Soul Merger

Despite how Rosalina had talked up the 'partying' aspect, the dragon priestess had led them to a fairly normal restaurant. They'd gotten the smaller of the two backrooms, but with three people there was plenty of room to relax. The lamps kept the place bright and cheery, and the pastel tablecloth matched the floral centerpiece nicely. A tankard of beer and three glasses all with frost wyrm scales keeping them cool were already there when they'd sat down.

Rosalina fixed up her hair behind her horn crown and raised her mug high. "Cheers! To a fine reward for a difficult task!"

"Cheers." Alissa said, lifting her own mug up to tap the other.

"Cheers. And for those who didn't make it back," Fili added softly, lifting her own mug.

With the final clink of glass Alissa took a sip. It was probably a good brew, but she'd never been a real connoisseur of beers. Still it was a fine finale to the day.

Fili sipped as well, while Rosalina threw back her drink and guzzled half of it. "Phfa!" The priestess set it down with a heavy thud. "So! Time for proper introductions! Alissa there is a succubus merge and a proper sneak thief. I'm a heretic dragon-merge priestess who's run away from home. And you're a graduate of the Malamute Tower, Fili?"

The woman nodded. "I'm certified for four elements and eight paths. I specialized in multi variable spell controls. Graduated with a 48 line thesis."

Alissa had no idea what that meant, but Rosalina's eyes got wide. "Really? Why are you running babysitting delves instead of working research? You've obviously got the skill."

Fili looked down at the table. "Slime merge." Alissa grimaced. Yet another person whose life had been damaged by monsters.

Their discussion was interrupted by the serving girl returning. The catgirl deftly put down plates, a dish of olive oil, and a basket of rolls. "Good evening. Our choices today are jackalope au vin or pork with bloodroot sauce."

"Jackalope, please," Alissa replied. She preferred the gamey rabbitlike meat to pork.

"Hm, after the bunnies again? The pork for me, thank you," Rosalina said. Alissa shot the woman a look which the smug priestess ignored.

Fili thought for a moment. "I'd like the jackalope, please."

"Very well. The soup shall be here shortly." The waitress bowed and flitted out again.

As the door shut Rosalina turned back to Fili. "So why would slime merge be a problem? It can't be any worse than a water elemental merge." Alissa glared at the priestess but Rosalina didn't look the slightest bit sorry.

Fili sighed. "It looks bad. It's hard to kill slimes, because every single cell needs to be destroyed. That's why we use them for spell practice. Most slime merges are because the caster screwed up somewhere in spell crafting."

Alissa kicked Rosalina under the table before the dragon woman could press. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked quietly as the priestess gave her an incredulous look.

"It's fine." Fili managed a bit of a smile before sighing again. "I designed a mixed earth fire spell to catch the target in boiling mud. But apparently slimes can't move if their 'foot' is burned. So it cooked to death... and here I am."

"Well that's some bullshit," Rosalina said while snatching a roll. "Sounds like they wanted you gone because you showed their instructors weren't that bright. How the hell did they not notice your spell was going to kill the slime?"

Alissa was a little more delicate in getting the bread. "Got to agree. Seems like you got sidelined less because of your merge than because of their mistakes."

"Thanks." Fili carefully speared her own roll to avoid dripping on anything important. "I'm not really mad about losing the research position. I prefer practical spell application. But it's hard to get a party..."

'Wasn't that a familiar pain,' Alissa thought to herself. Admittedly she didn't really try that hard. But being forced to solo or subcontract everything really made delving a low reward career.

The waiter once again flitted in to deliver the soup before vanishing with grace. Alissa wondered idly if the girl had similar problems with her merge, or if that was just her own hatred of the whole system bleeding in.

She threw that thought off to try the soup. Seemed to be cream of chicken. Not too heavy, but not a thin broth either.

"So~!" Rosalina's eyes got a dangerous gleam. "Since we've pulled a secret out of our new friend, I guess we should each give one of our own? Perhaps Fili can ask."

Alissa took a long pull of her beer. "I can't promise I'll answer, but I trust her questions more than yours."

Rosalina clutched her chest. "Oh! I've been wounded by your barbed tongue. It's a good thing I know healing spells or I might die of heartbreak." Alissa and Fili couldn't help but snort in amusement.

"Actually," Fili chewed her lip, "I have a question about succubi if you're willing to answer?"

