LRAB Chapter 421: Secret Consultation
Chapter 421: Secret Consultation
Chapter 421: Secret Consultation
“Where did you find them?”
“Like I said, just north of Bramble Brook. That town on the road that splits off northwest from Weismes. Maybe a day away on horse?”
“That would be a fast horse,” Aurea smiled, albeit distractedly, at Jay. “Still. That’s not even close to the border. That would be weeks away from Volto, longer on a slow wagon. I don’t understand how they came so far without being taken in by any of the temples.”
Jay shrugged expressively.
“I don’t know. I talked to them a little bit on the way, but it’s not really easy to hold a conversation when you’re carrying a wagon.”
“Or a donkey,” Syd muttered from nearby.
“Anyway, from what they said, they were under the impression that the temples weren’t going to help them. Or that the empire wasn’t going to, anyway.”
“That makes no sense,” the beautiful high priestess shook her head. “Any who seek sanctuary from demonic invasion are welcome in the temples, regardless of their past or creed.”
“I know. But they were pretty damn convinced,” Jay scowled. “Can you let me know if you find out anything more specific from them?”
“Of course,” Aurea nodded. “I will keep you informed. We will find a place for them to stay in the city, as well. There are still many unused public properties, fortunately. These poor souls will be cared for.”
“Thanks,” Jay grinned at the blonde woman. “I knew I could count on you.”
Jadis hadn’t told Aurea about the attempted banditry that the refugees had almost committed. It was patently obvious that it had been an act of desperation. And based off of their meager supplies, had also probably been their only attempt. It was possible that they could have been lying about that, and Jadis supposed the group had likely at least stolen a few things while fleeing their homeland and heading southeast, but she trusted her instincts when it came to reading people. These people were desperate, but they weren’t murderers.
“Oh, Jay,” Aurea perked up as though she had just remembered something. “I almost forgot. Sholto was looking for you this morning. He told me to tell you that he would be in his sect’s high temple.”
“I’ll go say hello then,” Jay nodded. “Any idea what he wants?”
“No, he was being rather cagey. Which is honestly normal for the man. He does like to keep his secrets.”
Indeed, the high priest of Destarious, God of secrets, chance and trickery, definitely embodied his faith’s tenants well. The goblin had a tendency to be annoying, but never to the point of utter frustration. Just irritating enough that most people avoided long conversation with the priest. Jadis didn’t mind, though. She found that so long as she gave back as good as she got, Sholto was actually pretty fun to have a conversation with.
“Alright, well, I’ll see you later, Aurea,” Jay bid farewell to the high priestess.
“Take care,” Aurea smiled and bowed her head. “And go with Lyssandria’s blessings upon you.”
Leaving the High Temple of Lyssandria, Jadis made a beeline for Destarious’ temple. The large, open square that made up the space between the nine high temples in the temple district of the city was bustling with people, even with the sun close to setting. Most of the crowd were citizens who had come to the temples to offer prayers to the gods, but some were the badly injured who were too far beyond the normal healing methods and had to see more powerful priests in order to be healed from whatever malady they suffered from. There were a lot more of those over the past few weeks than Jadis would have liked to see, but with winter ending travel was becoming easier.
The war against the Demons was far away, but even in Eldingholt the terrible effects could be felt. Those with the worst injuries were constantly being transported from the front lines back to the capital city where the best healers waited for them under strict protections. There were also the thousands of refugees from the border towns and villages that had fled the attacks. Most were spread out throughout the massive Alfhilderunn Empire’s many other towns and cities, but a lot of the displaced still ended up in the huge city. It had the best defenses in the entire empire, after all, so many wanted to live in the capital so long as the invasion continued. Not even the news of the recent surprise attack on the city did much to dim that impression of safety and security.
“At least things are starting to warm up again,” Jay murmured as she glanced up at the branches that hung hundreds of feet overhead. “Spring means things turn green.”
The impossibly titanic tree that dominated the capital city was finally starting to bud. It was hard to see since the branches were so high overhead, but Jadis had been told by others that the magic tree was showing fresh leaf shoots on its smaller branches. That was, so she had been assured, a guaranteed sign that the winter weather was over and no more snow would fall. Spring had well and truly arrived.
“Spring means we can finally get back in action,” Syd said as Jadis continued to talk to herself. “The weather should be nice enough for some real test runs with Sabina’s experiments, too.”
“Gods, I hope that shit works,” Dys let out a sigh. “The goats do well enough, but they’re way too slow.”
“Better than dragging the Behemoth around ourselves,” Jay said. “Though not by much.”
“What are we going to do with them once Sabina’s experiments are done?”
“Didn’t Tegwyn say he was working on a means of increasing their speed?” Jay answered her Dys self’s question. “I wonder if we can train some of the new recruits to ride them. Sort of a mini cavalry force?”
