D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Kat was once again building snow-Lilys to pass the time. Meng had decided that if she was crafting an illusion for Shun, she was going to do it properly. His note was passed off, the talisman was primed and Meng cast a minor illusion just to force Shun into a sort of semi-sleep state.

Once that was settled, Meng cleared away the snow, then summoned a massive slab of rock from her inventory that glowed slightly with power. It was at this point, Kat realised the process was going to be a bit more involved, so she stopped paying much attention. Still, Kat did manage to see the highlights. Meng started carving an array into the stone, with Shun in the centre.

Then, for quite some time afterwards, Meng poured a constant stream of qi into the formation, while performing martial arts moves. Kat wasn't sure if the moves themselves did anything, or if that was just Meng's way of keeping the flow of her qi steady. It could be either in Kat's mind, as she was no expert. Even without much in the way of attunement to qi, Kat could feel the power just rolling off that slab.

Eventually, Meng finished and there was quite the lightshow. The slab had lit up with a rainbow of colours that all funnelled themselves into Shun's temples. Then Meng just sat back and waited. It took a few more minutes for the talisman to activate, but it eventually did so. With a warping of space and a loud pop, Shun disappeared. Kat thought that was the end, of that, but Meng was frowning over the slab.

"Meng? Is something wrong?" asked Kat softly as she approached the spy.

"Indeed there is Kat… what do you make of this?" asked Meng as she pointed to a particular spot on the stone slab. Kat looked at it, and noticed that it was clearly blood. Presumably Shun's.

"Is… is that Shun's blood?" asked Kat.

"I don't know," answered Meng.

"What do you mean you don't know?" whispered Kat, feeling that suited the atmosphere better then just yelling back.

"Well nothing I did should result in him bleeding, and adding his blood to the array could have majorly fucked with my work. But now he's teleported away somewhere and I can't even double check things. Did you cut him at all during your fight?" said Meng.

Kat shook her head, "No… at least I don't think so. I was more focused on Jian, and I was using my demonic fire more than my weapons because I needed the fight to be over fast. I burnt a tonne of energy keeping them contained and I didn't have the time to go anything less then full lethal. As such I mostly ignored Shun where I could… but I can't think of any reason for him to be bleeding,"

"Hmm…" Meng hummed, "I'm not sure if this is going to be a problem or not. My technique is not so weak that it would be completely destroyed by a stray bit of blood from the person I'm using it on… but if this ISN'T Shun's blood and there was intent behind in then I can't be certain of things. I really hope someone isn't trying to turn him into an enemy for me… but I'm not sure how they'd go about doing that if that's what this is about…"

"Well… is it enough blood to really disrupt things?" asked Kat.

"No… but it's right over my array lines and that combined with the blood might be enough… not to disrupt things majorly… but perhaps give things a nudge in a less ideal direction. Part of what took me so long was ensuring the quality of light in my illusion to help with Shun's enlightenment. If the blood was specifically targeting that somehow, it could ruin him for life… and that's grounds for him to hunt me down for the rest of his life…" hissed Meng.

"Is there anything we can do?" asked Kat.

"No… I don't believe there is. The teleportation talisman hid the destination wonderfully. If I hadn't seen Shun disappear in front of my eyes I wouldn't even know he'd used such a powerful talisman. Without knowing where he is to check my work… I can't do anything to assist. I suppose I will have to warn his descendants when I hand over the letter. Annoying…" grumbled Meng.

"So… shall we head off then?" asked Kat.

"Yes, we need to find my wayward children. Nothing on this mountain is capable of seeing through the illusions I placed upon them, but those should be running out shortly. We also need to pick up Lian. Do you know where she is?" asked Meng.

"Well I know she's with Lily but…" Kat said as she turned her focus to the bond she had with Lily. Kat examined in and then tried to mentally 'strum' the connection, hoping it would give her a sense of where the pair was. Kat was pleased when it seemed to work… and less pleased when it became clear that Lily was quite far away. "Seems they aren't even on this peak,"

"I see… so we can grab that group second?" said Meng, clear that she was asking a question. Kat nodded, despite her desire to go find Lily right now, Bodeir was her charge and he was also closer.

With that they took off, with Meng in the lead and Kat following up behind. Meng was following the strongest, and only currently accurate, link to Bing. It didn't take long to find the area it was pointing to… but Kat couldn't see Bing anywhere. Which was rather confusing for Kat, considering her ability to see through illusions. Meng didn't look any happier.

"Kat… I'm not just failing to sense an illusion correct?" asked Meng with worry lacing her tone.

"I see nothing here, no Bing, and no sign of anyone else," said Kat with a frown.

Meng's own frown deepened as she circled around the area and found that it continued to point to this general area… but after a few more circles Meng determined the signal was still moving around. Meng followed this for a while then groaned. "She's in the fucking caves isn't she,"

"Um… perhaps?" said Kat with a shrug.

"How did she even end up in the tunnels here? There aren't any cave entrances around here, at least, none that I saw. Where the fuck did they enter from? Hmm… Kat, if I start doing something stupid like digging straight down in panic, please stop me," grumbled Meng.

"Um… why? Wouldn't that get us closer," said Kat.

"Yes, and it would also drastically increase the chance of a cave in Kat," said Meng bluntly.

*Hmm… I didn't consider that. Nor did I consider that it would be a big issue… surely Bing can survive a bit of rock right? I doubt they're all that deep… and she IS a cultivator. Is she really at much of a risk? If she was, surely she can run deeper into the caves right?*

"I suppose I wasn't considering that fully," said Kat diplomatically, not wanting to point out that Meng was potentially being overly cautious in this situation. Especially if they were able to wake Bodeir up. He could probably get them out of any amount of rockfall with minimal effort. Alas, Kat was also sure that Meng had no desire to be anything other than overbearing careful until her children were out of the sect and at least somewhat safe.

"Do we split up, or stick together? We don't have a good way of contacting each other…" said Kat.

"Hmm… that is not the case. I can give you one half of a paired talisman that points towards the other half. It will heat up if additional qi is introduced, and can act as a beacon if I want you to come find me… sadly, if you find the entrance you'll have to figure out some other way of notifying me, but we could split up this way," explained Meng.

"Sure… though if the temperature difference is too small I might not feel it. I'm not really effected by them, so if I'm not actively trying to feel the difference I might miss it," said Kat.

"It also starts to glow red, so that should be a good enough indicator," said Meng.

*Hey Lily, just got to find Bing… because she managed to get lost in just a few hours and found herself in the tunnels like you. So… just stay safe for a bit I guess?*

[I'll be fine Kat. We haven't seen anything trying to kill us in hours, and as long as I know you're fine I'm not too worried about it. Just take your time.]

*Yeah but Sue and the servants will be freaking the fuck out, so we really shouldn't delay too much.*

[True… wouldn't want Sue to take out her… pent up frustrations out on the poor butlers.]

*I hate you for putting that imagine in my head.*

[No you don't.]

*Still hate the image.*