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

— Kat —

As Kat was waiting, she kept asking Mol vaguely probing questions. Nothing that would be out of place when meeting a new person, but Kat’s main goal was to get more info about the town, the family, and possibly line up a quest or something for more rewards. The problem was… Mol clearly wasn’t as in to it as the others.

Now perhaps that was unfair. Daryl and Del weren’t talking to her for anywhere near as long… but especially with Del, Kat got the feeling she could talk to the woman for hours without her breaking code. Mol… clearly didn’t know most of the info. She didn’t remember the names of most of her ‘family’ members. She barely knew what was going around in town and she had no idea at all what the rest of her family was meant to be doing.

So… instead Kat tried to work around that. Find out what Mol knew and why she didn’t seem to know anything. That was easier, if still a bit difficult as Kat didn’t want to tip of Mol as to what she was doing. Through this, Kat learnt that her previous talk on meerkat beastkin was all true. They were a small group and Thyme was probably helping out the whole tribe by providing them jobs.

Mol didn’t know the names of her ‘relatives’ because she didn’t know most of them. Mol wasn’t actually part of that main tribe. She was likely the daughter of travelling merchants and spent most of her time growing up working on her art. Thyme was basically giving her free reign to work with exotic stone and go for whatever designs she wanted. At the end, she could take her favourite pieces back with her and Thyme would sell the rest, providing her a bonus on top of what she was getting for the current job.

Asking that had nearly been too much. Mol looked like she’d just said something she wasn’t meant to when Kat got her to reveal what the plan for all her artwork she was making here in the future was… but she also just as obviously had no idea how to recover or what the standard procedure was for letting that info go. The fact that nobody showed up to punish her for the slight slip did calm her down after Kat moved on to ask about the gardens in the house…

But while it did calm Mol down it was another gap in her knowledge. The meerkat girl clearly didn’t CARE about any of the gardens. She was very much here for the art and nothing else. Kat would be willing to bet that Mol hadn’t even gone down to town yet. Though at the very least Kat got the sense that the actors had at least a week ‘in character’ before everyone showed up.

Eventually, the hour was up and it was time to speak with the mayor. The doors opened automatically, signalling Mol to announce as much. “Oh… um… that means you can head in. Just follow the carpet it’s… pretty obvious,”

Kat nodded and stepped inside. The lobby was somewhat large but most of it was taking up by the staircase in the centre that took you to the second floor. On the ground the carpet Mol was mentioning was indeed quite obvious. It was giant and was mostly red in colour with gold for the highlights.

Most of said highlights were arrow tips all pointing towards the mayor’s office. Following it carried Kat up the stairs, off to the right and then past a few doors. When the carpet split off from the ‘main branch’ Kat was following the gold transitioned into gold flecks that looked a bit like falling leaves and no giant arrows. It was still nice but it did make it clear where everyone needed to go. Kat made a note to ask why the carpet had been made this way.

The door she was lead to looked much like the others. A sturdy wooden thing to contrast with the stone of the rest of the house. The banisters were stone, the chandeliers were stone with glass around the light sources. The floor was stone as well… though at least it was covered by carpet to break things up.

Kat knocked on the door. “Come in,” said the mayor. Stepping inside Kat was greeted by… a pile of paperwork. She’d been told it was bad but this was ridiculous. Large bookshelves lined the room and they were quickly being filled up. Hundreds of paper scrolls were stuffed into the shelves but they still didn’t help the desk much.

Piled up high enough to block her view of the man behind them was just… so much paper. The fact it was all laid out flat meant there might have been more paper on the table then the shelves. “Ok what the heck? I know I’m here for something important but what’s with all the paper?!”

“Practice!” shouted the mayor. “Err…” Kat glanced to the left and right to see if she could spot the person behind all the paper… no such luck. It was piled high on both sides as well. Even some on the floor. “I mean… it takes a lot of paperwork to run a town, even one this small,”

*Yeah… sure…* “Alright I’ll pretend to believe that.” *And not be too amazed that neither of those statements was a lie. Probably because that’s the excuse being used for why there is so much paperwork… but why is he practicing something like that?* Kat shook her head an continued. “I’m here to talk to you on behalf of Weaver. She’s interested in opening up the pathways between the island settlements once again. Though for now in a much more limited capacity,”

“Weaver?” mumbled the mayor. “WEAVER! Do you mean the ancient legend? The one who wove the cultures of the island together in years long past?”

Kat shrugged. Then she realised that the mayor couldn’t see her. *Could he not just… clear away some of this? Whatever.* “Perhaps? I’m not entirely sure myself…” offered Kat.

“Well, legends say that the Weaver was struck down by a great evil some time ago. Not everyone agrees who was in the right by my family legends are quite firmly on her side and a decent number of the townsfolk agree. Well… those that remember. It’s not exactly a popular legend these days… but you say she’s real?” asked the mayor.

“Real but not back to full strength,” said Kat. *Best not to go into the specifics of exactly HOW injured and let him fill in the blanks. It’s hard to know how much I should say about her. Though… I’d expected this to be harder.* “She’s provided me with a node to set up a pathway from here in the town. She’s not willing to open it to just anyone… but if you’re interested she’d be happy to have it set down somewhere safe and talk with you about the specifics,”

*And it’s just occurred to me I’ve made a mistake. I don’t have any mana to send through the orb so I’ll need to rely on someone else. Why didn’t Weaver warn me? No that’s silly. Thyme only just learnt that demonic energy doesn’t count as mana back in the first round of the tournament.*

*’Weaver’ the character might never have met any demons and even if she has there’s no reason for her to know that mana and demonic energy aren’t just given different names by their respective species but entirely different things. This… could be awkward. Though… hmm… I wonder if the mayor can activate it? If not Mol should be able to do so.*

“I see… so it would be a bad idea to put it in my office?” asked the mayor.

“Well… assuming you don’t want potentially dozens of people walking through your office any time someone wants to travel through them. Yes,” returned Kat.

“That’s… more of a problem then you might think. My family doesn’t exactly have a bunch of spare warehouses lying around town and most of the structures aren’t even permanent. I suppose we could open up the basement or something… but I’m not sure I’m entirely keen to have people walking through the lobby either even if it would avoid my room. Hmm… how hard is it to make these nodes?” said the mayor.

Kat shrugged before once again realising the futility of it. “I don’t really know. They’re not too easy to make but from my understanding Weaver does have a few in reserve.”

A few seconds passed as nothing more was said. Kat tried to see the mayor by standing on her toes but that paper was too tall… and the mayor was too short. “Hmmm… I think I’m going to have to talk to some more people about this. Can you come back in… a day? Just after lunch tomorrow should be fine.”

*Ok wasn’t expecting to get told to just wait. No… secret mission in exchange for setting a place up? No heavy handed requests in exchange for being heard out? Well alright I guess.* “I can do that,” *Plus with Lily and Hedera hopefully around THEY can activate the node.*