Echoes of the Seven Ch. 01-10

Story Summary:

Eris Kadell wants to save the world. Not by being one of warriors that goes toe-to-toe against the magical corruption called the Hollow, but instead by being the person that crafts the items for those heroes. She wants to be an Artisan.

That is, until her Gifting bestows her with a Mythic class that hasn't been seen since the gods died- the Artificer. Now it's up to her to try and steer the world away from total annihilation. That would be a problem enough, but one thing makes this all a LOT more complicated.

In order to get more powerful, Eris has to embrace the sin of Lust and become a whore.

Bite-Sized Description:

This is an ongoing smutty webnovel. It is interspaced with elements of romance, progression and a bit of action, but features the main character Eris using video-game-like crafting mechanics to create magical items for her friends. She does this while engaging in frequent acts of sex to become more powerful and fighting her desire to remain pure and virtuous.

Sexual Content:

Sexual and/or erotic content is quite prevalent in this story, and will likely extend beyond these tags. The sexual and/or erotic content that I can safely say will appear most often within this story is as follows;

Female x Female

Female x Futanari

Gangbang

Creampies

Oral Sex

Anal Sex

Rough Play

And a dash of Dubious Consent or Non-Consent

Author's Note:

Hey all! This is a story that I had in my head even before I started Liminal Lewdness, so I wanted to give it a shot. It does break a few of the traditional molds of erotic LitRPG stories, such as the MC being a 'side character class' rather than a 'main character class', but I figured that was intriguing enough for me and I wanted to see if anyone else would be interested in this kind of story.

While this story will feature frequent and graphic sex scenes, as is the nature of an erotic story, this one is driven far more by the plot itself than my other webnovel Liminal Lewdness. For example- whereas that story has the first sex scene right from chapter two, this one doesn't have one until chapter six. Of course, there will still be plenty of sexy encounters within this story, it'll need a bit of time in order to reach that point while the plot comes together.

Another thing that I wanted to try and do, which is different than pretty much every other erotic harem-building story like this, is have the MC begin the story in a stable romantic relationship. It's a bit rocky at the beginning, to help show just how concerned and terrified Eris is about losing Jaxie, but I wanted Eris to have her girlfriend/wingwoman from the very beginning, helping to encourage her pure spirit into acts of depravity.

So, yeah. Liminal Lewdness is about a whore gladly using the power of sex to save the world, whereas Echoes of the Seven is about a sweet, caring girl with no sexual experience being forced to become a slut so that she can become strong enough to help her harem friends save the world.

Enjoy!

Chapter 1: The Gifting

They say that patience is a virtue. Patience could go fuck itself.

Eris couldn't help it. Her knee was bouncing, and the sole of her shoe made slight squeaking noises as it scuffed against the tiled floor. The waiting was made worse by the empty room. A featureless white ceiling. Equally white concrete walls. Speckled marble floors. Eris was seated on a bench pressed up against one wall, and two doors looked at each other from opposite ends of the room. One led back outside into the main hall.

Alex would be seated on one of the benches out there, pretending to be casual and confident. Secretly, her stomach would be doing somersaults. Jaxie probably wasn't even inside. Eris was willing to bet that Jaxie was pacing back and forth in front of the steps to the building and terrorizing the passersby. Jaxie had a resting bitch face that could chisel a stone, but when she was anxious or annoyed?

The world felt a little bit colder just by thinking about it.

Eris had to force her gaze towards the other door. Dark wood the colour of coffee- ebony wood, if she had to take a guess- and a very passive engraved design with no recognizable shapes yet perfect symmetry. However, it was what laid behind the door that made Eris's heart shudder.

What waited behind that door was nothing less than the single most defining moment of her entire life. She had been waiting for almost two decades. Now, on this fateful morning, the dawn of her eighteenth birthday, it was Eris's time to participate in the Gifting. Her time to receive her Gift- her class, her very future.

She wondered what it would be like, to finally have a class. Jaxie and Alex both got theirs, on back-to-back days just two months ago. From the moment they stepped back out into the hall, Eris knew they were different. Their postures, the way they looked around the room, even their physiques were changed. Neither had been out of shape in any capacity before receiving their Gift- they trained and worked regularly to hone their athleticism. When they stepped out of that room, their muscles may as well have been chiselled from marble by the world's greatest sculptor. Even the tiniest shred of fat on their body vanished, and they carried themselves like heroes.

Which was fair, since that's what they wanted to be. That's what a lot of aspiring children wanted to be when they grew up. They wanted to help try and save the world. To help hold off, and maybe even help get the first foothold against the Hollow. It was an honour to become a warrior of the Syndicate.

Eris? She wasn't interested in honour.

While Jaxie would sweat from sprinting around a track, Eris sweat from standing next to a forge full of glowing coals. Alex bled when one of the practice swords would hit just a little bit too hard on a sensitive spot of skin as she sparred. Eris bled when she accidentally pricked her thumb with a sewing needle.

Eris already knew what her Gift was going to be. She was going to become an Artisan. A crafter of all trades. If anything needed to be built- she could do it. Certainly not as well as a fully specialized Blacksmith or Alchemist, but Eris would find strength in her versatility. There was no doubt in her mind. Classes were gifted by their relevance to the person and their preferences. Jaxie had always been blunt and confrontational. When things got a little heated with classmates in high school, Jaxie was always the first to start throwing hands. Enough visits to the principal's office and suspensions for fighting made nobody surprised when her class manifested as a Berserker.

Alex? Truthfully, Eris thought that she would have gotten a Berserker as well, just like Jaxie the day before. Jaxie may have been the one to start fights if people started being excessively rude, but Alex was never too far behind her. One rude comment directed towards either Eris or Jaxie was all it took for Alex to show that girls could break someone's nose just as easily as a boy could. It wasn't too far-fetched that her class ended up being a Knight. A protector, albeit a very aggressive one.

And here Eris was, with two of the most violent people as her beloved friends, anticipating a class that left her as far away from conflict as possible. She was okay with that. She preferred it that way. Alex and Jaxie wanted to get their hands dirty and save the world? Blessings to them. Eris was quite content with staying back in the city, building them gear and equipment to help them be the heroes the world needed.

That was, if Eris became an Artisan. She was well-versed in pretty much every form of crafting. She had enough pieces of practice armour and weapons filling the entirety of the training workshop. She filled the medicine cabinet back at the house with homemade alchemy concoctions to relieve headaches and soothe burns. She sewed their clothes. She cooked their meals. By the gods, she even paid for groceries last week with credits she got by making new cutlery for Mrs. Kerlesh.

Of course, Eris wouldn't be completely disappointed if she got a particular specialization, like a Weaver or Culinarian, but she prided herself on her versatility. Having her class only cover one aspect of crafting would make those objects much more powerful, but cut down on the options available. Artisan would make Eris equally good at everything.

But then, the more dangerous thoughts swam through her head like sharks. What if Eris got a combat-oriented class like Jaxie or Alex? She didn't want to fight. She couldn't fight. She wanted to help, to do her part. But she wasn't a warrior. The only time Eris had ever swung a sword was to test the weight distribution. She didn't know magic at all, and since neither Jaxie or Alex did either, they wouldn't be able to help her at all in learning. If Eris became some kind of mage, she would be less than useless. She would die immediately and drag everyone else down with her.

No. Eris gritted her teeth. She was going to become an Artisan. Her, Alex and Jaxie were going to go to Marrix to hone their skills, and they were going to become heroes. Well, Alex and Jaxie were going to be heroes. Eris was going to be their crafter.

Somehow, that reassurance didn't help her nerves. Eris nearly jumped out of her skin when the dark door opened and a wheezy, frail voice piped through. "Eris Kadell, let us commence your Gifting."

Father Marrel stood in the doorframe, hands clasped behind his back. He was the overseer of Giftings for the town, and the one who organized and performed the rituals. He was also fucking old.

His body hung off his bones like loose curtains, and liver spots decorated nearly every visible inch of skin. His bald head was wrinkled like a pile of unfolded laundry had gained sentience and started speaking, but still- somehow- his gaze was kind and reassuring. His smile eased Eris's heart into a pace that only had a slight chance of causing cardiac arrest.

Eris wiped the sweat from her palms onto her jeans and stood on unsteady legs. Father Marrel started speaking about the procedure for the ritual, but her mind had gone completely blank. She didn't even remember stepping into the room until she was kneeled on a plush black cushion at the edge of the Basin. It was a circular ring of black granite, built into the white marble of the floor, with a diameter of about five feet. It only lifted six or so inches from the floor, creating a retaining wall for the completely still pool of water contained inside. It was full to the point where Eris could see that the surface tension was the only thing keeping the water from dripping outside the ring. If even one drop was added, it would overflow.

The room itself was fairly small, smaller even than the little waiting room Eris was just in. This was barely larger than a tool shed, with only enough space for Father Marrel to kneel on a cushion similar to Eris's, on the other side of the Basin. A single candle built onto both of the walls to the sides were the only sources of light, but the room was so tiny that the illumination was more than enough.

"Do you understand?" Father Marrel asked.

"What?" Eris looked up, dazed. Father Marrel smiled through his soft, brown eyes.

"Do not be worried, dear. Everyone gets nervous during the Gifting. Would you like me to repeat the instructions? They are very simple."

She nodded.

"When I tell you to, you are going to place your hands on the edge of the Basin, repeat the words I say to you, and lower your face down into the water. Then, the Gifting will begin and I will leave the room."

"Why?" Eris asked.

"The Gifting can often be... violent. Interference in such will only make the process more taxing. By removing myself from the room, it prevents my own temptations to try and assist."

Eris paused tentatively. She had read up on the Gifting a hundred times over and heard a few details from her friends, but it was like all of that information in her head had completely vanished under the nerves. "What do you mean by violent?"

Father Marrel looked at the water between them. "Everyone has a different experience. The Gifting draws upon everything about you. Your ideals. Your wishes. Your flaws, and your faults. The way in which the Gifting shapes afterwards depends on what it sees in you. It prepares multiple different classes best suited to you. Then, it will test you to see which of those classes you deserve."

"Test me?"

"The Gifting will force you to make choices. Those choices then flesh out and shape the nature of your resulting class, making it unique even among others with an identically-named class. You will have different skills, different ways to use your abilities, and different outcomes based on your decisions."

Okay, so I just have to make a bunch of choices, Eris thought. She could assume that the choices would probably be something related to crafting. Would it force her to choose between different specialties, like which she would prefer more- Smithing or Leatherworking? Eris would just have to try and make the choices that split everything evenly, with no combat or conflict, so the Gifting had to make her an Artisan.

"Your plotting will not help you," Father Marrel said. Eris looked up confused, and he simply bowed his head.

"Everyone believes that they can try to plan out their Gifting to get the choice they want. The Gifting does not allow bias. It will only allow the purest, rawest decisions of the recipient."

Eris was going to ask what he meant by that, but Father Marrel held out one hand and gestured downwards. "Now, dear Eris, let us begin. Place your hands on the Basin and repeat after me."

Eris bit her tongue and nodded, rolling up the sleeves of her hoodie before bracing hands on the edge of the black granite ring. The stone was cold, and Father Marrel's voice was almost haunting as he spoke. It echoed around the chamber in a way that it didn't before, one line at a time.

"I kneel here and request a trial.

I give myself to serve worthwhile.

Through my oath,

Allow my growth,

To give me strength and ease my vile.

Among the strength of You I wallow,

Drink deep and feel, Your pain I swallow.

Take my breath,

My life, my death,

And claim my soul to cleanse the Hollow."

He paused after each phrase, allowing Eris to repeat his words. Oddly enough, it wasn't necessary. The words leapt into her mind as she spoke them- the oath pulling itself into her from some unseen force with a power that was beyond comprehension. By the time the last words escaped Eris's lips, her fingers were vibrating against the edge of the Basin. Her face was hot, her eyes were welled with tears, and a bitter taste crept down her tongue to lick away at her throat. Eris's vision was going black at the edges. She wanted to collapse, but somehow she found the strength to stay kneeling.

Father Marrel gestured his hands down to the pool, and Eris took a shaky, scared breath. She lowered her head, leaning forward to inch her face closer. This was it. In the perfectly still water, she saw her own reflection against the marble floor, just three or so inches below the surface. Eris looked better than she felt. Lips were turning blue. Deep sockets formed underneath her eyes, which could barely register the green irises among the severe bloodshot that deepened to a darker and more intense red by the second. Even her veins were beginning to poke out from her skin- lines filling with black that crawled up Eris's neck as power threatened to consume her entirely.

Eris touched her nose to the surface of the water and lost all balance. Her entire equilibrium was thrown to the wind and she toppled forward into the pool, but her face didn't smash into the marble floor beneath it. Instead, the pool went deeper and deeper, sucking her into darkness that pressed in on every side like blocks of ice. She couldn't see. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. Every part of her was being wiped from existence.

Eris was dying.

Eris stood in her workshop. Thirty long years of work lined the walls. Countless tools, all of which were hand-crafted, dangled from hooks in a cluttered mess of organized chaos. Half-finished projects littered tables and the floor, hung from ropes attached to the ceiling, and even more spare parts were scattered in a hurricane of metal, wood, cloth, and various organic ingredients. Eris stared up at her newest commission- a pair of leather wings that looked like they were torn straight off the back of a manticore. However, the reinforced-but-lightweight wooden braces, steel wires and linen flaps made obvious its crafted nature.

The group that requested it wasn't returning for another week at least, so Eris had plenty of time to double-triple-and-quadruple-check every fitting, every measurement, and run limited, very small-scale tests to ensure success. She already passed every metric and goal they requested. The wings were perfect, despite being little more than a prototype that the group wanted to experiment with before finding something more permanent. Nobody could have done better.

But they weren't enough. Eris knew some flaws right off the top of her head- the harness was adjustable, but that meant that it wasn't as stable. If she could get that archer's measurements, Eris could make a perfect fit, one that would have no risk of instability during flight. Moreover, the leather wasn't the right type. Hydra leather was all she had on hand- it was tougher than pretty much anything but heavy as sin. Getting gryphon hide or even roc feathers could allow the wings to be ultralight and cut through the air like a blade. If she did that, the archer could get so much faster.

Still, other flaws would be presented when the wings were used. However, Eris couldn't analyze those flaws to do better if that group took the wings across the country to fight. Eris needed to know those flaws now, so she had another week to fix every single one of them. To make these wings the best they could possibly be.

Eris wiped some sweat off her forehead with a grimy hand, smearing her face more in the process, and reached to the chain beside her. The wings lowered down to hang level with Eris's torso and she stepped forward to begin strapping herself into the harness.

Eris wiped the need for sleep from her eyes and blinked against the harsh light of the oil lamp. Particles of sawdust floated in the air as she dragged her rasp against the handle of the greataxe. Jaxie couldn't buy Eris a new forge, and Alex couldn't buy her a new loom if Eris made enough money to buy both items herself. She couldn't let them do that. They were the ones actually taking initiative and training to fight back the Hollow.

Even back in high school, every time they got into a fight, it was because someone started picking on her. They were protecting her, and Eris could never do anything to pay that back. Or anyone, for that matter. Everyone deserved better from her, and Eris intended to give what was owed.

Eris didn't need sleep. She just needed to help in the only way she knew how.

She blew off some more sawdust and took another pass with the rasp.

Eris stood on the roof, looking out over the line where the grey clouds turned black- where the sun vanished from the sky and the land curled and twisted with the darkness of the Hollow. She lowered her binoculars, but could still clearly see the shadows shifting as an ocean of monsters crossed the horizon. They already destroyed the Syndicate and slaughtered every single member. They had stomped over the entire world, and all that was left was her.

Everything was already lost. There wasn't any reason to fight anymore. Eris would be fighting for a memory that died when she did. She gritted her teeth and stared out at the darkness before raising a fist-sized onyx gemstone with an intricate silver rune on the front. She pressed her thumb right into the middle of it. The rune turned red.

The horizon erupted with light, smoke and dust curling like a mushroom the size of a mountain. Eris blinked through the flash, and blinked again for the second flash. And the third. And the fifth. And the eighth.

By the twelfth flash, the world in every visible direction was engulfed in the last of humanity's will for vengeance.

If the world was going to die, Eris would make damned sure that the Hollow did, too.

Eris fell backwards, coughing what felt like smoke and ash out of her lungs as her back impacted hard against smooth floors. She blinked images of wings, sawdust, and explosions out of her mind. It was dark, like the candles in the room had gone out. Eris looked up and her eyes widened.

She wasn't in the chapel anymore.

That much was for certain. The chapel didn't stretch on as a black abyss for eternity, where the line between the infinite darkness of the sky blended perfectly with the horizon of a featureless land. The ground was nothing more than a glossy black material almost like obsidian glass, but with no imperfections whatsoever. Everything was so dark that the only confirmation Eris had that her eyes were even open was when she looked down at her pale self- standing bright amidst the darkness.

Wait a minute, Eris thought. She wasn't standing out because she was pale- she was glowing. Her skin seemed to give off a soft luminescence, shining even through her hoodie and jeans.

Such a pretty name.

