Twelve hours.
That was how long the cooldown was for Desire’s Reap. It might have been eleven and a half, or maybe just over eleven to help account for ‘sway’ in the scheduling, but when Jaxie and Eris had a nine-o-clock makeout session in their bed after having dinner and then preparing an assortment of food for the following days, Eris was rewarded with six points of Desire for their efforts. That amount wouldn’t let Eris level up Desire’s Reap, so Eris didn’t spend it yet. At least that would also help to see if Eris was able to hold onto Desire for any notable length of time. If they woke up the next morning and it was all gone, then they would know Eris had to spend Desire as soon as she got it.
With both of them in oversized shirts they used as their nightclothes (Eris’s was one of Jaxie’s old shirts), they settled down for the night. Thankfully, Jaxie refrained from making any jokes or cracks about Eris’s upchucking the day prior while they placed the soft leather padding and sheets back onto the woodframe bed. They were too wet to sleep on last night after being washed, but having dried all day made them more than suitable. Still, Eris felt horrible. They might have hashed it all out and gotten everything back on track, but it didn’t make Eris’s panic-vomiting any less embarrassing.
At least Jaxie didn’t seem to be bothered at all, easily wrapping an arm around Eris as the shorter girl snuggled into her chest. The rising and falling of her breaths and the rhythm of a strong, steady heartbeat tried their hardest to lull Eris to sleep, but there was too much on her mind.
Leaving for Marrix tomorrow, being an Artificer, maybe being the last Gifted, the Hollow, the whole ‘Lust’ ordeal, and most importantly- Jaxie. Eris simply couldn’t forget that horrible look in Jaxie’s eyes in the bath.
“I don’t want anyone down there. It just… it doesn’t feel quite right. For me.”
What did that mean? What kind of problem was it? Eris wanted to see her girlfriend happy, but that situation seemed to genuinely throw Jaxie for a loop- something Eris never saw. Jaxie had always been confident and proud, yet as soon as Eris insisted she cum, too, a coin had been flipped. Alarms went off in Eris’s head.
During their makeout session that went too far at the beginning of the day, Eris had grabbed and even played with Jaxie’s pussy a little bit. Did she cause the problem then? That would be terrible, but what if she didn’t? Was Jaxie already troubled with that when Eris had initiated earlier? Eris was too busy kissing Jaxie- she couldn’t have noticed if the Berserker was getting uncomfortable about it. Was that why Jaxie broke the kiss and moved away to suddenly eat out Eris? Was she trying to avoid raising suspicion or souring the mood?
Dammit!
Eris’s brow furrowed in frustration. She was good at solving problems and fixing things- that’s what a crafter did, after all. At least with a dull sword or a pocketwatch that refused to come together, Eris could look close enough and see exactly what the problem was and understand precisely how to fix the issue. People were harder.
Eris couldn’t look Jaxie in the eyes and figure out how to make all her concerns disappear.
It was the distant ringing of the seven-o-clock morning bell from the center of town that eventually caused Eris to rouse. Kind of. It was also Jaxie gently kissing the top of her head. It didn’t matter how long they’d been living together- Eris still couldn’t get used to how freakishly light of a sleeper Jaxie was. Waking up in the middle of the night only to see Jaxie staring at her, roused by the change in Eris’s breathing was downright creepy sometimes. It was the only reason Eris hadn’t bothered to try and make an alarm clock- she already had one that was six-foot-two.
“Morning.” Jaxie sleepily nuzzled her nose into Eris’s hair. Eris groaned and burrowed her face deeper into Jaxie’s chest. She knew they couldn’t stay like that- they were on a time crunch, after all. Still, Eris wanted to at least enjoy Jaxie’s warmth for a tiny bit longer. The Berserker obliged. Unfortunately, after only about a minute and a half (which felt like a matter of seconds), Eris felt Jaxie’s hand rubbing her back.
“Come on, sleepyhead.”
“Nnnnhgn!”
“I know, I know. But our carriage leaves in an hour and a half so we gotta get moving. We can cuddle later.”
