[Edited] Chapter 12 - Jax at the Boundary

We were all pretty tired once Jax was done with her story, and the conversation that followed only solidified how long the day had been—especially for my recently abused lilim. So, we agreed to let her sleep through the night so as to finally condense the long-awaited Layer that would allow her to achieve the Boundary.

As was my custom, I volunteered for first watch and, after stoking the fire, I settled in for another long stretch alone with my own thoughts. Of course, there had been a great deal of speculation on the various things that Ahnbe had let slip, particularly about lilim and Her apparent wonder over Jax’s status as one. We did not know much about the species, really. All of our information on the topic had come purely through our own first hand experience, so any tidbits or details we could glean from outside sources were hungrily devoured.

What I found most intriguing, though, was the question of the as-yet-undiscovered difference between my own lilim and the others. Both of mine had been transformed into them rather than having been born that way, so that might have accounted for some of it. But we knew so little about them, we could not even say for certain whether they were born at all! For all we knew, they could have been the result of some mad sorcerer tinkering with genetics and growing them in a lab.

More disturbingly, Ahnbe’s ability to manifest within Her own creatures… well, it explained a few things. The incident with the ram, for one. Why She had decided to possess the thing and hunt me down that one night instead of just having a normal conversation was beyond me. She had scared the shit out of me!

Maybe She didn’t mean to, though? I had noticed some difficulties on Her part when it came to interacting with people normally. It was possible She lacked the experience. Or perhaps there was some… fundamental difference between Goddesses and normal people that made it difficult. Or it could be that She simply did not know how.

Whatever the case, the whole thing rather reminded me of the legends about Zeus coming down and seducing mortals in the guise of a swan or a bull… or that one time when he was a ‘golden rain.’ What a weird way for Perseus to have been conceived. They had certainly left that part out of ‘Clash of the Titans.’ Maybe there’s something to those old legends after all… or it’s just a weird coincidence.

If Ahnbe decided to keep showing up, though, there was the possibility that I might be able to eventually sit down and talk with Her. There were a lot of things that I would like to ask. Like… why was She so interested in me? Or why it was that She had decided to confront Jax in the first place?

Clearly, She had not known who Jax was initially, and it could not have been just because my lilim was killing Dungeon monsters. We had killed plenty before now, both in and out of the Dungeon, and Arx had told us afterward that she had certainly never heard of something like that happening before. What was different about this time?

Of course, even if I did manage to sit down with the Goddess, I would need to somehow achieve something more than curling into a ball and weeping. Which… might not have been so bad a place to open the conversation. Breaking people’s minds with existential terror was something of a bad look for one’s interpersonal skills.

*****

I was greeted at sunrise with an eerily silent Jax standing over me.

“Um… good morning,” I said, a touch bewildered. And then deciding to be a little cute, I comically jutted out a hip to strike a pose from my position on the ground and batted my eyes at her. “You like what you see?”

She did not reply. She just kept staring at me, unblinking.

Wow… I expected at least an eye roll out of that. I sat up slowly, a little concerned. “Jax…? What are you doing?”

Again, there was no reply. My question was met with silence.

“Yeah, I’m not sure what’s going on,” Arx said, and I turned to find my other lilim leaning against the tree we had camped under. “A few minutes ago, she just got up and walked over to you. Hasn’t moved since.”

“Well, that’s weird,” I replied before climbing to my feet.

As usual, the mornings out on the plains were cold and breezy, so I could not repress a shiver. Jax did not react to my discomfort at all, and that was really weird. There was a vacant look to her, like she was sleep-walking. Slowly, I began to circle her, and she turned to follow me robotically. Curious now, I took a few steps back, and she trailed after, slightly delayed but never straying more than a few feet from my person.

Frowning, I considered whether Ahnbe might not have done something to her. From what we had heard, the Goddess had been a little pissed for her own esoteric reasons. There was a possibility Jax had been cursed. If so, it seemed… kind of strange. What is the point of this?

