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

— Kat —

It took about an hour to get back to the surface. Lily was able to lead the way without too many troubles, especially now that she knew the whole place was a SPIRAL. With that it was ‘easy enough to just follow the curves’ whatever that meant. Kat could sort get an inkling of what Lily meant by looking at her memories but Kat didn’t have that instinctive understanding of what those extra senses were telling Lily which made it hard.

Along the way, Kat did chat with Kamiko a bit. “You’ve been rather quiet today,”

“Eh… er… really?” asked Kamiko.

Kat shrugged, “Maybe it’s just because you were talking more towards the end of everything with the drake but… yeah I think so?”

Kamiko sighed, “I guess it’s because I didn’t really have much input? I’ve never needed to look into a storage ring because I just don’t go on long quests often and Mum has spare rings she can offer me if I think I’ll need one so I just haven’t thought about it… though… speaking of rings what IS that one like?”

Kat shrugged, “I have no idea. I don’t know how to check either. I’m guessing it works but…”

“Give it here,” said Lily. Kat shrugged and passed it over. Lily turned it around in her hands a few times before attempting to transform, not that Kat knew. It didn’t work. Lily sighed. “Alright so I can’t transform with it which… is not ideal but we didn’t mention that when we were asking.

“It seems to be… maybe room sized? It’s definitely closet sized but I’m not sure if it’s quite large enough to count as room sized. It’s intent based but I don’t think it’s too fast. Oh and I also have no idea how I’d check if it works back home or not… but I’m guessing it does? If not we’ll just have to come in another day because… well it was free so,” Lily shrugged.

Kat frowned. “Yeah this is not how I thought things were going to go… did Nel’s master know we’d get this for free?” Kat turned to Kamiko. “Is this sort of thing… maybe not ‘normal’ but does it happen?”

Kamiko nodded, “Ah… yeah sometimes? I’d guess that there’s something… maybe not ‘wrong’ with it but the ring isn’t what the maker wanted from it. Usually high profile masters have assistants or a contract with a Greed owned business to take away their ‘trash’ which is then sorted and sold under a different name.

“I mean, finding that sort of person is hard for a reason. I’m not sure if we could’ve found the place without Nel leading us there… but it’s very much not unheard of. This is of course excluding charity stuff… but yeah probably some ‘major’ problem that’s not a real problem at all. Maybe it’s smaller then it should be… maybe the fact Lily can’t transform? I’m not sure,”

“Wait so should we get this looked at by someone?” asked Kat.

Kamiko went to say no, only to pause to think about the question for a bit. “Huh… I mean… maybe? The real issue isn’t ‘should or should not’ but if you even could. If the… person we saw is a true master they might be practicing advanced techniques that a person servicing it won’t understand… and if they can’t understand it they can’t service it,”

“So what? We just use it?” asked Kat.

Kamiko shrugged, “I really don’t know Kat. I mean… it’s probably safe? There are regulations around this stuff that… are clearly not being followed. Sorry I just don’t know,”

Kat shrugged, “Maybe Sue can tell us something when she gets back,”

“Um… really?” asked Kamiko.

“Despite it all… I think the answer might be yes,” added Lily.

That was the last said on the topic before they reached the surface. The group took up a spot on one of the nearby benches to wait. A few people past them on the way inside but unlike Nel nobody stopped to ask them anything. Though that might be because they were clearly sitting down waiting instead of taking up space on the walkway.

The three had been glancing towards the street occasionally, expecting to see Sue at some point… but what actually happened was that a hatch in the ground opened up and Sue stepped out. “What?” asked one of the three. Nobody knew who it was but they were all shocked.

Sue looked completely normal. Nothing stood out. It looked like she’d just teleported over instead of doing any exercise at all. “I was shown a great shortcut to the entrance,” said Sue with a smile. “So where are we going now?”

“I thought that was your department,” shot back Kat.

Sue shrugged, “Eh maybe but this stop for a storage ring was surprisingly… entertaining. So if any of you three have suggestions I’m happy to go along,”

Kat shook her head while Lily chimed in. “So do you know the specifics about this ring? I could tell some things based on how I can interact with it and what the space inside feels like but we don’t know how safe it is to use,” Discover stories at My Virtual Library Empire

Sue shrugged, “Eh I don’t know much more than that but I DO know that the enchanter has been there for at least five hundred years. Probably twice that but I couldn’t get them to admit to anything more than five hundred. Now, not everyone who does a thing is good at it, even demons that stick with something so long…

“But clearly they aren’t making good money. If you’re going to hole up in a mess of twisted space and spend centuries toiling away at making storage rings that only occasionally get sold? You better be good. Plus it’s not even that occasionally. The big pile we saw? That was three days’ worth of work,”

Kat let out a soft whistle. “That’s impressive there must’ve been a few hundred of those rings,”

Sue nodded, “Something like that yeah. The name they gave me was ‘Toast’ by the way but I feel like they were just making a joke out of it. Nell laughed but neither would explain the joke to me. Still, it was a fun time. Shapeshifters are always great and relying on Succubus biology for people like Nell has never been an issue for me like it is for some,”

Kat, Lily, and Kamiko all blushed bright red causing Sue to laugh. “Oh don’t be surprised. I was angling for it but ‘Toast’ is a lot more persuasive… or just more willing to be seen as an ass I suppose. My plan was to just leave him a number but well… not going to skip out on a chance with a shapeshifter that’s for damned sure,”

“I don’t think we want to know,” mumbled Lily.

Sue shrugged. “I might want to better myself but I’m not going to hide it,”

“And that’s fine,” added Kat. “We just… probably don’t want to know the details,” Kamiko was bright red but nodding along with Kat and Lily. It was… a bit much perhaps.

Sue shrugged again, “So where we going?”

Kat sighed, “I dunno, the mall?”

“The Mall, or a mall?” asked Sue. Kat just glared back, with Lily joining in a few moments later. “Gee alright. Thought you guys might want to overrule me now I’ve had my fun,”

“Sue…” Kat said softly. “That… we wouldn’t do that to you. We said we’d be happy to walk around and spend time with you doing whatever once the rings were sorted. Just because you had a bit of… fun without us doesn’t mean we’re suddenly going to change plans,”

“Sorry,” said Sue as she swung down into the chairs pushing Kat and Kamiko apart as she pulled them into a hug. “Guess I’m still getting used to having real friends. If I was with my old ones… or at least the people I used to call friends… well let’s just say they would’ve made the rest of the day, heck probably the next few weeks… a bit of a chore.

“That’s not even taking into account the fact that half of them have weird things against shapeshifters. I dunno why, they’re so much fun. So many unique experiences and many of those you can ONLY get with shapeshifting… but nope. Apparently they’re weird and icky or… what was that one excuse? Hiding their real gender? Bitch get over yourself…”

Kat put her own arm around Sue and pulled her closer, as did Kamiko. Lily transformed and hopped on Kat’s shoulder to nuzzle Sue’s face a bit. “It’s fine Sue,”

“No it’s not,” said Sue firmly even as she calmed down a bit and snuggled into her three friends. “I was being a passive aggressive bitch to you guys for no real reason. Sure I could ‘say’ I was just trying to let you all do what you want… but I was being a bitch about it. So… thanks for not putting up with my shit and for letting me still lead the day. I’ll try to make it fun for you all as well!”