Chapter 771: Chapter 771 Ready or Not? ADVENTURE AWAITS!
Kat decided it would be better to leave that particular can of worms unopened for now. She personally felt it was an unwarranted fear, but Kat was also quite sure Lily understood that intellectually anyway. So Kat handed Lily her book on paper magic, and occupied herself with running her fingers through Lily’s hair as a means to pass the time while trying to meditate without sinking too deeply.
As it approached dinner time, Kat came up out of her doze. It wasn’t proper meditation yet, she could tell that there was something missing when she didn’t dive all the way, but Kat felt closer than before. Or perhaps that was just wishful thinking. What was surprising was Lily’s snoozing form. Apparently the cat instincts were still strong.
The slight creak of the door pulled Kat’s gaze away from her girlfriend to spot Vivian peaking into the room. Her eyebrows rows dramatically, in a slow meaningful fashion that seemed to imply a lack of true surprise on her part. Vivian carefully slid into the room and made a series of complicated gestures Kat couldn’t even begin to discern. “What?” asked Kat quietly.
Lily’s ears twitched at Kat’s question and she forced herself to close the last few millimetres between Kat’s body and hers before calming back down. Vivian, seeing this sighed and spoke, keeping her voice as quiet as possible, “Dinner is ready but I imagine you aren’t so hungry and I dunno if you want to wake Lily for this or not...”
Kat shook her head carefully. Callisto’s meals were great, but she also didn’t sleep. Kat was pretty sure that if Lily woke up much later and required some food, Callisto could manage something. *Considering her emotions were pretty all over the place earlier it might be best she rests for now. She seems quite pleased to have a human form again. I guess it’s one of those things that you don’t know what you’re missing.*
Vivian smiled and carefully made her way over to Kat to ruffle the demon’s hair. After a couple moments of that, Vivian left, closing the door carefully. Lily’s ears twitched slightly in response to the noise but didn’t move otherwise. Kat tried to sink back into her meditation, but found her mind had other ideas. Sinking instead into proper sleep, the day ended there.
—
.....
Kat’s eyes shot open as soon as she felt movement. What she saw was a slightly strange seen. Lily had shifted at some point to be half on top of her. Lily was currently taking a bit out of her kimono right above her breast while Lily’s hands wrapped themselves tightly around Kat. Lily’s tail had snaked its way around Kat’s arm, and Kat’s tail had coiled itself around Lily’s.
Kat relaxed again for just a moment until a bright red circle of flame appeared above the two of them. Recognising the summoning circle for what it was, Kat shook Lily gently. This only seemed to get Lily to cling tighter. *Dammit. For some reason I feel like she planned this. If I could get away with leaving her behind just so she has to confront her parents I would.* “Lily wake up,” said Kat.
“Nooooo” mumbled Lily, “I is comfy,”
Kat looked Lily over, hoping for a good way to wake her girlfriend up that wasn’t too harsh. Lily’s ears flicked slightly as she repositioned herself, giving Kat an idea. Leaning down, Kat carefully bit into Lily’s ear. As soon as her teeth touched the sensitive flesh, Lily bolted upright. Kat was careful with the motion and let go off Lily’s ear before it could be damaged. Lily herself was wide awake now. Instincts screaming at her something weird was going on.
“Good morning sleepy head. Seems you’re going to get your wish. You don’t need to visit your parents because we have a Contract,” said Kat with a sickly sweet smile, looking very pointedly at Lily’s ill-fitting clothes.
“Wait what?” Lily said as she glanced up. “Wait... I’m not ready. I don’t even have anything to wear!”
“Well, you were the one who wanted to avoid going to your home. It seems some actions have consequences. Now, are you ready for me to accept? I don’t have much longer I can sort of feel the internal timer ticking down. You might have enough time to get a drink, but that’s about it,” said Kat.
“Uh... um...” Lily sat up and looked herself over. It had been an acceptable compromise to just avoid going around naked but she wasn’t really ready to go off on an adventure like this. Lily hissed, through her teeth. Tongue licking over her sharp canines and an idea coming to her. Lily punched the bundle of energy inside her and felt her body shift.
Kat watched as her girlfriend shrunk back down to Memphis form and hopped onto her lap. [Ready and reporting for duty!]
Well, I suppose that works well enough. Kat quickly fashioned a mental message to Vivian that basically just said ‘on Contract’ and accepted her trip through the flames. It never got old to see, but it could of course only be described so many ways by the author. Kat found herself wondering where they were going this time. It wasn’t an emergency beacon, so it was somewhere completely new. Lily was trying to both wake herself up and calm herself down. Kat’s little trick with her ears was like setting her entire nervous system on fire.
It’d jolted her awake, and certainly got her attention, but she was in full flight mode still. Kat’s presence helped calm that, and her human mind helped supress it further, but primal human instincts and primal cat instincts aren’t so incompatible. A small part of her was still telling her to dash. On the other hand, she was taking proper stock of what happened in her half-asleep state. Her clothes had vanished when she transformed so presumably they were still on her body, but that hadn’t been tested. A mistake.
The fire eventually disappeared and the pair found themselves in a cellar, a wine cellar to be specific. The circle that summoned them had clearly been hastily drawn using chalk mixed with something shiny, perhaps silver? Kat could already tell that it was barely enough to call her forth and that should she so desire, crossing the threshold would be a simple task well within her abilities. In fact, Lily could break it with her old human strength with a bit of effort.
They were in an area that had been hastily cleared. Two rain racks had been pushed up against the back wall and they were now empty. Additionally, on the left and right wall were raised barrels, presumably of wine as well, with some missing slots. It was starting to become obvious what their Summoner had used as payment.
They looked to be about Kat’s age, perhaps a slight tad younger and of Arabic descent. Well, Kat wasn’t familiar enough with various cultures to tell that for sure, but they were wearing clothes that looked straight out of Alladin, and while they probably didn’t have anything to do with the Earth country, the olive skin tone on their Summoner helped the idea stick.
They were currently looking at Kat with shock and awe on their face. Eyes almost as wide as their mouth and they looked about two seconds from bolting in the other direction. *Is summoning a demon so easy that some random kid can do it in their basement? No, that’s a bit unfair, they aren’t that much younger by the looks of things.*
*I just... I’m just not sure what they would want from us... at least if they are annoying I can ignore them unlike Xiang. Still... not sure I want to beat up someone who probably isn’t even an adult yet... but I mean. They were summoning demons. Maybe it would be good to teach them not to do strange magic in their basement?*
Apparently Kat’s musing gave the boy enough time to gather his wits. “I am Ape-” the boy, cut himself off, coughing to hide what he thought of as a blunder. “I mean, I am your Summoner. Are you a demon of knowledge?”
*Well no I’m not but I might have a Memphis of knowledge? Does that count?* “No, I am a Succubus. Supposedly a demon of passion though I myself lack the capabilities to enjoy what you’d consider my species ‘standard work’ I suppose,” answered Kat trying her best to be mysterious and formal. No point shattering the illusion of being a powerful and competent demons just yet.
“Hmm... that might actually be better for me,” the boy, Apep, though Kat didn’t know that just yet, mumbled to himself. “Yes, I can see this working... I do wonder where I messed up though. Was it the powdered silver? That was a pain to still from my father... maybe it wasn’t pure enough? I did have to mix it with chalk dust to get the circle done with what I grabbed. Then again... was it the wine? Might have been the wine...”
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