Chapter 68: Impulse

The tailor was, as Aila had warned, an odd woman. Somewhere in her forties with graying hair and crow’s feet, she had a bustling energy that had more focus than Sabina’s but still gave her a forceful image. Her shop was filled with examples of her work, most of which looked radically different from the fashion Jadis had seen worn around the city. The tailor liked to use a lot of leather, apparently. Clearly this was where Aila got her fine-fitting leather pants from.

“My husband is a cobbler and can put some shoes together for you,” Klara said, running her measuring string along the outside of Dys’ leg. “I can take your foot measurements as well and pass them to him if you like?”

“That sounds good,” Dys agreed with a nod. “We’ve all got the same sizes so if you can ask him to make three identical pairs, we’re happy to pay.”

The tailor voiced her assent as she continued noting down Dys’ measurements in a little notebook. She idly swatted at a fly that tried to land on the page, cursing under her breath.

Jadis was too tall for the tailor’s shop. The ceilings were only around eight feet in height and forced Jadis to stoop when her selves entered. Unable to take proper measurements with Jadis’ bodies ducking and bending to fit in the building, Klara had led Dys out the back door to the little courtyard-like space between buildings where Dys could stand straight. Fortunately, she had a step stool as she was used to catering to taller clientele like orcs and could reach Dys’ shoulders well enough to work.

With how detailed the tailor’s measurements were, Jadis had been forced to admit her anatomical oddity. Klara had been, understandably, shocked by the reveal but hadn’t freaked out as Jadis feared she might in the worst-case scenario. Once Jadis had explained this was just the nature of her race, the tailor had accepted the fact and moved on to business. She still sent a few curious glances towards Jadis’ crotches though.

Jadis couldn’t blame her. The woman was basically crotch height to Jadis anyway. Where else were her eyes supposed to drift naturally?

Considering Jadis now knew people about the city were whispering about the three pale giants from the wilds already, she could easily imagine that her dual-sex nature was going to be joining the rumor mill, even with Klara’s promise of confidentiality. Other people knowing didn’t bother Jadis overly much, but she did worry if it would cause any potential problems.

She hoped not. Oros didn’t seem to have the same cultural or religious hangups that Earth did, but Jadis had only experienced an extremely small slice of the local society. Who knew what kinds of beliefs one could run into out in the wider world.

 While Dys patiently stood still so Klara could get all the data she needed, Jay and Syd inspected the clothes on display with Aila. While there was an assortment of premade garments hanging on racks in the shop, there were far more wooden mannequins displaying the true variety of what the shop was capable of producing. Most of the styles of clothing gave off the fantasy vibe Jadis loved; clothing that wasn’t quite historically accurate to Earth’s medieval period but would fit right into a movie or video game set in the time frame. There were also outfits that looked oddly modern to Jadis, like the leather pants Aila wore or the long leather coat Jadis saw displayed on one of the mannequins. The strange mix of styles made Jadis wonder if they were natural, or if gods like D had influenced them in some way.

“The question is,” Syd semi-whispered to Aila as they examined some black leather pants hanging from a rack, “do we stick with skirts? Or do we switch to pants like yours and just let everyone stare at our bulges.”

Aila looked aghast at Syd, then shushed her as she glanced at the young girl folding some bolts of cloth at the back of the shop, someone Jadis was fairly certain was the tailor’s daughter.

“Must you be so crass in public?” Aila gave Syd her most stern glower.

“Does that mean we can be crass in private?” Syd asked innocently.

“No.”

“Oh come on, it was a legitimate question,” Syd pouted, bent nearly half over with her hands on her knees while she talked. “What do you think we should wear. I’m sure Klara’s almost done with Dys and we need to figure out what to order.”

“Long skirts are out of the question,” Jay added, holding up a skirt that was one of the few garments on display that didn’t have some kind of leather incorporated into the design.

Syd nodded. “We need to be able to move freely, armor or no armor. So. Short skirts and risk people smaller than us getting an upskirt peek or pants that couldn’t possibly hide our packages? Which do you think?”

