CH 294: Unexpected, But Welcome Guests

After several days of deciphering, the brilliant minds of Restol were still stuck. It was already difficult to match up the words of a millennium ago with their modern-day language, but now they had to do it with a completely foreign language. And after focusing on it for a few days, they were ready for a mix-up.

That mix-up came in the form of a familiar face riding into town. A blue-haired martial artist sat upon an enclosed cart. Upon seeing them ride in, Jasmine met them at the entrance of the village. Several of the Scarlet Seraphs watched from a distance as they spoke.

“Hello, are you Miss Jasmine?” Clara nodded at her. She stopped the cart beside her.

“I am.”

“I’m Clara. I met your party last time.” The martial artist bowed her head.

“Right.” Jasmine nodded. “I was preoccupied with something when you met them.”

“Glad you were able to succeed. They were quite worried about you.” Clara spoke softly. There was a bit of an awkward pause before Clara continued. “My wife said we should be somewhere again, so I listened.”

Jasmine chuckled softly. “Is it just you two? Or your party too?” “Vivienne, our mage, is with us,” Clara said, nodding. “The others are with their families getting ready for winter.”

“Oh yeah, it is getting colder now…” Jasmine barely noticed the change in temperature. “Well, I’m guessing you’d like to see the church?”

“I think so.” Clara shrugged. “Gotta ask the wife about that.”

Jasmine giggled and grabbed the lead for the horses. She guided the two mares towards the tavern. “You’ll be staying in this tavern. We’ll figure out what you’re here for after you get settled.”

“Sounds good to me.” Clara nodded. She pulled the carriage towards the lot next to the Scarlet Seraph’s carriage. Then, she started on undoing the harnesses on the horses. Jasmine had already disappeared by the time Clara even thought to look. Jasmine was busy gathering the members of her party, so thankfully Clara’s wife was there to help.

By the time they were fixing the horses in the stable, Jasmine had returned with Claire in tow.

“Ah, Miss Claire,” Heather said, bowing her head. “Lady Anka was insistent that I come here.”

“I’ll be honest, I was kind of expecting you.” Claire bowed her head in return. “But it’s nice to see you two again.”

“Yeah?” Clara raised an eyebrow. “Did something good happen?”

“Hush, dear,” Heather elbowed her wife. “Anka has a reason for us to come.”

“Well, we did name our Goddess.” Claire giggled at the two interacting. “And I assumed you would visit at some point. Anka is quite close with Elaine.”

“Elaine?” Heather tilted her head. “Ah, that must be the new Goddess’s name. Lady Elaine… I quite like it.”

“Thank you.” Claire smiled. She glanced at Jasmine, who also had a small smile. “We named her ourselves.”

“Really?!” Heather blinked and clasped her hands together. “She let you name Her?”

“She did.” Claire nodded. “She’s a lot more human-feeling than regular Gods.”

“That is interesting.” Heather looked towards the ground. “I wonder if that’s why Anka is so interested in her.”

“I doubt that’s the only reason,” Jasmine said quietly enough for only Claire to hear. She had to stifle her laughter. Thankfully, Vivienne finally exited the carriage and distracted the two from noticing.

“How long have we been here?” The brunette mage yawned. “Was I asleep the entire time?”

“Been here for all of ten minutes,” Clara assured her. “You weren’t out for very long either.”

“That’s good.” The sleepy mage rubbed the sleep out of her eye. “How is Miss Elsie doing?”

“She’s good.” Claire smiled at her. “She’ll be happy to see you. She missed all the praise you gave her.”

“Well… she is quite brilliant.” The mage lowered her head to hide her smile.

“I think we should get you your rooms, then we can head over to the church.” Claire giggled at the mage’s reaction. She couldn’t wait to see Elsie’s reaction to a developing crush. “Oh yeah, her mother owns the tavern. So you might see her a lot.”

With that, they directed the trio inside to get their rooms. They stood outside, ready to discuss their arrival.

“How do you think they’ll react to Samira?” Jasmine asked the moment the door shut.

“Like Elisabeth.” Claire was sure. “She is who you split off from us to find. They’ll understand the importance of that. Plus, I doubt Heather would react too badly. Anka did tell her to come to the church, so I think we’ll be okay.”

“I hope so.” Jasmine leaned against Claire. “We have to be cautious of who we show Samira to. Wouldn’t want another bitch to snitch on us…”

Claire took a deep breath. It was a risk, yes, but Heather had important information about running a church. She was the best shot they had to get the worship going and start ceremonies. “I have faith in them.”

“Let’s hope so.” Jasmine sighed. “Otherwise, we’ll be having a very eventful winter…”

“What else are we going to do?” Claire giggled. “All the monsters will be hibernating, and the criminals will be in hiding for the winter. We won’t have a whole lot going on until it gets warmer.”

“Yeah, but I’d love a long break. These last few months have been far too much…” Jasmine groaned. “I would love a few months of nothing going on.”

“Well, no fighting. I doubt we’ll have nothing going on.” Claire felt a tingling feeling on her neck, a sign of Elaine. “These three won’t be our last guests.”

“I know,” Jasmine sighed. “But that’s all you and the others. I can just laze around and sleep in.”

“You never do that.” Claire giggled.

“I could start.”

“Start what?” Ursa asked as she finally got within speaking distance of the two. She had stayed behind to help Jane finish up, but had caught up to them now.

“You heard what we said.” Jasmine glanced back at her. “Probably everything we said with those three too.”

Ursa paused. She pursed her lips. “Yeah, but Lily said it was polite to act like I didn’t in these situations.”

“Good girl.” Claire smiled at her. She reached out her hand, and Ursa quickly moved towards it.

“You’ve trained her so well.” Jasmine shook her head. “A far cry from the girl we met months ago…”

“I realized the error of my people’s way…” Ursa mumbled as she hid her blushing face. She was quickly distracted from finishing her thought by Claire’s pets.

“Don’t be too hard on her.” Claire giggled as she scratched behind Ursa’s ear. She admired her red eyes for a moment before speaking. “She’s brave for going against what she thought to be true.”

“I didn’t mean it in a bad way.” Jasmine joined Claire in petting Ursa. “I like the changes she went through. She’s far cuter like this.”

“Ahh,” Ursa could only groan in pleasure; her mind was too preoccupied. She barely held back a bark from coming out.

“Congrats on domesticating her,” Jasmine giggled.

“Hey!” Ursa snapped out of the trance. “I am not domesticated.”

“Shh, they’re coming back,” Jasmine smiled at her. Ursa bared her teeth for a moment but just let it go with a sigh. “Good girl.”

“Doesn’t sound as good coming from you…” Ursa grumbled.

They stopped talking completely once Heather and Clara exited the tavern. “Vivienne is back asleep,” Clara explained. “She’s been studying her ass off for the past few weeks. Elsie inspired her quite a bit.”

“Cute,” Claire smiled. “Come on, we’ll show you to the church.”

“I will warn you,” Jasmine said as they walked. “A new Goddess isn’t the only unique part of our church.”