A Summoning: Part VIII

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VIII

~Justice~

Seeing that the five of them were tired and hungry from the work, Zotha asked each one what they would like to eat and made a big table in the middle of the room with generous portions of their orders, and of course a place for herself next to Jess as well. “Dig in!” she said, sitting down. “I'm more than satisfied with today's results. I believe we can call this 'Summoner meeting' a success, hmn?”
“I really doubt all the people I met at least will be able to keep their mouths shut for long,” Prama said. “Give it two or three days and the secret will be totally blown, at least among the magic-aware anyway.”

“All the better,” the demoness nodded. “This is a fine enough way of beginning to go public as far as I'm concerned. We've even got ourselves a name now, thanks to you~.”
“Heheh.” The genius girl blushed slightly. “I-it still sounds a little 'cultish', but it says a lot about who we are and what we can do for p-p-people.” She could feel the 'confidence boost' Zotha had given her rapidly fading off now, and shuddered. After a second she sat up again and took a deep breath, reminding herself that she knew everyone present. “A-anyway, I'm just saying we need to start getting ready for people inspecting and scrutinizing us really soon; far sooner than I think any of us had actually planned for.”

“That just means our ethical standards for wish-granting are all the more important,” Zotha nodded. “I trust everyone followed them?” There was a general response of assent.

Anika (her illusion completely dropped for the moment; she had one of her 'male' T-shirts draped over her form and obscuring a pair of tiny denim shorts) took a deep breath. “Okay—now is a good time, I agree,” she nodded, seemingly to herself.
“What's that?” Jess looked at her.
“Soo—last night I was approached by theee, goddess of Kitsune,” she said slowly.

“They have one of those?” Cameron asked between bites.
“Naturally. That must be who 'spoke through me' yesterday too,” Zotha said.
“Right. She wants to speak with you at a bit more length—through me. We made a Deal, to uh, get rid of some of the conditions of my curse. You might've noticed I looked and sounded more um, male, this morning?”

“Oh yeah! I was gonna ask about that,” Prama said.

“And the contents of this Deal?” Jess said, with a suspicious glare.
“She overshadows me when I let her, specifically to talk with Zotha. Deity diplomacy stuff, I guess.” She went over the 'rules of engagement' in detail.
“Hmm. She really must want to speak with you,” Prama said, “I can hardly find a hole in that at all. Except—well—'communication' for her might include 'bashing your face in with a baseball bat'. In your position I'd suggest putting all your defenses up until you're sure she isn't gonna use Andrew as an attack vector.”
“Obviously she could be deceiving me, but..I didn't get the impression that she wants a fight,” the fox-girl said. “Her words were that she's 'very interested' in you. Anyway, as an ancient ultra-powerful fox demon, I really think she'd have more effective ways to try to kill you than through me.”

“Well, I'm staying during this meeting as a bodyguard,” Jess declared. “I'll keep Master safe if I have to give my life for her!”
“Heheh. Okay, calm down~,” Zotha said, ruffling the priestess's head a bit.

“...That seems to be fine with her,” Anika said. “Since you two share thoughts anyway. I think she wants privacy from the rest of you for this meeting though, so it'll need to be after you leave.”

“Very well.” It seemed that dealing with other, older and stronger gods was going to be a Thing She Had to Do from now on, so might as well get it started right away.

Not much later, the three of them stood in the middle of the room, right where the table had been during lunch: Anika facing Zotha, Jess standing between them but a bit to the latter's right with her arms crossed and her face puckered into something which was...probably intended to look serious and intimidating, but definitely was not. “Okay, I believe we're ready,” the neophyte goddess said with a small nod. “Do..whatever it is you have to do.”
“I'm equally unsure how this works,” Anika said. “Umm...come on in? Go ahe—” her head jerked back ever so slightly as she cut off mid-word, and then slowly she drew herself up, taking on a straighter, more confident stance. Her eyes gleamed with a deep, fiery red glow, and some dark smoke emitted from her body as she changed physical form. Her clothes warped and shifted into a long, traditional kimono, her other three tails appeared behind her—one of them the same color scheme as her first, while the other two were mainly pink with white tips—and then were joined by no less than ten more in a wide variety of colors and patterns, and her teeth gained a quite visible predatory sharpness and length about them. The smoke filled the entire room, seemingly obscuring everything except for the three of them, while the transformed Kitsune smirked confidently, her figure and height filling out as she ended the transformation a good head and a half taller than the demoness before her.

