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

Chapter 2195 The Steel Hard Facts Part 1

--- Kat ---

They were making their way to the quarantine area. In the end, Appoline hadn’t been able to resist the call for more unique ingredients... but Hedera had been convinced to stay back and guard the other two. It had been an interesting conversation. The elf had seemed surprised that Kat was ok with her skipping out on the mission into the poison... but Kat had no idea why. It seemed like a good way to keep everyone safe and she trusted Hedera to keep everyone safe. Oh, and some guards had delivered another barrel of orbs, so that was also nice, if not immediately relevant. So it was just her, Appoline, and Steel for the moment, and the lingering worries of demon poison.

”Now that we’re on our way, I can use this time to explain the team we’re sending you down with,” Steel began. ”We’ve kept it to ten people, but you don’t really need to know the specifics about most of them. Four of them are mostly normal guards. I’ll have their profiles brought up so you can confirm that they aren’t under illusions, but otherwise they’re mostly around to help ensure that everyone is on watch.

”The first important person I’ll start with, is that set of twins. They’re dwarven twins and both great at warding an area. Their names are Rockslide and Landslide, but most of the time that’s shortened to either Rocky, or Lan. In this case, Lan is the one that will be going with you. They’re identical twins, but if you ever need to know the difference? Rocky is missing the nail on his right thumb. It was ripped off and then healed somewhat improperly. No scarring, but no nail grows there anymore.”

”I could fix that,” Appoline added in.

Steel nodded as he passed over the first picture to Kat. ”I’m sure you could, it apparently isn’t too hard of a fix but from my understanding Rocky was never that interested. It’s a minor injury that doesn’t truly change his everyday life much at all. The twins also apparently appreciate the slight difference, but one not too hard to hide when messing with people. They even managed to create something to give Rocky a fake, but real seaming nail to make them indistinguishable for a time.”

”Are you worried about that?” asked Kat as she took in the picture. The dwarf in question, because it was just a picture of one, had some... interested ideas about clothing. They were wearing leather armour, with a white coat over the top, steel boots and yet no gloves. Glasses sat across their face... barely. Rocky, or Lan, whichever this was meant to be had a HUGE nose.

Like, full on cartoon sized nose that was nearly the size of Kat’s whole hand. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact he was quite wide in all areas, head included, Kat wasn’t sure he’d be able to see! It was like he had a rock strapped to his face instead of a nose. Certainly it was a memorable trait, for otherwise the rest of his face was standard for a dwarf. Thick hair and beard in that brown colouring you saw on a lot of them. Bushy eyebrows that looked thinner then they actually were because of the giant nose.

Kat put the picture down. No reason to obsess over that detail. Back to worrying about the twins swapping. ”Not at all,” Steel replied. ”I mentioned before that we actually had Rocky down as the preferred twin for this. He has more experience with the type of wards we’re hoping to set up underground but apparently his claustrophobia will be too much.”

Kat frowned. ”I sort of assumed the twins were human or elvish... not that he was a dwarf. How... I mean, I don’t know if it’s racist to say this but how did he develop claustrophobia? Can dwarves even get it?”

Steel shrugged, ”Yes they can but you’re right that it’s much harder for them to naturally develop it. From my knowledge, no dwarf has ever just ’had’ claustrophobia. But... in Rocky’s case he nearly died in a cave in when he was younger. It wasn’t jus the cave in though, he was trapped in a small pocket amongst some other rubble, no room to move, legs and arms pinned to his side with his outfit slightly under the rocks. Plenty say it was a miracle he lived...

”And ever since then he just can’t handle enclosed spaces, or rather, things that constrict him too much. That picture I showed you IS of Lan by the way. Rocky likes far looser clothing for the most part. It’s the suits that caused the issue, not the underground bunker. Though those tunnels you fought the shapeshifter in might’ve been an issue. Regardless, he has a good reason and we’ll respect it. I didn’t think the suit would be enough to cause issues but...” Steel shrugged. ”The twins are fairly interchangeable from a background check standpoint. Only reason we were sending one of them was that Lan is halfway through a different project so we weren’t going to re-assign him but...”

