Training Day II

“... Jayne... sweetheart,” Maria whispered quietly... “Lover girl... Wake up.”

Jayne, coming to after what should’ve been about a two-week-long slumber save for time dilation she guessed, murmured happily at Maria, nuzzling the back of her neck. “I suppose you’re going to make a reasonably compelling argument that we really have to.”

Maria giggled, “nothing too compelling I’m afraid... but we should REALLY clean up. We reek of sex... and I can still feel you inside of me.”

“I suppose it might be a little uncouth to show up for breakfast smelling of mind-blowing, v-card revoking sex, yes...” the redhead giggled back.

“My, and so humble about it too.”

In Cecilia’s room

Tasya and the Keeper had already showered. Cecilia came back from the bathroom in her terry cloth robe only to join the younger blonde on the bed. Tasya motioned to her tablet. “They’re finally back among the living. I’d say odds of shower sex at 83.7%”

Cecilia smiled and laughed, “that low huh?”

“Yep. They’re going to the shower together,” she smiled. “Honestly I just made up that number,” she giggled. Finding some sort of love and acceptance in this unlikely quartet was doing wonders for her, and she could feel it too.

The couple of the hour had disappeared into the shower so there shouldn’t have been any activity in the bedroom right now. Yet Tasya found herself focusing on the lock on the bedroom window. “That shouldn’t be moving by itself...” she changed camera angles on the tablet to the one looking directly at the window from across the bed in time to see it open and owl carrying something long fly in through the window... having seemingly miscalculated the length of the object it was carrying. The long object got stuck at the window, and the owl came tumbling through landing on the floor somewhere. Followed by a large black bird of some sort, carrying something much shorter than the owl had been trying to.

“Uh, we need to go check out their room. Right now.” Tasya started skipping out of the room before she could even explain what she’d seen to Cecilia.

Cecilia followed anxiously.

In Maria’s Bedroom

Tasya opened the door. Because of course, she had a copy of the key, since she was originally supposed to be staying in there... although she did scan the lock and 3D print the key herself. The door swung open to reveal a dazed owl walking out from around the corner of the bed, and a crow that had dropped something looking like a sheathed dagger on the bed.

The crow turned to them and stared as if they’d just been busted. “CAW!” This seemed to get the owl’s attention who managed to get back to the window, trying and failing to bring something inside.

“So... I’m sure that’s not the weirdest thing we’ve experienced so far. But it’s kind of surreal,” said Tasya. She looked a the crow intently, recalling Tuesday morning... the bird led her to Jayne. “Do... we know each other?”

Cecilia for her part tried to tell herself speaking to birds that can seemingly open locked windows from the outside is perfectly normal. She was wary.

“CAW!” said the crow, it bounced a couple of times toward Tasya. “CAW- Me. Me. Tickle-Me.” The owl simply looked back in annoyance. “Hoo-hoot.”

“Huh. The crow can speak?” Asked Cecilia

Tasya answered, “yes. There are a number of birds in the corvid family that can mimic the human voice to some extent. Most common in birds found in zoos or anyplace there’s a large number of people they can learn from.

It was then a giggling pair, Jayne and Maria came wandering out of the bathroom wearing nothing at all. The two stopped in their tracks. They looked at Tasya and Cecilia, then the birds, then to each other.

“Well now that you’re all here I’m sure you’re wondering why I called this meeting,” Jayne jested dryly.

The crow looked to Jayne, “CAW - so soft, so smooth.”

Maria allowed a small smirk, “well. The crow’s not wrong.” She wandered up to the large corvid, “hey buddy what you got there...” she stood slack-jawed. She recognized the dagger from her dream. “It... it was... real? All of it?”

“CAW - yes, yes. Silky smooth,” agreed Tickle-Me the crow.

Maria picked up the dagger and realized it had a note attached to it. She unrolled it off of the dagger and opened it, and read it aloud.

“Dear Maria,
Since it seems my champion has taken a liking to you, here is a gift. Enjoy it in good health.
Lady Velka”

The crow did a bit of a dance, walking around bobbing up and down as if happy.

The owl, having had entirely enough of these shenanigans shrieked and hissed to get everyone’s attention.

“Sorry girl let's see what I can do to help you,” Jayne said walking over to the beautiful white owl. It hooted pleasantly in response this time. The redhead found a javelin with a note laying on the outer windowsill. “Artemis...” she murmured so low no one but the owl and crow heard her. The owl hooted in affirmation. Jayne grasped the throwing weapon and pushed out enough to angle the weapon so it’d fit through the window.

