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

Chapter 1938: Chapter 1938 Getting a Paper Back

— Kat —

“So you think it’s worth the risk?” asked Lily.

“Might as well,” said Hedera with a shrug as she yawned. “If we miss out, we miss out.”

“Do you think I should use the spell that I’ve stumbled into, and then hit it with a paper repair spell?” asked Lily.

“You do whatever you think is best,” said Hedera. “I’m not a paper mage. I’ve never even met a paper mage. I’ve got no idea what the best course of action will be so… just go ahead,”

Lily pouted and turned to Kat for guidance but her girlfriend just shrugged back at her. “You know Hedera’s right. You’re the expert on this stuff between the three of us.”

“Blegh,” groaned Lily. “I don’t want this sort of pressure… but fine. It’s probably the best chance at reading everything. Hopefully it remains fixed. I’m… I’m really not sure what it’s going to be like but… fine.”

Lily charged the first spell up, carefully focusing on the book instead of everything in general and cast the spell. She was still a bit off. Instead of just changing the book, the book and a good chunk of the kitchen table was transformed. Still, it worked on the book so that was fine… ish.

Lily carefully poured mana into the paper part of the table and gently lifted the book so that it wasn’t sitting directly over the transformed spot. Just in case that caused issues with the repair spell. That at least, she was more confident in. Once the book was moved, Lily spent a bit of time carefully folding the table back the way it was so that when the transformation ran out it would be completely back to normal.

Sucking in a deep breath, Lily summoned the repair spell and poured a good chunk of mana into it before firing it off. The book lit up with a soft white glow that intensified after a few moments. The cover, visibly repairing itself as the light brightened. Then, Lily felt a tug on her reserves, frowning a bit, but allowing more mana to flow into the spell, Lily nearly collapsed as she felt half of her mana practically being ripped from her.

Kat sped over and managed to catch her as she fell sideways. The book was now glowing a brilliant white, blinding for Hedera who had to turn away as the light continued to build up until it had completely covered the room. Kat was tempted to tear into the book to stop whatever this was… but considering the spell was meant to repair it… causing more damage would likely just make things worse.

After a few seconds the light died down and Kat could see the book looked… pretty normal. Considering the lightshow and how drained Lily was she had been expecting something better. “Are you alright?” asked Kat as she moved to sit on one of the benches. A bit awkward with the cupboards above her, but giving Lily a chance to lay down was worth hunching over a bit.

Hedera glanced at the book. “Should I take a look? Does this thing need to set like it’s a cake? Is it better to look now while it’s all paper? What’s the best move here?”

Kat shrugged and glanced down at Lily who groaned. “I feel like I’ve been put through a blender. Hard to think.” Kat gave Lily a gentle kiss. “That’s nice but it doesn’t help much. Um… I don’t know. I think I had a plan before this but my brain feels like goooooo.”

Kat sighed and started to gently run her fingers through Lily’s hair. “We discussed it a bit before and Lily was in two minds about it. If we leave it until it transforms back it should, theoretically, be in the best condition it can be. The issue is that Lily isn’t sure how the repaired bits will interact. They might remain paper… and I’m really not sure what’s likely considering the mana drain that just happened.”

“Hmm… well it’s possible that it the spell was repairing them ’properly’ and matching the material, which is currently transformed paper… then again it’s also possible that the spell wasn’t ideal and you both mentioned, multiple times, that you were pretty sure Lily was botching the intended spell,” elaborated Hedera. “I’d say they’re both just as risky as each other… except… hmm… what about the binding?”

“What?” asked Kat.

“The book binding,” said Hedera. “Hang on wait a moment…” Hedera bent down and examined the book carefully. “Ok… I think this is a glue binding… maybe. It probably isn’t string.”

“I’m still confused,” admitted Kat.

“Blegh. Silly girlfriend not knowing what a book binding is…” mumbled Lily.

Hedera grimaced a bit at that, but decided to explain properly. “Right so… when you make a book you need to keep all the pages together right? Well some people sew the pages into the binding, other people use glue, and I’m sure there are alternative methods but those are the big two I know about,”

“Right… and how does it affect things?” asked Kat.

“I’m worried about the potential issues involved in the binding agent being turned to paper. Just as an example… if the glue is currently paper, should we try opening the book the pages might all fall out. Now, we can be careful with it and only open it on the table… but there’s still a risk that things break. It’s possible that the glue might not return properly if we start messing around with it,” guessed Hedera.

“Right and the other issue?” asked Kat.

“Well… I’m just guessing here, but there’s a chance that the stuff that was repaired as paper, stays paper but doesn’t reconnect to the rest of it. You might still end up with a bunch of holes in the book,” explained Hedera.

“Best just to look at it now then,” said Kat with a nod. “If we’re careful the risk here seems minimal and something we can account for.”

Hedera nodded and slowly opened the book. It was laid out like a journal, with the first entry dated for about a decade ago… and that was all Hedera could read. “I have no idea what this says,” Hedera carefully turned a few more pages just to check… and yup. No idea. “Yeah I can’t read whatever language this is…”

“Hmm…” mumbled Kat.

“I’ll be alright,” murmured Lily. “I’m feeling a bit better, you can go check,”

Kat frowned at the suggestion but went along with it. They had no idea how long the transformation would last after all. The grass outside had lasted ten minutes in the first bunch, twenty in the second… and the other tests Lily did had varying results. It didn’t even seem to have much to do with the mana infused into the spell. Kat stood up and gently placed Lily’s head back down on the bench before going over to the diary.

’Dear Diary,

Apparently I need to talk to more people. A great idea until you realise everyone hates my guts. I’ve got no friends after the incident, and the therapist they assigned me doesn’t seem like she knows what she’s doing. I mean really ’talk to more people’ when I’ve got my half dead mother who’s barely awake most days and my old childhood friend who tolerates me but doesn’t really like me anymore.

So I was instead encouraged to start a diary if I won’t talk to anyone. I don’t want to bother with this… but I know my therapist reports to the mayor and if I’m not making any progress… well I can imagine what will happen.’

Kat nodded along, and checked out the next few pages seeing more of the same. Complaints about the writer’s therapist, the mayor, and despairing over their mother’s illness. There was all ’the incident’ which came up more than once… but was never explained. Not ideal.

Lily had sat up and made her way over to Kat. Still a bit unsteady on her feet but she was smiling again at least. Lily had sat her chin on Kat’s shoulder and was currently reading from there. Hedera, seeing that her teammates were occupied, was eating breakfast. If energy bars counted as breakfast anyway.

Flicking through the pages did occasionally yield new insights but nothing substantial. There were mentions of ’a plan’ as well as complaints about the vote for everyone to leave the town that was scheduled for a bit later. Alas, ’the plan’ was clearly too important to write down. Kat sighed as she turned the page and once again got more complaints, with little actual details. “Alright so… this might take a while to read through. Do we want to stick around while Lily and I check it out? Or shall we move on?”

“How long would it take to read the whole thing?” asked Hedera.

“Hmm… most efficient way is probably for me to read through it quickly and then have Lily re-read it through my memories. We can definitely get it done in an hour… but that might still be a bit much,” explained Kat.

“If it’s just an hour I say go for it,” countered Hedera.