CHAPTER 44 - The cat draws a map

"By the way Yuna, you really outdid yourself here! Finding a way to make plate armor feel and act like cotton!" I clapped a few times as I said it. It was an impressive feet for sure. This is why I put up with her, partially. No, I do love her of course. She's been my friend for a long time. 

She didn't notice my compliment as she was trapped in her gloomy state over having missed me being naked. 

Lilith raised her eyebrows. 

"Oh? Really? That's damn amazing! I guess we gotta try it out a bit, but... I bet everyone will want to put orders in!" She talked in an excited tone as she fried some more bacon. 

I went and sat down at my spot by the end of the table where Lilith had put a plate of food, or breakfast, for me. 

Then Yuna suddenly snapped out of it again, slamming her palm down onto the table. "Riiight!!!" She yelled out loudly with a smile then she started to fumble with something in her bag before picking up a mini me! I got a tad startled, luckily I hadn't started eating so I didn't choke on anything. 

Well, she literally picked up a miniature version of me, which is what I meant with mini me. A small golem of life energy I made for her before everything crazy went down earlier. Before I got killed. Before fucking demons and purgatory and shit. Sigh, when did life get this complicated… 

It had a pink sundress now, so she must've made clothes for it at some point. 

Abbadon gazed a bit, not realizing what it was, as he took his last bite of bacon. Then liquified the eggs and sort of Swooped them up with magic and just poured em down his throat. It looked like a small stream of water just shooting up from the plate and in an arc down into his mouth as he held his head in an upwards position. Huh. Well, to each their own. 

Oh...

And Yuna was wearing a black dress herself, a tight one with an underbust corset built in by the looks of it. Very deep cleavage. Thin shoulder straps. Very short miniskirt on it that was split at the right side of the dress and the split ends were sewn up, showing a lot of butt but it looked pretty smooth to move in, so, let's pretend it's made for movement purposes. 

The dress had beautiful details and the corset had metal rails in it, I count 28 or so. 

The whole dress was in the same pattern making it all fit together. Pink lacing in the back.

The pattern had greyscale details. There was also a bow under the cleavage. And two on each side in the front of the dress before the skirt part started. 

Then the obligatory thigh high socks. Black with a pink row of fabric up top and some lace. 

And a hairband, pink. I also got the same hairband in my bag of clothes I'd put on. 

She seems to want to make us somehow matching clothes for some reason. 

I wonder if her getup is platearmor too? 

"can't you analyse Abbadon?" Lilith asked as she and Daeron sat down with plates of food as well. 

Abbadon leaned over looking at the miniature golem of me. Daeron started eating. He had a notepad on the table at his spot, one and a half page of freshly written down stuff… Hum. Now I'm wondering how long they've been awake. I guess he's still taking notes about Yuna. I leaned in to take a peak. Yup, something about a cloud. Then I leaned back and kept eating. Meanwhile, Abbadon said;

"Ooh, it's a golem shaped like my lady!" As he leaned in to look at the miniature. He sort of smiled, in his way. Ignoring Lilith's question completely. 

"Yes, I know, right?!" Yuna exclaimed. "She gave it to me earlier as a gift." she smiled proud and puffed her chest out in pride as she said it. 

Lilith visibly got annoyed. Putting her hand to her forehead as she chewed down a bite. 

"Oh, right right.I suppose I could." Abbadon mumbled while he stroked his chin as he eyeballed the golem version of me. 

"But what's the fun in knowing everything?" he added, mumbling as he kept gazing at the small golem Yuna was coddling and toying with. Lilith removed her hand from her forehead. Smacked it down beside her. 

"But, you're trying to discover her skills?" she said. Which, he simply replied to by saying "Yes." Lilith seemed frustrated, as she grinded her teeth for a small moment. "Why not analyse her.." Lilith said as she pushed her palm against her forehead now very annoyed. Then it struck me… 

"Waaait, you could've just used analyse instead of putting me through fucking torture-like tests?!" I yelled and stared at him. 

He shook his head at me. 

"You're no fun. Sorry my lady, I thought it'd be fun to…" he paused and scratched his head a second. "Figure it out, like a puzzle!" he explained. He's not great at apologies. I sighed. He held his hand towards me. He mumbled a chant and I saw mixed magical energy come through his hand, entering me. Is this how a real time analyse spell is done? 

I felt it, like it searched around every corner of me from inside, my body, mind, magic, everything. It felt like a huge hit to, well, everything. I started panting and I was shivering all of a sudden. 

The energy left me as fast as it hit but it felt like half an hour passed in that second somehow. The shivering stopped as the energy left me, thankfully. I fucking hate to shiver, in the sick or cold-way. 

"There. I know everything now." he said and put his palm onto my forehead and like a flash I knew everything in detail as well. All my skills, ranks, level, everything was sort of just added into my brain from the touch of his palm. "And now you do as well your majesty!" he coughed. "Sorry, Lady Nana I mean."  Abbadon… smoothly… corrected himself. 

"nice. Thanks Abbadon! This is…" I paused for a second. "...now things make sense…" I mumbled inaudibly as I stared down onto my hands. 

"Well, maybe we should start discussing work." Lilith said as she clapped her hands together. 

"Yeah" "Sure" "Sounds good" 

We all agreed and nodded at her. 