Steel shrugged again. Kat nodded, ”Alright so who else,”

”Next up on the list is the essentially the head guard, Maryland, and her assistant, Vanilla,” Steel said as he handed over another two pictures. Kat nearly stumbled when she saw who it was. Yeah ’Maryland and ’Vanilla’. *Maryland and Vanilla my fucking ass. That’s just Vanya and Marigold! They just swapped who had what letter for their first name and called it good! They don’t even have any makeup on! Who approved this?*

[Lol, Thyme obviously.]

*Oh, you’re awake. I didn’t notice. Good morning Lily!*

[Yeah I sort of felt your mind sharpen up? And I was just dosing so I focused on that and well... here I am. Didn’t really need to comment on the dwarves but... yeah this is... a thing.]

”Ah... yes... Maryland and Vanilla...” Kat said, slightly uncertain.

”Yes, Vanilla is a stalwart defender of justice, always willing to throw herself into the heart of battle to keep her comrades safe,” Steel commented and Kat nearly burst out laughing. ”Though... while she has a good heart her mind is less robust. That’s why she mostly just follows Maryland around and takes orders from her.”

*Oh I’m quite sure ’Vanilla’ enjoys taking ’orders’ from Maryland. God dammit. What the heck am I even meant to say to those two?*

[I don’t know. We’re not really meant to know them. Though it IS weird that they’d be allowed to participate at all. Do you think it’s Princess Privilege, or just a coincidence that we haven’t seen anyone else we know? Or maybe the reward isn’t that good compared to what the tournament winners can make elsewhere?]

*My best guess is that they were allowed to participate for the experience but aren’t getting paid otherwise surely we’d have seen some others at this point?*

[Maybe? We haven’t exactly travelled...]

”I don’t suppose they’re friends with...” Kat paused. She was going to come up with a fake name for Mauve or Midnight that started with M only to realise there weren’t any fae in the city... and so they probably weren’t together. ”... a Burnice by any chance?”

”Not that I’m aware of, but I didn’t do the background checks myself. If they’re friends I’d only have heard the name Burnice if they were a security risk,” Steel admitted.

”Right let’s just... move onto the next one then,” sighed Kat.

Steel raised an eyebrow. ”Are you sure you have no other questions?”

”Trust me, I don’t,” grumbled Kat.

”Odd...” Steel said as he glanced at them rather obviously a few more times. Kat supposed it was because she showed knowledge of someone she, technically, shouldn’t know. At this point? Kat couldn’t really bring herself to care. Steel could think what he liked. ”Alright then, next up is another one of our warders, a human woman this time...”

Steel handed the document over but Kat waited to hear more before looking at it. ”That’s Brook, she’s one of the longest serving enchanters we have. She has experience with, similar, things to the core you found.” Kat noted it wasn’t a lie... but they way he’d paused made her think that ’similar’ was underselling it. Intentionally so... why would he signal that? ”She’s worked with us for years and her trust is without issue... but she is also easily distracted and prone to starting secondary projects in the middle of others. It’s not your job to keep her on task, and I’m not sure if you know enough about enchanting to notice issues... but please back up one of the others if they do notice.”

”Of course,” agreed Kat easily as she now took in the woman. She was on the shorter side, with greying frizzy hair and glasses of her own. It seemed they were common on the enchanters... perhaps because the glasses were enchanted? Honestly in a lot of way she looked like what Kat imagined an older Lily would’ve been like before her changes. [Hey!]

*Am I wrong?*

[Well... no and honestly despite the grey hair she looks good. Few wrinkles...]

*Exactly. Honestly though she looks more like your grandmother than your actual grandmother.*

[Yeah it’s kinda weird actually...]