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

— Lily —

Lily was surprised to spot two familiar sets of colourful hair jogging along the road around an hour after crossing the bridge. Apparently they weren’t trying to make particularly good time just yet. Kat sprinted up to them, transformed and jumped onto her feet with a shadow umbrella in hand. The whole performance was ruined a bit because she nearly slipped over and Nixilei had to grab her shoulder… but it was still cool dammit!

“Lily? Is everything alright? Where’s Kat? Is she trapped?” Nixilei launched questions rapid fire at Lily.

“It’s… a bit complicated. If we have time we might want to set up the tent? It’s going to take some discussing… but we can keep running if you all want,” answered Lily.

Gareth raised an eyebrow, “How complicated is the topic? And where is Kat?”

“I don’t know… and as for how complicated? A fair bit I guess? See, Kat was expecting to be attacked by the guards once she was out of sight or for them to be… more evil I guess? Instead it’s one guy that’s kind of a dick with the rest of them just doing their jobs. Kat’s plan to break out involved a lot of property damage originally…

“But now she’s worried about what sort of issues it would cause if she went through with it. Apparently even the idiot, despite admitting to being bribed, is only planning to hold her for two days. She doesn’t know how far away the city is, if the guards can radio back and get YOU all in trouble, all sorts of stuff,” explained Lily.

Gareth sighed, “Alright we’ve done a few hours of light running so it’s fine to take a break. I’ll set up the tent,”

Lily nodded, and the group all moved off the road and onto the grass. Soon the tent was set up and everyone was sitting around. Lily had even made her own shadowy bean-bag. The ‘texture’ of it was sort of weird but it was quite comfortable and allowed her to practice her magic without burning too much mana… and ok it was actually really comfortable. Not as comfortable as laying on Kat, but much better then anything else.

“So what’s the main issue?” asked Nixilei.

“Well… Kat didn’t want to cause a big commotion and break all the, probably valuable equipment. The cuffs are magic supressing ones and the jail cell is enchanted to make it hard to use mana,” explained Lily.

“THEY WHAT?” hissed Green. Lily shot a confused look Green’s way. “Are you SURE they’re magic suppressants?” Green grimaced when Lily nodded. “That’s… that’s maybe worse? Like, Kat’s technically not being arrested just detained. The cuffs are… sort of acceptable. She wasn’t acting aggressively and illegal entry isn’t a violent crime, but sure that can be excused…

“The cell though? We keep people who use magic for murder and rape in those! High treason! The idea that they’d put some just being detained in one of those is… that’s pretty extreme Lily,” Green trailed off when Lily seemed to want to add something.

“Yeah well for Kat it’s all been one big joke. Something meant to stop mana does nothing at all to her demonic energy. She’s been playing music the whole time and just messing with people, but as I said earlier she’s worried about causing political issues. The main concern was that she escapes, they radio ahead and then the guards in town try to lock you all up and prevent you from getting proper rest.

“The other concern was that… well two days of sitting around being a bit bored isn’t a major concern for Kat. She’s fine running in after getting released or, at that point, busting out if they’re going to be bigger annoyances about it. That or wait till Thyme comes and get her… but she didn’t want to cause Thyme issues either. The real problem is you never said how long it would take to GET to the city?”

“Ah… my bad,” admitted Nixilei. “That’s in part because I wasn’t entirely sure… but if we’ve just passed the bridge… two days of solid walking, that’s today and tomorrow… possibly the day after and then we should be in town. The tournament starts in… four or five days? The other reason I didn’t meantion how long we had is that… well… I may have dropped some tea over the calendar I keep so I can’t tell which of the two days I wrote down originally it’s all smudged,”

“Wait you never mentioned that!” gasped Green.

“Yes well, there’s nothing to be done about it…” added Nixilei.

*Should I mention that there’s a spell to clean up stains on paper? It’s not hard but it’s not really a combat spell either. Wait… I know I know the version that removes the stains… but did I ever bother to practice the one that removes the stains and restores the writing? It’s a Rank 3 spell that one and I’ve been prioritising the combat stuff. Hmm…*

[Probably best not to mention it then. If it just cleans up the paper it would be rude to give her false hope.]

*Yeah I guess. I mean… I can sort of remember the what the three circle version of the spell looks like… but the ‘sort of remember’ part means I probably shouldn’t cast it… and YOU have the book.*

[I could look at it and you can see it through my eyes?]

*Won’t work, you need a certain proficiency with paper magic to see the later pages.*

[Ah right, forgot about that part…]

“Ok… so… what’s the plan?” asked Lily. “Kat’s fine with just… sitting tight for a while and if it’s going to take you all two days of walking Kat can probably manage it in just one without any trouble at all. Is that the best course of action?”

Nixilei glanced at Green. “Why are you looking at me? You’ve probably got more training in this stuff. Mostly because I slept through a lot of those classes…”

Nixilei sighed and looked at Gareth who responded, “Hey, I mostly studied internal policy for the human lands growing up and then fae lands after talks started up about Green and I getting engaged. I’ve got no idea what the specific laws are like in the elven lands,”

Nixilei let out a groan. “Urgh. Fine. The issue here is that this is already somewhat of a mess. It really depends on how things get played. Just… ok if Kat really doesn’t mind?”

[I don’t. I’ve moved on from piano man and I’m now trying to work out Waltzing Matilda. It’s a work in progress.]

“Kat seems to be enjoying herself,” sighed Lily.

“Right well… assuming she’s let out on time that’s the safest way to go about things… sort of. The risk we run is that other shit will pop up. It depends on who’s mouth the orders came from. Arguably, interfering with the tournament is a major offense. The issue is that whoever gave the order could simply claim not to have known when Kat needed to be here by. If they’re highly placed enough they can give us the run around. There’s essentially know way we can legal sort it out before Kat’s let out herself,” admitted Nixilei.

“Seems like Kat staying in jail is for the best,” shrugged Lily.

Nixilei let out a long sigh. “You’d think that… but if they twist Kat’s detainment into ‘having been arrested’ then when she gets to the city they can try to bar her entry because of recent crimes committed. The treaties about the tournament are quite clear that if you do something illegal that’s on you,”

“Wouldn’t that be an argument in favour of staying in jail then?” asked Lily.

“Funnily enough no. There’s two reasons for that. The first is that it’s not actually illegal to break out of jail in elven lands. You can be charged for things you do in the process like property damage but the escape itself? Perfectly legal. If Kat however ‘serves her sentence’ that’s… sort of but not quite an admittance of guilt?”

“So… she should turn into water and sneak out?” asked Lily.

“Maybe. The guard was clear that they only twisted the ruling a bit, not ignored it. If Kat escapes, and then illegally sneaks into the city that’s a crime she can be charged for,” sighed Nixilei.

“Wait… so… what the heck are we meant to do? Hell what did you THINK they were going to die?” asked Lily concerned.

“Well… I actually thought Kat had the right idea. Allow them to take her away from us, then they’d attack thinking she was appropriately bound and then she could respond with force. It would still have become a political shitshow but with one nobles word against what is presumably another’s we could just stall until the tournament happened,” explained Nixilei.

“So what you’re saying is regardless of what Kat chooses it’s going to cause problems…” sighed Lily.

“Probably yes,” agreed Nixilei.

“Shit,” cursed Lily.