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

— Kat —

Kat gazed up the stars with melancholic thoughts. The night sky was vast, pretty, and somewhat calming but it wasn’t really helping her at the moment. She’d climbed up on the roof after tossing and turning a bit too much. Sure it creaked more than a little under the additional weight her demon physique came with… but that just meant she had to lay over the top of a support beam.

When she heard the door open below her Kat didn’t so much as twitch, she could tell who was coming, and soon Lily had pulled herself up to Kat with her shadow hands. Not quite willing to trust her tiny wings for the job here on earth. Kat still struggled to fly sometimes and Lily was not willing to risk injury for it.

Read exclusive adventures at My Virtual Library Empire

Kat waited until Lily had transformed back into her human form and rested against her before pulling Lily against her with her tail. “Why are you up here?” asked Lily already half knowing the answer. Kat’s thoughts weren’t exactly quiet but she still felt like it needed to be asked.

“I was tossing about in bed and didn’t want to wake you,” answered Kat.

“So you came to mope outside?” asked Lily.

“I guess I did,” stated Kat. Silence ensued for a few moments after that. Kat could already feel her mood improving just because Lily had come out to find her. Kat hadn’t intended for this, and she wasn’t sure that she liked the fact she couldn’t properly brood about things… but Lily being near did help. It was… nice.

“What’s the problem?” asked Lily.

“Oh… if it was just one thing. I mean, it’s one main thing but… I guess I’m just not happy with how things went down with Pebbles and his sort of town you know? Like I get it. He wanted us gone and we could take the crystal. Even if I might have wanted to stay and help in that moment he really didn’t want us sticking around and adding to the stress… but well… there was Ronldo and what he did with Kamiko as well… and the fact we didn’t really help Strdl but like…

“I dunno. It’s a mess. We didn’t really make it better or worse in the end because we saved the town… but like… we didn’t really fix anything at all. Sure our missions usually aren’t about fixing things, not really, they’re about dealing with problems, or one problem in particular. We did that… just… I dunno. The world is saved but I feel like we sort of failed you know?” explained Kat. Completely shoving the realisations Sylvie’s actions had inspired. Nope, none of that at all.

Lily let out a sigh, “I understand where you’re coming from… but I guess I can just more easily disconnect from that. It wasn’t our problem and there was no reasonable help. Sure if I had a solution ready to go or like… someone was obviously being like beaten in the streets it would be different but… well it was just super shitty on both sides I suppose?

“Fuck Ronldo though. Not sure what we should’ve done about him… but I think it’s better we didn’t kill him. Or well, you didn’t I suppose. Strdl’s… ‘solution was fine enough punishment and freezing him in space for perhaps a while works out.” admitted Lily.

“You think so? I’ve killed people before myself and not felt bad about it so far. The fact Strdl stopped… I guess it’s something I question,” stated Kat.

“Yeah but they were all attacking you. Sure what he tried to do with Kamiko means that it was sort of an attack… and I mean he WAS dealt with in the end so… it’s fine but…” Lily trailed off for a few moments. “I just think it would be different if you went looking to kill him specifically. Like… it’s a line we could’ve crossed and we didn’t and I think I’m hoping we never have to,”

Kat nodded, “I don’t disagree just. I dunno I guess I just feel super off about the whole thing. I mean I said that earlier so like… I dunno what I’m saying,”

Lily nuzzled into Kat’s shoulder, “It’s fine Kat. I’m not entirely cool with everything that happened either. I mean… Meg was… Meg a lot. And like… we managed to avoid the worst of it I think. She had other things to distract herself with but… yeah Meg,”

Kat nodded, “Meg indeed,”

The pair sat in silence for a few more moments, relaxing further but unable to completely remove the worries from their minds. Lily was in better shape then Kat but… now that the pair had a chance to go over things together saying she was completely fine was a different story. “I think I see why people give up on contracts now. I mean… it wasn’t the normal ‘totally suitable for us’ style of contract so much as it was a ‘we need you for this job’ type of deal,” stated Lily.

“I guess that’s why we got those tokens from it then? Maybe? I mean… yeah we needed to do it and it would’ve been a lot harder for a different set of demons to get the mission done… and for all the problems we did do it. The world never ended and we got quite the bounty… but… it’s tough I guess. It feels… almost like it wasn’t worth it. I mean… I don’t regret accepting the mission, and I don’t even know if I can say I regret any of the decision made along the way… but like… we don’t have anything to spend those tokens on right now. So we did all of that for… a fancy paperweight almost,” grumbled Kat.

“It is a bit of a perspective thing isn’t it? I mean… we still need to go looking for that spatial bag and we could perhaps spend a token on that?” suggested Lily.

Kat sighed, “We could sure but… well it was sort of established that it would probably be a waste?”

“Right but… say we’re called up to save the world again for more tokens… would we really say no?” retorted Lily.

“I… well no I wouldn’t but… what are the chances? Favour tokens are rare…” started Kat.

Lily cut her off with, “But Hunter’s whole clan has quite a lot. Sure it usually goes to the best of the best within the clan but they can collect them and save them up. Sure they’re rare but for Hunter it’s probably quite normal to have a good stockpile of them around, and she doesn’t mind having to give them away to the clan either… she’s got to have dozens, or well at least the one dozen,”

“I guess that’s the question then? How often are we gonna get called out for it…” said Kat with a sigh.

“So not thinking of finding a different job? Moving away from Contracts?” asked Lily even though she knew the answer.

“Of course not,” Kat said with a sigh and a slight not of agreement. “You know as well as I do that… well they’re an adventure. Normally one that’s pretty safe and… ‘sanitary’ I suppose we can say. They’re something for us to do, and have a unique and interesting time with for the most part. I might get bored one day… but that day isn’t today.

“I suppose I just worry where that sort of attitude will leave us. I love helping people… but despite tech uplift really not being my thing I almost feel like we’re going to get conned into it one day. I mean… I don’t know much hub tech but even stuff on earth is better then a lot of the places we go to. Though magic does smooth out the rough edges…

“Yeah… I guess… I don’t know. Do you think these adventures will ever stop being interesting? Fun seems like the wrong word, I mean we just got done with something that certainly wasn’t fun… and I… I dunno. Maybe the reason If eel so off about this is that I know I’d do it again and for all of my current complaining I don’t think I’d be willing to make any choices differently. Packing better perhaps, and finding some way to deal with the drake…

“But like even with that in mind. If we didn’t, need to go looking for the various pieces we wouldn’t have helped everyone in the forest get out of that facility… well not everyone, everyone but you know what I mean? And the towns… well… even if we didn’t really help anyone now more people know I guess? I’m still really not sure about that whole thing”

Lily thought it over for a few moments before replying. “I think we’ll be fine Kat. Right now… it’s a bit of a rough patch sure… but we saved the world. We got to see things we’d never seen before, and now that we know the sort of mess that politics can make of things we can be more prepared for the future! We can work it out between us. So that if push comes to shove… we know when to shove back,”

“Thanks Lily,” said Kat as she pressed a soft kiss against Lily’s lips and hugged her tightly. She was feeling well enough to sleep now… so why bother moving? It was a nice night and she certainly wasn’t cold. Hopefully the roof didn’t give way if she rolled over or something…