Once Kat finally managed to complete the exceptionally difficult and gruelling task which was escaping from Sylvie's pouting face, Kat headed downstairs. Keeping Sylvie in her arms to stop the worst of her nonverbal protests.
This wasn't too difficult to accomplish because with her demonically enhanced strength carrying a nine year old that was happy to come along for the ride wasn't a trying task. Kat was initially trying to figure out how she was going to make herself breakfast without Gramps around but quickly remembered that Callisto had probably made something.
And she was right, a quick breakfast of finely diced bacon (so Sylvie could eat it presumably) and eggs disappeared into the two hungry girls before Kat decided to message Lily about coming around.
Receiving the affirmative, Kat quickly spent the few minutes she was sure to have, washing up the dishes she'd used with Sylvie while putting the rest of the food back in the warmer just in case Lily wanted to grab a few bites when she arrived. *Though, if there is one thing I'll give her parents credit for is that they do feed her properly whenever they can.*
While Kat was doing this, she kept her demonic energy in her ears. The sound of the water was a little overpowering, but she was able to filter it out somewhat, so it wasn't so bad. She could hear Callisto humming a tune upstairs, as well as the quiet breathing of Sylvie as she sat on the seat nearby and watched what Kat was up to, as the sink was much too high for her to actually assist
Eventually, Kat could hear the sound she was waiting for, the sound of Lily's approaching footsteps. Quickly drying her hands, she snuck up to the doorway making sure to keep out of the line of sight the glass around the edges provided.
Kat quietly unlocked the door and hid behind it. She'd already briefed Sylvie on what to do as Lily came through the door. When the doorbell ring, Sylvie played her part perfectly, yelling out in her quiet voice ���The door is unlocked"
Kat waited with bated breath to see if the message was heard, but she was starting to hear Lily rocking back and forth on her feet presumable to wait for the door to open. *Bother she couldn't hear her. Plan B plan B*
Kat signalled Sylvie with her tail that the plan had failed. Sylvie quickly 'ran' over to the door and managed to open the handled slightly. As it opened, it revealed Sylvie alone to Lily's eyes.
Kat waited as she heard Lily remove her shoes and take a step in. "Hi Sylvie, where's Kaaaa-"
Lily was interrupted as Kat quickly struck out with her tail and pulled Lily into a hug. She let out a quiet "Eep" of surprise before realising what was going on and settling down slightly to start berating Kat. "What the heck are you doing"
Kat shrugged "It seemed fun at the time"
Lily's eyes narrowed "And what's with the hugs? Who are you and what have you done with Kat?"
Kat snorted and just squeezed Lily harder. "Sylvie managed to convince me I was doing this hugging thing wrong"
Lily gave Sylvie a confused look, and only got a nod in response as if that was justification for the bizarre chain of events that just happened. Kat started to lead the two back to the couch, letting Lily go and picking Sylvie up, wrapping her in her tail before sitting down on the couch.
Lily followed somewhat confused and took the seat next to Kat. "So um… really, um, can you tell me what's going on? This isn't that normal of you… I mean not that it's a problem um…"
Kat patted Lily on the head "Don't be so nervous I understand. I just… So I got back from my most recent summoning and someone" Kat bounced Sylvie up on her knee "Said I was away for too long and crawled in bed with me
"And well, it was nice just hanging out in bed hugging Sylvie. It was great fun being away on an adventure and all, but I really did miss you guys. It's strange. Not seeing you for two weeks over the holidays didn't seem nearly as long as the past half-week did" explained Kat
Lily seemed to cringe at the last words before nodding along and making a grab for Sylvie. Kat relented and Sylvie happily moved over to Lily's lap, though kept Kat's tail in hand. "She's right though, and so are you. I mean… um, look I tried not to worry, and thank you for those notes, they helped a lot but…
"It's just not the same. Knowing you are safe with Gramps… or um, I guess Vivian now, is very different to knowing you are away in a completely different universe, possibly in trouble where we can only get letters occasionally" said Lily
Kat nodded, and Sylvie nodded vigorously "Lily said it well. We missed you even though it wasn't long"
Kat winked at Sylvie before snaking her tail out from the little girls' grip. Sylvie pouted but winked at Kat in understanding. Once the limb was free Kat used it to encircle both Lily and Sylvie and pull them to her side.
"Well, I'm here now, and it's time for me to tell you all about it. So it started off really professional… "
##
Kat spoke at length about her first meeting with the party, the adorable Green that couldn't quite rival Sylvie, the calm Nixilei who seemed to watch everything, the fiery Kress, and the poor Gareth who had to put up with the lot of them.
She had great fun explaining the tournament and all the crazy things Thyme set up for them. Sylvie and Lily panicked a little hearing about the orb challenge, but Lily more so than Sylvie.
It was the 'death match' that really got them panicked and took Kat more time to calm her two worried friends than it did to talk about the process. She may have skipped over the deadlier parts like the Barbarashi fight and tried to turn the death worm into the joke that it was, but they still looked at her suspiciously. Before she finished up with her scaring Kress.
"So, tell me more about this gem then" said Lily, nervousness long since forgotten though not her worry.
"Well, I'm not really sure on the specifics myself. The system seems to think it will make me rank 2, but it isn't certain" said Kat
"You should use it as soon as possible, in fact, why are you here with us when you could be getting stronger" said Lily voiced pitched slightly higher.
Kat drastically, though not painfully, tightened her tail's grip on the pair. "Because this is more important. I've got over a week to rank up"
"Wait what?" said Lily confused
It was then Kat realised, she'd skipped over the fact she had the week off, and was now starting to understand Lily's worry. *Ohh… Lily thought I was heading out tomorrow night. No wonder she was panicking. Right that's actually a much fairer criticism of me then.*
"I've got the week off Lily. I don't have to worry about it just yet" said Kat
Lily visibly relaxed into the couch at this point as if Kat had lifted the weight of the world off her shoulders. And, upon closer inspection saw a similar reaction in Sylvie as well.
"So, when are you going to become more powerful Kat?" asked Sylvie with a tilt of her head.
"Well…" said Kat intentionally drawing the word out for suspense "I'm not really sure. Depends what you both have planned, but I was thinking perhaps Saturday, instead of my summoning I'd do whatever it was I had to do with the gem. Latest I'd want to start the process is Monday just in case I need time to let my powers settle or something, I'm not really sure how this works"
Sylvie nodded and so did Lily who spoke next "Well, from the sounds of things it will actually be a little hard on your body. I suspect that unless your regeneration can take care of everything for you, it'll take you a bit to recover"
"Why do you say that?" asked Kat curious.
"Well, just based on the way you explained everything, it seems less like you are working your way up to rank two, so much as it's like you are shoving as much power into yourself as you can and hoping that it does the same job?" said Lily unsure
Kat gestured for Lily to continue so she did, "Um, so, ah… think of your body like a glass. Currently you keep it mostly full and steady.. Normally, that glass gets formed and shaped as it grows. You however have a fully formed vessel that might need breaking open a bit…"