A Summoning, Part XL

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Part XL
~Empress~

When Prama came in to work Monday, she found Boreas staring down at a table in the shop's back room which usually had next to nothing on it. Today, that table was covered in various containers of strange substances in various sizes and levels of fullness, most of which she was pretty sure she had never seen before. The werewolf didn't seem to respond to the noise of her entering, so she went a little closer. "Hellooo?"
"Oh. Mornin'." Boreas didn't take her eyes off of the table.
"What's...all this stuff?"
"First of, all don't touch it. Most of it's very dangerous."
"Okaay?"
"Second, ingredients for a potion."
"Like..just one?"
"I oughta say, 'possible' ingredients. Not sure yet which of these will actually turn out to be useful."

"You get a sudden burst of inspiration to make something new..and, I guess, dangerous?"

"All alchemy's dangerous, remember. As for the first part of the question..you could say that," she shrugged, finally looking Prama's way, and then making a brief visual tour of the room while saying, "Guess I should set you some work while I keep thinking about this...you feel ready to handle some of our standard fare on your own?"
"Oh, most definitely. I, can still ask you if I have a question, right?"

"Long as I'm not doing anything delicate. Just wait a sec if I am."

Boreas gave out a list of things for Prama to work on, and then said, "Guess you're curious what I'm making."
"I mean, I definitely won't complain if you tell me," she said while starting in on that work.

"Well..you're only recently out from under the veil, right? So, I guess the phrase 'last great pack' won't mean much to ya."
"Afraid not."

"Let's just say...there was a man by the name of Lucent Merrow. He was wealthy, influential, and incidentally, one of my closest friends."
"I see—and a werewolf, leading this 'pack' you mentioned?"
"Mm," she said: an affirmative grunt. "His grandson's lived off that wealth his whole life—married into even more wealth, too. Most folks who knew the old man don't like him much, myself included. But he sure does know just how to get people to do what he wants 'em to."

"Sounds a lot like someone I know," Prama said—picturing Jess, or more accurately, Jarod. "And, so, he got to you? Wants, some kinda difficult potion?"

"Supposedly his daughter wants it. I've never met the girl, so can't say whether it's a lie or not. Don't seem like the kind of thing he'd come up with on his own, for sure. And—I used to like coming up with new recipes, when I was—this age," she said, waving at her own face.

"I see. So, this one sounded interesting enough to try?"
"Combination of things. Hoping I can be a little more careful than back then in my old age, besides."

"Well, don't forget you've got a genius apprentice now, either! I won't dare handle the dangerous stuff myself, buuuut if you need ideas, or someone to bounce them off of...?"

"Hmm. We'll see."

---

Steph was on his way out from lunch when he nearly ran into the little white-winged girl from the previous week. "Whoa—hey."
"Hello there, Steph," she said, her tone and expression almost too cheerful and friendly. "I wanted to thank you and your friend for your helpful advice the other day."
"Uh...yeah?" Now that he was looking, he noticed that dragon he'd met before was also standing nearby.

"I would also like to introduce you to Toma, a friend of mine," Stella continued, waving in said dragon's general direction.

"Uh...yeah. We've kinda met," he said.
"True," the dragon-girl agreed with a slight nod..while still standing there kind of menacingly with her arms crossed.
"Oh! Well, if you're already acquainted, I'm sure you've already given her the proper tribute for the first meeting with a dragon, then?"
"Well uh. You only just became a dragon recently, right?"

"Also true. So, when we met before, I wouldn't have known about that particular tradition."

"I see, I see," Stella nodded; Steph could kind of tell she was only pretending that this was new information. "Then you wouldn't have had a chance to, yet. All the more reason to make up for it now, correct?"

"I guess..? What kind of 'tribute' is this, anyway?"
"Well. It doesn't look like you have any precious gemstones or gold bars on you," Toma said.
"Y-yeah, I don't really own anything like that," Steph said. Even though he could sense that he was being taken for some kind of ride, the pressure of the dragon's power, plus her kind of displeased expression, made him not want to challenge the situation outright.

"Well, I thought that sounded kinda outdated when I heard it. Surely you can afford some chocolate bars, though? Even a 'newborn' celestial like Stella could handle that."

"Uh, yeah, sure. I..don't have any on me right now though, soo..."
"Next time we meet. Sure. I've got classes to get to anyway," Toma said, heading off. The celestial gave Steph a slight curtsy, then followed the dragon out.

---

Pulling her truck up into the driveway, Graham mused that the nervous, slightly giddy feeling she was getting could, to an outside viewer, be mistakenly attributed to a cat entering the home of three dogs—or, more accurately, wolves. But her slight grin, and the way her tail flicked around excitedly behind her while she walked up and rang the doorbell, would quickly dispel that notion.

