The "Best" RPG Ever-88

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Throughout lunch, Jacob mostly just sat quietly and watched everyone else talk, only interjecting briefly even when prompted. It seemed as if he was a bit more withdrawn in such a large group, especially with the more boisterous personalities present and—of course—still being nervous about the dragon. Between her and Mira, the wait staff was slightly nervous at first too—until Rayna and Lynn started cracking jokes and making them laugh so hard a tray was almost dropped at one point. At least he got to know the group a bit better this way, which had more or less been the goal all along. It hardly seemed like much time had passed at all before the plates were mostly empty and the bill came.

"Hmmph." Katherine picked up the piece of paper with their orders written on it, and turned toward Jacob, who she'd managed to get a seat next to. "We still haven't discussed payment. What about just covering the bill for yourself and the three of us that actually went with you?" she said, pointing to it. Of course the subject had been on his mind, and she had a good sense of what he was willing to pay: a bit more than what she was asking.
"Heey, if I knew someone else was covering I'd have got us a round of drinks," the fox-girl joked. "Or at least a dessert."

The catgirl waved her off. "Quiet, you."
"Eh..I think I should be able to cover that," Jacob said. "Are you certain this is enough?"

"Fine with me," Zack said with a slight nod. They had already been paid for the giant birds and the dire bear—apparently Randall had made it clear on his way into the guardhouse that whoever else wanted to could claim credit for those.

"While we're at it, do you want some help with analyzing the scan?" the psion asked. "Of course I'm not an expert on what you're doing, but a psion doesn't need to understand a mental task to help perform it."

"Err. How's that?" he said, half-distracted from getting out and counting enough cash to cover his part of the bill.

"My telepathy's pretty good. I can share concentration with nearby minds—and I have a lot of it to spare." She leaned in toward him just an inch or so. "I haven't pried, but—this is important, isn't it? More than just proving a theory at this point."
"I think it is," he said. "It's honestly hard to tell. But it is what I'm being paid for, anyway. I'll gladly accept your help."

While she leaned back into her own chair, Katherine became well aware of Rayna trying to catch her eye from across the table—as well as her attention on her mind. Do you...like him?

Don't be ridiculous. Katherine gave a mental 'hmph'. The Captain gave him those notes you found, with possibly 'dangerous' knowledge in them, so she thinks what she's having him do is important—which means it probably is.

I notice you didn't actually answer my question, even if it is a ridiculous one. I may not be able to read minds but I can see your tail move a little faster whenever he's paying attention to you. Ahem: 'Remind me to think rationally about my choices', she repeated back—irritatingly close to verbatim without quite reaching it.

I just explained my rationale to you, Katherine said with a touch of annoyance.

O-kay then. Have fun~!

As they made their way out of the restaurant, a member of the guard walked up; it looked as if he may have been waiting for them to finish. "Can we, help you?" Rayna asked him.

"I got a message for Miss Rose," he said, "from the Cap. Wants to meet with you a couple of corners over, that way," he explained, pointing. "Somethin' about a big tree?"

While the dragon-girl squeaked incoherently, Mira said, "Oh, is the lot finally ready?" The guardsman just shrugged. "Well, I guess we should go see, then, huh?" she said, turning toward Rose.
"Yes yes yes~!" After bouncing on her feet a couple of times, she took off eagerly in that direction, the witch shrugging to the rest of the group before following. After tipping his hat vaguely in the direction of the rest, the guardsman headed off in a different direction on some other mission.

"Well, I suppose we'll be off too," Katherine said, vaguely nodding toward Jacob.

"Thank you again for your assistance," he said, particularly toward the other two who'd come with him. After that, they too left.

"I guess the rest of us should just head home for now?" Rayna suggested, to a general murmur of agreement. Some relaxation after working through the morning seemed to be well in order.

---

"Do you still do metalworking? Weapon and armor maintenance?" Ezra said. Randall was busy deconstructing a couple of abandoned buildings (which had just been checked one last time to ensure they were empty), but this task was more than routine enough to hold a conversation during.

"'Course I do. Good source of cash in old cities that don't want much for construction."

"I don't think any of them have so much as been to a blacksmith since getting here. Granted, most of what they use seems to be enchanted, but that's no excuse to neglect it under such heavy use."
Randall made a slightly sour face. "Cripes! Didn't you say one a' them was a knight?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if it hadn't crossed her mind. Members of knightly orders normally just take care of the basics themselves and set down their equipment when they come home to let somebody else do the real maintenance. Besides, it's not as if they had much experience handling weapons before."

"Well, I'm achin' to speak to them some more anyway. Ought to make a good excuse, ey?" Punctuating this, he set the last of the materials aside—salvagable bits neatly stacked on top of each other, with the waste in a separate, less-organized pile.

"There." The Felis clapped his hands together in a 'job-well-done' fashion. "One empty lot. What's it for, anyway?"
On cue, Rose ran up, nearly tripping over herself once in speaking range of the Captain. "Hee~eey!" Mira was a ways behind her, walking at a brisk pace but stopping here and there to apologize to a few people who'd felt compelled to shove themselves out of the dragon's path. "I'm here! Is this the place?" she continued, looking around excitedly.

"It is. I thought the tree would best be centered there," Ezra said, pointing in the direction of the fully cleared middle of the lot.

"Hiya Randall," the witch said, finally catching up, "I see you've still got your ears." This prompted Rose to also look in his direction, realizing that he'd been there the whole time.

"That I do. Good to see you again, lass. You too, Rosie."
"Um." She nodded, slightly confused by his nickname. "S-so uh!" She turned her attention back to Ezra. "I actually have a few saplings and stuff with me, if there's something specific you'd want."
"Show me," the Captain nodded.

While Rose was enthusiastically showing off plants, explaining what properties she knew of each, Mira moved a little closer to the Felis to speak with him. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but you're one of the very few people I've seen who aren't initially intimidated to be talking to a dragon."
"I've fought far worse than a dragon," Randall said with a touch of solemnity. "So, she's a nature dragon, ey?" he went on—instantly changing the subject. "Precious few of those around. Most seem to be fire, like, or water, ice—maybe thunder if you're lucky."

"You seem a little obsessed with rarity," the witch pointed out, drawing a mild headtilt from him.
"Perceptive li'tl lass, aren't you? You live as long as I 'ave, normal folk start to get right boring to be around," he said. "Eventually you hear and see everything there is of 'em—I don' know how Ezzy stands managing a whole bunch for so long. But, someone willing to learn the forbidden arts? Or, draw out a demon blade? That's somebody I got 'a meet."

"I guess the Captain told you about Aria," she said, crossing her arms. "You seem a lot more..sober than you were a couple of hours ago."
"Well, you know. Some food in me, a temporary sobrie'y spell even though I could do a job like this in my bloomin' sleep. Fix that up right quick," he said with a nod.

"This one should be best," Ezra was saying, pointing to one of the saplings. "This species is known to be unusually resistant to magic. Pests don't get to them much, either."
"Uh-huh! They tend to stay healthy for a long time."
"It would probably be best to allow the tree to gain a foothold before planting anything else for the park," the Captain said. "I don't want to presume, but you seemed to intend to accelerate its growth?"
"Yep!" Rose nodded. "I can only do so much at a time without straining it, though. Sooo, it'll probably be a week or so of regular growth spurts before it gets to its full size."
"That should be acceptable," she said with a nod. "Go ahead and plant it, then."
"Eeee! Thank you!" Rose skittered over excitedly to the spot, tearing a rut out with one of her clawed feet and then gingerly placing the sapling into the hole and patting dirt over it with all the care and caution of a mother tucking in a newborn child.

Randall turned his attention toward the dragon-girl at this point, as she stood up and took a couple of steps back, closing her eyes and visibly concentrating, her hands at her side but her wings growing to their larger size and spreading out to either side. A healthy green glow surrounded her body, and a small stream of the same light flowed forward into the plant. It grew from a tiny sapling into a still young, but far less fragile, tree over the span of a full minute or so.

"See now, that's the sort a' thing you just can't see every day," the earth mage said quietly with a small wave.
"I guess not," Mira agreed.

---

Loren was waiting near the house's door to town when they got there. "Oh, hey Loren," Aria said, moving closer to him while the rest hung back or continued on to or through the door.
"I did say I was planning to visit this morning, didn't I?" he said with a slight touch of annoyance. "I suppose you forgot."
"Yeah...I guess I did." Did he say that? she wondered to herself. "But, like, I can't be sitting around waiting for you all the time. I've got a job to do, you know. Hungry sword to feed."

"Fair enough." He shook his head. "When I heard you'd already left, I thought I would return after lunch, so—I'm not really that inconvenienced."

"I'm not busy now and the demon's...not, happy, but about normal. So we can hang out if you want," she said with a small nod. "My place, yours, somewhere else..?"
Loren cleared his throat, a nearly undetectable amount of red to his cheeks. "Perhaps somewhere else. Not my apartment, at least."

