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

— Kat —

Lily’s recent status update she shared after getting inside the jail was promising. Well somewhat. Green was in the best shape. She’d just fallen asleep and stayed that way. Even now she was in fact, still asleep. Though there was the minor issue of the fact Green hadn’t bothered to change at all and had gotten her sheets filthy that didn’t seem to be stopping her in any major way.

Kress had also managed to get some sleep eventually. He didn’t look happy and was constantly moving around in bed but he WAS asleep… which was more than you could say for Gareth. He was continually woken up by the guy with the cup and every time it rattled across the bars Gareth twitched a bit more. Gareth did nod off occasionally, but only when the guy with the mug paused for a minute or so… before he went right back to clanging it against the bars. Kress was right next to Gareth, but either the extra distance was helping or Kress was better at dealing with the constant loud noises.

If Lily had to guess, it was Gareth overcompensating for Green’s ability to fall asleep anywhere. He felt, or at least Lily suspect he felt, that it was his job to ensure that nothing happened to Green when she fell asleep… which meant he had to be in a much safer and quieter place to fall asleep himself. Here it just meant he was suffering and would not be in top form if something wasn’t done soon. Annoyingly, he wouldn’t be able to sleep the day away because that would wreck his sleep schedule and potentially be just as bad. It was one of the many reasons Lily didn’t just destroy the cup.

Nixilei on the other hand… well Kat and Lily had no idea what to think about that situation. Lily’s nose was good enough to tell that pretty much all of the blood WAS Nixilei’s but she didn’t seem pale or uncomfortable. It was a very weird scene. She was in some ways dealing with the lack of sleep the best. She didn’t even seem tired. On the other hand Nixilei seemed more than a bit unhinged at the moment and it was a struggle to know how much of that was an act and how much of it was Nixilei getting a bit loopy because she was tired. Kat wanted to believe it was mostly or entirely an act… but then where did the blood come from?

[Probably a blood replenishing spell]

*I don’t disagree… but from the sounds of it she’s got multiple bodies worth of blood around her right?*

[Yes but we’ve got no idea how much mana something like that would cost. Especially if Nixilei has tweaked it to just spray blood everywhere instead of giving it proper substance. Like… like… think of it like using water and red food dye instead. It doesn’t smell quite right so I’m guessing it’s not proper blood but that’s just a guess. I’ve got no idea what sort of spells a healing proficiency has outside of well… healing.]

Kat gave a mental shrug in response just as she heard the door to the jail unlocking. Glancing over she saw her ‘old friend’, the guard with a grudge step inside. “Right, this has become a complete mess and I still don’t like you… but I also don’t want to get mixed up in this shit anymore than I already have so my second in command will be taking the lead,”

In from behind him stepped an elven woman with an odd choice for a helmet. It was cracked in half and as such only covered part of her face, leaving a good chunk of it exposed. She had long hair that was a sort of pale green and her left eye was an emerald. Like a real gemstone sitting in the socket and seemed to be moving around. The other guard quickly fled. “Ha, calling me his second in command. My name is Poison. Yes, my parents were assholes but they’ve been dead for six hundred years so I don’t really care,”

“Um… hello… Miss Poison?” offered Kat as she tried not to loose herself in the confusion.

“Poison is my first name and I disowned myself after becoming the head of the family,” said Poison.

“Right…” said Kat slowly. “So… what’s going on?”

“A few things. We got the automated message saying you were free to go… moments before a clearly manual report came in pretending to be the automated message saying that you needed to be kept under lock and key for another day. Odd that it was just the one day and yet no reason was provided…” Poison offered.

“Yes… odd that,” said Kat with a shrug.

“Look, as you can guess I’m one of the oldest elves on the force. I never dedicated myself to training after the shit I saw in my childhood but I’ve kept in good shape. I’ve seen enough political shit-storms approaching to recognising them. Especially when I caused a few of them myself. So… this is what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna let you go and say I never saw the secondary letter… and you’re not going to mention it,” said Poison.

“Then WHY tell me?” asked Kat. “You do know I can’t lie right? If someone asks I will have to answer,”

“Just say you’ve never seen it or something,” said Poison with a dismissive wave. “There are plenty of ways you can say it without saying it, and the reason I’m bothering to tell you is that shit IS about to hit the fan. If you don’t start knocking heads together that crazy dryad is going to do so on your behalf. Kinda surprised he hasn’t already. Plus… well… your contractors are in a spot of bother and I don’t want you coming back and ripping my commanding idiot apart,”

Kat nodded. *Oh right. They probably don’t know I can talk to Lily whenever I want.* “Ok… so… you’re worried about Thyme fair enough but why would I need to worry about my friends?” asked Kat.

“Oh? You are friends? Wasn’t sure on that… but if anything it’s worse. See, I might not have gotten official word of what’s going on but I know people and unofficially they’ve all been taken into custody for something they definitely didn’t do. I think we’re at the point where you can start wrecking shit and knocking them out without it coming back to her your team’s rep.

“Well, as long as you don’t kill anyone AND you can take all the reinforcements as well, but the commander is out of the city so you’re probably fine,” added Poison with a shrug.

“And… you suggest that?” asked Kat.

“Oh yeah, definitely,” agreed Poison. “See, our lovely Lady’s are pretty forgiving people when the idiots underneath them get overly self-important and start mucking things up. They… tend to schedule some away stuff and then let the idiots do something that gets them smacked down. Half the time the person doing the smacking gets rewarded… and the other half of the time someone dies and they have to pretend to be annoyed. It’s pretty funny to see,”

Kat gave Poison her best glare. “What’s stopping some moron from coming behind me and slicing the throat of someone I only knocked out?”

Poison gave Kat a big grin. “You think the Lady’s aren’t watching all the fuckups right now? Sure they probably do have important work but it’s also a test for how well the city can run without them right now. A test they are FAILING and one my idiot superior doesn’t know about,”

“Wait, why do YOU know if he doesn’t?” asked Kat.

“Well… as I said I’ve been around but it’s also probably due to the fact I keep causing political issues. I’ve been demoted and promoted back so many times that I’ve got all the little notices preserved in a collage on my wall. I’m up to about eighty of them last I counted, but that was few decades ago,” admitted Poison.

Kat’s eyes went wide. *How… what? How do you not just get kicked out of the organisation at that point?* Kat paused for a few moments. Fuck it. “How do you not just get kicked out at this point?”

“Heheh, that’s the game isn’t it? Heck telling you all of this is probably getting me demoted… but letting you out and ignoring stupid orders might get me promoted so it probably cancels out. Anyway, the idea is that you do something just stupid enough that it needs to be punished but not so stupid they have to kick you out. Oh! And you can’t use the same mistake as last time because otherwise it makes it seem like you’re not learning. It’s actually getting a little hard to find new fuckups that don’t royally screw other people over,” grinned Poison.

*I… I’m surprised she was able to find forty of them if she also doesn’t want to cause issues for people… though that might be a new thing? Whatever… at least I’m getting out of here I suppose. I’m also not sure I should just attack like she says… but dammit I am super tempted.*