The voice made Eris jump. Twisting her head revealed no source among the darkness. It appeared again- vaguely humanoid yet entirely alien. Perhaps feminine, but that was hard to guess. Everything about it sounded... off. Like it was underwater, yet completely unmuffled from the fact.

"What... what is this? Who's there?"

Soul of Light and Hope. Not just a name, but a promise. A wish.

"Who are you? What did you do to me?!" Eris looked around frantically. Jaxie and Alex may have been fairly tight-lipped about their Giftings, but nothing that Eris ever read about the process mentioned something like this. The participant would go through a series of artificial scenarios and then pop back into the real world with a class. Getting sent to an abyss with a weird voice that seemed to emerge from everywhere at the same time? That wasn't on the job listing.

Simple questions, but ones that do not have simple answers. An attempt will be made regardless.

Though nothing seemed to change immediately, Eris knew something was happening. The disembodied voice started to feel less like an environmental whisper and more of a singular presence. Still all-encompassing, but more like an individual figure was speaking rather than the world itself. Goosebumps rose on Eris's skin. She turned around.

Sitting on the ground, one leg tucked underneath the other, was a figure. It might have been female, but it was difficult to tell. That was because they didn't seem all... there. It was a sheen of iridescent fog with a featureless face that turned up towards Eris.

I am what once was, left behind to ensure what could be. You, Hope, have been chosen.

"Uhh, what?"

Chapter 2: Echo

Eris's eyes narrowed at the foggy figure. It stood up. When it did, it seemed to be distorted- like a curved mirror amplifying the smallest of movements in wild ways to create a completely different image. Eris couldn't tell whether it was six feet tall or twenty.

Time is dwindling. The Hollow encroaches.

"I know," Eris said tentatively. "That's what we all sign up for. We're trying to stop it."

It is closer than you think. You must fight the corruption. Such is your oath to the lost. Those that give their fleeting power.

Eris raised an eyebrow. "The lost? Are you talking about the gods?"

The figure seemed to shake its head. Or it nodded. Eris genuinely couldn't tell- the distortion made its movements impossible to truly define.

There are no deities anymore. We died long ago.

"Yeah, I kno- wait... 'we?' Who are you, exactly?"

Nothing more than a memory. A plea. A will to continue left after our existence faded.

Eris shook her head. "You aren't making sense. What in the world are you talking about?"

The figure held silent and still for a moment. It flickered slightly- like a candle blowing gently in a breeze.

I am Demeri. Goddess of fate.

"You mean like... Demeri the Augur? Half of the Oculus?"

This time, the nod was more clear.

In a sense. I am the ghost that was left behind. I am what remains of the Seven. I am that to which you bind your oath, and that which grants strength to those who pledge.

Eris paused. She wasn't quite sure how she managed to keep talking. All of this was too... weird. "Hold on, you're saying that you give everyone their classes?"

Indeed. It is a task I have maintained for as long as I am able, but my time has come. I am fading. I must return to the Stream.

Eris raised an eyebrow. "How does that even work? You're dying, but you're already dead?"

It is not a death, but a lack of existence. The Seven faded, and Demeri left behind this ghost to ensure the world would survive. I am temporary, and too, am fading. I have sustained myself and Gifted strength for as long as I could but my power has been exhausted. I am no longer.

Eris shifted uncomfortably between her feet. "Are you sure? You still look pretty... ghosty to me."

The noise that occurred was strange. It was almost like a laugh mixed with a cough- yet again put through the weird kind-of-underwater distortion with the rest of Demeri's words.

You do not perceive me. You can only sense me. In front of you is no more than my shadow cast from a different perception of reality. What you hear is a vibration. I could manipulate the world directly once, but no longer. The only reason we can communicate now is because you sent yourself here, halfway between Tonshlur and the Stream.

"I have so many questions."

My deepest apologies, Hope, but we are out of time. You will be my instrument of cleansing for whom I've been waiting. You will rid Tonshlur of the Hollow. You must. In you I place my final wish. You are the last of the Echoes. The final Gifted.

Warmth started seeping into Eris's chest like she had started chugging a mug of hot chocolate. At the same time, the shadow of Demeri's ghost was becoming thinner- less defined. Instead of fog, it was a colourful mist.

"Woah, woah- wait! What's going on?"

Which sin do you choose?

Eris blinked, not quite comprehending because she was too busy focusing on the way her skin was glowing even brighter than before. "What?"

Everything has its equal. Action braced with reaction, power with impotence. The greatest good must be tempered with the deepest sin. A mortal cannot handle this energy without it being diluted first. You must embrace a sin into which this energy may be catalyzed.

Eris's mind was fuzzy. This was all happening so fast. "What do you mean, 'embrace a sin'? Are you talking about the sins of like... lust and stuff?"

The sin of Lust has been chosen as the catalyst.

"Wait, I didn't mean-"

Eris was cut off by a deep, powerful throbbing in her chest like her heart was about to explode. She fell to her knees on the cold, glassy floor. The mist in front of her was barely a few glittering sparkles hovering in the air at this point. When the voice returned, it was no more than a whisper.

Continue the cycle, Soul of Hope.

Eris's eyes fluttered open and she gasped for breath. Her lungs immediately filled with the water in which her face was sunken into. She flailed backwards and immediately started hacking the fluid out of her system. Her back hit marble floors but didn't linger. She managed to push herself onto hands and knees, retching while the water of the Basin spewed from her lips.

There was a lot of it, too. Far more than should have been reasonable with her one, quick breath. Buckets of clear, slightly-glittering liquid poured like an open faucet as Eris heaved a truly impossible amount out of her body. Everything hurt. Her head throbbed with the worst migraine of her life, her heart pounded against the inside of her chest like an animal in a cage eight sizes too small, and her stomach was roiling with the movements of her diaphragm- upchucking copious quantities of sparkle-water.

By the time that the liquid seemed to have been fully expelled from her body, Eris was covered in sweat. The water covered the entire floor, and the only reason it didn't build up any noticeable amount was because of a small drain that Eris just now noticed in one corner. As for the Basin itself, it appeared as if it were untouched. Eris somehow inhaled half a bathtub's worth of water, yet it was just as full as when Eris first walked into the room- right on the teetering edge of overflowing. Furthermore, something felt off.

Her clothes didn't fit quite right. They were a bit too small. Too tight. The button on the front of her jeans had broken off completely, and the fabric was stretched to an uncomfortable limit. Looking down, she remembered why. Jaxie and Alex's bodies both changed slightly after their Gifting. Receiving a class also gifts the perfect body of the recipient, the best version of themselves. Their changes were relatively subtle- they were already damn near perfect.

For Eris, the changes were less inconspicuous.

Most noticeably, her entire figure had narrowed down. Although many elements of practicing to become an Artisan were physically taxing, they were nowhere near the kinds of workouts that Jaxie and Alex did. As such, Eris had a little bit more skin on her bones. That extra mass was gone, and the lack of weight was noticeable. Eris felt stronger, more capable. She also took up a little bit more of the space above the water. Whereas previously Eris had to stand on tiptoes to break five foot, she was now willing to bet that she soared past that milestone by several inches. She still wasn't tall- not even close- but at least she wasn't abnormally short anymore. Her hair, which had been tied back in a simple ponytail to keep it out of the way, had gotten free. It was obvious why when Eris looked down into her reflection atop the water- because it was a fraction of the length.

It used to be orange waves of pale fire that tumbled down over her shoulders and got tangled in absolutely everything. Now, it barely hung below her ears- even the colour had intensified. Pastel peach had darkened to a sharp scarlet, as bright as if it had been dyed. Furthermore, the deterioration of her body from speaking the oath without submerging in the Basin had completely receded and then some. The green eyes that stared back were now glittering emeralds instead of lawn clippings. Her cheeks had narrowed as well, the child-like roundness of Eris's face fading completely. Even with a new splattering of freckles, like someone had lightly spraypainted her face with caramel, she looked elegant. Eris couldn't help it. She blushed.

She was hot.

But what about everything else? Her class, her skills... what did that Demeri-ghost-thing do to her? Not a single question had been answered, and ten thousand more were flooding in to join them. Though, there should be a way to satiate some of those questions. She just needed to figure out how to access it.

Eris cleared her mind, thinking back to how Jaxie and Alex described the process. They said it was a lot easier than they thought it would be. They were under-exaggerating.

Opening her stat window was just as easy as if Eris wished to lift a finger. No, it was easier. There were no muscles involved, no physical movement. It was a will of the mind, a single, teeny-tiny errant twitch to bring up her details and nothing more. Instantly, words flashed across her mind. There was no visible form to them since they were only thoughts, yet Eris could practically see the information hanging in front of her face as clearly as if she were reading from a page.

Name: Eris Limeen Kadell

Age: 18

Class: Artificer of Lust

Level: 1

Vitality: F-

Physical Defence: F-

Magical Defence: F-

Tenacity: F-

Strength: F-

Dexterity: F-

Mind: F-

Control: F+

Craftsmanship: E-

Skills: 7

Artificer's Cunning {Passive} {Maxed}

You are the foremost expert when it comes to items. You may Inspect unknown materials and items. When Inspecting a crafted object, you receive additional information about it. Information includes:

- Material construction

- Current durability

- The crafter's name

- Active magical effects

Novice Artificer {Passive} {Level 1}

You have a natural talent for crafting. Any product you craft gains a {25%} bonus to its Quality, applied after all other bonuses.

Crafting Points {Passive} {Level 1}

You have {10} Crafting Points, which you may spend on certain abilities while in the process of crafting. When beginning a new craft, current number of Crafting Points resets to {10}.

Resilience {Active} {Level 1}

For each Crafting Point spent on Resilience, the Durability of the craft is increased by {10%}. Consumable crafts, such as potions or food, have their Duration increased instead.

Pacifist {Passive} {Maxed}

You cannot directly bring harm to any creature, monster, or person.

Desire's Reap {Passive} {Level 1}

Engage in sexual acts with others to collect Desire. Desire is collected in the following ways;

- Kissing

Additional Desire is collected based on the arousal of the active participant(s). Current Desire: 0

Enhance {Active} {Maxed}

Expend collected Desire to advance skill progression.

Eris knelt in stunned silence for several moments. By the gods, where to start? Nowhere in particular seemed especially inviting as a place to begin, so Eris opted to work her way from the top down.

Class: Artificer of Lust

Those few words had a lot to unpack. An Artificer? There was no way. The entire class was extinct and had been for four hundred years, just like the rest of the Mythic classes. Paladins, Lycanthropes, Warlocks, and many more beyond that. Those were the classes of the old world. The blessings bestowed upon mortals when the gods were still alive. Their power and influence was said to be so great that they were second only to the Seven themselves- like an echo following in their footsteps. Thus, that's what they were called- the Echoes of the Seven.

The classes nowadays were nothing even close to the rumoured strength of the Echoes. A tenth-level Berserker from today could level a building. A tenth-level Paladin Echo could wipe an entire city block off the map- if not the city itself.

As for the Artificers? They were the crafters. The builders of the old world, capable of making items so powerful they break the fundamentals of reality. But Eris's mind was drawn to somewhere else.

An Artificer... of Lust?

What the crap was that supposed to mean? Of course, Eris knew what it meant. Her silent question was more of the rhetorical variety. It was simply too odd to fully grasp the concept of. She was a crafter.

A... sex crafter.

Desperate to move on, Eris scanned over her stats. Everything was an F-, the lowest rank. Eris had to remind herself that was normal. From what she read, a value of F- in a stat meant there were no magical bonuses being applied. It was a standard, ordinary human value. Typically, a person with a class only received a higher 'grade' in their primary stats, or the ones actively used by their class. For example, Jaxie had stated that as a Berserker, her primary stats were Vitality, Physical Defence, Tenacity, and Strength, and thus were her only stats that weren't F-.

Eris looked at her two stats: Control and Craftsmanship. Of course, those were the only ones she expected to see with a bonus, so at least that part of her overall kit didn't surprise her. Control measured a crafter's speed when making items, as well as their material efficiency. It still blew Eris away that a high-level crafter with a very good Control could somehow turn fifty pounds of raw material into twice that weight of finished product in a matter of minutes. Craftsmanship was simpler, at least. It did one thing and one thing only- determined the overall Quality of the finished product.

An F+ and E-, respectively. Perfectly standard for first level, actually.

But then there were the skills.

Artificer's Cunning was intriguing. It seemed like a specialised version of Crafter's Cunning, which was a skill that every crafter always received, no matter their class. Eris knew that it did one thing, which was allow the crafter to Inspect unknown materials and items.

If a person didn't already have a vague idea of what something was, then Inspecting it supposedly revealed little to no information. Most importantly, that meant special items. A person picking up a random ring from the Obelisk wouldn't be able to figure out what stats it affected or enchantments it had without testing it first. Crafters were the exception. Even if they had no idea what something was or could be, a single Inspect would lay it all out on the table.

Eris's came with benefits beyond that. Learning more information about anything was invaluable for anyone in the Syndicate- especially a crafter. Only a fool wouldn't be able to see the advantages of that.

Novice Artificer. A passive twenty-five percent bonus to the Quality of all Eris's crafts? At least that part seemed pretty standard for an Artisan. That last part caught Eris up, though. 'Applied after all other bonuses'? Usually, any kinds of bonuses like that were cumulative. This was explicitly multiplicative. In other words- inherently stronger than anything else Eris had ever heard of.

At least Crafting Points and Resilience seemed to be perfectly normal. Kind of. While spellcasters had Mana that they used to fuel their spells, crafters had Crafting Points. It looked like Eris only had one way to spend them, right now. Ten points, with each giving a ten percent bonus to Durability? It didn't matter that Durability was one of the least important parts of an item since repairs were so easy. Straight-up doubling it was still nothing to scoff at. The added fact that Quality improved everything in an item meant that Eris could double an item's Durability, add the bonuses of her stats, and then multiply that total with Novice Artificer. Whatever resulting item would be very tough to crack.

For a first-level item, at least.

Eris sighed and rested her hands on her lap. Pacifist. Eris had never heard of any skill that had no positive benefits whatsoever. Even the 'worst' skills had their downsides amplify something in return. An Evoker that could triple the Mana cost of their spells for twenty percent extra Power? A Duelist that had reduced Vitality but increased Dexterity?

From what Eris could tell, there was no benefit here. This was a strict, one-hundred percent limitation. A complete inability to cause any harm.

What exactly did that imply? Even though she wouldn't be the one fighting, causing harm was still quite ingrained into the life of crafters. Most of them built weapons, after all. The skill said 'cannot directly bring harm', which supposedly meant that it only extended to Eris and not whomever she may provide a weapon to. Still, the very minimum of the skill made one thing very clear- if Eris was ever in danger and nobody was around to protect her, she was probably going to die.

She shuddered. Then, naturally, her face went hot at the next skills. The duo of Desire's Reap and Enhance.

Eris was supposed to... engage in sexual acts so that she could build some extra resource called Desire, and then spend that Desire to advance her skill progression?

What the crap?

Disregarding the whole sex part was one thing, but skill progression was something completely unheard of. Skills were skills. They never got stronger individually, only stronger in proportion to the level of the user. Yet Eris was staring right at it- a slew of skills that could supposedly become stronger.

Artificer's Cunning, Pacifist and Enhance all said that their levels were {Maxed}. Eris could safely assume that meant she couldn't spend Desire to advance their progression. That left four skills to work with.

Novice Artificer, Crafting Points, Resilience and Desire's Reap. Three skills to increase Eris's crafting ability and one skill for gathering Desire to make the aforementioned skills more powerful.

A skill that required kissing.

What was going on?

Chapter 3: Lies

Thankfully, Eris had the forethought to bring spare clothes. Witnessing both Jaxie and Alex leave their own Giftings in wet clothes after they vomited holy water all over themselves made it an easy choice. Alex had the duffel bag resting beside her on the bench. As soon as the door leading out of the waiting room opened, Alex's gaze turned up towards Eris. Brown eyes widened.

"You're taller."

"It seems that way, yeah. Mind passing me my clothes? These jeans are killing me."

Alex nodded, her blonde curls bobbing. Eris gladly accepted the duffel bag and vanished into the washroom for a few moments. She wore jeans because she didn't think that her body would change all that much. Now that she had grown several inches, she was very thankful for her spare bottoms of choice being a pair of sweatpants. Unfortunately, her shoes were cutting off the circulation to her feet, so those had to go. Her sweater got a healthy dose of 'intestinal tract splash zone', so that was removed and stuffed into the bag alongside her shoes. At least her shirt still fit kind of okay. It was very snug and Eris couldn't quite roll up the sleeves as far as she usually liked, but the dark green fabric was clean and wasn't on the verge of tearing.

Regardless, it meant that the first of Eris's projects now that she was a crafter was simply going to be re-sizing her clothes. Eris didn't have much time to dwell, since stepping out of the washroom revealed that Alex must have gone outside to go get Jaxie. Both of them were standing there.

It was almost comical to look between them. On the left, there was Jaxie. Six foot two with long, long brown hair so dark it may as well have been black, topped with piercing blue eyes that melted steel beams. Her skin was tanned from years spent practicing outside and her black tank top showed large, muscular arms.

