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

— Kat —

Of course just because Kat was a bit annoyed it didn’t mean she was willing to just leave Eleanora out in the middle of nowhere unconscious… but the question was then what to do with her? A quick mental check revealed that Lily was still asleep which… didn’t really change much. So I probably can’t get into whatever secret hideout they’re in. One because I bet people can track me and two because without Lily vouching for me they probably won’t just let me in.

*I guess I could hand Eleanora over to the guards? But I’m not sure I really trust them. Sure some of them would probably be safe… but I can’t know which ones they are. Honestly my best bet might be to backtrack out of the city and hand her over to Poison as silly as that sounds. She might do something stupid but I can trust her not to put Eleanora in serious danger. Probably.*

Kat sighed and picked Eleanora up off the ground. No sense sticking around here when people show up… except she was already too late. An elf Eleanora recognised as Malve teleported in just as Kat stood back up. Kat pushed her demonic energy back into her body and mind. Swiftly shifting Eleanora to her back and wrapping the elf against her using her tail while pulling out her fans.

Malve raised two hands and tried to make a calming gesture. Kat raised an eyebrow and didn’t say anything for a while, which Malve took as a sign that it was ok to get closer. Kat wasn’t sure that it WAS ok but she was willing to allow it for the moment. At the very least she could see they were dressed a lot like the normal guards. A few differences here and there but definitely part of the guard.

Malve stopped a good ten metres away from Kat before half yelling out “Um… can you leave Eleanora with me? I’ll get her back to the barracks. I’m not… well… she’ll be fine right? She’s not like dead?”

“Elanora is fine, she just fainted from lack of mana. Or at least, I think it was lack of mana. Though… why should I hand her over to you?” asked Kat.

“What? She’s part of the town guard? Why wouldn’t you hand her over to me where she’ll be safe? Are you trying to kidnap her?” asked Malve.

“See… counter point? What if someone wants to get back at Eleanora while she’s asleep. You’re organisation hasn’t exactly proved trustworthy in the few days I’ve known about it and I’m not sure I’m comfortable giving an unconscious woman over to you in light of that,” answered Kat.

Malve seemed indignant for a moment before changing how mind and swiftly collapsing in on herself. “Oh… um… right. You should keep her then…”

“Huh?” intoned Kat. “What’s with the about face?”

“I… er… I’m not meant to share classified information with an outside force?” offered Malve.

Kat decided that if the elf in front of her was going to be terrified of everything already, she didn’t feel bad about a few threats. Kat summoned up a large, if mostly empty, fireball of demonic energy and pointed at the area. “I just beat the strongest person left in the city after have a bunch of shit happen to me and my friends while your organisation fucked around. Well, unless you want to give me a few details you’re all about to find out,”

“Heeeeee,” screamed Malve with a giant flinch. Kat felt a little bad for a few moments but quickly got over it once Malve’s expression hardened again. “I… I… are you really going to be threatening a city with Eleanora drooling on your shoulder?”

*What sort of response is that?!* Kat glanced over and saw that Eleanora was indeed drooling all over her shoulder. Even still… “What’s your point?”

“Oh… um… well I guess I don’t have one?” Malve asked? Kat wondered how this woman got anything done or ordered people about. She was meant to be one of the three in charge of the guard for the moment so… surely she had to occasionally order people around right? Or was she just deathly afraid of anyone stronger then her? Perhaps that’s how she got so strong?

“Just tell me why you think I should keep Eleanora before I do something you’ll regret,” Kat was a little surprised a the words that come out of her mouth… but apparently she believed that Malve would regret just about anything she planned to do. Which… was almost certainly true but Kat still found it weird to say aloud.

“Ah… well… she did injure Strooth rather seriously,” explained Malve. “He’s not going to be happy with her… and um… I’m not really sure what he would do in retaliation? I mean… nothing personally but he’d know… the person to find and like, make a comment about Eleanora being unconscious to them.

“He… he wouldn’t say anything. No ‘You could get away with revenge’ or even ‘Now might be the time for something’ he’d just say something like… er… ‘did you hear the Eleanora lost a fight and is resting up in the infirmary’? But because everyone knows she can regenerate they’d know she’s not awake… and he’d probably make sure the guard at the door was distracted or not there or ok with it ‘accidentally’ and just let things play out. So… um… yeah probably not safe for her,”

Kat felt her eyes narrow. “Why does Strooth even have that much power if he’s such a horrible person?” asked Kat.

“He… he’s not that bad… normally. I mean… he follows orders, he’s friends with a lot of the guards, apparently he’s a great commander and teammate. He leads from the front instead of just ‘let me go fight it while you watch’ like Eleanora. He… he does well with people. He just… also really holds a grudge and a lot of the townsfolk don’t like him… which means he has a sort of low level grudge against a lot of them…” explained Malve.

“That… cannot be healthy. Or a good thing for the guards long term,” said Kat.

“Ah hehehehe… yeah… we um… yeah as apprentices we all sort of suck. I mean… most of the townsfolk will tell you that. We… um… we hear it repeated often enough. Eleanora has no leadership skills and sort of just does what she wants but she’s by far the strongest of us all and great at clearing out monsters. So… people like her well enough but they also don’t want her in charge or… anywhere in the nearby vicinity.

“Strooth is definitely the guard’s pick for who they’d want to lead them. He… well he does play favourites but he’s charismatic when he wants to be and a lot of his less ideal tendencies are aimed away from the guard. He’s also pretty good at the paperwork and strong enough that… well arguably I’m stronger but he can beat me in any official fight because of how close we have to start to each other. Which, some might say means he’s stronger than me, and that’s fine but… well I went over his issues…

“Which… um… just leaves me. And I really don’t like the fact that a lot of the townspeople consider me the ‘least bad option’. I like playing the support role. I’m great at paperwork and I’m happy to help out in fights… but I don’t really enjoy fighting I don’t know how to handle conflict all that well and Strooth and Eleanora scare me a lot… especially Strooth now he thinks I have a better shot at the big seat even though I really don’t want it.

“He doesn’t believe me when I complain because his mind… he just can’t believe that of the three of us he’s probably the only one who DOES want it. Which… well does not help with the people much. Though… the nobles are a bit interested as well… more because he’s easily manipulated. Wait… is it manipulation when he knows what they’re trying to do and lets it happen anyway?” Malve trailed off as she sunk deeper into thought.

*Well… that was a lot more information then I really expected to be able to get. I… think I underestimated just how scared of everything she is. How she managed to get so strong is a mystery… though it does tell me why she seems so focused on longer range spells. She’s also provided me with several good reasons to keep Eleanora away from the rest of the guards…

But no real info on what to do with her? Do I want to just head into town and see if someone will give me a place to stay? Am I still at risk of the rest of the guards attacking me? Sure Elenaora said she’d keep them off my back… but that’s predicated on her actually being awake to tell them off! Do I just head out into the woods or something? I get that Malve is not just letting me take her but encouraging me… but wouldn’t Strooth use that to drum up support if I just leave without having anyone see me? Maybe I’ll just find a tall roof or something.*