Chapter 92: Bathhouse

“Please, take them, it’s the least I can offer!”

The merchant pressed the small box of uncut gemstones into Jay’s hands, forcing her to take them.

“It’s okay, we’re not really the type to wear much jewelry,” Jay resisted, trying to give the box back.

The merchant had already given Jadis a bag of silver pieces upon reaching the city gates as thanks for saving his life and the lives of the rest of the caravan, but he also persisted in pressing the small box of gems into her possession as well, an extravagance Jadis wasn’t entirely comfortable with. She wasn’t sure what the gemstones were, but they shone a faint blue-green color in the light of the city lanterns. They were small and uncut, but there were a lot of them in the palm-sized box, enough that Jadis was sure the cost was a lot more than the bag of oak coins he’d already gifted her.

“Well, I suppose you could make jewelry from these, but I didn’t think you’d use them for that! These are eleria gemstones. Sell them if you like or better yet, use them to power some enchantments. Warriors of your caliber should possess some enchanted armaments in my humble opinion,” the merchant explained, refusing to take the box back as he held his hands up and took a few steps back.

“If you three hadn’t come along, I’d have lost my life, never mind the shipment,” he continued. “Not only did you save me and my men, but you three pulled my wagons all the way to the city as well! You’ve no idea how much of a difference losing even one wagon would have made.”

Eleria. That was the name of the gemstone that was being mined in Weigrun, the whole reason the empire was putting resources into protecting its assets in the colony during a demon invasion. Aila’s uncles had told her the rare stone was a vital ingredient to almost all long-term, rechargeable, and permanent enchantments. Without eleria, the empire’s armies would have a far greater struggle fighting off the demons.

Jadis had been curious about the magical gemstone, not having seen an example of the stuff so far. Taking another look at the open box, she admitted they were pretty stones, but they didn’t look particularly magical. She wasn’t sure she could differentiate them from colored glass, honestly.

“Alright then, thank you. We’ll put them to good use,” Jay said, closing the box and taking it with an appreciative nod to the happy but weary-looking merchant. “Stay safe out there.”

The merchant continued to thank her profusely, wishing her the blessings of a lot of different names that Jadis could only assume were gods based on the context. She really only knew of the three so far, and all three made an appearance in the merchant’s gratitude.

Dys and Syd were waiting with Aila a few yards away while Jay finished up with the merchant. Despite her inhuman strength, the long day of demon slaying topped off by dragging three large wagons for a few miles had left Jadis’ bodies feeling stiff and worn out. None of her were quite exhausted, but her selves were definitely in need of a good soak in a steaming hot bath.

The nice part about travelling with a guard escort was she at least didn’t need to waste any time reporting the circumstances of her late arrival back in town to the gate guards. The escort took care of everything there. Jadis was sure they would be telling the magistrate all about the last-minute craziness of the caravan battle, unfortunately, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. She just hoped the news that a new type of demon not normally seen in the Broken Hills didn’t cause some kind of overreaction from Vraekae.

If even more guards tried to follow Jadis out of the city the next day, she was fairly certain she was going to lose her shit.

As Jay rejoined her other selves and Aila, she gathered up all the loot she’d collected throughout the day. She had literally dozens of worn weapons taken from the wretches she’d slain, along with bags of their eyes to turn into the city hall for bounties. Unfortunately, the municipal office would be closed now that it was well past sundown so she’d have to hold on to the gross bags for the night.

Jadis had taken a few of the bramble fiend eyes as well, but with the need to move on quickly after the fight, she hadn’t bothered spending too much time on the ugly task of butchering the mountain of plant demons.

Glancing to the side, Dys eyed the therion woman, Kerr. The archer had taken a lot more time collecting the eyes of every fiend she’d stuck with one of her arrows. She could see a similar bag at her waist, stained with black blood.

Kerr seemed to sense the attention and looked in Dys’ direction, giving her a wink.

Dys grinned back and gave the attractive mercenary a jaunty salute before shouldering her huge shield and heading off. The night wasn’t getting any younger and Jadis was eager to get to the bathhouse as soon as humanly, or Nephilim-ly, possible.

“Where did Eir go?” Aila asked as they started heading deeper into the city. “I lost track of her once we got through the gates.”

“Said her goodbyes and rushed off to the temple,” Syd answered, waving in the general direction the red elf had gone. “Said she had a report to give.”

Aila frowned at the explanation. “Reports of your activities are going to the magistrate and the high priest. Plus they’re going to be circling around the mercenaries quickly enough, too.”

“Why them?” Jay asked.