"Hm?" That was an interesting choice. "Wouldn't you be able to read that in your tower's library?"

The mage shook her head. "They don't let people read in depth about demonology until post graduate studies. Unless of course..."

"You have a merge," Rosalina and Alissa answered at the same time. Well that did make some sense. Demon knowledge was probably most dangerous in the hands of mages.

"I don't see a problem with that," Alissa said. "So long as it's not too ridiculous."

Fili pulled a scrap paper and pencil out of her pouch. "Can you tell me how succubi target men specifically? It seems to violate several magical principles, so I'm really curious. Gender based targeting has been abandoned for centuries."

"Oh!" Rosalina's eyes perked up. "That's actually a good point. They mentioned that early on in priestess training. Of course healing magic requires such individual attention that we can't even use the same targeting on identical twins."

Alissa had to take another drink to burn out the foul taste in her mouth. Neither of the other girls needed to know the details. But she figured she could give the basics. "It doesn't target men. Succubi have power over any semi-humanoid creature with genetic material that can be 'sucked.' For example all fishmen are immune, and if I ever ran into any of those weird sea horse people I'd apparently charm the women."

Rosalina gave a good laugh at that thought, while Fili blushed. Still the mage scribbled down the info. "That makes a lot of sense. It's... well it'd be a huge pain to target but the restraints are much easier to plot out. Sorry to ask something so weird but it's really interesting as a mage!"

"And now that we've both put our chips in, it's your turn Rosalina." Alissa met the woman's eyes. "How'd you end up losing a position as a Saint?"

"I quit," Rosalina said casually. As if throwing away leadership of a church was like tossing out moldy bread. "It's actually surprisingly easy, at least if you have a few cousins to take up the job. Saints don't do anything except sit around, look pretty, and take in a lot of donations. So they're really easy to replace. I left a note, walked out and kept walking until I got here."

Alissa blinked at the frank response. Fortunately the server arrived with their main dishes, giving her some time to mull it over. She'd somehow expected more. Alissa had been from a wealthy family, but the life of a Saint was far far beyond that. A level of power wealth alone couldn't buy. Young girls dreamt of the opportunity. And Rosalina had thrown it away for no reason at all.

Perhaps that was just a difference between those born to power and those who weren't. Or perhaps the reason was something the dragon woman wasn't yet comfortable about saying.

"So, gonna tell me I skipped out on the best thing ever and I'm crazy?" Rosalina asked as she twirled her hair around a finger.

"Nah. I already know you're crazy, and I can think of a number of things better than being part of a Church." She carefully took a bite of the jackalope. "Besides, you picked a good restaurant. This jackalope is excellent. They didn't just pour wine over it and call it a day."

Fili nodded happily in between forkfuls. "I think there's some chicken of the woods mushrooms in here along with the button shrooms. Oh and they used krill pepper." Alissa blinked. "What? We need to be able to tell reagents apart quickly."

Rosalina laughed. "You two really are interesting. Congrats on being the first to not ask what church I ditched."

"If I cared about whatever church it was, I'd already have heard about you ditching them," Alissa replied.

Fili nodded. "You obviously weren't in a human purity cult so it's not a big deal. Though I guess if you left a purity cult it'd be good? Sorry, thinking out loud."

The dragon woman ran a finger across her horn crown. "Yeah, those loonies tend to be more inland. Anyway, the main course is here, there's plenty to drink, so let's get to the partying!" She raised her mug again, and Alissa tapped her own in an impromptu toast.

Alissa turned her attention to the Jackalope. It really was excellent, and she made a note to come back here when she had enough money to get a hidden room like this.

A few moments later she realized that day might not be all that far off. If the mythril they'd found was pure enough they'd be set for a couple of years. That was an odd feeling. Still she was getting a little ahead of herself. "So where are we going to get our goods appraised? I know some smiths but they'd rob us on the sale."

"We should go to the Pacio Engraver's guild," Fili said. "They use the materials better, and they'll be trying to upsell us on gear. Smithies just want the metal to save on enchantment purchases."

"That sounds right," Rosalina replied. "Sounds like none of us know a person on the inside so we'll have to just be careful."

Alissa relaxed a bit. "The Pacio Engraver's Guild is trustworthy. They're good at rooting out people who make them look bad. It's how they keep a cross ocean presence. I'd have suggested them or the Kaliu Shipping Company. They're another respectable group."