“Hello there, little godling~,” she said in a dark, mature tone. “Pleased to truly make your acquaintance.”
“Yours as well,” Zotha nodded. She could feel from Anika's transformed body what she somehow knew was only a distant echo of the other goddess's power, and even that far outshone her own. Even though this was her domain, the Kitsune was powerful enough to change its appearance at will. For the moment the “mystical dark smoke” thing seemed to be her preference. “Is there something I should call you?”
“Hmm. Fox, if you like. One gives up one's actual name to become what I am,” she said. Then she extended a hand; Jess looked on with some concern. “There's no need to worry, cute little priestess~. I'm quite friendly,” she said with a smile that—with those sharp teeth—wasn't particularly reassuring. Zotha decided to give her the courtesy of a handshake anyway. She could sense—feel—that nothing special could happen through such a gesture unless a Deal had been made with Fox verbally beforehand.

“Now,” Fox said, crossing her arms, “We have a little business to discuss right away. You intrigue and interest me, so you may consider me your ally for as long as I hold this position,” she said.
“'This position'?” Zotha repeated, not entirely following—along with the earlier statement about 'becoming what she was'.

“Unlike most deities, the role of Kitsune god—or goddess—is not one held by one entity for all eternity. The title, and the power with it, belongs to the most powerful of our kind willing to take it, whoever that may be,” she said. “While my position is among the most ancient at our echelon of power, I am in fact the youngest being with the power of a god—apart from you, that is. I am a mere millennium and a half old, and far better attuned to modern society than the rest of them if I say so myself. Ascension was thought among the existing pantheon to have been rendered impossible due to a number of factors both intentional and not, but your little priestess there found a way to muster the belief and power to create something entirely new. You should be proud,” she said toward Jess, who returned a still-quite-suspicious glare.

“There has been much deliberation on what to do about you,” Fox continued. “For the moment—and to be honest, the foreseeable future—about half the power in our group is for you, wanting to invite you in as a permanent member...and the other half has wanted to attempt to kill or depower you since the beginning. Under such a deadlock, none of us is willing to risk conflict with the others by actually attacking you—but the same is true of direct help. I can offer you advice, but not power or martial aid. Not that I could ever rally my kind to a single cause anyway; that's simply not how we work in the first place. But the same is true of others on your side, such as La Lune, who could certainly have done so otherwise.”

“I understand,” Zotha said. “You want to see whether I can stand on my own two feet. By the time I do, it won't matter who doesn't want me around—I'll be here to stay regardless. Is that it?”
“Hmmhm,” she chuckled softly. “You catch on quick. Nonetheless, there is no reason we couldn't provide advice, or moral support. On that note, I think you should keep doing what you're doing. The truth is that I've held my own position far longer than my seven most immediate predecessors by extensive diplomacy, always ensuring at least half of the rest of the pantheon was on my side. It isn't supposed to be easy to depose the Ruler of Foxes by outside interference, but when a majority is against you it's not difficult for them to prop someone else up juust enough to tip the scales. Anyway, those who are on your side like your attitude so far and would love to see it continue. You're also steadily carving out a niche set of aspects that not one existing god feels is entirely claimed by them, which even your detractors see as a significant positive.”

“I suppose fixing Anika's curse is out of the question too, huh?”
“Hmn. Yes, but not for that reason,” Fox nodded. “Our kind, little godling, has a great many advantages, but each of us is bound by her own nature. My position exists to be an ultimate enforcer of my kind's Rules. To 'fix her curse', as you say, would be to reverse a punishment for cheating without her having earned a tail, as those Rules specify must be done. For me to seriously attempt to break the Rules would not merely depose but completely destroy me—I've heard legends of a few who tried this sort of thing, and the results aren't pretty. But that doesn't mean I can't bend the rules to suit me. Little Anika here—” (she placed a hand on her own chest to indicate the body she was occupying) “—already has the right idea: Please me, and I'll do what I can to help.”

