Chapter 751: Warm Colors

“I believe a warm color such as red, orange, or yellow would be best to offset the cool color of her skin tone. I have a lovely silk piece here intended for formal occasions that uses a rich, crimson dye. The dress was intended for an older child, but considering your daughter’s exceptional stature, I can make a few simple modifications so that it will be tailored to her size. However, if you are interested in something custom, I have a bolt of cloth imported from Jarlund made from the fur of Wolpertingers. The color is a beautifully vibrant gold, and I believe the shine would complement your daughter’s lovely horns.”

“What do you think, Alex?” Syd asked as she stared at the small red dress that the seamstress was holding up for her examination.

“Do you… Tailor armor…?”

“A—armor?” the elven woman’s carefully constructed customer service face crumpled at Alex’s question. “No, madam, I’m sorry, I am not an armorer, nor are my assistants.”

“Clothing is… Weak…” the Demon Lord frowned, but when she saw the look on Syd’s face, her expression cleared. “I would like… To see… The gold cloth…”

With a bow, the seamstress retreated from the private room, leaving the three women and one infant Succubus alone to discuss their options.

“If you are concerned about security, I can assure you that the palace’s facilities are second to none. Hope will not be in any danger.”

“No, that’s not why she asked,” Syd answered for Alex, her lips holding back her grin as she turned to look at Eir’s mother. “Alex believes clothes are unnecessary, except where they can provide protection against physical harm. You have no idea how hard it was to convince her to wear pants and a shirt regularly.”

“Pants are… Unnecessary…” Alex added as she bounced Hope with her lower pair of arms. Then, as she eyed Syd, she corrected her assessment. “Except… When they excite… Jadis…”

“I see,” Svana nodded along to Alex’s words, a small smile playing across her lips. “I personally enjoy dressing to fashions too much to agree with your review of clothing in general, but I entirely understand your latter point. My favorite garments are the ones that Einer enjoys the most, too.”

The three shared a quiet laugh before turning their attention back to the other cloth samples and items of clothing that had been left in the room for their perusal.

It was still a little strange for Jadis to spend time with Eir’s mother without her saintly lover present. Not because she was uncomfortable around her in-laws; Jadis got along well with pretty much all of her lovers’ families, even the ones who were more difficult to deal with like Sorcha’s mother or Bridget’s grandfather. Comparatively, Svana was a wonderfully warm and kind woman who treated not only Jadis as though she were a daughter, but all of Jadis’ lovers as well, including Alex.

No, the issue was just how incredibly similar Eir’s mother was to her daughter. Svana, despite being old enough to be Jadis’ grandmother, looked identical to Eir in just about every way. The only parts that didn’t match were her eyes, which were pink instead of purple, and her lips, which were just a bit fuller. Otherwise, the two could have been twins. Their voices were even the same, sharing both tone and speech patterns.

Considering Jadis’ overwhelming attraction to her gorgeous elven lover, hanging around her nearly identical mother engendered awkward reactions when she lost track of who she was talking to.

“Are you sure you don’t want to wear a dress to the tea party?” Svana asked as she held up a bolt of blue silk against Syd’s body. “Mistress Rohese has a design for the skirt that looks just like the flowers of a petal. You would look so lovely.”

“I love seeing beautiful women in dresses,” Syd smiled as she shook her head. “But I’ve never been a fan of wearing them. If I can get away with a formal suit of some kind, then that’s my choice.”

“I understand,” Svana sighed as she set the cloth aside. “At least you are willing to wear a dress, aren’t you Alex?”

“Yes…” the Demon agreed. “Whatever style… You wish for…”

“Thank you, dear,” Svana grinned at Alex’s accommodation. “Now, let me hold my granddaughter while you try on that white sample skirt.”

That was one of the many things that Jadis liked about Eir’s mother. From day one, she had treated Alex as a person, not as monster. Her love for her own daughter extended to all of those who Eir loved, which meant that so far as Svana was concerned, Hope was a granddaughter no different than if she had been born from Eir rather than Alex. Whenever she was around the little Succubus, she doted on her relentlessly, taking every opportunity to spoil Hope to the best of her ability. Naturally, Hope was always eager to be held by the elf, especially since Svana always had a bit of magic to spare for her gluttonous granddaughter.