"Alright. If you don't have anywhere in mind, we could just walk around," Aria suggested. "See if there's anywhere good to sit and talk? I, still don't know the town that well myself."

"That should be fine." Loren made a vague gesture to lead the way, so she did so, him following.

"Soo, hey! Not long after you left yesterday, I actually remembered something. More something." She fidgeted with her hands a bit. "It was like, a lot of related events. You and me talking in my office about a bunch of stuff. A lot more at once than the first time I remembered something, which is maybe a good sign?"
"Can you say what conversations specifically?" Loren asked.

"Well, let's see..." She went through the contents of a few of them, ending with: "...and also the time I convinced you to take a job from a dragon, I think. And get help from some other mages to put that together."
"Well, it sounds genuine. I'm sure I haven't told you all of that." In response to a questioning look, he explained: "I had some worry that, maybe the wards could give you false memories instead of letting you have the real ones. It isn't that I don't trust you."

"That's a relief," she said. "Anyway, it's good to have confirmation that I can get them back without another application of blunt force trauma, right?"

"That's..also true," he said with a bit of nervous hesitation.

His expression was still tinged with obvious concern, or possibly doubt. Aria made a questioning gesture. "I'm..well, I'm worried that the only things you've managed to remember so far have to do with me," he said. "Nothing about your family, or other friends, or your job..."
"I do remember what my office looks like now," she corrected. "But no, not who I worked for or with, I guess."
"I think it's a terrible misrepresentation of your life if all you remember is me," Loren said. "Perhaps it's because I'm the only part of your past you've personally met? In which case, I hope that crystal gets delivered here soon. Maybe actually seeing our town would jog something else loose."

"There's only two points of data to go by," she pointed out, "which isn't much." She made a brief mental note that Loren didn't appear to understand her use of the word 'data' until he picked it up from context clues a second or so later. "It could just as well be that the ward releases memories at random at this point, or that it's about connections to whatever I already remember. So: Since the first thing I remembered was a conversation with you, I remember other conversations, and then after that it can spread out to other topics like my job or whatever."
"Maybe. It's easy for me to look at it very pessimistically. It's just that—" He shook his head, and waved his hands out in a somewhat frustrated expression.
"What?" Aria pulled closer to a nearby wall so they could stop without getting in the way of traffic. "Come on, I can take it."

"It's really stupid," he said.
"Well, you know me—I've always believed something 'stupid' is better than nothing."

"Okay." Loren sighed. "I'm concerned about taking advantage of you. I mean, if I'm the first thing you remember, or the only one for a while in other words, I can easily imagine that you would trust me, or—feel as if you like me, more than you really ever did. I've, tried to be as honest and direct as possible with describing what I think you should remember, but that'll always be colored by my own opinion of things." He gave a small growl of frustration. "I'm in a position of being your only source of information, and I don't like it. I don't know whether I can trust myself with that."

"Well, you're certainly not the only source I have for information in general," Aria said. "I made a lot of friends before you showed up who could tell me if you were trying to sell me lies about society in general, or magic, or whatever. And as for what I should remember—you're just being a helpful crutch, right? The more my memories actually come back to me, the less I have to rely on your version of events."

"I suppose so," he said, still uncertain. "It still perplexes me how you have any idea of what or who to trust in the first place. While I...do think those you're living with are good people, from everything I've heard or seen of them...I can't imagine how you worked that out with no memories to refer to. Some, unconscious instinct? Or, were you just lucky?"

"Hmm."

Aria pulled slightly away from the wall and took a deep breath herself. Loren's concern grew as he visibly realized she was thinking of talking seriously about something for once, and that she was even a little nervous about it. "About that—there is something I want to tell you. But it has to be in private. Are you sure your place won't work just to talk?"

"Well..." He shook his head slightly—thinking of the fact he'd already been alone there with a witch of all things. "It should be all right. But I'm already wondering how much I should dread this."
"Not nearly as much as me," she said. "Please, lead the way." She swept her arm out toward the road.
"Right..." Loren moved back into the crowd, Aria following.

---

They sat at the library for nearly an hour. Jacob was clearly uncertain about Katherine's presence at first, but she sat quietly—undistractingly—and went into a sort of half-meditative state, and soon he found it easier to think through things than usual. For a while they sat there in silence, apart from the frequent scribbling of pen on paper as he first recorded the results of his scan, and then began attempting to apply them to the task he'd been given. Since it was being routed through her mind, Katherine passively gained a partial understanding of the workings of the magic he was looking at. He was triple-checking each calculation out of fear of the immense danger that a mistake involving chaos magic in particular could cause.

About an hour and a half after they got there, the psion's ears perked up, and she jolted ever so slightly. In response to a questioning look from the elf, she explained herself mentally: Just felt something. Unsure what...

Danger? he shot back with an intense weight of worry. A giant monster or something?
No no, she physically shook her head a bit. Sorry for being so vague. It's—you know, a person's thoughts can come at various 'volumes'. Things you don't want anyone to know you're thinking tend to be really quiet, while things you're thinking with your entire mind at once can be 'loud' sometimes.

Makes...a kind of sense, I suppose.

Well, I think I just sensed something distant. It's so far away that it came in too faint to really make sense of, and because of that distance I know it must've been really loud. But I don't think it indicates danger, she said, shaking her head slightly again. I'd expect emotions like fear or anger from that. I'm more getting a lot of confusion, tinted with a hint of annoyance. I'm not even really sure whose mind it is, although it does seem awfully familiar...

Do you think you should check on it anyway? Jacob thought. Just in case. I think the most difficult part is done for now anyway...I'll need a break soon or my brain will overheat, even with the help.

Ordinarily this kind of offer would be suspected of simply wanting her to leave him alone or to go check on it, but she could of course tell he was being completely honest about the rest of the reasons as well. All right then, I'll go have a look. Since it's distant and familiar, I guess it could be something back at the house, she thought, slowly getting up.

Once she was fully vertical, the catgirl offered a hand toward Jacob, and he took it in a small shake. "Pleasure working with you," she said quietly.
"Likewise," Jacob admitted. He lacked the equipment to pick up on a slight jump in Katherine's heartbeat from the physical contact, and while she walked away he turned his head downward to double-check what he'd done so far one last time—so he didn't see her tail still twitching around excitedly.

Maybe Rayna was right, and she was already in a little too deep. Tsaron certainly seemed likely to think so, based on his comments about her 'preferences' before. Well—that was a thought for another time. For now, it was time to investigate that very loud thought.

A Summoning: Part XIII

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XIII
~Fool, Part 2~

Zotha walked out of her last class in the afternoon, and considered what she should do first. There had been (figurative) radio silence from her little high priestess; she had a general sense of where Jess was and what she was doing available at will, and since she also seemed to be through with classes, the demoness decided to touch base. So, what have you been up to? Any plans?
Hello Master! I have been checking on your worshipers and helping with any problems they've been having with their rewards. A few of the ones who didn't come yesterday even came to me asking to be let back in and rewarded too. With your permission...

Sure. Same rules as always. Do you need any help?
Nope! I have everything under control, so you can do whatever you like this afternoon, Jess reported cheerfully. Well, checking in on all the cult members had been a perpetual habit of Jerod's for quite a while anyway. So...

The deity had already walked on autopilot into one of the alleys between school buildings. There were people crossing through here on the sidewalk; she turned aside to lean against the wall to the right, and made herself undetectable but with an unconscious drive for those passing to avoid bumping into her. She mused that she could probably have made herself and her stuff selectively intangible too, but this worked just fine, as she got out her phone and sent along a text to the girl who had come to her at lunch. It seemed she, too, was finished with classes for today, and would soon reach her grandfather's house—which she'd been staying in to go to school anyway, as it was in town. A short wait later, the promised meeting was arranged for—as soon as the deity got there. After plugging the address into her phone's map to get a sense of its location, Zotha was easily able to teleport herself straight there—or at least to a nearby street corner to inconspicuously walk the rest of the way. Her last text's exact words were “Be there very soon!”, and indeed she was, delicately placing a finger on the doorbell button next the door just once before dropping the hand to her side, waiting the brief moment for someone to come to the door.

The door was slowly, hesitantly opened by the girl, which gave Zotha her first look at the interior of the house. It opened into the living room, which had a fireplace mantle and bookshelves covered in all manner of knickknacks and fragile-looking souvenirs. A couch and a couple of chairs were facing the fireplace, and there was no TV in sight—at least not in this room. In general, it read to her as an older person's house—no surprise there—though it did look remarkably well-kept-up, with no obvious dust or neglect—for the home of someone who had been in a hospital bed quite recently.