Just below...

Eliza heard one of the wall guards had spotted an open window that a couple of birds flew through. She went to check the exterior just to be safe. People realized that was, of course, Lady Lucero’s room and arguably one of the safest places in the house thanks to the wards. But checking these things out was routine. She reached the exterior below the window just in time to see a very cute topless redhead hanging out the window to try and pull something in. Eliza lowered her sunglasses to appreciate the view. “Everything alright up there, miss?”

Back in the bedroom...

A very flustered Jayne sputtered, “Ah. I... yeah. Everything’s A-OK up here” She managed to pull the javelin in.

“You’re sure I don’t need to come up there...?” Asked Eliza, hiding the hopefulness in her voice.

Jayne blinked and blushed brightly, “I- uh... maybe another time!” she waved and got away from the window with her prize. It wasn’t lost on her what the guard below had been asking.

She unrolled the note, it was written in Greek, but she read it aloud

“Jayne,
This javelin will always come back when you call it. You fight about half as well you fuck now. That’s still impressive. Take care of this, and the people around you. Look forward to seeing you again.
The Lady of the Moon”

This resulted in a number of raised eyebrows in the room.

CAW - HOOT. The pair of birds decided to take off as if they didn’t want to be here for this conversation.

Tasya raised her hand. “I have questions. May I see that note?”

A blushing Jayne passed Tasya the note.

“Handwritten, Greek script. Jayne’s translation is accurate,” said the little blonde after inspecting it. “Maria, may I see yours?”

Maria passed Tasya her note.

Tasya first noticed the beautiful handwritten cursive script. “Lady Velka huh? A crow brought this note with the dagger,” she took a look at Jayne. “A crow was also what led me to you, on that Tuesday morning... It seemed quite distressed and was trying to get someone’s attention, it led me inside the locker room.”

Everyone in the room had more questions.

Looking to Jayne, out of curiosity, concern, and maybe a bit of jealousy. “If... these notes are to be believed... Uh. Jayne. What did you do with the Lady?”

Cecilia spoke up, “I would know more of this Velka,” Tasya echoed her sentiment.

Taking a deep breath, Jayne began with Maria’s question first, “while we slept, I had a nightmare that your Lady saved me from. Thanks to time dilation in my realm we spent nearly two weeks of her teaching me how to fight. Obviously couldn’t beat her, but I did clip her chiton once. I call that a win... also uh... it seems my realm can bend divine oaths. She was released from her vow of chastity while in my realm. It seems a goddess who has been pent up and sexually frustrated for literally thousands of years was, extremely grateful.”

Maria was once again dumbfounded. “I’m not sure which is more surprising... the Lady is an actual goddess or Jayne spent nearly two weeks in a single night fucking and fighting her.”

Tasya looked at her, “are we really surprised about the fucking a goddess part?”

A very bashful, still nude Jayne cleared her throat, “yes. She found the idea of Catholics following her very amusing.”

“What about this Lady Velka?” Cecilia asked.

“Well, she’s sharply dressed. Wears a blindfold... speaks fluent French apparently. Uh. She’s my patron goddess... apparently from which I derive my powers.”

Maria and Tasya shared a concerned look briefly. “So that might explain some of the anomalous readings on your powers, I’d operated under the assumption that you were using magic. But you’re some kind of... divine champion? Like Maria?” Their resident scientist speculated.

“Well... actually more like a Favored Soul than a Divine Champion. Because of the spontaneous divine casting.” Said, Jayne.

“You do realize no one is going to understand that reference, right?” Asked Tasya.

“Hey! She made it, not me...” protested Jayne.

“Okay then, who is this Velka?” Asked Tasya, “I’ve never heard of this goddess.” The sentiment was echoed by Maria and Cecilia.

“Okay... now listen. It’s not as bad as it sounds. I hope.” Jayne said.

The others stared at her deadpan.

“So she might be older than our recorded history... because she’s not from this side of the convergence. This isn’t her original world... also it seems she founded the Blades of the Darkmoon from her side. She explained that she was usurped at one point, and the gods who did it to her are now dead. She explained to me in explicit detail how the one who stole the Blades died. The phrase flesh puppet may have been involved.”

“I actually think it was her I spoke to last night,” said Maria, “she showed me this dagger in my dream... and she said much the same about the dead gods. Minus the gruesome bit, you mentioned. But then this would mean the history of the order is a bit... off. The Lady was unofficially recognized to be an angelic being or some sort of patron saint by the Catholic church.”

