A Summoning: Part VII

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VII

~Sun~

Seven-thirty A.M. was about a half an hour before Zotha had really been planning to wake up. She had not long after gaining her powers understood that she didn't strictly need sleep but it was still helpful in some ways; and, more importantly, that she now held the power to basically decide the precise time of her waking and pop fully awake then without fail. It was therefore a small surprise that she was now actually awake earlier than that, and she sat up in her bed and looked around for just a second to try to determine the cause. It wasn't hard to identify: A mild sort of prickling of her consciousness, the awareness of someone standing just outside her window—just outside her 'domain' in the dorm room, and interested in what was inside.

The curtains were of course drawn, so it wasn't as if whoever it was could see anything. All the same, this was the sort of thing that really needed to be dealt with, so she stood up and stretched briefly before appearing some pajamas onto herself—decent clothing that would nonetheless emphasize that she had just been asleep until recently. Even if it turned out to be nothing, there was really no point going back to bed now; after checking on the visitor she'd just get a shower and start things up for the day.

There was just enough awareness of the 'intruder' to know which way they were facing already. Zotha chose to silently place herself behind them to get a quick look first, and a little bit of drama afterward. What she found in the early-morning light was a guy in jean-shorts and a t-shirt sporting tall, fuzzy black ears and a matching pitch-dark tail. While she thought the difference between a fox- and a wolf-person might not always be visually obvious, Zotha knew right away that she was looking at Kitsune—a fairly low-level one at that, sporting considerably less power than Anika had—and also that this was not one of her 'followers'.

The demoness crossed her arms and said quietly, “Excuse me?”
“Bwah!” He turned around, raising his hands defensively. He was about average height, and didn't look half bad; his eyes were a bright shade of yellow. When she didn't move to assault him he lowered his hands but still glared up at her, his ears folding back. “You...what are you?” he demanded almost right away. “You present yourself as a demon but that is not a demon's power pouring offa' you right now.”

“I think the more pertinent question is what you're doing outside my window?” she said. She had honestly thought she was muting the full extent of her power considerably, in addition to obscuring their conversation from onlookers in case someone showed up near the window during it, but now decided to let a little more of her power out into his view as she continued: “The last time someone stood there with an interest in me, I wound up tied up and thrown into the trunk of a car.”

“Err..” He looked slightly more nervous, but still fairly defiant. “Look, I don't know how much you know, but I think someone did something to my roommate, and I want to know why. That person's scent stops right here.” He pointed at the ground beneath his feet.

“Do you know this person's name?” she said.

“No, but I do know he's the leader of a c-crackpot cult that wouldn't know real magic if it bit them right in the face. Really though, who am I...who am I talking to right now?” he said, a little more quietly, starting to get worried when the amount of her power on display to him didn't stop increasing.

“Well, my name is Zotha,” she said, waving to herself. “The person you're after is in my bedroom, but I don't think you'd recognize her, even by scent, now. That cult you're speaking of was responsible for kidnapping me—as outlined previously—and then accidentally pumping me with the power you're seeing now in the form of their 'belief'. Perhaps you could tell me who your roommate is, and why you think we're involved?”

His expression was turning exceedingly nervous, his ears moving to the horizontal and then down nearly flat against his cheeks, but the intimidation at least seemed to incline him toward telling the truth quickly. “Uh..well, his name's Andrew,” he said. “L-look, the last time I saw him he was, you know, human, and then he came back after going to meet you guys and he is definitely a Kitsune now. Only there are some things he doesn't seem to know about being one, which is weird..u-usually only one of us can m-m-make another one out of an ordinary human, you know...”

“Hmm. I think I understand,” Zotha said, and then flashed a much friendlier grin, dialing back the 'power display' considerably. So this was Anika's roommate, who she would 'never hear the end of' if he found out about what had happened to her. But—that was about turning into a girl and the related curse, not becoming a Kitsune, right? The fox was apparently already out of the bag on that part, so giving a little context couldn't hurt; she probably didn't even know he was one after all. “Once I was gifted unimaginable power, my first desire was—and still is—to reward everyone who was responsible for giving it to me, even though it was unintentional,” she explained. “I need continued belief, I think, to even keep existing now, so it really feels important for me to do so. I asked Andrew what he wanted and he suggested eternal youth. For whatever reason, the first thing I thought of that seemed like it would work was gifting him a tail and seeing whether he would be 'allowed' to accept it and become a fox. Maybe that answers your question?”

