bridget held up her hands, her expression confused. She wasn’t the only one, though the levels of puzzlement varied from person to person. The only one in the group other than Jadis who did not show any uncertainty at all was Severina, as she was the sole member of their number that Jadis had confided in beforehand. She had meant to bring her ideas up for discussion at a later date, since there were more pressing issues at hand, but after her discussion with Vraekae, and her snap decision to bring Rolo with her, Jadis felt that she should simply come out and tell everyone immediately.

“What do you mean by people wanting to live at the archive?” Bridget asked. “I know you were talking about possibly building up some fortifications there, but the way you’re talking, you make it sound like you want to found an actual settlement.”

“That’s because I do.”

Jay’s announcement was met with a wave of murmured questions, but she talked over them, raising her voice only slightly to make sure that she was heard.

“The most important thing in the world to me is keeping all of you safe. I love you. All of you. But not just you. I love our children. Even if only one of them has been born so far, I still love all of them with as much feeling within me as I can possibly bear. I’m always thinking of ways to protect all of you and our future family, and to that end, I have come to a simple conclusion. I can’t necessarily depend on the good graces of the nations that exist on Oros to keep our family safe.

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“What I mean by that is, we’ve been very lucky so far. putting aside all the shit we went through thanks to Hraustrekr, the empire has been exceptionally accommodating. The emperor and the temples and the people in general have made all kinds of allowances for me, mostly because I’m the only living Nephilim. My singular existence has been pretty damn convenient, in that sense. I feel like we’ve gotten away with doing some things that others probably wouldn’t have been able to. Specifically, and most importantly to my point, I’m referring to Alex.”

Syd motioned towards the Demon who was still latched onto her, causing the room’s focus to shift. Alex herself did not look confused at all; while they hadn’t discussed this beforehand, Jadis got the feeling that her demonic lover had caught on to what she was saying right away, if she wasn’t already ahead of her. Alex was clever that way; she always saw through all of the extraneous details, straight to the heart of a matter.

“Emperor Somerulf pardoned Alex. But he didn’t make any changes to the way Demons are viewed by the law in the empire overall. What’s happening with Cobbler right now might make a difference with those laws, or maybe not. I’ll fill you all in on the details of that in a bit. Either way, there’s no guarantee that Demons will ever find any permanent welcome in Alfhilderunn. Especially not if Hraustrekr takes the throne. And if that’s the case, whose to say that Alex’s pardon can’t be revoked? Or what if the argument is made that Succubi should be held in the same category as Demons? What if that stance gets put into law?”

Taking a deep breath, Jay grimaced as she said her next words.

“What if the next child that Alex and I have is a Demon?”

The silence that fell over the room in response to Jay’s question was deafening. Jadis knew that everyone had been operating under the assumption that every child born between her and Alex would be either Nephilim or Succubi. However, there was no guarantee that would be the case. Even with her Skew the Legacy skill, the possibility remained that Alex’s next offspring could be a Demon. In fact, Alex could impregnate one of Jadis’ bodies with a Demon just as easily as she could become pregnant herself. Or even one of the other avatars in their group. They all had unprotected sex on an almost daily basis. Alex’s sperm-producing tentacles had found their way into just about every orifice of every woman in the room at one point or another. Who was to say that Meli, or Severina, or even Maeve couldn’t become impregnated with a Demon? With avatars being capable of bearing children of the species that they partnered with, there was a non-zero chance of exactly that happening in the future. Even if Alex dismissed those tentacles granted to her by Duality of Flesh, that didn’t change the fact that Alex could still easily have Demon children of her own in the near future. All it would take is chance and luck.

“I don’t believe that I can count on the empire to do the right thing,” Jay said after she had given all of her lovers a moment to think. “Not fully. I hope that they will. I earnestly, truly hope that my fears are unfounded and that I’m being dumb and overprotective and that no one will ever try to turn my future children into alchemical components. But I won’t pretend that the possibility isn’t there. And I’m not going to sit around and not take precautions.”

“So, what, you’re going to leave the empire?” Sorcha asked, her voice trembling with barely suppressed panic. “You’re going to, to move to Volto? Or somewhere else?”

“I’m not asking us to move to Volto,” Dys said as she knelt down and put a comforting hand on her favorite goblin. “I’m not planning on moving the Fortune’s Favored compound at all. Not if I can help it.”

“I wouldn’t want to move to a nation like Volto anyway,” Syd curled her lip at the thought. “Way too chaotic here. It’d be like trading one Hraustrekr and one Kestil for a hundred of each.”

“I’m already negotiating with Celsa to get the land in ancient Asteria surrounding the archive ceded to me,” Jay explained. “Originally, that was because I wanted to make sure Volto didn’t try to claim the archive for their own. If we buy that area outright, that area won’t be under the rule of Volto, or the empire, or any other nation. It’ll be a completely independent territory.

“Like I just said, I don’t want to leave Eldingholt or the empire. But if things go against us, even if it’s only temporary, I want all of us to have a safe haven that we can retreat to.”

“It is the politically sound move,” Severina stated a handful of seconds after Jay finished. “By having her own, unaligned territory that she can remove herself to, Jadis will have more power to negotiate with nations like the empire. She would be in a position where she could threaten to cut other nations off, if need be.”

“Cut them off?” Bridget asked, still looking a little lost.

“From airships,” Severina elaborated as she motioned towards Sabina with one wing. “Or whatever other wonders that our resident enchantment expert may develop. With Jadis’ guidance, I have no doubt that Sabina will be crafting magic machinery that will rival all the advancements of the past millennia combined for years to come. And I am not even speaking of the fact that both Aila and Eir have classes capable of performing greater rituals. Or that Eir is also an Oracle. Also, we are all some of the most powerful combatants on the continent, so long as Jadis is empowering us, and we are not even remotely close to reaching our limits on that front.”

