Soul Merger

Clara shifted on the cushion that she'd been given as a seat. A couple of hours ago she'd been in ankle deep muck fighting lizards for her life. Now she was in a fine restaurant with a crew of really powerful adventurers. The rapid shift in circumstances was a little weird.

She also wasn't used to these kinds of arrangements, though she enjoyed them a lot. Her new size didn't mesh well with most chairs. The private room was pretty nice as well. Eastern style wood carvings sat on wall niches, and the center grill was using fire scales to keep warm. Apparently you cooked your own meat here, and a few slices were already sizzling away.

Rosalina lifted her beer glass. "To our successful expedition!" Clara raised her own glasses with the others and took a deep drink. Alissa and Fili were more reserved, but Rosalina emptied hers in a single pull. "I think we can say that worked out. So what do you gals think about making an official team?"

Clara felt her heart warm at that. She'd guessed she'd passed the little test, but hearing it out loud was great. Especially after so many previous failed groups.

"We need a frontliner," Alissa said bluntly.

Well that was an interesting response. Clara figured the succubus woman would be running to join any group that she could. But it was an interesting observation. "I thought you handled that horde boss pretty well."

"Yeah you pretty much killed it all by yourself," Fili said. "It was really impressive!" Clara noticed Fili hesitate before picking up the tongs, so she came to the woman's rescue, grabbing some of the grilled meat and putting it on her plate.

Alissa nodded. "And I did it while leaving you all completely unprotected. If the dumb lizard had left its minions to fight me and rushed you, we might not be celebrating now. I can fight, but I can't guard any of you while fighting. We won because we've all got incredibly powerful merges. That's not a long term strategy."

"Um, I mean my merge isn't that good," Fili said. Clara nodded. All she had was strength and size. Not much else.

"As good as any elemental merge," Rosalina replied. "And don't sell yourself short Clara. Your aim isn't hurt by your merge, and the added strength of your bow grants you considerable stopping power."

She chuckled at that. "Well I suppose being hit by a ballista shot does tend to stop people." Clara passed out more meat, while filling up the grill again.

"Yep. We're a strong group. Just with one flaw," Alissa said. "So does anyone know a female frontliner who's looking for a team?"

Well wasn't that an interesting question. "I'm afraid not. Never really got into any group," Clara admitted.

Fili shook her head. "Sorry. It's not a common choice for women."

Alissa looked grim, but Rosalina sighed and spoke up. "I know someone who qualifies. An apostate priestess like me. But well... I'll send a note and you can meet her yourselves. She lives along the route we'll need to take to get to the Hell Saint's Mountain."

"Are you being evasive because she worries you, or because you just don't wanna talk behind her back?" Clara asked.

"The latter," Rosalina said with an appreciative nod. "She's a lot less blase about her excommunication then I am. And while I'm sure you'll all be fine with her quirks, it's impolite to explain them without her present."

"Another merge victim?" Alissa muttered. Clara placed some cooked tripe and onions on her plate to distract the woman's thoughts.

Rosalina grimaced. "No, this one is her gods' fault. But I'll let her explain." She finished off another glass of beer. "Anyway! On to more fun things! Well fun things for me anyway. Why'd you decide to kill monsters for money instead of just getting a market stall somewhere?"

"I like traveling more than the money," Clara replied easily. "Stuck chained to a stall every day selling eggs or something? I'd die of boredom." It was true too. She'd done it one summer when they'd had to put down the horses. Most miserable time of her life.

"I can understand that," Alissa said. "Even if you're the owner of a store you can still get stuck on the job."

Clara turned her gaze to Rosalina. "So, my turn. Are you the Rosalina who keeps popping up at the charity clinic?"

The dragon woman looked embarrassed for the first time since they'd met. "Yeah, I suppose that's me."

"Eh?" Both the other women looked at Rosalina in surprise. Alissa shook her head in disbelief. "You do charity work? I thought you quit the saint business."

"Wait." Fili blinked. "A dragon merge who does low cost healing... are you the 'Saint of the Slums?'"

"I'm not a saint," Rosalina waved off the comment before taking another drink. "And it's not like healing magic runs out. I'm not doing anything impressive. I just don't believe in hoarding my talent. Besides you girls have hobbies too, right?"

"I don't know if I would call that a hobby," Alissa said, turning her attention back to the grill.

An obvious dodge, but Clara had figured out the other woman had serious issues that probably shouldn't be poked. So she took up the challenge. "I collect histories. The further back the better. Do a lot of sewing too, but that's more a necessity."

"Ah, I mostly do spell research," Fili said. "Though I also work on monsterpedias. There's always such interesting stuff in there! Especially the magical materials."

"Not Potionology, right?" Alissa asked with a bit of worry. Understandable, given how dangerous those frauds could be.

Fili looked mildly offended. "Please. Those idiots make our entire profession look bad. Any legitimate mage would love to get rid of them. You didn't have to deal with those idiots in class. Always complaining during lectures and wasting everyone's time with random nonsense. I've never wanted to 'accidentally' spill acid on someone so badly."

Alissa held her hands up in surrender. "Apologies. Didn't realize they were that annoying."

"Figure they're like lamia oil salesmen to us," Clara said. That got a wince out of the other woman. No one liked those hucksters. And they made the job harder for everyone else. She looked over to Rosalina. "Priests have issues with that?"

"Nah we stick to religious infighting." Rosalina snorted. "Comes from all of us being liars to start. Gods may exist, but they don't tell us the secrets of the universe. Or really anything useful most of the time."

Well now that was an interesting bit. Alissa leaned forwards. "You talked to gods? I thought the priests were still fighting over how many there were, much less the true teachings."

"I can tell you there's more than one, and they fight among each other as well," Rosalina shrugged. "For all I know they're concentrated energy masses like how the mages classify them. But they're energy masses with very strong opinions."

Fili coughed. "I didn't wanna say anything but yeah. Almost certainly high level energy constructs. The Creator doesn't yell at mortals about minor ritual details."

It seemed they were going to skip the religious infighting. Probably the best for everyone, Clara mused. She had a vague understanding of magic from knowing so many engravers, but most of the high level details were way beyond her. Alissa seemed even more clueless.

"So, we should meet up at the engraver's guild tomorrow. You want to do some shopping for the trip down to the Hell Saint's Mountain after?" Clara asked.

Alissa and Fili shrank back a bit, but Rosalina perked up. "Sure thing! Nothing like setting up for a road trip."

"I suppose we should," Alissa said with a frown before rapidly wiping it away. "Sorry, don't have issues spending time with you all. I'm just not used to big outings."

Fili nodded. "Yeah. I'll be counting on you all to pick the right stuff."

Clara grinned. "Should be fun." She put some more tongue on the grill. "Oh right. I'm impressed none of you made any cannibalism jokes. Every other group I worked with made at least one cow pun."

"Ah, you spoke too early." Alissa shook her head sadly. "Rosalina's probably sitting on a whole page's worth of milk jokes. She's just planning to use them when she thinks she's got a chance to seduce you."

"Hey!" Rosalina slapped the table. "Why'd you give my secrets away?! Now I have to think of different cheesy pickup lines!"

Clara blinked as she looked back and forth between the two. She wasn't sure how much of that was a joke and how much of that was real.

Well either way, this was going to be a fun group.