“Perhaps not, but you may want to reconsider,” Wenris replied, smiling even more.
“What possible reason would I have to do that?” Diane asked, reining in her temper. Making the succubus angry would just make her evenings worse, not better.
“Isn’t it obvious? To convince Ulvian that you’re breaking faster than expected,” Wenris scolded gently. “Yes, he’d be getting something that he wants, but it would also possibly cause him to lower his guard slightly. It’s a possibility, at least.”
“That… I suppose it might be possible, but you could just be trying to convince me to do it by dangling that as a possibility,” Diane countered, frowning. “Besides, I like the way I look.”
“Oh, Diane… I suppose you can lie if you want to, but we both know that isn’t true,” Wenris told Diane, clicking her tongue in disapproval. “I’ve seen how you tense at the sight of those who’re more attractive than you, and how your nose annoys you. I’m not threatening to tell Ulvian over something like this, silly elf, I’m just saying that it could be to your benefit to go along with what they have planned. This time, at least.”
“Don’t claim to know me better than I know myself,” Diane told the succubus with a scowl, but she found herself unable to keep from glancing at the demon’s impressive bust. Trying to set the idea aside, she added, “You’ve made your opinion known. Enough already.”
The seed of the idea planted, Wenris smiled and nodded. Diane scowled more, knowing exactly what the demon had done, and Wenris shrugged before changing the subject. “So, do you enjoy the sight of humans or demons more?”
“Diane? Are you feeling well?” Elissa asked, looking worried. “You look quite pale.”
“I’m fine. I just haven’t been sleeping well of late,” Diane replied, smiling as best as she could. Her pain was slightly worse than normal, and Wenris’ comments had been more pointed and lewd as well, likely as vengeance for Diane’s sharp tone at several points. Oh, how she wished she could keep the demon out of her dreams. Which brought an idea to mind as she stepped into the priestess’ private chambers. “Actually, I’ve been having bad dreams. You wouldn’t have a way to help with that, would you?”
“Hmm… bad dreams? Well, a ward wouldn’t work, but I could get you a blessed dreamcatcher? Those are supposed to help ward off bad dreams,” Elissa offered, and then looked at Jaine. “Jaine? What about you?”
“I’ve had some bad dreams of late, but they’ve eased a little, High Priestess,” Jaine replied respectfully, but blushed as she added, “Though I admit that the idea of such an item does make me feel more at ease.”
“I’ll make certain to have a pair made and delivered to each of you,” Elissa promised, and smiled gently at Diane. “I hope that it helps you, Diane.”
“I doubt that it will, but thank you, Elissa. I do appreciate it,” Diane replied softly, suppressing the disappointment she was feeling. It could always be worse. Who knew, anyway? The dreamcatcher might actually work. “How are you?”
“Everything is going well!” Elissa replied cheerfully, smiling. “Attendance is up, and we’re starting to get more donations. I think that the people needed Tyria’s guidance.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Jaine interjected, smiling. “You’re a wonderful priestess.”
Diane smiled slightly at her daughter’s reaction, though she was faintly worried about it. With what Wenris had said, there wasn’t much chance of Jaine not liking Elissa and her faith, but part of her wished she could talk to Jaine about the succubus and warn her that she was being manipulated.
Elissa had the grace to blush, and smiled. “Thank you for the compliment, Jaine. And actually, I had an offer for the pair of you. I’ll admit that a tiny part of it is at the jackass’ urging, but it’s primarily from me.”
“Oh? What kind of offer?” Diane asked, careful to make certain she seemed appropriately wary.
“I like both of you, and think that you’re worthy of My Lady’s attention. So, I took the liberty of preparing a holy baptism for the two of you. It should draw the good graces of Tyria to you, and bless you for a time. I don’t know all of the effects it might have, but I know they will be good,” the priestess explained, reaching up to play with her holy symbol. “It’s supposed to help with beautification too, which is why Ulvian probably was asking me to offer it.”
Diane was just opening her mouth to speak, but Jaine spoke first, her voice eager. “I’d love to go through with the baptism, High Priestess!”