On the right, there was Alex. About six inches shorter than the Berserker beside her, Alex's hair was almost as bright as her pale sundress. Someone looking at Jaxie could take one glance at her serious visage and only assume that she was one of two things- a lumberjack or a warrior. Meanwhile, a person looking over Alex would probably get the impression of a sweet girl working at a flower market. At least until that person got on her bad side and received a broken jaw because of it.

Still, the two couldn't have looked more different. The only similarity they held between them was the look of pride and curiosity as Eris walked out of the washroom. Jaxie's jaw even dropped a little bit. Eris saw the brunette's eyes wander up and down her body, taking in all the changes.

"You're taller."

"That's what I said," Alex grinned. Eris smiled meekly and walked forward.

"I got Artisan."

"Well, no surprise there," Jaxie chuckled. "I'm not sure it was possible for you to get anything else."

She arched her back and reached her arms way above her head as she stretched, to the point that her tank top slid up to reveal half an inch of her toned stomach. After she laxed, she cracked her neck.

"Alright, who wants breakfast?"

Eris shrugged. "I could eat."

"Of course you could," Alex rolled her eyes. "You just vomited a couple gallons of magic water all over the floor."

Jaxie tilted her head down. "Why do you think I asked? Come on, I saw a sandwich cart starting to set up down the street."

As was tradition for each other's birthdays, Jaxie and Alex took point on a day of celebration. Naturally, that day of celebration began and ended within the span of twenty minutes and consisted of cheap sandwiches. Curious, Eris held hers in her hands and cast a tentative Inspect its way. Thankfully, it was just as easy as opening her stat window. All Eris had to do was will forth the intent and words hovered forefront in her mind.

Southshore BLT

Portions: 2

A sandwich inspired by both southern coastal and central cuisine. Created by Leopold Fraizer. Made from bread, tuna, bacon, lettuce, tomato, cheese and mayonnaise.

"Woah."

Jaxie looked over at Eris and must have pieced together why she was staring at her food. Jaxie grinned and focused on it as well.

"Ah, the Southshore BLT. A sandwich inspired by both southern coastal and central cuisine. Having fun?"

Eris tried not to acknowledge the fact that Jaxie mentioned far less information than Eris was seeing. "That is so weird," she mumbled.

"Stop playing with your food..." Alex muttered. Jaxie rolled her eyes.

"Oh, like you didn't Inspect everything you saw when you got Gifted."

"Pardon me, but it isn't exactly like we have time on our hands. We have to leave for Marrix tomorrow."

Eris scoffed. "Sorry that my parents were inconsiderate in their timing."

"How about you both pull the sticks out of your asses," Jaxie stood, "and focus more on enjoying this moment?"

All three girls looked at each other. Eris nodded.

"Right. Food now, training later."

Unfortunately, 'Food' only lasted for a few more minutes. Eris intended to save the other half of her footlong sandwich for lunch but she scarfed it down before she even realised that she finished the first half.

That meant the inevitable conversation that Eris had been dreading emerged far sooner than was ideal.

Which was never. Ideally.

"So, an Artisan." Jaxie began. "What's that like? What kinda skills ya got?"

Hearing her words sent a dagger through Eris's sternum. Every second Eris spent thinking about the consequences of being a class that hasn't been seen in over four centuries freaked her out more and more. Eris trusted both of them with everything, especially Jaxie. But this was something else entirely. Demeri said that Eris had been 'the last of the Echoes', but also that she was the 'final Gifted'.

To say that was concerning was the biggest understatement in the world. Did that mean that the Giftings wouldn't work anymore? That nobody else could get a class? The Gifted made up almost the entire Syndicate, and it took every single person to even hold off the Hollow for this long. If nobody else could become Gifted, then that meant they were the final generation of the Syndicate. The last line of defense. Even if they could hold off the Hollow, eventually all the Gifted would die of old age and leave the world defenseless against corruption. The world was completely, unequivocally screwed.

But Eris was an Artificer. The last Echo. Perhaps she could become powerful enough to turn the tide of the war against the Hollow? Sure, she had some interesting skills now, but she certainly wasn't strong enough to single-handedly wipe out a world-eating magical plague. Should she tell Jaxie and Alex? Maybe they could help somehow.

Nope. Not now. That would have to wait until Eris could put together a plan.

Speaking of which, she was used to figuring things out quickly. She had enough journals and sketchbooks shoved into her laboratory filled with nothing but design sketches and crafting formulae to make Alex's head spin- and she was far from stupid. Understanding how things worked, how different functions, different pieces, and different ingredients all fit together to create the final, refined project was Eris's specialty. If this step is done too early, or this section is attached before that one, then it makes this other step more difficult. All of it was a puzzle to be solved.

But now, Eris's mind was fragmented. She couldn't even begin to understand the full scope of the starting position for what being an Artificer entailed, much less what steps she needed to take now in order to prevent the final product from collapsing later.

"Uh, Ell?" Jaxie nudged Eris again, a frown of worry now twisting her lips.

"Huh?" Eris shook her head to clear away the thoughts and refocused her attention.

"You okay?"

"Uh, yeah. Why?" Eris tried to sound casual. Jaxie narrowed her eyes.

"Because I asked you what being an Artisan is like, and you just started staring into space like you didn't even know what planet you were on."

"Ease off, Jazz," Alex playfully reached over Eris to smack the taller girl on the back of the head while they walked. "She's probably trying to figure things out, just like you and I did after the Gifting."

Jaxie huffed. "I was just curious. So..." She nudged Eris again with her shoulder. "How many skills do you have? I have four."

"Same here," Alex said.

Both girls turned to Eris. She swallowed. "Uhh, four."

"Is that including Crafter's Cunning and Crafting Points?" Jaxie cocked her head.

"You remember?"

Alex scoffed. "Do we remember? You never shut up about it."

"Crafting Points have a distinct maximum per item," Jaxie began quoting, "-which limits the potential strength of an individual creation. However, since all Crafting Points are replenished for each craft instead of a time-based regeneration like Mana, it makes Crafting Points invaluable for production of a large quantity of effective items."

"Oh." Eris coughed. "Sorry. Uh, anyway... yeah. Those two and then two more. One that lets me spend CP on increasing a craft's Durability and then another that gives a passive bonus to Quality for all my crafts."

"Cool." Jaxie smiled. "That means we'll have an upper hand when we get to Marrix."

"Because Ell will make us stuff for free while all the other students have to pay for their gear?"

"Hey-" Jaxie turned and wagged a finger playfully. "I still intend to pay her, dumbass, at least for the cost of the materials."

"And the rest?" Alex raised an eyebrow, humour glinting in her brown eyes.

"Girlfriend discount?" Jaxie grinned and slid her hand into Eris's. That made Eris's heart leap up into her throat.

Eris remembered when Jaxie's palm was rough and covered with callouses from training. That had vanished after her Gifting and hadn't returned. Now her fingers, though strong enough to wield her weapons with devastating efficiency, were soft and smooth. Eris imagined that her own hands felt different. If anything, hers had been more rugged than Jaxie's were pre-Gifting. Not only were the callouses stiff and unyielding, the numerous scars from mishaps with knives, saws, sharp wires, glass and more had made Eris's skin the texture of eighty-grit sandpaper. That was probably all gone now- replaced with sweat and clammy-ness.

Eris swallowed deeply. Why was Jaxie holding her hand like this? Girlfriend discount? What about last night? Did this mean things weren't completely screwed up?

Jaxie gave a small squeeze before letting go and wrapping her arm over Eris's shoulders. Eris panicked.

What the fuck was that supposed to mean? Was Jaxie just being her normal, friendly self, or did this mean something different because of what happened? Should Eris be worried or excited? Why was her chest getting warm?

Fuck!

When the three arrived at the abandoned distillery that had effectively become their home-away-from-home, they split off into their normal arrangement- Jaxie and Alex exercising or practicing combat drills with various weapons in what used to be vineyards, while Eris stood in the ramshackle laboratory she built on the inside. The planks of wine barrels had been straightened and repurposed to make workbenches, the stomping vats were filled with clay and a homemade bellows to make a forge, and even the glass bottles had been melted down to make lenses of varying magnification for projects that required detailed work. The simple fact that this place had been the communal dump of Kelshiir for decades meant there was no shortage of material for Eris to use- even if all of it was literal trash.

Eris dropped her duffel bag onto one of the tables and walked over to a series of wooden shelves filled to overflowing with assorted materials. She grabbed several pieces of leather. It was mostly the outside scraps left over after carving out the shapes she needed in the past, but there was still more than enough left over to work with. After all, she needed new shoes. Walking on cobblestones for twenty minutes in a pair of socks hadn't exactly been comfortable.

Eris barely managed to head over towards her bookshelf filled with notes before she heard the door to the distillery close. She turned to see both Jaxie and Alex standing there. Jaxie had her arms crossed like she was getting pissed off, yet her face held the same curious grin as Alex's.

"Not that we're in private," the Berserker began, "Care to tell us why you lied about your class?"

"W-what?" Eris stuttered. Alex calmly adjusted her sundress.

"You're a terrible liar, you know that? You get all flustered and avoid eye contact."

"I- uhh, I don't..."

Jaxie took a step back and crossed her arms. "Cut the shit. You've been dodgy at best. We're not idiots. If you really did get an Artisan like you wanted, you would be running down the street cheering. But here you are, barely holding it together. Your hands haven't stopped shaking once."

Eris looked down at her hands and sure enough, they were trembling. She could only assume they had been doing that ever since she left the Gifting chamber and was too lost in thought to notice. Alex huffed.

"We also know that you wouldn't act like this if you got a specialist crafter, either. You knew the possibility existed and were prepared for it, even if you didn't like it. This isn't that. Whatever class you got caught you completely by surprise."

Eris couldn't look them in the eyes. Instead, her gaze was firmly affixed to her socks. So much for trying to keep this a secret from those two. She hadn't even made it a half hour.

"Yeah," Eris mumbled, "it did."

To her surprise, both girls stepped forward and pulled Eris into a three-way hug that was so tight Eris swore she could hear one of her ribs pop. She wasn't sure what to do, so her hands hung awkwardly by her side. Jaxie craned her head down and nuzzled it in the crook of Eris's neck.

"It's okay. You can be in our party. We'll make sure you're safe while you figure out how to fight like us."

Wait, what? In their party? Learn how to fight?

"What are you talking about?"

Jaxie and Alex both pulled back from the hug, eyes filled with concern and a fresh dose of confusion.

"You... you got a combat class, right?" Alex's brow furrowed. "That's why you're all freaked out, because you're gonna have to go fight."

"Huh? No, not at all. I got a crafting class."

Their confusion was painted so thick on their face Eris could practically see it dripping onto the floor. Jaxie was the one who spoke next. "Then why the fuck are you being so weird? Which one did you get?"

Eris wrung her hands together. "Uhh, I'm an Artificer."

Both girls stared blankly. They looked at each other, shook their heads, then looked back at the redhead. Jaxie gave a questioning shrug. "Are we supposed to know what that is?"

Well, that was one way to remove the tension of the reveal.

Chapter 4: Training and Talks

"Okay, let me recap, just to make sure we're all on the same page..."

Jaxie leaned forward on the stool while rubbing her temples.

"After having your Gifting trials or whatever the fuck we call them, you ended up in a black place of nothingness that's supposedly halfway between Tonshlur and the Stream. You then talked to the dying ghost of a goddess who used the last of her power to give you one of the Mythic classes of the old world and turn you into an Echo. However, since the goddess is now completely dead, that means nobody else can get a class. That leaves the Syndicate without any forces for future generations, and in turn means that the world will be completely consumed by the Hollow unless humanity finds a way to destroy it first."

Eris was quiet for several moments before letting out a pathetic squeak. "Theoretically?" Alex sighed in response.

"However, because you're an Echo, you have the potential to become extremely powerful and might be able to help the Syndicate win the war."

"... Theoretically?"

Alex turned an empty cup over in her hands, again and again. "If I didn't know you so well, I'd say you were lying. "

"I'm not lying."

"I just said that you weren't-"

"Guys!" Jaxie lowered her hand and stared at the floor. "We have to tell the Syndicate. That Ell's an Echo. And all the business about no more Giftings, too."

Eris practically leapt out of her seat. "No!" Both girls turned to look at her with confused expressions. Eris withered. "It's just, we don't know anything for certain right now."

"You just said you saw a goddess die," Alex frowned.

"I don't know what I saw, okay? I mean, you two still have your classes, right? That means magic and power can linger. Maybe the Gifting will still work."

"Ell," Jaxie's brow furrowed, "we have to tell them. We became part of the Syndicate as soon as we swore that oath."

"We can't. At least, not yet."

"Why the fuck not?"

Before Eris could muster a response to Jaxie's interrogation, Alex let out a calm breath. "Because Ell has to become a terrible person, first."

Eris froze. Jaxie raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?" Alex gripped the cup in her hands tightly and stood.

"The Echoes of the old world. They were the only people that had classes back then, and the classes were only given by the Seven. The Echoes were super powerful and led the world through a golden age, but almost every single mention of them also points out their indulgences and sins." Alex set the cup down on one of the worktables. She kept talking.

"They would save a city from horrible monsters, but only after they cut out the hearts of innocent sacrifices or were paid a king's ransom. As a reward for acts of virtue, they were given entire banquets' worth of food that they would eat in front of the hungry, or provided with endless partners to have intercourse with. Statues of gold were built in their honour on street corners. They kept the most accomplished people as slaves and would sit out entire wars just because they didn't feel like saving people."

All three girls were completely silent. Eventually, Alex sighed.

"These indulgences were so profound that the Echoes sometimes referred to themselves under a sin. There was Agalvald the Greedy, the Lycanthrope who hoarded over fourteen million moons' worth of coins in his lair. Edna the Warlock, whose official title was 'Crumb Counter' because if anyone was caught stealing her food she would vaporise them on the spot. Even Manner, the Paladin of Hate who only went into battle after his armor had been painted with the blood of a child. Not a single one was a good person."

Jaxie glanced over to Eris, The brunette looked worried. Eris turned her gaze back to Alex. "How do you know all that?"

"The library's less than five minutes from my house," Alex said. "And it's a very small library. 'History' did a decent job at keeping me occupied when I finished the entire 'Fiction' section."

Jaxie blinked several times. "Hold on, just because all the Echoes of the old world were bad people doesn't mean that Ell is. Come on, you know her just as well as I do, and none of those people sound anything close to her."

"Of course." Alex crossed her arms. "I'm not saying that she is a terrible person. I'm saying that she needs to become a terrible person."

"What makes you think that?"

Eris coughed, drawing the attention of both girls. Her voice quivered. "Because it makes me stronger."

Alex nodded. "Based on records found that predate the Sundering when the gods perished, scholars deduced with reasonable confidence that each Echo seemed to be aligned with a singular sin. Furthermore, it wasn't their classes that made them powerful, but rather the amount that they indulged in their specific sin. A Summoner based on Pride would become stronger the more that people worshipped them, in the same way that a Monk of Sloth would increase in power the less they actually fought."

Jaxie's eyes were wide. Eris gave a slow, confirming nod. "All of my skills have levels and I can spend a resource to advance their progression. Supposedly, that makes them stronger outside of my own class level."

"A resource you collect by committing sin, I assume?" Alex drummed her fingers against a bicep of her crossed arms. Again, Eris nodded. The room fell silent once more.

"Which sin are you connected to?" Jaxie asked after a long moment. Eris paused.

"Lust," came the eventual reply. That caused both Jaxie and Alex to raise eyebrows.

"Lust? Really? As in... sex and stuff?" An odd grin started to crawl across Jaxie's mouth.

"I didn't choose it," Eris said quickly with reddening cheeks. Of course, she technically had, but definitely not with intention. She just wanted clarification for a question and Demeri had taken it as the answer. "It just kinda happened and now I'm an Artificer of Lust."

"So you're a crafter that gets stronger the more people you hook up with?" Jaxie was chuckling. "That's wild."

Eris's face was bright red at this point. She hid it in her hands. "I didn't choose this!"

"Okay, okay!" Alex started walking back over, silencing Jaxie's snickers. "Do you have any specific details on how you collect your resource to become stronger?"

Eris talked into her palms. She couldn't look them in the eyes while explaining this.

"I have a skill called Desire's Reap. It gives me a resource called Desire by engaging in sexual acts, and provides more Desire if the participant is aroused. Another skill called Enhance lets me spend that Desire to make my skills stronger."

Eris spoke too quickly, not pausing for anything. It was easier to just say it as fast as she could instead of drawing it out. It didn't help that Jaxie gave a seductive whistle. Eris heard a smack, presumably Alex slapping Jaxie.

"Alright..." Alex began, "does it specify any kinds of acts, or is it left ambiguous?"

A groan. "Kissing."

"That's it?"

Eris's face was extremely hot in her hands. She nodded. "I think if I level up the skill it'll add more stuff, but for now it's just that."

"Should we test it?"

Eris lifted her head to stare incredulously at Jaxie, who had been the one to ask. "What?"

Jaxie gave a nonchalant shrug but couldn't hide her grin. "If you make your skills stronger by spending Desire, shouldn't we test and see how much kissing actually gives you?"