“I-it, I guess it does yeah...so he was 'allowed' to?” the Kitsune said, still rather nervous. “I guess I really sh-shouldn't be surprised...” There was a touch of annoyance to that, but it wasn't toward Zotha.

“Since you seem to be of a vulpine persuasion yourself, maybe you could tell him those things I was ignorant of,” Zotha suggested. “I'm rather new to the entire world of magic myself—as you say, the cult wasn't doing any real magic until they made me.”

“Yeah. I g-guess that's a good idea,” he nodded slightly, keeping his eyes on her.

“What, are you still scared of me? I'm sorry for the intimidation tactics, really; it's just—again—bad experiences with people showing up outside my dorm room's window unannounced.” She raised a finger to her chin. “Now I'm wondering whether it'd be a better expression of goodwill to go back inside and let you leave or to offer to help fortify that enchantment you've been focusing so hard on keeping up this entire time.”

“N-no! Uh. No, no thanks,” he said, looking extremely nervous that she'd sensed it at all. “That's my..I want to keep that up under my own power. It's no good if someone else props it up for me. You don't, know what it's doing, do you?” he said with even more worry in his voice and eyes.
“Nope.” She shook her head. “I could find out if I wanted to, but so far I haven't looked past what my most passive of senses tell me. I suppose I'll just leave you be, then. But let me know if you need anything else. Just—knock on the front door next time, please? And maaayybe not until the sun's fully up.”
“Um. Y-yeah. Sure.”

“Oh, what's your name by the way?” she said. Kitsune were tricksters, right? It occurred to her that even through all this he could just be claiming to be Andrew's roommate for some reason.

“...Stephen. Steph, usually,” he said after a moment's hesitation to seemingly consider whether knowing his name gave her power over him or something. Perhaps he realized that she had plenty of power over him whether she knew his name or not.

“Okay. Well, I suppose I'll see you later, Steph.” She gave him a small farewell wink and moved herself back into her bedroom, leaving him to consider what she'd said to him on his own.

Despite her best efforts, Jess was sitting up and rubbing her eyes when she got back inside. “Mmnh..wha' wazzat all about?”

“Just a small unintended consequence. Ani—uh, Andrew's roommate wanted to know what 'you' had done to him.”
“D'jou tell him?” she said, opening her eyes and blinking a couple of times.

“Just that Andrew's a fellow Kitsune now, and the basics of why. I want to respect her wishes as far as anyone else finding out about the entire thing, but another of her new kind can probably teach her a few things I couldn't. Now, go back to sleep please, so I can have the bathroom to myself.”

“Couldn't you just make another bathroom if you wanted, Master? Or a whole indoor pool with a hot tub, really. Nothing should be outta your reach,” she said with a slight grin.
“Yeah, but maintaining space-bending is costly and I don't know exactly how to make a brand new bathroom hook up with the dorm's pipes correctly,” she said with a shrug. “We're in no hurry, and your body actually needs rest. So please, sʟᴇᴇᴘ~,” she repeated softly, pressing her hand on Jess's forehead and making a faint purple glow from it.

“Mnnh..” The girl's glowing eyes fluttered shut and she slid back under the sheets, fast asleep in seconds. Zotha looked on for a moment with a smile, thinking of how cute she looked...and then turned to start getting herself ready for the day.

Given Steph's reaction to her appearance/power, maybe dropping her own personal veil over herself and Jess wasn't such a good idea. Magic-aware folk like him could start getting suspicious much faster if her power really looked that big and different; her high priestess, channeling her power, ran the same risk perhaps. So at least for the moment, it would only be for her followers to see her true appearance and, if they had the ability to, feel her true power.

