Chapter 47.2

Jax favored me with a pleased smile despite the defeated slump to her shoulders.  I ignored her.  I had no intention of spending the day ogling her, dick in hand.

“Lynnria, did you see any signs of the fog condensing when Jax was pacing around?”

She shook her head.  “Not really.”

“Drat.”

I felt sure we were on the right track with this, but if Jax was right, this was shaping up to be a three-way game of hot-and-cold.  In a multistory area the size of a barn.  A hint would have been nice.

“Do you guys think that painting might have anything to do with this?” I hazarded.

“Weren’t no fog in it,” Jax reminded me.

“No, but…”  Arx scurried over to the artwork once more and leaned in close to examine it.

Without really meaning to—and in a complete betrayal to my earlier resolve—my eyes were naturally drawn to the swell of her presented backside.  I’m getting to be as bad as they are.

Her most recent Layer had not changed a great deal for her beyond the few spans of growth in her tail, though I knew her Charisma had to be sitting at something like a 12.  It was hard to put into words exactly what the difference would be between that and Jax’s 10.  It was something on the order of comparing ‘Damn… she’s hot as hell’ to ‘Holy fuck!  Would you look at that?!’

Honestly, it was a miracle I managed to get anything done at all.  Though, given the fact that my own Charisma was sitting at a 15, it was no wonder the two and Lynnria tended to stare at me like I was a bowl of spreadable sex on a charcuterie board.

But now that I was looking, I could not help but notice the pair of empty scabbards crisscrossing her waist.  It was regrettable that her scimitars had only lasted as long as they had, but they had been… comparatively cheap.  To the magically enhanced stuff, anyway.

Still, it seemed foolish to keep the empty belts around.  The empty flaps of stiffened leather would only ever get in the way.  Although, we had paid for them, and I had to assume she would seek to replace the blades at some point.  It was hard to fault frugalness.  And you never knew when a solid bit of leather might come in handy.

Beyond that, her only surviving weaponry was the Life-fueled, auto-sharpening knife tucked into an upside-down sheathe wrapped just above her left bicep.  The thing had been secured by a loop attached to the crossguard, which was probably the only reason it had survived the flood.

I had never seen her use it, though.  She seemed to prefer her own claws in combat, even against that barrel golem.  The most sensible thing would have been to ask her for it as a replacement to the one I had gifted Lynnria—which had been lost almost as quickly as the scimitars.  Of the four of us, I was the only one without any visible means of defending myself.

Then again… technically, they were my means of defending myself.

Tapping the painting thoughtfully, Arx turned.  “Master, you’re standing very close to where this flower pot should be.”

“Hmm… and it was called ‘Where am I?’”  I smiled.  The pieces were beginning to click together.  “Arx, go stand near where the bird cage is sitting in the picture.”

She bounced on her toes once—jostling her assorted femininity sufficiently to make me almost forget something rather important as she headed for the stairs.

“Mind the traps!” I shouted quickly.

She froze.  “Traps on the stairs?  What kind?”

“Dart launchers,” I replied, relaxing.

“Yes, but were any poisoned?” she persisted.

I shook my head.  “Not that I noticed.”

“‘Stits…”

Crestfallen, Arx nevertheless hopped over the railing and began to descend via the outside balusters along the staircase with the confident ease of a gibbon.  Watching her, I could not help but recall my earlier battle up the handrail.  It was hard not to be jealous, but I could at least console myself with my literal ability to fly.

“What is it with you guys and poison, anyway?” Lynnria asked, distracting me from my musings.  “You never got around to explaining what that was all about back in the labyrinth.”

“Donum can convert any negative Status Effect into the Lust Ailment,” Arx explained with a final bound to the floor.  “Which we can convert into Life Energy.  And when we’ve had our fill, the rest goes back to him.”

“Were a combo the Master dreamed up when he were trapped in a web-beetle cocoon,” Jax added.

“Web-beetle…?  No, never mind that.  How is it possible to convert an Ailment into Life Energy?  I’ve never heard of a skill like that.”

“As I was explaining before—cock breath—it’s a type of form-specific ability.  However, before you ask, no.  You may not purchase it yet.  It requires an Empathic Absorption Matrix, and as you have yet to grow one, you may neither feed upon the emotions of those around you nor manipulate Emotional Ailments,” Mia broadcast to the group.

Beyond the occasional whisper in my ear, she had been keeping rather quiet up to then—to the point where it had been easy to forget she was there.  She seemed to prefer maintaining radio silence while we fumbled our way through ‘mundane’ problems like these but, given her difficulties, that was understandable.  However, the conversation had returned to her area of expertise.

Lynnria frowned pensively.  “Is that why you keep calling me a Lesser Dolilim?”

“That be some of it, aye,” Jax answered in Mia’s stead, striding forward and blithely ignoring Lynnria’s jump of surprise once she stepped upon the rug.  “But ye will be Dolilim-entire one day, lassie.  Mark me.  Now enough with yer worries.  Tastes foul.”

Lynnria nodded uncertainly, not yet knowing quite what to make of Jax’s emotional palette.  “Well… if I can’t contribute that way, maybe I can take some sort of poison skill.  If you really can turn it into Life, then I could at least help feed you all.”

“I’m certain you qualify for a wide array of Ailment-inducing skills,” Mia replied.  “However, you cannot create an effect with the potential to harm our lord.”

Jax turned to look up at me—as the host of the otherwise disembodied voice.  “What are ye on about?  No one said nothing about harming nobody.  It were a grand idea!”

“Certainly, it was—ass chewer!  Colon gargling, shit-tongued—blahlahlah!”  She took a sharp breath.  “To be clear, I can give her a skill involving poison, but it would be harmless to any of you, negating your potential to benefit from it.  As an example, recall our lord’s skill, Detonating Sap Varnish?”

“Okay… I can see how that might apply to Jax and Arx,” I said slowly, “but Lynnria isn’t bound.”

Mia favored me with an indulgent little chuckle.  “She isn’t?  How odd.  I wonder then, how it is that she can hear my voice even now.”

“You know why,” I returned, frowning.

“Yes… the ritual.  One amongst many.  Each tying her ever closer.  Granted, the process is far from complete, but for the purposes of her proposed spell, there is hardly a difference.”

An incremental binding?  I had to suppose that made a degree of sense, and it would certainly explain a few things.  However, despite each of these rituals having been Mia’s idea, I doubted she had been aware of what their eventual outcome might be.  Not unless she was a far better actor than I thought she was.

It was something to think about.

“Well, if she can’t poison us directly, what about the other way around?  Didn’t you—sorry.  I think Bline once offered me a skill whose purpose was to store Life Energy but, as a side-effect, it was poisonous to other people.  Uh… Life Berries or something.”

“Hmm~?” she replied thoughtfully—with a hint of a moan.  “That would have been a workaround for your Class’s inability to target hostiles.  However… yes.  There is a potential to this.  The construct would have to be quite different, though.”

Her voice began to drift in and out of audibility for a few moments.  Like she was talking to herself while pacing in front of a microphone.  However, soon enough, she returned.

“If you will excuse me, Lord, I still need to perform some maintenance within the young lady’s realm.  I’ll put together some options for you while I’m there.”

“Of course,” I said with a wave.

We waited, but it seemed Mia had gone.

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A little behind the scenes info:  the long descriptions of Arx and Jax came about because I had been glossing over the items they still had on their persons in favor of just saying they were naked.  However, that wasn't entirely accurate, so I needed a clever way of letting the reader know that without just coming right out and saying it.  I think it added a lot to the chapter, ultimately.