"You mean, like... right now?"

Eris watched with wide eyes as Jaxie stood from her stool and walked over to where the redhead was sitting. She stopped right in front and slowly bent over at the waist, real low, until her face was level with Eris's and a few inches away. Jaxie's eyes seemed to be staring into Eris's soul. She could smell the brunette's shampoo.

"May I?" Jaxie asked. Eris replied with a teeny tiny nod, too afraid to do anything else.

Jaxie closed the rest of the distance and kissed Eris. It was extremely gentle- Jaxie barely even pressed her lips into Eris's. It was a soft, caring touch from the violent Berserker. Still, it had Eris reeling.

Forget the butterflies. Eris had pigeons fighting over the sandwich in her stomach. Her heart felt like it was going into failure and she didn't know what to do with her hands. One of Jaxie's gingerly cupped Eris's cheek for a moment before Jaxie pulled away. The kiss barely lasted a few seconds, yet Eris had trouble thinking. Her head whipped to the side in shock when Alex cleared her throat.

"So, how much did that give?"

"I- uhh..." Eris looked inward.

Desire's Reap {Passive} {1}

Engage in sexual acts with others to collect Desire. Desire is collected in the following ways;

- Kissing

Additional Desire is collected based on the arousal of the active participant(s). Current Desire: 1

"Err... one point."

Jaxie was still bent over in front of Eris, so when she spoke again Eris could feel Jaxie's warm breath on her face. "Do you think it's a one-and-done, or can we get any more?"

"It's umm... we may as well check."

Jaxie must have taken that as acceptance, since she brought her hand back up to Eris's cheek and used it to close the gap between them. This time, Jaxie was a bit more firm. Their lips flattened against each other instead of a gentle touch like last time. The pigeons flapped their wings again and Eris had to stop herself from moving with Jaxie as she pulled back after a few seconds. Jaxie's blue eyes were damn near intoxicating this close and she smelled so good. Eris actively forced herself to focus on the task at hand. At least it was easy to check.

" It hasn't changed."

"So a one-and-done. It's gotta be per person, then." Jaxie actually sounded excited. That alone made Eris's heart flutter. Alex chirped in and Eris couldn't help but notice that there was a twinge of pink in her cheeks as well.

"Or it could be a cooldown. You might not be able to gain Desire from the same person again until a certain amount of time has passed."

"So you think that there's a cooldown and it's separate for each person?" Jaxie asked. Alex gave a questioning nod.

"Possibly? The stories about Echoes engaging in acts of Lust almost always mentioned a large quantity of... partners." Alex blushed a bit harder and looked down. "I doubt that the Echoes could become as powerful as they were if each partner could only be involved once. They would have simply run out of people to gain power from otherwise. That's why I think it's a cooldown for each person."

Jaxie shrugged. "Or it could be a cooldown in general, regardless of different people."

"I don't think so." Eris collected her thoughts enough to shake her head. "Lust is typically considered 'sinful' in the sense of infidelity. If two people have... uhh, if they have sex twenty times, then that's not really sinning if they're together. If one person has sex with twenty different people, that's a completely different story."

"Hmm..." Jaxie sat back down on her stool. "We can always test it just to see."

"How?" Alex asked. Jaxie gave another shrug.

"Easy. You two kiss. See if it gives Desire. If it doesn't, then that means there's a cooldown on the gathering itself. If it does, then the cooldown is individual for each person."

Eris and Alex both looked at each other with red in their cheeks. "Uhhh..."

"What's the big deal? I kissed her, so you can too."

"She's... your girlfriend?" Alex tried.

"So? We're testing skills. Gotta do our best for the Syndicate, right?"

Alex's eyes were so wide Eris thought they would pop out of her skull. It was several moments before she spoke. "Only if... are you...?"

"Uhh, yeah?" Eris felt her entire face flush. "Sure? If you're okay with it."

Once again, there was silence. It hung heavy and awkward. Eris wasn't sure what to feel. It was much easier with Jaxie. Even though Eris screwed things up, it was easy to let Jaxie kiss her because she already knew how Jaxie felt about it. With Alex, there was no such confirmation.

Obviously Eris crushed on Alex a bit as well- not quite as much as Jaxie, but Alex was still attractive, strong, proud, and unbearably nice. Whereas Eris and Jaxie were somewhere loose, hovering awkwardly between the 'friends' and 'girlfriends' column until they had some kind of talk about where they stood, Alex had always been firmly in the 'friends' section. That only made it weirder when Alex tentatively scooched her stool until the two were sitting side by side.

Eris tried not to focus on the fact that Jaxie was sitting just a few feet away, watching them. This felt wrong- doing this kind of thing with another girl when things were still being questioned with Jaxie. Somehow, that made the decision solidify in her mind more. If it felt wrong, then it was sinful.

Right now, she needed to be sinful.

"You should also test to see if there's a limit." Jaxie's voice halted Alex, who started to lean in a bit. Eris turned her head around to face the brunette. She raised her hands. "What? I'm willing to bet that longer kisses will give more Desire, since my little peck only gave one point. You should try and see how much you can get before stopping."

Eris looked back at Alex- the blonde was bright red. She looked worried.

"Sure?" Eris offered. She wasn't sure whether that suaded Alex's nerves or made things worse. Either way, both girls were very tentative when they twisted in their seats and leaned towards each other.

When their lips touched, it was soft and uncertain for several seconds. The warmth building in Eris's chest inspired one of two decisions. Since they were testing if there was a limit, that removed the option of pulling away. Eris leaned in further, pressing more intently. Her hand instinctively went to the back of Alex's neck. To her surprise, Alex did the same. Furthermore, their lips were now forceful against one another- flattening under the pressure between them. Eris's lips parted.

Over the course of several more seconds, their awkward, tentative kiss had rapidly turned into open-mouth necking. Eris couldn't quite believe it. A minute ago, her maybe-girlfriend kissed her. Now, she was actively making out with a VERY platonic best friend in front of the aforementioned maybe-girlfriend.

Eris couldn't fight the fire building in her stomach. Not only was kissing extremely intimate, but it was also unreasonably fun. Eris didn't want to stop. It felt too good to have a mouth pressed onto hers. To have a tongue battling with hers every time their lips met and then parted. She scooched her stool closer to Alex and leaned into the Knight. Alex gave out a moan.

The reality of the situation seemed to set in for the both of them. At the sound of Alex's obvious pleasure, both shot their eyes open and pulled away simultaneously. Eris's cheeks started to feel as red as Alex's looked. Alex coughed and slid her stool several paces away. Jaxie whistled.

"Well, that was certainly something. How much did you get?"

Eris idly wiped her mouth and looked inward.

Current Desire: 5

"It's uhh- it's up to five now, so four points."

"Furthermore," Alex wasn't meeting either Eris's or Jaxie's gazes, "that means the cooldowns are independent for each person."

Something caught Eris's eye and it made her blush just a little bit harder- which shouldn't have been possible. Regardless, the sight of a bulge starting to tent out the front of Alex's jeans sent even more heat through Eris's face. Eris coughed and turned away. Meanwhile, Alex stood up at a bit of an angle, obviously attempting to hide her hardening lower member.

"Actually, you two should continue the conversation. I... I need to use the washroom."

Alex waddled off towards the trio of washrooms located towards the back of the distillery. Technically, it didn't matter which ones they used since this place was abandoned, but the 'Men' section ended up becoming an extra storage area for assorted materials anyway. That meant the 'Women' and 'Futanari' washrooms were the only ones that Eris bothered to fix the plumbing for. Alex vanished into the 'Futanari' section.

"You know she's going to jack off, right?"

Eris tucked her head in shame at Jaxie's words. Jaxie laughed.

"Hey, don't get all shy about it. This is your class. Whether you like it or not, you've gotta accept that your life is about to get a lot more intimate. Just be glad you didn't blow chunks like last night."

Eris's face heated. "This is so weird."

"At least it's a decent option," Jaxie offered. Eris titled an eyebrow at that. Jaxie shrugged. "If the kind of things you'd have to do is anything like what Alex said about the Echoes, then the sin of Lust is probably the best one."

"What are you talking about?"

Jaxie started listing off with each of her fingers. "Well, Wrath is the obvious one. If you had Wrath, you would need to be killing or torturing people- probably innocent ones. That's a big no-no. Then there's Greed, which would likely have you hoarding money and necessities while stealing from everyone else."

"Uh-uh."

"I thought so. Gluttony would probably be the least of an issue, but if it really wanted to delve into sin it might involve making other people starve while you took all their food. Plus, you'd probably get all fat and stuff if you never stop eating."

Eris said nothing. Jaxie continued.

"Envy would be weird, but it might be connected to the 'slave' thing that Alex mentioned. If anyone's better than you at anything then you'd be forced to imprison them or something so you can get more powerful. Or hell, maybe you just take their power directly. Could you imagine that? Stealing someone's class?"

"Definitely not," Eris shuddered.

"Yeah, it sounds pretty fucked. Anyway, Pride probably needs you to treat yourself like a god compared to everyone else, so you'd end up as some snobby bitch forcing people to make statues for you or feed you grapes or something. Finally, Sloth actually seems like a polar opposite to Artificer. You'd progress your skills by doing nothing, but your entire job is based around making stuff all of the time."

"So what about Lust?" Eris asked with a raised eyebrow. Jaxie grinned.

"Honestly, I see nothing but upsides. You get to enjoy yourself all the time with whoever you want, you don't have to have your entire personality replaced with a steaming pile of horse shit, you get to do the job you love, and you don't have to hurt or inconvenience anyone. In fact, you're going to be giving out happiness and pleasure. Making the world happier and becoming stronger at the same time sounds like a damned good deal."

Eris contemplated many things in her head. There was truth in Jaxie's words. Out of all the sins she could have received, Lust certainly wasn't the worst to indulge in.

What a weird birthday present.

Chapter 5: Training and Talks II

It wasn't long before Alex returned with a meek expression.

"Feeling better?" Jaxie chuckled. Alex went red. Thankfully, Jaxie didn't wait for a response.

"Whatever. While you were taking care of business, Eris and I figured out some of the next details. More specifically, what to do with the built-up Desire."

Eris nodded. "I have four skills that can be upgraded- Crafting Points, or CP for short, my CP spender for extra Durability, my passive Quality boost, and then Desire's Reap."

"If all of your skills are upgraded with the same resource, then the only logical option is to upgrade the skill that gives the resource. If it unlocks more options, then it's all but guaranteed to also increase the amount of Desire you can gather."

"Early investment for greater yield," Alex agreed. Eris let out a breath.

"So that settles it. The first skill I level up is going to be Desire's Reap."

"Five points," Jaxie said. "Go ahead and see how much that accomplishes."

Eris bit her tongue and closed her eyes. She got the sense it wasn't needed, but it just felt right. It was easier to focus on what was happening inside when she couldn't see the world around her.

Eris wasn't quite sure how to activate things, but she decided to focus on Enhance first. Since that was the skill being used, it only seemed like the right choice. Somewhere else, she became acutely aware of her five points of Desire, buzzing in the back of her head like a cup of water waiting to be poured. Similarly, her four available skills all seemed to call out in response as if they were homeless beggars. Eris willed a portion of the Desire to drip into Desire's Reap.

Just one point, but that was enough to quickly tell that the 'cup' for the skill was much larger than the cup of available Desire. Welp. Nothing to do but go all in. Eris funnelled the remaining four points into Desire's Reap. When she was done, she opened her eyes.

"A fifth, maybe? Feels like it might be twenty-five points to level up the skill."

Jaxie raised an eyebrow. "So a few more rounds of kissing should get it."

Eris and Alex both went red. Jaxie laughed. "All we need now is to figure out how long the cooldown is."

"There doesn't seem to be any indication..." Eris offered.

"We don't need an indication," Jaxie said. "I've already got a plan."

Alex sounded worried. "A plan?"

"Yep. We'll all train as normal, but every hour I'll come back inside so Eris and I can passionately make out. When it finally gives points, we'll know how long the cooldown is."

Eris tried not to sound like a chipmunk getting curb stomped. She coughed and turned around.

"Okay, training time! Get out!"

Alex responded in earnest- quickly leaving the distillery to presumably do some exercise around the vineyards. Jaxie took a bit more time with her exit, even going so far as to sway her hips when she walked- something she never did. Gods, her ass looked fantastic in those pants.

Eris didn't realise she had been staring until Jaxie paused at the doorway, gave a wink, and blew a kiss before closing the door behind her.

Eris tried not to hyperventilate. Obviously, Jaxie was still interested despite what happened last night. Either that, or she was pissed off and decided to get payback by tormenting Eris about her class.

Regardless, Eris's head was swimming. Kissing Jaxie had been one thing, but having her be right there while Eris made out with Alex was another. That couldn't have been something Jaxie just 'brushed off'. If anything, Jaxie had encouraged it. Even if it was for the sake of testing a weird skill, there were many emotions at play and Eris could barely even understand her own- much less those of two other people.

Eris shook her head. Not the time. She needed to focus. Eris got to work.

It was strange. Eris had heard that after a person receives a crafting class, the act of creation becomes second nature. It didn't matter how much she researched about it- nothing could prepare her for just how literal that statement was.

Previously, Eris held every single step in her head and was aware of each moment while it passed. Now, it was as if she completely turned her brain off. Eris never thought about a single one of her actions- she just did them. Hands moved autonomously to grab tools, move materials, or gently hammer and awl.

Eris knew it was referred to as a 'crafting trance', and that was a perfect way to describe it. A trance. The only thing suggesting otherwise is that her mind never slowed down. She remained consciously aware of everything she was doing, but none of it was intentional anymore. All thoughts of the work in front of her had been pushed to background noise.

Even though Eris had been pretty swift at getting things done in the past, she was leaving her old self in the dust. Having a Control stat helped, making her hands move just a bit faster than they should have, but the rest of it was just the crafting trance. All the downtime between actions, all the moments she spent planning her next step- those had vanished. Pauses to make sure she was grabbing the right piece of material? Gone. The squinting while stitching thread through leather to make sure she was staying on the same straight line? Bye-bye. The only thing left behind was flawless work done at the fastest possible speed yet Eris never felt in a rush.

In a matter of five minutes, Eris had measured, cut out, stitched together, laced, and put on a pair of surprisingly comfortable leather shoes with nice thick soles- just the way she liked them. During the process, she cautiously tapped inwards. She could feel her CP practically vibrating at the presence of a craft that was being performed. Since she had nothing else to use it on, Eris focused. It was oddly similar to spending Desire- a cup of energy poured into the respective skills. Or skill, in this case, since Eris only had one. Resilience. Since that was the case, there wasn't much of a reason not to go all in. Ten points flowed into the shoes while Eris was stitching them together as easily as taking a breath.

An Inspect cast towards the finished product made a grin form on Eris's face.

Leather Shoes

Durability: 100%

A simple and comfortable pair of leather shoes. Created by Eris Kadell. Made from leather and twine.

Provides a Minor boost to Vitality.

Nothing outstanding, aside from the fact that they now held a legitimate stat bonus. It was impossible for anyone to create an item with such a bonus unless they had a crafting class. Once they got one, though, everything they made consequently had a bit of magic inside of it, granting a bonus of some kind. It didn't appear that increasing the Durability using Resilience had an immediately noticeable effect on an Inspection, but Eris had a feeling that a stray dog could chew on these shoes for hours without the leather tearing.

It was Eris's first creation after the Gifting. It may have been a simple pair of shoes, but it proved that despite every other part of her class, she got what she wanted. She was a crafter. Her smile widened even more.

Comfy shoes equipped, Eris upended the duffel bag onto a nearby table and grabbed a flattened length of cord with measurements from a drawer. She went through the process of writing down her new proportions and math-ing out the difference between her old size and new one. Her legs held the biggest changes, growing longer by a noteworthy margin. Outside of that, the proportions didn't change tremendously. Eris had been a bit more... curvy before the Gifting, so although her body did grow slightly larger, the loss of fat helped to offset that. The only measurement aside from her leg length that changed more than a few inches was Eris's chest.

Thirty-three inches around turned into thirty-five and a half, which wasn't a massive increase, but her underbust had slimmed from thirty-two to an even thirty. Eris tentatively cupped a breast. The combination of a slight size increase with a slimmer chest made them feel significantly larger. If Eris had to wager a guess, she jumped straight from an A-cup to C's. She'd have to start wearing bras.

Actually, now that she thought about it...

Eris walked to the side of the room towards a full-length mirror that she often used when deducing the sizes of outfits. Even before she stopped in front of it, her eyes widened. Back in the chapel, she had batted away the tightness of her shirt around her chest as something she could deal with. Somehow, she failed to acknowledge the aspect of how it might have looked to others.

When it was wrapped snug over her breasts.

And she wasn't wearing a bra.

Holy fuck, it make her boobs look huge. The shirt all but pushed them upwards and Eris could clearly see the slight protrusions of her nipples. It looked like that one time when she accidentally made Jaxie a shirt that was too small and Eris figured out she was gay.