“Have you talked to her yet?” I asked, turning back to Arx. “Tried to snap her out of it?”

She shook her head before pushing off of the tree to approach us. “No. I didn’t want to wake you.” Coming up behind me, she pressed herself against my back in a warm hug and began to run her fingers through the thin fur at my belly. She must have sensed I was cold. Jax did not react to that either. She did not even look at Arx’s fingers caressing me. She was just staring up at my face. And that was really really weird. “I thought it was more important for you to get your rest. You seemed so tired last night when you got me up for my watch.”

The corner of my mouth quirked upward at the comment. I had a lot on my mind these days. Gently, I rested a hand over hers and gave it a comforting squeeze. “Thank you for the concern, but I think this is a little more important than a few minutes of sleep. Do you have any ideas? Theories?”

Arx shrugged against my back. “We raised her Core Level last night, and that would put her at the Boundary. I was assuming it was related to that.”

Hmm… I hadn’t considered that. Now that I really looked at her, I could tell she had changed physically again. It was subtle as always, and there was not much of anything unexpected… save for whatever this Zombie routine was. Her horns were continuing their slow curl around the sides of her head and were now about even with the underside of her jaw. Downright majestic, actually.

Her hair was still growing out, too. It had begun to inch its way over her shoulders in a gentle wave, still just as bright and unnaturally red as always. And unkempt. There was a certain shimmer to it this morning, though. Maybe it was just the way the light was catching it, but there seemed to be something more to it than before.

In fact, there was something more about the whole of her. She had been quite attractive before, of course. You would be hard pressed not to call her beautiful, especially if she ever bothered to put some effort into her appearance or brush out her hair. But today, there could be no equivocating. No debate.

Even just standing there square-on and without a hint of artifice, she looked… striking.

“We have met the Boundary,” Jax said abruptly, and we both jumped slightly in surprise.

With her just standing there for so long, we had not been expecting her to speak. But it did not seem like she was awake yet. There had been something off about her voice. It had certainly sounded like her, and the voice had come from her mouth. But, there was no accent whatsoever. The words had been delivered in a smooth and even cadence, with a hint of an unnatural and echo-y quality.

“Okay…” I said slowly once it became apparent that Jax was not going to say anything else. I snapped my fingers in front of her face a couple of times but got no reaction. “Now what?”

“Maybe you should kiss her?” Arx suggested hopefully. “Or I could… if you want.”

I smirked. Of course she would go there.

But before I could say anything else, Jax spoke again with that vaguely echoing quality, “Choose the paths.”

I waited but the silence stretched. Jax just stood there without blinking. “Uhm…” I said finally. “Would you care to elaborate? What paths?”

My question was met with silence. Again.

I frowned before glancing back at Arx. “Any suggest—”

“The first path is that of form,” Jax interrupted me. “We are lilim. We must be more. Choose.”

I blinked a few times. I did not have a clue as to what she was talking about, but that was one hell of a ping delay. It was like she was lagging. Also… must be more? Than what? And why?

“That is definitely not Jax,” Arx whispered into my ear. “I’m not getting a thing off of her. It’s like she isn’t even there.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “I mean… I agree that it doesn’t sound like her. Maybe she’s just…” I shook my head uncertainly, “I dunno. Asleep in there? Somewhere?”

“I can feel dreams, too,” she informed me. “Yours especially. Even in torpor, I can feel something. This is not that. It’s like she’s… gone!”

“Hmm… that’s concerning. But you said yourself that this was some kind of… I don’t know. Boundary shenanigans, or something,” I said, trying to logic my way out of my worry. Not that I knew much about the topic, of course. “Is this the way it usually works?”

“No. Most every Boundary is its own unique thing. There are patterns and repeated themes that crop up from person to person, but you can never predict how one might play out.”

I grimaced, recalling the clusterfuck my own Boundary had been. Why should Jax’s be any different? “I don’t suppose any of those themes had to do with… paths? And forms?”