“Um, L-lady Zotha,” she said nervously. “Welcome..uh..please, come in.”
The demoness nodded, entering as offered and getting a closer look at some of the shelf decorations. There were bits of things from all over the world, as far as she could tell, as well as some pieces with a few different names prominently displayed on them. One particular shelf at eye level, as well as the end tables next to the seating, were occupied with photos—an old man and woman, a younger couple and a little girl featuring prominently in several of them, with just a few featuring the same man but older alongside—clearly—Zotha's present host.

“My grandpa's um..h-he'll be out in a minute,” she said, seemingly not wanting to explicitly state he was in the restroom. “We didn't think you meant exactly uhm..this soon.”

“That's all right. I did cheat a little to get here. If I'd walked the whole way, it might've been as much as half an hour,” she said, still looking around at it all. Before long she did turn to her worshiper to say, “So, could you give me an idea of what you told him, so I know where we stand here?”
“Yes! Um. So, i-it's just, I told him that someone powerful and nice had, offered me a wish, and that I'd used it to, make him well again,” she said. “He got me to tell him your name, too, and um..then asked to meet.” After a second or two, she nodded, half to herself, that that was about it.

“Seems like he's on his way out now.” Zotha reported—sensing the movement of another person in the adjoining rooms.

“Ah! Um. P-please excuse me a minute,” the girl said, hurrying in that direction to—no doubt—inform him their guest had arrived.

The man seen in those photographs soon followed her back out—a tall, wiry man with clear, bright blue eyes, deep wrinkles, and the beginnings of baldness evident on his head amidst some straight, thin white hair. He wore a slightly baggy long-sleeved shirt and jeans, and greeted Zotha with a friendly grin on his way into the room. “Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes?” he said. “Name's Graham, miss,” he offered a hand, which she took to shake. He seemed to be going for a firm, confident shake, but had some clear weakness from the recent hospital visit.

“Zotha. But I suppose you know that already?” she said.

“Mm-hm. So,” he dropped his hand back to his side, “you're this 'wish-granter' Rachel here told me about?”

“I suppose so. I'm no genie or anything, but I did want to help you get better once she told me about you,” she said.

“Hmn. Well, thank you,” he said, “first of all. The doctors had a pretty big surprise when they scanned me one last time before that risky surgery and found it all gone all of a sudden. Nothin' short of a miracle, eh?”

“Magic, at least,” Zotha agreed with a slight nod.

The old man nodded back, and made his way over to the more comfortable-looking of the chairs. “Pardon me—I still can't walk around too much just yet. You're welcome to a seat too, if you'd like one,” he said. The demoness took him up on the offer, sitting on the far side of the couch from him, tilted a bit in his direction to continue talking.

“Now, you'll tell me the truth, won't you?” he said—still with a friendly tone, along with a slight pleading lilt and a stare fixed at her face. “I've been in and out of it for the past few months, but I'm no fool. I know when my granddaugther's involved in something she doesn't want to tell me about.” Rachel, still standing up behind the other chair, shuffled nervously to one side a bit. “I imagine most, 'magic', comes with some sort of a cost. So: Is there something she owes you for this?” he asked, waving vaguely to himself.
“Hmmn.” Zotha considered, a fingertip at her lower lip. “That's tricky to answer, you know. If I just tell you 'no' you might not believe me, and I wouldn't blame you. But it is the truth—what I needed from her I already have, and it didn't really cost her anything. I think a more full explanation might be in order.”

“Hmn.” Graham's gaze was somewhat suspicious. “Well, if you say so, go on then.”

“Okay. Let's see...three days ago—Friday, that is, I was an ordinary college student. I looked just like...this,” Zotha said, waving off to her left and simultaneously making an illusion of her previous appearance. This startled both of the humans in the room just briefly, which she allowed a pause for, before continuing. “Your granddaughter was desperate for help, as I understand it, and so had signed onto a certain...let's say, suspicious club at our school, which among other things promised its followers 'anything they wanted' if they helped achieve a particular goal. I was also a member, briefly, mainly out of curiosity. I tried to quit shortly before last Friday, so their leaders kidnapped me...”

After summarizing the salient details of the past couple of days, including a few more magically-provided visual aids to gently peel off the veil for Graham, Zotha concluded: “I'm still trying to figure this whole 'being a god' thing out, but it seems that gratitude for my acts is what 'feeds' me and my power. So when I say Rachel doesn't owe me anything more, I mean it.” Graham looked at his granddaughter—sitting on the other chair by now—who nodded, indicating that what Zotha had said matched with what she knew, at least.

“I see. It's pretty far-fetched, but I can't too well deny the evidence when I'm a part of it,” he said. “So—this desire grantin' business. Is it only for folks who helped you become what you are now, or..?”
“I'm not sure. So far I've used my powers to help at least one person who didn't, and it seemed to work out fine,” Zotha said. “I suppose there's something you'd like to ask me for?”

“Shoot, are you kiddin'?” Graham said. “Make me young again,” he said, gesturing emphatically to himself. “If that's not too much for you, I mean.”
“G-grandpa!?” Rachel sat up, startled by the sudden request.

“Being old stinks, Rachel. Anyhow, being healthy for now is amazing, more than I could ever have asked for up till now. I appreciate it, really I do, but—this body's still weak and frail, after all, and that isn't liable to get better with age. I don't want to leave you any more than you want to see me go,” he said, earnestly.
“It's all right,” Zotha said. “I haven't tried something like that before, but I don't see why it wouldn't be possible. I have made somebody already young able to stay that way...though, the method I used in that case is probably best not repeated.”
“So, you'd be willing to try it?” he asked. “I'll worship you the rest of my days if it works!”

“Heheh. Well, your being thankful for it is good enough.” The demoness stood up. “Hmn. Now...the last time I used my power to do something even slightly drastic...let's say, it has certain leanings I'm not entirely sure how to control.” She crossed her arms, half-thinking to herself. “It would really be best to attempt this in private.”

“Well, I did just get settled, but..” Graham slowly pushed himself back onto his feet. “Do you suppose my bedroom would be private enough, then?”
“Sure.” At least I can make it so, she thought. Turning toward Rachel as he started that way, she held up an index finger. “No peeking, all right? I solemnly swear this won't harm him at all.”
“Um..o-okay,” she said nervously—still entirely uncertain about the whole affair, but unwilling to object when it could mean her grandfather being healthy for the foreseeable future. After that, Zotha followed him into the hallway adjoining the living room, and finally to a small bedroom. There were two small beds with a nightstand set between them, some dressers and a shorter bookshelf—all adorned similarly to the living room, the shelf having several well-worn books lining it also.

“Heh, can't say I envisioned a pretty lady entering my room today,” Graham joked. “Hope you won't mind if I take a seat.” He sat at the edge of the bed closer to the door—the other one, though it was still made up, looked dusty, unused for a long time perhaps.

“I was just about to suggest that,” Zotha said, quietly shutting the door behind her before magically 'locking' it and soundproofing the room. “Not because of your age or present health, just that my power could knock anyone off their feet if we're not careful.”

“If you say so.” The old man looked around the room for a second or two, displaying a touch of nervousness for the first time since meeting her. “How do we go about this, then? Will it take a while?”
“It shouldn't take long at all. Just hold still where you are,” she instructed.

With that, Zotha spread her arms and spoke a command: “Bᴇ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ʏᴏᴜɴɢ.” It was gentler and far less forceful than the one she'd used on the werewolf, since there shouldn't be any will resisting this time, although the desired effects were perhaps more drastic. Preventing age was one thing, she thought, but reversing it seemed like another entirely. Nonetheless, her power responded to the command quite similarly, streams of purple magic emanating from her palms into the man seated at the edge of the bed. Instead of wrapping around him first, each stream of magic seemed to spread out to the height of his entire form before making its way into him on either side. He watched with mesmerized interest, at least until it made contact with him, which seemed to cause a slight shudder.

“Is it cold?” the demoness asked, mostly just curious; already her power was finished leaving her, but it was still in the process of entering him.
“No. It's..quite warm really,” Graham reported, before visibly fighting off another shudder. “Bit tickly, though.” Its effect was already beginning to show on his face as wrinkles started to smooth away and fade from his skin. Before it had even finished entering him the power did the work of regrowing some hair, white locks replacing the baldness and thickening the rest of his hair to a more youthful volume. Even the hair that had already been present changed a bit, starting to look softer and bouncier along with the new strands. It was curious that it was all white—for surely it hadn't been originally—but Zotha knew that would probably be the least of the alterations made before it was over.

“Hmmnnh.” The magic fully in him now, Graham stretched in place, reaching his arms up and arching his back a little bit. His skin turned fully smooth and youthful, and now he was shaving off years internally, too, stiff bones and sore muscles loosening up and softening. When he came out of the stretch his hair began to grow longer, soft white locks trickling their way down his forehead, the sides of his face, and across the back of his neck. “Oh, this feels wonderful,” he said, oblivious to the hair growth for now. “Don't think I've felt so good in twenty years!”
“Seems like it's working, then,” Zotha said, nodding approvingly. His face changed a little more now, growing smaller and rounder in addition to the softened skin. Besides that, Graham started to shrink ever so slightly as the hair made its way just to his shoulders, framing the shrinking face to give it an even more youthful, almost cute look.