Eris blushed and stepped back to the work bench. She grabbed the spare shirt she had in the duffel bag, then scanned some shelves for extra fabric that was roughly the same shade of black. She could worry about fully making new clothes when she got to Marrix- for now, she just needed to adjust what she had so that it fit more comfortably during these next few days. That meant cutting the stitches in the seam of her shirt and sewing in a few extra inches to the width of the chest and the length of the hem. With the trance, it barely took any time at all.

Within forty-five-ish minutes, Eris had adjusted both shirts, along with a third that she had been keeping at the lab in case she needed it and the jeans that were now hung up on a line so that they could dry faster from the Gifting waterworks. The trio had been training at the distillery for years- Eris had an entire room full of old clothes she pulled from the trash pile, cleaned, and then set aside so that she could scavenge from them at a moment's notice. That meant Eris was even able to find a simple cotton bra that kind of fit and tighten up the band so that it was comfortable and snug.

Eris barely managed to begin the process of heating up her improvised forge before the door to the distillery opened with a knock. Jaxie stepped inside. "How's it going, little Miss Artificer?"

"Fine," Eris said. "Haven't had much of a chance to try things out yet. All I've done so far is loosen my clothes and make a new pair of shoes. Adjusting something that's already completed doesn't let me use any of my new bonuses."

"Sounds annoying... I think."

Eris chuckled. "If it didn't work that way, the Syndicate would have destroyed the Hollow generations ago. All they'd need is a crafter to keep sharpening the same sword over and over again while using their skills and eventually you'd get something capable of cutting a continent in half."

"Whatcha' working on now?"

Eris put her hands on her hips. "Now that I'm done with the necessities of clothes and stuff, I can start actually making things and trying out my skills. Not that there's much to try out. Crafter skills don't tend to require much practice in order to use effectively, unlike combat classes. Most of the time, it comes down to trial and error of figuring out how to allocate CP between multiple skills in order to maximize potential."

"-And you only have one skill that uses your CP," Jaxie summarized, "which effectively makes it a passive bonus until you get something else that uses CP and forces you to choose."

Eris nodded. "Exactly. I have nothing to practice with, meaning anything I make before we leave for Marrix is nothing but level progression."

"Speaking of level progression," Jaxie closed the door. "It's time."

Eris raised an eyebrow. "Huh? What are you-... oh."

Her cheeks darkened as Jaxie walked closer. "Yeah. Time to see if the cooldown is an hour, Ell."

A moment of silence passed before Eris found her lips moving against her will. "Is it weird?"

"What?" Jaxie paused just a foot and a half away from Eris, sensing a shift. Eris internally swore at her stupidity. Still, she dug the grave and now she had to lie in it.

"This. Us. Is it weird?"

An eyebrow raised. "Because of last night?"

Eris gave a shallow nod. Jaxie held still for a moment, then sighed. She stepped forward- but this time it was at an angle so she could lean her elbows on the table beside Eris.

"Well, let's recap. We've been dating for about six months, and last night I said that I loved you for the first time. You responded by vomiting all over the bed, then slept in the kitchen."

Eris's face felt like it was being jabbed full of red-hot needles. She could only look at the floor. Meanwhile, Jaxie continued.

"This morning, you got a class that requires you to have sex in order to become more powerful. You let me kiss you without throwing up, and then I watched while you tongue-fucked our mutual friend Alex."

Eris felt her heart shrivel in her chest. This was terrible- she was ruining everything.

"In conclusion," Jaxie pushed up from her elbows, placing her hands flat on the table. She sighed. "Yeah, it's pretty fuckin' weird."

That was extremely like her. Jaxie never beat around the bush. She went in, dropped all the facts out in the open, and then started the conversation.

Eris wanted to cry. "It's just... Last night I panicked. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

Jaxie shook her head. "It's not your fault. I was the one that decided the perfect time to hit you with the L-word was the night before the single most important day of your life and when stress would be at an all-time high. Dropping that on you last night was a dick move."

Silence lasted for several moments. Jaxie was the one who broke it.

"Look, I get it. We're in this relationship together, but I'm moving a few paces faster than you. I can slow down. I'm happy to slow down. We'll go as slow as you want."

Eris took a shaky breath.

"I love you, too."

"What?" Jaxie raised an eyebrow.

"I love you, Jaxie," Eris said. "More than anything. I want to be with you so badly, but..." Eris trailed off. One of Jaxie's hands found Eris's.

"But it's not the right time?" Jaxie offered. Eris nodded.

"With the Gifting, and the Syndicate, and the training, and the missions, and all of that, there's just so much going on or will be going on soon. I'm freaked out, especially since I'm supposedly the last Gifted and the first Echo that anyone's seen in four hundred years, and now I have to embrace lust and have sex with lots of people but I want to be with you and everything is so weird and fucked up and I'm confused because I liked kissing Alex and-"

Eris's panicked rambles were cut short when Jaxie pulled the shorter girl in for a deep, powerful hug. Eris didn't realise she had been tearing up until she sniffled and choked into Jaxie's chest. Jaxie rested her chin atop Eris's head and gently rubbed her back.

"Shh... it's okay."

"No ishnot!" Eris sobbed. "Yoosedd iluboo en I areddy-"

Jaxie abruptly pulled away with a small smile. She leaned down so that their faces were even. Eris could feel her nose leaking.

"Eris, sweetie, you're ugly crying again. I need you to speak clearly because I can't understand you."

Eris sniffled and wiped her face with the back of a hand. When she spoke, her words were still accompanied by sobs but were at least comprehensible. "It's not okay! You said you loved me and I already cheated on you by kissing Alex! And I liked it!"

"Oh, you're adorable. Eris, you didn't cheat on me."

"Yesh I did!"

"Eris! Remember that I was the one who suggested that you kiss Alex?"

"Wha...?" Eris blinked through teary eyes. Jaxie nodded

"Yeah. I didn't just tell you two to kiss, I told you to make out with each other. You did that, and you know what I think?"

Eris didn't even form a word to ask- she just made a teary noise that sounded vaguely like a question. Jaxie dragged a thumb over one cheek to wipe away tears.

"I thought it was the hottest thing I've ever seen."

"Huh?"

Jaxie rested both hands on either one of Eris's shoulders and stared her deep in the eyes.

"Eris, darling, I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. But I have no problem with you shagging your way through the population, especially if it makes you more powerful. If you ever want to make out with Alex, or any other girl, you have my permission. Better yet, you have my blessing. Go nuts."

"Are you sure?"

Eris knew she was gross- she'd just been ugly crying (which she had an unfortunate tendency to do). The kind that made snot and drool drip just as much as her tears. She was a mess. Jaxie gave an adorable smile, lifted a scrap piece of fabric from the table beside them, and used it to gently wipe down Eris's face. She even held it over Eris's nose.

"Blow."

Eris did. Jaxie folded her impromptu tissue, wiped Eris's nose again, then discarded the fabric onto the table. She leaned in close.

"Eris Limeen Kadell, I am absolutely, one hundred-percent positive."

Chapter 6: Training and Talks III (18+)

Eris placed both hands on either side of Jaxie's face and pulled her in for a deep kiss. The moment their lips connected, Eris slid both hands forward. One went to the back of Jaxie's head, digging fingers through the base of the brunette's long hair. The other clasped the back of Jaxie's neck to lock her in place.

Eris gave every 'thank you' she could mentally comprehend towards the Seven when Jaxie returned the embrace. It was almost amusing. The harmless crafter was forceful- hungrily gripping with desperate strength to pull her lover in close. Meanwhile, the violent warrior that operated almost entirely on their unquenchable fury in battle had gentle, sweet fingers resting on Eris's waist.

Eris pried open Jaxie's mouth who eagerly reciprocated. The Berserker's tongue was much more forceful than her hands. While she was gently caressing Eris's waist, her tongue shoved past Eris's defenses and probed. It quickly returned and Jaxie smiled into Eris's kiss.

"You taste like a Southshore BLT."

"Oh, shut up."

Eris pulled harder on Jaxie's head, forcing their kiss back together. Her neck craned upward and she stood on her tiptoes as Jaxie slowly stood back up to her full height. Still, Eris never dared pull away. Kissing Jaxie already had the unfortunate side effect of completely destroying Eris's composure, but this was the first time the two of them had ever 'made out' like this. Eris felt like she was falling apart at the seams.

She started to worry if she was pushing things too quickly. Those fears were diffused when the hands on her waist tightened just a tiny bit. Eris didn't even realise she was being lifted until her feet left the ground. Jaxie set Eris's butt down on the edge of the worktable, and the extra height made them almost perfectly level. Still, their kiss never broke. Eris's hands started to wander.

Downwards, over Jaxie's cheeks. Over her neck, past her shoulders. Under her arms. Around the sides of her torso. Her waist. Her hips. Her waist. Her torso again. Then, they homed in on the big target- the make-or-break of this entire thing.

Jaxie's breasts were soft and plush, even through both her tank top and bra. They squished so nicely, filling Eris's hands perfectly as her fingers squeezed. Jaxie grinned into Eris's lips.

"You have no idea how long I've been dreaming about this."

"Stop dreaming."

Eris spread her legs before wrapping them firmly around Jaxie's waist. The taller girl's hands mimicked Eris's in the way that she started kneading breast-flesh.

"You know," Jaxie said between kisses, "I already thought you were the cutest girl I'd ever seen, but the Gifting also made you the sexiest."

Eris's face flushed at the compliment. Jaxie kept pushing.

"Every time you looked away, Alex was staring directly at your tits. Fuck, we both were. And your ass, too. You're perfect. You already were, but your Gifting somehow made perfection better."

"Stooop!" Eris groaned through red cheeks into Jaxie's mouth. Her response was a smile.

"Then make me. You're perfect. In every way. You're amazing. You're smart, and beautiful, and- oooohh..."

Jaxie's teasing string of compliments was cut short when Eris not-so-gently shoved a hand between the gap of Jaxie's thighs. Even through two layers of clothing, it turns out that having her pussy rubbed unexpectedly made Jaxie jump with a twitch of surprise. She almost swallowed Eris's tongue. Eris pushed the advantage, using the quick break in composure to redouble her efforts on the kiss and use both hands to undo Jaxie's belt. The button on her jeans followed next.

Soon, Eris was sliding her fingers underneath Jaxie's waistband. Under the hem of Jaxie's panties. The grip of her fingers tightened at the same time her legs loosened, allowing Eris to start pushing Jaxie's pants down. It was cruel, really. She wanted to watch as she revealed Jaxie's most intimate region, but nothing in the world existed that could have made her willingly pull away from the kiss.

It didn't matter much, since both girls quickly found themselves fully stripping the other. Shirts were pulled off quickly to let them reconnect their faces. Jaxie's hands effortlessly tugged off Eris's shoes before pulling at the hem of her own pants. Eris wiggled her butt on the table to assist Jaxie with removing her bottoms. Panties went with it. Jaxie must have kicked off her own shoes and used her legs to finish removing her pants, because both girls were naked and devouring each other's throats in a matter of a minute.

Eris's hands were roaming freely and unrestrained now. Across breasts, defined abs, strong thighs, a muscular back, and even down to the amazing prize between Jaxie's legs. She was clean shaven- she really had been dreaming about this.

Whenever Eris's fingers slid over Jaxie's folds, the redhead could feel her digits getting slicker. Jaxie was extremely aroused. Just the way her actions redoubled to completely dominate Eris in the kiss proved that. The way her hands squeezed her butt, hard enough to leave an imprint, proved that. The way she growled in pleasure at each of Eris's touches proved that.

"I've always wondered what you tasted like," Jaxie snarled. "Now I'm finally gonna find out."

When Jaxie tried to pull away from the kiss, Eris followed with her to ensure their lips stayed locked. Eris heard the words and understood what the implication was, but for some reason her mind didn't quite seem capable of making the connection that Jaxie was ending the kiss to do that. She was too drunk on Jaxie to think any different. Jaxie had to reach down and grab both of Eris's wrists, bringing them up and pressing them to the girl's chest before their mouths separated. Eris whined.

"No, no please! I need you!"

"Well, aren't you a clingy one?" Jaxie chuckled, then quickly dashed forward to give a chaste kiss. "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere."

Jaxie gave Eris another kiss, and then another at the corner of her mouth. Then another, on her cheek. Her cheekbone. Her ear. Then, she trailed them down Eris's neck, kissing sweetly along a pale shoulder. Looping around to the front, Jaxie planted pecks across Eris's clavicle. She trailed downwards and to the side, heading right for Eris's left breast. The girl shivered at Jaxie's applications.

Fuck, why was she so good at this?!

Jaxie planted several kisses just around the edge of Eris's areola, which was doing terrible things to her heart. It didn't help that Jaxie's other hand was gently squeezing her other breast, rubbing an idle thumb over an extremely hard nipple. Jaxie gave one final kiss to the left tit, this time directly on the tip of Eris's nipple, then moved to repeat the process on the other side.

Eris's fingernails were clawing at the wood where she was bracing herself on the table. When Jaxie finished with Eris's other boob, her kisses started peppering across Eris's stomach. It had been flat... ish before the Gifting, but now it was a perfectly smooth sheen of pale skin leading down to the 'V' of her pelvis.

Jaxie stopped a millimeter before her lips touched against the edge of Eris's pubic bush. Eris felt her cheeks get red as Jaxie grinned.

"Looks like your new carpet matches the new drapes."

Eris, naturally, hadn't checked. Of course the Gifting would turn her pubes the same brilliant shade of scarlet as her hair. "S-sorry. If I knew we'd be doing this I would have shaved, but I didn't know and-"

Eris was silenced by Jaxie placing a deep, forceful kiss right into the center of Eris's pelvis- right in the middle of the bush. Then, Jaxie took several moments tracing the entire outline of the hair with pecks before, eventually, her lips landed on Eris's folds. Eris shuddered at the contact. She knew she must be soaked down there. Eris watched as Jaxie dragged a tongue across her lips.

"Mmm, better than I thought."

Eris didn't have time to comprehend what that could possibly mean before Jaxie pushed back in. Actually, dove was probably the better word. Jaxie, now kneeling in front of the table and Eris, dove her face in between the shorter girl's legs. She dragged her tongue in a long, flat stroke up the entire length of Eris's sopping sex, drawing a gasp. Then another. And another.

The fact that Eris could look down and see Jaxie's gorgeous eyes staring up at her from between her thighs made her heart play volleyball in her chest. Unfortunately, she couldn't get lost in the piercing blues when Jaxie started eating her out for real.

A gurgling cry fell from Eris's throat as her head fell back to point towards the ceiling and her bracing hands turned into elbows. She was all but laying down on the table at this point with her legs hanging over the side, draped over Jaxie who started sliding a tongue in deep.

Eris felt like she was on fire. The kissing had already done a phenomenal job at getting her worked up, so she was like a balloon ready to burst by the time that Jaxie got on her knees. The Berserker pulled her tongue out with a few wiggles along the way and sent a sweet kiss to the skin where Eris's clit was emerging.

"Gods, you taste as perfect as you look-"

Embarrassingly, that was when Eris toppled over the edge. Hearing Jaxie's words sent a jolt of electricity through her body, triggering a chain reaction of explosions through her very core. Eris let out a strained cry and squeezed her thighs together around Jaxie's head. Her abdomen was convulsing, her heart was playing a drum solo, and her hips bucked forwards into Jaxie's face.

Thankfully, Jaxie took the hint.

Eris's cry turned louder and sharper when she felt Jaxie's nose bury into her bush and a tongue slid back where it belonged. Jaxie slurped away, using her probing muscle like a shovel to scoop out every drop of Eris's pleasure and lady-cum. Meanwhile, her hands gently rubbed up and down the thighs squeezing like a vice around her head- lovingly coaxing Eris through her orgasm with emotional support as well as physical.

Eris completely fell apart.

Toes curled and heels dug into Jaxie's back so hard it was probably painful. Eyes were clamped shut. Cries of climax clawed out of her throat like a spider from a drainpipe. Even her fingers tightly squeezed something soft which was probably the snot-rag Jaxie used to clean Eris's face, but Eris's wasn't mentally capable of comprehending such cares. All that mattered was Jaxie, who was providing her with the strongest orgasm of her life.

It took many, many moments before reality started to come back into focus and Eris reopened her eyes. She was lied down fully on the worktable now, wood pressing into her back. Jaxie's hands still caressed her thighs like she wasn't suffocating in a pussy. Eris quickly unlocked her legs and spread them slowly to release her lover.

Jaxie stood, and it was the most gorgeous sight that Eris had ever seen. A tall, athletic, muscular body with beautiful feminine curves and perfect, supple, soft breasts that wobbled with Jaxie's panting breaths. Her dark hair had fallen out of her simple braid at some point and now draped loosely behind her, stopping just above her butt. Further down, Eris could just barely see Jaxie's clean-shaven sex from this position, but the real kicker of the display was the look in the tall girl's eyes.

Eris wasn't quite sure what it was. Lust? Love? Pride? Caring? Either way, it sent a hot chill shuddering through Eris's entire body as Jaxie looked over her laid out on the table.

"So, you have a praise kink, huh?"

