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

After Harold left the room, there was silence. The three remaining were willing to let it sit, and have it assisted with Kat calming everyone's emotions. Kat realised that she'd really been caught up in Vivian's flow, and was glad that she hadn't started to leak fire or set her eyes alight during the conversation.

It was like this, that Sylvie found them when she poked her head into the room. "Sylvie?" said Kat with confusion in her voice.

"I think it's time we left for a bit. I could cut the tension in this house with a knife" said Sylvie.

Vivian frowned "There will be no tension cutting on my watch Sylvie" despite her frown, Vivian continued, her eyes sparkling. "It's dangerous to let someone as sweet and innocent as yourself play with knives"

"Well…" said Sylvie stretching out the word. "I might have tilted all of the picture frames in this house, moved aside all of the nick knacks to reveal dust spots, and put old double-sided tape on all of the cupboards."

Everyone stared opened mouthed at Sylvie, and Kat got a weird sense of Déjà vu.

"Oh, and Callisto already lets me use the knives when I help her cook occasionally" said Sylvie, poking her tongue out at the end before she left the room just for good measure. That seemed to break the spell on everyone in the room. Vivian went straight after Sylvie, and Kat, seeing Lily was thinking but not moving, scooped her up into a princess carry and swiftly followed behind them.

They left the house, following Sylvie's lead, straight back to the car and into it. Callisto yielded the drivers position, and they headed off. They stopped by just for a short moment to drop the trailer back where it belonged before heading home. Sylvie managed to convince Kat to hold her during the ride this time, though Kat was extra careful with Sylvie as she still had to sit forward so Lily wasn't being crushed by her wings.

It didn't take any longer than half an hour to pull into the garage though, and everyone was piling out shortly after. Some unspoken agreement led them all into the lounge room to take their positions. Sylvie, Lily and Kat on the couch, and Vivian and Callisto in the armchairs. Silence followed for a few seconds before Vivian spoke. "Sorry Lily… I probably shouldn't have been so hard on your father"

Lily gulped once, but steeled herself… before snatching Sylvie off Kat's lap and hugging her tightly as a form of comfort. Sylvie's eyes flickered up to Lily's face for only a moment before she snuggled into the bookworm.

"No… um… no I think you did the right thing" said Lily

Vivian bit her lip as she looked at everyone's faces, and seeing no condemnation anywhere said "Are you sure? I mean… obviously you're sure but… are you sure? He's still your father and the whole point of the plan was to sort everything out so we wouldn't have any issues with your parents… and I sort of ruined all that"

Lily hugged Sylvie tightly, and the young girl just let her head rest back on Lily without complaint. It was a little tight for her, but Sylvie wasn't going to deny Lily this extra support. Kat did notice however, the slightly pinched look on Sylvie's face, and kept a note of it. "Look… um… I guess… hmmm…

"I don't… I don't exactly want… I mean… I don't want to say bad things about dad… but I… I'm not sure how he can say that? I mean… I was actually listening to him for the first part… um… until you stepped up I was willing to basically just forgive all the things he's done…" said Lily

Vivian's eyes narrowed, and for the first time today, a truly annoyed Vivian was taking note of the words being said very careful. "Lily… what do you mean by 'all the things?'"

"Er… um" Lily stumbled as she saw Vivian's look and loosened her grip on Sylvie just a bit before the younger girl tapped her hand, allowing her to gather herself enough to say, "Well… um he wasn't ever bad to me… I mean, my parents… neither of them have been bad to ME… but… well Kat's another story…

"He… well he's sort of right in that unlike mom he didn't really do anything bad to her but… well… he has said SOME things… and he really let mom get away with a lot you know… I… I never really thought of it as a problem… or well… I mean… um…"

"Take your time Lily" said Vivian softly reigning in her scarier expressions, while Kat snaked her tail around Lily to add her support as well.

Lily took a long breath, and some time to organise her speech. Before she spoke next, she tried to reassure herself that she wouldn't stutter and that she'd say what she meant. "Ok… um, so in a lot of books and stories… people treat it as just as bad to watch something horrible happen as it is to do that thing…

"And even if I don't quite believe that… um… the old saying 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' and… that's really what my dad was doing. He was just letting mom insult Kat and… even when I defended her, dad just let mom say whatever she wanted to me as well. So… I just… yeah…"

Vivian opened her mouth to say something but Callisto was the one who jumped in. "I know what you mean Lily. You were willing to forgive your dad for not doing anything because he wasn't hurting you and… I presume his argument was compelling?"

Lily and Vivian groaned in sync. "We didn't explain it to Callisto/Sylvie or Sylvie/Callisto" said them both with Vivian speaking Callisto's name first and Lily Sylvie's. Once they realised this, they all looked at Kat for her to use her memory to go over it word for word.

Kat happily obliged, catching Sylvie and Callisto up on exactly what Harold said. When it was over Sylvie snuggled into Lily more and pulled Lily's arms tighter around her. Callisto, leaned further back in her seat and said "That. Is rather unusual" in a somewhat hollow voice.

Everyone waited for her follow-up response, somehow feeling her silent request for the others to wait on her next words… which were, "No really, this is an extremely unusual case. I don't fully understand the scope of your father's personality Lily. I… I'm not sure I've ever met someone like that. Some of the things he's said make me believe his claim to intelligence but… some others make me question it greatly… yet he clearly isn't too poor with people, I mean he almost had you even if something like that would never get past Vivian, she's a master of people…

"It's just a bit weird really. My best guess… is that he might be more correct than you think when he says you get your intellect from him" Lily narrowed her eyes, and Callisto raised a placating hand. "I mean no offence… I'm just… guessing that perhaps rather than a true ease with people,

"He's simply read enough books to understand the theory, and has spent more than enough time in the company of both you and your mother to apply that knowledge effectively. As we saw it didn't exactly work against Vivian, and he didn't really notice anything was too wrong until it was forced in front of his face. He can see things… but he has limited understanding, something you actually strive for Lily"

Lily sat back against the chair as well, and Kat's tail tightened around her. "You might be right Callisto" whispered Lily. "You might be right" she repeated in a slightly louder voice.

"I'm sorry I have to head off to punishment soon Lily… I don't really want to just leave you here" said Kat

Lily shook her head "I've still got everyone else. And I think we can all agree that my parents don't really have anything against me… just Kat. Even if I need to defend you a bit Kat, it's not that bad…"

Kat shook her head "I just… kinda feel like this is my fault. It's me they have a problem with and I feel like I should deal with it not you"

"Kat, my parents are being idiots. That is not your fault it is theirs" said Lily

"Besides" said Vivian "While Kat is out her bedroom is free. I'm sure she doesn't mind right?"

Kat nodded instantly "Of course. Heck, even when I'm here Lily is always welcome. She might have to compete for space in the bed with Sylvie if I'm here and we all need to share it but it's fine really"

Vivian laughed, and said. "Surely with two beds between the three of you, we can work something out. For now, though, we should relax. Kat is heading off soon and we don't want to be caught up on problems. Kat, do you know if you can send us update messages while on your punishment?"

Kat shook her head "No I don't. I will if I can of course… but I don't think I'll know till I'm already gone"