A Summoning, Part XLII

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Part XLII
~Hierophant~

After 'guest starring' in their stream the night before, Graham showed up around mid-afternoon on Friday to hang out yet again. Damon was starting to learn the particular sound of the catgirl's truck pulling into the driveway, and when she heard that this time, she jumped up and bolted down the stairs toward the front door before really thinking about what she was doing!

"Uhm..." While catching her breath from that sprint, the werewolf took a moment to try and brush her hair with her hands and make it at least somewhat neater. Maybe she was feeling a little overexcited because she'd needed to really control her reactions around 'Smores' last night—since, at least for now, she'd much rather people watching their stream see 'new friends' and not..anything else. Either way, she waited awkwardly a polite few feet away from the front door until she heard some soft steps coming up to it, and further kept herself from moving until she heard the usual, polite knock. Then she ran up to open it.

"Uh, hi! Welcome. It's, good to see you again," she said, moving out of the way.

Graham returned the most adorable, sweetest smile as she came inside. "Likewise."
"S-so um, anything specific you wanna try today?" the werewolf asked, starting to lead the way toward the stairs.
"Not really, just—maybe not anything as dark and spooky as last night's fare."

"Oh, uh, sure.."

"First, though—you think we could talk sorta seriously for a minute?"
Damon felt like her heart had briefly stopped. "Um..yeah, s-sure." At least her feet did. She turned around. "What about?"

"Oh—nothing that awful, I promise," the Neko said, returning a concerned expression. Damon's fears must have shown in her face—or maybe just her ears. Graham gestured toward the couch, which they'd managed to stop just next to, and went to sit down, so the wolf-girl did the same, sitting on the opposite end.

"S-so, uhm.." the werewolf stammered after an awkward silence that felt a few minutes long, but which had probably only lasted a few seconds.

"Oh, excuse my nerves there," Graham said, nodding. "It's just: So that I don't get the wrong impression, I'd like to ask you directly. Do you...like me?" she asked, tilting her head slightly. "You know how I mean?"
"Oh! Um..uh.." Damon's face went all hot, and she felt like the 'cat had her tongue' for a moment. Graham patiently waited for her to calm down enough to respond. "Yes! I-I do. I hope that's not, I mean like.."
"No, that's no sort of problem," the catgirl said, her face reddening a little bit too—and gaining a heart-melting smile. "I'd go so far as to say I feel the same way. And, considering I was married for decades..I feel like I might be somewhat of an authority on what it ought to feel like. But.."

"'But'?" Did she have reservations about..the person she'd been married to before, or something like that? It was hard for Damon to reconcile the small, young-looking girl in front of her with the idea of someone like her parents or grandparents, old enough to have been married to someone for 'decades'. But it had to be even weirder, after all that time together with someone, to feel this way about someone else!
"It just, seems like you're awful shy about physical contact, is all. I'm not one to disrespect your boundaries, but..if you're worried about me, well, there's no reason to be shy at this point."
"Oh. Um.." That was an entirely different problem! Damon put her hands into each other and fidgeted with them, trying for a good long moment to find the right words. Graham was once again patient with her, until she finally started trying to explain: "W-well, it's not..that's not it, really. I-I'm just worried I might...

"I-I told you before about how, when I first got turned into a werewolf, and Zotha helped me...but. Even after that, I-I've still never completely felt like...myself. I, still don't have all of my memory back from before that happened, and...my instincts, this 'wolf side' I gained...I'm still not totally, 'at peace' with it, I guess. I still, find myself like, doing or thinking, o-or saying weird things sometimes..scary things. A-and I can't actually even talk in 'full-wolf' form. S-so I'm worried, if I did get too close...that I'd, hurt you."

