When Kat's consciousness came back to her, she felt a lot like a rubber band that had been let go after stretching too far. Groggily opening her eyes to blackness, she had only a moment to work out what was going on before that darkness retreated as a door opened.
In front of her, was a room. The walls all seemed to be made out of smooth black marble, with the occasional blue flower like crystals that jutted out from the wall and seemed to emit a small amount of light. The bed was a simple frame carved out of wood with a plane white mattress and sheet combination. There was a desk on the closer edge of the room to Kat and at the further side she saw Shizuka meditating on a slightly raised platform to separate it from the rest of the room. She was wearing a loose training robe and surrounding the young girl was several large chunks of ice which orbited her slowly until stopping completely and vanishing.
*Hang on a moment this is familiar… wait* Kat's mind shook as her eyes failed to move under her command.
"Greetings demon, I my name, is Shizuka. I assume my mother has filled you in on at least some of the details" said Shizuka as she stood up.
"I guess? I was told to kidnap you, but that it was actually your plan. I'm Kat by the way" said Kat
Kat's mind reeled. *I didn't say that… well I mean I did but not right now. Shit am I now part of the memory?*
"Well Kat, I plan to escape the castle and head for my grandmother's hideaway in some mountains. Most people think she's dead but it's actually that she's a battle junkie who got sick of running the kingdom and faked her death to get out of it. She pretended to be weak for that first decade to make sure my mother could run things in her absence and then headed off to the wilderness to fight things again" said Shizuka
"Do you have any talents that can ease our escape?"
*Is it because I used up all my energy and lost some power I had over myself?*
"Not really, I seem to have a calming aura I can project over people but it's not that strong" said Kat
"Hmm, a calming aura you say, please hit me with hit. Don't hold back too much but no need for full power" said Shizuka
Kat didn't even feel anything as Shizuka collapsed under what must have been her calming aura. She did however notice that the dream seemed to shake slightly.
"Hey are you alright, what happened, why did you collapse like that, my aura shouldn't be that strong" said Kat. *Yeah I never did quite figure that one out. Looking back on it maybe it was getting stronger over time? I'm not really sure… I never so grossly overused my aura ever again, I always sort of had an idea of how much to use. *
Shizuka, started to mumble something before changing tactics and summoning a large ice cube she promptly shattered on her own head. "There, much better. That calming aura is nothing to scoff at, I had all my defences down but still, if that's your version of not that strong I'm sure you'll be fine if pressed" said Shizuka
"No see, this isn't what I was expecting, last time I used that on someone it just calmed them down, helped them think clearly and relax. It didn't completely drop them" said Kat
"Hmm, strange. While certainly if I had my guard up it's a simple attack to deflect that wouldn't be without effort. Nonetheless, I have no complaints if you are stronger than you think, that will only aid in our efforts." said Shizuka.
"Well, with that established, I suppose I should go over the plan to actually sneak out of the castle." Said Shizuka, however instead of continuing to list the plan as Kat remembered them, time seemed to skip for a moment, and Kat found her body in a slightly different position and answering Shizuka
"Ok well I trust your judgement, it seems like you have this planned out, when do we leave" said Kat
"Now" said Shizuka.
*Wait what?* Kat's thoughts where interrupted as a pair of wings broke through her back. It was a weird feeling, and didn't feel at all like it did the first time, it was like she just suddenly gained awareness of her wings. *Huh… I didn't even know I was missing them… wait what about my horns.*
"What in Everfrost's name was that" asked Shizuka
"Well, if I had to guess, this is the next stage of my awakening" said Kat
"Yes but what even happened to you. Your face was twisted in pain and you have wings?" said Shizuka
"Oh that wasn't pain. Whatever it was, was extremely weird and uncomfortable, and I hope to never experience it again, but it wasn't pain. As for the wings, well I'm not a fully fledged demon yet, I am still undergoing an awakening which is meant to slowly increase my powers, I thought they happened after I returned from my summoning once a week but clearly, I was mistaken. This time it's wings and maybe muscles? It felt like they were changing as well but hard to tell on account of not being able to move right now" said Kat
"Will this impede our mission at all? This plan took a lot of preparation on my behalf and we can afford to delay it for a day if we must. Ideally I want the highest chance to succeed and for that the sooner we leave the better because the beast twins aren't here yet, but they are supposed to arrive within the week" said Shizuka
"No" said Kat
"Understood" said Shiuzka
"I'm ready to leave whenever you require Shizuka" said Kat
*You know… I feel like I'm skipping around a bit here. Wasn't I previously enjoying the great feel of the floorboards? Wait that's right! We also completely skipped the fact I went to sleep first*
"Of course, just one thing left to do before we leave then" said Shizuka as she started gathering ice in front of her. Slowly building in size a light began to shine within the chunks until it shattered sending pieces of ice flying around the room bearing itself in the walls, the furniture and any other exposed surface available.
"Quickly, we must leave through the secret passage, the room is soundproofed but my spell may have damaged the enchantments somewhat. Let's leave quickly" said Shizuka as she pushed on of the flower petals on her walls to reveal a hidden passageway before she took off running at a light jog.
Now that Kat was jogging, she decided to use the ample time she assumed she'd have to see if she kept her horns. This was a bit harder because she couldn't really feel them without demonic energy running through them and she was running on empty.
Kat tried to strain her eyes to see the bottom of her horns, and while she failed in moving them, as she started to follow Shizuka the slight bobbing motion was enough to give her confirmation… except she COULD see her horns.
*Ok seriously what is going on here?* As Kat jogged the background started to pass extremely quickly, as if she was watching the scene played in fast forward. Despite her body not moving faster than it was in her memories, the walls flew past at amazing speeds.
That was until everything came to a screeching halt. When it did so, the walls darkened drastically, as Shizuka spoke. Kat found herself rooted to the spot. Unable to move.
"We might have a problem" said Shizuka
"Please elaborate, what might that problem be?" said Kat
"Well, the walls shouldn't be like this, in fact I didn't even know the tunnels had smooth walls in any section let alone on the route we were supposed to be on" said Shizuka
"So what does that actually mean Shizuka, I'm just following you" said Kat.
Trembling slightly Shizuka replied "It means one of three things, I think, and I sincerely hope none of them are true"
"Well, spit it out Shizuka, I'm not going to bite your head off for a mistake" said Kat
*Oh no… no no I know where this is going.* Kat tried to rally against her unresponsive body, but was unwilling to spend the meagre amount of demonic energy she had recovered to truly force the issue in case she simply collapsed in place when using it.
"Well, it's not quite that. At least one of these scenarios is completely unacceptable to me, but I'm forced to consider nonetheless" said Shizuka
"Stop dancing around the issue. We can deal with them whatever they are" said Kat
"Easy for you to say, you don't even know what the problems are, how can you say that" said Shizuka.
"Shizuka I'm going to project my aura onto you, you need to calm down" said Kat
"No, I'm fine I don't-" Shizuka was by something. *My calming aura if I remember correctly..* Turning her back to the wall she slid down landing softly on her backside.