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

— Kat —

A few minutes after everything had calmed down, Lily contacted Kat again. [Right, so Nixilei has explained properly now. The assassin’s guild is willing to hide us because it’s less of a hassle then turning us away or letting things continue as they are… but that doesn’t mean they actually LIKE having us here. If someone thought to ask and were willing to pay the price for the attempt they WOULD try to kill us. Maybe if we were paying them for the protection they wouldn’t but even then that’s not what they normally sell so it still might not work.]

[Apparently, this guild doesn’t actually operate in the city. This just happens to be one of the main headquarters they use for training and as a staging ground for the surrounding areas… and they are NOT happy Nixilei knew where it was. Heck, I’m wondering how she found out! So… yeah when I say they aren’t happy apparently I really mean it. Nixilei was explaining that this is all a delicate balancing act and it might go sideways.]

*Why not pay them? I mean, I don’t begrudge Nixilei not being willing to pay but we’ve still got a bunch of those gems and stuff from last mission that got stored away in pockets and whatnot.*

[Yeah… but it just wouldn’t be worth it. See, hiding us is one thing but actively defending us? That would take a LOT of money. This is doubly true because we’re currently being hunted. From what I understand it’s sort of an honour thing. They’re cool with letting us stay… or well… not cool but ‘accepting’ of us staying here for now but they aren’t really helping us. If someone pays them to do the opposite then they aren’t breaking contract with us, and handing us over doesn’t insult their sensibilities at all.]

*Oh joy. Morally upright assassins.*

[Eh, apparently that’s how a lot of them operate. If you don’t have a proper code of honour with a whole bunch of checks and balances you quickly end up hunted down by the people in charge. Having well defined, exceptionally rigid rules allows for the rulers of the land to be… perhaps not ‘ok’ with things but makes it ‘acceptable causalities’ to a certain extent. The big issue, from my understanding, is that most of the powerful fighters just have other shit to do with more ‘proper’ criminals. Bandits mostly.]

*That seems… less then ideal. Also should I be hiding or just sitting here out in the open? I’ve got ideas on how to escape without people seeing me.*

[Yeah I asked that as well… um… it’s complicated and mostly just logistics in the end. As for getting away? Um… one moment.] Lily quickly checked in with everyone else… who was awake. So basically just Nixilei. [Nixilei is recommending you hang around visibly for a while longer. Makes it seem like we aren’t safe just yet. Though if you’re attacked again feel free to just run away.]

*Makes sense. So… the assassins?*

[Right… well… the idea with them is that if you train enough competent assassins and then someone comes in to shut down the organisation you can scatter and then assassinate the people who ordered the destruction of the order. I’ve also… picked up something that Nixilei didn’t really mention so much as what she didn’t and that’s that people here sort of have a ‘might makes right’ style of attitude? It’s not completely like that but… ]

[If someone of the same Rank tries to kill you, and it’s just the one person… then that’s ok? Oh sure they’ll chase after them and if they get caught they’ll be punished for it. But… well… people here are just a lot less concerned with it? I think the idea is that if someone is willing to pay top dollar to have you assassinated it’s probably because of a good reason.]

*Wait… but like… I can think of half a dozen reasons to kill someone without them having done anything wrong*.

[Yeah… but if they’re just annoying or you’re an evil asshole you’ll go to bandits instead? Or something? Look I’m not saying I like or agree with it but this seems to be the line of thinking they’re using. If I had to guess it’s mostly that getting rid of powerful trained assassins is really difficult and they want a cultural excuse not to bother but I’m no sociologist.]

*Yeah… and I feel like we’ve strayed from the point. What do you think I should do?*

[Well, Nixilei suggested waiting around to see what happens and I can see where she’s coming from. Are you… alright though? Like… I mean… I… the um… hmm…]

*The head wound?*

[Look I didn’t want to say it and I certainly didn’t want to THINK about it but sure. That.]

Kat turned her mind towards her meditation pond and found it was back to normal. No evidence at all remained. No cracks, the water was flowing just fine. There hadn’t been any major damage before and all of the little things seemed to have been cleaned up. Kat was no expert, and there was the possibility something was sneaking past her but it all… looked fine?

*Seems fine. I mean, I obviously can’t see inside of my head but I don’t feel any pain and my mindscape is back in order.*

[Yeah… I wish we could pull back and have Nira look at you…]

*Surely Thyme is qualified. Even if they’re not allowed to heal me because of some dumb rules I’m pretty sure getting a checkup is fine. As long as nothing is fixed I doubt it crosses any lines.*

[Alright. If you promise to get it looked at as soon as Thyme is free then I won’t mention it again.]

*So… anything else? Or should I just relax here until the sun goes down or someone attacks me.*

[I’d really rather you didn’t get attacked but fine…]

Kat just smiled and started to gather up some debris from nearby. She was planning to use her strength to make a chair or two out of them. It might be super awkward but it was something to do. Plus, not that she was going to mention it to Lily… but she was a LOT more confident in her regeneration after the recent attack on her. Even if it was annoying, it was nice to know she didn’t have to go too far out of her way to protect her head should things get dicey.

— Lily —

Lily sighed and flopped backwards onto the bed she was sitting on. The assassins had shoved them into a barracks with a bunch of neatly made bunks. The beds were built into the wall and stacked two high. The current room had twenty of them inside, though at the moment it was just the five of them. There was a set of curtains that could divide the room in half, but Nixilei had drawn them back as soon as they got there. “Welp. I’m mentally exhausted but I don’t really want to sleep,” announced Lily as she glanced at the lucky ones that where asleep.

Kress glanced upwards from where he was, in complete battle attire and currently maintaining his weapons on the edge of the bed. Probably not the best place to do it because the weapon oil he was using would stain the sheets but… he also didn’t care about these sheets so if it did? Too bad for them. If they were going to be passive aggressive dicks so would he. “I get that but you’re probably best sleeping. I’ve seen you sleep through some serious shit so it’ll probably be fine,”

Lily let out a groan. “Urgh, I’ve been alert for days and I just… I do probably need the rest, especially after staying up for most of the night but I feel like if I go to sleep Kat’s going to go off and get herself killed,”

“Kat is exceptionally sturdy and Strooth’s sword is likely highly enchanted. It likely places within the top fifty weapons for piercing power in the entire world. I’d even guess it took a great deal of mana to pull of such an attack. I wouldn’t worry about this being a common occurrence,” said Nixilei. She was laying down on the bed resting her eyes but not truly relaxed. She couldn’t quite bring herself to sleep either.

“Look I KNOW that,” snapped Lily before her ears folded down on themselves. “Sorry. I just… I get that Kat is really, really hard to kill and I suppose I should trust that D.E.M.O.N.S. will get us out of here if she was actually about to die… but I’ve never seen it happen and my heart can’t help but worry. It’s probably worse because Kat seems like she’s just moving on! I… I just don’t get it. This is the closest to death’s she’s ever come and she was only willing to retaliate because I asked. She was getting revenge FOR ME and SHE’S the one who nearly died and I just… urgh!”