Graham paused a moment to take all of this in, then nodded slowly. "I see...
"I suppose, since turning into a Neko, I've had a few bits of 'feline instinct' hit me. Like wanting to hop up onto high places, or chase small critters that go running into the bushes, or hide for no real reason. Or chase laser pointers around."
"R-really?"
"Nawh, I'm just kidding about that last one. But I can't say it's been anything worrisome like that. So—I only know a little of what you're going through. I'm glad to have things out in the open regardless, and, if you're keeping some distance out of concern for me, that only makes me feel better. But...have those instincts of yours ever given you the idea that they want to hurt me?"
"Um..n-no, I guess not." Now that she was thinking about it...maybe, kind of the opposite? Had it been her 'human side' or the canine one that made her run to the door earlier? And, the strong desire to pet the catgirl's ears...or feel her hands on her own ears, definitely wasn't something that 'human side' would've ever thought up.

"Hmm..."

Graham's face reddened slightly, and she leaned a little bit toward Damon—still seeming to consciously stay just out of her personal space. "Would you mind..if I gave your ears a little touch, just to try? You can maybe...let me know if your 'wolf side' isn't too fond of that."
Damon's blushing and heart-racing from before came back full force. "Um!"
The catgirl backed off just slightly. "Oh, not if you don't want that at all, of course. I've got no interest in pushing at your boundaries."

"N-no no, that's not..I just um..heheh...I-I was just thinking, about something like that...is all," she admitted. "I-I guess it's okay to try..."

"Well, all right then."

The white-haired Neko scooted herself closer, into easier reach. Then she gently leaned over in Damon's direction again, and ever-so-slowly put one out her left hand to touch Damon's right ear, not far from the tip. "A~ah...r-rfh.." Damon leaned into the slight touch, feeling a couple of small, high sounds come out of her mouth. Seeming to take this as a good sign, Graham carefully moved her fingers a little closer to the base of that ear, then brushed along it—at the same time bringing up her other hand to do much the same to the other ear. "M-mrrfh...!"

It felt..really nice! Damon didn't have the feeling that her wolf side was angry, or upset, or afraid. It was a lot more like how she felt around Onida and Sam—her own 'pack'—yet also markedly different from that. That difference probably had something to do with her mounting urge to...to...!

Before she'd really thought about it, the werewolf's instincts took over a little more, and had her actually pounce on top of the catgirl, knocking her over onto her back across the seat of the couch. But this..wasn't an 'attacking' kind of pounce, like for self-defense or hunting. Regardless, she was suddenly on top of Graham with her tail wagging up in the air, and very much aware of the catgirl's breasts being squished underneath her own!

"H-heheh!" Graham giggled at this. "Whoa, easy there, girl!"

"Uh, um.." Blushing furiously, Damon tried to get a hold of herself, using one hand to push herself up off of the other girl a little bit and trying to make her tail settle down some. "S-sorry about, that.."
"No trouble at all. We did rile up your 'wolf side' doing that, I suppose," the catgirl said, still smiling. "Anyway, I don't mind this position so much." It was at this point that Damon noticed a pair of slim arms had gently wrapped themselves around her waist..! "Especially if you wouldn't mind, returning the favor a bit?" she asked further, her ears lowering slightly.

"R-returning..? Oh, um..r-rrfh..." It took Damon's mind a moment to understand the meaning, but something unconscious, perhaps in her instincts, understood more from the Neko's expression than her words what was being asked. She fell back onto the catgirl, and her hands wound up running through the soft, warm fur of Graham's ears, quickly causing an adorable, deep purring to start rumbling through her throat, and then—all of a sudden she leaned up and pressed her nose into Damon's cheek, nuzzling it affectionately!

"Aa~ah...rrfh..!" Well, that was it. Damon couldn't resist returning the nuzzling, especially as the catgirl's hands slid back up to her ears to pet them back a little more, too. Her conscious mind didn't really function for a while, subsumed into a pleasant haze alongside her instincts as the majority of her concentration was seized by pure physical sensations: The catgirl's body under hers, their faces rubbing against each other in affectionate nuzzling, and of course the petting on both ends. Besides that, there was..her entire body feeling fairly warm, her heart racing, and a nice, not-entirely-unfamiliar fuzzy feeling down between her legs.

It was Graham who evidently had the self-control to cease the petting, returning her arms to the gentle embrace from earlier. And, when she also stopped nuzzling, Damon slowly came out of the haze, taking in a sharp gasp of air and letting out soft "M-mnn~ngh" before she started some actual canine-like panting. Their noses were still on each other's cheeks, so this breath was pushing right across the side of the Neko's face, and there were frequent bursts of hot air coming across Damon's face too.