Arx shook her head. “Not that I’ve ever heard. What could she mean by more?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” I said, sighing. Turning back to Jax’s vacant stare, I asked, “Uh… could you explain? I don’t understand what you’re asking.”

There was a very long wait, but eventually Jax said again, “The first path is that of form. We are lilim. We must be more. Choose.”

I rolled my eyes. What is this? Broken NPC dialogue?

“Maybe she’s talking about her body?” Arx suggested. “She and I look pretty much alike in a lot of ways. Enough that you’d be able to tell we were the same kind. It could be that she’s reached the limits of what a lilim can be, and she needs guidance.”

“But that’s ridiculous,” I argued. “It’s like asking me how to be more human than human.” I blinked at the unintentional White Zombie reference but shook the thought away. It would be lost on Arx. “I can’t make her more lilim than she already is. I mean… I guess you could add superpow—uh… or that is… very powerful magic skills. But you two already have those.”

“Not really all that powerful yet,” she argued quietly. Pressing her nose into the back of my hair for a moment, she took a moment to think before eventually suggesting, “I guess… you could try to make her sexier? I know she’d love that.”

I quirked an eyebrow at her. Yeah… I’d bet she would, too. But how? She was already smoking. Maybe she could still grow a bit up top, but I had not seen any sign of that particular feature slowing down. Every Layer she had gained had expanded her chest by a small margin, including this one. And her legs and backside were starting to look pretty damn nice, too. Maybe even as nice as Arx had once sported.

Actually, hang on…It occurred to me that I had not yet seen Jax from behind since she had changed again. Gently extricating myself from Arx’s embrace, I started to circle around the entranced lilim. Oddly, this time, she remained in place, only turning her head to watch me. Hmm… if she’s letting me look her over, then maybe I’m on the right track?

Taking her in, she had a lovely, rounded heart-shape to her bottom now with a nice little diamond gap just above where her thighs met. Her legs were not the longest, though with the way that she balanced on the balls of her feet, it was hard to notice. All in all, I would say she looked fantastic.

I shrugged. “Well… what would you add?”

“And how do you expect me to answer that?” Arx countered immediately. “Didn’t Jax explain? We’re only attracted to others through you. Like this…” Arx leaned down to press her chest against Jax’s, ballooning their breasts out in a wonderful… wonderful display. Jax did not react to this in the slightest, though Arx grinned at me. “See? I can feel your reaction. This is sexy to you, so it’s sexy to me. I can only know what we’re attracted to in the now.”

I cleared my throat, not wanting to get distracted. As usual. “Well, surely you must have some idea if you can tell that much about me.”

“Hmm…” she mused, straightening up again… and consequently setting her bosom to wobbling for a brief and glorious moment. “I… couldn’t really say what we might have been attracted to in the past. Before I changed, I mean. Are there any of the kinds you find intriguing? Any features they have that we lack?”

It took me perhaps a second longer than it should have to process her question. What can I say? Sometimes the gutter runs deep.

However, once I had, I pursed my lips in thought. Truthfully, I was not all that familiar with the different races. I had only encountered a few so far, and most of them had been men. Or I though tthey were. It was possible I had seen some women and not noticed. For instance, those tree-people, the forga, all looked alike to me.

But… if I were to expand the question to include some of the myriad fantasy races I had been exposed to through various media, I could think of a few things that might be neat. Cat-girls, fox-girls, dryads, nymphs, vampires… the list went on. The problem though, at least for me, was that sexy girls were sexy because of their human parts not the animal ones. Extra bits were ultimately just window dressing. Like make-up, in a way. I might enjoy the occasional animal ear, here and there, but I was no furry.

Now that I thought about it, Jax and Arx both had a sort of… demonic vibe going for them that was just exactly my cup of tea. Sexy and dangerous. Though, stereotypically, I would expect female demons to have wings and tails… maybe hooves. But that was going too far. I actually preferred my lilim’s feet the way they were—not that I was a foot guy. I was just… less of a hoof guy.