“Any chance you can tell me who all the other gods are, or which ones are for or against me?” Zotha said.
“Hmn.” Fox tilted her head slightly. “Some of them will get rather upset with me if I tell you their alignments; even many on your side wish to remain anonymous from the others. They don't want to face retribution or strained relations later—from you or for the others, depending on what happens. Just their names and aspects..?” Her ears sank slightly as she apparently received a message from elsewhere. “It's a rather long list, to be sure, and I might give you hints on whether they like your not inadvertently—or 'not so much so', they say. So they won't let me do that either. But you shouldn't have too much trouble figuring them out if you ask around, now that the Veil is gone for you. No, the only ones I can speak to you about are myself and La Lune, who isn't a coward of a deity,” she said, folding her ears back briefly with an obviously critical edge to her tone.

“Ah, but speaking of her!” Fox's ears went right back up to vertical, and she raised a finger. “You passed up one chance to make one of your inner circle a channel to her—not that I can blame you, werewolves come with a few particular disadvantages, especially when the partner isn't already one. But she informs me that there is another option quite conveniently nearby. The same full moon that gave you your powers precipitated the first change of a man who was bitten by a feral werewolf. Even now he wanders through these very woods of yours, still mostly under the control of his untamed wolf side...but not quite fully feral yet. You undoubtedly have the power to help him, and I don't doubt he would be most—grateful,” she said emphatically. “Besides which you would be doing her a favor, and trust me—La Lune never forgets a favor. Her way of communicating would be a bit less direct than mine, but as one of our most ancient—as old as the moon itself—her advice may be even better than my own, I hate to admit.”

“I see. Well, our plans this afternoon are pretty flexible; I guess we can go hunting for him once we're through here,” said Zotha. Jess seemed to suspect it was a trap, but the demoness reminded her that there wasn't much a werewolf could really do to the two of them anyway.

“Alright...I believe that's everything vital I was asked to relay,” Fox said. She reached a hand over to the smaller deity, placing it on her head in an extremely maternal gesture. Jess wasn't happy, but knew better than to move to stop it. “Above all, I suggest you enjoy yourself, little godling~. I know better than most that even a deity may fall, and for now your position is almost as precarious as mine is—so make the most of whatever time you have. Besides, if your followers see that you're having fun and seem to know what you're doing, they'll have all the more faith in you.”

Zotha smiled. “..Thank you.”
“You're most welcome~.” She drew her hand back to her side, and began to absorb the dark smoke back into herself. “Don't hesitate to tell little Anika if you wish to speak to me again.” Her body shrank down as the room's air and visibility cleared; all the extra tails vanished, leaving only the young Kitsune's original four as she melted back down to her usual stature and figure. The kimono remained in place, just resizing itself to fit Anika's size as the glow in her eyes faded, their color returning to their softer, bright pink shade. She had a dazed look for a moment once she had returned to her usual appearance, and then shuddered, fully regaining control.

“Welcome back,” Zotha said. “How do you feel?”

“Hahh~hh,” she sighed, “that was...overwhelming. But it felt..good. I could feel just a little of her thoughts and emotions, especially her total confidence and self-assurance, as if it was my own, and it..it's like nothing I've ever felt before. She's so powerful, and knows she is...but more than that, it's like even if she lost all of her power tomorrow she could still be satisfied just with being who she is.” She closed her eyes for a moment, her ears lowering slightly as she thought, and then slowly opened them again. “I feel like..I understand something I didn't before. New tails aren't just power and rank—they represent wisdom, having a better understanding of the world. That's why it's such a big deal to be sure we really earn them.”

“If you say so. Hmn, she didn't exactly change your clothes back,” the demoness pointed out.
“Whaa—I didn't even notice!” Anika looked down, tugging at the foreign clothing a bit. “It's weirdly..super comfy. Maybe magically so...I guess this is her idea of a 'parting gift'. Awwh, I really liked the shirt she made this out of, though!”

