Jack was silent in thought for a moment before asking "What do you mean living sacrifice?"

Cagey answered and said "As long as it's not a plant or a monster it will work."

"There was a boy who started to make the potions by using rats. However, that's the problem with corruption potions, once you make one, it starts to change you even if you don't take it. The boy moved on to his family's pets, then livestock. Then family. He was only stopped when he attempted to sacrifice all the people in a temple. It's a compulsion from the corruption. It makes you want to use people as a sacrifice." Eramis said.

"Thus the ban on creating them. If you are correct and they are making them, then that means soon they will start sacrificing people if they haven't already." Brink said grimly.

"Damn, I'm going to have my priests start to check into this. Thanks for the heads up Jack." Eramis said.

They were silent for several minutes. Kara looked at him and said "Hey you got a priest for my sister, next priest you get convince them to go for me." It was an attempt to liven the mood and Jack was a bit welcome for it.

"I will be sure to." Jack said.

"Good." Kara said grabbing a bottle and taking a swig.

"So what were you talking about when I came up?" Jack asked.

"We were actually discussing our relationships, Did you wish to join the convo?" Brink said.

"Not really, my relationships of late have been out of sorts of late."

"Then you should take a listen. Brink was just telling us about the time she invited Vacran the god of the forge and Tunda the god of the snow to her place. They had just got into the bedroom." Cagey said.

Eramis coughed and said "We should move on." Looking at her Jack could see she was making sure not to look at Jack at the moment.

"Then it's Eramis Turn." Cagey said, "Though as far as I know, she only cares about her brother."

"I don't know, she's a wild girl. I wouldn't be surprised if she's just waiting for someone to come along and tame her." Kara said winking at Jack.

"Fuck off, I'm not waiting for that." Eramis said a little heated. She frowned and said "I just remembered there are some things I need to speak with Jack about." Eramis reached out and snatched Jack and hauled him into the house.

Eramis hurled him into the living room and glared at him. "Did you tell her what you did to me?"

"No. She may have guessed something went on between us, given your dramatic change from the last time you saw me up here." Jack said.

"You better not have told her."

Jack said annoyed,"I told you I would keep it a secret. Do you doubt me?"

"No." Eramis looked away.

"Sit down."

She gritted her teeth and sat down in front of Jack on the floor. "I didn't order you to sit on the floor. What are you doing down there?"

She blushed and said "Asshole, I thought you were wanting to do you know more of that."

"I'm not in the mood Eramis. Just sit next to me."

She got up and sat on the couch next to Jack. Jack was floating silently for a long while before Eramis asked "Are you okay?"

"Not really. I'm kind of freaking out. Yesterday, while I was in my Avatar, I lost control of myself and did something I would not have done otherwise. I'm not sure what happened. I spoke with Kelsey who mentioned it could have something to do with my soul, or I could have been drugged, or I don't know." Jack said.

Eramis reached out and hugged Jack and said "It's going to be alright."

Jack relaxed in her embrace and said "Thank you Eramis."

"Still not signing a contract with you."

"One day Eramis, I will convince you to beg me for a contract." Jack said floating back to his spot on the couch.

Eramis scoffed and said "We will see if you can pull that off. Jack, most gods don't like Avatars because it's not a very pleasant experience in them. It's like cutting off our ears and noses, we lose a lot when we descend. It's one of the reasons if we do, we like to be incognito. Don't spend all your time in a Avatar; it's not easy on your soul."

"Thank you for the advice Eramis."

They sat in silence for several minutes before a knocking came at the door. "Hey Eramis, Cagey and I were thinking about heading home."

Eramis rose and gave a look at Jack and went to the door and opened it. Cagey and Brink were out there grinning at Eramis. "So what were the two of you talking about in there?" Cagey said.

Eramis reached out and flicked her friend in the forehead and said "Just some court business. I'm going to take these two back home, I will let you know when the court will want to meet with you."

Cagey waved goodbye and Brink said "See you later Kara, Don't forget to bring up more food for next time Jack!" Eramis grunted and opened a hole in the sky and went through it with her friends.

Jack spent a few minutes cleaning up the mess the girls had made, before turning to Kara and said "How are you doing up here?"

"Alright. I was getting kind of bored before the girls showed. My sister also thanks you for getting her a priest. I do to, while my sister gets most of the faith he produces, I do get a little as well. The food is good too. Make sure to bring more drinks, though. Nearly ran out there. If we want to have that party... whoops not supposed to mention that."

"What party?" Jack said a little concerned.

"Oh nothing, it's just a birthday party me and the girls are planning."

"It's your place as well. I'm going to be on a Expedition for a few weeks, so I might not be up here as much. If you need me, please let me know, I will pop up as fast as possible." Jack said, then headed into the cottage and resting on the bed they made for him. It was an odd circular bed that perfectly cradled his sphere. He took a look down on his users to see how they were doing.