Disgruntled, Eris rolled over so that the two could get ready for the day. They were already packed with the necessary clothes and belongings in the homemade duffel bags that Eris made a while back, though Eris had to quickly re-pack hers with the multiple sets of clothing she adjusted yesterday to fit. Along with three notebooks- one filled cover to cover with diagrams and frameworks of potential crafts and two that were completely blank-, multiple pencils in varying states of use, a small set of basic hand tools, some simple toiletries and a jar of homemade sunscreen, it meant that Eris’s duffel bag was full.
All Jaxie’s had was a spare set of clothes and a dagger. At least it meant there was plenty of space in the tall girl’s bag for the multiple containers of snacks that Eris made for the trip. Jerky, mixed nuts and even a few squares of fudge. Those were placed alongside the fifteen labelled packages that Eris prepared containing their meals. It was an assorted mixture of oatmeal and sandwiches- far from glamorous, but certainly functional.
Short, teary-eyed goodbyes were had with Mr. Kerrot and Mr. and Mrs. Qualley at the travel office. Alex had come by at the planned time with her parents in tow so the three adults could see the three teenagers off. As expected, the parents tried to provide them with a sizeable amount of moons for their new life- in one larger pouch that Mr. Qualley passed to Alex. She handed it back.
“Please don’t try to do that. We’ll be fine.”
“Alexandra, it’s the least we can do-”
Jaxie was gentle but firm when she pushed back Mr. Qualley’s outstretched hand with the money pouch. “You three are gonna need this money more than us. Plus, we’ll be breaking the bank soon enough.”
“Are you sure?” Mr. Kerrot wheeled his chair a bit closer. Eris nodded and readjusted the duffel bag on her shoulder.
“Yeah. We’ve got two stars each, so that’s sixty moons between the three of us. Add the fact that none of us should have any immediate expenses since I’ll be providing our basic necessities? We’ll probably start making money well before we spend a single coin.”
The carriage coach whistled from behind the group. “Five minutes, ladies! We’ve gotta get moving.”
That was all the cue they needed. Final hugs were shared between all of them before the three girls hopped into the back of the carriage with their bags. Normally, taking a coach from Kelshiir to the nearest major city of Sunset Ridge, and then catching the continental train all the way to the capital of Madaras would have burned a hole in their coin pouches so large that their neighbours would have started wincing. In that regard, the Syndicate was more than accommodating.
All it took was a few letters a handful of months prior, and a scout for the Syndicate had shown up to Kelshiir days later. A display of Alex and Jaxie’s combat skills and a quick tour through the distillery to show off Eris’s various creations proved a sufficient benchmark to allow their joining of the Syndicate and permit their Gifting. Along with that, their cross-continent transportation was fully arranged and paid for to allow the trio to reach Marrix in time for the orientation.
A three-hour carriage ride, and then a sixteen-hour train. Eris was excited to see the train for the technical marvel it was, but even the carriage was a strange and interesting experience. The closest Eris got to something like it was sitting in the back of the wagon when the town all worked together for the harvest and sorting the crops. Instead of an open top, two-wheeled cart pulled by a donkey while piled high with vegetables, this was a closed, four-wheel room with honest-to-goodness doors on either side, small curtained windows, and a coat of pristine white paint. It wasn’t just one horse pulling it, either. It was a pair of gorgeous stallions- one mottled brown and the other black.
The inside of the carriage was large enough that all three girls could have easily fit onto one of the two benches facing each other with room to spare. As it was, Jaxie and Eris sat on the seat closest to the rear of the carriage while Alex took the side closer towards where the coachman would be sitting on the outside. Of course, that was when Jaxie grinned at Alex.
“So, we figured out that the cooldown for Desire’s Reap is a little under twelve hours last night.”
Alex paused. “That’s good, I guess? That allows for two gatherings per day.”
“Per person, per day,” Jaxie corrected. She held up her pocketwatch dramatically. “Speaking of which, it’s time for a session.”
Eris turned red. Jaxie wrapped an arm around her, then looked towards Alex.
“Do you wanna join in on this and give a bit of Desire, or are you gonna sit out?”