"Hff...phew~..awfully nice to finally get that out of my system," the catgirl said. "Seems like you enjoyed yourself too, hmn?"
"Y-yip!" This question had been accompanied by the touch of something soft and warm somewhere near the base of Damon's tail, which she realized shortly afterward had been one of the tips of the other girl's tail. "U-um..y-yeah. Still, uh..." She carefully pushed herself off of the catgirl again, so they could look each other in the face...or, at least, the eyes. Their noses were still quite close to touching like this. "I-I uh..'m a little worried about..."
"Hmn? Taking it too far or such?"
"Y-yeah. That could—hff!—could get um. Violent. I feel like," she admitted.
"Well, sure. Besides that this is our first time making this kind of physical contact in the first place," Graham agreed, one arm freeing itself from the werewolf's waist so that hand could gently brush Damon's cheek a bit. "No need to rush things."
"Uh. Y-yeah! Um." Even though that touch made her want to lean back down and forcibly start the petting up again, Damon clamped down—promising that kind of thing would come later...maybe much later...and made herself slowly, carefully, get up off of her 'victim' until she was upright on her knees.

Graham managed to scoot herself the rest of the way out from under Damon and sit up too. "I'll say..now that we've cleared the air, so to speak. I've more or less met your family, but you all should really get properly introduced to mine."
"Um..y-yeah? You mean like, your granddaughter?"
"Just the same," she said, nodding. "Maybe the two of us could come over for dinner some night soon? We could arrange things over the phone later."
"Yeah! Sure, th-that seems fine," she nodded. Onida...would probably like to have a guest to feed. She liked showing off with her cooking, especially lately. Perhaps the extra enthusiasm was because she was 'younger' and more energetic now, or perhaps it had something to do with trying to impress Sam—but her general desire to be a good host felt like a pretty firm bit of memory.

They went upstairs after that to play some games. Only now, Graham wasn't the least bit shy about sitting right up next to Damon, and after asking permission, resting her split-ended tail across the wolf-girl's own. The Neko seemed to especially like pressing the spot right where her tail split up against the base of Damon's fluffier tail, and having the two parts that forked out from there curl along the rest of it. The one odd thing the werewolf noticed about this habit was that, every once in a while, that split spot seemed to slip off somehow, and when it was readjusted to press into her tail again, the two bits coming off from there seemed to reach a little farther up the rest of her tail...

---

Zotha probably should've predicted she'd wake up with catlike ears, a slim tail, and some tall slits for irises. She did correctly predict that Jess wasn't very happy to not be invited to last night's conversation.

"Well, she didn't want you present, and we'll just have to respect that. At the end, said she was 'very disappointed' in you. But honestly, it feels more like she was concerned about how angry being close to you would make her feel, and how strongly that would tempt her to actually hurt you."

"I...guess I deserve that," Jess admitted. "Just because I'm trying to do better now, doesn't mean the wrong I did didn't happen."

"I think she might forgive you, given some time. I don't know of any 'mother' that wouldn't."

"Um..maybe. Anyway, what was she like?"

Zotha gave Jess a quick mental transmission of most of the experience of the meeting, commenting aloud at the same time: "I'd say, if anything, Bastet seems like the most 'normal', down-to-earth deity we've met so far. And I just realized: There was no 'power pressure' at all from being in her presence like there was around the other gods. Despite the fact that she must be pretty powerful."

Jess nodded slowly. "Maybe...if all dreams are her realm, then you might just be 'acclimated' to what being in her realm is like already? Or, since she has full control over a person's experiences in a dream, she could just 'edit' that part out."

"Could be. I'm a fan of thinking she suppresses that power deliberately to make it feel more welcoming, myself."

"..It's strange, though, Master."
"What is?"
"If she's so straightforward, why did all the other gods give conflicting information about her? Or, just seem to fail to understand what she really wants or why?"