---

Riana woke up with an initially unfamiliar small girl in her arms—one with very long white hair and..were those kitty ears? No..wolf ears; real, mobile ones too. Her brain caught up to who this was while she remembered the events of the day before a bit better. After a brief discussion (or maybe argument was the better word), she'd agreed to let Kamari stay in her apartment, as a girl, for the night. After all, Riana lived alone there, shelling out extra money for the relative quiet compared to the dorms, and Cameron's roommate wasn't going to question him not being there for one or even multiple nights; she wanted to stay a girl a little longer; and there was nothing really wrong with them staying in the same place for the night while both the same sex...right?

And then...somehow it had been Riana's idea for them to share the bed. She'd just...started rubbing the adorable wolf-girl's ears after Kamari suggested she was going to go lie on the couch out in the kitchen/living room of the apartment, and then gently guided her into bed with her. She blushed as she recalled this, simultaneously wondering what she'd been thinking and, at the same time, feeling rather happy with the results.

With the way her...girlfriend?...was clinging to her, it was going to be difficult to move without waking her. There was a little sunlight coming in past the window blinds, so...just how late a sleeper was Cameron, anyway? Well, too bad; they both needed to get up anyway to go to the meeting thing. Riana prodded a fuzzy ear with a finger a couple of times. “Kam, time to get up...”
“Mrf..?” Her eyes fluttered open. “Wha...BWAAH!” Kamari ejected herself from the bed violently, landing on the floor with an audibly painful clunk. “Oww...” She sat there holding the back of her head while Riana stood herself up a bit more gracefully. “Wh-what was, what'd I do?!” she said, looking up at the human girl in a bit of a panic.
“Relax. You didn't do anything wrong. Or weird...mostly,” Riana said. “I-I mean, I actually insisted you get in the bed with me since uh...since there wasn't much of a point um, w-wasting the whole other side of it.”
“Oh.” The wolf-girl dropped her hand from her head, starting to recover from the pain. “B-but I was..!” she blushed brilliantly, her ears down and her tail sticking straight out, as she started to actually remember exactly what position she'd woken up in.
“Say no more about it. Really. Please.” Riana could feel an equal heat in her own cheeks. She went quickly around the bed and offered the smaller girl a hand to help her onto her feet. “C'mon, help me make some breakfast.”

---

The antechamber of the initiation shack was expanded considerably. After they arrived, Prama, Anika and Riana were each given input on Zotha's customization of their own little “interview rooms” similar to the two they had received their “rewards” in. Conveniently, five was the number of rooms already built into the shack for their previous purpose, and each only needed a little bit of expanding to be made comfortable for this purpose. Prama had a desk with a big computer chair behind it set up, similar to Jess's room, and briefly (but unsuccessfully) argued for the opposite seat being essentially a tiny folding chair rather than something comfortable; Anika also chose the desk model, but her chair had a hole in the back more than big enough to fit her tail through so she could actually sit all the way back in it, and the desk had a nameplate with “Andrew” prominently displayed in the middle of it since of course most of the cult members didn't know the leaders' names, and she couldn't exactly introduce herself at the moment. Riana finally changed Kamari back into her boyfriend for the time being, and they chose a more comfortable setup with a loveseat on their end and a comfortable chair on the other for the interviewee.

When it was almost time for people to start showing up, Prama approached the demon deity, shivering with something resembling terror. “Hey..what's wrong?”
“I j-j-just realized..all those, p-people...” she said in a mortified half-whisper.

“Oh yeah..the 'shyness' thing...” Zotha put a finger to her lip. “You wanna get that fixed?”
“N-n-no...” She shook her head slowly. “It's w-worth it...d-d-don't wanna lose any s-s-smarts...” She gave her best effort at a determined look, but the terror of social interaction was still clearly visible in her eyes. “I'll..! P-p-p-push through..!”
“Hmm. That's...admirable, but I don't want everyone thinking you're terrified of me or worrying about 'what I've done to you' happening to them. How about I use some of my power to prop up your social confidence during the meeting? It won't undo the reorganization of your advantages at all since it's a temporary boost. It's a bit costly, but I think I could keep that much up until the meeting's over.”
“Th-th-that's a good idea...” she said, reaching up with a trembling hand and adjusting some glasses that had fallen halfway off her nose from all the shaking.
“Heheh. Okay.” Zotha held her hand up near Prama's forehead, and spoke a command: “Bᴇ ᴄᴏɴғɪᴅᴇɴᴛ.” A small portion of her power flowed through to the small girl's mind in a faintly visible purple glow, and as a result her trembling slowed to a complete halt. Her posture changed from a slight, cowering slump to standing straight up, and a smile crossed her lips. “Better?”
“Much better. I feel like myself again!”