The floor of the carriage suddenly became very interesting, since Alex never tore her gaze away from between her toes.
“Suit yourself,” Jaxie sighed. “Looks like I just have to pick up the slack to make sure that our little crafter gets all the energy she needs. Let’s see what kind of limit we can reach.”
Eris wasn’t entirely sure that Jaxie cared either way, but it became apparent that the makeout sessions had a ‘soft-cap’. Eris had already suspected that was the case. The minute-and-a-half-ish session with Alex yesterday gave four points, and last night’s passionate necking gave six despite lasting multiple times as long. There were diminishing returns, as made obvious by the fact that Jaxie and Eris spent a good portion of the carriage ride using each other’s throats like straws.
Eris was painfully aware that Alex was barely three feet away the entire time. After a while, the blonde who was visibly distracting herself with a book simply became part of the background. It was after about fifteen minutes, with Eris fully seated on Jaxie’s lap, when Alex finally broke the silence. Well, technically her stomach did.
Jaxie chuckled into Eris’s mouth at the sound of Alex’s belly loudly groaning. She pulled away with a grin.
“Is someone hungry?”
“There’s, umm…” Eris coughed and slid back into the seat beside Jaxie, face turning almost as red as her hair. “It’s in Jaxie’s bag. Breakfast, I mean.”
With that, the three girls each took a spoon and dug into their jars of oatmeal. Eris even splurged a little bit and mixed in apples, strawberries, and a bit too much sugar than was healthy. It may have been a simple meal, but the Craftsmanship stat and Novice Artificer’s Quality bonus both showed their hand. All three girls had raised eyebrows after the first spoonful.
“Wow.” Alex mumbled.
Jaxie nodded. “That’s fuckin’ good.”
Eris blushed into her oatmeal. Thankfully, it seemed that Jaxie and Alex were too interested in shovelling down the mixture to continue praising Eris’s work. That gave a few quiet moments for Eris to look inwards. As soon as the combatants finished their breakfast, they turned their gaze back to Eris. She already started talking because she knew they’d ask otherwise.
“Seven points. I’m up to thirteen, now.”
Jaxie counted in her head. “Okay, so assuming that your prediction of twenty-five for the skill to level up is still accurate, then one more big makeout session should give just enough. Five from yesterday, plus thirteen means seven left, right?”
“Supposedly. I guess we’ll find out tonight.”
Unfortunately, there was no time for sightseeing at Sunset Ridge. Having the chance to walk around a big city like that and take it all in for the first time would have been amazing. At the very least, Eris was able to look east towards the Ridgeline. A colossal wall of rock forming a cliff-face hundreds upon hundreds of feet high. It stretched across the land farther than Eris could see- which made sense. Eris knew that the Ridgeline was over a thousand miles long- reaching from almost the very northern tip of Kavala to well into the southern hemisphere. As impressive as the Ridgeline was, Eris was looking for something in particular on the face of it.
It wouldn’t be possible to see from this distance, from the edge of the city looking up at the stony wall a handful of miles away. Still, Eris imagined that she could see the Gleaming Cove. The cavern up near the top of the Ridgeline that looked out over the land. Alex must have seen Eris staring.
“Shame we can’t go see Tezreilyon,” she said. Eris cocked an eyebrow.
“You think he’s still there?”
“Haven’t heard anything otherwise. Plus, I’m not sure it’s possible to move his body anyway.”
“Woah, who’s body?” Jaxie scooched closer to the pair, holding both her and Eris’s duffel bags. “What are we talking about?”
“Tez - ray - yone,” Alex pronounced each syllable carefully. “The goldwyrm.”
Jaxie narrowed her eyes. “Why does that name sound familiar?”
“Because he’s the god of the sun,” Eris said. “Or was, rather. Kind of. It’s weird.”
Alex sighed. “When the deities would come to Tonshlur, they didn’t do so directly. Instead, they each had a magical, immortal creature that was tied to their essence- like a familiar. Those familiars lived on Tonshlur. When the deities would visit, they did so by possessing their familiars.” She gestured towards the Ridgeline, roughly in the direction of where the Gleaming Cove would be.