“That could work,” Dys mused. “But then we’d have to come up with a means of transportation for them, too. Otherwise they’d never be able to keep up. We’re really asking a lot out of Sabina.”
“Eh, Sabby likes it,” Syd snorted a second later. “We just need to get her some more workshop assistants that we can trust so she can ramp up production.”
“Hey, maybe we can offer a job to those Voltonians we just helped out?” Jay perked up. “There’s no way they’re plants from any of the nobles.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean their trustworthy,” Dys pointed out the obvious. “Especially considering the circumstances of our finding them.”
“It’s just a thought...”
Jadis continued to talk to herself in a circle of three as she made her way to the High Temple of Destarious. To anyone else who didn’t know her, it just looked like three giant triplet sisters having a conversation. But to the priests in the area, all of whom knew her well by that point, it was obvious that Jadis was just thinking out loud to herself in a way that only she could.
“Any luck?” Sholto prompted Jadis to continue.
“Not really, no,” Jay admitted. “I’ve met, uh, ten of them, I think.”
“Yeah, it was ten,” Dys said after a moment of thought. “Lucinda was the last.”
“And the worst,” Syd frowned.
“What’s the problem?” the priest asked with a genuinely curious look in his purple eyes.
All three of Jadis sighed heavily in unison. The answer was painfully simple, but still obnoxious to state out loud.
“We just aren’t compatible,” Jay explained with a frustrated shake of her head.
“Not beautiful enough for you?”
“That’s not it,” Dys waved the accusation away. “They were all very attractive. That one with the red wings was really sexy, actually. She had a real dominatrix headmistress thing going on that I was—anyway, not the point. It wasn’t about looks. It was about the connection. Or lack thereof.”
“The only reason they were willing to sleep with me was because they were asked to,” Jay continued. “I am positive that while they could all appreciate my beauty—”
“I mean, who doesn’t, am I right?” Syd interjected.
“—none of them were actually attracted to me. Though none of them admitted it, they were clearly only willing to have sex with me because it’s a duty to them. Not because they wanted to. A duty. There’s no way I can make love to someone like that, much less have a baby with them. I just... can’t.”
“It’s not about love though, is it?”
All three of Jadis glanced up from where her eyes had fallen to look at the goblin. His expression wasn’t the mask of mischief she was used to, but a far more serious and understanding guise that almost felt wise, if it weren’t for his terrible haircut.
“You need to have children. Those women were willing to help you. So what if they don’t love you? That’s not the goal, is it? Since when has love ever been a necessary component to making children, anyway?”
“It’s not,” Jay sighed. “It’s just that...”
“I understand,” Sholto waved off her struggle to explain herself. “If it matters to you, it matters. I’m not here to try and talk you out of your ways.”
“Then what are you trying to do?”
“Help matchmake, of course,” Sholto grinned. “My yearly allotment for deific consultation finished its cooldown this past week. Want to know what I asked D?”
Jadis felt a surge of incredulity at what the goblin priest was implying. Surely, he hadn’t wasted such an important resource on her?
“Don’t tell me you used your question to ask him to point out potential love interests for me.”
“Fine then, I won’t.”
“Sholto...”
“I asked him for those who might be compatible with you,” the frustrating man hastily continued after she growled his name. “Since he gave me some useful direction, I do not consider it a waste. After all, I don’t think it’s truly fair of us priests to just demand that you breed your race back into existence as though you are little more than a rare animal we’re trying to repopulate. In fact, should you ever feel the need to flee from that annoying little contract we forced you to sign, let me know. Shirking such overreaching duties is something of a specialty of mine.”
“Thanks,” Jay huffed out a breath of amusement at the goblin’s offer. “But running away from all of this isn’t in my plans at the moment.”
“Good. I’m lazy and I don’t actually want to work if I don’t have to. Anyway, I’ve potentially located a few candidates that you might want to contact. I’ll leave the details of how exactly you want to approach them to you, but at least I can say I’ve given you the means to repopulate, if nothing else.”
Jadis didn’t even want to imagine how a conversation like that was going to go down. What was she going to do, walk up to some random lady she’d never met before and say, “hey, want to help me save my species from extinction?” It wasn’t exactly the smoothest pickup line Jadis had ever used.
“Well, I’ll see what I can do,” Jay shrugged as Sholto passed her a folded piece of paper. “These women are avatars, right?”
“The best kind,” he grinned back at her. “After all, who could be more fun in bed than a friend who can transform into any fantasy you might have?”
“Ah, shit. Is this a list of Fetch?” Dys said with dismay as Jay opened up the paper.
“Wait, Jack isn’t on the list, is he?” Syd asked with growing concern.
“Well, actually...”
All three of Jadis spoke her next two words in unison.
“Fuck. No.”