Actually, I was no fan of wings, either. I mean… okay, they could look quite striking and dramatic in the right context, and the ability to fly was definitely a draw. But, on a day to day basis, they would probably just get in the way of things. You would not be able to sit anywhere but a barstool, sleeping would be terrible, and you would bump into things constantly. And don’t get me started on those pitiful little bat wings that anime characters sometimes have. Especially when they attach them to the girl’s head? Dumb as hell…

And as far as tails went…

Well… I definitely did not care for those weird reptilian-looking things with the heart at the end of it that demon girls were often depicted with. If they were going to have one at all, then I much preferred nice and fluffy ones. Like fox tails. Actually, nine-tailed fox girls were pretty cool. Or maybe some kind of lion’s tail with a big, shaggy tuft at the end? That would be kind of neat.

“Form accepted,” Jax announced suddenly.

“Wait what?” Arx exclaimed. “What form? You didn’t say anything.”

I cast my eyes skyward, and heaved a long suffering sigh. “No… but I was thinking of a few possibilities.” This sort of thing had happened so many times now it was all but expected by this point. Par for the course. “I’m not sure which one she latched on to, though. Something about tails, probably.”

“Tails?” she asked curiously before twisting to look down at her own butt. “You like tails?”

“I don’t… dislike them,” I admitted hesitantly. “I mean, it’s not like—”

“The second path is that of function,” Jax interrupted, talking over me. “This one is a Tenebrous Warrior. This one would be more. Choose.”

Okay… moving on then, I guess. Although, wasn’t she saying things like ‘we’ this and ‘we’ that before? Why is it ‘this one’ now?

“Right. This is familiar territory,” Arx informed me. “You need to figure out how you want Jax’s Class to develop.”

I grimaced. “I would prefer it if she could make this choice herself,” I complained. Actually, that went for the previous choice, as well, but I was perfectly well aware of the fact that if Jax had any chance at all to become more attractive in my eyes, she would gleefully leap at it. “I don’t like taking away her agency.”

Arx nodded in understanding. “I’m sure she won’t mind. She trusts you completely, you know. But if it bothers you… Just do your best to think about what she would want.”

I made a face. “Okay… well… what do you think? I mean, you’ve gone through this before, right? What options do we have?”

“This is a Class evolution, so she must remain a Warrior of some kind. But other than that? Almost anything,” Arx explained. “Although, I would try to keep the change as incremental as you can, and it helps if it fits with the theme of what you’re already doing. Like… you shouldn’t try to make her into an Invincible Warrior. That would be too much of a jump.”

“Is… that a thing?” I asked, intrigued.

She nodded. “Oh yes. It’s a great Class if all you care about is durability. They get a lot of bonuses when it comes to wearing armor. Although, they aren’t actually invincible… or not permanently. There are skills that can achieve that for short bursts. But I wouldn’t try to push Jax in that direction. I have a feeling she would disapprove.”

I nodded, muttering, “Yeah, she’s more of an evasion build anyway.”

Arx smiled softly at me. “I wasn’t really referring to that, my Dearest. I meant that Jax—and I, for that matter—would hate wearing a bunch of bulky armor.” She eyed the bolt of green cloth that we had purchased the day before. “In fact, I’m a little nervous about even wearing clothes again.”

“Choose,” Jax said, reminding us of the topic at hand.

“Yes, yes, we’re getting to that,” I said, before turning back to Arx, “What do you mean by nervous?”

“Well…” she hesitated, “I’ve never really worn any clothes. Not since I became… this,” she explained, gesturing down at herself. “I have grown used to feeding from your emotions through the whole of my body. I don’t even know if it works through cloth. And I definitely wouldn’t want to wear armor.”

“Jax never had a problem with it,” I countered.

“True…” she agreed. “Though she’s always had a good deal of skin exposed. And the fabric you two were wearing was rough woven and thin.”