Originally, Eir had planned on accompanying Jadis and Alex on their errand to get dresses appropriate for the royal tea party. However, a last-minute change in schedules meant that Jadis needed to escort Eir to Lyssandria’s temple, leaving Jadis and Alex without a shepherd to guide them through the complicated maze of imperial fashion. Jadis had been ready to brave the murky waters as best she could, but fortune had smiled on her. Eir’s parents were both in the city due to the commotion caused by the emperor’s departure for the battlelines, so Svana had stepped in to fill Eir’s shoes.

“How is my mother doing?” Eir asked, her tone low enough that only Jay could hear her.

“Smothering Hope with kisses,” Jay replied equally quietly. “She’s a saint. Or the mother of one, at least.”

Eir cracked a smile at Jay’s comment, then quickly regained her composure. While the proceedings weren’t currently focused on either of them, Jadis and Eir were at the front of the temple hall which made them immediately visible to everyone present. While it was far from a somber ceremony, a certain degree of decorum was still required. The only living avatar of Lyssandria and her Bonded Saint couldn’t look like they were having too much fun during the official ordination of Lyssandria’s priests-in-training.

“We welcome you into the service of Lyssandria,” High Priestess Irene intoned as she laid her hand on top of the young man’s head. “Long may you spread beauty, art, and love throughout Oros in Her name.”

“In Her name,” the boy replied as he received Irene’s blessing.

One of the many effects of Somerulf’s determination to take the war to the Demons who had conquered the Rubaline Dominion had been a surge in the number of people who had chosen to seek service in the temples. Hundreds of young men and women throughout Eldingholt and surrounding area had flooded into the temples with the intent of becoming clerics, priests, paladins, acolytes, or any other similar religious class. Of course, the number of men and women who had signed up for the military had far exceeded those who were looking to become members of the clergy, but it was still a huge influx of volunteers.

Of course, most of the people who had come to the temples wouldn’t be able to call themselves priests just because they had received a welcome and a blessing. They still needed to reach the age of majority for their race and unlock their first class, and they had to hope that they would get a class that they were looking for as an option. Indeed, that was the whole point of their joining the temple before their unlocking. By going through an official ceremony and starting the training before the birthday that would provide them with access to the System, they were increasing their chances of becoming priests, or a similarly appropriate class.

Jay watched from her position on the raised dais behind Irene as the human boy selected a small piece of cloth from a tray that one of the other priestesses held in front of her. It was a simple ribbon, nothing special, really, except that it was a token meant to represent the first step of dedication that the young man had taken towards becoming a priest of Lyssandria. If he continued his training and managed to unlock a class dedicated to the Goddess’ service, the cloth would be added to a blanket of similar ribbons, sewn into place, thus marking his acceptance into the High Temple. Each of Lyssandria’s had their own tradition for marking the acceptance of their new priests into their society, with some using paintings and others making mosaics. At the High Temple in Eldingholt, they added to a blanket of many colors that was, according to Eir, so old that it predated the temple building itself, and so massive that the whole thing couldn’t be spread out inside any of the rooms or halls. It had to be taken outside to be fully unfurled.

The young man was probably sixteen or seventeen years old, by Jadis’ best guess. Most of the volunteers who were attending the ceremony that day were around that same age, with some only months away from their unlocking. There were older men and women in the crowd, too, having come to the temple with the intention of unlocking their secondary class soon and hoping for a priestly option, though there were only a few of those. More than three hundred people, mostly youths, all of them there to join Lyssandria’s temple.

And Jadis had to accept at least partial blame for that large number.

Ulya’s temple was the one most associated with healing. Valtar and Charos were the usual choices for those who wished to serve the gods in battle. Svaroga was the temple always in need of more priests, to help supply the nation with its enchanted weapons and armor. When it came to volunteers in times of war, even Destarious got a fair number of people entering his temples looking for luck if nothing else. Lyssandria, however, was a goddess who generally did not get many men or women knocking on her doors during a Demon invasion.

Jadis had altered that dynamic. Not only was she a Nephilim, an avatar of Lyssandria, the last of a race that most had forgotten had even existed, but she was one of the most powerful combatants in the empire. She had fought side by side with the Hero in Kastoria, she had killed a Demon Prince, she had fought monsters and dragons and all sorts of other impossible things that the dedicated imperial rumor mill was churning out at a relentless rate. Jadis was, in a word, famous. And, in consequence, her fame had swelled the ranks of people who wanted to join Lyssandria’s temple.