Aila’s icy demeanor was marred by the furious blush Syd’s words were eliciting, a blush Jadis was growing to love the more she saw it on Aila’s freckled face.

“Well, logically,” the redhead started while keeping her voice low, “the first option is better since that’s just a chance of exposure, not something that would draw every eye to you constantly.

“But everyone stares at us anyway,” Jay pointed out.

“True,” Aila allowed, “but they aren’t staring at your nethers. Well, perhaps some of them are, but overall they are mostly just looking at your height. If you put your self on display like that, you’re going to be drawing even more attention.”

“Fair enough,” Jay agreed.

“And are you one of the ones checking out our nethers?” Syd teased, whispering practically in Aila’s ear.

Aila glared at Syd, putting one finger to her forehead and pushing her back slightly.

“Yes, actually,” she said deadpan. “But I’m not discussing that sort of thing in public.”

Jadis’ shining grins grew wide at the redhead’s admission.

Karla gave Dys an odd look as she finished up measuring her arm length.

“Sorry, just thought of something good,” she made a quick excuse, brushing off the woman’s raised eyebrow.

Jadis had hoped dearly that Aila would be receptive to the idea of doing rituals that were risqué to say the least, but with the way the woman was talking, Jadis was beginning to think that she was more than open to the possibility. Which in all honesty meant she needed to tackle the identity question.

If Jadis was going to enter into a true partnership with Aila, she wanted to at least be upfront with her about her nature as a single person with three bodies. If she couldn’t trust the redhead to keep that secret, then she probably couldn’t trust her to be her support and ally on the battlefield. The inverse was also true. If she was someone Jadis felt could be trusted to be her companion in both battle and travel on what could be a truly long adventure, then she deserved to be trusted with the secret of how her class worked.

She’d tell Aila the truth. She had to.

“What about this?” Aila asked, breaking into Jadis’ thoughts.

She was holding up a pair of pants she’d taken from a rack partially hidden behind a display of posing wooden mannequins dressed like they belonged in a flamboyant band from a village or the like.

The pants were, on par for the course in the shop, made of leather. But they didn’t look like they’d be quite as tight fitting as the ones Aila wore. They also had a leather skirt wrapped around and folded down from the waist with large pockets set into the front and side. The skirt reached to about mid-thigh and looked almost padded with thick material.

“Best of both worlds?” the former wagon driver said, showing the garment to both Jay and Syd.

“Yeah, that would fit us to a tee,” Jay smiled warmly at Aila. “Thanks Blue!”

A few moments later Dys reentered with Karla and Jay showed the tailor the pants, placing an order for several pairs as well as for tunics and boots. Considering her propensity for mud and blood, Jadis ordered three sets of clothing for each of her selves. By adding a little extra to the price, Karla assured her that the first set would be done in the morning.

The cost of her shopping today had certainly done a number on her funds. Based on what she’d paid for room and board, Jadis was fairly certain she could have lived for six months on the coin she’d received from the two bounty collections alone. The cost of outfitting and equipping herself was high, but she supposed it was an expected cost. Much like starting up a company, she had to spend money to make it. Not that making money was her end goal anyway. She had no plans to hoard any wealth, she just wanted to be fully equipped.

Even in a fantasy world, there was no escape from the daily grind.

After leaving the tailor shop, Jadis led Aila back to the inn she’d rented a room in. She still needed to rent her own room and stash her things; she still had her backpack with all of her belongings on.

“What does the new ritual you’ve unlocked do, exactly?” Aila asked as the quartet made their way to the inn.

Checking her surroundings to make sure no one was close enough to overhear, Jay leaned down to whisper in her ear.

“It lets us boost one attribute of a target other than ourselves by half of our eldritch attribute.”

“That’s… That is a powerful boost, potentially,” Aila said slowly, her brows drawn in thought. “If eldritch is the highest attribute all of you have, that could be a huge jump in power, especially if all three of you use it on one person. Though you could just cast it on each other, couldn’t you?”

“Ah, true…” Jay trailed off. If she was actually three people like Aila thought, then there wouldn’t be anything stopping them from just passing the buff from one to the next to cover all three.