“Yeah! Hahah..mmMNnnh!” He stretched again, and this time bent himself back farther than would have probably been advisable a short moment ago. The damage of age disappeared from his insides now, his very bones and organs turning to those of a man in his mid-twenties at the latest, and he came out of the stretch with a bright, energetic grin that broadcasted a steady buildup of youthful energy inside him as the long years fell away. “I feel like I could run a marathon! Or at least get around my house without getting tired, eh?” he joked, still not noticing the hair across his shoulders, or the bangs threatening to block his eyes, or even the locks making their way down past his chest in the back. His slow shrinking began to speed up now, and along with a loss of height Zotha observed his shirt growing even baggier on him as his shoulders began to narrow, his waist flattening and slimming.

“Hahahah...aa~aah..” Graham sighed, his voice rising ever so slightly in pitch in the midst of it. He squirmed slightly in place, beginning to, perhaps unconsciously, register something else changing. “Now that's a funny kind of feelin',” he said. “Hm~mnh..” His voice began higher than the previous sentence, and climbed again. “Like everything's getting, bigger..?” He looked around, his increasingly long hair swishing about him. At this point Zotha's magic began affecting his clothes, first making his shirt shrink to fit his smaller form—mostly, at least; the collar seemed to widen and the sleeves only became a little bit shorter, still fairly loose on his slimming arms. Its color and pattern began to fade toward the same pure, snowy white as his hair, and the hem puffed out slightly, starting to gain some kind of trim.
“You do appear to be shrinking,” Zotha said. She found she really didn't want to spoil the 'surprise' for him, any more than she had wanted to warn him about the possibility ahead of time.

“I-I see. Aa~ah.” He made this sound seemingly absently, and his voice rose to a clear tenor as he did. “Still feels pretty good, but...h-how young are you making me, exactly?”

“You should still be an adult when it's through,” she said. “I made sure of that.”

“I-I see..” Graham's pants slid down off of his hips, revealing a pair of underwear which was clearly in the midst of transforming from boxers into something much shorter and tighter—already it hugged his hips a bit tightly, and the leggings were hugging closer than any ordinary underwear would be. Then the jeans split apart down the middle, beginning to thin into soft cloth and wrap themselves tightly against his slimming legs. He was preoccupied during this with awkwardly squirming in place, reaching a hand up past a suddenly overlong sleeve just in time to see it shrinking, the fingers turning small and delicate while the nails grew a bit longer and changed from stubby and clipped to looking very recently manicured. “Th-the~en..?” His voice cracked slightly, starting to sound less like a man's and more like a boy's. “What's..why'm I..?”

His eyes fluttered just a bit, and then Graham stretched again, seemingly not entirely voluntarily. He let out a relieved-sounding “Mm~mnh” in a young boy's voice all the same, as he leaned himself completely backwards across the width of the bed, his limber frame arching up in the middle as the last vestiges of stiffness gave way to considerably more flexibility than perhaps he'd ever had before. At the very same moment, his ears stretched out, poking their way past his long, voluminous hair as big triangles covered in white fuzz which rapidly erupted into proper fur, complete with thick fluff adorning the inside of each ear.

“Ah, aa~aah..” Graham settled over onto his back rather than sitting up again, squirming slowly as his body shrank a little more, the white sweater tightening on his slender torso only slightly while the leggings that had once been a pair of jeans pulled snugly against his smooth, shapely legs, their color brightening into wide horizontal stripes of white and gray. His hands reached down and gripped the top tightly, inadvertently pulling its thick fur trim up enough to reveal a pair of tight, soft panties which had entirely replaced his underwear, and which were now hugging close against a tiny bulge just barely visible between his legs. “Mnh, I-I get it now,” he murmured in a soft, high, girlish voice.

Just after this, the once-old man thrashed slightly in place, letting out a somewhat loud, very feline “Mrrr~rrooo~owww!” as his sex changed fully, the panties pulling flat and snug between her legs, and at the same time a long, slim tail covered in snowy white fur spilled its way out from her back, sliding audibly across the top cover of the bed as it went. Her mouth was open enough during this cry for Zotha to make out the steady growth of a few of her teeth into catlike fangs, further confirming her conversion into another kind of animal-ish person.

“Aah, aa~aah..” Graham's movements slowed temporarily as her voice audibly matured just slightly into a soft, high soprano fitting her cute, petite form. Then she let out a long, deeply pleased purr as her figure developed, her hips and thighs thickening just slightly and pushing the tight clothing against each out just enough to remain taut against them. Meanwhile her chest puffed forward into a tiny pair of bumps at first, but then with another feline cry not unlike the one that had accompanied her change of sex those bumps rapidly pushed their way out into a sizable pair of breasts visible even through the relatively loose-fitting sweater.

“Mrrr~rrh...” After that, the youthened catgirl let out a long, sighing purr of relief as the intense feelings from the transformation faded off, allowing her at first to physically relax and then to slowly sit herself up on the bed and, just as slowly, open her eyes and blink up at the deity responsible for all of that a couple of times. Letting go of the sweater so it could properly hide her hips and underwear from view again, she said, “Well, I suppose this is the 'leanings' you mentioned. Mrow..some particular reason I feel so much like a cat, now?” She turned her head to one side, gently lifting her tail at about the middle to examine it, at which point both she and Zotha noticed something unusual at the tip—for just an inch or so there, it split off into two tail-tips, each one the same thickness as the rest of the tail was up to the base.

“I can't say exactly why, but the influx of power turned you into a...'Neko',” Zotha said, tapping into some sort of inherent knowledge source similar to when she had briefly channeled the fox goddess's words. The difference this time was a clear lack of any conscious entity directing her words, instead feeling as though the universe itself was feeding her the desired information regarding the results of her order. “It seems likely that you have some Neko ancestry, but not enough for those traits to have manifested without 'help'. And..I guess you're also 'wise' enough for your tail to start splitting?”

“Uh, 's that a bad thing?” she asked, letting go to look up again. Graham's concerned expression was positively adorable, only further enhanced by her ears twitching ever so slightly and her tail starting to swish back and forth against the bed behind her as soon as she let it free.
“Not at all. Apparently if it splits all the way up to its base, turning into two complete tails, you become a 'Nekomata', which um..the traits of which include immortality and amazing magical powers.”
“Well, isn't that something?” She reached up and ran a hand across one of her ears. “Think I'll keep it, then. I admit it feels much better than I would've thought if you'd told me ahead of time.”

“Don't get me wrong,” Zotha said, crossing her arms, “I had no idea it'd turn you part cat. Actually it's the, ah, other thing my power seems inclined to do for some reason.”
“Oh.” The catgirl dropped the hand from her ear again and carefully hefted one of the new assets adorning her chest a bit, looking down to examine it. “Well, this is pretty nice too.” She dropped her arm and looked up again. “I've lived a whole life as a man, after all, so if I'm gonna go through it all again, the other side of the fence oughta at least be a change of pace. And maybe it'll help me relate to my granddaughter a bit more, eh?” She hopped up onto her feet—her forehead now about where the demoness's chest was—and looked around. “Gonna take some getting used to, being this short, though.”

“I could fix that, you know,” Zotha said. “Now that the drastic change is done, it's easy enough to change individual physical characteristics.”
“Hmn..” Graham considered this for a moment, even bringing a finger up to her lips as she thought. “Nah. It's such a big change I can hardly say what I like or don't just yet. If the offer's open, I'd like to try and get used to this before complainin' about it too much.”
“Fair enough. Iiin that case, then, we'll need to break this to Rachel somehow,” the demoness said.
“There is that, now, isn't there? Heheh, I'm shorter'n she is now!” she said with a bright grin. “I'm sure she'll be happy it worked. Even if grandpa's different, he—ah, she can stay with her as long as she likes, now!”

“True.”

Zotha started to turn toward the door to open it again, when the small Neko grabbed onto a sleeve, briefly restraining her. “Yes?”
“Before we do go tell her, allow me one particular gesture of gratitude,” Graham said. “I've got quite an urge to do it, all of a sudden.”
“Well...sure, I suppose?” she shrugged.

“Mrow!” With that, the smaller girl pounced upward, catching the deity off-guard enough for her to stumble back just slightly, pulling her small, slim arms around Zotha in a tight hug. She'd placed herself high up enough to lean a cheek against one of Zotha's, their hair mingling and her soft ear tickling the corner of the demoness's head.