"Wha...?" Eris wasn't quite sure what Jaxie meant, and then the fogginess in her orgasm-clouded mind remembered that what ultimately sent her over the edge wasn't any form of physical contact; it was Jaxie telling her that Eris tasted good. Eris groaned, face flushing with red. Jaxie laughed.

"By the Seven, that is so fucking adorable. You're perfect, you know that?"

"Uuhhh!"

Eris grumbled and moved to cover her darkening face with her hands. To her dismay, Jaxie didn't let her. The tall girl leaned forward over the edge of the table, unintentionally (or intentionally, Eris wasn't sure) pressing their nethers together and grabbed each of Eris's wrists. She pulled them apart and pinned them to either side of Eris's head. That meant Eris couldn't hide her flushed face and shame while Jaxie practically laid on top of her.

"You..." Jaxie kissed Eris on the nose, then moved with her when Eris tried to twist her face away. No matter what she did, Eris couldn't escape the assault of soft, sweet kisses planted all over her face. Jaxie was just too strong.

"... are the most... perfect... beautiful... sweet... kind... intelligent... amazing person... I've ever met." Jaxie finished the sentence by planting several quick pecks into the beet-red girl's neck.

"Stooop!"

"No." Jaxie nuzzled her face into Eris's shoulder completely, tilting upwards and smooching just underneath Eris's ear. "I need you to understand how much you mean to me."

Like when Jaxie first started kissing a path down to Eris's pussy, she seemed to go in reverse now. A peck went to Eris's cheekbone.

"You are perfect in every possible way. I wouldn't change any part about you."

Heat was flushing through Eris's system. "Hnngh, stop it!"

Several kisses against her forehead. "I can't, because I'm telling the truth. You're the best thing that ever happened to me."

With the way Jaxie was leaning over her, it meant that the tall girl's breasts were fully resting on top of Eris's. Eris could feel both their chests rising and falling with each embarrassed breath. Also, was Jaxie grinding on her?

"There's nobody in this world I'd rather be with. Just you. It's always been you."

Why wasn't she stopping? Eris felt like her face was going to burst into flames. No matter how many times Eris tried to say 'no' or move her face away from the whirlwind of praise, Jaxie was unrelenting. She continued to pepper Eris with endless kisses and affections. Furthermore, Jaxie was definitely grinding her pelvis into Eris's. Or maybe it might have been Eris pushing her hips up- she didn't know. She didn't care. She hated it, but she couldn't deny the feelings racking through her body. Her breathing became more and more ragged. That was when Jaxie apparently decided to go for the goal.

"Eris Kadell, I love you. You are my everything."

Jaxie's mouth clamped onto Eris's as the shorter girl instantly climaxed for a second time, embarrassingly drawn out with nothing more than a combination of grinding and words. One hand left Eris's wrist and squeezed between their bodies to reach down towards their nethers. Eris was bucking upwards to try and get any sensation of contact during her twitching- a contact that was rewarded and then some when Jaxie sank two fingers all the way to the base while flicking a thumb across Eris's clit.

Eris would have screamed in pleasure if Jaxie hadn't already been sucking the air from her lungs. Fingers pushed in and out, in and out, in and out. Her thumb rolled in circles back and forth across Eris's clit, drawing burst after burst of pleasure. Jaxie's lips, her touch, her body, her everything brushing up in just the right ways made Eris turn into mush.

By the time Eris finished squealing, she was covered in sweat. Jaxie kept her digits buried but slowed any movements to nothing more than an occasional wiggle of her fingers. Jaxie pulled her lips away and trailed them down Eris's neck to nuzzle there.

"That's my good girl. Gods, you did so well. You were so good."

Yet again, the words made Eris's heart flutter. She felt herself clench a little bit around Jaxie's fingers and she tucked her chin to her chest in shame. Jaxie kissed her earlobe.

"Shh, it's okay. You don't need to be embarrassed. Not around me. It's okay. I promise."

Jaxie gently pulled her fingers free, the sensation drawing a shaky breath from Eris. She then released Eris's other wrist and braced herself on her elbow while her free hand- still slick with Eris's girl cum- slid slowly up and down the shorter girl's side.

"It's okay. You did amazing."

Of course, that was when the door to the distillery opened. Eris's head whipped to the side, cheeks redding just as quickly as Alex's.

Alex's eyes visibly flicked between the two nude girls locked in a passionate lover's embrace atop the worktable. They were the size of salad bowls. Eris barely had the time to hastily cover her chest with her hands before Alex pivoted in place and awkwardly stepped back out of the doorway. There were a few moments of tense silence before Jaxie chuckled. Her laughter made her boobs jiggle against the back of Eris's hands.

"I think we might have taken a bit too long to test your cooldown."

Right, Eris remembered. That's why Jaxie came back inside in the first place.

She was frozen, hands still covering her chest. Jaxie rubbed a thumb over Eris's cheek.

"Speaking of which, did you get any more Desire?"

Eris, with a naked Jaxie atop her completely shattering her composure, clumsily checked inwards.

Current Desire: 0

Eris shook her head. Jaxie shrugged, then planted a kiss on the tip of Eris's nose.

"Welp, that sucks. Looks like we're testing again in an hour."

Chapter 7: Training and Talks III

Jaxie and Erin quickly got dressed. Partway through the process, Eris paused. "You didn't... you know."

Jaxie smiled sweetly and hooked her bra back on. "Don't worry about me. This was all for you."

"But-"

Jaxie pulled Eris in for a kiss that served to quickly silence the shorter girl. When she pulled away, Jaxie's eyes were twinkling. "I'm fine. I promise you."

There was no further conversation as the pair finished putting on their clothes. Jaxie pulled her long hair into a simple ponytail and spoke loudly.

"You're good!"

Eris was confused for just a moment, until the door opened and Alex walked inside. The thought that she was waiting just outside while Eris and Jaxie were getting dressed made an awkward heat flush through Eris's cheeks. She couldn't meet Alex's gaze. Thankfully, Jaxie seemed more than willing to speak for all three of them. Unfortunately, her habit of not beating around the bush became prevalent once more.

"Yes, I went back inside with the intention of testing the cooldown. Yes, we had sex. No, we didn't intend for it to happen- it just did. No, the cooldown hasn't reset yet, so Eris didn't get any Desire. Does that answer all your questions?"

Eris went a shade of crimson. Alex also blushed and turned away. "Uh, yeah. Wait... no."

"Eris came twice."

"Jaxie!"

Alex coughed. "That wasn't my question!"

Eris was burying her face in her hands. Jaxie wrapped an arm over her shoulders and chuckled. "I know. I'm just having fun. What's your question?"

Alex took several moments to orient herself. "When you lied, you said you had four skills. One for your Crafting Points, one to spend them, one passive bonus, and Crafter's Cunning. You then told us about two more; Desire's Reap and Enhance. How many skills do you have?"

That must have piqued Jaxie's interest, since her head tilted in question.

"Seven," Eris said. "Those six and then one more."

"Why didn't you tell us about it earlier?" Alex closed the distillery door behind her. Eris shrugged.

"It never came up, I guess? Plus, it's really weird."

Jaxie's eyebrows practically raised past her hairline. "You have a skill that requires you to make out with people, and that's not the weird one?"

That caused a blush. "Not weird in that way! Just... weird."

"Care to elaborate?" Alex crossed her arms. It wasn't in annoyance- but rather curiosity.

Eris sighed. For something like this, it was easier to put all the information out there.

"It's called Pacifist. Passive, max level. You cannot directly bring harm to any creature, monster, or person."

"Uhh, what?" Jaxie asked. Eris repeated herself. Alex stepped closer.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Eris's shoulders shrugged. "How am I supposed to know? That's all the skill says, so presumably it means that I can't hurt anything."

"Sounds like something we need to test." Jaxie turned to face Eris. "Slap me."

"Excuse me?"

"Slap me. Right across the face."

"I'm not going to slap you, Jaxie."

"I'm willing to bet that," Jaxie grinned, "Because the skill won't let you. Come on."

She leaned down slightly and turned her face, presenting her cheek as a target. Eris shook her head.

"No! This is stupid. I'm not going to hit you."

"Are you seriously worried? My class is designed for me to get impaled and walk it off. I'll be fine. Hit me."

"I'm don't want to-"

"Do it!"

Eris swung her arm forward, aiming right for Jaxie's cheek. Almost as soon as she started, the muscles in her shoulder locked up. Her strength faded. What started as a tentative-yet-earnest attempt at slapping her girlfriend across the face ended with her hand coming to rest gently on the tall girl's soft cheek. Jaxie reached up and gave Eris's hand a squeeze.

"That seems pretty definitive. What if you use a weapon, though?"

"Huh?"

Eris watched as Jaxie walked over to a set of shelves. On it were an assortment of various weapons that Eris had forged in the past. Jaxie picked up a dagger and returned to stand in front of Eris.

"Now try and stab me."

"What?!"

Over the course of twenty minutes, the trio figured out a number of details about the specifics of Pacifist. Eris was reluctant, but having Jaxie and Alex both remind her that the way the two of them had tested skills was by using them on each other had suaded her fears. Kind of. Eris had applied enough bandages to them both after their sparring matches. She really didn't want herself to be the reason she needed to watch her friends bleed.

Still, at Jaxie's insistence, the attempt to poke the knife into Jaxie's finger and draw blood had failed. Eris couldn't even make contact with the skin. The same happened with (after a lot more persuasion from the two fighters) throwing the knife at Alex. Eris could throw the knife at the wall easily enough- albeit with terrible aim- but as soon as Alex hefted her shield in the line of fire, Eris found the knife glued to her hand. Her fingers wrapped so tightly around it during the swing she thought they would break. The only thing she could do was drop it to her feet afterwards.

The major thing to test was whether Eris was even able to make weapons anymore- if her crafting items that caused harm counted against the skill. Thankfully, Jaxie had a way to figure that out quickly. Taking one of Eris's new shoes and whipping it at Alex's face did bring confirmation that Eris's crafts could still make a bruise.

Furthermore, it seemed that the skill didn't count for Eris herself. Pricking her own thumb with the tip of the knife drew blood easily. Eris wiped her thumb on her sweatpants and continued with the next test. It was simple, really. If she couldn't directly bring harm by her own hand, but her crafts could be used by others for harm, then how did that affect traps? Theoretically, they should work. She wouldn't be the one causing the harm- the actions of others would. Still, it was worth the attempt.

The trap came together easily. It was rudimentary- just a couple of nails, the knife, and a length of string serving as both the tripwire and the implement for how the knife would swing towards the target. While putting it together, Eris felt the tingle of CP in her mind- that this was a 'craft' getting her bonuses.

That reminded her of why Artisans were both more and less powerful than the other crafters. Many crafters sold the 'pieces' of large crafts to each other, such as a Metalsmith getting the shaft of a halberd made by a Woodcarver, then adding their own smithed head to make something that combined both of their skills.

Artisans could apply their bonuses to everything they made, and thus didn't have to purchase anything from anyone else. That made them stronger, since they were entirely self-reliant. However, it also made them weaker. If they made everything themselves, then they could only rely on their own bonuses and had much less variety. Eris was a great example- she could create items with incredible amounts of Durability, but the overall strength of the item's effects would be weaker since her only bonus to Quality was her passive twenty-five percent boost. However, if she were to combine efforts with another crafter, such as one who sacrificed Durability for increased Potency or Quality, then it opened up all new doorways for optimization.

Eris pushed the thought aside and tied off the end of the string around the nail. Jaxie walked through the doorway. The trap had been designed so that the knife would swing far to the left- only grazing the target's arm instead of going for somewhere more lethal. When it triggered, Eris saw the trajectory change just slightly- a bit further to the right than it should have been. Not only that, the knife was moving faster than gravity would normally allow. Deep down, Eris instantly understood that Novice Artificer's twenty-five percent bonus had directly made the trap more dangerous.

No amount of desperate apologies could wipe the smile from Jaxie's face, even as Eris held a cloth over the half-inch gash in her shoulder.

After the testing was done, Eris decided to get back to work. She was vaguely aware of both Jaxie and Alex sitting down in the little resting area towards the back, watching her. They'd been training for most of their lives, and they've had several months to practice with their skills and become comfortable using them. These last few weeks for them had been little more than maintaining their physiques and muscle memory while waiting for the semester to start.

Eris tried not to get shy at the thought of them supervising her work. Easier said than done.

"Gods, you're really going for it, aren't you?" Jaxie called out from the bench she was reclining on. Eris paused her movements, the sounds of metal on metal silencing.

"Pardon?"

Jaxie chuckled. "No need to rush."

"I'm not rushing."

"Your hammer says otherwise. It sounds like it's gonna explode. What are you even making?"

"A surprise."

"Is this the same surprise you've been working on for a month, or is this a different surprise?"

Eris took eight more strikes with the smithing hammer against the orange metal with barely a moment between them. "Yes."

Eris went straight back to work and the loud ringing of metal echoed through the distillery like a double-time heartbeat. Even with the thick gloves and goggles, Eris felt no awkwardness in the placements of her strikes. Every blow of the hammer hit exactly where she wanted, with the exact amount of force she desired. Even with nearly three hits per second, not a single one of them was out of place. Of course, she had to wait for the metal to heat back up again when she stuck it back in the forge, but the amount that she could shape in each pass when she pulled it onto the anvil was better than anything she could have hoped to achieve previously.

It felt like no time at all had passed before Jaxie piped up that it was time for another makeout session to test the cooldown. Even if Alex hadn't been in the room, awkwardly flicking her eyes between the book in her hands and her friend's passionate kissing, both Eris and Jaxie managed to keep control of themselves. Their clothes remained on and the closest thing to 'fondling' was Jaxie holding Eris's butt in her hands. Granted, that was also because Eris had wrapped her legs around Jaxie's waist, forcing the taller girl to carry her and hold her in place while they made out.

Sadly, neither of those two sessions granted any Desire. At least they were nice breaks from the careful work that Eris had been performing back at the worktables. Eventually the time came when Eris asked the two girls to leave the building so the surprise wouldn't be ruined. Not to mention, the lack of potential distractions was an added bonus. Eris was starting to get into the hardest parts and having Jaxie ask for updates every five minutes definitely wasn't going to help.

She'd been working on these particular projects for a while. In fact, Eris had intended to have them completed by last week but numerous delays and general problems started to make her worry if she could even get them done at all before the trio left for Marrix. Those worries vanished like mist on a hot day.

All the mistakes, all the issues, everything she'd been struggling with for weeks was gone. When she painstakingly carved the notches in the teeny-tiny gears, not a single one of them broke. None of the springs snapped as she coiled and heat-tempered them. Her hands were steadier than they'd ever been. Eris even went back to some of the parts that she'd already made and took a second pass over them with a set of extremely fine tools to make sure that the ratios would be absolutely perfect.

When it came time to put the dozens upon dozens of pieces together, it happened with ease. It didn't matter that Eris had to operate almost entirely with tweezers in order to set the parts in place. The crafting trance made it easy- like every piece was magnetized to the correct location. Soon enough, each piece of metal and glass was secure in the proper place and the silver shells were closed around the intricate mechanisms. All three objects were near-identical aside from some engravings, but the silver gleamed brightly. Eris wiped several beads of sweat from her brow and smiled wide. She placed the one on the far right into her pocket and lifted the other two before walking to the door.

Eris blinked the sunlight out of her eyes. When her gaze refocused, she saw Jaxie and Alex in the small sparring ring that was marked out by a wooden fence Eris had made. It looked like they were going for a good ol' fashioned barehanded brawl. Based on the dirt clinging to their clothes along with the bruises and scrapes that Eris could see from this distance, this was far from the first round.

Even knowing that they recovered from injury quickly because they had classes didn't make it any less painful to watch Alex drive an elbow into Jaxie's gut. Alex's sundress was draped over the fence, presumably because the flowy nature would cause it to get in the way, leaving her in a sports bra and her jeans. No longer hidden, Alex's six pack was just as pronounced and defined as Jaxie's. Gone was the passive, sweet exterior. Her face was steeled and blood was trickling from the corner of her mouth.

Unfortunately, Eris also knew how these sparring matches usually ended. As a Berserker, Jaxie's Rage resource was built through combat and fighting. That meant the longer a fight went on, the more exhausted she got and the more pain she suffered, Jaxie only got stronger. A sparring match like this ticked all those boxes. While the matchup may have been tilted in Alex's favour towards the beginning, it was clear that Alex became overpowered when Jaxie didn't even bother to block Alex's punch to the sternum.

Instead, she took it like a champ, using the opening to bring a fist directly into the side of Alex's skull. To her credit, Alex withstood it very well. It only caused her to stumble backward a few paces instead of knocking her out right then. It didn't stop Jaxie's next moves. A feinted punch took advantage of the obviously-dazed Alex, making her lift her arms in defense before Jaxie drove a foot into the bend of Alex's leg, brought her down to one knee, and then suckerpunched the shit out of her. Eris could hear the impact from across the field.

Eris winced as she walked closer, watching as Alex fell onto her hands and knees. She spit out a wad of blood. Eris was close enough now that she could hear Alex's pained voice.

"Yeah- ow. We're done..."

"Come on, you're just saying that because it's five to three and you're still winning. Let's go for a few more rounds and see if I can't tie this up, huh?"