Her ears almost immediately picked up some footsteps, and then Sam answered the door. "Welcome, aaah, miss Graham. Miss?" she added a second later, uncertainly.

The Neko just shrugged. "Never been much for formality, myself. I'm not that familiar with how this works, but if you're more comfortable with 'Smores', that's all right too."

"Heheh, okay then. Come on in—Damon's upstairs," she gestured, getting out of the way.

"Thanks, 'miss' Sam," the Neko said, heading through. By the time she got to the foot of the stairs, Damon had eagerly run out to a balcony over the living room. "Um, hi!" The wolf-girl had on a shirt that must've fit her properly as a man before, judging by how loosely it hung across her slim form, the collar revealing part of her neckline and most of a shoulder while its lower hem stopped partway down her thighs. It completely obscured whether she actually had anything else on.
"Hey there. You want me to come up?"
"Y-yeah, please!"
"Alright."

Just a month or two ago, Graham would have dreaded these stairs. But now she bounded up them with very little effort, and it was hard to tell if her heartbeat picked up at all from the exertion—or if it was just from proximity to the little werewolf. "Um—!" It certainly didn't help that Damon's face was pretty red, her ears lowered a bit and her tail whipping around excitedly behind her. The motion of that tail made the hem of her shirt flutter around, enough to occasionally make out the lower edge of one of the pairs of shorts the Neko had 'helped' her buy the other day. "Y-you look really cute in that!" she said after a second. "The uh..monochrome look? Really brings out your eyes. And, I-I-I still don't think I'm brave enough to wear a skirt at all, especially one that short..."

The catgirl hadn't really even given much thought to her outfit today; it was 'casual and comfortable' as far as she was concerned: A sleeveless white top, some black stockings and a short white pleated skirt, plus one other thing. "Well," she said, "since becoming a lady I thought I oughta get the full experience, dresses and all. Besides—" she lifted the skirt's front slightly, showing off the very lowest bit of some black bike shorts. "I've got something on under it."

If Damon's face had been red before, it nearly turned into a tomato for a second at that. "Uh! Oh, I-I see..heheh, y-yeah..still though!"

"Anyway, I think what you've got on suits you well enough," she said with a slight shrug. When Graham and his wife were both young, he'd honestly appreciated her looks the most when it was time for bed, or just after waking up—when she definitely wasn't putting on a show for anyone. Damon's casually thrown-on shirt and slight bedhead gave her the same kind of sense, even if it was clearly just what she usually wore.

"Uh, th-thanks. Um..r-right this way then, heheh!" She gestured nervously, then led the way to an open door.

Peeking partway through it as they got closer, the Neko saw an office setup and...a bed? "Er, is that your bedroom?" she asked, stopping. It felt like moving a little too fast to go into a lady's bedroom on their first...date? Visit? Official meeting? 'Hangout'?
"Uh, y-yeah, but..it's, also my office. Aannnd, where my games and stuff are!" Looking a little closer, Graham could confirm there was more to the room, including a couch with a rip across its back and a big-screen TV facing it. "S-so uh. I-I mean, if you wanna, I guess Sam has a setup with some of her stuff downstairs, but..."
"Nah, I think I get it," Graham said. "Don't forget how old I really am, is all—give a gal a little warning first, eh?"
"O-oh, uh. S-sure. So um..c'mon in?"

"Certainly."

They spent the afternoon talking and playing, both of them maintaining a polite distance from the other—not squeezing to opposite sides of the couch, but trying not to get too close. Graham wouldn't have minded a little bit of physical flirtation, but Damon seemed awfully nervous about getting too close for some reason, and she wasn't one to disrespect a lady's wishes. It only ended once an alarm on the Neko's phone reminded her that it was time to go pick up her granddaughter.

---

"Um..you look a little different, Master."

Zotha took a moment to stand up and get to a mirror to examine herself. She could've just had Jess send an image mentally, but there was no need to resort to a mystical solution for such a mundane problem. "..Huh." Her hair had shortened to just reach down to her shoulders, and her body had made significant gains in muscle tone, including a faint six-pack on her belly. Her horns were small enough to be pretty much hidden behind her hair; she lacked a tail and had human-looking ears; and her wings were black-feathered, like those of an enormous crow. Furthermore, there was a faint golden glow around her entire body, but she was able to turn that off easily enough once she noticed it. "Weird to just wake up looking different."

"You..still have control over it, right?" Jess asked, concerned. Zotha turned and rubbed the top of her little priestess's head.
"Why, you don't like this look?"