“Whoa—heheh.” She gently returned the hug for a moment.
“Mrrh...I'm not sure if I can really express my gratitude in words, so...felt like I had to do this instead all of the sudden,” Graham said. “This must come with some powerful instincts or somethin'.”
“I imagine so.” Zotha carefully peeled the smaller girl off and set her down on the floor again. “You should know I can actually feel the gratitude coming off of you, in fact. For lack of a better word, it's 'delicious'.”
“Heheh, if you say so,” Graham said.

“Let's go, then?”
“Mm-hm.”

The "Best" RPG Ever-87

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---

Randall's first response when they came in sight of the town was another "Crikey!" He stared quietly for the next several steps. "That's your town? I though' all the frontier towns were ramshackle huts outta sticks an' glue. You've got a bloomin' wall. Tall one, at that."

"To be fair, I think any such town that's survived more than a year or two has a wall by pure necessity," Mira said. "But this one does have a reputation for being unusually persistent and stable. The guard's very good at their job, too."

"They're even trying to get a teleport crystal thing shipped out here," Aria volunteered.

"Hmnn..guard, you say?" The earth mage chewed on that for a moment or so. "Their, ah..captain. Wouldn't happen to be named, Zair, say? Or Rezzy?"
"No..?" the witch said.
"Hmn. Ezra, then?"

"You know her?"

"Ohhh, gooods," He leaned back, putting a hand on his forehead as though the inevitable hangover had suddenly materialized all at once. "Yeah, I know her. Not lookin' forward to this so much now."
"I suppose you were in her party before?" Lynn asked.

"We didn't exactly part nicely," he answered, with an implied 'yes'. "I think—and it's been a very long time, see—but she might'ave threatened to tear my ears off if she ever saw my face again. S'pose we'll just have to see, ey?" He gave a somewhat drier chuckle than usual with this, but continued on with them, evidently not taking the remembered threat too seriously.

"Now, where do you stand on witches and warlocks, then?" Mira asked.

"Cripes, how well do ya know the woman?" Randall complained. "Or is she just a looser talker than she used to be? Either way—I thought that whole row was just daft! No matter what sort a' person someone is, you can't act on somefin' you don't know about, much less resolve to attack people for what they might do, eh? Right stupid notion, that." He punctuated this with an emphatic hiccup, about as they came in earshot of the guards standing at the gate.

Once they were inside the city walls, the Felis man visibly took a moment to take in the sight of the town. "Ahh, civilization. You don' know how much you miss it 'till you spend a couple months out in the sticks." Halfway turning back toward them, he said, "I don't s'pose you can direct me to the guard station or like? I don' think I'll ever have such a lovely escort again, but if ol' Ezzy's here there's no use tryin'a hide myself from her, either."
"We need to go that way to report on our work anyway," Mira said. "Besides, I don't think I want to miss her reaction to seeing you at this point."

"You're crueler than you look, lass," he said, his ears lowering just slightly. "But—a'right, then. Lead the way."

---

"Say, Jacob," Rayna said. "You've been studying monsters and chaos magic and stuff for a while, right?"
"Not exactly. It's mostly ancillary to my primary area of study, and even then..."
"Well, surely you know more than I do about them just to know that spell and what you needed to analyze from it, right?"
"Perhaps," he conceded hesitantly. "I presume you have some sort of question?"
"Yeah. Chaotic magic is..more concentrated out in the frontier than it is elsewhere, right?" she half-guessed, from the evidence she already had.

"Certainly. It's well-recorded that the deeper you go, the denser it is. And there is an obvious correlation with the population and strength of the monsters present, as well."
"I don't suppose any of your research has turned up anything about the center of the frontier?"

"Center," he repeated—a confused repetition of the word bordering on being a question.

"Sure. If you look at the maps, the frontier is roughly an oval-ish blob, and 'deeper in' is always closer to the 'middle'."
"I'm not much of a cartographer," he admitted. "That is..highly interesting, however. Yes, it makes sense..." he half-muttered to himself. "...If it's some sort of propogation from..."

"But you've never read anything to that effect at all?" the fox-girl pressed. "It seems like an almost obvious conclusion once one has the right information."

"Hmmn. Some topics related to chaotic magic can run into dangerous knowledge," Jacob stated. "That is the most logical conclusion. A mind instinctively avoids such knowledge without the right kind of deliberate focusing, and often there will be...coincidences...which prevent those stubborn enough to learn it from recording it, or at least from having those records published too widely."

"I see. 'Coincidences'?" the illusionist said.
"Sure. Who do you think makes information dangerous in the first place? All it takes is a few nudges, maybe a couple of bad dreams for the right people," Jacob said.

"Have you ever actually learned something dangerous?" she asked.

"I'm very careful not to. More than once I was warned it can cause quite the headache," the elf said. "So whenever I find it particularly difficult to focus on something for no apparent reason, I allow the subject to be changed for me." He shook his head slightly. "I feel a little distracted about this topic already, in fact. I really need to focus my efforts on analyzing the data from today's scan."

"I suppose I'll drop it for now, then," Rayna said.

Funny, I don't feel all that disinclined to think about it. And neither did Lynn, or...anyone else in that dream meeting when we spoke about this.

Maybe we're 'allowed' to think about it? Katherine suggested, restricting this conversation to the three of them from Earth. Which could mean it's related to our 'mission', even. But you still saw something directly through that crystal which did hurt.

Ugh, don't remind me.

---

"Heeey!" Despite his earlier reactions, the instant Randall caught sight of the Captain on her way out of the guard station was to cheerfully yell and wave at her, and then walk—in a brisk sort of half-drunken-stumble—over to her. "Ezzy! Been a dragon's age, 'asn't it?"

She stopped, crossing her arms and glaring up at him. "Randall. What are you doing here?"

"You know, tha's the sort a' question I was hoping you could answer for me," the Felis answered. "See, for the past—mus' be about a year by now—anytime I slept in the same place more th'n two nights in a row, I got these horrible nightmares. Or if I didn't go in a certain direction, I'd have one right away. Seein' as you're the only one of us I can imagine still bein' in the gods' good graces, maybe they'd'ave been polite enough to inform you of why."

"I should say not. This is as much an unpleasant surprise for me as it is for you."

"Well, I wouldn' say entirely unpleasant. You look as dashin' as ever," he said. It didn't elicit any response beyond the usual glare.

While Randall evidently didn't care, it had hardly escaped Ezra's notice that they had an audience. After briefly glaring around at them, she waved him back toward the guardhouse. "We should speak in private," she said, leading the way back to her office.

Once inside, she shut the door and took a moment to pick an object resembling a dreamcatcher off of a nearby shelf and hang it on a hook on the inside of the door, speaking a four-syllable activation spell which caused the center of it to glow. The earth mage, still standing not far into the room, watched this with interest, as well as her progress around to behind the desk. "Privacy charm, 'ey?" he said. "Fair enough; you've made some awfully nosy friends 'round here."

"I hope you're still capable of blanking while drunk," she said, sitting down. The stern expression she'd worn outside had been taken off like a mask, replaced with a softer, more neutral one—perhaps a bit tired.
"Whaa?" He didn't get it for just a second, and then he did. "You mean that bloomin' psycho is here too?!"

"Ron's mellowed out somewhat," she stated, "and anyway he's not a psycho, and isn't the only powerful psion in town, either. Please take a seat before you trip over yourself and land on something important."
"A'right, a'right." Randall half-stumbled around to sit in the chair in front of the desk.

"But I say, anyone who threatens to pop my head like a balloon, is a psycho in my book."

"I threatened to tear your ears off," she countered.

"Sure, but I'd still 'ave most a' my head, then," he insisted. "Anyway, did you forget 'e can control a whole population of folks if he really wants to, these days? I just don't see how someone with that sort a' power can possibly be stable, or safe to be around."

"At any rate, he respects that this is my town," Ezra said. "He won't go exploding any heads without my permission. So you should be safe enough if, as I said, your blanking works."
"I can blank in my bloomin' sleep! I'm not even half as drunk as I could be, either," Randall insisted.

"So, you don' know why I'm here, ey?" he said, changing the subject when she didn't respond to that.
"Not specifically. I can tell we've been gathered here for a reason. Bimorphaeus deciding to do that to get you here only confirms that theory. In which case, the three of us may be the only ones left."

"Ah." His ears folded down just slightly for a second or two, and he looked away. "Tha's a shame."

"You know," Randall leaned forward a bit. "Before I get offed by the psycho or somethin' else out 'ere, like whatever we were supposed to fight in the first place say...I never did mention how I died. Sure, he knows, but you don't. It don' seem right at this point, in my book."
"It's yours to share or not," Ezra said. "I won't press you."
"No, no. It's alright. I don' really know why I ever thought it needed to be a big secret in the first place. It's pretty simple, really. I was walkin' on my way home from work, see. Late in the afternoon? Some bloke was robbing a store, and I knew the owner pretty well. Somehow or other he got a hold of the officer's gun, and I got there about when it fired off." Leaning back again, he put a hand up to his chest. "I thought it'd be a brilliant idea to disarm him, since he had 'is back to me and all. We get in a right scuffle, and I get shot too. By then there's more police, and they tackle him down just after, get the gun off him. Now I don't think I died right off, then, since..now, this part none of the rest a' you seem to have.