“Now, it might crash a bit hard when I let go of it, so I'll make sure that happens just among friends,” Zotha said.
“Got it.” Prama gave a thumbs-up.

In the antechamber, the demon goddess made sure there was enough space and seats for Jess's total count of their numbers (although it was possible not everyone would show up), and placed a snack table prominently in the middle with some donuts, bagels, coffee, tea, water and orange juice. About midway through the morning, the group began to arrive as ordered; a few of those who hadn't lost their robes throwing them at Zotha after her “summoning” wore them inside despite the mass email suggesting leaving them behind for good. The demoness chose to hide herself from view at first and let the relatively familiar upper-ranking members welcome people inside and tell them to help themselves to the food and drinks if they wanted. Not many partook, most of them fearful or suspicious to find two unfamiliar girls alongside three of their usual leaders, one of which was notably taller and more fit, besides having wolfish parts he hadn't before. “Andrew” was also sporting a large white pair of fox ears, Anika having been persuaded to 'show off her gift' at least a tiny bit to leave only Riana's reward entirely non-visible for the moment.

Eventually the time came by which they had been ordered to gather, and Jess communicated mentally that by her count almost everyone was, in fact, present. Zotha made a visual effect like a dark portal appearing near the door to her interview room, and herself stepping out through it dramatically; that got everyone's attention right away. The room was just big enough to make conversational volume difficult to hear throughout, even with the present terrified silence, so she set up some simple voice amplification that would make her easy to hear without her needing to actually shout—like a magical microphone.

For a moment the demon-girl glared around the room, putting on an expression similar to the one these people had last seen her with two nights ago. Then her face turned to a bright, friendly smile. “Welcome, everyone,” she said. “I'm glad to see you all here. I apologize for my hostile attitude upon my first being summoned, but perhaps you can understand my indignance at the state of dress and the number of audience members I found myself with.” After some discussion, they had agreed that Zotha actually being Zeke was a somewhat confusing detail to tell everyone at once, so after she introduced herself a select few would be let in on it at a time until everyone had either been told by someone or more or less figured it out for themselves.

“I am also sorry to have not properly introduced myself at that time, but it was necessary to get a few things straightened out with your leaders. Doubtless you have noticed some differences—those are the result of my granting their desires as best I can. This is your leader, who now goes by Jess; that, formerly Parker, you may call Prama,” she said, pointing to each of the two in turn. “Let the changed appearances and attitudes you see before you serve as evidence that I do have the power to reward those who wish it, and that I fully intend to follow through on the promises I made soon after I first appeared in this world.”

Zotha crossed her arms. “Now—I would like you to understand: Your former leader was crueler than I wish to be. If you want no 'reward', or indeed wish to leave and never return to me, the door is right there,” she said, pointing. “We will do nothing to stop you. But consider that my power is great, and will only grow greater over time; this may well be the opportunity of a lifetime. As those who summoned me, you are all in on the ground floor of my following. Which—I should mention—we have chosen a, provisional name for in place of the secretive nameless whispers your group has gone by until now.” With a wave of her hand upward, a banner appeared hanging across the upper part of the wall behind her, and displaying the name “Summoners of Azoth”, the (tentative) name they had agreed upon before leaving the night before, in a decorative but quite readable font. “It seems appropriate since I have been summoned, and I indeed mean to act as a catalyst for great transformation—for the better, hopefully.”