"Hmm...she might've gone out of her way to be direct with me, but that doesn't seem right. She wouldn't want the headache of other people misunderstanding her—that's much more Fox's attitude."

After a brief pause, Zotha snapped her fingers. "Oh, wait! I think I know."
"What?"
"Mystery. It can mean a lot of things, but different people's perspectives muddling what would otherwise be a simple description seems to fit the bill pretty well. It might even be inherently difficult to accurately describe her to someone who hasn't met her."

"...Maybe. But it could also just be coincidence. La Lune can't talk about the debt; Sol genuinely doesn't listen to her all that closely; Fox was never gonna tell us much in the first place."

"That's true, but I'd say..'coincidences' can also be influenced by a god's domain. Just like...'miracles'. It's increasingly obvious to me that we're not just 'really powerful magic-using immortals' or such—we have some kind of direct tie to the nature of reality itself, especially when it comes to our own 'aspects'. We can't intentionally alter it on a large scale—I think—but the tie goes both ways, too."

"Meaning.."
"Our own aspects 'influence' us and our reality to some extent, more or less involuntarily. May I remind you how many of your followers just so happened to want some kind of change, and even specifically physical change?"
"You...might be onto something there. But, in that case, that effect would have to reach into the past too..or, somehow 'anticipate' a god coming into existence in the future...?"

"La Lune did say 'the world wanted me', and that my ascension was somehow 'natural'..."

---

After school Monday, Anika was trying to get her homework done. Steph, meanwhile, was very distractingly pacing around the room. She kept trying to focus, but even shifting her ears into a human form to make her headphones fit wasn't good enough after a while. She took them off and put them on the desk a little loudly, letting the huge fox ears pop back out at the same time. "What are you doing!? Besides driving me crazy!"

"Huh? Oh. Sorry. I was trying to think of another big prank. Hopefully to get done this week, or at least before summer vacation."
"Another one? We just did the whole rain thing."

"Yes, another one! We need to keep going until you earn your next tail, at least! I mean, I'd like to wear a wedding dress this century, if you don't mind!" she said.
"Oh. Uh.." Anika's face flushed at this declaration, and Steph actually looked away a little bit bashfully, blushing at having blurted that out too.
"Y-yeah. So. I'm pretty invested. Just both of us 'pretending to be male' is not gonna cut it for a fifth tail, okay?"
"I'll, assume you know what you're talking about with that. But—I still kinda need to get this homework done," she said, gesturing at the computer, "tonight."
"Then help me brainstorm! The last one was mostly my idea anyway."

"Uh, I dunno..we cooouuld, go visit some other university and try to get them to change their mascot too?"

Steph frowned, putting her fists on her hips. "That is so unoriginal."
"Yeah...it, didn't sound any better in my head."

After staring at each other for a minute or so, Anika said, "I don't think we're getting anywhere. Maybe we should ask someone else for ideas."
"Like who?"
"I dunno...Stella, maybe? Since she seems pretty cool with how Kitsune are and stuff..."
"Hmm, yeah, she is pretty close to newly created, right? Meaning—she might have the kind of 'stupid ideas' that are actually super original since most people don't even think of them."

"Plus, we might be able to lean on her to get Toma to help!"

"I dunno..she seems like kind of a stick-in-the-mud to me," Steph said, crossing her arms.

Anika squinted slightly, tilting her head. "Are you.."
"What?"
"Waaas that an intentional pun, or...?"
"Pun? What pun?"
Anika made a vague, unhelpful gesture with her hands. "Because she's like uh...an earth dragon, or something?"
"Ooooh. No. Not intended at all."

"Okay, sorry. Anyway—

"I happen to know, from some of our 'high council' meetings, that Toma's pretty familiar with Zotha. Definitely aware she's a goddess and all."
"Like I couldn't guess that. Not very many other sources of overwhelming power to hatch a human into a dragon around here."
"Yes, but. That also means she'd get it if we explained..you know, why we're trying to do it? The fact that I'm cursed and need to earn a tail to get uncursed, I mean."

