Chapter 354: Makes Sense

Words : 1545 Updated : Oct 13th, 2025

Chapter 354: Makes Sense Jadis wasn’t surprised that she had ended up back in her bedroom with Sabina after their time in the forge. They had worked up quite a sweat, after all, so a wash and a change of clothes was in order. That Sabina would take the opportunity to initiate a more intimate encounter while they were alone together in the private bath of the suite wasn’t a shock either. There weren’t too many circumstances Jadis could think of where she wouldn’t gladly take the opportunity to toy with her smith girlfriend’s overly sensitive body. What Jadis did feel some astonishment about was just how nonchalantly Sabina had taken the news that Jadis’ soul had been reincarnated. After washing up a second time from their bout of bathroom fun, Jadis had brought Sabina to the bed and cuddled with her enchanter lover. Mostly because she had wanted to cuddle, but also because she had wanted to tell Sabina the full truth about her origins. Jadis was seriously considering marriage with Sabina, or something close to it in Oros terms, however it all worked out, so she wanted to give Sabina the same level of trust that she had her other lovers. Aila, Eir, Kerr, and Thea knew about her otherworldly origins, but Sabina and Bridget hadn’t been told yet. So, after a brief conversation to prepare the smith for the info-bomb, Jadis had laid out the truth in as direct terms as she could. Sabina’s response was... Sabina. “Oh. That makes a lot of sense.” Jay stared at her bronze-skinned lover who stared back at her with a placid expression. That was it? No rush of questions? No verbal flood of stumbled words? Not even a shout of surprise? The lack of response made Jadis think that maybe Sabina hadn’t fully comprehended what she’d just been told. So, Jadis tried again. “Sabby,” Jay started, “Do you understand what I’m saying? This body was made by D. I was a human from an entirely different world until I died and my soul was put here by D. I wasn’t born a Nephilim. I’m not from a mountain village. I wasn’t even born on Oros.” “Yes, I understand,” Sabina nodded solemnly. “And it makes sense.” Jay exchanged glances with her other self resting on Sabina’s opposite side. Yup, she looked as confused as she felt. Not sure how to move forward with the conversation, Jay tilted her head and hesitantly asked the first thought to come to mind. “And that’s all you have to say...?” “What else is there to say?” Sabina replied with such a matter-of-fact tone that Jadis’ brain almost short-circuited. “Did Aila or one of the others already tell you about this?” “Oh, they know?” Sabina asked. “I suppose that makes sense too. Of course you’d tell Aila and Kerr and Eir and Thea. Did you tell Bridget and Alex already? What about Sorcha?” “Uh, Bridget and Sorcha don’t know,” Jay responded, her brow furrowed in confusion. “I don’t even know how I would approach the subject with Alex. My soul being from another world might be a little too high concept for her right now, considering our language barrier issues.” “Maybe,” Sabina shrugged, “but she’s getting really good at talking in short sentences now. The more you talk to her, the quicker she learns. I think she’d probably understand after a few tries, though you might have to get creative with the whole ‘other world’ part of the explanation. Maybe use the moon as an example?” While Jadis appreciated the practical advice Sabina was giving regarding Alex, she was still caught on how utterly easily Sabina had taken to the idea of her being from another world. She was talking like it was such a non-issue that Jadis was beginning to doubt herself and wonder if she was making a bigger deal out of it than she should. “I want a kiss, too,” both Jay and Syd added as they moved in from the side, adding to the swarm of kisses and doubling Sabina’s laughter. Some moments later, after Jadis and Sabina had settled down, they spent some time talking about their lives. As promised, Sabina had many questions about Jadis’ previous life and Earth in general, though Jadis had her own questions about Sabina that she wanted answered and so used the opportunity to ask them. Sabina’s father, Gallo, was a widower, her mother having passed away when she was just a child to a plague that hit the northern borders of the empire. Her father was from Volto originally but had moved to the empire so that his wife could be closer to her family since he had none. He was a well-regarded smith in the town of Glanum, the place where Sabina had grown up, and while he wasn’t an enchanter himself, he worked with many enchanters and so was possessed a great deal of knowledge on the subject. Sabina had sent him a letter when they had arrived in Eldingholt with the hope that he would be able to visit, though she hadn’t heard back from him yet. The border with Volto was a long way from the imperial capital, so her letter likely hadn’t even reached him yet, even with the express service she had paid for. Jadis had to explain quite a bit about Earth in general to Sabina, particularly regarding the lack of magic. The fact that magic didn’t exist was such an incomprehensible idea to the smith that she had a lot of trouble processing it. More than the idea of other worlds existing, as it turned out. Jadis coming from a different planet that was populated exclusively with humans? No problem. Jadis coming from a place where magic didn’t exist outside of fantasy and therefore enchanting isn’t real? Impossible. “But if you don’t have magic, how are you powering the clock tower?” Sabina motioned wildly with her hands, clearly having difficulty accepting what Jadis was saying was true. “You have to have some way of powering the internal mechanisms! Even if your people figured out some way of making highly refined mechanical constructs, you still have to power them with something or they won’t move! Don’t tell me they are using people to manually turn the gears or something like that, are they?” “No, no,” Syd laughed. “It’s not manpower—well, actually, the way watches were originally made, they were designed to work off of springs that were held under tension. You’d use a small key to wind the springs inside of the watch and that would let the watch function for long periods of time. I’m not sure if that’s how they handled clock towers back in the day; this is all before I was born. Nowadays, or, I guess when I died, everything was powered either by electricity or combustion engines. Often times a mix of the two.” “Right, electricity,” Sabina said skeptically. “That power that isn’t magic yet it does everything magic does.” “It’s not magic!” Syd insisted with a grin. “It’s physics and chemistry. Magic does way more things that would be considered completely impossible back on Earth. I mean, look at me! This whole three-body thing is absolutely in the realm of impossible dreams. It’s just, people much smarter than me figured out ways to harness the fundamental forces of nature in order to make our lives easier. We didn’t have magic to rely on, so we found other ways. Well, my ancestors did. I certainly didn’t contribute anything to our technological progress.” “But how does it work?” Sabina pleaded, still not understanding. “Why would electricity cause gears to turn? I’m certain that if I had a wizard blast some lightning into a collection of gears it won’t get those gears to turn.” “No, that wouldn’t work,” Jay agreed. “An electric motor involves wires and magnets surrounding a central shaft that can turn. Um, this isn’t the easiest thing to explain, I only have a layman’s knowledge here. Maybe if I drew some examples for you?” “Yes!” Sabina perked up. “One moment! I’ll get some paper!” Scrambling up and away from Jadis’ arms, a naked Sabina ran across the room to gather up some writing supplies. Jadis admired the passion Sabina had for crafting, as well as learning new things, but at that moment, seeing Sabina standing completely unclothed while she rummaged around looking for paper and something to write with, other kinds of admiration were stirred inside of Jadis. She’d have to show Sabina how motors worked quickly, Jadis decided. Then they could spend a little more time getting sweaty together. Later, if her mad genius lover wanted more knowledge from another planet, Jadis would happily give it to her. She trusted Sabina would make good decisions with any tech ideas she was given. Besides, as Jadis had to admit, she really didn’t know much about the inner workings of many technologies. How much could her meager knowledge really affect the progress of science on Oros anyway? ...Probably far more than she could even begin to anticipate.

Chapter 354: Makes Sense

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