“Yeah, that wasn’t her original job description either... but one of her domains was the Moon, so she saw the opportunity to regain some of the power she lost due to the spread of Christianity,” added Jayne.

“Artemis,” said Tasya. Maria and Jayne looked at her in surprise “Oh come on. You know I’m a nerd. You mentioned her training you, and you received a Greek javelin. You mentioned she wore a chiton, a traditional Greek and later Roman garment. She has an owl. Which is one of her symbols... as well as a bow drawn in the shape of a crescent moon. Replace the sword on Maria’s pendant with an arrow and you basically have one of her symbols. You mentioned a vow of chastity, which Artemis allegedly took on the River Styx. This would mean the Darkmoon Order actually follows a pagan Greek goddess. No offense Maria but surely you can appreciate the irony.”

Maria seemed distraught and looked away... “there... may have been nymphs too.”

Tasya was practically gushing with excitement at all this new information. No, not that gushing and excitement.

Cecilia thoughtfully said, “if it’s true that something as powerful as a goddess can slip through to our world and go unnoticed... there are some serious implications to our security against the convergence worlds.”

“Jayne? You didn’t mention what Velka is the goddess of,” Maria suddenly realized.

Closing the bedroom window properly now, Jayne turned back to look at her, “ah... yes. The part where I started to say it’s not as bad as it sounds. She’s the Goddess of Sin and Protector of the Scorned and Unwanted.”

Somewhere, jazz music suddenly stopped playing. “Come again? Goddess of Sin?” The others looked at Jayne sharing Maria’s concern.

Jayne laughed nervously, “eh heh... more accurately the punishment of sin. Her Blades of the Darkmoon would hunt down and kill the worst of the worst. Murderers, traitors, abusers, rapists, etcetera. She told me she had considered “Goddess of Punishment” but that, and I quote, “gave (her) too many leather mommy vibes”. I think that was a joke.”

“So the next question is obvious...” began Cecilia. “Did you fuck her too? Are we two for two on goddesses?” She didn’t sound upset. Just amused and felt like teasing Jayne a little.

“N-no! Which honestly I suppose is a little surprising since she’s really beautiful, and well... IS called the Goddess of Sin... and I was only wearing a towel then. She actually kept her distance from me... but very much gave me some instructions for after training today.” She glanced at Tasya, concerned briefly. Tasya only raised an eyebrow out of curiosity but didn’t press her on what that was about.

The lot of them decided to get dressed and go to breakfast. Maria dressed similarly to yesterday. Jayne was feeling a little bit more comfortable with herself today. She slid on a pair of Maria’s boyshorts, deliberately putting on a show for her, some jean shorts, that stopped about halfway down her thigh, a sports bra, and a teal-ish sleeveless t-shirt. Some comfortable socks and a pair of lightweight hiking boots that laced up nicely. Tasya joked that she looked like Clara Loft on a casual Friday.

Breakfast was, as usual delicious. The staff who had been there were glad to see Jayne in good health after last night. She made a point to thank Jeeves for his quick thinking as well. A humble bow was the extent of the response she got back. Jayne ate like a woman who hadn’t seen food in two weeks... despite that not really being the case for her body, she felt like she was starving. Some of the others stared in disbelief at how this still pretty slim girl devoured so much. The cook actually seemed delighted that someone was enjoying her food that much.

They still had some time before Bighat was set to show up, so Jayne and Maria went out to the training yard to practice sparring. Tasya had already had assistance from the staff setting up monitoring equipment so she could better study Jayne’s abilities and was ready to go.

In the daylight, Jayne finally got a good look at the javelin she was gifted. The head was longer and just slightly wider than your average Greek javelin head. The edges of it had been sharpened as well, which meant it could be used to cut or slash if she had to. The wooden body had some of the central portions of wood shaved away just slightly and replaced with a black and blue leather grip. The surface of the leather stayed flush with the rest of the shaft. Somewhat atypical for a javelin, this one also had a simple butt spike for digging into the ground, or people, it also provided another source of blunt damage if swung that way. Jayne knew she wasn’t going to be fighting Maria even in practice with this thing... but she definitely wanted to test it out later. Maybe when Bighat wanted her to destroy something.

From the weapons rack, Jayne chose a simple quarterstaff, and Maria a wooden sword.

Maria didn’t know about all this two weeks of training while you slept business. One of those things that sounded too good to be true. Maybe she was also a little jealous of her Lady... if it's to be believed they spent two weeks non-stop fucking and fighting... some part of her deep down was yelling ‘that should have me!’ She twirled the wooden sword, light, but weighted in the right places. It was a simple long blade with a crossguard, the hilt was large enough for two hands, but balanced so you didn’t need it.