Sev paused for a moment, head tilted to one side in thought.

“I may be overlooking other advantages that we possess at the moment, but I feel I have made my point. Jadis could absolutely found her own small nation with the power she has available to her, and all other surrounding nations would be fools to ignore the benefits of becoming her ally.”

“Isn’t what you are suggesting… treasonous?” Maeve spoke up, having been silent for the most part up to that point. “You are the scion to a noble household, aren’t you? And here you are, advising one of your nation’s greatest assets to leave and start her own little kingdom?”

“I don’t see it that way at all,” Sev replied as she continued to look at Jay. “Jadis has been treated as a citizen of the empire, but she has taken no oath of fealty. She has the right to leave and set her camp elsewhere, and it would be no betrayal. And if she were to do so, as the scion of House Lumen, I would be doing the empire a great service by attaching myself to a foreign power who would make for a strong ally. In fact, if Jadis does found her own nation, I believe it would put Prince Kestil in a much more favorable position overall, as he would be able to negotiate with Jadis in a way that Hraustrekr would never be able to.”

“Well, that’s about as much politicking-talk as I can stomach,” Kerr scrunched up her nose at Severina’s words. “But I get it. You think Jadis setting up her own kingdom is a good idea.”

“I’m not really going that far,” Jay said, resuming control of the conversation. “It’s not like I’m grabbing everyone and dragging us off to the mountains so we can play like we’re the queens of all the light touches.”

“Right now, I’m just talking about setting up a settlement around the archive that will also be able to serve as a haven for us if we need it,” Syd continued. “A place where we can be safe, along with any of the Demons that we are able to influence away from Samleos. And any other weird shit that we might end up having join up with us. Because at this point, I’m not ruling out anything from happening.”

“And to that point, I believe Rolo is the first big step towards us having the safe place we need,” Dys finished while placing a hand on the grub’s back.

After a span of contemplative silence, Eir spoke up first.

“I understand,” the elf said, nodding her head. “I believe we need to discuss the logistics of your proposal in much further detail, but overall, I understand. This is a contingency plan. One that we all hope will not be needed, but we would be foolish to not prepare for.”

“I kind of feel like we’re getting in over our heads with this one,” Kerr shrugged helplessly. But I’m not going to kick up a bitch fit about it. If you all think this is the smart play, then let’s do it.”

“Alex,” Thea said, walking over to put a hand on the Demon’s arm. “You know that I—I would p—protect your child with my life, no matter what their race.”

“I know…” Alex agreed, taking Thea’s hand and squeezing it in her own.

“Damn fucking right,” Bridget growled as she stood behind Thea, arms crossed over her chest. “If we have to make our own bloody country to keep our kids safe, then that’s what we’ll fucking do.”

“…I’m going have to set up a new workshop…” Sabina mumbled as she stared into the distance, her brain clearly already running a million miles a minute. “Supply chains, storage facilities, importing and exporting materials, specialist for the various construction projects I can’t do myself—”

“Let’s not jump off that bridge just yet,” Sorcha said as she tugged on the half-elf’s arm to get her attention. “We’re literally just talking about this. Hypothetically. Conceptually. I mean… fuck my arse, this is going to happen, isn’t it.”

“Nothing to say about all this?” Maeve asked, turning to look at the Dryad standing next to her.

Meli shrugged her thin shoulders, seemingly unconcerned.

“I am here for Jadis. I do not particularly care where we plant our roots, so long as our garden grows together.”

“Yeah, fair enough,” Maeve shrugged as well before turning her attention back to the others. “Sounds fun to me, anyway.”

As the others around them began to discuss the idea in earnest, their voices rising into a gentle chatter of ideas for the future, Aila approached Jay.

“There is truly no end to the surprises you have in store for us,” the redhead stated as she tilted her freckled face back to meet her gaze. “We have gone from starting a small mercenary company to potentially founding a new nation. Or reviving an old one, depending on how you would like to view it.”

“What can I say?” Jay grinned at her blue-eyed lover. “I like to keep you on your toes.”

“Well. I swear that I will be doing my level best to never be shocked by whatever happens next,” Aila promised while poking her finger into Jay’s stomach. “No more being taken off guard for me. I will be the picture of stoicism, even in the face of the most insane stunts that you pull.”

“If you say so,” Jay laughed. “I mean, after this, I’m hoping we’ll have a break from surprises for at least—”

At that moment, the sound of metal-shod feet could be heard pounding in the distance, growing closer by the second. As Aila and the others turned towards the sound, Jadis saw the door leading from outside into the temple building burst open. Wilhelm stood in the frame, helmet missing but otherwise still in the same armor he had been wearing when he had landed with Jadis from their trip to the empire not fifteen minutes ago. The man was panting, a look of panic on his beet-red face, as he stared wildly around the room. Jadis had never seen the Hero look so stricken before. More startling than his agitated appearance, however, was the body slung over his shoulder. The small, pale, naked, and decidedly female body hanging backwards over his shoulder, with bare ass visible to all.

A bare ass that had a flaming red tail twitching in the air just above a pair of pale pert globes.

“Jadis!” Wilhelm shouted, his gaze jumping from one body to the next. “What did you do!? What is this!?”

Shifting the body he had on his shoulder forward, he grasped the woman by the waist and held her nude form out for Jadis and the others to see, holding her at arm’s length like he was showing them a creature he had found under a rock.

“Hey Jadis!” the woman with emerald eyes said in a surprisingly high-pitched and familiar voice. “Your semen worked! I’ve got thumbs now, see?”

As Jadis stared at the unexpected intrusion, mouths hanging open, Aila let out a long, protracted sigh.

“Tomorrow. I’ll stop being surprised… tomorrow.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep