The next morning Jadis and Aila got ready for the day with as much speed as they could muster. Both were eager to get back out into the hills surrounding city to hunt down more demons for Aila to test out her new spell on. More demons slain would mean more experience, too, which would mean even more skills and spells as Aila leveled up. Even though they were splitting experience, Jadis was confident that with how much stronger and better equipped she was, and with Aila’s apparently quite powerful spell trap, the two could tear through enough demons to get Aila to level ten in no time. The only real trick would be finding them.

Exiting the inn, Jadis saw that another two guards were stationed nearby, both following her as she and Aila headed to the tailor’s shop. She wondered how long the magistrate was going to have the escort follow her around. She hoped that after the two guards from yesterday had made their reports, the magistrate would see that Jadis didn’t need protection. She could handle herself just fine out in the field.

Klara the tailor was not happy to see that her hard work had already been torn up in less than a day when she saw Syd’s pant leg. Still, after a few coins, she was willing to accept the job of repairing what she had just made and took the torn skirt-pants for patching. Fortunately, the second set of clothes Jadis had ordered were ready for pickup so Syd didn’t have to resort back to her old rags while her pants were being sewn back together.

After the tailor, they quickly swung by Sabina’s shared smithing workshop to see what progress she’d made.

“Bracers and shin guards!” Sabina announced, carrying a load of leather and steel items out in her arms. “They aren’t fancy or polished and they don’t have any enchantments and I wanted to make them out of full steel but I didn’t have the time but I guarantee you they will protect the specific parts of your body they are covering from attacks made by creatures or demons within your level range!”

“Thank you,” Jay said while taking the armor pieces from her. She gave the half-elf a questioning look. “Though, with the way you worded that, sounds like you’re saying they can’t protect me from everything.”

“They can’t,” the chirpy smith readily admitted. “No enchantments, so they’re no protection against non-elemental magical effects, and they’re only steel, so there’s a limit to how much damage they can take before they bend or break, plus they’re leather on the sides and back, only metal on the top parts, so a smart or skilled enemy could get around their protection easily enough.”

“Uh huh,” Jay hummed doubtfully, looking down at the armor in her hands.

“Oh, but they’re way better than nothing at all!” Sabina quickly assured her, only just then seeming to realize she was doing a poor job of representing her products. “I made the steel double thick since you three are so big and strong! It’ll take a lot to get through those metal plates!”

Not having ever truly doubted the smith’s work, Jadis brushed off Sabina’s awkwardness and put the bracers and guards on the arms and legs of her three bodies. They were easy enough to strap on with Aila and Sabina offering helpful directions and once they had been equipped, Jadis did feel far more protected than she had without them. The bracers fully covered her forearms from wrist to elbow. The leg guards covered her shins completely as well, plus they came up a little higher in a design that protected her knees as well. Jadis could feel how thick and solid the armor pieces were, but the extra weight meant nothing to her, her movements completely unhindered.

“Those almost look Voltonian,” Aila said consideringly as she watched Jadis swing her arms about, testing the feel of the armor. “Is that what inspired you?”

“Good eye!” Sabina exclaimed excitedly. “My father was from Volto and he made armor in this style primarily so I’m very familiar with the design. It’s not exactly the same because I added some elements of traditional Alfhilderunn craftsmanship but yes! That’s what I was thinking!”

To Jadis the arm and leg pieces almost looked Greek, especially in combination with the chest piece and leather skirt portion of her skirt-pants. If the material had been bronze instead of steel, she would have been convinced the armor actually was from some ancient Mediterranean culture.

“Well, I don’t know anything about Volto armor. Or Volto, for that matter. But I think this armor looks and feels great,” Jay said, grinning down at Sabina while her other two selves echoed the sentiment.

“I’m glad you like them! I was worried you three might not since they aren’t full plate and I think full plate would be best for you three and then I thought maybe only one or two of you would like it and the third wouldn’t because I know sisters can fight over things like that, at least my brothers and sisters fought over things like that, so I could see how maybe you three might have different opinions on the armor but then again you three are remarkably similar in the way you look and talk and move so maybe you’d have the same opinions on the armor which wouldn’t help me if you didn’t like it but I’m glad that you do!”

“…Right.” Jay said, her eyes starting to glaze over with how fast Sabina was talking. “So, any chance you had time to make a shield or three?”

“Yes!” Sabina grinned happily. “I only had time to make one, but it’s right here!”

“Where?”

Sabina walked over to one of the back walls of the shop the smithy was behind where a huge door taken off of its hinges was leaning.

“Here!”

Jadis stared as the half-elf slapped the door with one hand. Multiple sets of eyes darted to Aila who was giving the giant door a skeptical look, then back to the broadly smiling smith.

“That’s a door,” Dys finally pointed out the obvious.

Sabina’s face turned into an adorably cute pout. “No, it’s a shield! A shield for giants!”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Still skeptical, Jadis approached the so-called shield and examined it more closely with all three of her selves.

The shield was slightly taller than even her great height, perhaps nine and a half feet tall, and was wide enough that two of her could get behind it if they squeezed or turned to the side. Dark planks of wood that were almost as thick as they were wide made up the primary material of the shield, but large iron bands were wrapped around the wood in six different places, riveted in place. Flipping the object around revealed a crisscross X shape of leather straps in the center, along with four thick iron bars. One bar each was attached towards the top, bottom, and either side of the back of the shield.

It didn’t take much of a logical leap for Jadis to figure out what Sabina had intended. Dys slipped her armored left arm into the X straps in the center and found that her hand could comfortably reach the right-side iron bar. She lifted the heavy shield of the ground and, while it was certainly well within her capabilities to hoist the shield with one arm, the device was heavy enough to give her pause.

“See! It’s a shield!” Sabina proudly announced. “It’s heavy, but I guarantee no arrow, spear, sword, axe, or even most magic spells will be able to get through it, not easily! It’s made of Black Pine wood so it’s much stronger than most wood shields except for maybe the enchanted ones but I can’t do enchantments though maybe if I get a second class with enchantment spells someday I can do that.”

“What are these extra bars for?” Dys managed to cut in when Sabina took a breath. “I guess I could put the shield on my right arm, but I’m not sure why I would.”

“Control!” The smith chirped. “Put the shield down on the ground, like this,” she instructed.

Following Sabina’s directions, Dys set the bottom edge of the shield down on the cobblestone ground, turning herself into a makeshift wall. Leaning forward slightly, she put her left foot on the lower bar, putting her weight on it. Her right hand went to the upper bar, firmly grasping the handhold.

She felt solid enough, but as a test, Jay went around the front and swung her mallet full force at the massive tower shield. With Dys’ weight behind it, the shield barely even moved from Jay’s strongest blow.

“Solid!” Jay praised, sending a happy grin Sabina’s way.

“A bit unwieldy,” Dys said, “But I can see this hunk of chunk being useful.”

Aila mouthed Dys’ words, ‘hunk of chunk’, with an amused expression, but she also had an appreciative look in her eyes as she examined the shield, even rapping her knuckles against it.

“Definitely solid,” she agreed. “Volto designs would curve the shield though, wouldn’t they?”

“Yes,” Sabina sighed, “but I didn’t have the time to make something with a curve, or more than one. I just finished this one an hour ago.”

“An hour ago?” Syd looked at the smith with shock. “It’s not that long past dawn! Did you even sleep?”

“I slept!” The dark-haired half-elf said defensively. “A few hours at least. Maybe two. I don’t know, I was asleep, I didn’t count. But when I get a project to work on I just have to see it through to the end or I can’t sleep at all and this was just so much fun to make because I could imagine one of you three using it and that just kept me up and I had to finish so there. It’s finished.”

