Rebirth of the Nephilim

Chapter 710: Being Upfront

When Jadis opened her eyes, having finally fully recovered from her soul’s transposition to the divine realm, she was greeted with an unusual sight. Part of Jocelyn’s ritual involved the participants kneeling in prayer with the Oracle leading them. Jadis, Alex, and Wilhelm had lined up in front of Jocelyn with Jay on the left and Wilhelm on the right, without much thought to the positioning. Since only one of Jadis was needed for the rites, her Dys self had sat behind them outside of the ritual space, while her Syd self had stayed on board the Roc with the rest of her lovers. Naturally, this meant that Jadis saw a multitude of different perspectives upon awakening, though it was her Dys self who had the best view of the unexpected situation.

Alex and Wilhelm had returned to the world of the living a few seconds ahead of Jadis, thanks to the last-moment conversation she had before departing Valtar’s Halls. In those short few seconds, the divinely approved Demon Lord had used the opportunity to act on one of her famously uncontrollable impulses. Alex had wrapped Wilhelm up in both sets of arms and was fiercely hugging the shorter man, to the point that he looked like his head was going to pop off of his shoulders. Jadis couldn’t see his expression, since his face was buried in Alex’s cleavage, but the redness of his ears spoke volumes.

Jocelyn was decidedly distressed by the situation.

“I take it the talk with Valtar went well?” Aila asked as she put a hand on Dys’ shoulder.

“Oh, you have no idea,” Dys chuckled before pulling the redhead into a hug and a kiss. “Seriously, you cannot even begin to guess how things went.”

“Then maybe you should skip the teasing words and simply tell us, hm?” Aila hummed as she lovingly passed her fingers through Dys’ white hair.

“Yeah, I will,” Dys nodded as her Jay self helped Jocelyn and Eir pry Alex off of Wilhelm. “But first, let me get everyone else over here. I think we’re past the point where we need to worry about overwhelming Willy.”

In short order Jadis had transported everyone to the Leviathan and the encounter between Wilhelm and Valtar was discussed at length. Needless to say, the blushing young man received hugs and kisses from more than a few of the women present, to the point that Jadis was confident the poor guy felt more under threat inside the airship at that moment then he ever had on the battlefield. Rather than rescue him from the attentions of her grateful lovers, Jadis let the pampering continue for some time, all the while keeping a careful eye on Jocelyn. The sweet and innocent Oracle appeared to be experiencing a new emotion thanks to the sight of so many beautiful women getting so close to Wilhelm, and Jadis figured the moment to be a formative one. Eventually, after Kerr had whispered something in Wilhelm’s ear that made the man blush an even deeper shade of crimson, Jocelyn moved from where she had been sitting apart from the commotion and placed herself directly next to the Hero. She didn’t glare or pout or make any protest, and Jadis wouldn’t have expected the demure woman to do so. Jocelyn just didn’t have that kind of personality. But the brown-haired beauty did take Wilhelm’s hand while standing close enough that her side brushed against his, causing all of the hapless Hero’s attention to fall onto her with almost comical intensity. She didn’t raise her gaze to meet his, keeping her eyes on the floor, but the light blush across her cheeks made it clear that she knew what she was doing, and didn’t have any intention of relinquishing her position.

“What did you say to him just now?” Syd whispered her question to Kerr as the therion moved to put distance between herself and the couple.

“I just offered to introduce him to a few of my cousins,” the archer winked. “If he was interested in having some stress relieved.”

“You know Wilhelm would never go for something like that,” Syd suppressed her grin.

“No, but it got Jocy moving, didn’t it?”