Alex coughed and accepted Jaxie's outstretched hand to help her to her feet. Still, she was bent over, hands on her knees, obviously dizzy from that final hit.

"No, I'm saying that because I'm trying to keep from throwing up. Seriously, did you have to hit so hard?"

Jaxie cracked her knuckles. "Hey, that Bulwark skill of yours is annoying as shit. I've gotta take advantage of any opening I can make. Come on, let's keep going. I feel great!"

Alex stood up straight. Kinda. The white of her left eye had filled with deep red from where it was bleeding and her cheek was discoloured. Eris had witnessed how strong Jaxie could get once she was fully pumped up with her Rage, and it was terrifying. The girl could play tug-of-war with a horse and win. A punch like that to anyone else would have splattered brains across the floor, so the fact that Alex was even conscious was amazing- not to mention how her gaze instantly flicked to Eris approaching the fence with perfect analysis.

"Hey."

At that, Jaxie whipped her head around so fast it was almost a blur. Hands were raised, ready to knock the lights out of any intruder. They were shaking with adrenaline. Her pupils were tiny with shrunken irises, leaving extremely bloodshot eyes that locked onto Eris's. The redhead's heart skipped a beat. Jaxie was already intimidating, but seeing her so amped up like that looked like she was on drugs. Thankfully, there was a flash of recognition.

"Ell."

Eris clearly watched as Jaxie used one of her skills, Equilibrium. Scuffs and scrapes faded. Scratches stitched back together, and even her crooked nose popped loudly back into place. Many bruises and injuries still remained, but a good portion had lessened a significant amount. Most importantly, her eyes had returned to normal. The sight of Jaxie spending most, if not all of her Rage to heal herself was one Eris was familiar with. She always tended to do that when Eris showed up. Jaxie's hands quickly stilled.

"I wanted to give you both something," Eris said. "A gift before we go to Marrix. At first, I thought I wasn't going to be able to finish in time, but that crafting trance is pretty nuts."

"It's your birthday, and you're the one giving us gifts?"

"Yeah, so I expect you two to take them."

Jaxie hopped forward to the fence, almost like a little kid. Alex was a few paces behind her. It was hard to tell whether she was excited, since it seemed like a lot of her focus was spent on trying to make sure she didn't fall over. Eris presented the gifts.

A beautiful, polished silver pocketwatch rested in either of Eris's open palms, glass face upwards to let the hour, minute, and second hands show. It had a simple white background with intricate golden calligraphy to indicate the numbers, and two smaller dials near the top.

"Oh, oh my..." Alex gingerly lifted the watch as it softly ticked, the silver chain dangling from her fingers. Jaxie took hers as well with wide eyes.

"The numbers- are those Ra'lan letters?"

Eris nodded. "Mhm. The old language. Ohn, Tol, Teer, Fura, Feegh, Seaz, Sunov, Ael, Nox, Tuln, Tuln-Ohn, and Tuln-Tol. One to twelve."

"It's gorgeous." Alex said. Eris felt her face flush.

"That top left dial is a calendar, and the top right is a compass. I wanted to include that because I remember reading that while in the Obelisk, the magic alters the magnetic fields and causes all compasses to point towards the exit."

"Wow..." Jaxie's voice was a simple breath. She turned the watch over and her eyes widened. "By the Seven..."

Alex turned hers over as well, and both of them stared over the engravings that Eris had spent many, many painstaking hours carving into the metal over the course of the project. On Alex's watch, the back resembled a pair of antlers growing around and holding a heater shield. Inside the shield was her name.

Alexandra

Mena

Qualley

Jaxie's watch was similar, but instead of a shield, the antlers held a pair of crossed axes. In the gaps between them was Jaxie's full name.

Jasmine

Daisy

Kerrot

Eris fidgeted, uncomfortable with the silence of the two staring in awe.

"The winding knob is on the side, and a full wind should last you for sixty hours. If you need to adjust the time or date, there's a small latch where you can open the shell and you should be able to manually alter whatever you need. It's also got my Durability bonus so it's pretty tough. You could probably play baseball with it."

"Is this silver?" Alex asked. Eris nodded. Alex's eyes widened even more (which was slightly unsettling since one of them was still filled with blood).

"I found a set of cutlery in the trash pile a few months ago. I thought it was pewter but it turned out to be silver. There wasn't a lot, but it was enough for three watches."

Jaxie raised an eyebrow. "Three?"

Eris smiled, reached into her pocket, and pulled out her own watch. Much like the other two, it was identical except for the back. Instead of the antlers spreading from the bottom of the watch upwards, there was a visage of an antlered elk right in the middle, staring down at a reflection in the water. In the top set of antlers;

Eris

Limeen

Kadell

Eris's eyes lingered on the words in the reflection beneath. It was still her name, but now it was the translation of Ra'lan words into Common. Eris could clearly recall Demeri's voice from the Gifting. Not just a name, but a promise. A wish. Her heart grew a touch colder. There, in the silver water and wrapped in reflected antlers were three words.

Hope

Light

Soul

Chapter 8: Home (18+)

Considering the topic being talked about was a set of matching pocketwatches, it shouldn't have been surprising when Jaxie took the opportunity to point out that it was time for another cooldown check. It was still a little bit awkward with Alex there watching, but Eris was able to get into it all the same. Not that it mattered much, since her Desire remained solidly at zero.

It was like that for the entire rest of the day, in fact. Using the watch that Eris so lovingly provided instead of her own best guess based on the position of the sun, Jaxie was quick to mark off every single hour and initiate another passionate makeout session. Of course, she did so while interrupting whatever last-minute crafts Eris was putting together in the process of further testing with her crafting trance. Eris didn't mind at all, even if she wasn't getting her special resource. After the six-o-clock tongue-fucking, the three girls finalized their plans. Alex would come over to Jaxie and Eris's in the morning, and the three would head off to Sunset Ridge so they could catch the train that the Syndicate booked for them.

With that, they split off with rumbling stomachs. Jaxie was quiet as her and Eris walked back to the house hand in hand. It was peaceful on the streets. Quiet. Eventually, Jaxie unlocked the front door to their tiny abode and the pair stepped inside. "We're home!"

There was a sudden shift of movement from the living room. The house was so small that Eris could hear Mr. Kerrot wake up abruptly at the noise.

"Jasmine, Eris? You're home already?" His voice was tired.

"Actually, we're a little bit late. It's six thirty."

Jaxie and Eris both kicked off their shoes and walked towards the living room. Turning the corner, Eris could see Mr. Kerrot starting to push himself off the couch and slide into his wheelchair. Jaxie braced the chair with her foot so that it didn't move while Mr. Kerrot pulled his thin, limp legs into place.

"I didn't mean to fall asleep. I'm sorry, sweetie."

"It's okay. You didn't need to try and stay awake for us."

"Of course I did! Both of you are going off to Marrix tomorrow, and Eris had her Gifting! Darling, come here. Let me see you!"

Eris obliged, stepping forward while Mr. Kerrot struck a match and took a few seconds to light the candle beside him. Once the darker room was illuminated, he gasped.

"Are you taller?"

"Why is that the first thing that all of you noticed?" Eris whined. Mr. Kerrot chuckled.

"Apologies. My, my! Look at your hair!"

"Yeah, it's pretty bright now." Jaxie seconded. Eris shied away, but Mr. Kerrot held one of her hands.

"Did you get Artisan like you wanted?"

"Yep." Eris lied while smiling widely. Mr. Kerrot smiled.

"Good. You're both going to do great at Marrix, and I'm so proud of both of you. Now go get cleaned up- I'll start heating up dinner."

At that invitation, Jaxie grabbed Eris's hand, gave a smile that could melt a steel beam and started leading her down the short hallway leading towards the one bedroom and the washroom. Jaxie's eyes flickered hungrily- and not for food.

Eris gulped.

In a matter of moments, Eris found herself pulled by the hand into the small washroom and stripped out of her clothes. Jaxie was equally naked, rummaging around in some of the drawers while the bathtub filled with hot water behind them. Well, it tried to. Jaxie had pulled the drain plug and set it on the side of the tub.

"Get in," Jaxie ordered. "Get nice and comfortable."

"What are you doing?"

"You were worried about something earlier- well, two things actually. I'm going to help you take care of them."

Eris confusedly stepped into the tub. Because the plug was pulled, there was barely a half-inch of water gathered on the bottom. Still, it was shockingly warm. While Jaxie did... something at the counter, Eris awkwardly tried scooping and spreading the warm liquid across herself. It helped to abate the chill of the washroom.

Jaxie finally turned around and placed a foot into the tub while holding a handful of items. She lowered herself into a sitting position with her back against the other side of the tub. It wasn't very large, meaning that their legs were slightly tangled. Between them, pouring into the tub from the side, was the faucet.

Jaxie hung a small lantern just above the faucet, then placed the items on the edge of the tub. One of them was a small wooden bowl with an even smaller brush, and the other was a folding razor. Eris quickly understood, especially when Jaxie glanced down towards the redhead's nethers.

"You were complaining that you hadn't shaved, so I'll help you out. Spread."

"I... I can do it myself-"

"Of course you can. But you won't, because I want to do it. Spread."

Eris tentatively opened her thighs. She gave a small yelp of surprise when Jaxie grabbed her ankles and tugged her closer together. She also noticed that Jaxie bent her knees upwards and spread her own legs. Primarily, it was likely supposed to lock Eris's legs open and allow easier access. Secondly, which was more compromising for Eris, is that it left Jaxie's pussy on wide display. The rest of her composure was pushed to the limit when Jaxie's hands started scooping water to splash it between her legs. Eris already shuddered at the lovely warmth, but then when Jaxie began to massage and scrub the water into Eris's pelvis, she had to bite her lip to keep from moaning.

Jaxie spent about a minute washing down and thoroughly soaking Eris's lower regions (and soaked they most definitely were), before taking the bowl and brush. It appeared that she had already prepared the mixture of animal fats and soothing oils, since the lather was thick and foamy on the brush.

Eris wasn't sure if Jaxie's calm, almost clinical approach was making things better or worse. On one hand, her remaining completely professional even as she gently applied the lather helped to ease Eris's arousal at having her naked girlfriend working away between her legs. On the other hand, it was replacing that arousal with embarrassment at the situation Eris had no idea how to handle. She could have easily shaved herself, but having Jaxie do it for her was such an awkward mix between weird, erotic and humiliating.

All Eris could do was remain silent as Jaxie took several passes with the brush, taking good care to really, really work in the lather. Occasionally, a few hairs of the brush would tickle the crevice of her thigh or get a bit too close to her folds, eliciting a shudder. Jaxie never wavered. When every millimeter of Eris's pelvis was shining with a translucent sheen of clouded lather, Jaxie placed the bowl and brush back on the lip of the tub.

"Now, I'm gonna need you to stay really still for this."

Eris nodded, too overwhelmed by a mixture of arousal and reservation to consider anything that wasn't following Jaxie's instructions. Still, she was caught off guard when Jaxie grabbed her again. Instead of around the ankles to pull her closer, Jaxie wrapped her arms under Eris's thighs, slid her own butt forward, and lifted Eris's lower half while leaning back. In the span of a single moment, the back of Eris's head was laying on the bottom of the tub, warm water tickling her ears. Her ass was pretty much resting on Jaxie's chest with her legs spread and locked just underneath the Berserker's armpits. That meant there was barely a few inches between Jaxie's face and Eris's nethers.

"Easier to work with this angle. I can see what I'm doing."

Eris wasn't sure whether that was actually true, or whether Jaxie just wanted to humiliate her more with this position. She was glad that she couldn't see Jaxie with how their bodies were placed. Having to look her in the eye would be too much. Eris heard the razor get lifted.

"Remember, don't move."

What transpired was so equally stimulating and shameful that it made Eris's head spin. Jaxie was incredibly gentle with the razor- for obvious reasons-, taking short, slow passes each time. After that, she would hold it under the faucet and let the gathered hair and cream slide off the blade before returning for a second swipe. She worked from the outside in, carefully navigating the crease between Eris's pelvis and her thigh- first on one side, then the other. Eris's abdomen shivered with the odd friction of the blade. Every pass was even more stimulating than the last- especially as Jaxie went over some parts several times.

The most debilitating were the moments that Jaxie used her free hand to pull and stretch the skin in certain ways so that the blade would work more efficiently. Jaxie even pulled Eris's lower lips to either side so that she could access the tiny stretch of flesh where it met her inner thighs. It was a slow, tedious, and unbearably erotic act that lasted many minutes. When Jaxie finally folded the blade and set it back down on the side of the tub, she used her free hand to rub over the newly-smoothed skin. It made Eris shudder and tingle, but there was absolutely no friction left. Her pelvis was as perfectly smooth and glossy as if there had never been hair there at all.

"All done," Jaxie smiled as Eris leaned up just enough to see her face. "Now let's take our bath for real."

Eris silently slid backwards, setting her butt back down on the bottom of the tub while Jaxie coaxed the last of the floating hairs and shaving lather towards the drain. When they disappeared, she plugged the drain, reached up to one of the little shelves Eris had installed many years ago, and pulled out several small chunks of a chalky substance held in a container. She crumbled the soap mixture in her hand and dropped it into the water. Eris was idly rubbing a few fingers along her lower regions, admiring how perfectly smooth it was. Jaxie scooched closer until once again, their legs were spread to either side of each other's body.

They were so close now that they were practically scissoring. Their pussies were no more than four inches apart from each other. Jaxie grinned.

"It'll be easier to scrub each other."

"Uh, o-obviously."

Eris agreed, despite knowing with absolute certainty that Jaxie's statement was bullshit. Jaxie knew it was bullshit too, but the clearly fake display of a 'totally not sexual' act was both humourous and very arousing. So, it took no time before both Eris and Jaxie dunked their hands into the already-soapy water and used it to start applying the suds to each other's bodies.

They went for each other's breasts, first. Naturally.

Eris was in fascination of Jaxie's tits. They were quite large, in that there was no doubt, but they didn't look that way on the girl's tall frame. They were so perfectly proportioned it was unfair. Eris's fingers sunk in and squeezed, unable to fit the whole doughy mass into her palm. The only thing better than fondling her girlfriend's incredible, soapy boobs was the fact that Jaxie was doing the exact same thing to her.

Her fingers felt incredible, sliding over slick skin. Squeezing, massaging, kneading the flesh- they did everything. Soap was 'scrubbed' all the way from the top of her breasts, right down through her cleavage, across her nipples several times, and even into the crevices of her underboob. Jaxie didn't stop there.

Soapy hands slid over every single square inch of Eris's front- right down her stomach and the freshly-smooth pelvis that Jaxie had so lovingly provided. The water level had risen to the point where Eris could only see Jaxie's wrist between her legs, but she could certainly feel exactly where her fingers were. They were already starting to pull breaths from Eris's throat with their administrations. As nice as it would be to lean back and let Jaxie take care of her again, there was something left incomplete from almost ten hours ago. Something that Eris had yet to do.

Eris pushed forward in the small tub, closing the rest of the distance between her and Jaxie. She pressed their foreheads together while moving her hand from one squishy tit to the very center of Jaxie's chest- pressing firmly. Jaxie raised an eyebrow and easily resisted the pressure.

"What do you think you're trying to do, little lady?" She spoke through a grin. Eris gave her a quick kiss before tilting their mouths back apart.

"It's my turn."

"Are you sure? I'm pretty sure it's still your birthday. Birthday girls are the ones that cum."

Eris shook her head with red cheeks, then pushed more firmly. "I... I want to. To make you feel good, too."

Jaxie's face still kept the smile, but Eris watched it become forced. The eager happiness that had been there was quickly fading. Still, Jaxie tried to sound as confident as she usually was.

"Sorry, but that's just the way it's gotta be. I'm more of a 'giver' than a 'receiver'."

Eris should have stopped there. Something was up- she knew it. Jaxie clearly didn't want... that part... of everything. For some stupid reason, Eris decided to slide the hand on Jaxie's chest downwards, towards her stomach. "Please?"

Her fingertips never even managed to reach Jaxie's pelvis. One strong hand clasped tightly around her wrist and Jaxie's eyes turned to steel.

"Don't."

The temperature of the bath sank several degrees. Eris felt a lump in her throat, along with a twinge of fear. What was that look on Jaxie's face? It almost looked like she was afraid. Or was it shame? It was impossible to tell.

After a few tense seconds, Jaxie released her iron grip on Eris's wrist and let out a sigh.

"Look. It's not you. I just- I don't want to do... that. On me. I love doing it for you. It's so much fun to get you off. You look so cute when you cum and you make the most adorable noises-"

Eris looked down with red cheeks. That let her notice that Jaxie had pressed her thighs together slightly, closing off access to her sex.

"-but I don't want the other way. Please, know that it has nothing to do with you. I don't want anyone down there. It just... it doesn't feel quite right. For me."

The silence could be split with a hammer and chisel. That, or the faucet that was still loudly pouring beside them. Eventually, Eris gave a nod and pulled her hands away.

"Uh, sure. Yeah- of course. If you don't wanna, I won't."