"I had a sort of, out-a'-body experience, for a minute or so, before I woke up in the place. I could see myself lyin' in a hospital bed, with my wife leanin' over me. I think—I don' know much about how it all works, but I think she was saying goodbye. They were just then turning those machines off, I think. Maybe my kids were 'round too, but it was a weird sorta vision, I couldn't see too much. I always wonder how long I was in that coma, before that. Anyway..in the middle of the nightmares I'd have every third night or so if I wasn't on the way here, after bein' chased by wha'ever horrors the dreammaker cooked up to make my sleep unpleasant, I'd find myself walkin' into tha' room, see my wife and kids all standing around me in that hospital bed just looking at me." He shook his head, and gave a single, very bitter "Heh."

Ezra looked concerned. "Are you all right?"

"Sure, sure. It's been a long time," he said, his expression a bit more neutral. "Jus'...you were old and retired, Ezzy, got to see your kids grow up to the point where they took care a' you. Not me. I was the breadwinner, and still just gettin' by with the family I had. I had life insurance, yeah, but if I ever got a distant look in my eye back then, it was me thinking, wonderin' if, or how they were getting on without me. Thinking, that's what being a hero gets the folks you care the most about. If it wasn't bad enough I hardly slept every coupla nights, having that old wound opened up every single time was worse. I admit, I was drinking plenty before all this. But if you wanta know how I got on a habit of drinkin' my eyes out every opportunity I could, that's it. I think the ol' dreamweaver is a pretty cruel one, and if the other gods were involved in that decision then I hardly want anything to do with 'em or their—hic—machinations."

Ezra sighed. "You're right, that is unusually cruel. There's no denying it was effective, however." She paused for a moment, thinking. "Tell me: Would you have come here at all if you felt like you had a choice?"
"I don' suppose I would, no. Like I say, bein' a hero just gets you killed," Randall said. "If everyone else is dead, that's why. We both know it's how Valorum died, and Ceres too."

She glared at him for this, looking ready to make good on the ear-tearing threat.

"You know it's true. No' that I don't appreciate what they did, we'd maybe all be dead otherwise, and that...monster still about. But...I guarantee the psycho's been avoiding keepin' his own hands dirty this whole time, to 'ave survived, and from what I hear a' your exploits...I'd guess you're just lucky, or too bloody good for it to ever catch up to you."

"Maybe so. But in my opinion, I've lived long enough anyway," Ezra said. "I'd rather my death actually accomplish something rather than fading away, personally."
"Heh. That's what separates you from the two of us, I suppose. But 'ey, if you've got any major construction you need an earth mage for 'round here, I seem to be trapped in this area anyway, so I'll lend any help you like."
"Are you fixing to leave?" Ezra asked, tilting her head just slightly. "I haven't even told you what's going on around here yet. Besides us being gathered here."
"Eh? Well, what's that, then?"

---

"Well, that was disappointingly boring," Mira said.
"I could've predicted that," said Aria. "Her charisma's way too high to make a real scene in front of the rest of the guard." She waved toward the station after the two of them entered. "If he comes out earless then at least we'll know something happened."

"We need to go in there anyway," said Clera, "in order to report our quests."
"Mmh. Just one from each party, maybe," Lynn suggested. "Don't want her to think we're trying to eavesdrop. Clera?" The winged girl nodded, and followed her inside.

"Hmph." The witch crossed her arms. "You could eavesdrop," she waved toward Nora, "but you're too nice, eh?"

"Um..I don't really want to be involved. Even putting everything else aside...they're both unfathomably powerful," the weaver stated. "It is...one thing to see the Captain's martial skill on display, but...was another entirely to feel the immeasurable strength of Randall's casual tug on the earth. While inebriated." She shuddered slightly. "He doesn't seem entirely stable, either."

"Yeah, and Ezra's such a good actor she could be totally insane and none of us would ever know it," the shifter agreed.

"Heey!" Everyone turned toward Rayna, the source of the voice, in the lead of the group who'd gone out first. She waved and then ran closer.

"Yooo, everyone's intact!" Aria said with a bright grin. "I guess you were successful?"
"Yep! So what have you all been up to?"

"We found another member of Ezra's party. He's truly the worst kind of person—a killstealer," she said with a clenched fist and an exaggerated, dark tone of voice. Jacob watched this with obvious bemusement, while Zack went around to quietly stand close to where Nora was.

Katherine cleared her throat. "Jacob, these are some of the others. Rose, Aria, Mira...I think you met Nora before.
He gave the latter a confused look—as she was still in the catlike form at the moment. "Er..right. But, weren't you..?"
"I am using a...power, to look different," she explained.

"Ah. And..." He further stared at Rose for a moment. "Ahm...I had heard rumors there was a friendly dragon around. It is, most kind of you to grace us with your presence."
"Uhm. Okaay?" Rose didn't understand the reason for the sudden formality any more than she had with Loren.

"Aah-at any rate," the elf said, turning back to Katherine (as a more normal or at least familiar person present, and friendlier than Zack or the wolf was), "At this point it's fair to consider my request complete. However, we, never exactly discussed the matter of payment..."

"It's pretty close to lunchtime, isn't it?" the catgirl said.

"Er.." His eyes darted nervously toward the small multitude gathered, including particularly the one who was a dragon.
"Oh—don't worry, I wouldn't ask you to feed ten people. I just meant we could discuss it over that, if you like?"
"Ah. Well. Certainly." He nodded once, then paused, hesitating again as his mind caught up on a particular detail. "...Ten?"

---

"...All nine?" For a moment, the tall Felis seemed snapped out of his drunkenness, sitting up straight and appearing to concentrate seriously on a topic for a moment. "I suppose I understand why you've told that lot so much, then. And the dragon, too?" Ezra nodded. "Heh, unbelievable." His grin returned. "I knew there was something kindred about that lot. I suppose you want this private as you haven't quite disclosed everything yet?"
"Neither I nor Ron want them to know we're from Earth just yet," she said. "Which is why you had better remain sober enough to properly blank around their psion."
"Oh, sure, sure. It's easy to find another source of entertainment besides blackin' myself out in such company. 'Less you're telling me not to associate?"
She sighed. "I know you would, even if I forbade you. Just remember this: Our theory is that the gods want them to accomplish something—whatever it is we didn't or couldn't do. They want us to help them, all of us, desperately enough to put you through what they did. If you do anything to or with them that might compromise that...they probably won't be very happy with you."
Randall fixed her with a lopsided look, one of his ears up and the other at the side. "Ezzy, I don't really know what sort a' person you think I am. I just wan' the opportunity to get to know 'em a bit."
"As long as you're clear on that. I'm only giving you this warning out of concern for you, after all."

"Alright. So, what do the other three look like, then?" he asked, leaning in just slightly. "For, ah, future reference?"

The Captain of the guard shook her head, air coming out of her nose in what might have been a suppressed chuckle. "You'll probably just recognize them by association with those you've met already, but...The other psion I've been telling you about is a dark-haired Felis, solid-color fur. More of a show-off than Ron is these days, so she shouldn't be that hard to identify. There is also a white-haired Canis knight named Zack, has a dire wolf following her around all the time; failing to refer to her as male is a good way to get on her bad side quickly. The last one is a redheaded Vulpin illusionist."

"Oh, one of those? She have the proper Sight?" he asked, leaning in a little more.
"I thought that might get your attention. I had a chance to see it myself just recently; as the pattern is with this group, her talent exceeds any other I've seen.

"Amazing. Can't wait to meet 'er. If I'm not mistaken, they went for one of each again, only countin' dragons too this time?"

"Seems so," Ezra nodded. "And a half Avian rather than full."

---

I can't fully remember whether it's been explicitly stated that the first group all died on Earth before coming to this world, so I'm not sure how much of a reveal Randall's statements here are exactly. At least I'm pretty sure there's a bit more detail about Ezra here.

A Summoning: Part XII

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---

XII 
~Fool, Part 1~

After the events of the weekend, it felt extremely strange to come straight back to the routine of classes on Monday morning. There were some predictably odd looks in store from those who should otherwise have recognized those visibly transformed; Anika and Riana alone would escape scrutiny, and even then the latter was closely associated with someone now sporting some unusual traits for those capable of seeing them. Still, the professors at least had been forewarned and proceeded with class as usual, which went a long way toward encouraging everyone else to do the same.