It didn’t take too long after the Oracle had quietly but clearly staked her claim that the conversation came back around to a more serious discussion of next steps. With Valtar having declared that Wilhelm was under no obligation to slay Alex for being a Demon Lord, many of their worries about her new class were lessened. Not gone, but lessened. There would still be political consequences for her becoming a Demon Lord, Jadis and the others were certain. For one, Valtar had not said that Alex was immune to reprisals, just that Wilhelm didn’t have to do anything against her so long as she didn’t do anything to side with Samleos. Of course, there was no chance of Alex ever siding with the God of Death, but there were many in the world who would not feel quite so sure of that fact as those who were close to the Demon. In fact, there were likely those who would refuse to see any distinction at all, regardless of what Valtar had said. The God of Order’s blessing helped, but it wasn’t a guarantee of peace. There were thousands of years of generational grudges against Demons, reinforced by culture and experience. Those sorts of feelings didn’t just go away.

As Aila made it repeatedly and insistently clear to Alex, they couldn’t afford any more impassioned, spontaneous, life-changing actions. From that point forward, they needed to plan carefully, else they risked more than their own lives, but the lives of countless people that could be dragged into a dogmatic schism of war between those who accepted Alex as an ally and those who refused. They would need to work towards gathering as much support as possible, as carefully as possible, before even risking the chance that Alex’s true class was revealed to the world at large.

That search for support started with those who were already closest to them. Namely, Wilhelm’s party.

The Hero had not been comfortable with the idea of hiding things from his closest companions from the start, so even during their late-night discussion he argued for their inclusion. Ammy, surprisingly, argued against including any of them, repeating the same concerns that she had voiced while throwing shoes at Wilhelm’s head. She didn’t think any of them would be able to keep a secret like Alex being the Demon Lord, not considering their various personal interests and foibles. Wilhelm, however, was confident in his allies and refused to accept Ammy’s cynical objections.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Eventually, after long discussion, it was decided that hiding Alex’s new class from the rest of Wilhelm’s companions just wasn’t feasible. These weren’t just loyal friends who put their lives on the line on a nearly daily basis to fight side by side with the Hero of Valtar. These were some of the most powerful and potentially influential people in the world, thanks to their position of being in the Hero’s party. If the secret was kept from them, only to be revealed months or years later, the lack of trust shown in them could cause any number of them to turn against Wilhelm and those that he did show biased trust in, just out of spite if nothing else. It was smarter to bring them into the fold early on, rather than later.

It was still a cynical argument, one made by both Aila and Severina, but not even the more gentle-hearted of their group could deny the logic.

Since there was no time like the present, and Alex’s changes would be impossible to hide once the morning came and she was required to join the mages, Wilhelm and Jocelyn went together to rouse their companions from their sleep and get them all gathered for the exceptionally important talk. While they were gone, Jadis and her lovers continued to discuss plans for the future and what they might do under various circumstances. However, there was one conversation that Jadis knew that she had to have before others continued, which prompted one of her bodies to step aside with the one person in the cabin who had not yet had the full truth from her.

“So,” Jay said quietly as she leaned against one of the workstations that Sabina had set up in the rear of the Leviathan. “I feel like you’ve probably already caught on to what’s going on with me, considering everything that’s been said tonight. I didn’t want you to think you were being ignored or anything, but with how fast this situation has been moving, I haven’t had the chance to give you the proper explanation that you deserve. Do you… have an idea of what I’m talking about?”

“Reborn,” Noct stated simply while pointing a finger at her.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Jay nodded with a small sigh. “I was born as a human on another world. I was reborn here, on Oros, a little more than a year ago now. Actually, now that I think about it, I probably should have celebrated my birthday or something. Or, re-birthday. Except, I’m not one hundred percent sure which day I was reborn? I didn’t exactly have a calendar at the time…”

As Jay trailed off, she realized that her thoughts had strayed off topic. Noct was just staring at her, ever patient, but she wasn’t getting any actual answers.

“Anyway, if you have any questions about me or where I’m from, I want to answer them. I want to be completely open and honest with you, the same way you’ve been with me. Ask anything you want, and I’ll tell you the truth.”