Which was exactly why Jadis had to attend the welcome ceremony.

“Do you think my presence here today will really have an impact on the classes that these people will have offered to them?” Jay asked under her breath as the next hopeful walked up and bowed before High Priestess Irene. “It’s not like I’ll be around them all the time like with you or the others.”

“Yes, I do believe you will make a difference,” Eir whispered back, her eyes on the young gnome girl who was receiving Irene’s blessing. “Though not in the same way that you changed my life.”

“Then in what way?”

“Your presence here today seems minor to you,” Eir said, her smile growing slightly as she watched the gnome carefully select a ribbon that matched the color of Jadis’ eyes. “However, for them, this is a moment they will remember for the rest of their lives. This will be the day that they were accepted into Lyssandria’s service under the watchful gaze of her beautiful avatar. This will be the day that they will be able to tell others that they first saw a Nephilim. This will be a day that will become a story to tell their children, and their grandchildren, and their great grandchildren.”

Turning her head slightly so that she could meet Jay’s gaze, Eir’s smile turned into a grin.

“For many, this will be held as one of the most impactful moments of their lives.”

“Hey, are you trying to inflate my ego?” Jay whispered while doing her best to suppress what she knew would be a goofy grin. “I don’t need help in that department.”

“I could tell you to be humble and remember that you are only mortal,” Eir replied with a twinkle in her eye. “But if we both have our way, the latter part of that statement will only be a temporary condition.”

“Right, right,” Jay nodded, her humor coloring her tone. “In the meantime, while I am still in this temporary condition, maybe we should remember that I’m not the only person of significance attending this ceremony?”

When Eir raised a questioning eyebrow at her, Jay rolled her eyes at her lover.

“Okay Miss Humble.”

“I am not—”

“Eir, you are an oracle, a saint, and one of the strongest healers in the world. If any of the people in this crowd aren’t looking to you as an example of who they should be striving to be, they’re fools.”

“I would be none of those things without you,” Eir whispered as she set her eyes on the next hopeful candidate approaching the dais.

“That’s where we’re going to have to disagree,” Jay lightly shook her head. “I helped you. But you were always the person you are today. If I hadn’t come along, you still would have been saint eventually. There isn’t one doubt in my mind about that. And I promise you, Lyssandria agrees with me.”

There was no hyperbole in Jadis’ assertion. Beyond her own certain belief in her beautiful elven lover, she knew in her heart that Lyssandria felt the same way. Eir might have doubted the truth, but Jadis had the advantage of being an avatar, and having a link to her Goddess. Lyssandria loved Eir, and she would have raised her high in her temples and would have rewarded her services with classes, skills, and power that other healers could only dream of. But Lyssandria was not a jealous goddess, and she would not fight Jadis for Eir’s love. She was just happy to see her children thrive.

And thriving was exactly what Eir was doing. Before the Siege of Kastoria, the saint had been CLR seventy-three. By the time their group had left the city for the last time, Eir was CLR Eighty-four. Eleven levels split between her three classes in only a few weeks. There weren’t many who could boast of having accomplished the same, and most of that number were also among Jadis’ harem.

Four levels had been gained in Eir’s primary class, largely due to the immense amount of healing she had provided. Jadis couldn’t even hazard a guess as to how many lives her favorite saint had saved with her magic, but the number had to be counted in the thousands at least. As a result, even if the actions taken were relatively simple and repetitive for Eir, she still gained a huge amount of experience. Two of the levels had been even numbers, which meant she had received four free attribute points. All four had gone to her Focus stat. The other two levels had given her a selection of skills, some unique, some relatively mundane. In the end, Eir had selected one new skill, and one that had been offered to her previously.

The Abstersion Aura was an option that Eir had been offered at level forty-one, but she had not taken it at the time, having instead selected Burst Heal Aura. She had meant to take the spell at level forty-three, but had selected Lyssandria’s Divine Grace as a better option at the time, since it gave her fifteen attribute points in both her Divine and Focus. However, since the options given to her at level forty-five weren’t as useful, Eir had finally taken the aura spell.