"That seems like a lot of money to leave up to trust and reputation," Rosalina replied with a curious look. "What makes you so sure we can trust them?"

"Nothing's certain, but reputations are important. And they're both big enough companies so that it'd be a medium sized deal. Big enough the local guild member gets a good commission, but not big enough to risk ruining that reputation for a tiny payday increase. People tend to cheat in small deals or big ones." Alissa had to take a drink to wipe away her grimace. Her father had told her that little tip.

"Aha! That's a clever rule of thumb. Though I bet it works better for merchants than random delvers like ourselves." Rosalina smirked. "Eh, it should be fine anyway."

As they finished off their main courses the server came back in with candied fruits and three glasses of dessert wine. "Please take your time and enjoy."

Rosalina pulled out a sizable number of bills. "Keep the change."

"Thank you!" The server's smile seemed quite genuine so Alissa figured it was a sizable tip.

The wine was sweet, but it left a lingering warmth. An excellent end to the meal. "Thank you Rosalina. I'll have to return the favor at some point."

"Yeah, thankhs." Fili said with a big smile.

A second glance showed the mage was swaying a little in her seat, and dripping more frequently. Her eyes blinked slowly and didn't really seem to focus on anything. Alissa waved her hand. "Hey Fili, are you okay?"

"Hm? Jush a little tired. Be fine. Took a dose of shleep away." Fili grinned and took a rather shaky drink from her own wine.

Rosalina gave an 'o' of surprise. "Fili, sleep away reacts with alcohol to make you more drunk. You've lost all the benefits too. How long have you been awake?!"

Fili slowly blinked. "Oopsh. Been two daysh. Well g'dnight." The slime mage threw back the rest of the desert wine and then sagged down in her chair laying her head to rest in front of her plate.

"Well." Alissa blinked a few times before looking over at Rosalina. "We kinda forgot she'd spent a whole night in a labyrinth didn't we?"

Rosalina gave a 'whoops' pose. "Guess we did. Seems like I'll have a use for my guest room."

"It's fine. I'll take her to my place." Alissa leaned back and tried some of the candied fruits. Seemed like they had quite the variety. "I live closer."

"Are you sure? I do have a guest room. And I'm probably more used to company than you are, no offense," Rosalina replied.

Alissa looked the dragon woman right in the eyes. "If I let you take her home, it'll definitely make you the main character, and we'll all end up in your remarkably sexless harem trying to find and kill some Demon Lord. If I take her home I can trick her into helping with laundry."

Rosalina chuckled, but it died as Alissa kept staring at her. After a moment the dragon priestess blinked. "You... don't actually believe that main character syndrome stuff right? It was a joke. That's not real. It only happens in stories for children."

It was tough, but Alissa forced herself to not waver a bit as Rosalina got more and more worried. The woman's ever present smile had become a quivering frown, and she was squinting into Alissa's eyes to see if she could glean some truth.

Finally Alissa grinned. "Gotcha."

Rosalina's jaw fell open and she stared for a moment before bursting out laughing. "Yeah you did! Well done. You have quite the poker face. Maybe you should take up gambling."

"Maybe if delving doesn't work out."

They finished their meal and Alissa walked over to where Fili was lightly murmuring in her sleep. "I hope she has enough presence of mind to latch onto me." She set her cloak, pulled Fili's chair away from the table, and bent down to get a good grip on the mage's legs.

"Let me help," Rosalina said, lifting the small mage up onto Alissa's back. Fili murmured and shifted a little, letting her arms loosely flop over Alissa's shoulders. Slime immediately seeped into her cloak, both from Fili's saturated robes and the woman's drool. The cool liquid plastered her cloak to her back and dripped down to occasionally splatter her legs.

For a moment it seemed like the woman might fall off, but Alissa felt the slime soaking through seem to dry up, and Fili relaxed while stuck to Alissa's back. "Neat trick."

"Indeed." Rosalina gave Fili a pat on the back before stepping away. "Well then, I'll see you two tomorrow at the guild house. Maybe an hour before noon?"

"That sounds good. Sleeping beauty should be up by then." Alissa waved to Rosalina. "See you tomorrow."

Rosalina gave a wave and a wink before heading out the front. Alissa meanwhile headed towards the back. The sun had just set, and the evening clouds were giving a light drizzle. She reached back and pulled up Fili's hood before setting her own and walking out into the darkening streets.