She stopped and looked at Diane a moment later, blushing and asking in a more subdued tone, “Uh, if that’s alright, Mother? I just…”
“It’s fine, Jaine. I wish you weren’t so quick to leap into things, given our situation, but I can’t blame you.” Diane sighed slightly and smiled at them, a bit nervously. Turning her attention to Elissa, she considered a moment before asking, “Do you promise that this is going to be harmless, to the best of your knowledge?”
“Yes. It’s a simple holy baptism, blessed by one of Her angels, Zenith,” Elissa promised, and both elves stared at her for a long moment.
“An angel blessed the waters?” Diane asked softly, startled.
“Yes.” Elissa smiled gently. “I told her about you, and she observed both of you before deciding to accede to my request.”
“Mother? Please?” Jaine begged, her eyes shining with excitement.
“I agree. To have an angel bless the water, it would just be horribly inconsiderate of me to refuse,” Diane finally agreed. She’d been tempted to agree to begin with due to Wenris’ suggestion, but the revelation had clinched her decision. She respected Elissa too much to refuse, especially since she hadn’t seen any signs of the priestess lying to them.
“Excellent! If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you to the pool,” Elissa replied, smiling broadly as she opened the door and led the way toward the back of the temple.
“Pool? What does the baptism involve?” Jaine asked. “I thought that it was just anointing someone with water or oil.”
“In this case, a baptism involves full immersion in the water, which has also been treated with a number of sacred herbs and oils,” Elissa explained.
Diane considered asking more about it, but shook her head and kept quiet. She didn’t want Elissa to think that she was actually converting.
Elissa took them through a couple of rooms, then into a pentagonal chamber about twenty feet across. There was a marble pool set into the floor that was also pentagonal, but was offset from the rest of the room so that the corners each pointed toward the center of the walls. Lanterns set into each wall provided illumination, and the pool was filled with water that was purple with a handful of rose petals floating in it.
The priestess closed the door behind them, then nodded at the pool, speaking reverently. “This is it. All you must do for the baptism is disrobe and step into the pool. I will pray for your blessing to my lady, and then you must go underwater for at least ten breaths of time. The longer you stay under, the more it should do for you.”
Looking at the pool, Diane started to hesitate again. She could feel faint warmth coming from the water, and there were a few wisps of steam rising from it as well. But Jaine only hesitated for a moment before beginning to disrobe, so Diane mentally sighed and followed her daughter’s example. It didn’t change how awkward she felt, but she wasn’t going to argue about clothing when the priestess was doing her a favor.
Diane turned away and was just starting on her underthings when she heard Jaine gasp on entering the water, exclaiming, “It’s really warm! I thought it would be colder.”
“I didn’t want you to be cold if you agreed, so I made sure that the water was kept heated,” the priestess replied in an amused tone.
Finishing disrobing, Diane turned to slip into the water, holding her arms close to cover as much of herself as she could, blushing slightly. The water was deeper than she expected, about four feet deep, which meant it wasn’t hard to keep herself underwater fr
om the neck down. The water was warm, on the verge of hot, and Diane couldn’t help but inhale, shivering as the warmth seemed to penetrate deep into her body, easing some of the ache from her abdomen.
“You’re right. This is quite warm. It’s almost uncomfortable,” Diane agreed, taking a deep breath. There was something odd about the water’s smell, but she couldn’t quite place it.
“I’ll start the prayer in a moment. After I ask Tyria’s divine blessing upon you, dunk yourselves for as long as you can without risking yourselves,” Elissa advised, then paused before asking, “Ready?”
Jaine nodded, her face slightly flushed, and Diane agreed softly. “Yes.”
Elissa nodded and took a breath, then closed her eyes and spoke in a clear, calm voice as she spread her hands. “Lady Tyria, Eminent Flame and My Goddess in Chains, I stand before you to humbly make a request. Please bless the elven daughters before me with thy favor and protection.”