---

Alexia was staring at her reflection in the glass of the storefront. Deciding not to wear the slimesuit for the day, she had borrowed a set of clothing from Megan. It was a simple dress that went down to her knees, it was a bit loose at the top as Megan was a bit more endowed then her, but it was a bit tight around the middle, because as Megan put it, she has ass for days.

A few seconds later, Megan came out of the store holding a piece of paper, "got the directions. He is a few streets over."

"Are you sure this guy will know what these devices are?" Alexia said following her down the street. They were looking for an old friend of Megan's who was purportedly an expert in magical gear.

"Yeah, I've sold what I discovered on my adventures to him. If he doesn't recognize what they are, no one will."

"Okay."

"After we meet him, we can do a bit of window shopping."

"Sure, that sounds fun."

Megan smiled at her and looked down the street they were walking down. "So what was that between you and Jack?"

"What do you mean?"

"Alexia, I'm not blind, I saw the way you were looking at him and he was looking at you. Are you interested to him?"

"Eww No. I don't know why he was looking like that at me. I just get this uncanny feeling, like he kinda reminds me of my brother."

"He looks like your brother?"

"No not all. My Brother was far more muscular and more broad. When I saw Jack, I thought hey he reminds me of my brother. Not sure why."

"He was looking at you weird. Maybe you should talk to him about it."

"It is possible it's the contract I entered into with him. What did you think when you saw him?"

Megan was silent for a minute before saying "He's an attractive man. He does not remind me of a god, though. You said your brother died on a mission. What happened to him?"

This time it was Alexia turn to be silent as she thought about her brother. "It was a series of bad missions. He took a mission for a noble, and it went bad, the noble was hurt and my brother took the blame for it. Fewer people wanted to join his group. Then he took a another bad mission, he went alone and came back missing his sword arm. He had to cut it off due to corruption."

After saying this, Alexia felt Megan wrap her arm around her, and she said "I'm sorry for asking."

"No, it's okay. I've never really talked about what happened. My father died soon after, and we were experiencing a massive shortage of money. My brother decided to undertake a mission despite missing an arm and joined a woman on a mission. That was the last I saw of him, and a few months later, I got his sword from the mission guild. It was the only thing they could find of him."

"Who was this woman?"

"I don't know. I didn't like her when I saw her. She was attractive enough, I guess that's how she got my brother to go with her. She was covered in tattoos, though. I mean every inch except her face. I just don't like the way she looked at my brother."

"How did she look at your brother?"

"Like a cat looking at a toy. Never found her either. If she led my brother to his death, I would hope she died as well." Alexia cursed her. She took a deep breath and said "So speaking of family, what was up with your mother?"

Megan grimaced and said "I think she wanted to shock me and force me to stop probing into my heritage. She basically said as long as I was a lesbian who never had sex with a man, I would never be able to learn the truth."

"She might be trying to get under you skin with that. I'm not familiar with succubus, other then some rumors of them being incredibly sexual." Alexia patted Megan's back.

She smiled and looked at Alexia "I have no interest in finding out. I didn't ask, but are you bi?"

"No, I've only wanted to be with women."

Megan nodded and said "Oh look here we are. This is definitely his store."

Looking at the store, Alexia admitted it was certainly distinct. On the front in a distinct script was one word Antiquities. There were several painted animals surrounding it, each appearing to be working on building something. It was a reasonably large store. Alexia could feel some magic flowing through the store, indicating a great deal of magic items within.

"I'm surprised he wasn't in the Magic district." Alexia said.

"He was kicked out. Some real bad blood between him and the other mages in the city."

"What bad blood?"

"He's extremely critical of everything related to magic. His standards are a little hard to live up to. He would routinely go into other stores and point out the flaws in the products. Which as you can imagine put a damper on the sells. As a consequence, he was forced out here. Not much he can argue with here, when none of the nearby stores stock magic goods."

They entered the door, a bell alerting grey bearded old man behind a counter. The animal motif was continued inside as various animals were painted on the walls building more things. The man looked up and said to Megan "Thought you were retiring from the adventuring life. Did you bring me something good this time?"

"I'm going to be on a job soon Harry, I'll be bringing you some goods soon. Right now my girlfriend has something to show you. We want your opinion on it."

Alexia spoke up and stated "A couple of things, actually, one of them is relatively big. Do you have somewhere we can show you privately?"

Harry nodded and flipped a switch on an adjacent wall. The animals on the wall began moving, and they went over to the door and windows and a loud clicking sound came from the door. A monkey flipped a sign saying the store was currently closed. Harry said "Magical paint. Some of my own creation."

He went around the counter and ushered them to a large back room. It was filled with tables of junk and maintained a large open space. "So what do you have to show me missy?"