Jayne squared up against her lover, playfully matching the twirl of her sword with one of her staff, kicking up a bit of sand in the training arena. The scene caused a number of people to look over and watch. The two lovers circled each other, Jayne felt predatory, her breath hastened and eyes dilated. She had a wild smile on her face like she was about to enjoy this.

Maria saw the wild look in Jayne’s eye and assumed a guarded stance. She too felt her adrenaline kicking in. But she was focused... in control.

Jayne kept circling but never keeping the exact distance between, deliberately alternating her steps. She really did feel like a wildcat right now stalking its prey. Her wild curly red mane was free and radiant in the morning sun. She twirled her staff again, and lunged!

Maria had a sharp intake of air as she prepared to defend herself, but she felt herself falter slightly, she flinched backward, only to see Jayne was still standing there. She had just gotten faked out. She scowled... she felt like a rookie again still learning the blade.

The sudden fake out had drawn a few chuckles from the crowd gathering to watch these two. This elicited an annoyed glance from Maria. Jayne struck.

In one fell motion, the redhead barely began a sprint and planted her staff into the ground, leaping using the weapon like a pole vault she came down behind Maria swinging the staff around, that maneuver hurt in the wrist a bit more than she'd have liked, but the staff came around so that she pinned Maria to herself from behind. The only thing stopping the staff from coming up to Maria’s neck was her sword pinned against her chest.

That was way faster than Maria expected. Jayne had some truly developed reflexes. But Maria was still stronger... she hoped. She began to struggle forward with the redhead holding onto her. Finally, she managed to plant her feet and throw herself forward enough to send Jayne tumbling back over her. She felt a sharp hit in her left shoulder as the redhead gracefully landed with something else in her hand. Maria panicked she was without a weapon.

Jayne had expected that forward through and used the momentum to grasp Maria’s wooden sword by the blade and take it with her. That’d be ill-advised against a real sword... but hey, it worked. Unfortunately, she felt the crossguard contact with Maria, hitting her in the shoulder, she thought. She landed and twirled the sword triumphantly in her offhand. This drew some applause from the crowd.

Maria scowled. At the crowd, and Jayne. It dawned on her that her lover was playing with her instead of fighting. Didn’t she know that her life could depend on her skills to defender herself!? That thought felt hollow when she realized she was the one without a weapon now. Only to be caught off guard as Jayne pressed the attack.

With a grin, Jayne flourished her staff as though starting a kata towards Maira, while swinging the sword around so that blade rested against the length of her arm, the guard and part of the hilt held in her hand, she stopped about a meter away from Maria, offering her weapon back by the hilt.

It may have been showing off. Yes... but part of Maria was proud of Jayne for the display of chivalry, returning an opponent's weapon to them. Even if she was said opponent. Although humbled, she accepted the weapon and smiled allowing some distance between the two of them once more. This time she decided she couldn’t afford to take Jayne so lightly and went on the offense.

The redhead smiled wildly as she watch Maria charge her with hands both gripped on the hilt of her practice sword, the blade held horizontally at about head level to as to swing vertical from up to down, horizontally from right to left, or jab with the point. Jayne countercharged, she accurately predicted Maria’s downward vertical slash and raised her staff lengthwise as if to block, but went down to her knees, pointed together and back bent so as to slide right between Maria’s legs. This was too short a notice for the knight to stop and as a result, she tripped over the horizontally aligned staff. It sent her face-first into the sand.

Quick. Much too quick was all Maria could think about the way Jayne slide right under her, catching her ankles on the quarterstaff, she tasted the sand. It’d been quite a few years since she last experienced this. She went to try and push herself up back on her feet, using her sword as a brace only to find herself in a headlock with Jayne’s quarterstaff again, this time it was pinned right up against her neck. She struggled to try and free herself, Jayne was applying pressure to try and convince her to yield, but not enough to cut off oxygen or circulation yet.

Jayne was having too much fun now, with her mane of red and Maria’s head largely obstructing the view, she leaned in to slowly lick Maria’s ear lobe. That caused her to freeze instantly, “can you imagine, being pinned like this right now, if I were to just take like this? In front of all these guards and trainers, some who've probably known you since you were a little girl. I could make your surrender to me, absolute... everyone here would know you belong to me.” she teased in a whisper.

Maria felt a bit of panic. Jayne wouldn’t really do that, right? Here? Take and have her way with her? But Maria did feel a hard bulge against her rear end. She made a point of continuing to try and struggle.