“He was the familiar of Pollus, the Dawn. Tezreilyon, the Second Sun. A six-winged wyrm with scales so precious that the light of the sun would reflect off his hide and make it look like there were two suns in the sky. Sunset Ridge is named such because his body is too far in his cave to reflect the sun most of the time. Only at sunset is the angle shallow enough for his body to glow. Apparently, it makes the entire sky light up like a rainbow.”
“Okay, that’s bullshit,” Jaxie scoffed.
“Actually, she’s right.”
A voice from behind the trio caused them to turn. There, standing a few feet away, was a girl. She looked to be about their age, so no older than nineteen, with smooth skin the shade of hot caramel hidden underneath a simple white blouse and denim jeans. Overall, she was pretty, but plain. The exception, of course, was her hair. It was tied up in a straightforward bun as if it wasn’t damn near every colour. Reds, greens, blues, violets, yellows, pinks, and every shade in between- like she dove headfirst into a vat of unmixed hair dye. Despite that, her eyes were plain and brown.
“Sorry, I overheard you. She’s right, though.”
“She is?”
The girl nodded. “Yeah. We call it the Glimmer. It only happens right before the sun goes completely behind the horizon, so everything’s really dark. Then, for sixteen seconds, it’s just colours everywhere- shifting and swirling in the sky. Not even the clouds can block it. It shines right through like nothing’s there. You should really stay for a night just so you can see it.”
Alex shook her head. “We’d love to, but we don’t have the time. We’re just about to board our train.”
The girl patted the top of a large wheeled suitcase next to her. “The West-East Continental, right? Same here.”
“You’re going to Marrix.” Jaxie cocked an eyebrow. She wasn’t asking- she was stating her observation. The girl nodded.
“So are the three of you, I’m assuming. The name’s Nima.”
Eris’s brow furrowed. “That’s a bit on the nose.”
“How so?”
“Well, your name means ‘Colour’ and you dyed your hair like a rainbow.”
Nima tilted her head. “You know Ra’lan?”
“Bits and pieces. Tends to be the case for people named in the old tongue. Eris.”
Nima paused for a moment, thinking carefully. She was obviously piecing together as much knowledge as she could, trying to remember details almost forgotten. “Future?”
“No, that’s Azris. Eris means Hope.”
“Hope. I like that.”
Eris coughed.
“Anyway, this is Jaxie and Alex.”
Both girls gave a wave. Nima gave a smile.
“Nice to meet you. After you get settled in at Marrix and have a bit of free time, you really should come back. Everyone has to see the Glimmer at least once in their life or they never really lived. I go up to the cove just so I could see it from Tezreilyon’s point of view. Absolutely gorgeous.”
“That’s like… five hundred feet straight up a sheer cliff face.” Alex raised an eyebrow. Nima nodded.
“Five hundred and forty-two feet. There’s climbing fixtures that have been permanently installed for the ventrous that want to admire the view. My record is three minutes, but that’s only because I’ve climbed it so much and know where all the holds are. Even if it’s the first time, Gifted like you should manage it no problem. At least for you two.” She gestured towards Alex and Jaxie. Eris furrowed her brow.
“What about me?”
Nima blinked. “Oh, I meant no offense. You don’t hold yourself like a physical combatant. You’re either a primary magic user or a crafter, which means there’s a very significant chance you have no bonus to your Strength or Dexterity scores. Even a small bonus to either all but trivializes the climb.”
A train whistle sounded, tearing the gaze of all four girls sideways.
“Well, maybe later.” Jaxie hefted both bags and looked at the small line of people now stepping onto the train before turning her eyes back to Nima. “From what I understand, the cabins can each hold four people. Wanna bunk with us for the ride?”
“Really?” Nima raised an eyebrow. Alex looked surprised by the proclamation, but gave a content shrug.
“I don’t see why not. It’s a long trip and the company could be nice.”
Nima pondered. Jaxie patted her duffel bag. “We’ve got trail mix and fudge…”
The rainbow-haired girl eventually nodded.
“Sure. Why not?”