"Well, we're all gathered so." she took a breath, then went on with her serious face on. "Let's get to it!" Lilith exclaimed. We all yelled out an "Aye!" as a reply. The mood got overall serious, but happy. Everyone had a smile on their face as we were gathered around the table. 

"You followed the trail of the teleport, what did you find?" She looked at me. But Abbadon held up his hand and stood up as I was about to answer. Lilith pointed at him as to motion him to speak.

"Apologies my lady, I led you after this guy Erin, who was a mage working for the cultists." he sat down again. 

"He wasn't however the one who attacked or teleported from the dining hall that day, he was only in contact with them." He took a sip of coffee, then just looked at me for a while, as if waiting for me to say something. Fucking demon, be normal for once. 

"Well, keep going?!" I answered annoyed and clenched my fists. 

"And.. Right.. Well, I placed a trail leading to him. Then took over him as you entered the room from my ethereal-state and used him to send you to your dad. The real escapees headed into the castle I believe." he explained in a serious tone while looking at me. Lilith listened, looking very interested as Abbadon spoke. 

---

Abbadon watched over the base at the time and saw what happened. There it occurred to him that Nana would follow the guilty party, so he planted a trail to somewhere more convenient for him. He thought a remote castle over in Debonajrak would work fine and it'd be fun to see them confused about what had happened afterwards. 

Though he hadn't gotten a chance to watch the aftermath yet, which bugged him a bit. 

---

The weird glimmer I had seen earlier, from back when I got back from clearing the 2nd sanctum when I was  looking at the sky, was the perpetrators then. Smuggling away Emilia. But why keep her in our own castle… I looked at the wall next to the fridge. 

"So, it was the perpetrators I saw, a glimmering dark thing, moving in the direction of the castle?" I mumbled while just staring at the wall. 

"I believe so, yes. I haven't sensed any long distance teleportation go off since so they're most likely waiting for you there." he explained, then finished off his coffee. Damn, Abbadon is like a magic alert. Well, unreliable one but still, as it seems he only shares information when asked or feel like it. Not sure if he hides something of course, we can't know I guess. Well, I'll trust him 

"Alright. So wait, you sent Nana into the enemies country?" Lilith was resting her head on her hands, with her elbows placed on the table. 

"Yes." Abbadon replied casually. 

"Do you know where exactly?" She looked up and her eyes were wide open. Is that hope I see? From a bit worried and angry to, wow tell me more in a flash! Sigh. 

"A town to the south of Deborahborg, called Sovajrak." Abbadon raised an eyebrow. I bet he wonders why the hell she cares about its name. 

"That's good information." she smiled, looking satisfied. "We don't have much on them as they aren't exactly tourist friendly." she explained as she'd gotten out a notepad, writing something down. 

"And we've hoped we never would have any conflict since they're not really that close anyway, but apparently it's inevitable." she stopped writing and looked up. 

"But, you can fill me in on all you know about them later." she put down her pen. 

"Let's talk about how to approach the castle here, we don't want them to see us too early." She stood up and slowly walked around us, and well, the table I guess. "Just blow them up with the castle, and then they-" Lilith interrupted Abbadon by saying,

"We want minimal casualties." then she rolled her eyes. I sighed and couldn't help but let out a giggle at his solution. 

"Yeah, maybe split up." Daeron said. "Yes, that's probably the best way we can tackle it." Lilith said. 

"Yuna and Daeron can enter with a potion and gear shipment. Say, bring something new so they can showcase it." I said. 

They both nodded, Lilith too. Yuna took a break from playing with her miniature version of me and seemed to focus up. 

"While I take Lilith and fly in, entering a tower or an upper floor directly." I added. 

"Sure sounds good actually. I'll show you the blueprint before we go, but does everyone like that plan?" Lilith said then looked around at us. 

Everyone nodded in agreement. Abbadon raised his hand. 

"Oh yeah, Kiwi, you guard Daeron at all costs. And Abbadon.. Can you change appearance to something..." I rolled my hand, pretending to look for the word. 

"I can change my appearance to something boring, yes." Abbadon said. 

"Perfect! I'd say normal, but fine. Then you guard Yuna, make sure no one gets the drop on her." I said and gave em a smile. 

"I'll fix you a peacekeeper badge, I'll print Elite 10 on it. It's my squad and not many people should question it since we just had an opening with Bob gone." Lilith explained, sounding serious. But I could see a hint of sadness underneath. 

Well, I guess he would fit in there, for sure. 

"That badge will give you entry, and if they wonder why we'd put an elite 10 on a showcase and delivery, just say its to be safe considering all recent events." she kept explaining as she was drawing up something on a paper she got from somewhere. I guess she found my art stash where I keep papers, pens and all that sort of stuff. That's a pen meant for… but... Oh well...

"It's not that strange we'd wanna keep our head enchanter and alchemist safe. Since you're doing important research after all." she mumbled as she kept doodling up a map on the paper she'd taken, by the looks of it. 

We nodded in agreement. That's true. 

Lilith presented a map of the castle. Guess she doodled up a pretty detailed map of our castle. 

"So, here's the place!" she exclaimed. 

"We're going to get in unnoticed, find Emilia and save her and any other hostage." Lilith kept going. 

"Assume we're up against someone powerful, we have to assume some casualty might be imminent while we of course will do everything we can if it is possible to prevent it."