“Here.” Zotha waved her hand forward and an exact copy of the shirt she'd seen on the fox-girl the whole morning appeared in the air just in front of her; she reached out a hand reflexively and caught it.

“Thanks,” Anika nodded. “But I can't help but think she expected you to do that all along.”

“I wouldn't expect anything less from a goddess of tricksters,” the demoness said. “Well, do you think you remember everything that was said?”
Anika crossed her arms, visibly thinking. “Hmmnnn...yes. Pretty sure? It wouldn't be hard to falsify a few sentences or something and make it seem that way, though.”
“While she claims 'cheating' is against her nature, that's no reason not to keep her honest. Have a transcript.” A small stack of printer paper appeared floating in front of the Kitsune then; she took it and flipped through the pages for a moment, nodding slowly to herself.

“So, you feel okay now?” Jess said. “Not tired from having a god wear your body or anything? Or any new enchantments snuck in while you weren't paying attention?”
“Um...nope. I feel fine,” she said, looking up again. “There's not a word of this that I don't remember perfectly already.” She offered the papers toward Zotha, who snapped her fingers; they burned up instantly in a heatless purple fire, leaving nothing behind. “Well, I guess I should leave you two to your uh...werewolf hunting. Unless you think you need me for that.”
“We shouldn't,” Zotha said with a nod. With that, the vixen took a deep breath, nodded farewell to the two of them, and headed out the door, hiding all but one of her tails and wrapping an illusion of her former appearance around herself once again.

“I bet you didn't expect to get involved in godly diplomacy when you started all this, huh,” Zotha said, turning toward her priestess.
“Well..I did take some classes in political science, alongside my religious studies major,” she replied with a proud grin.

“How'd you get away with taking a major like that? It sounded like your parents are at least a little rich..?”

Jess frowned slightly. “Master, I think...I really should tell you a little more about myself. When I was young, I was a totally spoiled brat. I could have whatever I wanted, and I did have it.” She let Zotha guide her over to a couch so they could sit down next to each other. “I made pretty bad grades going through school. I wasn't dumb, but I would only put in the bare minimum of effort to pass. I can clearly remember seeing my last two years as a challenge to see how close to a grade of exactly 70 I could get by carefully managing my test scores. Everyone around me was trying so hard, and my parents and teachers all tried to push me to do better too, but I've always been super stubborn and, to me it all just seemed so pointless. My outlook on the world was that it was just gonna give me whatever I wanted no matter what I did, and no matter how hard they tried, my poor parents couldn't help but keep reinforcing that view. They put in all the money for me to go to this school, too, y'know, since I couldn't exactly get a scholarship.

“It was...not long before I graduated high school that I first became..interested in uuuuhhh, demon stuff,” she said vaguely, fully aware that Zotha knew exactly what she meant. “I couldn't have explained my fascination back then..it was just a new, strange experience that I wondered whether I could make real. From that point on it was one—entertaining—challenge after another for me: To figure out what I needed to do next, which pieces to gather up and put together, and then to actually make it happen. I picked classes on the subjects I thought were relevant—like I said, a religious studies major, bits and pieces of finance, business management, political science, history—and for the first time in my life I studied hard. My parents had no idea what I was after, but they were delighted just to see that I was applying myself at something. They're so happy just to see A's on my transcript—at least, once I convinced them I wasn't cheating—that I think they're afraid questioning it would break whatever 'magic' is responsible, heheh. That was how I convinced them to let me use the forest, and get this shack built—I was more or less doing what they wanted, so they saw all that as a 'minor' reward for all my hard work. About a year and a half ago, after a lot of searching I found a complete copy of a certain book in a certain library—the one I guess we'll be going to after the werewolf thing.”