“Well, if you aren’t sleeping right, I’m not sure we should give you another commission right away,” Jay chuckled, half amused, half worried. “Maybe we should give you a break for a day.”

Sabina looked crestfallen at the suggestion.

“No! Please, if you need more, I can make you more! You don’t have helmets yet, right? You three absolutely need helmets otherwise how are you supposed to protect your beautiful faces? Let me make you helmets, please!”

“Um,” Jay stumbled on her words, taken a little aback by the smith’s obvious desperation.

“You can make her helmets,” Aila cut in while holding up a finger. “But only after you make a commission for me.”

At Aila’s statement, Sabina turned a curious eye on the taller redhead.

From out of her backpack Aila extracted the demon hatchling, still in its glass mason jar. Its one luminous blue eye stared around before settling on the smith, its many tentacles wiggling in a frenzy of activity before settling down.

“Gods!” Sabina cried out in shock, then leaned in close, staring at the tiny demon with evident fascination. “Is that a demon? I’ve never seen one up close before, not alive, at least. Did you pull it out of a wretch? Is it dangerous? Are you going to sell it to an alchemist?”

“It’s a hatchling and we’re trying to learn more about it,” Syd explained, grabbing the smith’s attention. “Knowledge is power and all that.”

Sabina looked confused by the expression but nodded her head after a moment anyway.

“We don’t want this jar breaking and the demon getting loose,” Aila told Sabina, plinking her finger against the glass. “Can you make something that will hold up better?”

“But we still want to be able to keep an eye on it,” Jay added. “So, not just a metal box.”

Sabina’s brow furrowed in concentration.

“I’ve never worked with glass before. Or demons. Or glass for demons. But I bet I could make something that can hold it if I can get some glass inserts and some thin iron plates and maybe some steel wire—”

Jadis smiled in triplicate as the smith lost herself in planning. Sabina barely noticed as she gave her the coin payment she was due for her hard work. She and Aila took their leave, new giant shield in hand. She wasn’t sure if she wanted more than one of the huge things, but she figured she could test it out that day and let the smith know the next day if it was worth her time to make more.

She just hoped the excitable half-elf actually took some time to sleep that night.

Business around town completed, Jadis and Aila headed for the main gate of the city, eager to be on their way. Both had new toys to play with, Jadis her shield and Aila her spike trap spell, and both wanted to use them in their relentless pursuit of leveling up.

At the gates, the two guards that had been trailing them rushed forward but didn’t try to stop them or even talk to them. To Jadis’ confusion, they hustled down a side road. The gate guards, however, did call out, stopping the four.

“Just a moment,” the oddly deep-voiced gnome Jadis had met on her first day in Felsen told her, blocking her path with his tiny body.

“Is there a problem?” Dys asked, planting the giant door-shield on the ground with a thump.

Several of the guards took steps back from the shield, eyeing it dubiously.

“No problem,” the guard captain said, craning his neck back so he could look up at Dys. “Just need you four to wait here for a few minutes. New protocol.”

Jay and Aila exchanged a worried look while Syd watched the guards let a trio of mercenaries bearing spears and shields walk out the gates with barely a glance. Whatever the new protocol was, Jadis got the feeling it was one intended for a highly specific number of individuals. The tall, pale-skinned kind.

Jadis didn’t have to wonder what was coming for too long, though. After a few minutes of tense waiting where the guard captain shrugged all of her attempts at questions off with the reply, ‘protocol’, she found out exactly what the new instructions were for the guards.

Eight guards in full armor came riding out on horseback from the side road, their horses in full, shining barding. Two of them were the guards that had been following them that morning, and two more were the guards from the day before, the elf and the human woman. The other four Jadis couldn’t remember having seen before but looked just as intensely official.

“Lead on,” the elf guard called out, motioning towards the four mercenaries they had been apparently tasked with following.

Giving the guard her most scathing deadpan stare, all three of Jadis spoke in unison.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.”