"Oooh, yeah. I can maybe see that. And—no need to mention what the curse is, just that it's super inconvenient for both of us. You're hiding the symptoms with illusions, but we promise it's very annoying."
"Yeah, exactly!"
"Okay. Now we're getting somewhere. At least...on a meta level. Plans for how to get plans for another big prank! We could probably pull in that other girl at some point, if it seems like there's a use for her...she'll definitely appreciate another opportunity to earn a tail, after all..." Steph was literally rubbing her hands together at this point.

"Aaaanyway..I need to get back to my homework, now that that's settled. You not have any?"
"Uh..right. I kinda do. Thanks for the reminder."

---

In some ways, the Ruler of Foxes was still a mortal. For example, any being of sufficient power—such as a true god—could indeed kill her. Unlike the theoretical killing of a deity, this would have no effect on the stability of the world so long as at least one "worthy" successor still existed. Just once, a very long time ago, a nine-tailed fox greedy for the position had managed to assassinate the then-current Ruler, and immediately suffered an excruciatingly painful death as a result of a "stinger clause" hidden in their race's agreement. Since then, the Ruler's true location was much more closely guarded; after all, the gods had no reason to bother with violence when there were far easier ways for them to dethrone a ruler they didn't like.

She also, sometimes, needed to sleep. And her sleep was "ordinary", featuring no awareness of the real world while unconscious, but instead the experience of a normal dream. Such times were the best opportunity for Bastet to speak with her in private. Not that there was usually a need for such privacy, but the convenience of the Ruler entering her realm, rather than needing to physically go to where the old fox was, made this the best way to meet her for anything that didn't require anyone else's presence.

Bastet stepped into the dream, and found herself on a path between some rice fields. The sun was low in the sky, producing a golden light shimmering across the water, and straight ahead, a short distance down the path, was a fairly humble house. The people who had lived in this place, at this time, would have no concept of what it had become in modern day: A bustling metropolis packed to the brim with people, skyscrapers blocking the view of the sun, hard concrete replacing the soft dirt-and-grass paths. And, perhaps, the people who lived in that city now had little idea of the beauty this place had once sported, a millennium and more into the past.

Walking down the path to the little house, a dark haze became visible pouring out from within. Bastet's catlike ears twitched, picking up muffled voices speaking. She paused at the door, allowing the dream to proceed as usual for a little longer...and then pushed it open, imposing herself into it and making it lucid. The wispy shapes of the house's inhabitants vanished, all except one: A woman lying on her back, turned slightly to one side, on a couch, a long pipe in her mouth which was evidently the source of the dark smoke permeating the house's interior. She was silhouetted by the haze, her eyes appearing to—or perhaps actually—glowing. Her ears were as foxlike as her waking form, but only two tails were waving about from behind her back.

"...Ah. Hello there." The old fox had been shaken a little bit by suddenly remembering all of reality, everything that had happened since the memory this dream represented—but her composure was back in only a couple of seconds. "It's been...quite some time, hasn't it?"

"I guess so."
"Well, you know you're always welcome. Take a seat?" One of the fox-woman's tails pointed at a seat opposite the couch, previously occupied by the memory of a husband.
"Hmm." Bastet went over and sat cross-legged. "Feeling nostalgic?"
"I suppose my subconscious must be." The fox-woman took a long drag from her pipe and exhaled it out, making the smoke around her briefly grow thicker. "I haven't really thought about this time in years. So...to what do I owe the pleasure?" Somehow her mischievous grin was visible, even in silhouette.

"I have a question for you. You will answer with no tricks, guile or jokes. Consider it a test," Bastet said bluntly.
"All right then. I'll do my very best for you~."

"What do you do when one of your people grows bored of this life? Of this world. Of living altogether? If they come to you, begging your help to relinquish the immortality all foxes have."

"Hmm...well, I'm sure you know, no two foxes are alike. There are many answers, depending on who's asking.