“The one you got the rituals, and the whole ritual language thing from, right?”
“Yep,” she nodded. “To tell the truth, it was a record of attempted, highly dubious, occasionally tried but never succeeded rituals and concepts. A summary of the ravings of several different madmen, basically. But when I read it all, I felt like there was a bigger picture that the critical scholar who wrote the book hadn't seen. I set to work on refining those methods, comprehending them to their fullest—more than anything, I believed in them like I think nobody else ever had before.”

“Then, going into my senior year, I started a cult.” She shrugged. “It seemed like the next logical step: Actually try putting it all into practice. And to do that I needed more people to believe than just me, so I used everything I had learned about how to gain and exercise power over other people, manipulate them into positions where they would feel like their best choice was to stick with it—whether it really was or not. I started out with a small circle of people I'd gotten to know: My roommate was on board just for kicks and also in case he could make bank on it somehow; Andrew I knew was pretty pliable; Riana's super capable, and I knew she would follow right along if I got Cam hopped up on the prospect of lording it over other people. So now...here we are. I don't think anything I've been doing most of this past year was...good, but somehow...it turned out all right?”
“So far, anyway. There's no telling where all of this leads,” Zotha said, gently running a hand through her priestess's hair. “I still hardly believe you basically made me, and all of my powers, from scratch, just because of a singular, perverted fantasy.”
“Mmh.” Jess nodded. “I wonder...if sometimes perversion comes from something deeper, and a bit more genuine.”

The demoness tilted her head slightly. “How do you mean?”

“Well—like I said, I've lived my whole life getting exactly what I wanted, when I wanted it. But...I never really felt like I knew what to want. Maybe the idea of someone dominating me, taking over all the power and influence I'd built, along with the rest of the advantages I have—and using it how they want...maybe that's what I really found so irresistible, deep down. Especially if—well, I mean—so far at least, Master, you do seem like a so much better ruler over my life than I've ever been,” she said with a smile. “Just look how many people we've made happy together! And, by comparison..how much I'd been hurting them before,” she added a bit more sadly.

“Alright. I'm glad you're comfortable talking about all that,” Zotha said, picking up her little priestess into a close hug and drawing both a blush and a sound resembling a leaky balloon from her as a result. “I feel like I know you a little better now, Jess~.” After letting her hold on for a moment longer, gently running her hand down through the smaller girl's hair, Zotha pulled herself away and stood up. “All right. Let's go hunt down that werewolf; the sooner he's helped out the better.”
“O-of course, Master!” Her priestess jumped to her feet eagerly and followed the demoness out the door.

---

Steph was at the end of his rope. The scent went cold at Andrew's parking place—which had been empty. He'd looked everywhere he could think of other than driving out to that shack, and he really didn't want to do that. After forcing himself to go eat some lunch to keep his energy up for the enchantment, he went back to his dorm room to try and think up another plan of where to go, or what to do.

That Zotha...! After advising him to go talk to Andrew, had she kidnapped him or something?! Was she just messing with him the whole time? It didn't seem entirely out of character for a person who chose to take on such a demonic form. He happened to pass the window as he was thinking this, and saw Andrew's car pulling up into its usual parking place. That was when he realized...of course. He'd gone to another meeting; another one! And he hadn't even bothered to let Steph know about it!

He posed himself just behind the front door: Arms crossed, ears folded back and one of his tails visible, bushed out in agitation. And when Andrew did open the door and come inside, he said, “Finally! Dude, where have you been?! I've been looking everywhere for you!”
“Uhh..” Andrew scratched the back of his head. “I was..at the meeting? You weren't here when I got up, so I left a note on your desk...”
“On my—there wasn't a note on my desk!” Steph stomped over to it to find a handwritten note right on top of his laptop. “...Okay, there was a note on my desk. B-but...still!” He whirled on his roommate, unwilling to give up on his annoyed mood just yet.“Two—three meetings in one weekend? What's going on with you guys?”

“Well, uh..something big happened the night before last, and we've just been..having to deal with it,” he said vaguely.

Something big like making a super-demon-not-demon thing by apparently total accident? Steph thought. Aloud he said: “Fine, fine. Look, there's just something I needed to talk with you about, like really soon, and I got upset that I couldn't.”
“Oh? Uh, what's that?” Andrew said, tilting his head ever so slightly. That was...not quite a normal expression for him.

