Catherine - Growing Stronger

“Mistress.” A voice rips Catherine from her light slumber. Yawning she reluctantly opens her eyes. Her whole body itches, how long has she been in the library again? All her days flow into each other, reading, working out, sleeping, experimenting, reading, repeat. She rubs her forehead and looks at her hand afterwards. When did she turn pale?

“Mistress.” The voice repeats more urging, Catherine turns her head to look at the visitor. “Zal, is it time to eat again?” She asks and stretches. Waking up always is a hard thing to do. “No, I am afraid we have a very urgent issue.” Zal says. The fog of tiredness slowly subsides, “What is it?” “You should hear from Droy, come.”

Catherine sighs and follows the First-Servant. It isn’t until she enters the dining hall that she notices the state of the base. The floors, while not filthy, are not as meticulously clean as they used to be. In some of the corners dust has settled and the walls are missing a few torches.

“Why don’t you clean as much as you used too?” Catherine asks Zal, “Not enough time. You should see the bath. It is terrible.” Zal says in a bothered tone. Catherine has no chance to ask further questions. “Catherine, you look terrible.” Droy says as she walks up the stairs to the second level. “Well, no wonder you haven’t bathed in two months.” Catherine is slightly shocked; she has been in the library for two months? Really?

“Whatever.” She remains composed to the outside, although the slight itching on her skin now has become an overwhelming urge to bath. She sits down and looks around the table, Meltzer is missing, as usual these days, and Celine is taking care of her kid.

“What is this about?” Catherine asks and tiredly rubs her eyes. “We have another search party on our heels.” Her hand freezes. “Pardon?” “Tienal informed us that an official inspector has come to Brikstrat. That inspector thinks that you, Catherine, have used Uklag to fake your own **** and are now the leader of this base.”

Catherine feels a headache incoming, “How did that happen? Did we make any moves in the last months?” Droy shifts uncomfortably, “This one is on me I fear.” He says, “I may have tried to sell Uklag out a few months back and declined an offer they send me a month back. Seemingly they tortured the messenger.” pain pulsates behind her skull, “You are pretty bad at backstabbing.” Aelana says drily.

“Okay, so we have a search party stumbling through the woods again. Anything else?” Catherine asks, “Tienal is with them. She will guide them to a certain point north of here but she can’t keep the lie up forever.” Droy answers and his attention shifts to the twins. “What are we going to do?”

The two succubae think for a few moments, “Can’t we just let them kill Tienal and then laugh at them as their search for us?” Catherine sighs at Aelana’s idea. “That would be the easiest course of action wouldn’t it? We would lose Brikstrat in the process but with the amount of stocks we have lying around we can hole up for a few months.” Zal coughs into his hand to get everyone’s attention, “I am afraid our stocks will reach for a maximum of two weeks, Mistress.”

The headache increases slightly. “What happened to our food?” Catherine asks without any emotion. “We kind of threw feasts.” Aelana says, “Every day.” Analea adds. “Nobody stopped you?” Catherine looks at Zal, “They wouldn’t listen to me.” At Droy, “They threatened to take away Celine.” At Alratha, “I didn’t care.”

Catherine feels something pop in her head. “Let me get this straight.” She says, her voice quivering with anger, “You threw away all of our resources, neglected the care of our base and now your only plan to deal with this crisis is to hole up, which we can no longer do because you fucked up?”

Aelana narrows her eyes, “Careful Catherine.” She says, “Uklag isn’t here to protect you.” The headache disappears. “You got it the wrong way around.” Catherine says in a cold, despising tone, “Uklag isn’t here to protect you from me.”

The twins are suddenly hit by two fireballs and fly down to the lower level, their flesh burning. Droy wants to stand up and stop Catherine from doing more but quickly finds a dagger on his throat, “Let me see how this plays out.” Alratha whispers into his ear. “You don’t move either, Zal.” She warns with a smile. The First-Servant doesn’t even flinch, “I wouldn’t dream of interrupting this.”

Catherine jumps down to the lower level where the twins are quickly regenerating their scorched exterior. “How dare you!” Aelana hisses and stands up on still healing legs. Catherine kicks her back down and freezes her to the floor. A small movement in the corner of her eyes is all that the young witch needs to blast a lightningbolt straight into Analeas face.

The white-haired succubus goes down and Catherine freezes her to the ground as well. “You have disappointed our Master.” Catherine says and looks down on the two, “You have become decadent.” She walks away and back up the stairs, however she doesn’t stop at the second level but walks up all the way to Uklag’s table and sits on the edge of it.

“From now on everyone answers to me.” Catherine demands. “Zal, what do you need to clean this place up?” The First-Servant takes a small bow, “If we were to reintroduce the cleaning plan for the bath and if my handmaidens were freed from pleasure duties I can clean up this place in a few weeks.” Catherine nods, “Good, see that through.” Zal smiles and stands to hear the rest. Catherine furrows her eyebrows, “Do it now.” Zal looks up and shudders when he sees the cold determination Catherine’s eyes, “Of course, Mistress.” He says and leaves in a hurry.

“Alratha…First take that dagger away.” The assassin releases Droy with a smile, the Albino quickly gets some distance between them “Crazy whore.” He mumbles and rubs his throat. “What else, Cathi?” “Find out where that search party is, their numbers, their equipment, everything.” Alratha takes a bow and says, “I will.” Then walks out of the room backwards, still in the bowing position.

“Droy, you clean up your mess. Make sure nobody else gets word of our existence.” Droy simply nods and runs off. Now alone with the twins, who have finally freed of the ice that glued them to the floor, Catherine stares at them. They stare back. “Uklag gave us command over this base.” Aelana says, “And I have taken it away from you. It was his mistake to think that two demons could keep this together.” Catherine responds and walks down the stairs. “You two can either follow me or I will put you in separated cells until he returns. One of these choices involves still getting laid.”

She gives them a quick look, “Be happy with what I give you, Al, An, once Uklag returns all of this will have consequences. For all of us. Droy for his massive fuck-up, Me for my late intrusion, you two for your wasteful use of our resources, Alratha for her ignorance. The only getting away is likely Zal and Meltzer, whatever that guy is up to these days.”

Aelana looks like she wants to disagree but her sister grabs her shoulder. “Aelana, this is as far as we can go.” She whispers and looks after Catherine. “What are you going to do now?” The white-haired demoness asks, “Taking a bath. Then I have to search for something.”