In a similar vein of trying to be efficient in her method of rapidly treating large numbers of soldiers, Eir had selected another aura spell for her level forty-seven skill slot.

While technically an inferior spell compared to Life Sense in terms of the reliable accuracy of the information it could provide, the Aura of Debilitation Awareness was useful for sweeping large crowds for issues that wouldn’t necessarily be readily apparent to a visual inspection. That had been Eir’s exact use of the skill for several days after the main fighting in Kastoria had ended; she walked through the camp, checking for any and all signs of poisons, diseases, parasites, or other harmful conditions that were affecting the soldiers. There was no doubt in anyone’s minds that Eir’s use of her aura had prevented the mass outbreak of sicknesses that likely would have killed a lot of people.

As compared to her cleric class, Eir had gained only a single level in her secondary class, Lustful Oracle of D. A single level was reasonable, since she had not actually used many of her oracle skills or spells during the siege. That single level was also ultimately of far greater impact than any of the levels that Eir had gained for her cleric class.

For the cost of a twenty-minute ritual, Eir had gained the ability to cast her limb restoration spell twice in a seven-day period rather than just once. Sure, the ritual could not be used on any of her oracle abilities, and it had a long cooldown of its own. However, gaining the ability to restore one more lost limb a week was practically priceless. And that wasn’t even considering the ritual’s potential use on other skills with cooldown periods.

And then there was the big winner when it came to pure levels. Eir’s tertiary class, having been only level six at the start of the siege, had doubled its number and reached level twelve. That meant three free attribute points, all of which went into her Resilience, and three open skill slots, all of which had been filled with the same speed and fervor that Eir usually liked to have her slots filled.

Interestingly, Saint’s Divine Vestments was a skill that Noct was familiar with. She was a font of knowledge when it came to rare classes, skills, and spells thanks to her father. The Valravn and Aila spent long hours discussing what she knew, and Divine Vestments was a ritual that previous saints throughout history had also possessed. Aila and Noct had predicted that Eir would receive the same, though neither could have predicted the accompanying spell that the elf had received at level nine.

Jadis was a big fan of Divine Divestments, and not just because Eir immediately used it to help shore up her Resilience. The ritual to make it happen was… exotic.

The final spell that Eir had chosen to unlock had been a last-minute change. Originally, she had been planning on taking an active spell that would increase her Fortitude to match her Resilience for a number of hours, which would have been a nice boost to her personal defenses. However, around the same time she was considering which skill to take, Sabina unlocked her tertiary class and had revealed the growing need for seed, Jadis’ or otherwise, and Eir’s decision had become a simple one.

Without a spell that could increase the ‘emissions’ that a target could produce, there was simply no way Sabina’s ability to make lewd metals would have been tenable for anyone other than Jadis. Well, Jadis and Alex as well, but no one else would have been able to produce the volume needed in any reasonable amount of time. With Blessed Seed of the Reborn, even someone with utterly average levels of seed output like Thea or Severina could become a fountain when needed.

All of which was to say that Jadis truly meant what she had said. Eir had always been intended for greatness. She just got there on a different path than she might have otherwise, had she and Jadis never met.

“Thank you,” Eir whispered, her voice so soft it barely kissed Jay’s ear. “For everything.”

“Thank you for always being you,” Jay whispered back.

There was a long and happy silence between them as they continued to stand together on the dais before the assembly of volunteers, their presence hopefully making at least a small difference in the lives of people who had sought out service in the temple so that they could be of help to others. Eventually, when they were near the end of the long line of hopefuls, Eir spoke up again, her tone less overwhelmed with emotion.

“How is my mother treating you, Alex, and Hope?”

“She’s fine,” Jay smirked. “She’s still trying to convince me to wear a dress.”

Eir clicked her tongue, though her amusement was evident.

“Perhaps someone can be sent to rescue you? Or you can rescue yourself, if Dys is finished with her business with Vraekae and Cobbler?”

“Ah, not really,” Jay admitted after a moment. “I mean, yes, we’re done talking about Cobbler’s trial. The new date is for a week from now, by the way.”

“Then some other issue delays you?”

“Issue, no,” she said as she tried her very best to keep her face straight. “It’s just that Vraekae… wanted some private time with me, before I left.”

Eir’s grin could not be suppressed.

“Try not to break the bed again.”