As Elissa finished her simple prayer, Diane took a deep breath and crouched down and back, trying to fully immerse herself, her eyes closed. The first thing that Diane noticed was that the water didn’t splash. It flowed smoothly and evenly around her head, into her ears and nose, and all across her skin. The warmth seemed to grow ever so slightly more intense, and sounds grew muffled. It was hot, and somehow it seemed comfortable, like a fire shedding warmth on a winter’s night.
The heat began to penetrate deeper into Diane’s body, and she felt as though it was permeating all of her, and the pain from her lower body melted away as it pooled there and against her eyes. The heat throbbed through her, and Diane had to suppress a gasp as it became more powerful, flooding her body with warmth. She thought she felt something changing, but she wasn’t certain. The odd sensations actually distracted her from how long she’d been underwater, and the tingling intensified as she stayed under for longer, until her lungs began to complain and Diane dropped her feet to the floor, standing up and releasing her breath with an explosive gasp, opening her eyes.
She was standing farther out of the water than she had been before, Diane found, blinking water away from her eyes for a moment, only to find it was almost gone in moments as steam rose from her skin. Diane felt wonderful, revitalized and refreshed like she hadn’t felt in years, but it was the sight of Jaine that made her mouth open in shock.
The water didn’t so much sluice off of her daughter as steam off, and the pool was now crystal clear. Jaine’s skin was darker than before; instead of being a faint golden tinge, it was the color of honey, and almost glistened in the light. Jaine was also taller, almost four inches more than she had been, and her hair glistened gold with crimson highlights. Yet the changes didn’t stop there.
Jaine’s hips were wider and her breasts larger, but it was when she looked toward Diane, blinking the steam from her eyes, that Diane saw the most obvious changes. Jaine’s eyes were now a deep purple instead of blue, and she had a marking on her forehead, a tiny pinprick of purple with a starburst around it in the same color. Additionally, her features were slightly more refined and… perfect, for lack of a better term, making Diane shiver at her daughter’s beauty.
“Mother? You… you look gorgeous.” Jaine’s eyes went wide as she looked at Diane, blinking several times.
“What? You changed a lot, Jaine,” Diane replied, taking a moment to look down at herself, and froze in surprise.
She immediately noticed that she couldn’t see her toes when she looked down, where before they’d been clearly visible. Other than the significant enhancement to her bust, she appeared to have received most of the same adjustments as Jaine, though her skin had instead lightened slightly. She also realized that she felt no pain from her lower body. Looking into the water, Diane couldn’t get a good reflection of herself. So she asked. “Jaine? Do I have a purple mark on my forehead, shaped like a star?”
“Yes, you do. And your eyes… one’s light purple, while the other is much darker,” Jaine replied, looking at her arms in a daze. She swallowed, and after a moment looked at Elissa and asked, “What happened, High Priestess?”
“I believe that the goddess blessed you more than I’d expected,” Elissa replied, looking rather startled, and somewhat envious. “I wish I had some of the height She granted you. I was shorter than either of you before, and now you’re even taller.”
“Perhaps, but I wasn’t expecting anything this dramatic,” Diane told the priestess, feeling slightly worried despite how much better her body felt.
“Neither was I. And you certainly won’t be able to fit into your previous clothing. I have some robes for acolytes and priestesses I could loan you,” Elissa offered, frowning as she considered them. “I do hope you aren’t upset? This was not what I anticipated.”
“I…” Diane hesitated, looking at Jaine, whose concern seemed to be evaporating as fast as the water had. Sighing softly, she shook her head and began to climb out of the pool. “No, it’s fine, Elissa. If you didn’t know, you didn’t know. I’m not sure what I think of it yet. I’m going to have to go look at myself in the mirror. But a simple robe would be greatly appreciated. It’s something of a surprise that my balance hasn’t been affected by this.”
“At a guess, it’s because Tyria didn’t want to inconvenience us,” Jaine suggested, climbing out of the pool as well, and shivering as she did so. “And robes would be lovely, please?”
“As you like. I’ll be back with them shortly,” Elissa promised, and opened the door just enough to slip out of the room, leaving them in the cool air.
It took a few moments before Diane murmured, “I’m wondering if this was a good idea.”
