Echoes Of The Seven

After an hour of ceaseless pestering, it was revealed to Eris that the operators of the train didn’t actually know all the ins and outs of the electroarcanic combustion engine. They just operated the thing. Still, they knew enough to provide Eris with delightful conversation, and seemed happy to show her the cab with all the dials and levers controlling the functions of the entire train. Of course, they seemed even happier to see her leave after she thoroughly exhausted them of all mechanical conversation.

Eris knew she probably looked ridiculous in the black-and-blue train conductor cap that one of the men gave her, but her smile carried her all the way back to their cabin. There was a conversation in place, but Eris couldn’t hear anything coherent until she looked through the doorway.

The cabins on the train were mostly separated into two-person and four-person rooms. There were a few single-bed cabins, but not only was the Syndicate unwilling to cover the expensive costs of those rooms in particular, the three girls (plus Nima, now) genuinely didn’t mind sleeping in the same room. So, that meant the quartet were stuffed into a four-person cabin.

Small and cramped, maybe ten feet wide with a thin gap in between two bunk beds built into the walls. Jaxie and Alex were sitting on the bottom bunk of one side while Nima sat on the other. The rainbow-haired girl was holding the dagger that Jaxie had packed- the one that Eris made a few months ago for Jaxie’s birthday. Hovering in front of her face was a glowing blue duplicate of the knife- identical down to the pattern of antlers engraved into the base of the blade.

“Warcasters have primarily elemental spells similar to Evokers, but combine it with physical abilities. They can make walls of ice, blasts of fire or trap enemies in quicksand, pretty much anything dealing with primordial energy- though most tend to have a dedicated element. Battlemages can have an extremely wide variety of magic, but almost all of their spells serve as buffs to themselves or their allies, or debuffs to their enemies. Anything from imbuing armor with temporary stat enhancements to making allies’ weapons have a lifesteal effect to heal themselves based on the damage they deal. As for Spellblades…”

The floating dagger pivoted in the air, pointing the blade back at Nima. She tapped the tip with the real dagger which made a solid-sounding ‘tink’.

“Our magic is highly based around ourselves and our own armaments. It augments our martial capabilities instead of supplementing it.”

“Amazing…” Alex reached forward and wrapped a few fingers around the hilt of the magic dagger. It visibly resisted the movement when she pulled it back towards herself- like she wasn’t the one moving it. “You can conjure a replication of your weapon and control it to fight on two fronts?”

The conversation didn’t pause when Eris entered the room. The girls nodded to acknowledge her presence, but Nima looked back at Alex and replied as Eris took the only available seat- on the bed next to Nima.

“With limited range and a lot of mental focus, but yes. I’d be more upset that it’s my only spell right now if it wasn’t such a good one.”

“Since Conductor Eris is finally back, we can probably do a bit of round-table reveals. See if we can’t form a decent party.” Jaxie grinned. “So, a magic floating weapon. What other skills have you got?”

The floating dagger in Alex’s hand vanished as Nima looked at Jaxie. “I’ve got three skills- Mana, which you all know, Arcane Assault, that spell I just showed you, and a passive called Disparity. It makes it so that my Strength, Dexterity and Mind stats are always equal, including bonuses that any of the three would receive.”

Alex blinked. “That’s got the potential for some impressive power.”

Nima turned to Alex. “Yes. My version of a Spellblade is obviously leaning in the direction of ‘quality over quantity’ when it comes to my skills. I don’t have much, but what I do have is very potent.” She then looked back and held out the dagger towards Jaxie.

“Not bad at all,” Jaxie reached forward and accepted the knife before sheathing it and placing it back into her bag. “The three of us all have four skills each, so I’ll go first. I’m a Berserker. First skill is Rage. I get a Minor amount of Rage when dealing damage to, or suffering damage from hostile creatures. Next is Bloodlust. A passive that increases my Strength and Tenacity the more Rage I’ve built up. Bloodwhetting lets me spend Rage to heal myself, and Surge lets me spend Rage to provide a Moderate bonus to my Strength for a single attack.”

“Pretty standard for a Berserker, from what I’ve heard.” Nima turned her head to Alex. “You?”

“Knight,” Alex said. “First skill is the most noteworthy- Bulwark. Passive. Whenever you would take damage, reduce the damage taken by fifty percent. Cooldown: Three seconds. Effectively, every three seconds a hit against me is half as effective.”

“Impressive,” Nima commented. Alex nodded.

“Retribution. Passive. When Bulwark triggers, your next attack gains a bonus to Physical Power equal to the amount of damage reduced. Stout. Passive. While wielding a shield, you gain a Minor bonus to Physical Defence and Magical Defence. Provoke. Active. Taunt one hostile creature into focusing their attacks on you for ten seconds. Cooldown: Twenty seconds.”

Nima absorbed the information with an affirming nod. “You two certainly make for a potent combination.” She looked between the two girls sitting side-by-side on the opposite bed. “A dedicated tank and a melee striker that can easily swap in to fill an off-tank role. Good foundation for any party.”

“Seem like a good fit for you?” Jaxie asked. Nima paused.