She blushed adorably. "N-no, I just—!"

"Pfft, only teasing. Yeah, I can still shift to whatever I want. But, I guess this might be a result of working so closely with Sol's 'people' for a while?"

"It isn't making you more like him though, is it?"
"Mentally? Don't think so. Still don't like the idea of people having to die because of the veil, at least. I think it's just as cosmetic as the changes we made to meet La Lune. Anyway—maybe I'll keep this for a little while, out of appreciation for the power boost all those requests have been feeding me."

"So...you haven't been getting tired or anything?"
"Nope." The goddess stretched, spreading her wings out in the process. "I feel more energetic than ever, at least since sorting out how to approve most of them automatically."

---

Thursday afternoon, Boreas was midway through her twenty-sixth attempt at the potion. "Prama. Need to ask somethin' you really won't like."
"What's that?"
"Someone's walking up, and I can't look away from this for a second."
"Oh..y-you need me to go, t-to the front counter."
"Just remember, behind the counter is your territory." That probably would have helped her, if she were a fellow werewolf! But she was as eager to see this experimental potion succeed as her master was, at this point.

"I-I'll do my best..."

A dark-haired guy in skinny jeans and a tank top walked into the shop not long after she got to the counter. He had an average build, but seemed fit and overall pretty cute—in a scruffy-looking kind of way, at least. He had bright yellow eyes, wolfish ears and a medium-thick furry tail, so he was probably another werewolf. He kind of nervously looked around as he walked in, before finally noticing the girl behind the counter. "Oh, uh, hey."

"H-h-hi. Can..can I, help you with. W-w-with something?"

"Uuuh." He put a hand behind his head. "Where's, you know, the other girl who works here? I mean, you're pretty cute too, but uh.."
Now that she'd heard a little more of his voice, Prama realized: This was the guy who'd bugged Boreas before. That made her feel a little better—even if they'd never actually met, he was marginally familiar, and also known to be annoying. She leveraged that annoyance to try and project a little more confidence. "The owner is busy with very delicate right now; th-that is why I'm here. Now, can I help you with something," she said, her tone a little flat for a question. She even managed a little bit of a glare up at him.

"Well uh..." He seemed to try to lean back and forth to see the area behind the counter. After a couple of seconds of this, he jumped slightly and looked a little bit pale. "Y-yeah!" he said suddenly. Prama had a feeling Boreas had permitted him a peek at her very displeased face. "I was, uh, I was thinking of changing things up a little, you know, with my look? Maybe I'd come off as a little more intense as a redhead!"

Prama crossed her arms. "Not to advertise our competitors, but y-you do know dye exists, right?"
"Dude, on all my fur, though? It'd look really wacky after only a couple of showers. Or especially on the full moon coming up!"
She sighed. "Yes, we have hair-coloring potions, a-and since a werewolf runs this place th-they obviously change fur, too. R-right over there," she said, pointing. It was a good thing she'd memorized their stock arrangement earlier. "Arranged b-by color and duration. There are even, uh, color swatches so you can pretty much tell what the result will be."
"Oh, yeah! So uh, so you do. I'll juuuuust...take a look, then."
"You do that. L-let me know if you find one that you want."

Once he bought his potion (which would last two entire months, putting it in their upper tier of both price and duration) and left, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Not bad," Boreas said. "That's the rudest customer we've got lately. May have to let you take over the front a bit more often."
"P-please don't. I mean, not more than necessary. I-I'm still..."

"It's a part of the business," the alchemist said. "You've got to learn to deal with customers sometime."
"I guess..." But surely it didn't always have to be face to face! Actually, thinking about that a little more deeply..started to give her some ideas.

---

When making an agreement through texts about when and where to meet up and hand over his 'tribute' for the dragon, Steph made sure he could bring Andrew as backup. A four-tailed Kitsune was probably still nowhere near a match for a dragon, but at least the two foxes combined would probably be enough for them to cast some convincing-enough illusions and escape.

They met up at a table outside the cafeteria; Stella and the dragon-girl were already waiting there when the two Kitsune arrived. "Uh, hey. This is my...friend Andrew," Steph said, getting a big bag of various chocolates, freshly bought from the grocery store, out of his backpack. "I was hoping, this'd be enough for both of us?"

Toma picked up the bag and turned it over in her hands, seemingly examining it very carefully. Stella watched this performance—and the two Kitsune's slightly-nervous faces in response to it—for a good several seconds before letting out a soft "Pfft—" that erupted into some positively helpless, uncontrollable giggling and laughter.