“Plenty of guards and soldiers have friends amongst the mercenaries. Plus those caravan guards are mercenaries, too. They’ll be telling the tale all night, the story changing to greater extravagances the deeper into their cups they go. You’re getting to be quite the famous trio.”

“Can’t say I’m thrilled about that,” Dys grumbled.

“Fame can be a problem, yes,” Aila said without much concern in her voice. “But it can have its advantages, too. But that’s not your real concern.”

No, no, it wasn’t.

Jadis couldn’t say she cared much about how famous her names got around the city. She would stand out no matter what, a fact she was at peace with. The issue was, what were political powerhouses like Vraekae going to do as time wore on? She and the high priest clearly had their own agendas and were obviously willing to force Jadis into compliance with those agendas. Jadis didn’t have much, if any, leverage to use against the magistrate. If she wanted any chance of rejecting Vraekae’s interference, she needed to be in a better bargaining position, one that made it so the haughty elf couldn’t just force her into doing what she wanted by threat of withholding services from Jadis that she wanted.

Services she wanted. That was the crux of the matter, really. Jadis wanted the services of the city available to her. Vraekae wanted to control Jadis. Vraekae could in essence cut off services by making it illegal for Jadis to even be in Weigrun, much less the city, under the dictates of martial law. Jadis could abandon the city and flee to the mountain wilderness to retain her autonomy, but that would mean giving up a lot of services that were honestly extremely useful. Aside from simple comforts and easily accessible food, the city was a source of clothing, armaments, healing, protection, and most importantly, companionship. Jadis didn’t want to lose those benefits.

Even if Jadis left and headed for a different part of the empire, or a whole different nation, what guarantee did she have that wherever she went next wouldn’t have the same reaction as Vraekae? Or worse? No, what she needed was leverage, something she could use to force Vraekae to back off and leave her be.

Well, that was a long-term need. What she needed at that moment was a bath.

Jadis and Aila stopped by the inn to drop off their gear and loot, then walked the dark and quite streets of Felsen to get to the bathhouse. Their only food so far that day had been trail rations and the smell of the inn’s kitchen was a serious draw, but she controlled her selves. A hot soak was far higher on the priority list.

The bathhouse wasn’t a particularly impressive structure. One story and with a fairly plain building face, the only concession to atmosphere visible on the outside were a couple of tall stone urns with flowering shrubs growing out of them on either side of the door. Inside wasn’t too much better, mood wise. Clean but austere, the foyer had only a few paintings on the walls and a bit of decorative trim. Jadis guessed either the owners hadn’t put a lot of money into making the place attractive, or they’d pulled all the expensive accoutrements out of the building and out of the city when the demon invasion had forced an evacuation.

A desk stood on top of a raised platform and a sleepy old woman smiled at them as they entered, her eyes going wide once they registered the sight of Jadis’ three selves.

“Oh! You three must be them giants I’ve heard tell of,” she commented, her voice thick with a stronger accent than Jadis was used to. “Just as tall as I did hear. Beauties, as well! Not nearly so barbaric looking as the rumors said. Properly dressed and all.”

Jadis smiled at the old woman with all three faces.

“We try to be,” Jay said, giving Aila a look. The redhead was clearly hiding a smile. “If you ever hear anything to the contrary, just consider that to be vicious slander. We’re always properly dressed.”

“Not in the bath I hope,” the old woman cackled. She ran her eyes across the group. “Four bath services, then?”

“With scented soap, please,” Aila added, putting several small coins on the counter. “I’ll pay for this trip,” she added, glancing up at Jadis while the elderly woman retrieved a cloth pouch from behind her and passed it to the redhead.

Jadis didn’t bother arguing. Instead she waved as she passed by the bathhouse crone and followed her freckled companion through a door to the right of the raised desk. There were two doors, one to the left and one to the right, and Jadis could only guess that bathhouse was split between men and women. The right door led to a reasonably-sized-for-most-but-cramped-for-her room where visitors were meant to undress. As Aila started to unlace her boots, Jadis paused as she started pulling her own shirts off.

“Hey, Blue? Are we going to get in trouble for being on this side of the bathhouse?” Jay asked, glancing pointedly at her pants.

Aila looked up and stared for a moment, blinking slowly.

“Probably not? I mean, you’re women, er, a woman, right?” Aila seemed a bit confused, her face drawing into a frown. “Well, I guess not really… But you are? Oh, whatever. If you want to go show your tits off on the men’s side, go ahead, I doubt anyone would complain. But I don’t think anyone’s going to make a fuss on this side, either. Half the bathhouses I’ve seen in the cities and town coming here didn’t have separate partitions for men and women anyway.”

“Huh,” Syd hummed at the information. “Guess most places don’t mind if a little hanky panky goes on in the baths then, do they?”