“There are many factors when it comes to optimizing a party, but this does seem like a good start. Melee tank, melee striker/tank hybrid, and a melee/ranged striker hybrid isn’t bad by any measure. If we can manage to get a ranged striker with good AoE abilities, and then someone with a half-decent ability to heal while bringing their own ranged damage, that might be as close to a ‘perfect’ party as we could imagine. Perhaps a Pyromancer and an Theurgist? That’s the initial thought.”

She turned to Eris. “They’ve already informed me that you’re an Artisan.”

“Yeah,” Eris nodded. “Crafting Points, Crafter’s Cunning, a passive that gives a Quality bonus, and a skill that spends CP for increased Durability. Nothing special right now.”

“Even a little goes a long way. How soon do you think that I could commission some equipment from you?”

“Oh, uhh… I’m not sure? I don’t know how long it’ll take for me to get properly set up in Marrix. It depends on what kind of tools and materials are provided to new students, and how much of my workshop I’ll have to make myself before I can get started. I would assume that they provide basic tools and equipment for free to the crafters like they do to the combatants, but I brought some of my own just in case. It’s nothing special, just a hammer, a few chisels, an awl-”

“Eris, sweetie, you’re rambling.” Jaxie coughed into her hand. Eris’s cheeks went red.

“Oh- uhh… sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Nima paused with a neutral face before it broke into a small, delayed smile. A little odd, but Eris shook her head to clear it.

“Let’s just put a pin in it for now, okay? Even if I do have everything I need to start right away, the first gear I’ll be making is for Jaxie and Alex. In fact, it might actually take a bit before I start doing proper commissions.”

“No worries, I completely understand.”

There was a moment of awkward silence in the small room before Jaxie grinned. “Hey Eris.”

“Yeah?”

“Nice hat.”

The conversation moved from one place to another almost as quickly as the train did. Eris wasn’t paying much attention though- she spent most of the afternoon sitting on the edge of her bottom bunk looking out the window in the cabin to see fields, trees, rivers, and no small number of villages and towns flash by. She would pop in a few times when someone said her name, but then the conversation would shift into battle techniques or different restaurants in Sunset Ridge and Eris would lose herself to the rolling horizon once more.

Even so, the extended exposure allowed Eris to pick up that Nima was just a tad… off. Sometimes when Jaxie or Alex made a joke, Nima would get a confused look on her face or simply not react, but other times she would give a small chuckle. The way she spoke was very straightforward and blunt, and Nima also had a weird habit of locking perfect, unflinching eye contact with whoever was speaking at any given time. On top of that, sometimes her expressions seemed to be delayed. In fact, it almost appeared like she had to remember to smile or frown a solid second after it would naturally occur.

Weird.

Thankfully, Nima had brought food of her own, so Eris didn’t feel too bad when dinnertime rolled around and the trio began eating sandwiches. Still, she couldn’t help but feel obligated to offer some of hers when Nima finished the thermos of soup. Nima politely refused.

As the outside began to darken with dusk, Eris naturally found herself wandering up and down the train more often- mostly out of restlessness. There were only so many times that she could re-read her notebook and the boredom was kicking in hard. On one of those walks, Jaxie joined her. Eris didn’t think much of it- she was too busy fighting the butterflies in her stomach while the pair held hands. She also didn’t quite notice that Jaxie had taken the lead until the tall girl led them both into a quiet, almost empty dining car and sat them down in a booth.

They didn’t order anything- the pair simply sat in the silence, cuddling into one another and looking out the dark window. When Jaxie finally spoke, she did so in a quiet whisper that only Eris could hear- nuzzling her face into the redhead’s hair as she did so.

“I think it’s time.”

Eris’s heart started beating faster. “Really? Here?”

Jaxie shrugged. “Why not? I figured you wouldn’t want to do it in front of Nima yet. I’ll also say that she’s a little weird, since you’re too much of a goody-two-shoes to bring it up otherwise.”

Eris winced. Jaxie just chuckled. “I mean, did you see the way she was staring at us when we talked? It’s actually a little fuckin’ creepy, to be honest.”

“Jaxie…”

“Alright, alright- I’ll be nice. Are we gonna make out now or what?”

Eris’s would-be protests died in her throat when she tilted her head up to look at Jaxie. Her smile was so gentle and sweet that there was no hope of resisting. All she could do was part her lips while Jaxie gently lowered her face until they met. Every other time so far, their ‘tests’ or ‘gatherings’ had been full-fledged makeout sessions. Even though Eris could never admit just how fun those were, this was still better.

Cuddled up into Jaxie’s side, gently pressing their lips together and dancing duets with their tongues in a low-lit train car while miles and miles of Kavala passed by outside?

It would be hard to beat that.

It was a long while before this session ended, mostly because Eris didn’t want it to. Every time it felt like Jaxie was going to pull back and break the kiss (which she probably wasn’t going to, but Eris was paranoid), Eris would gently tighten her grip on the front of Jaxie’s shirt to send the message. Jaxie would respond by rubbing her thumb in small circles on Eris’s waist. Nothing sexual, just affectionate.