Some confrontation, however, was inevitable. Zotha understood this much, and went to the usual cafeteria for lunch fully braced for what—rather who—she expected to encounter there. Jess had already more or less pulled her entire circle of friends and reasonably close acquaintances into the whole cult thing over the past almost-year or so, but Zotha still had friends not involved in this mess at all, who she had decided ought to be let into the loop—a few at a time, perhaps. They shared no classes that morning, but surely talk had spread everywhere by now of her altered appearance. The demoness went looking around for which table they had taken, and wandered up, drawing stares.

It was just two people; she'd been stared at by considerably more over the past couple of days or so. Nonetheless it was people who actually knew her, so she couldn't help expressing some nerves while tentatively placing a tray onto the table. “Ah..hello there. Mind if I join you?” she said.
“Um...sure,” Daisuke said; it wasn't difficult to follow his eyes. He was blond, white with Japanese ancestry on his mother's side, perpetually overweight and squishy-looking. He was pursuing a visual arts major, and tended to be the DM or whatever equivalent term applied at their semi-regular gaming sessions.

Thomas didn't say anything, just staring while she slowly moved into the seat on one empty side of the table. He was taking in her entire appearance—well, the human one the Veil gave him probably—rather than focusing on one particular detail. Zeke had known him since late high school; he was dark-haired, pale-skinned, tall and skinny and wore glasses—looking the part of a shut-in nerd. It surprised people sometimes just how physically active he was, especially after hearing his major was in computer science.

Zotha looked between the two of them. “Well—I'm not sure how to start this conversation,” she said.
“You're Zeke?” Thomas said, starting it for her, but this only confused Dai.

“Wait—what?” He looked between the two of them several times.

“Right. Well—I'm calling myself Zotha now,” she said. “How much have you heard?”
“Just that...something happened, and now like five or six different guys on campus got turned into chicks,” Thomas said.
“I only know of three, including myself...but I guess that's rumors for you.”

“So what happened?” Daisuke said.

“Wait, before that. Is it even really you?”

“It is, but, well...proof is a little hard to come by. I didn't exactly expect any of this weekend to happen to me,” Zotha said. “Anything you think only I would know?”

“Well, uh, only a few people would know what happened a few weekends ago,” Dai suggested. “Thirteenth of March?”

“Let's see...” she put a finger on her cheek half-unconsciously, thinking back. “We got sealed in by an earthquake trap. Mister prepared over here—” waving to Thomas “—pulled a bunch of shovels out of his sack of holding and told us to start digging because he was the weak elf mage girl and couldn't handle any physical work herself—just 'directing'. Then everyone else started arguing about how somebody should've prepped a teleport spell, until my dwarven gunner ended the discussions by improvising a bomb out of gunpowder and shell casings and blowing the door in front of us open with it. After that we fought some goblins and orcs and stuff, and one of them hit the elf with a cursed blade, but we all got out okay otherwise. Then we had to quit for the night before you could reveal with the curse actually did. About right?”
“..Yeeah,” Thomas said. “Every person who should know all that is male, and I've seen them all except for Zeke. So..I guess it is you, or he's part of a big elaborate prank and neither of us are privy to it.” Dai nodded agreement with this assessment.

“Okay, it's great you believe that much,” Zotha said, rubbing her hands. “We wouldn't have time to get to half of what happened otherwise.”
“There's more?” Daisuke said, incredulous.
“Yeah, I wouldn't even call this the beginning,” she said, waving to her appearance. “But some of this is secrets, both other people's and mine. I need to your promise me you won't tell everyone else about it for at least a little while.”
“Um..alright,” Thomas said, Dai nodding agreement again.

---

Steph crossed his arms, looking over the girl Andrew had brought in on their prank. “Ugh..you?”
“Yeah, me. Like, what, you got a problem with me?”

“Just that you couldn't hide the truth from somebody if it was stapled to the base of your tail,” he said. Then, a questioning look toward his roommate.

“She's one of Zotha's followers,” he explained, “wants help getting a second tail. I thought being a part of this would help. Plus her element could be really useful for what we want.”

“What is your element, then?” Steph asked, turning back to her.
“Oh, uh, like thunder and lightning and stuff? Plus you know, magnets.”
“Magnets,” he repeated.

“...How do you not have like three tails by now!?” he yelled while waving his arms, secure in knowing that the library study room was under a perfect silence/privacy charm courtesy of his four-tailed roommate.

“Well, like, it's kinda hard...?”

“It's so easy! Humans made all these—devices that use that stuff all the time,” he said, pulling out his phone and pointing emphatically at it. “You just need to have enough control not to short one out and you can convince any idiot their phone or tablet is haunted!”
“Yeeah...like, I have trouble with that part though. Plus I didn't wanna strike anyone with lightning or anything.”
“You learn control from practice, dummy! Did your parents not teach you any of this stuff?”
“Ummm...” She looked around nervously for a moment. “Sooo, like. I guess I'm what you'd call a muggle-born? My folks can't even see my ears or anything...”
Steph sighed. “I guess that explains a few things. Unless they're just pretending and hoping you'll figure it out at some point, but even then...okay, fine. For you to even be useful for this thing we at least need 'not striking people with lightning' control, so maybe, I'll give you some pointers.”

---

After giving her explanation, Zotha gently nudged her personal magic to reveal her non-human traits to the two boys she was sitting with. “So...this is what I really look like,” she said while both of them stared.

“Oh wow..you really do look like a demon,” Thomas said.

“Like some kinda succubus,” Dai helpfully added.

“So, but, you're not really? You're some kinda like—goddess or something?”

“More or less,” she shrugged.

“So, couldn't you just look like 'Zeke' then, instead of going halfway?”
“Hm. An illusion like that would be very easy for me, but it doesn't feel right. For one thing, word had already spread to my family and my professors here about what had happened to me before I began to realize just how powerful I am,” she said. “For another—well, there are a lot of people who know what I really look like at this point, and might be inclined to call me 'Zotha' and/or some obviously-female title, which would raise way more suspicion if I still looked male to everyone else.”

“Can you change how other people look?” Dai said, leaning slightly toward her.
“Sure,” she shrugged. “If anything, that seems like a primary aspect of my powers. What, you want me to magically poof you fit?”
“Yeah!”
She crossed her arms, fixing him with a disappointed look. “If you actually exercised you'd fix the problem for yourself. And nothing I can do will keep you fit if you don't change your habits.”

“I know that, but like..you know. I have no energy, or motivation, or anything,” Dai said. “If I already had a buff bod, I would totally work to keep it!” he said, pointing a thumb toward himself in confidence.
“Hmph. I guess we can test that theory. Not right now, though—” she added hastily, seeing her friend's starry-eyed expression. “Sometime after classes, and somewhere more private. Preferably in 'my domain'.”

“So, the cult's leader kidnapped you?” Thomas said, changing the subject.
“Mm-hm,” she nodded. “He's now one of the other girls you've heard about—and acting as my faithful, obedient 'high priestess'. Nothing to worry about from little Jess now~.”
“You're...scary,” Daisuke said, leaning back away from her again.
“Hmn? Oh, he wanted it, believe it or not!” she said, realizing how it probably sounded. “And she still does, too. I admit I've picked a real weirdo for the role, but it does seem like this turn of events has started to steer her in a bit of a better direction, morally speaking. Now, is there anything you want as badly as he does a different body type?” she asked, forcing the subject back on him.
“I uh...I dunno. Be rich or something? Have to get back to you on that one.”
“Well, we could all three meet at the place that's been serving as my followers' meeting ground tonight sometime,” she suggested. “I'll text you some directions if you're interested.”

“Sure..” Thomas said, nodding slowly. The reality of it all was still sinking in very slowly for both of them.

They were interrupted at this point by a certain follower of Zotha's walking up and moving to tap her on the shoulder; the demoness was able to notice her and turn to face her before she actually did. “Yes?”
“Um...L-Lady Zotha...” she said so quietly it couldn't be heard over the crowd without her audience's magically-focused hearing. “I um..uh..” This was the girl whose grandfather had been dying, and Zotha had been able to have her power wipe out the cancer and restore the injured organs to full functionality.

Silently using some magic to make their conversation totally private, Zotha said, “Is something wrong? Your grandfather's okay, isn't he?”
“Yes. Uh, he..they discharged him from the hospital yesterday afternoon. But um..”
“It's all right, you can tell me. No one else can hear us right now,” the deity said, putting a hand up to gently touch the girl's cheek.

“Um..so...my grandpa's really clever. He said, he 'felt it' when he got better, and he also said he had a 'feeling' that I had something to do with it.” She shuffled her hands nervously for a moment longer. “I..sort of...accidentally, let him make me tell him about you..n-not everything, but some things..”
“Hm. Well, if he's as clever as you say then I guess it couldn't be helped,” Zotha said, more than anything just wanting to keep her from crying right now. The poor girl had been through enough, surely.
“W-well, he...he said he wanted to t-talk to you himself..to thank you. But um, I don't think that's all, h-he wants.”
“I see. I have no problem meeting with him, then. Shall I give you my phone number so we can arrange it?” she asked.
“Um..o-okay.” After they exchanged numbers, the girl drifted off into the crowd again.

