988 Chapter 988 It’s Morning and Kat is Tired
When the sun broke over the horizon Kat was about ready to collapse. Apparently the first night they were here, all the Ne’er-do-wells were taking a vacation. After letting the third person go, Kat had to intercept six more attempts to get into the house. None managed to escape her, though all were significantly more skilled then the first person she captured. It was also unclear if they were working together, or what the overall objective actually was.
Kat simply didn’t have the mental energy to spare on such thoughts. Her demonic energy was consistently below fifty percent, and was certain that without Lily’s stockpile and regeneration, Kat wouldn’t have made it through the night. Granted, she was being rather wasteful and abused her new water ability to keep watch better… but it was mentally taxing and a horribly inefficient use of demonic energy.
Lily had woken up for a bit after the fourth person trying to break in was caught. She did a bit of practice, chatted with Kat and kept a bit of a watch out until the fifth person turned up and she nearly turned them into a corpse. It turned out… Lily now had issues with her magic being too powerful. All of her attempts at controlling magic in worlds it was supressed meant now that it wasn’t… even ‘holding back’ was still very close to deadly force. Lily was… not terribly comfortable with that realisation.
She ‘went back to sleep’ or so she told Kat. Lily continued to practice her spells until she passed out at about 7am, a bit before the sun came up properly. When it did, Kat stumbled into the house, swaying slightly on her feet until Sue noticed them in the hallway. She was wearing a fluffy coat and looked like she’d just left the shower. Just a fluffy coat. “Hey Kat you look… well I was going to say terrible, but it’s more like ‘a bit under the weather’ but for a Succubus that’s basically the same thing. Are… are you alright?”
“Eh… nope? I mean… maybe? I’ve been abusing my body a bit too much I think. I didn’t sleep at all yesterday and I spent all of tonight catching people trying to break in. I used my new Rank 3 ability, my entire demonic energy pool multiple times over and I’m just… kinda done at the moment? I’m not sure why I’m so wrung out though. I’ve ran for days without stopping, even through the night sometimes. I mean… my body is mostly fine but I’m just mentally taxed I guess,” explained Kat.
Sue shrugged, “Might just all be in your head,”
Kat gave a deadpan stare back at Sue, “Sue, it’s a mild headache. Of course it’s in my head,”
“No, no I mean…” Sue started to explain but paused. “Ok… look… I’m no expert but I’m pretty sure at Rank 3 you should be able to work for like a week without issues. My… best guess? You’re fighting yourself. You’ve ranked up really quickly and you were human before. I think… you might be mentally handicapping yourself a bit? To try and keep up with all the other changes,”
Kat frowned, trying to go over the idea in her mind but she was tired and she couldn’t really think about it properly. The idea seemed to slip around like wet soap. Constantly evading her grasp and rarely remaining held for long. “I… I mean… maybe? Is that likely?”
.....
Sue shrugged and said, “Look I don’t really know… this sort of thing is really far outside of my knowledge base. I think… I think it might be best you talk to Nira about it. She’d know better then me. It’s just the first thing I thought of. It doesn’t make all that much sense that it tired you out so easily. Unless… is there anything special about your new ability?”
“It gives me 360 degree vision, turns me into water and I can control said water?” offered Kat.
Sue slapped a hand over her face. “Yeah ok that’d do it. Kat… your ability… it lets you see basically everything, and gives you intimately detailed knowledge of the water that makes up your body. How big is the radius?”
“Most of the block?” answered Kat.
Sue groaned, “Ok I don’t know why you thought your mind could handle something like that no problems. I still think it might be partially a mental thing, constantly holding yourself back… but just add to that the constant switching between modes of being and seeing? With one of them being much more mentally taxing? I think you just need to train yourself up a bit. Nobody can use their abilities perfectly straight away. Otherwise there’d be no need to train,”
“But what about my regeneration, or my True Sight? Heck, even my dream walking was pretty easy to use,” said Kat.
Sue massaged her temples for a few moments as she tried to think of the best way to explain this… “Right… ok… Kat, your best skills are all passive, and the dream walking thing… well it’s not hard to activate but how much control do you have over dreams?”
“Basically none,” answered Kat automatically.
“Exactly. Your regeneration doesn’t need practice because it knows how to put you back together. True sight doesn’t need practice because you either see through the illusion or you don’t, and finally you haven’t practiced at all with your dream walking. Now you happen to have two abilities that need practice, and the fact it’s somewhat hard for you to use them shouldn’t be a surprise,” explained Sue.
“Right… well… hmm… I’m going to crash for a bit?” said…? Asked? The words left Kat’s mouth.
Sue nodded, “Sure that will do you some good. Stop thinking like a human though. If you sleep and need to get up, you might only sleep for an hour or two. Demons tend to sleep for as long as they think they need it. Some demons sleep for centuries just because they can,”
“Wouldn’t contracts get in the way of that?” retorted Kat.
“Not if they’ve been working long enough to apply for a century off or simply remove themselves from the contract roster. Look, my point is, if you focus on resting only as long as you need to? You’ll be up much sooner than if you just let yourself rest as long as you feel like. I’m not saying you can’t just… decide what you want to do,” offered Sue.
Kat pursed her lips. *Sleep sounds so nice. Just cuddling up with Lily… who I might even convince to swap back to human so I can really squeeze her properly. I just feel so worn out. Even knowing I could be good in an hour maybe two? I… I feel like I deserve some extra sleep, even if it’s not really extra.* “Just… um… how long till you leave for the party?” asked Kat.
“I’m not actually sure,” said Sue with a wry smile. “I was talking to some of the servants about it, and it seems that while the ballroom is opening at three, nobody is really expected to arrive until later, and the hosts aren’t ‘starting the party’ formally until about half past five unless they get a bunch of important guests showing up early, in which case they might be forced to start before that.
“Even then… Bodeir IS one of those important guests and as such he’s expected to just sort of make his own way there at whatever time he feels is appropriate, but it would be a major snub to the organisers if he isn’t there before the meals are served. Which… because we haven’t been given a time for that, could be a bit complicated. Food could be served anywhere from 5:45 to 8:00, and technically they could push it back further if not enough important individuals show up.
“It’s one thing to serve dinner and have one or two important guests missing, that’s on the guests… but if ten or twenty aren’t present? Then that’s on the hosts. Very shameful, and the only choice is to delay the meal and hope they do eventually turn up. It’s… mostly just dumb politics but, that’s how things are,” explained Sue.
“Ok… um… hmm… can you wake me up before you start getting ready for the night? If I’m not already awake again before then? I… I NEED time to rest before the party. I imagine I’ll need to be watching closely during the event and I don’t want to be the cause of Bodeir getting attacked because I snubbed someone when I was too tired to think clearly,” said Kat.
“Sure, sure,” said Sue as she stepped forward and gave Kat a hug. “It’ll be fine. I don’t think Bodeir is planning to head out. Just do a bit of exercise and prep for the tournament. He might check in with what’s been found out about the people you caught? Or maybe not… it’s not all that clear how much he cares for that sort of thing. Now, you go off and have a good rest. I’ll take care of him for a few hours. My shield might not be durable, but it can stand at least one good punch. I’m sure,”
“Thanks Sue” said Kat with a yawn as she hugged Sue back and then stumbled towards her bedroom.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