He put out a hand. “Let's cut the knot, okay? I'm a Kitsune, and you know I am, and you didn't know two days ago. I can see you staring at my ears, you know? And I know you're one, and that you weren't two days ago, too!”
“Uh, h-how do you know that?” he said, looking around nervously.

“Because I can smell you, stupid!” Steph waved his arms excitedly. “Probably half the wolves and cats on campus know you're one by now, too! What, whoever gave you a tail taught you to hide your ears but not your scent?”

“Well um..hm. I guess I just didn't think of that.” Andrew shook his head. He muttered mostly to himself, “Should be easy enough to fix...”
It sounded like Steph...wouldn't get to teach him? “And you're shedding fur all over, too. I also wanted to show you how to fix that.” Steph's expression, with his tail and ears both down, was one of disappointment by now, but maybe not for the reason Andrew would think it was.
“Oh yeah, that's...another good point.”

“And what do you mean, 'easy to fix'? Like you knew how all along but not that you should do it?”
“I guess so..? I'm doing it now,” Andrew said.

Steph raised an eyebrow—and the adjacent ear with it. “How many..tails did you wind up with, anyway?”
“I-isn't that kinda a personal question?”
“Hmph. Well, it's more than two if inventing new illusions is that easy for you,” Steph said, crossing his arms. “You don't have the attitude of a Wise One so it's less than five...so I'm gonna guess four. Is that right?”
“N-no, of course not!”
He put out a hand. “Then it's three?”

“Nope.” He stubbornly shook his head.

Steph folded his ears back. “Man, come on, you've gotta be a better liar than that if you're gonna survive a year as a fox! Now I know it's four. Well I only have two, so congratulations I guess. Dunno how you got that much power,” (he actually did, of course) “but I'm gonna assume it's something to do with whatever big thing happened the night before.”
Andrew hesitated a long moment to answer. “Well—”

“None of that matters to me, man! Look, Andrew, I like you.” Steph's ears flipped upright again, his tail swishing back and forth. “I'm glad to see you get so much power to play around with right away. I just don't want to see you hunted down because you don't know how to live as one of our kind!”
“Um...you're really saying a lot of worrying things, y'know,” Andrew said, walking over to take a seat in the chair by his desk. “Is being a Kitsune really so...dangerous?”

Steph sighed. “Not, as much as it used to be.” He went and sat at his own computer chair, letting his tail stick out to one side of the stalk in the back like usual. “But look—there are still people who'll hunt down naïve new foxes before they can 'become a threat' or whatever. Plus there's a reason we instinctively don't wanna tell someone how many tails we've got. Like, some demons and stuff can get power by killing the powerful, and someone like you'd be an easy mark if someone like that knew.”

“Wow, I had no idea...” Now that he'd admitted to having them, Andrew's ears slowly unfolded into view, and a long, fluffy tail spread its way out from his back. Steph was briefly distracted, almost mesmerized, from watching this. There was such a beautiful, brilliant white shade to most of his fur—and that lovely pink at the tip, too! “I mean...unless you're just saying that to scare me or something..but, you seem pretty serious.”
“That's 'cause I am,” Steph said, recovering just in time. “Since whoever gave you a tail wasn't a responsible fox—or, I guess maybe wasn't a fox at all?” he suggested; Andrew looked away, apparently not wanting to admit what his roommate already knew. “I'll be responsible and tell you the basic ins and outs, okay? I wanna see you survive, and maaaybe once you get used to the idea there's a few pranks only someone with a little more power than me could manage.”
“Um..sure. Thanks,” Andrew said with a small nod. What, he wasn't objecting right away to the idea of pranks? He was starting to think a little more like a fox already...! Steph tried to keep his heart from beating too much faster when he realized this. It'd be no good blowing his cover now!

He took a deep, slow breath—in and out. Calm down, get serious, he told himself. “Okay, so first of all, let's start with how to deal with shed fur. We can't exactly make ourselves stop shedding, especially with the thick kinda floof you've got going on now, so...”