Aila looked puzzled at the words for a moment but the lecherous look on Jadis’ faces cleared up her confusion quickly.

“No, they most certainly would mind. There’s usually staff around to make sure nothing untoward happens in baths like that.”

“Here’s hoping the lifeguard isn’t on duty tonight,” Dys said suggestively.

Relishing the blush on Aila’s face, Jadis quickly undressed and put her clothes into the cubbies in the wall set aside for the purpose, then followed a towel wrapped Aila into the next room. Jadis didn’t bother to put the towels around her own bodies.

The actual bathing facilities were surprisingly nice. Curtains of constantly flowing water poured from carved fountainheads all along both sides of the room, the water splashing into stone grates along the floor. One side was hot water, the other side cold. There were benches everywhere for visitors to sit while they washed themselves. There was no one else in the room, a fact Jadis hoped would continue for the rest of her visit.

Aila went for the cold-water showers, shivering as she soaped her tantalizing bare body with the scented soap flakes from the sack the crone had given her. Jadis joined her on the cold side, forced to sit so she could let the water splash over her selves. Aila didn’t have to sit, but Jadis was faintly amused at just how close her companion’s head was to the source of the water pouring from above. Sometimes she forgot how tall Aila was when compared to the average height of most people.

Lathering up with her own share of the soap flakes, Jadis did her best not to stare at Aila despite the amazing temptation she presented. She forced herself to behave. For the moment. Based on the suspicious looks the redhead was giving her, Jadis figured Aila knew that Jadis’ restraint was a temporary state.

Washing off the day’s grime and feeling far more refreshed, Jadis finished showering off and headed for the open archway at the other end of the room with Aila. She couldn’t help but notice a peculiarity about her friend as they walked together. Despite the cold of the shower, Aila wasn’t shivering. She didn’t even seem to have any goosepimples.

“You aren’t cold? Jay asked, a shiver running through her own body from the chill water that they had been bathing in.

“No, not really,” she said, a slight smile on her pink lips. “One of the skills I took from Cart Driver that wasn’t a minor attribute improvement. Cold Comfort. Let’s me handle freezing temperatures more easily.”

“Convenient,” Syd murmured as they walked into the large room with the soaking pools.

There were two large square pools in the room, one for cold and one for hot water. Large fountains were constantly replenishing the pools on the far side of them, the water draining from a few different points on the sides. There was no one else in the bathhouse either, though Jadis’ ears perked up at a sound of muffled laughter coming from the wall to the left. It sounded like there were a few guests on the men’s side of the bath. That was fine, so long as Jadis had this side all to herself and Aila.

Jadis followed her companion into the hot pool, easing into the steaming water. The high temperature was almost too much after the cold of the shower, but Jadis just hissed in triplicate and pushed past the almost pain of the heat. She leaned her backs against the edge of the pool and spread her arms wide, luxuriating in the warmth as she stretched her long legs to full extension.

Aila sat on the underwater steps between Jay and Dys, Syd positioned to Dys’ right. She leaned back with eyes closed, using Jay and Dys’ arms as pillows as she relaxed.

“This feels so nice,” she sighed, practically melting into the hot water.

“It does,” Jay agreed with a contented sigh of her own.

“Though I can think of a few things we could do to make this feel nicer,” Dys commented, leaning in a little closer to Aila so that their naked sides brushed against each other.

Aila’s eyes opened to slits, blue peeking out to observe her.

“Funny you say that,” Aila said nonchalantly. “I can think of a few things, too.”

A soft hand drifted under the water, brushing against Dys’ thigh, painting grins on Jadis’ faces. As her arousal stirred, Jay and Dys squeezed in a little closer around Aila.

“Want to tell us about those things?” Jay whispered low in Aila’s ear.

“I’d rather show than tell,” Aila answered sweetly.

“By all means,” Dys purred, moving her lips closer to Aila’s sweet mouth.

Just before their lips touched, a familiar voice called out from behind them, startling them and causing Jadis and Aila to pull back from each other while simultaneously submerging lower into the water.

“Oh! How wonderful!” Eir called out in her bright, melodic tones. “You all use this bathhouse too! Would it be alright if I joined you four?”

Jadis almost told Eir to fuck off back to the temple for disturbing her moment with Aila but restrained her immediate gut reaction. The innocent priestess clearly didn’t know what she’d just interrupted. Syd begrudgingly turned to look back at the elf and beckon her over. As she did so, she saw the cleric standing in the archway wearing a smile and naught all else.

A whole different kind of fuck jumped to the fore of Jadis’ mind at the sight of the naked elven beauty.

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