The kiss had to end eventually. It wasn’t intentional from either of the two girls- it happened because a fly decided that out of all the available places to land, it would squeeze between their faces and crawl up Eris’s nose to get inhaled. What followed was a coughing fit that left Eris teary-eyed and Jaxie laughing.

That wasn’t even the worst part. That happened when Eris finally hacked up the intruder and managed to look inwards.”You gotta be kidding me.” The end result led to the pair going back to the cabin. Eris wasn’t quite sure how to approach the situation, but thankfully she had a six-two Berserker to do it for her.

“Ney, Nima. Eris, Alex and I need to talk about something real quick. Mind giving us a few minutes?”

“Oh, of course.”

She stepped out promptly, not bothering to grab her bag from her bunk. Either she already trusted the trio not to steal anything, or didn’t care much. Soon, Jaxie closed the sliding door behind them.

“Is this about the skill upgrade?” Alex asked. Eris shook her head.

“No. I mean, kinda? That’s gonna be a part of it, but I haven’t gotten it yet. I don’t have enough Desire.”

“I thought that you only needed seven more points…”

Eris awkwardly sat down beside Alex on the bed. Jaxie took a seat on the opposite bunk. “I did. We only got six points this time. I tried anyway, just to see if it was enough, but it’s not.”

Alex’s cheeks started to go red, just like Eris’s. She must have caught on to what the redhead was going to ask.

“I’m pretty sure I only need one, maaaybe two more points to level up the skill, but I can’t do it with Jaxie again until tomorrow.”

Tense, awkward silence followed. Naturally, Jaxie was the one to break it with a chuckle.

“What Eris is trying to ask is if you two can share a quick smooch in order to get the upgrade tonight.”

“Thank you, Jaxie,” Alex coughed.

“Deuces.”

“Anyway,” Eris could feel her face heating up. “If you wouldn’t mind…?”

Ersi could only imagine Jaxie’s perspective. Both girls were as red as an autumn apple, awkwardly avoiding eye contact as Alex gave a single, short nod. Eris was initially intending to hold the kiss for a number of seconds in order to get two, maybe three points and absolutely guarantee that she got enough Desire to level up the skill. Glancing between Alex and Jaxie, though?

It still felt so wrong to do this, and even worse that she wanted to. Eris wanted to kiss Alex so bad. Jaxie had even given her explicit permission yesterday, but it still felt so… icky. Even if Jaxie didn’t call it cheating,- or didn’t care- Eris did. The part of her trying to keep a moral and honourable high ground was fighting against the part of both her and Jaxie that wanted Eris to make out with the Knight in the pretty yellow sundress-and-pants she always wore. It didn’t matter that they already had a bit of a ‘session’ yesterday.

All Eris could manage was a quick lunge and an even quicker peck on the lips. It was so fast that Eris almost missed- hitting right on the edge of Alex’s mouth before the redhead pulled away and looked at the floor- turning her attention everywhere but the two other girls. Thankfully, even a brief smooch like that was enough to give a single, solitary point.

She wasted no time letting that point drop into the cup of energy that was the progression of Desire’s Reap. Immediately, a flush of warmth went through Eris. Goosebumps rose and her hands went clammy as Eris watched the cup go right back to ‘empty’. There was an innate tingling, signifying that something had changed. She turned her gaze inwards.

Desire’s Reap {Passive} {Level 2}

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

Kissing

Groping

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

“It’s uhh, it’s what we figured. Groping.”

Jaxie stood and swiftly switched from the bed on the opposite side to join right next to Eris. It was a bit crowded with the trio on the one bed now, especially since they all had to lean forward so that their heads didn’t knock against the upper bunk, but they made it work. Jaxie grinned.

“Do you think levelling up a skill resets the cooldown?”

“Huh-mmh?”

Eris was cut off by Jaxie when she turned her face to look at the Berserker. She couldn’t complain though- even a surprise kiss from Jaxie was delightful. Eris may or may not have even shuddered a bit when one of Jaxie’s hands took a quick and gentle cupping of Eris’s left breast. Fortunately, that was as far as it went. Making out in front of Alex was one thing- doing it while being shamelessly fondled by her girlfriend was something else. Eris was already struggling to keep her dignity in check- something like that would be too much.

Eris was left with red cheeks when Jaxie pulled away. It took a few seconds of staring dumbly into the brunette’s awaiting eyes before Eris finally pulled herself together and looked at the skill. She shook her head, still flustered.

“Uh, no. It’s still at zero.”

“Shame.”

Alex spoke uncertainly. “I guess that means we have to wait until tomorrow to see how many points the… upgrade gives.”

“No we don’t.”

Since Eris was in between the two girls, she could see Alex in her peripherals leaning forward so that both of them could stare with raised eyebrows at Jaxie. “Uhh, what?”

Jaxie grinned. “The cooldown’s per person. We still have a bunkmate who hasn’t had her turn yet.”

It took a moment for Eris to piece it together. When she did, she nearly choked on her tongue. “No! We don’t even know her!”

“Aww, c’mon! Doesn’t Little Miss Mango wanna give the weird rainbow a squeeze?”

All Eris could do was bury her face into her hands with a loud groan.