There was some murmuring at this point among the small crowd; Zotha brought her hand up for attention and it died down quickly. “Now then—if you do not wish to leave, I and the five leaders of your group will be waiting in the interview rooms behind us. Please approach and enter one at a time, in an orderly fashion, so we can learn what your desire is and how my power may best fulfill it. If you do want to leave, then by all means—do so. Feel free to take a donut or bagel out with you, or a whole box of them; I can always make more.” She gave a smile, and a wink. “That is all, for now. Please don't try to burn the place down—I'll know.” With that, the demon lord turned and entered the room behind her, the five she had given reward to the night before saying brief farewells or words of encouragement to those nearby and then doing the same. So began a long session of interviews...

“Let me get this straight,” Prama said, “You want...infinite pizza.”
“Yes.” She nodded.
“You can have anything you want, and you want infinite pizza.”
“Pizza's good. I like pizza.”

The bespectacled girl gave a long, sliding facepalm. “Okaay..let's see how we can do that...”

“So what would you like?” Riana asked the fourth person in their room.
“Well uh...there's this girl—”

“Don't make me quote Aladdin at you,” she said, crossing her arms.

“Wha—nonono, not like..who would want someone who's only in love with them because of some magic takin' over their mind!?”

“Yeah, that'd be pretty stupid,” Cameron agreed.

“Yeah, no, I just need some more confidence to even ask her out in the first place...”

“I like-uuh..didn't really think this was gonna go anywhere, so I didn't exactly like prepare myself for this kinda thing? Do you have an idea how—”

“—fake the magic supposedly involved in the rituals is, yes, I've heard that five times already,” Zotha said to the one-tailed Kitsune in front of her. “Just tell me: What's the first thing that comes to your mind that you really want?”
“Uhh, my second tail?” she said. “I've been trying since I was fifteen, and it just hasn't grown in yet!”
“Well, I can't just give one to you, or else...oh! An—uh, Andrew might be able to...wait, no,” she shook her head. “I think if you didn't earn it he would have to punish you himself for cheating, and possibly punish himself for helping too. But helping you earn it seems like something we can manage...”

“Make me a girl!”
“Uhh..” Jess raised an eyebrow. His tone of voice strongly suggested he didn't mean it in the sense of 'make me a sandwich'. “Just out with it like that, huh? The door's not even closed yet.”
“I don't care!”
Since he wasn't going to do it, she waved her hand and shut the door remotely with a little magic. “Well—uh, there are some things about being a...you might not actually like it after the first month or two.”
“But you can do it, can't you? I mean, our dark lady did it for you!”
“Where'd you get that nickname—oh, nevermind. How about a power to change back and forth? Just in case, and so your uh..family doesn't need to know about it right away.”
“Oohh, that's a great idea! Can you really do that?”

“Of course,” she nodded with a smile. “This kind of thing is easy for Master~.”
“Master? Wow that's a good one, I should call her that from now on!”
“NO.” Jess gave him the look death. “She's my master. You may call her 'Zotha' or 'Lady Zotha' or...whatever you just said a minute ago.”
“Okay, okay! I didn't know it was such a sensitive subject.”

“I want to take over the world!”
Riana and her boyfriend exchanged a brief annoyed look. “Out of the question.”
“Aww...”

“Look, Zotha's a pretty big fish, but the pond is waayy bigger,” Cameron said. “Like, there's sharks in it! An' giant eels, and a kraken! Raarr!”
“What he's trying to say is that we're not that powerful in the grand scheme of things, not yet at least; and anyway Zotha doesn't want to have to hurt people if she can help it,” Riana clarified. “Taking over the world would involve hurting a lot of people.”
“Okay, I guess that's true. Um..what about a better gaming PC?”

“Dude, Zotha can get'chu the best!” Cameron fist-pumped. In the meeting the day before, it had been agreed that if the thing someone really wanted was an object that could eventually be destroyed, used up, or made obsolete, it was acceptable to give them that, but to try to make it as durable as possible and make plans of replacing it whenever that did happen—or of granting some other boon if its kind wasn't wanted anymore.

“C-can you um...can you heal people? Of diseases, or...injuries, or stuff?”
“I don't see why not,” Zotha said to the meek girl before her.
“Um..'cause, I...I'm really, at the end of my rope. My grandpa raised me, and he's been in the hospital for the past two months. I joined this cult thing b-because...I was desperate. Nothing else is working...” She was on the verge of tears.
The demoness nodded, and then stood up, getting a serious expression. “Tell me where. We'll go there right now and get him taken care of. But don't you let on that I was responsible! It'll be our private little miracle.” She gave a small wink.
“O-okay!”