"But you won't be surprised to hear: My first go-to is to trick them. 'Very well', I'll say, 'you wish to die? I will make sure it happens by...hmmn, this time next week. It will be a surprise, so make sure to have your affairs in order.'"
"You don't follow through."
"I would never. Could you imagine the uproar, if the Ruler of Foxes started killing her own people—no matter how despondent they are? But often the week isn't even half over before they come back to me begging to call the whole thing off. It's impressive, really, just how valuable one's life becomes when it seems so close to ending. But of course that doesn't always work. If you can work out that I won't kill them, then certainly some of my fellow tricksters will realize when I'm trying to pull one over. If I'm really keen, I can spot the ones that'll see through the lie early, and skip that step to move on to the next thing."

"Which is?"
"It varies, as I said. Sometimes I will offer a 'reset' of sorts..a bout of temporary amnesia combined with sealed powers—or even temporarily 'becoming' an ordinary human or something else for a while. I don't always give away the full details when I do that, but I do always get permission to try it, of course. Or—you know, these days, the option of actual therapy exists. That is genuinely what some foxes need, even if I have to trick them into starting in on it. Or..if it seems the poor kit's just lonely, I can occasionally manage to play matchmaker, arrange things so they meet someone who seems compatible. Ah, and if Eros owes me one, or seems to be in a good mood, then I'll ask him to do that part instead—he's far better at it than I am. None of these options are mutually exclusive, either; for instance, you'd be surprised how often a fresh amnesiac falls for someone he or she would never have considered talking to before."

"Sealing one's power is still dangerous. Weak foxes die far more often than old, powerful ones," Bastet pointed out.

"Oh, of course. I make that part of the risks quite clear when I offer that up as an option. If one is serious about wishing to die, then it can appear to be only a slightly longer route than the obvious one. Some do die before getting their memories back, but it's not always an unhappy death."

She pressed in another direction: "You can't really expect someone bored of life to become happy just because they have found a mate."

"I would just say that the evidence suggests otherwise. At least—if it's the right person. I won't claim to have perfect success with fostering relationships; in fact I have had to step in when a fox was being taken advantage of by the very person I thought would help them. And not even Eros can be perfect...or, at least, his capriciousness may have him mismatch people on purpose from time to time."

"...You have very many immortal psychiatrists on hand? I don't imagine that a human under the veil can really relate to 'I've been young and powerful for far too long'."

"If I'm recommending that sort of help, then that really isn't the main issue in the first place. But you'd be surprised at people's adaptability. Besides, some foxes do like the idea of 'tricking' people into a healthier state of mind; it's especially fun if both parties are pretending to be human for each other. And, if you've been feeling stressed lately, I do know a few people—"

She stopped short, seeing Bastet's expression—or perhaps sensing her mood. The cat goddess had to take a long, deep breath to keep the house, the farm..the entire reality they were presently in from collapsing.

"Please excuse my terrible impertinence with that; my dream just now must have put me in a rather foolish mood. I am still asleep, after all. No, I don't imagine you'd trust someone I recommended. But I do wonder whether it'd do you some good to get to know someone without any stake in..all of this," she said, vaguely waving her pipe around in the air. "Godly politics, world management, the chaos brought on by brand new, powerful beings...it can get to be a bit much from time to time."

"...You really intended to express concern."

"Oh, well, you know. My actions are self-motivated, or at best all for 'my people'. But if you were, hypothetically, in an awful mental state, I can hardly understate the amount of chaos that would have the potential to cause...and none of it the fun kind."

"You suggest I should simply...appear before some mortal, just to talk."

"You hardly have to let them know who you are, do you? For that matter, you've access to many people's dreams. They need not even remember the conversation afterward, if you so desired."

Bastet turned her head away, to one side. At this point she just wanted to extricate herself from the entire conversation. She could just disappear, or force the Ruler to wake, but the possible result would be some teasing later, or worse, an effort to bring the subject up again. But, in trying to think of a solution, she remembered how this conversation had started.

"...Your answer is satisfactory," she said. "And, I'll accept your apology, too."

"Oh? That's quite a relief," the old fox said.

"I'll take my leave now. Do you want this to continue from where it left off?"
"Hmmn, there's no need for that. I'll be happy enough with whatever my brain cooks up for me next."

"Very well." The cat goddess stood up, went back to the door, and left, walking down the path until it led her back out of the dream.