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

— Kat —

Kat, Lily, and Hedera were all rather annoyed. See, the next door they tested Kat stood off the side and held the hinges in place… and then the doorknob popped off. Not the same way. Lily had properly encapsulated the doorknob itself with shadows and it stayed in one piece… even as a wooden block from the door came out. It was perfectly square too. Learning from this Lily surrounded the entire door with shadow to try and keep it together but the moment the shadows met up at the back? The door popped off the wall.

So, Kat got to work. As Lily surrounded the door with shadows Kat pressed it up against the wall, focusing on the hinges so that, theoretically it wouldn’t just come apart when they pulled. Sadly, that was just in theory. When Lily turned the doorknob and pulled the part Kat was pressing on cracked and sunk into the wall.

After this, the group decided to take a break and calm down. Everyone was taking sips of water to help with this and it was working to some extent. “Alright… I’m sort of out of ideas. What is everyone else thinking?”

“I think there HAS to be something here,” insisted Lily. “It’s one thing for the doors to be fragile. It’s another thing entirely for the doors to be comically easy to break in several unique ways. There HAS to be something here… the question is if it’s worth wasting our time on this,”

Kat winced. Lily was right. While each individual door didn’t take too long to make an attempt on it was getting to the doors that took time. They’d quickly noticed that it always took five minutes to get to the next door… or set of doors. After the first few attempts the doors no longer came in sets and it was still five minutes between them. It didn’t matter how fast or slow Kat and Hedera ran it would always take five minutes. At least, when they were counting for the most recent two doors anyway.

There was also the fact that they’d attempted the same ‘trick’ a few times. Just to make sure that they weren’t getting unlucky or, as was the last series of attempts, that Kat was pressing too hard on the walls. Even when you were being careful it seemed like the door found the path of ‘least resistance’ to it breaking and then went along with that.

Hedera nodded and said “There’s no possible way that something like that is normal. I think it has to be something that Thyme set up specifically as a test of some kind. Unless it’s a distraction? Do you guys think it’s just a distraction? I’m not sure what else is in the tunnel to find though. Obviously the exit lead me to you guys but the entrance was hidden in the mushroom forest so… well I’m actually not sure what that means but I don’t think the entrance or exit is really what we’re looking for…

“Unless they all lead somewhere? Or maybe we need to find the other doors first? It’s possible that this is a sort of quick way around the mushroom jungle or maybe the whole island but it only works if you find the other entrances first? No that’s silly because the entrance an exit were pretty clearly set into the ceiling. So is it really just a distraction? I mean we’re wasting time on this but why bother just wasting our time if they’re no potential for reward? I guess I don’t really understand Thyme’s thought process so I can’t even guess. Then again…

“As impressive as Thyme is they couldn’t have enchanted everything on the island themselves. Or well… maybe Thyme could do it but I refuse to believe they didn’t at least have some help with the design phase of things. Well… no I suppose there could be a bunch of similar tasks all spread out over the island copy pasted everywhere but that just seems wrong and…” Hedera paused as she noticed the slightly dull eyes of Lily and Kat. “Ah… sorry I was rambling again.

“Um… important bits? The doors aren’t the same as the entrance and exits. I don’t know if we need to find other doors OUTSIDE for them to activate and I agree that they’re weird. I’ve got no idea if it’s worth trying to open them ‘properly’ whatever that is. I mean… I don’t MIND. This is just the first day so we’ve got time to burn and we have some orbs between us. Just…” Hedera shook her head. “Sorry that’s. That’s the important bits for now I think,”

*Well…* “A bit long winded but you’re not wrong. There has to be something here… but I guess the question is. Should we really be focused on the doors?” asked Kat.

“I still say there’s a bit of… unique space behind them. At least before they break. It’s hard to sense, and it’s actually easier to sense it getting ‘cut-off’ rather then when it’s actively not-quite in use. In fact, it’s entirely possible that the… lets just call it a space rift… it’s possible it only opens when the door does, and breaks when the door breaks. So it’s not there right now…” Lily shook her head.

“Look, I just… there is SOMETHING there but I don’t know if it’s something important or not. Thyme can make space enchantments that are so smooth I can hardly tell they’ve disrupted the normal space at all… and I don’t really have enough experience to say if these short live rifts were even enchanted by Thyme. I just… urgh, I don’t want to just give up because there’s something there but I don’t know if it’s a relevant something. Maybe nobody was meant to sense anything…” Lily finished with a shrug and a sigh.

Kat shrugged. “I’m not exactly in a rush here, but I can also keep ‘working’ through the night while Lily rests. You’re welcome to do the same Hedera… though I won’t be able to so easily carry you around. I doubt you’d sleep through it,”

Hedera winced and glanced at Lily. “Ah… I see how that works. Her feline form can rest despite the movements and because she’s so tiny you can make sure that no attacks hurt her… and I benefit from neither of those aspects. That is… unfortunate. It seems I’m bringing you down a lot more than I thought. I hadn’t realised you didn’t need sleep…”

“Woah, hold on,” said Kat as Hedera started to close in on herself. “I don’t need, a lot, of sleep. I do still need some and this is especially true if I want to be in top form,” Though at Rank 4 I can probably skip the whole week if I really had to. “Staying awake every second night will be no issue for me, but I’m really not trying to force you into anything here, I just wanted to bring it up while deciding,”

“Ah… I’ll fall behind on orbs though…” mumbled Hedera.

Kat raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Um… er… well I wouldn’t be awake to help with collecting them?” answered Hedera confused.

Kat rolled her eyes, “That doesn’t matter. I made a deal, and I’ll stick to it. I’m happy to share even if you’re asleep Hedera,” *Though now I’m remembering that normal people have to sleep the fact there are so many orbs around makes more sense. You need enough to keep you stocked up overnight. Even if because of how the timing works out you can theoretically sleep through a deficit and then wake up and get more without being kicked out.*

[Still, it’s a big thing that I wasn’t thinking about either. Even if I take a few naps here and there, if you’re still out looking for orbs we’ll be really far ahead of everyone else. Though perhaps that makes finding the village more important? Wait hang on.]

Lily shook her head as she switched back to speaking out loud to include Hedera in the conversation. “I sleep often as well… but now I’m wondering if we should try and rush to a village or wherever the actors are. I’m sure there are plenty of ways to earn orbs in those villages… and if we could get there early and clear out all of the requests that would be a great way to deny everyone else orbs… though it might be like… ‘I need 10 crab legs’ and while each person can only accept the request once, the actors will give the same one out to everyone,”

Hedera clicked her tongue. “I don’t know what to suggest,” Kat felt her eye twitch and Hedera seemed to flinch at the small tell. “Ok I have… and idea that might be good but I don’t exactly love it. We could… split up for a bit. Have Lily and I remain here to mess with the doors while you head off Kat… but we don’t know if the exit will still be where it was before, or how that system even works… so… splitting up seems really risky…”

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