This lie was getting complicated. Jadis was already rankled at the idea of constantly having to be dishonest about who she was and where she was from. An impulsive desire for honesty surged through her.

“There’s an issue with that, though,” Dys said before she stopped and quickly guided Aila into a narrow alley between stone buildings.

Syd took up position leaning against the wall, watching the road as Dys and Jay gathered around Aila.

“Look, we’ve been kind of hinting at things so far, but before we go any further, I think we need to be explicit with you,” Jay announced seriously. “I mean, with what we told you yesterday I’m sure it’s obvious to someone as smart as you, but we’ve got to just put this out there now so you can decide what you want to do.”

“I’m listening,” Aila said, her own face masked in intense seriousness.

“Our secondary class is called Perverted Ritualist of D,” Dys told Aila. Taking a deep breath, she continued, “And the perverted part at the beginning is super central to the rituals we perform.”

“I did gather that,” Aila nodded along, keeping her composure. “From what we did yesterday and the things you’ve… implied.”

“Yeah, okay, but let me be blunt,” Jay said, hand motioning between herself and Aila. “The ritual that’ll boost a stat by fifty percent of our eldritch? That’s going to involve sex. And I don’t mean some kind of chaste, in and out, over in five minutes deal.”

“It’s going to involve fucking. Lewd, raunchy, fucking.” Dys punctuated her statement by tapping her finger to the palm of her other hand.

“Further, the effect only lasts for three days before the spell needs to be recharged by more sex,” Jay continued the explanation, pushing past any embarrassment she was starting to feel by so blatantly discussing such a bawdry topic.

“On top of that, if we really want to get the best possible use out of the spell,” Dys opened her arms wide, “There’s another ritual we already have that we’ve already used that empowers our eldritch attribute based on how many participants are involved. It’ll be to both our and your benefit to do that ritual too if we’re going to do the other one.”

“So, before we get to that inn,” Jay said, tossing one thumb over her shoulder, “you should know exactly what you are getting yourself into if you want to fully get on board with participating in our rituals. And,” she said, voice growing a bit high pitched.

“If you’re going to join us in rituals you might as well save your coin and share a room with us. Cause we’re going to be sharing a bed a lot of the time anyway,” Dys finished the thought.

Aila absorbed the information without the expected blushing Jadis had anticipated. She kept her cool and simply listened, face as placid as a frozen mountain lake. A few moments after Dys’ final words, Aila broke her silence, eyes moving solemnly between Jay and Dys as she spoke.

“I’m not a virgin. I’ve been with a couple men before. Boys, really, but that’s beside the point. I’m not a prude nor am I afraid of casual sex. That being said, I don’t generally engage in such pursuits frivolously. I want you, both of you, to know that while I do see the leveling benefits your rituals would have for me, the only reason why I would ever consider entering into a sexual interaction at all is because I do find the three of you attractive. And not just physically. In fact, I’ve never looked at other women that way before, so honestly I’m a little—I’m a little surprised. But I do like the three of you, which is just a whole other confusing since there are three of you and that’s not something I’ve imagined before and—”

Aila stopped herself, her calm demeanor breaking at the end as her face flushed. Taking a slow, deep breath, she darted her eyes between Jay and Dys with a timid smile.

“Sorry. I’m still interested. In fact, I’m very interested. And I think I’ll take your advice. About saving my coin, I mean,” she said, her gaze lowering to the ground in embarrassment. “I just didn’t ever think I could potentially be in a—a relationship with, um, siblings. If we go somewhere more, um, permanent with this relationship, long term, I have no idea how I would explain that to my parents…”

“Well, don’t worry about that,” Jay said earnestly, drawing a sharp look from Aila. “Because we aren’t sisters.”

“What?” Aila asked, blinking in utter confusion.

Having spoken on impulse, her words leaping out of her mouth without really thinking in reaction to Aila speaking so open and honestly, Jadis threw caution and planning to the wind and plowed ahead.

“My primary class is called Mirror Knight. It lets me duplicate myself into three bodies. I’m just one person.”

“What!?”

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