I twisted my mouth to one side. “Hrm… well, the point is moot right now, anyway. We don’t have any clothes or armor, so there’s no reason to go that direction with her Class.”

Slowly, I folded my legs underneath me, and sat cross-legged to think. Which way should I to go with this?

“Dearest,” Arx said, coming to sit next to me, “I think you know, especially from her story last night… but there are only two things that Jax really cares about. You and lust.”

I nodded, silently acknowledging her point. That was certainly true, but it hardly made for a useful Warrior build. Not that I was some great expert on the subject or anything, but I had seen my share of old kung-fu movies. If Bruce Lee was to be believed, the only things a warrior needed were speed and power. Currently, I could provide neither of those things—buff-wise—and, while lust was distracting enough, it was hardly the kind of thing that helped a person hit harder.

Although…Arx used to have a class that relied heavily on drinking and other hedonistic activities to fuel her abilities. She had never cared for it, of course, but when her tanks were full, she could pull off some incredible feats. And Jax already had a few abilities tied to lust, so it certainly seemed possible to build on the theme.

The only thing was, I would not want to make it so that Jax had to maintain a constant reservoir. Arx’s main problem back then was that once she ran out, she was all but useless. Well… kind of. Her stats were still high enough that at least from my own point of view, she had been quite the bad ass. Still, it was a problem to avoid.

Besides, even with Jax’s tolerance for it, lust was fairly debilitating. The last thing I wanted was for her to have to deal with her own Class features interfering with her ability to fight. That had been another of Arx’s problems. Most of her skills required her to be incredibly drunk to function, and she had literally passed out in the middle of combat the first time we had seen her in action. So, I definitely did not want to tie speed or strength to Jax’s own lust.

I wonder if I can make a Class that uses other people’s lust to buff Jax’s stats and abilities. I nodded thoughtfully. It could work. Although… the downside of a Class like that would be in situations like last night where she was fighting solo against monst—

“The Paths are taken,” Jax announced before abruptly going limp. Arx and I had to scramble to catch her, and the three of us went down in a heap.

Arx slowly struggled up to her elbows to look at me before quirking an eyebrow. “Again?”

I just sighed.

Jax began to stir to wakefulness a few minutes later, and after a few concerned questions, we determined that aside from a little confusion, she seemed to be unharmed and otherwise completely normal. Whatever it was she had experienced, she seemed totally oblivious to their events.

However, before the conversation could get too far, I was interrupted by a series of prompts from the Lady Bline.

I nodded slowly as I read through the message. That all sounded fairly decent, and I was pretty sure Jax would be thrilled. It was right up her alley.

I wonder how Warrior restricts the suffix, though. It was hard to say for sure. The only thing I could think of was in the list of potential skills the suffix might have qualified her for. Assuming her Class restrictions still applied, that list would naturally be amended to match, so the notice could just be a confirmation. Still… it would be nice to actually know what the rules are.

“Donum,” Jax said, pulling my attention away. “The Lady just told me something about… me Class increasing its power? Says I needs to complete a trial afore I can pass into the First Stratum, and me skill point be locked.”

“That’s normal,” Arx informed her. “What’s the trial?”

“Hold on,” I cut in before Jax could answer. “I didn’t have to complete a trial. How is that normal?”

“That’s because you went from a Command-type to some sort of… Charismatic/Persuasion-type trainer,” she explained. “It was a lateral evolution.”

“Some of my skills improved, though.”

She nodded. “Yes, everyone gets that, regardless. But the Class itself did not improve. That’s when you have to complete a trial.”

“Wait a scanty,” Jax interjected. “If everyone gets a few skills improving, why didn’t—” she paused. “Oh, hang on… the Lady’s explaining it… Says I’ll get to pick two to evolve once me trial be complete.”

“Only two, huh?” I muttered. I had gotten three, though I had not gotten to pick them. I still can’t believe I got freaking Lust Transfer and The Hammer of Glory, of all things, to Mark II. Of all the random bullshit…

Arx nodded. “I’m not surprised. With all the other bonuses we get, we’re bound to have a few restrictions.”

