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

Chapter 2005: Chapter 2005 Spinning Up

— Kat —

Kat was a little worried when the node clicked into place. Having seen what happened before, and the answer was ’nothing major’ the fact that she could FEEL the mana gathering had her worried. Not through Lily either, Kat could sense the mana. A potentially great feature for the future but a major worry right now. The node rose up off the ground and started to spin rapidly, building up speed at a significant pace as strands started to unfurl from the central ball.

As the strands lengthened they started to enter into the floor, ceiling, and walls without causing any damage. As the node spun more and more threads seemed to come loose as the area started to be coated in thick ropes of silk. Individually strands had been wrapped together until they were about the same thickness as Kat’s arm, except that wasn’t enough alone. There were dozens of these ropes all stretching out from a node that couldn’t possibly contain so much silk. Weaver was putting on a show.

And Gravel wasn’t here to see it. The King had been overridden on his desire to be present for the grand opening. He’d argued, but the advisors had put there foots down quite thoroughly against it. Steel wasn’t willing to gainsay them on this either so he was missing out. On the other hand, the juggernauts had shown up to see this, alongside Charles and Steel, so perhaps that was why Weaver was going all out?

Kat wasn’t sure. Even as the node itself started to open up into a dark black cavern. Knowing that Weaver could’ve simply split space, it felt like a bit much. The silk stretched open making it seem almost like a wormhole breaking into the world as the circular node stretched open wide to allow for passage. Silk ropes extended further from the centre, creating a thick bridge up into the tunnel.

Then, from inside Weaver stepped out, or rather, a silk duplicate of her. A silk hand pressed against the end and pulled her into frame. Weaver had decided to include not just her human section but her entire body. Even going so far as to find, or create some black silk to reinforce the difference. Using white for her humanoid half and black for the rest. Though it did also mean that without her real body here nobody could see how injured she was.

Steel stepped forward first with a bow. “Greetings lady Weaver. We hope the defences we’ve provided are satisfactory.”

Weaver visibly rolled her eyes. Considering she was a remote construct made entirely of silk it painted such a small thing as a very deliberate and damning action. “So much of this is designed to keep people from entering… and I could do all of that from my end. There’s basically no durability enchantments that I can feel, and the few failsafe’s meant to close off the tunnel from your end simply wouldn’t work. Frankly, it’s actually more disappointing that you tried and failed so spectacularly. At least the most recent town I opened a portal in went for obscurity rather than believing they could manage a proper enchantment and failing.”

“I apologise for any perceived failings, the enchantments were a rushed compromise,” said Steel with a bow. Not showing any annoyance at Weaver’s ’attack’. Kat was getting the feeling that Weaver was a touch annoyed with the delays the city had imposed on them.

“A rushed compromise is just another way of saying ’a mess to deal with later’. Simply having nothing or some basic durability enchantments that could be later worked on would be far better… but I’ve known plenty of politicians so it’s not as if this is a surprise to me. Will I be meeting with your ’King’ at some point or have you no plan for that? I’m not all that bothered either way personally,” stated Weaver.

“It will depend on the King and his advisors my lady. King Gravel was most interested in meeting with you, alas, he was… persuaded that the risks were too great,” said Steel diplomatically.

“Ah, I see. The Advisors were annoyed and wanted to make sure they could still flex their political muscles to get there way. For them this is a large win, for King Gravel it’s an annoying concession because he likely only promised to avoid a first meeting. Annoying, but fine. As long as everything is organised I don’t care,” grumbled Weaver.

“Indeed, we have a few things to go over with you, and have provided a small booklet outlining how we’d like the tunnel into the city to be utilised. Do you have an issue with that?” Steel proffered the book in question as he spoke.

Weaver shrugged and pulled it into her hands using a strand of silk. “In concept I have no issue. It will not be the first time I’ve had to observe rules for use of my tunnels. It will depend on exactly what I find inside.” Weaver quickly flicked through the book, noting the rules at a swift pace and finding, to her surprise, there was nothing objectionable, not really.

“I note there is a recommendation here that… should someone sneak inside I am to simply dump them elsewhere on the island in a dangerous area. It is… an interesting recommendation. You are aware that I am fully capable of preventing all but the stealthiest of individuals entry into my tunnels? And even then, I do mean those with utmost skill in stealth. Something I do not expect more than a single person on the island to possess at any given time,” Weaver stated.

Steel shrugged, “From my understanding we sort of just want to kick anyone willing to put sufficient effort into escaping without letting them know we’re getting rid of them. If you think they’re sneaky enough we don’t want you to bother stopping them.”

“A somewhat callous view of things. Especially considering you recommend leaving them in dangerous environments…” noted Weaver.

Steel, once again, shrugged. “We’ve tried to police this sort of thing for years and yet continually people will try to leave. At this point, we want the criminals gone and while we’re not willing to execute them… if they don’t want to believe us when we say the outside world is a harsh and unforgiving place… well at some point that’s not our problem after all. Additionally, we wouldn’t want to make it some other settlements problem either. We want them gone but we’re not looking to cause you or anyone else issues.”

Weaver nodded a few times. “I suppose I see the point. I’m not thrilled but I can accept this line of reasoning. Still makes me wonder about the quality of your enchantments. Now, is there anything else before I discuss what has been going on with Kat and Hedera?”

Steel and Charles glanced at each other, having a silent communication through their helmets before Steel shook his head. “No, there’s nothing we need to go over with them right at this moment. We would like to hear about it before they leave the city on a more permanent basis but there’s nothing immediate that needs to be addressed.”

With that, Weaver gestured for Kat and Hedera to follow her inside. Once they’d passed into the void space and then rounded a few corners Weaver simply teleported them back to her house. Kat, having expected they’d be meeting back up today pulled out some food she’d ’acquired’ from Steel. Not too much, but something to tide Weaver over. She also had some older stuff they’d picked up along the way. Though how fresh that had remained was a different story.

Weaver still didn’t look great, though if Kat took a careful look at the edges of Weaver’s wounds it seemed like they were started to heal. Then again, Kat had no idea how long it was meant to take to fix something like that. Especially after not being able to restore herself due to lack of food over a massive period of time.

Weaver didn’t dive straight into the food, but did start to nibble. “So… this has been a much more complicated issue then I thought I would be signing you up for. I expected some additional requests to be made of you, sure, but I had thought they would at least test my node or summon me to speak. If they’d done as such I could’ve easily argued your mission in connecting a second city was done. Alas… it has turned into a big mess.”

“Sorry about that,” said Kat.

“Eh, it’s not your fault. I also don’t want to rush into connecting more cities or towns after this nonsense. I’d forgotten how much of a pain in the thorax politicians can be. Simply putting down a node near the town but not technically within the limits is much simpler, and easier to deal with. If they complain, pretend to seal it up, and if they decide to keep it then really it’s no issue. Of course… such a thing probably couldn’t have been done with this city. Now that I have you both here, why don’t you tell me about things?”