“What was that..?” Thomas said. “I could see you talking to her, but I couldn't hear a word. Like a silent movie or something.”
“Private conversation,” Zotha said. “Thanks to my powers, they really can be private, even in a place like this. Just like ours has been~.” She gave a toothy grin to both of them, and they nervously nodded back, understanding that she meant to remind them to keep it that way.

---

Onida found herself faced with the bizarre proposition of figuring out what a real werewolf eats. Logically, meat was probably a good choice, she thought? Probably this was the kind of advice she could solicit from those 'unusual incident' people after carting Damon off to tell them what happened and get help with a bunch of the other complications this event had caused. But she had a brother—sister, perhaps—to feed first. So: Sausages it was.

It was not long between her starting to cook and a bleary-eyed werewolf girl showing up in the kitchen with one of her brother's shirts looking gigantic draped over her, the hem hanging just past her thighs. That was quite a change, she thought; if for some reason she wanted to get him up in the morning it was usually necessary to yell upstairs at least five or six times first. “Morning,” she said, waving to the wild girl.

“G'morning,” Damon returned, followed by a long, voiced yawn. She looked around the kitchen briefly before shuffling, as if on a half-familiar habit, to her usual seat at the table, pulling the chair out and sitting down, the back to her left as she continued to face Onida. “Smells good,” she mumbled.

“Great. I um, wasn't sure whether your tastes changed or not after..all that, but you always used to love this for breakfast.”
“M-hm.” Come to think of it, scent was usually connected to memory, wasn't it? Having, presumably, a stronger nose than usual, Damon was probably inundated in familiar smells all over this house. So...her being here might be helping restore her memories just from that, her elder sister thought optimistically.

“Well, it's almost done,” she said aloud.

After bringing the food to the table, she got her own plate full while Damon watched intently, her tail wagging but her arms firmly set at her sides. Finally Onida realized she was waiting for permission for some reason and said, “Um..go ahead?” while waving at the food.
“'Kay!” Instantly the werewolf girl grabbed a hot piece of meat and stuffed it halfway into her mouth, tearing it in half with her teeth before finally noticing the temperature and dropping the half still in her hand onto the plate more by lucky accident than intent. Her eyes welled up slightly with tears and she made some panicked “Mmh!” noises but swallowed what was in her mouth rather than dropping it again.
“A-are you okay? Those are still hot!” Onida said.

“Um, 'mokay,” Damon reported with an embarrassed blush. “Sorry. Um..weird...dog instincts.”

“Just put it on your plate and blow on it, silly.”
“Mn-hm.” She did just that, using the unburned hand and quickly transferring three or four pieces of meat onto her plate. She also carefully picked a piece of ice out of her glass and stuck out her tongue (which was visibly longer than Onida thought a human's should be), dropping the ice on top before rolling it back into her mouth and swishing it around to take the edge off of some minor internal burns.

“You seem pretty tired,” Onida commented a little later, after watching her blow on and scarf down a couple more large bites of meat. “Did you not sleep well last night?”

“Mnh..I felt wide awake 'till just a couple hours ago,” she said, shaking her head. “Went up to my room to look around, an' played a video game thingy so I wouldn't be bored.”

“Staring at a screen all night probably didn't do much for your ability to go to sleep,” her elder sister half-scolded. “..But I suppose you might actually be nocturnal or something, now. Anyway, it's not too different from your usual habits to be up half the night.”

“Streaming, right?” Damon said, to which she nodded. “Um. I tried making my computer work last night. But the password...I couldn't remember,” she said a little slower, sadly looking down.

“I don't know it either, sorry. But I'm sure it'll come to you in time. Did the uh..the hint thing help any?” Onida asked.

“Hint?” The werewolf girl adorably headtilted, her ears physically perking up with interest.

“Umh—you know, like if you enter a wrong password it says 'that's not right' and displays a little hint below the entry box? I guess that's, only if you gave it a hint to tell you though,” Onida said.
“I'll try it!” Damon said enthusiastically, before stuffing another sausage into her mouth—the whole thing at once this time.

---

Prama was having a difficult day. Of course, she'd expected to have difficulty being out in public, in a classroom with a bunch of people, and had always planned on just keeping her head down and staying quiet. However, she felt sure in every single one of her classes that people were staring at her—and, logically, why wouldn't they be? She was, after all, one of the subjects of a rumor about something strange happening to a few of the college's students, and while the teachers made no particular comment one way or another, the students were free to find this utterly bizarre all they liked. Mainly, when she wasn't busy being terrified of all the eyes on her and furiously burying her face as a result, Prama repeatedly asked herself why she hadn't anticipated this.

She took to finding places to hide. It only took a moment's research on her phone, when it was quiet, to identify probable relatively-deserted places, and whenever possible she retreated there between classes. Nobody, thankfully, seemed to be both curious and bold enough to actually follow her anywhere, and when she got to be alone she was able to take some deep breaths and feel confident—more or less, like herself—again. Maybe, she reasoned, this was just the aftershocks of a sudden personality shift. Eventually, like all things, she would get used to it and not have such a terrible reaction. If it didn't happen all on its own, she resolved she would make it happen, whether through magical help or sheer exposure therapy—whatever was necessary.

One of those times when she was hiding herself away, Prama heard someone coming and quickly went around a corner to keep out of their sight. A couple of guys walked into the alley between the class buildings, obviously not looking for her but simply for a private place to hold a conversation. “Dude, magic is real,” one of them was saying. “So maybe something happened to that guy like—”
“Come on. We can't just make assumptions, Dai. So one weird stream goes out.” Prama leaned against the wall, catching her breath from the brief panic generated by people coming. She was already becoming interested in this conversation, and anyway they weren't likely to look her way. It was a good time to eavesdrop, she decided.
“It's not just a weird stream! It's like—look, lemme show you the highlight.” 'Dai' evidently pulled up the video on his phone. “There, see. The stream starts with no mic noise, no sound or anything. Camera's looking at a—well, you tell me what this room looks like.”
“A mess. Like that's anything new for...”
“Not that much of a mess. I mean—look at the poster on the opposite wall! Like a bear mauled it. Anyway, this is a pro streamer we're talking about here. It's just supposed to be a facecam, so what's it doing looking at his room anyway? He'd never just leave it like that for everyone to see it.”

“Okay, so I guess I didn't hear that part,” said the other guy. “I know what comes next, though.”

“Yeah. see? Head coming down in frame. Some girl with one of those..cat-ear-band things?”
“Sure. But I mean, if he's making enough money he could hire someone to drop into frame for like two seconds for a weird stream.”
“Sure, but—look at her expression. Like she has no idea what she's even looking at. She shrugs and leaves right away, too. Then the game feed starts up and someone's playing Street Fighter,” Dai said. By this point Prama had muted her own phone and began searching the relevant terms to find this video for herself, being increasingly interested in the subject matter. “And no response to all the people in chat asking if he's okay, where he's been, who that was...nothing!”

“Okay. So, he hired someone to hijack his stream then.”
“Why would he do that? And—like, that's not even the weird part,” Dai said—his voice starting to get fainter as the two of them walked away. “Some of the people who watch him all the time say that's his favorite character to play and whoever's playing plays just like him too...”

Prama watched someone's highlight of the first thirty seconds of the stream, and immediately identified two unusual traits in the girl: First, she was not apparently wearing any kind of headband but rather seemed to have actual, fluffy ears; second, her eyes were a bright pink shade. It occurred to her that those two, or anyone else watching the video, should've probably been able to tell the difference in the former and certainly notice the latter, perhaps rationalizing it as some color contacts, but...it seemed that they hadn't. Curious, as though the video was different for her eyes from how it looked to theirs. And they had evidently just learned magic was real, judging by the tone of voice that was mentioned in, plus their decision to discuss this in relative private.

Torn poster, messy room. Results of a sudden, unexpected werewolf transformation, perhaps? Maybe: One who had later been transformed into a girl, lost her memory and then needed a little help finding her way home? A “pro streamer” was far from a proper celebrity, but this video was being shared and commented on by a decent number of people. Well, she'd been meaning to contact Jess at some point today anyway, Prama thought with a slight sigh. She sent some texts:

I have something I need your help finding. Or more specifically the help of one or two of our followers.

Also, there's this: (followed by a link to that video).

Is this Our Problem?

Eventually some replies came: We can talk when both our classes are through, my dorm room.

And, after just long enough to see the girl pop into view in the video: Looks like it could be. Veil appears to be helping however.

Veil?

---

I know, it's sort of weird splitting a titled part into parts, but the events I wanted to label under this title wound up taking up way too much space to be just one part (in my opinion). Anyway, Volt semi-called that last part.