“Is there any way I could get a sweet office like this for my dorm room?”
“Mmnh..I don't know about your dorm room,” Anika said. “Zotha can only 'make space' and create items in her own domain.”
“Well, what do I have to do to make it hers? I mean, I'm already her worshiper or whatever, right?”
“I guess that's a fair point; there's no reason you couldn't declare your room to be hers—well, if you don't have a roommate at least. But if you do that, it'll make her fully aware of everything that happens within that space at all times.”
“Uuuhhhh...m-maybe something else then.”

“Now that wish I can respect,” Prama said with a proud grin, stretching her fingers. “One knowledge of all languages, alive or dead, coming right up!”

“Awesome!”
“Oh, and don't worry if your head hurts a bit for a second or two~.”

“Wait, what—”

“You just want cat ears and a tail, huh.”
“Yep!”
“I assume you at least want the right adjustments to your body's natural balance abilities to not fall over yourself constantly, though.”
“Oh yeeah, I hadn't thought of that. Can you make sure they work like a real kitty ears and tail?”

“Honestly that's much easier to do than to not do.” Anika felt certain this was well within her own powers. “Well ah—here goes, then. Brace yourself or whatever.”

“So cool~!”

“Well, I'm a little curious what it's like on the other side of the fence—if you know what I mean.”

Jess wondered why everyone with this kind of desire seemed to be coming to her. And also why there were—four of them so far in a relatively tiny cult. “The power to go back and forth is easy for Master to grant,” she recited. “Do you have any preferences on what you want the male form to look like?”
“Uh—preferences?”
“You know, like do you want to be what you'd consider an attractive guy? Or how strong, or how tall—sudden height changes can be a little jarring even though your body's balance adjusts just fine, you know.”

Like minds tend to clump together, Zotha advised her, picking up her thoughts.

“Oh, yeah yeah! Lemme think a minute...”
I'm not like these people! Jess protested back.

Suuuure you're not.

Each satisfied customer was told they could leave the meeting now that their wish was granted—unless they had any questions or complaints. Each was simply asked to occasionally think of the demon lord responsible when they made use of whatever it was they had received. A few, of course, were going to be longer-term to properly grant, and plans were made for when and how to go about the necessary steps. Everyone was told to keep an eye out for an invitation to an as-yet-not-planned get together in the nearish future, and to let anyone who left or hadn't come to the meeting know how wonderful Zotha had been, and to encourage them to seek her or one of the higher-ups out at a later date to also receive a reward.

By lunchtime, everyone who had come—and stayed—had been processed, and the demoness along with the five leaders walked out to fix up a few minor complaints before finally being left alone with the empty food boxes and pots and a few small messes strewn around the room. With a wave of her hand, Zotha cleaned everything up and compressed the room back to the dimensions it had the night before.

The gratitude from everyone was overflowing; the new goddess had indeed felt powerful before, but was at least two or three times as much so now. It was the most curious thing, too—when the other five “prayed” and used her power to grant someone else's desire, she felt a delicious satisfaction from that act itself too. It flowed into her as power, frequently more than enough to make up the cost of granting the request. It seemed likely that her rapidly-solidifying nature as a granter of desires made doing so a form of “worship” of her, and so 'fed' her just as well as the resulting gratitude did. She could still feel some real fear and apprehension from the ones who hadn't come or stayed, and even several of those who had been fully satisfied. In the latter case it was a respectful sort of fear, an understandable thing to feel on seeing glimpses of the true extent of her power. Overall, the meeting had gone exceedingly well—better, even, than Zotha had hoped for.

---

As a small addendum not directly related to this story, I received word today that digital tip jar is closing down. Apparently it'll be possible to use it until June 3rd, so I guess I'll leave the icon there until then. I don't think this was ever a particularly high priority for anyone, but I thought I should at least leave a message somewhere so nobody has to wonder why when it does disappear.