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

— Lily — (2 Hours Later)

Lily had not been happy to wakeup in a jail cell. She had been even LESS happy when she felt what the place was doing to her mana. It was like someone was slowly chocking her but across her entire body. The slightly light-headed feeling accompanied by an uncomfortable pressure that made it seem to her instincts like some giant beast was just waiting for her to let her guard down so it could eat her… and of course Kat felt none of this.

No her silly demon girlfriend was casually leaning against the wall, free of any shackles and PLAYING PIANO MAN ON A HARMONICA! Worse! One of the guards was sitting nearby tapping along at this point! *Where did you even get the harmonica?!*

[I honestly have no idea. It was just in the storage ring. I’d assumed that you put it in there as a gag or something.]

*No? I don’t even think my family owns a harmonica. Kat shrugged. Right… why are we here? Did you do something stupid?*

[Politics, and nnooo-maybe? We’re here because someone, possibly from the other teams, bribed the guards. It didn’t seem like a stupid idea at the time but the slightly racist asshole with a clear dislike of demons has been surprisingly reasonable. I was waiting to be attacked so I could use that as an excuse in the inevitable follow-up investigation…]

[But it never happened. Now he’s running around like a chicken with his head cut off trying, and failing, to work out how I can still use ‘mana’ despite the fact the jail cell here prevents it. Plus, the other guards are chill and even the big idiot was only going to keep me for two days. This place is probably expensive and I’d feel a bit bad breaking it.]

[So I debate sneaking out, debated waiting the two days, waiting till Thyme showed up… and in the end I decided it’d be best to have you catch up to the others and ask them, because it’s not like I have an understanding of the political ramifications.]

*You think I can catch up? Also WHY Piano Man?*

[Why not Piano Man? It’s the only song I could think of with a major harmonica part and it’s a great song. I haven’t gotten sick of it in the nearly 3 hours I’ve been playing it. Oh, and yes I do think you can. I thought about waking you up early… but decided to wait on it in the end.]

*Great. More work for me… though I can’t say I’m annoyed with the extra rest. I’m back to full mana as well so that’s something. Do… do you really think I can break out easily? Without mana?*

[Lily… the window is right there and the bars are wide enough for you to just walk through. What sort of spy nonsense were you thinking you’d need to do?]

Lily glanced backwards and would’ve flushed bright red if she wasn’t in her Memphis form. Kat was right, there were a set of bars set high up in the walls that theoretically were too high for a normal person to reach… but Kat could lift her up there easily… and she could fly. Probably. Lily wasn’t entirely sure if the anti-mana field around the cell would stop her so that was something to test.

*Alright… I guess I can head off whenever then?*

[Yup. Go Lily! I believe in you!]

Lily rolled her eyes as she lightly beat her wings and quickly proved she could still fly. A quick transformation and kiss on the cheek later Lily was flying up through the gaps in the bars… and back out into the FUCKING RAIN. Lily hissed as she moved back to the side of the building to avoid it for a few moments more. DAMMIT! I forgot about the rain!

[Is it really going to be a problem?]

*No… not really but it won’t be a good idea to waste mana on an umbrella if I’m by myself. Urgh this is going to be SO annoying.*

[Ha, I’ll give you a proper kiss once we meet up again for your troubles.]

*You were going to do that anyway. *

[Would you like something else?] Kat asked as she pushed a mental image of fingers slowly working their way down Lily’s body.

*NOPE! NOPE! NOPE! A kiss is fine!* Insisted an embarrassed Lily as she dashed out into the rain to force her thoughts to return to the present. Her face was felt like it was burning and if this was a cartoon the rain would be steaming where it landed on her. Besides, just being out of the stupid jail cell made her feel so much better. She no longer felt like she was about to be a snack… well. That wasn’t quite true as Lily felt her mind starting to wander back towards Kat’s last ‘message’.

Lily shook her head and quickly forced herself to lean on her instincts to get rid of those… tempting images Kat had sent her way. Lily was soon dashing through the taller parts of the grass while avoiding the forest in truth. There weren’t many people taking this small offshoot path at the moment anyway. *Ok… where do I want to cross? There isn’t much lightning around so I could theoretically make it over wherever but I don’t know what sort of monsters I could encounter during my brief stint in the forest. I also won’t have any way to follow the road. Ah dammit I should’ve asked for a bow or something as proof I wasn’t a normal monster. Hmm… wait I can…*

Lily quickly summoned up some colourful paper, draining a small chunk of mana to ensure it was permanent and then casting another spell on it to make it resistant to the rain. Once in place, Lily quickly made her paper into a little crown that sat around her horns. The little crown was made up of a few different colours and clearly unnatural. Hopefully that would be enough.

*Hmm… should I have waited until I was past the bridge? Nah the rest of running into people near the road is a bit too high and I don’t want to have to force the issue, especially if they turn out to be a group of Rank 3’s. I feel like it would be just my luck.*

Kat pointedly didn’t say anything over the link but Lily could feel her girlfriend agreeing with her over a distance. Lily just ignored the feeling as she quickly approached the bridge. Nobody was watching too closely, and it was a simple matter of waiting for all of the board guards and merchants to be looking elsewhere. Most had their eyes fixed on the bridge, the wagons, or the guards themselves anyway. Nobody was looking her way.

Lily took flight and glided downwards for a spell just to ensure nobody would spot her immediately unless they were leaning over the edge. After that it was a simple matter to make it to the other side. There weren’t even any lightning strikes! It was on the other side that the real challenge began. She couldn’t be overly stealthy… she needed to catch up to her friends and sort out this imprisonment nonsense.

Lily landed in the tall grass at the edge. It didn’t cover her completely but that was fine she wasn’t trying to be overly stealthy at the moment. *The question is… do I just hop onto the road itself and start sprinting or do I remain next to it?* What would cause less panic? Lily didn’t know. Her little hat and the fact that she wasn’t going to be attacking anyone should make it fine… especially when people were sure to react quickly to a blurry object sprinting past them in the grass. Perhaps attacking before registering the little hat…

At the same time, running past someone at high speed would be quite likely to have them freak out… but would they freak out and attack? Lily sighed, realising that it was a risk either way. *Better to stick to the grass then. It won’t be quite so hard on my paws and if I break a few pieces of dirt who cares?*

Lily took a few moments to make sure her fancy at was securely attached and even added a few tassels to thing to make it seem more like she was some fancy pet of someone marginally important. Still paper so nobody crazy rich and hopefully not a tempting target for ransom… but the main point really was just to stop people panicking at her speed and going straight for the kill.

Lily let out a slight grin as she readied herself… and then shot off at high speed. She’d made all the preparations that she could to avoid being attacked… and if some fool still thought they could try her? Well that would be there loss. Nobody too strong would ever mistake her for a wild animal so it was likely going to be fine. For her. Anyone that was stupid enough to stop her though? Not so much…