“I don’t. Just wait and see, it’ll be for the best, Mother,” Jaine replied, and Diane didn’t miss the confidence in her daughter’s voice. She could do nothing but sigh, a sinking feeling in her stomach.
Chapter 43
“So the messages were sent?” Farris asked Desa, scanning over the text of her tome slowly.
Desa finished the paragraph she was reading and looked up, nodding. “Yes. The stones are an interesting device, and I know my message reached Captain Steelguard, but there isn’t any way for her to reply, which makes it a little more difficult.”
“Indeed. I hope that they take the warning seriously.” Farris sighed, shaking her head. “I just don’t know there’s much they can do.”
“I agree. But they can do more than we can. Diamond said that she contacted the Archpriestess of Medaea as well,” Desa added, frowning for a moment. “Speaking of which, do you know how her tutoring the three from the academy is going?”
“They’re picking up modern wordings fairly quickly. We’re fortunate that elven hasn’t changed so much as to be completely foreign to them. Cortin and Nora still seem somewhat in shock about what happened,” Farris explained, sighing as she shook her head. “It appears to have put a damper on their relationship, and Cortin has been flirting with Helia since then. Kassandra seems to have taken it much more easily, however. I suspect because she’s already dealt with the shock of becoming a vampire.”
“Wait, Cortin and Nora had a relationship? What are the odds of the survivors having been courting before a disaster like what happened to Everium?” Desa asked, looking up suddenly at the information, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. “I thought I heard something about most of the students being in the dormitory when the ghouls attacked.”
“Apparently, they were meeting for a tryst in one of the empty classrooms, which was what saved their lives.” Farris smiled sadly, shaking her head. “They managed to get to the headmaster for protection, but by that time, the city was being devastated by earthquakes and the academy sank.”
“Ah. Now I feel bad for wondering. I can’t even imagine what they experienced.” Desa sat back a little, feeling a little guilty about her reaction. She shouldn’t be so suspicious, but things had been going so well that she was just waiting for another shoe to drop.
“Neither can I. They didn’t even fully experience t
he Godsrage, either,” Farris replied softly.
For a minute there was silence between them, and Desa raised her head, curious again as she asked, “Why aren’t you with Phynis, anyway? I know she wasn’t with Sistina.”
“She was going on a date with Emerald and asked for privacy,” Farris told her, smiling again. “It looked like it was going fairly well.”
“That is a very complex relationship,” Desa muttered, shaking her head in bemusement. “I can’t believe that Phynis is going along with it, and that Sistina put her foot down and made the eight of them figure out where they stood.”
“It’s for the best, though. Would you rather Sistina slept around and that Phynis got her heart broken?” Farris asked, looking up from her book again.
“Of course not!” Desa exclaimed. “I just want her to be happy, and this is weird.”
“Fair enough,” Farris conceded, pausing for a moment before asking, “How did you know Phynis wasn’t with Sistina?”
“Sistina said she was going to be working on the dungeon, and not to disturb her today,” Desa replied absently, eyes drifting back to her book.
“Ah. I suppose I’ll have to ask her what she did later, then,” Farris murmured.
Sistina noticed their conversation, but more of her attention was focused on Emerald and Phynis as they walked through the temple of Vanir, speaking softly as they got to know one another. Sistina was happy with how the women were coming to terms with one another, and in the process she was getting to know each of the Jewels as well. Phynis was much better than Sistina at figuring out what they were thinking.
That had actually been a surprisingly hard lesson for Sistina to learn, that she wasn’t quite as good at figuring people out as she’d thought. At first, she’d thought that adjusting the mental state of the Jewels might not be too hard, but as she probed deeper, she found that it wasn’t quite as simple as she’d thought it was. The mental changes from the shards dissolved into the women were extensive, and without them to guide her it would be almost impossible for her to fix without breaking something else. The complexity of a mind so far exceeded even Sistina’s more powerful spells that she conceded to herself that she’d grown a touch conceited.
Spells of Old (Ancient Dreams Book 2) Page 31