I scratched at my beard. Meh… I guess that makes sense. “Okay, so what’s this trial?”

“Says I gotta compete in a tournament somewheres,” she replied. “Gotta place in the top three.”

“Did She say what kind of tournament?” I asked.

Jax shrugged. “Only that I gotta ‘showcase me skills as a Warrior.’”

“Finding something like that shouldn’t be too difficult,” Arx said. “Depending on what town we wind up in, the competition might be fierce, though. I don’t think this will be easy for you. Most people don’t pass through the Layers as quickly as we have, so they have much more time to practice their skills. Plus, people who compete in these sorts of things tend not to take skills like Thirst for Master’s Touch.”

Jax sniffed at that. “Their loss. Besides, we ain’t the sort what fights alone. It ain’t our purpose.”

“So… did the Lady say this has to be solo? Or can it be a group effort?” I asked curiously.

“Me alone,” she admitted unwillingly. “But… you could watch. I’d like that.”

“Naturally,” I agreed with a smile. Then, taking a moment to contemplate, I said, “Okay… well, I guess we’ll have to look into it once we get to town.”

Right about then, the next pop-up from Lady Bline interrupted my thoughts.

I scratched at my beard thoughtfully. Okay… so apparently, whatever I did seems to have altered not just Jax, but Arx as well. That was surprising, although it didexplain why Jax had been saying ‘we’ when the question of kind was on the table. She had meant that this would be affecting the both of them. Though why something like that would happen at her Boundary was anyone’s guess. If something like that was going affect the whole group, shouldn’t it be during my own Boundary?

Curiously, I glanced over at the two of them. “Guys, quick question. Have either of you been notified of any changes? Like to your kind, for instance?”

“Me kind?” Jax asked, befuddled. “Nay. The Lady only talked of me Class. I be Dolilim, same as ever.”

“Same here,” Arx agreed. “Why do you ask?”

I sucked in a short breath through my teeth before letting it out in a defeated sigh. Okay… business as usual, then. Moreover, neither of them even seemed to be aware that something had shifted within them. Either it was so subtle a change that they had simply not noticed, or whatever mind-fuckery was at work was getting stronger. Hopefully, it’s the former…

“Never mind,” I replied before turning my attention back to the pop-up.

Hmm… ‘power scale rating,’ huh? That sounds a lot like what Arx mentioned before. If this was what I thought it had been—a chance to improve on the fighting power of my lilim—then I had just fucked up. Chance missed. But in my defense, I had not known such an opportunity had been on the table.

All I could do was shake my head in regret. If I had known, I had no doubt I could have come up with loads of potential racial changes to leverage an advantage instead of focusing purely on appearance. Even something as simple as naturally improved strength or tougher skin would have been massive! They could have evolved… night vision, echolocation, natural resistance to poisons… fucking flight! Or… or cartoonishly huge breasts!

No, no… got to watch those intrusive thoughts around here. Could be dangerous. But the point stood!

In any case, it was only consistent for Bline to inform me of my mistake after the fact. The Lady of Power seemed to love operating on a system of trial and error. Every choice or event was accompanied by an aura of mystery. You never knew what was happening until it was too late… if at all. Often, the ramifications of those choices would not be known until much later. You simply had to deal with them and do better next time.

The only positive I could think of to come out of this situation was that the trial was restricted to Jax alone. She only had to perform well at a tournament. A species-wide improvement might have sparked something much worse. And there was always the possibility a second opportunity might come around. I would have to be patient.

<bing!>

“What?” I groaned aloud. “I have to change their naming conventions, too?”

Jax looked at me sharply. “What’s this?”

I sighed before turning my attention to her. Why does this shit always have to be so complicated? After a moment of internal debate, I decided it was probably for the best for the two of them to have some say in this. It was their names on the line, after all.

After I explained the situation, Arx asked, “So… you’re saying that we haven’t been Dolilim at all? Until just a minute ago?”