There was a short pause as Noct considered her, red eyes moving across Jay’s face. The Valravn was a hard woman to read, but Jadis didn’t see any anger in Noct’s expression. She was calm and collected, as always, but also a little curious, Jadis suspected. Certainly, she had a look in her eyes that reminded Jadis of the winged woman’s father, when he was asking his questions about classes and skills.

“Not Nephilim?”

“No, I’m a full Nephilim now,” Jay replied to the first question Noct chose to voice. “I was human on Earth. There are only humans on Earth, actually. We don’t have different species there like Oros does. Just humans. But when I was reincarnated here, or reborn, I was fully changed to being a Nephilim. It’s on my status sheet and everything.”

“Not Orosian?”

“Uh, no,” Jadis said slowly as it took her a moment to puzzle through what Noct was asking. “I’m not originally from Oros. I really was from another world. I’d never even heard of Oros before being reborn a year ago.”

Noct’s expression showed a bit of disappointment to Jay’s answer. Jadis wasn’t sure what that look was about but let it go as Noct asked another question.

“Your death?”

“I… don’t know,” Jay frowned. “That’s sort of the whole thing that has me tied up from what Samleos said to me. I really don’t know how I died. It—well, I guess it doesn’t necessarily matter now. I’m here, and I wouldn’t ever want to go back. Not unless I could bring all of you back with me. And even then, I’m not sure that would be the right thing to do, since I wouldn’t ever want to pull any of you away from your families like that. Anyway, I’m here, and I’m more than happy being here because of having lovers like you. I just… I guess I hate not knowing the how and the why of it all. I probably would have asked Valtar about it if I had the opportunity to tonight, but it didn’t work out that way. Maybe I can get some answers from D in a month. Maybe.”

Stopping her once more runaway train of thought, Jay smiled at the silently listening Valravn standing before her.

“Sorry, I’m rambling. What else did you want to know?”

Giving Jay a complicated look that was hard to interpret, Noct eventually spoke again.

“Academic questions. Writing easier.”

“Sure,” Jay grinned in response. “I know Sabina has some sketching paper around here somewhere. Give me a sec to find some and something to write with. Write down whatever you want to ask. I know everyone else had a lot of questions about Earth, you deserve to have your questions answered too.”

Turning away from Noct to rummage through the workbenches and shelves, Jay continued to talk.

“I can’t tell you how many questions I’ve answered from Sabina about Earth technology. Unfortunately, I’m not all that educated on how a lot of the more technical stuff works, but I’ll do my best to—”

Jay ceased talking as she suddenly felt a strong embrace around her shoulders. Black wings wrapped around her sides as a leather-clad body pressed itself against her back, floating in a position that was only made possible by the magic that allowed Seraphim, and their kin, to fly. Warm lips moved against Jay’s neck as a simple question was asked.

“Reward?”

“Yeah, I do owe you a reward,” Jay murmured as she turned her head just slightly enough so that she could feel Noct’s silky hair brushing against her cheek. “Anything you want.”

“Anything?”

“Anything.”

Jay could both hear and feel Noct’s leather bindings stretch and groan as they nearly failed to contain the reaction from the Valravn’s body. A powerful shiver ran through the woman pressed against Jay’s back, and she couldn’t help but shiver herself as she felt two sharp points drag slowly across the skin of her neck.

“If you ask right now, I’ll do whatever you want, without hesitation,” Jay whispered in a throaty tone. “And I’ll have fun doing it. But considering the circumstances, I feel compelled to ask if you are okay with Wilhelm, Jocelyn, and everyone else in his party knowing what you’re doing with me back here, because they’re just about to enter the airship.”

Noct didn’t immediately let go. But she did, eventually, when she heard the cabin door open and the irrepressible noise of Halvor complaining about being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night echoed through the airship. Slowly pulling away from Jay, the dark-haired woman floated to the floor and returned to her usual, nonchalant stance. One might not even suspect that anything had just occurred, if it weren’t for the burning lust visible in the Valravn’s red eyes.

“Soon,” Noct stated with a barely perceptible growl to her voice.

“It’s a date,” Jay growled right back.