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

Chapter 2311 Something Something Loss Meme

--- Kat ---

"That’s a wall right?" Kat could hardly believe what she was seeing. Thick barked trees grew together in a long line that took up a huge part of the back of the greenhouse. There was enough to block the walkways, and clearly defensive plants had been placed around the wall that reached all the way up to the ceiling.

"Yes Kat, that’s a wall... a well defended one at that," confirmed Appoline.

"And we’re just ’dealing with a monster’ according to Amaranth," snarked Kat. Appoline gave her another confirming nod. "Well... what do we want to do about this? I can probably break it down and Lily can probably chop through it... but would that be seen as aggressive? I mean... that’s clearly an intentionally built wall right?"

"We could knock?" considered Appoline. "I mean... if you don’t just want to attack..."

"Might as well," Kat agreed and walked up to the wall. Several vines and plants shifted as if readying to attack Kat but they didn’t strike yet. She was clearly walking slowly, or perhaps she just hadn’t triggered their defensive instincts. Once Kat was at the wall, she knocked on it and waited.

For a while nothing happened, but after about three minutes the ground next to her started to shift a bit, which was reason enough to wait. It was slow going and took another handful of minutes but eventually a flower bloomed with large petals. It was almost the size of Kat’s head. It vaguely resembled a megaphone. For good reason, Kat would soon find out.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" a voice echoed from the flower.

"Yes?" Kat said slowly. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes I can! My name is Rose... and I’d guess you’re here to attack me or something? But why did you knock?" mumbled Rose.

"Because something weird is going on with Amaranth," said Kat before adding silently. And you.

"Oh! That’s great you picked up on that! See, Amaranth is a body stealing evil meany! She took my body and then I was trapped here in hers. I’m stuck here now and I can’t really go anywhere. I want my body back you know! And my house!" whined Rose.

Kat carefully kept the frown of her face. She couldn’t see any lies... which... hmm... *Do you think I can’t detect any lies because I can’t see her in person?*

[What?]

*Well it’s called true-sight. I can see through illusions and tell when people are lying... but does that mean I need to be able to see the person lying to me?*

[That... seems like an arbitrary distinction. Did we ever test that with like... a phone or something? Or enchantments?]

*I mean we’ve certainly talked over the phone since I got it, and with other people over a distance but I’m not sure I’ve been lied to using it. Or at least, no memories are immediately coming to mind and I don’t think I have time to check.*

[Look, I’m pretty sure you just need to hear the lie... though it’s weird because Amaranth ALSO wasn’t lying.]

*Technically they aren’t say anything that contradicts, or at least, not directly. If Rose here is in a monster body she is now, arguably, a monster. Plus, Amaranth might consider it HER greenhouse now that she controls the rest of the island. If a warlord comes through a steals your house, both you and the warlord are going to consider themselves to own the house.*

[I... guess? We have established it works on belief. If I genuinely thought the sky was purple I could say that without setting you off...]

*Right... but what does that MEAN in this case? Who is meant to be in the wrong?* Kat felt Lily give a shrug over the link and had to avoid sighing out loud. "So, not that I’d be unwilling to help you... but how can I do any of that? How did you even swap bodies in the first place?" asked Kat.

"Um... I don’t know?" said Rose, lying for the first time so far. Which was nice in that it confirmed lying didn’t work over a distance... less so because Kat had no idea why you’d even lie about something like that. Why hide it?

"Ok... then how would you expect us to transform you back?" Kat asked instead of calling Rose out.

"That... hmm... I see the issue..." mumbled Rose. "But surely you can beat her up for me?"

"I could do that... but why should I?" Kat shot back.

"I’ll... give you stuff?" Rose said unsure.

"Right... but what makes you feel like it’s right for us to do that?" asked Kat.

"She took my house!" Rose insisted, "And my body! Is that not important enough?"

Kat shrugged, "Not sure. Did you like your old body?"

"Um... what?" queried Rose.

"Well, did you like your old body? You don’t seem that keen on getting it back..." Kat offered slowly.

"It’s the principal of the thing!" insisted Rose. "It’s better than the one I’m using right now anyway!"

*Yeah ok I’m pretty sure these are a pair of dryads and Amaranth stole the body Rose was meant to be using. Though what’s up with the illusions in that case and why can’t she just... pick a different body?*

[I guess whoever controls that body in the house probably controls the greenhouses?]

*Then why is there a second body here in this one?*

[Look I really don’t know.]

*Hmmm... yeah can’t say I do either.*

[Alright so... do we try to ask Appoline? Wait can Rose see us? She clearly heard the knocking, but the flower is right next to you... or is that just because it’s roughly where the knocking came from and there’s a path here?]

Good questions, and still don’t really know. Should we just call them out on both being dryads?

[Um... hmm... I want to say yes, but I feel like we should get an actual quest from Rose here, then we go back to see Amaranth, probably without Appoline just in case, and then ask her what on Earth is going on while pointing out you can see through her illusion?]

I’m not against it. Let’s keep trying to make Rose here tell us something. "So... new question Rose. What sort of proof do you want that we beat up Amaranth? Because if we fought you because she asked we could probably take your body back to her as proof, but if you just want us to beat her up I wouldn’t need to do that,"

"Well... um... hmm... why can’t you bring her body along? Wait no, it’s my body! I’m just not in it right now!" insisted Rose.

*You get the feeling she might be a kid?*

[Kinda but why would it be acceptable to beat her up? Sure Amaranth might not like her but why would Thyme allow this?]

*Presumably because neither body has any capacity to feel pain and their parents signed off on it? They also might not be that young?*

[What if we just leave?]

*I... I could accept that. I think I’d want to know if there was an extra exit, and it sucks to give up the potential reward... but I don’t know that there is a right answer here. So... yeah why not?*

[Do we see if there’s another portal through the other greenhouse?]

*I think we have to just in case. There didn’t seem to be one here but surely there’s at least one more portal.*

With that decided they wrapped the conversation up and dragged Appoline back to the entrance. Kat took them back there at full speed, using the path Appoline had lead them through the first time. It didn’t take too long as such soon they were outside and Kat took them all up into the air again. It took longer to explain to Appoline what they’d talked about then it did to leave.

Appoline just shrugged at the end, "If we’re leaving I’m certainly stealing some ingredients just so you know."

"At this point I’m fine with that I think," sighed Kat. *Actually... I just had a thought. This IS some shit Thyme would pull just to waste our time with no right answer and no real wrong answer either if they’re both dryads.*

[Yeah that might be the right choice here. I mean, it’s entirely possible they have multiple bodies or that the bodies they do have here can regenerate. Though we never did work out what was up with the weird thing that was happening when Amaranth was talking.]

*Hmmmmmm... ok yeah I was thinking about that. Should we investigate it when we go to confront Amaranth and then book it? Though actually, how safe do we think it is to antagonise her and then book it?*

[I’m sure you can use demonic fire to deal with whatever comes our way if that’s what we’re dealing with. Plus, the plan isn’t to attack her, just to see if we can figure out what’s going on. If she attacks us over it... well maybe we do beat her up and get a reward from Rose?]

*I think I can live with that.*