“That’s right,” I said, nodding. “Just lilim before. Something about Jax’s little Boundary thing seems to have changed it.”

“How odd…” she murmured. “I don’t remember it ever being just lilim. You’re certain?”

“Course he’s certain,” Jax cut in. “That be plain if ye’d remember to pay attention to what ye feel, and besides, this shite’s happened loads of times! But ye be missing the flowers fer the weeds. We be Do-lilim. ‘Do’ as in Donum! We be named in his honor!”

Oh, fuck me. Of course! I closed my eyes with a pained groan as a small fragment of my soul withered in shame. Ugh!

“Really?” Arx said, completely ignoring her beloved cringing half to death just to one side of her. An excited sort of smile had crept over her face, as if she were a fan-girl who had just received news of her favorite boy-band dropping a new album. “You’re right! I never noticed that. I would have noticed that!”

Jax favored her with a knowing little smirk. “Aye, thought that might run up yer spine. But it ain’t only that.” She glanced back up at me. “Now he has the right to even set out the rules fer naming us? Have you ever heard the like?”

Arx looked like she had not even heard the question. She had suddenly started fidgeting nervously and had a sort of… obsessive thoughtfulness to her expression. It was hard to describe.

“Uh… well, anyway,” I continued, preferring to move this terribleness along as quickly as possible. “Whatever we do, I would prefer not to change your names again, if I can help it.”

Jax nodded. “That be understandable. What do that rule mean, anyways? A letter reserved? What letter?”

“X, I assume,” Arx answered distractedly. “Or A. We have those two in common.”

Jax shrugged. “Wouldn’t know. Dunno me letters too well. Even after the first time the two of ye kissed and all that shite got crammed into me head, it’s still a little fuzzy. But I got the two of you fer that.”

She was brushing it off, but I knew her too well to take that at face value. Anything Arx could do, she would want to do better. Just as a matter of course. She was First.

“In due time, Jax,” I assured her. “And I’m sure it will get easier once your Intelligence improves. You did say that you were going to work on that, right?”

“Aye.” She nodded. “Bumped it from 4 to 5 last night. Don’t feel much different, though.”

“Just the one point shouldn’t,” Arx explained, having calmed down somewhat. “But if you were to test yourself, you’d find that you can pick up on things slightly faster than before.”

Don’t know how you’d even go about that…

“Right… well, none of that seems to be valid anymore,” I said, taking the time to reread the prompt. I could have been imagining things, but the box looked to be getting impatient. “I don’t know whether removing the rule will necessitate a change to your names or not, but we’re going to have to come up with something to replace it.”

“We could keep it to something similar, though,” Arx suggested. “Like… we could use a letter from your name. Like D? Or M?”

I considered the suggestion for a moment. If I were to try and keep their names as close as possible, that would turn Jax’s name into… what? Jad? Dax? Not bad… but I think that’s a Star Trek character. Max? Could work. But… nah. Overused by ‘90’s kid’s movie protagonists. Jam? Heh… no way. Too ‘80’s hair metal.

However, I quickly brushed it aside. Having a part of my name taken for their species subtype was already maxing out my cringe meter. I certainly did not need to break the gauge. What kind of shameless person would make up a rule like that anyway? Although, that did tell me one thing I had not known.

Lilim had been created.

“Can we please just come up with something that doesn’t make me change your names?” I asked finally. “I like Jax as a name. And Arx’s was inspired by her mother’s.”

The two of them nodded in agreement, though Arx had a bit of an uncertain look on her face. “Do you think… the Lady would let you create a Clan name for us instead,” she asked after a moment. “Would that work for a rule?”

I shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe. What would we call it?”

“Donum!” she exclaimed with instant enthusiasm. “We’d be Clan Donum!”

“Seriously?” I said, visibly recoiling. “You’d want to be Donum Arx the Dolilim? That sounds… so—”

<ding!>

“—dumb.”

Aaaaaaaaargh!