Chapter 784

Kat put herself into a bit of a holding pattern. Now that they had a way in she could relax. Well, she could also try to sneak in but she wasn’t quite willing to wake Lily up just yet. So Kat just gazed out at the city, trying to figure out what was strange about it. Well other than the magic water. *But I just can’t see it. I mean, what am I missing?*

Kat spent ten minutes thinking about that question till she finally found her answer. *Magic. A city this size and age should have more obvious magic around. There also doesn’t seem to be anything other than humans... which is another interesting thing. Surely a city this size would have some evidence of both...*

Kat pushed some demonic energy into her eyes and started to comb the streets. It wasn’t hard to see people going about their days but it only reinforced Kat’s idea that something strange was going on. She managed to spot a schoolhouse, which was nice, and she could spot what she thought were laboratories for investigating plants. But she couldn’t see a single sign of casual magic use at all.

*Surely if you had magic you’d use it for things right? Like... so many of these people are just carrying around normal grocery bags. Nobodies like... floating them or something. Kat continued to look around. She even found a group of people, a whole ten of them, starting a fire in the backyard with a flint and steel.

Ok that’s gotta be weird. Aren’t the basic elements common as affinities? Surely someone should be using wind or earth, water or I don’t know FIRE? It doesn’t make sense. I mean... there ARE mages. Apep said they had a paper mage somewhere in the city... but like... what’s going on here? Am I missing something super obvious?*

Kat continued to look even as her vision started to burn through more and more energy as she cast her gaze further afield only to find no evidence at all of proper magic. *I’ve got no idea what could be causing this. I can’t think of this as anything other than a fantasy setting and mages clearly exist... so what the heck is going on here? I keep asking, but it bears repeating.*

*Though that does lead to an interesting question... how strong is the strongest mage compared to me? I’m not seeing anyone casting magic, so the pool of mages must be pretty low, and the chance that one of them is actually a good mage seems even lower than normal. Just... so many people and not a single mage. They might only have one or two particularly strong mages a generation and this city is MASSIVE. Still... there’s clearly some magic. I’m looking at you ‘Mr Endless Fountain’.

.....

Unless... could that by why? Could it be sucking up all the magic in the air? It’s possible perhaps... but I don’t think that’s quite how magic is supposed to work. Still... might be the trade off. These people are all drinking the magic water. Might only work properly on plants or something and causes issues in people. I mean... possible? Hmmm...*

Kat continued to float around and turn those thoughts over in her mind. The visible lack of magic was very much at odds with the massive aqueducts, the glass dome she was flying around and the magical water fountain itself. So there was magic. That was not in question. Why the magic seemed to be limited. She didn’t know. Still, it was an interesting enough puzzle to distract herself for another hour.

Eventually though, despite her heart’s wishes, it was time to wake Lily up. “Lily wake up,” Kat murmured directly behind Lily’s ears. The Memphis twitched and buried herself deeper into Kat’s arm in response. Kat moved her hand up and started tickling Lily behind the ears. “Come on, time to do some more sneaking,”

Apparently that still wasn’t quite enough. Lily might have better ears now but Kat was so far into the ‘Is safe’ zone that Lily’s mind couldn’t register anything Kat did as a reason to wake up. This was further proved when Kat started poking Lily’s ears with her finger. Bending them over and pushing them flat against Lily’s head. Only for Lily to continue sleeping. This was completely fine. She was in Kat’s arms. She was safe.

Kat of course was starting to have issues with this. *How am I supposed to wake her up? I don’t want to do anything particularly bad to her...* Kat frowned intently at her girlfriend. *What right does she have to look so adorable when sleeping anyway. I feel like I’ll be the bad guy if I wake her up. I mean... I guess I can just keep flying around here for however long it takes... but I don’t know that I want to waste that much time...*

Kat firmed her resolve again and started a new series of test. She tickled Lily under the chin. Nothing. Blew air into her ear. Nothing. Wrapped a finger around her tail. Nothing. Poked the underside of her wings. Nothing. Booped her on the nose. Still nothing. Kat was starting to run out of things that should wake a normal person that weren’t actually all that annoying or intense on the wake up.

Kat then carefully bit down on Lily’s ear. A short mew followed by purring was not the expected answer. *God dammit Lily.* Kat sighed and started her backup plan. Fire. Kat pulled her demonic energy into some flames and let them drift closer to Lily... to no effect. She let it get closer and still nothing. Hesitantly, she let it touch the edge of Lily’s wing and... still nothing.

Kat glanced at the fire and then carefully let it cover Lily’s entire form. The cat in question didn’t even stir. She just purred slightly louder. *Ok FINE. Apparently I am incapable of waking my girlfriend up. You happy world? I accept it. I’m a massive softy and I only get worse when it involves Lily. I cannot bring myself to wake her up so now I’m going to sit up here. In the sky. Doing NOTHING until she wakes up.*

Kat half expected that to work. For her mental yelling to wake Lily up, summon some divine retribution, or just have some lucky coincidence happen that moved the plot along. No such luck though, so she did what she threatened to do. Set herself back into a holding pattern and decided to use her immense eyesight... to count the number of pets she could find.

The answer ended up being forty seven, but Kat felt like that was almost cheating because of the one house with twenty rabbits all to itself. Lily was starting to stir though, and Kat gently nudged her attention down the link. Certainly not enough to actually wake Lily, but enough for Lily’s subconscious to know her attention was needed and desired.

Eventually Lily did actually come to. [Oh... um... good... morning? Afternoon? Whatever it is...]

*Hello Lily. It’s... well I’m not quite sure if it’s past lunch yet or not. Doesn’t matter though. I found the gardens for the 6th of the 10. Turns out they’re a giant greenhouse with guards out the front. We need to sneak in and the best way seems to be in a wheelbarrow when one of the servants is transporting fertiliser. I’m a bit big to hide in a wheelbarrow so I was waiting for you to get up.*

[Is there really no other way in?]

* There is. In my flying I managed to spot two more side entrances. Sadly, they also have guards and even less foot traffic. The only way I can see us getting in reliably is the wheelbarrow trick. They don’t seem to have any animals actually in the greenhouse. Well no, pretty sure I’ve seen some insects but that’s about it.*

[So back into my head?]

*Yup.*

Lily let out what had to be a sigh and started to wiggle her way out of Kat’s grasp. Kat flared her wings and brought herself to a stop, letting Lily escape and spread her own wings. Kat could instantly see how much trouble Lily was having. Apparently Kat had chosen to hover at a higher elevation and Lily was barely keeping herself afloat. Quickly, Kat went fog form and was interested to note the wind didn’t affect her, or at least, it didn’t SEEM to be doing anything.

Outside Lily dove for the shed in question. It wasn’t hard to spot and with the link it was simple to confirm with Kat. Lily had no trouble diving down, and remember to ease up on the landing as well. Sneaking inside wasn’t even hard. The door was propped open and there was two wheelbarrows already stacked. Apparently this wasn’t a common way of entry. Lily hopped up and squeezed herself in between the sacks of fertiliser and tried to block out the smell. [My poor nose...]