Jaxie's smile returned, but it was weak. She pulled the smaller girl in for a hug, who eagerly reciprocated. Eris tried to embrace the sentiment of the situation, rather than focusing on their wet, soapy breasts sliding against one another. Jaxie's hands ran up and down Eris's back for a few moments. After that, they started to wander a bit more. Both slid down and cupped Eris's ass. Jaxie muttered over Eris's shoulder.

"How about we make a deal?"

"A deal?"

"Yeah," Jaxie nodded. "You let me have a few minutes to play with you, then I'll let you braid my hair the way you like. How's that sound?"

"What? But you-"

Jaxie cut off Eris's whines by pulling her head back to look Eris in the eyes, then abruptly kissing her. It was many moments before their lips separated again.

"I'm sorry, but that's just the way it's gotta be. If you wanna braid my hair, you need to cum a few times, first.

Eris pouted. "That's not fair."

Jaxie chuckled, the hot air from her mouth warming Eris's face. "No, what isn't fair is how addictive you are. It took everything I had to hold off for this long, now I can't get enough of you. You're adorable."

"Hnngh!" Eris immediately groaned and turned her face away to try and hide the red in her cheeks. Jaxie's chuckles turned into laughs.

"I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do about it now. I love making you cum too much."

"Jaxie!"

Eris turned around to hide the embarrassment on her face. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a terrible decision. Once her back was to Jaxie, the Berserker's hands gently held Eris's waist. They lingered for a moment before tightening and yanking the smaller girl backward with a yelp. In the blink of an eye, with water splashing in the process, Eris suddenly found herself with her back pressed into Jaxie's chest. More importantly, her legs had been forced apart and were now held open thanks to Jaxie's own looping over her thighs and keeping them pried.

Jaxie wrapped her arms around Eris's torso in a backwards hug. Her head rested in the crook of the redhead's shoulder and thumbs drew idle circles across the soapy skin of Eris's stomach.

"You're perfect," Jaxie whispered. "It's so much fun to make you cum, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do."

Eris grumbled a noise of protest and brought both hands down to clamp down over her nethers in a protective shield. She could feel the way Jaxie's chest shuddered with a chuckle. Meanwhile, Jaxie's hands started sliding up and down her stomach slowly.

"Ah, ah. I already made my offer. I get to play with you some more, and then you can do whatever you want with my hair."

Eris hesitated for several seconds. Eventually, she pulled her hands away with a whine. "It's not fair."

Jaxie kissed under her earlobe, sending a jolt of warmth through Eris's chest.

"You see? This is why I love you. You've got a girlfriend who's trying to get you off and you're complaining about it. You're too sweet- like a... like a mango."

Eris's head turned away from Jaxie with a groan and a new flush of red.

"Jaxie..."

One of Jaxie's hands reached up and gently guided Eris's chin back towards the face leaning over her shoulder. As soon as it did, Jaxie tilted her head forward and let their lips press together. Any resistance Eris may have still held completely fell apart.

She moaned into Jaxie's mouth as the tall girl's hands started to rub oh-so intimately across her. They went to all the spots where the skin was most sensitive, dragging a light touch that sent shivers. Armpits, the crook of her elbows, the sides of her torso, the crease between her pelvis and thighs, and even going so far as to tickle the back of her knees. Then, they slid back up along Eris's inner thighs where goosebumps were rising like the tide and back to her stomach where Jaxie repeated the process.

In no more than three passes, Eris was groaning into Jaxie's mouth while her own hands were roughly kneading her breasts. Jaxie chuckled through Eris's lips and finally started moving her hands in a direction that Eris had been hoping for.

"Don't worry- I'm gonna make my little Mango feel good."

Chapter 9: Home II (18+)

One of Jaxie's hands remained on Eris's stomach. The other slid down smooth skin to rest on her cleanly shaven pelvis. Eris shuddered into Jaxie's mouth. The taller girl smirked but said no words. The thumb running small, gentle circles around Eris's belly button underneath the water level said everything that was needed.

A single finger ventured through steamy, soapy water to the top of Eris's slit. It only lingered for a moment before it slipped beyond the entrance and pulled a groan through Eris's mouth. The first and second knuckle both passed easily until the third- and the edge of Jaxie's palm- pressed up against Eris's folds. The redhead's quivering legs were easily held open by Jaxie's own. Of course, they shook even more when Jaxie curled her finger inwards, as if trying to hook on the top of Eris's tunnel. Even though she knew exactly what was coming when Jaxie started pulling her finger out while it was bent like that, nothing could have prepared Eris for the moment that Jaxie's curled finger dragged pressure over that ultra-sensitive patch of skin.

Jaxie swallowed every inch of the moan that wheezed out of Eris. That moan turned into a desperate gasp for breath when the Berserker pushed her finger back forwards, right over Eris's g-spot a second time. Then a third. And a fourth. And a fifth.

But not a sixth- Jaxie's hand stilled and allowed for the groans of Eris to lessen. The pressure against such sensitivity shot Eris so far forward towards the finish line it was genuinely uncomfortable. When Jaxie stilled, it was a sigh of relief that passed through their connected lips.

It didn't last long.

Eris wasn't sure why Jaxie rubbed her G-spot so intensely to start with. Was it to get her worked up? Perhaps. Maybe the taller girl was just gauging the reactions and experimenting to see what Eris liked and didn't like, and as soon as she noticed that Eris was squirming a bit too much she backed off. Either way, Jaxie didn't return to that sensitive patch of skin. Her finger straightened but was met by a second that eased inside to join the fun.

Still, no words were shared as Jaxie started sliding her digits back and forth inside of Eris. That was probably because Eris was too busy shoving her tongue down Jaxie's throat to let anything more than a whimper escape their combined lips. Her own hands were desperately holding onto anything in order to keep a grip in the world. One was clenched onto the lip of the tub. The other was pressed into Jaxie's hand resting on her stomach. Sensing that, Jaxie turned that hand around and gladly interlocked their fingers tightly.

As Jaxie's digits picked up into a delicious rhythm, Jaxie ensured that their movements weren't locked to only the one axis. Each time they started to delve deeper, her fingers would spread into a small 'V' and force Eris open further, causing squishy walls to yield. Eris shuddered every time, especially when Jaxie would change up the shape of her fingers. A slight bend of her knuckles or the angle between her digits switched every time Jaxie plunged them inside Eris. Occasionally, there would be a little brush over Eris's G-spot, but that only made the jolts of electricity merge into the building pleasure rather than consume it altogether.

Of course, that was to say nothing about the fingers Jaxie still had outside of Eris's pussy. Curled up into her palm, it meant that every time she bottomed out inside, a few knuckles would press firmly into Eris's labia. Even Jaxie's thumb would briefly use the time spent when the other fingers were fully sheathed to poke and prod around Eris's clit. Nothing direct- just close enough to let the surrounding pressure pull on the skin and cause indirect stimulation that did unfairly desirable things.

Eris was panting so heavily into Jaxie's mouth she was sure the taller girl could taste it. Jaxie didn't seem to mind one bit. In fact, the pressure of their pressed foreheads grew as Jaxie used them to ever-so-slightly pull their lips apart.

"That's a good girl. That's so good. You're doing great."

Eris couldn't focus on anything else through the clouded haze falling across her vision. All she could see were piercing blue irises staring into her soul- twinkling with Jaxie's classic grin.

"You're doing amazing, Eris. Just like that. Do you like this? Does this make you feel good?"

Eris groaned with a shaky nod, causing both of their heads to bob with the movement.

"I love making you feel good," Jaxie continued. "Tell me how much you like it. Let me know if I'm doing a good job."

Eris's words were barely a whimper.

"Yes, oh gods- yes. It's... it's- ohhh..."

"Are you getting close?" Jaxie asked with a smile. Even before she was done, Eris was nodding. That didn't stop Jaxie. "You're gonna cum? Gonna cum all over my fingers?"

Eris wasn't even nodding anymore- her head was vibrating. Jaxie tightened her grip with the hand interlocked in Eris's.

"That's it, sweetie. It's okay. Let it out. Cum for me."

The movement of her delving fingers shifted, spreading apart even further than they were before. Eris groaned, desperately bucking her hips into Jaxie's hand to try and push herself over the ledge that awaited her.

"Come on, baby. Just cum. It'll feel good. I'll even count down for you. Ten..."

A long moment passed with building pressure that felt like a stoked coal in the depths of Eris's abdomen.

"Nine..."

Eris didn't hear Jaxie say 'eight', because she fell apart right before. A strained cry leaked from her lips in a way that probably sounded very pathetic, and she held onto Jaxie's hand so tight her knuckles audibly popped even from underneath the water. Twitching legs tried so valiantly to close around the digits pulling free her climax, but Jaxie's own legs easily held them open and left Eris vulnerable. All the shorter girl could do was squirm and buck into Jaxie's hand while pressing their foreheads together so hard she'd probably bruise.

The gods may not have been alive for a long time, but Eris still thanked each and every one of them for the fact that Jaxie didn't stop moving her hand. She didn't keep it at the same rapid pace she held to bring the redhead to climax, but it continued to coax pleasure. Slow, gentle probing meant to prolong the sensations when Eris already crossed the peak. They remained for a long time- even after the throbbing pulses in her seizing abdomen lessened. Even when Eris's vision began to clear again and bring the world back into focus, the soft, easy movements of a pair of digits inside her were nothing short of bliss. It meant that Eris didn't have to go from full climax to nothing- the pleasure drifted away gradually and lovingly under Jaxie's administrations. Still, the fingers ensured that it never faded completely.

Eris was panting directly into Jaxie's face, who smiled.

"Gods, you did so well. You did so good. Good girl."

Even in her compromised state, Eris blushed and turned her face away. There was a kink in her neck from how she had it twisted almost the entire time to make out with Jaxie over her shoulder, so she pressed her chin to her chest with eyes turned downwards. Jaxie stilled her delving fingers and used her other hand to give Eris's a loving squeeze.

"It's okay, Eris. You came so good." Jaxie rested her head in the crook of Eris's shoulder, gently kissing at her neck before making her way forward to kiss at a reddened cheek. "Don't worry, you did amazing. You're amazing."

Eris shuddered when the fingers in her sex slowly retracted, lifted entirely from the water now level with the top of Eris's breasts, and twisted the knob above the pouring faucet. Suddenly, the ambient noise of splashing water eased into calm silence. The only thing Eris could hear was their combined breathing and a few drips as Jaxie lowered her arm back into the water and rested it on Eris's thigh. Jaxie continued to kiss gently at Eris's cheekbones.

"Mmm, just relax. Don't worry. I've got you. I'm gonna keep making you feel good, okay?"

All Eris could do was whine through a blushing, anticipatory smile.

Nearly fifteen minutes later, Eris was panting in the aftermath of the second of two orgasms following that first one. Her arms were wrapped fully around Jaxie in a hug as she sat on the taller girl's lap, legs also curling around her. Eris felt like a baby sloth clinging to its mother, but she couldn't do anything else. Her face was buried into Jaxie's neck and hips were instinctively grinding into the fingers that still resided within. Jaxie's other hand rested on Eris's back, gently caressing up and down.

"Ohhh... fuuuuh- nngh..."

Eris wasn't capable of forming words. All she could do was cling desperately to her anchor while twitching through her aftershocks. If Jaxie hadn't been a Berserker, Eris was pretty sure her fingernails digging into Jaxie's back would have drawn blood. Still, Jaxie's words were nothing more than gentle and sweet.

"Shhh, it's okay. Oh, you did great. I love you so much, Ell. It's okay- I'm right here."

Agonizingly slow, Jaxie's fingers withdrew as she slipped her hand out from in between where their bodies pressed together. It joined with the one on Eris's back as Jaxie fully embraced the girl in a hug.

Jaxie could probably feel the way Eris's heart was pounding as their chests rested against each other. Breaths were ragged at best during the time it took for Eris to fully recover. Jaxie never moved. She stayed there, holding tight in their hug and letting Eris take all the time she needed. Occasionally, she would sweetly kiss at her ear or cheekbone with soft reassurances and praise. It was a few minutes before Eris finally pulled away. Not far- just a few inches-, but enough that Eris could look into the eyes of the girl on whose lap she was seated. Her hands rested on Jaxie's waist.

"No more."

"Are you sure?" Jaxie asked with a grin. "I think you've got a few more left in you-"

"No," Eris shook her head. "Please."

"You positive?" Jaxie cocked an eyebrow with a grin.

Eris nodded. "Please."

There was a battle between their eyes. It was several moments of wet, soapy, warm silence before Jaxie finally rolled her eyes.

"Fine. If my little Mango is too tuckered out to cum any more, I won't force her."

Jaxie chuckled and traced her hands down to Eris's waist. They lingered for only a moment before one went to the bottom of the tub and pulled the plug. Eris was about to get off of Jaxie's lap so they could both stand- until Jaxie took that matter unto herself. It didn't matter that the bottom of the tub would have been slippery- Jaxie stood up with no issue despite Eris hanging off of her. She stepped out of the tub, and when she was stood on the thick woolen bath mat, Jaxie eased Eris onto her own feet.

Drying off was a simple but no less sexy endeavour. Much of that was due to the insistence of drying off each other, rather than themselves. Eris very much enjoyed taking the hand-crafted towel she made and rubbing it across Jaxie's nude body to remove droplets and residual suds alike. Jaxie also seemed to enjoy doing the same to her. Soon enough, Jaxie had her towel wrapped around her head to contain her hair while standing in front of the shorter girl with Eris's towel in hand. Or more accurately, rubbing firmly into the scarlet scalp to try and dry Eris's hair. The movements caused Eris's head to bob around while the half of the towel hanging in front of her face flapped idly. Eris giggled.

"Are you trying to dry my hair or snap my neck?"

The movements paused and Eris felt one of Jaxie's hands let go of where it was gripping the towel. Then, the front flap obscuring her vision lifted like a wedding veil. Jaxie was grinning at her.

"If only drying your hair were that easy. I'm kind of sad that the Gifting made it shorter."

"Why? You know I hate having long hair."

Jaxie swirled Eris's head around like she was stirring a pot of stew, pulling a laugh from Eris. "Because," Jaxie began, "I like cutting it. It's our monthly routine."

Eris reached up and slid a few fingers underneath the towel to touch the slightly-damp strands. "Well, when it grows out, you can get back to schedule."

"Hmph." Jaxie huffed and pulled the towel fully off of Eris's head. Eris imagined that her hair, while very short, was still long enough to stick up in many weird and goofy directions. Jaxie picked up a comb. If Eris tried to look up at Jaxie's face, Jaxie clicked her tongue and titled Eris's head back straight while she worked. That, of course, meant that Eris spent most of the time that Jaxie was combing her hair staring at the taller girl's tits. They wobbled slightly with each movement- probably a little more than they usually would since Eris was pretty sure Jaxie was intentionally shaking her chest.

Soon enough, Jaxie must have felt confident that Eris's hair was in a suitable state, since they swapped places. The only difference in their position was that Jaxie was kneeling on the bath mat while Eris sat on the edge of the tub behind her. The bowl of shaving lather and the razor had since been moved back to the counter and was instead replaced with the wooden comb that Eris occasionally picked up. Eris alternated between the towel and the comb, straightening hair as she dried it to the best of her ability.

Whereas Eris hated having hair any longer than 'functional', Jaxie's could probably be used to thread a shirt. When hanging loose, it went all the way to her hips like a waterfall of unsweetened coffee. It meant several meticulous minutes of drying while being sure to straighten every knot Eris could manage. Eris didn't mind.

Obviously, the pair had never bathed together, so Eris was going to enjoy every moment of this new situation. Jaxie would sometimes let Eris do up her hair after she was finished cleaning, but Jaxie always dried and (somewhat) combed it herself. It was so mundane, but the additional fact that both girls were naked ensured the goosebumps on Eris's skin never faded.

As much as Eris wanted to finish up so they could have dinner, she found herself lost in the moment. Before she knew it, Eris was finishing up with a reverse four-strand braid that dangled down to Jaxie's lower back. She leaned forward into the back of Jaxie's head, wrapping her arms around the kneeling girl's neck in a reverse hug. Jaxie patted Eris's hand.

"Now that you've got me all dolled up, let's go get dressed and have some dinner. These fingers are good for eating and fucking."

Eris groaned. "Thank you, for being classy and refined."

"Not my style," Jaxie chuckled. Then she raised her voice, to the shock and horror of Eris.

"Hey, Dad! Eris and I are done fucking! Is dinner ready yet?"

Before Eris even had a proper opportunity to comprehend what just happened, a muffled voice called back. It didn't have to be loud, and that suddenly set in Eris's mind that Mr. Kerrot almost certainly heard most, if not everything that just happened in this washroom. The house was small enough that anything more than a whisper could be heard anywhere, and Eris knew she hadn't exactly been silent. Jaxie's father definitely heard his daughter and his surrogate daughter having sex, and now Jaxie just confirmed that. Eris was mortified.

"Just finished heating everything up! Come on out when you're ready!"

Jaxie tilted her head up and kissed the underside of Eris's chin while the Artificer blushed deeply.

"Cool. Let's go eat."

Chapter 10: To Marrix

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?"