D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

”So, that’s it?” said Lily shocked, ”Magic is real, thanks for telling me. Now you can all leave?”

Evaline frowned at her daughter’s insinuations and let the displeasure she now had show in her body language before saying, ”I’m not sure you appreciate how difficult this is for me. You’re not the only one who dreamed of magic once upon a time. Now though, not only do I found out that it’s real, but that I probably won’t ever interact with it because from the way you phrased things those favours of Kat’s are rare and I wouldn’t want to ask for one anyway. I might not like admitting it but I’m getting older Lily and I shouldn’t be chasing after dreams anymore. To find out one of my more fantastical ones was actually possible is a bit of a hard pill to swallow”

”Oh” said Lily.

”Oh indeed” said Evaline in a matching tone of voice letting you hear the family resemblance easily. ”I’m not sure that you can imagine what this is like for me. To have buried forever the idea that anything magical could happen to me. The closest thing I assumed I’d ever get was the day I got married to your father or the first time I held you in my arms. While they are a special kind of magic they aren’t MAGIC and I took longer than I should have to accept that as a young adult.

”I’m glad you told me of course, but this is like twisting the knife and salting the wounds in many ways.” Evaline sucked in a deep breath. ”Dammit fine. Lily I want to know why you need to transform at all, why not just learn spells? What’s the big issue?”

Lily didn’t exactly know what to say. She was reeling from the fact her rather no-nonsense mother was admitting she’d dreamed of being a witch when she was younger. A small part of her was hurt because Evaline had tried convincing her to give it up in the past and she’d stopped talking about it because of it. That small part was also cheering because magic was real and she she’d now one upped her mother. The rest of her though was rather on the fence about it all.

Seeing that Lily wasn’t in any shape Kat took it upon herself to bring it up instead. ”I’ll answer what I can then. So, there are multiple universes and dimensions. Those are different things by the way, and each dimension has rules regarding the higher energy in it. Our dimension, which I believe is made up of only one universe, actually supresses all kinds of higher energy. I’m only able to summon up small amounts of demonic energy and use my powers and much greater cost because demonic energy always finds a way in unlike mana and qi.

”I’m a lot weaker on Earth though, and most of the remaining strength comes from the fact that those abilities use demonic energy internally. Well that and my own natural toughness now. A basic knife swung at human strength would cut through skin but probably not much muscle. Now, the reason that Lily wants to change race… well she has a few but one of the big ones is that humans don’t always have affinities for magic and…

”Well Earth has no mana on it. She has no way to test for it to see if she had any, and if she did it’s highly likely she’d only have the one affinity. By changing race she can get three, and maybe extra if she had any naturally, depending on if they carry over. It ah… alsomaybeforlifespan reasons…”

”Lifespan reasons?” Evaline asked immediately, having spent more than enough time around a daughter who was prone to avoiding speaking about things properly in the same way.

Kat sighed. ”I’m functionally immortal already more or less. Demons live a long time but my regeneration makes it even worse. Normally I’d need to be a bit stronger to live forever but I’m almost at that point and will certainly be at that point once I get a bit stronger.”

”Huh. Good thing immortality was never one of my dreams,” muttered Evaline under her breath before speaking up ”Now, the knew question I have is… what’s the point here? Obviously the lifespan issue plays a big part but nothing you’ve told me would let Lily use magic here on Earth.”

”Ah” said Kat who now looked at Lily hoping for some help. She would fine none… until Sylvie brought attention to herself.

With a light tap on the table all eyes turned to the younger member of the discussion. ”Lily wishes to accompany Kat on her tasks. She is allowed to have one person filling that role” not mentioning that person had to be bound to her in some way while she was still Rank 2, ”and Lily is using it as a chance to help Kat and learn to use magic. It’s unclear how much magic she can use back here on Earth. I’m not sure how magicians gather mana but we know Kat’s demonic energy has to come from inside her because of context clues.”

*What context clues?* As if summoned by the question Kat found a bunch of little bits and pieces flying around her mind granting her the answer. Normally it would have been harder to figure out on the fly but Kat had been considering this in the background for a while, Sylvie just brought the information forward.

*Ah of course. Demonic energy corrupts the environment so if I had to draw it into me the environment would be corrupted already. It’s also why demons stay on the Hub because we leak demonic energy if we aren’t using it all. Though… I was told releasing it into the air wasn’t dangerous and that I should keep up with it so it doesn’t partially slow me down. Is it because there’s only one of me in town? Aw well.* 

Evaline let her fingers tap the table to blead off some of the nervous energy she was building up. The idea of letting them go now without getting any proof of magic was too much. As much as she wanted to continue to pretend otherwise, they had too much detail and didn’t seem to be lying in the slightest. ”Fine. What proof of magic can you give me?”

Everyone turned to Kat who shrugged and held her hands cupped together and across the table before summoning a small bit of demonic fire in her hands. The tug on her reserves was more than she wanted because of the need to force the flame out into the world. She could still keep it up for a considerable amount of time of course, but it wasn’t comfortable. It was like trying to raise your arms above your head while keeping half a dozen shopping bags in your hands.

Evaline reached out for it without really thinking and Kat abused her demonic speed to pull her hands away before dismissing the flame. ”Um… you really shouldn’t do that. My fire won’t burn you it will freeze you… it also likes to cling to things. Just a touch and I wouldn’t be surprised if you lost a finger.”

”That hardly seems safe” said Evaline with furrowed brows. ”How do you plan to use it with Lily around if it’s so hard to control”

Kat winced at that not wanting to answer but found she felt Evaline was just worrying about Lily, something Kat couldn’t find fault in. ”Well… I can stop my flames from hurting people… but it’s not an exact science. It seems to be more about my perception of the person. So Lily would never be burnt by them but… I don’t exactly like you?”

Evaline pursed her lips, finger tapping speeding up by about half again what it was before saying, ”I’m not sure if I want to ask for proof it won’t hurt Lily or not. I’m not sure I’d ever forgive myself for asking or you for accepting if I did… but I know I would feel a lot better if something like that could be confirmed.”

”How about some water first?” asked Katt

”Water?” asked Evaline confused even as Lily used the chance to get up so that nobody could see her face when it went through all her emotions before letting out a big sigh.

”Yes, you can see my freezing the water in the cup. Oh and Lily would still be affected by the cold my flame generates on other things. It’s just the flame itself that can’t hurt her.” Said Kat.

Evaline didn’t say anything else. She just watched her daughter fill up a cup of water in the sink and then place it on the table. Kat reached out a loan finger and set fire to it before pushing it into the water. The effect was instantaneous. The first started spreading and the water froze as it branched out. The fire didn’t get far before it seemed to hit some limit from Kat but the ice kept spreading. Lily took this chance to make a point though and pulled Kat’s hand out and smothered the fire with her own.. Of course, the flames just bent around the finger and moved back a bit, but she wasn’t hurt.