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

--- Kat ---

"Damn that really does remind me of Flour," said Marigold wistfully. 

"Someone named their daughter Flower?" asked Burgandy. 

"No, worse, they named her Flour, or at least, that's the name she introduced herself with. I was chatting with her while she was recovering after… loosing part of her ears. She was provided healing for what seemed like 'free of charge' to me. Which was already strange. On top of that she was given her own workshop… and I wasn't exactly old enough to see all that was weird about that. I think I was… eight at the time I want to say?" answered Marigold. 

"What crazy idea was she looking into?" asked March. 

"Apparently she was looking into teleportation gates… according to her she was making good progress because it had only exploded eight times," answered Marigold with a sigh. 

"That… that seems like a ridiculously high number," said March. 

"It's worse, she'd only been healed two days ago, and likely only chose the topic early that day. She managed to make eight prototypes explode in at most four hours, assuming she skipped lunch," said Marigold with a sigh. 

"Did… did she ever figure it out?" asked Lily somewhat hesitantly. 

"Yes… but not in any practical way," said Marigold. 

"How could teleportation not be practical in any way?" asked Lily confused. "Surely there's at least some good it could've done," 

"You'd think that," said Marigold. "The problems with the working prototypes were numerous. I visited a few more times to see them all. The first prototype that worked was only the size of a fingernail. You couldn't fit much threw it, and trying to get around that limit by simply using something long and thin… found the objects being sent through the portal shredded. 

"The next success could only move something across the room. Anything further then that took more mana than even Dad had. It just… scaled horrifically. Across the room was fine, but every step beyond that was progressively more expensive so that designed was skipped. 

"The next design was almost perfect, it worked over long distances, the cost to have it run was quite cheap and you could send anything you wanted through it… but only sometimes. Flour never seemed to be able to work out what was causing the issues. Sometimes whatever went through was completely shredded. It was completely inconsistent about it too. Some days you could send three things through without trouble, other days everything would be shredded, and some days it was a completely random mix," 

"Hmm… that one seems useful in a pinch, though not for people," said Kat. 

Marigold nodded and said, "Yes it was probably the best… though it eventually exploded and took out the wall behind it… and the two rooms behind that… and then the bush behind that, and a good chunk of the garden behind that… and most of the pond. It was a lot of damage," 

"Ah," mumbled Kat. 

Marigold shrugged her shoulders and said, "Indeed. After that Flour declared that she was bored of the project and just… left," 

"Something tells me one does not just leave the royal elven palace," said March. 

"Eh she wasn't in the palace but yeah, you're right," said Marigold. "Normally anyway. For some reason none of the guards stopped her as she ran around proclaiming to all who asked that she was board of staying here and nobody made a move to stop her leaving. Not the guards, not my parents… nobody," 

"Why?" asked Kat and Lily together. 

"I don't know," said Marigold with a shrug. "I asked all the parents, but they just distracted me with things. Granted I was only… I think I was nine? Pretty sure it happened after my ninth birthday. Anyway, yeah, I was more easily distracted back them and everyone did so. I haven't really thought about it much since then until March brought up Floura. Now it's making me wonder… perhaps I'll get an answer next time I ask my parents… but perhaps not," 

"Flower seems to really fit the image of a mad scientist," mused Lily. 

Marigold nodded along agreeing, "Yeah she does. My best guess as to why my parents just let her leave would be that it's too troublesome to keep her around forcefully… though I am now wondering just how many major inventions she's responsible for. Someone like that doesn't come from nowhere, and neither would someone like that just die," 

"Isn't that something you should know rather than us?" pointed out Kat. 

Marigold shrugged and said, "Nope, not really. Sure I got a general princess education which shoved all sorts of useless knowledge into my head about ruling but who made what inventions weren't on the topics I had to cover. Perhaps Vanya knows?" 

"If I had known I would've said something," grumbled Vanya. "I will admit it's more likely I would know because occasionally I read books for fun unlike you, but I still don't know anything about Flower, or Floura or whoever she really is," 

"Thyme might know," said Mint. 

Kat hid a wince. Part of her had forgotten Mint was around. She'd sort of just blended into the background after a while. Kat wasn't entirely happy that she'd forgotten her friend was around. [I think it might be an intentional technique of some kind.]

*What?*

[Like… like 'masking her presence' or some such. I think Mint was using a technique to do that… or she wasn't as actively 'inhabiting' her body. That might produce a similar affect.]

*Sounds like a nice excuse but I'm not sure I believe it. I still feel bad either way.*

"Thyme might know indeed," said Marigold slowly. "Actually yeah. Thyme is just the right kind of crazy to get along with Flour. They probably do know each other. At the same time… Thyme isn't going to just reveal something like that because I asked nicely. Sure I enjoyed talking to Flour when I could but it's not like I would go so far as to call her a friend. Heck, I forgot her for well over a decade," 

"That is likely true," conceded Mint. "I could probably ask and get a more truthful answer, but I suspect I would be asked not to share it, so that option is closed as well. Perhaps whoever wins could mention it when requesting a prize from Thyme?" 

"Thyme would never fall for that," said Marigold. 

"Ah, but Thyme might be willing to humour you," pointed out Mint. 

"Perhaps," said Kat jumping in. "But I suspect Thyme would only humour such a question if it came from Marigold. I doubt Thyme would accept a question like that from someone else who's never met her. Thyme also likely won't give any real details, just a confirmation of knowledge and MAYBE a chance to pass over a letter or something like that," 

Marigold thought on that for a few seconds. "I feel like now you've brought it up I could probably just hand Thyme a latter for her. Thyme won't promise to deliver the letter, or even mention it again… unless I get a response from Flower. Which… well. Even if she wanted to reply to me based on her bad habits a response doesn't exactly seem likely. No I suspect the letter would just get lost in the junk," 

"Might as well try," said Burnice. "The worst that can happen is you get nothing back, but perhaps you can get in contact with her again. She might have developed something useful in all these years… and if she hasn't then perhaps they will at least be amusing to hear about. Though… now I'm saying that out loud. What are the chances that she helped make those contraptions from the second contest today?" 

Kat thought it over for a few moments, "I had sort of assumed that Oditr had been helping Thyme with that one. She has professed interest in such things and with her showing up for the sand castle contest I struggle to imagine Thyme deliberately excluding her from such a project. I'm not saying that Flour didn't help, but that Oditr is more likely to have assisted, and know for certain if Flour was involved," 

"Huh," mumbled Marigold. "Working with Oditr does sound like something she'd do… but based on the… damage done to her ears I would have thought she'd run from the elven lands earlier, or be one of those people too stubborn to leave. So the idea… just seems a bit off to me," 

"Flour might not be someone who runs, but she is just crazy enough to tell those sorts of people to fuck off even when perhaps she shouldn't," said Lily. "I'd guess she chose to stay just because she wanted to, and perhaps to spite them a bit," 

"Ah," said Marigold as she leaned backwards. "That does indeed sound just like the Flour who ran out of the royal palace announcing it the whole way. She totally would stick around or leave purely on such fickle whims,"