“You know I’m not going to betray you like that. But don’t tell me some aspect of that doesn’t get you hot and bothered, all the people watching you get fucked, by me. Can you imagine the awkward stares, the blushes, the whoops and hollers as I bounced you on my cock? Which aspect appeals more I wonder... the exhibitionism... or the humiliation?” Jayne licked Maria’s ear again making her shudder. “The climax, pun intended, all these eyes on you as I pumped my cum straight into your womb,” she giggled. “What would we tell any potential child from this coupling, ’well daughter, you were conceived when Jayne had her away with me right in the practice yard in front of dozens of onlookers.’”

Maria’s cheeks were bright red now, she was now only making a show of struggling, just so she could continue to hear Jayne whisper perverted thoughts in her ear... “yes...” Maria finally whimpered back, “as long as it was you... I’d love to be ravaged against my will, fucked stupid like a bitch in heat... for you to plant your seed in me and we’d lovingly raise our little ****-baby together.”

This was pretty hot... no one could tell the two of them were having a full-on raunchy dirty talk to one another as they struggled on the ground. Or appeared to struggle anyway. “I can just imagine your tears, and you pleading for me not to... telling me to stop, begging even as I mercilessly fucked you. All the while, my kindred perv, you were more turned on than ever.” Their cheeks were both flushed red at this point. But anyone else who saw would assume it was from the physical exertion of Jayne trying to make Maria submit but her refusing.

It was then they both saw Bighat appear. Only to deliver a sick air-guitar solo. Which was strangely accompanied by the sound of an actual guitar no one could see. “My righteous riders of brohan, I see you got the sess started without me!” This drew a mixture of groans and amusement from the crowd who began to wander off.

Jayne released Maria and stood to offer her a hand up, who for her part made a show out of accepting it just to prove it was all friendly.

“So it would seem,” Jayne said, trying to calm herself.

Training commenced in earnest again. Today Broghan was focused on teaching Jayne on being able to summon arcane blades at a whim to either attack or block with. Showing that she always had a backup if she were unarmed, but also she could make someone underestimate her just because she was unarmed. Some advanced techniques included mixing in hails of magical darts between swings.

The aspect Bighat was most excited about though was imbuing weapons with magical energies. Starting with a simple ‘magic weapon’ spell to temporarily enchant anything you held. An excellent way to penetrate mundane or lower-level magical defenses. Jayne soon discovered she could do this with her pyromancy as well. Which surprised Bighat to see she was now suddenly a pyromancer too, an observation that exasperated him more than anything else. It did take a couple of training weapons before Jayne got it right though. Wood is notoriously susceptible to fire.

Finally, Bighat would bestow some of his knowledge of crystal magics to Jayne. He was one of, if not the most influential scholar when it came to crystalline magics. They focused on channeling magic into a more physical manifestation, weaving energy into crystalline matrices. This gave the benefit of adding physical projectiles to attacks that were otherwise arcane energies only. The crystals were of course capable of shattering, delivering shrapnel on impact.

All of this was being observed by Tasya through the lens of her equipment of course. It was still odd to her. For all intents and purposes what Jayne was doing might as well have been magic. But her machines couldn’t pick up on it as actual magic. Except for when she tried pyromancy. This did lend credence to the idea that Jayne’s powers were based in the realm of the divine. But it was still bizarre they were replicating arcane powers to equal or greater affect. The redhead was still proving to be an enigma.

Cecilia however, had no such machinery. She was dependant on the Sight, she’d been given. She too didn’t see the energies around Jayne as she typically saw magic. The divine influence was there, that made sense now. But when Jayne was using her powers... despite not looking like magic. The girl was channeling vast swathes of energy. Something otherworldly about it. The powers that swirled around and through the girl at times seemed to be joined by more and more little motes from seemingly nowhere as if they were slowly being drawn to her from elsewhere. The oddest part about these energies... Cecilia could sometimes see eyes within it, staring back at her. It was very unsettling. Individual pieces of this energy sometimes seemed to form in and around Jayne as if they were vaguely humanoid sprites, with no discernible features. Her mind thought back to that other dream she’d seen in Jayne’s mind... the little dark figures in the distance fleeing some hungry mass that seemed to snuff out the light of the stars. This was too much for her, she had to excuse herself and step away. She had enough information to offer Lord Lucero anyway.

After all the lessons were done. The teacher, Bighat, the techno-mage Tasya, and the Keeper Cecilia with her sight beyond sight assembled outside of Lord Lucerno’s office, prepared to give their findings.