"Heh." The dragon-girl also, for the first time Steph had ever seen it, grinned just slightly, her cheeks also tinged with a slight blush, as she put the bag down on the table. "Got you good, huh?"

"Wha—you? You..."

"I think this whole thing was a prank, Steph," Anika said. The fact that the celestial was beating the table with a fist, still trying to stop laughing, gave plenty of evidence for this theory.

"For the record, this was her idea," Toma said. "As 'revenge' for your thing. I don't really get how Kitsune work or whatever, but...I guess we can just share these? If either of you even like chocolate, I mean. Oh, wait—is it poisonous to dog people?"

"...No, it's not," Steph said, letting out a slight sigh. "And foxes aren't dogs, anyway."

"I mean, like, canidae?"

Finally finished laughing, Stella took a deep breath and wiped a few tears out of her eyes with a handkerchief from her purse. "It would be terribly inconvenient if some people couldn't eat chocolate, Toma," she said. "So, yes, let us feast!"

This, of all things, was how Steph got to personally know a celestial for the first time...not to mention the dragon.

---

"Hey, Dai! Check this out!"
"Huh?"

Not all of Dai's friends were 'in on' the whole magic business. One of those stuck a phone in his face tuned to a stream highlight from the night before. "Oh..incu-whatever again?" This was the same guy who'd introduced him to that weird stream from the obviously-werewolf girl...and then to her friend, who was also probably a werewolf.
"Yeah, yeah, but look! They had a guest last night."
Turning up the volume a little, Sam was saying: "So, aaah, this is Smores, who's been hanging out in our chat lately. Turns out we're practically neighbors."
The white-haired catgirl waved a little awkwardly at the camera. "Hey there!"

"Isn't she really cute?" Dai's friend continued over whatever was said next.

"Eh, yeah, I guess."

"I mean, with that getup, I can't believe she's not already a pro streamer. You seen her before?"
"Nope." And, he was probably referring to the 'fake cat ears' that Dai could very well see were actually real.

"Well, whatever. You should give it a watch! They made her play Dark Souls, and some of her reactions are hilarious!"
"Yeah. I'll check it out later," he promised, nodding and handing the phone back. "Thanks."

---

Plonk.

After Prama walked into the shop on Friday, Boreas wordlessly placed a large glass bottle, globe-shaped at the bottom with a long, somewhat thinner neck going up from there, onto a table. It was a little over two-thirds full of a potion swirling with bright pink and dark blue, with a silvery shimmer occasionally visible.

"So...success?" It looked like she'd pulled an all-nighter. And the werewolf wasn't the type to say it aloud, but both of them knew that a few of Prama's suggestions had, in fact, panned out.

"I have a potion now," she stated flatly. "Can't say whether it's a success without testing it, though."

"You aren't confident it's right, even after all that work?"

"The hard part isn't something a potion's ever been made to do before, to my knowledge. I can't ship something like that out without a better guarantee."

"Hmmn, and that's a tricky thing to test, right? Because..."

Prama counted off on her fingers: One: "You need a werewolf."

Boreas nodded.

Two: "A male one."
She nodded again.
Three: "Who you know no major magic has been done to all that recently, especially anything that interferes with or relies on 'moonlight'..."

"Mm-hm."

"Well, I don't think you'll be surprised to learn that I don't know any werewolves. Zotha might, but anyone she's in contact with, well—frankly, she's probably done something to that qualifies as 'major magic', like yourself."
"Fair enough. Wasn't really counting on your help with this part in the first place," she said with a slight shrug.
"I..guess we could put out an ad or something? 'Help wanted: Potion test subject. Probably not lethal! Pay..'" Prama trailed off, aborting her joke, since Boreas didn't seem to think it was very funny.

She sighed. "Well, we both know of one werewolf you can probably use. He's bound to show up again sooner or later."

---

"Thank you so much for visiting, Basty~. I think we've had a very productive conversation, don't you?"

The cat goddess sighed. "You have been less insufferable than usual tonight, La Lune."

"That's too kind of you. Oh, there is one other thing I wanted to bring up before you go. Silly me, nearly forgot it again!"

Bastet's entire body immediately tensed up. "...Which is?"
"Well, a friend of mine wanted me to ask you—on her behalf, expressly as a friendly, polite request and not a command of any sort—for a visit. Perhaps you could just, show up in her dreams?"

"Oh." She relaxed only slightly after hearing this. "And, pray tell, do I need to guess who this 'friend' is?"
"Hmmn, no," La Lune said, seeming to briefly consider the possibility of making it a guessing game, "although I suspect you could."

---

All I can say is, I hope there's still somebody interested in reading this particular story.