Chapter 36: Chapter 35: The Library

Fetching the bed was as simple as Lia had anticipated. Lia and Bella just went to the first room they found, slaughtered the undead inside, and then Lia stored one of the beds in her Dimensional Storage.

As such, they reached the camp only a couple of minutes after Rose and Chrys, and found the two in the clearing in the center of camp. How’s she doing? Lia asked.

“Fine. She’s still sleeping, and I’ve been watching over her to make sure things don’t get any worse. Were you able to get the bed?”

Yup. I’m thinking of placing it down in one of the stalls, to give her a little bit of privacy.

“Sounds good to me.” Rose replied, shifting her grip on Chrys and standing up. “Lead the way.”

Lia walked away from the center of camp for a bit, looking over the stalls until she found one that seemed good for what she wanted. Once there, she unloaded the bed from Dimensional Storage and gave Rose a nod. This look good?

“It should be more than adequate.” Rose replied, gently laying Chrys down and pulling the blankets up over her. “People have slept off worse in accommodations much less friendly.”

Did you happen to see if Lily was here or if the bee troll finished converting? Lia asked. Just out of curiosity.

“I have not seen either, but I’m guessing Lily’s still working in the biology building, and the troll…well, no clue on how that’s going, but I’m willing to bet you’ll level up at least once from its conversion, so it probably didn’t finish either.”

Fair enough. Bella, will you go check out the biology building for me, make sure everything still going fine?

“Of course.” Bella replied. “Would you like me to deliver a message to Lily while I am there?”

Just…check and make sure they’re not overworking themselves. I don’t want anyone else collapsing from exhaustion.

Bella nodded. “I will see to it.” She turned on a heel and strode away, leaving Lia and Rose alone with the sleeping Chrys.

Let’s give her some privacy. Lia said. I want to check out the options for the banshee, what do you think?

Rose hesitated, looking down at Chrys with an uncharacteristic expression of worry. “I…can do that.”

Do you want to stay by her side? That’s fine too. Lia said. I can go mess around on my own for a bit.

“Is that really alright?” Rose asked. “It’s…not productive.”

Sure it is. You’re both putting your mind at ease about your daughter and making sure she doesn’t take a turn for the worse. We’re in a place where we can afford to relax for a few hours, it’s not going to kill us to push forward immediately.

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“But…your family.” Rose protested. “Aren’t they…”

In a bad place? Yes, but they’ve been there for this long, a day or two more isn’t going to change anything. As poor as Amelia’s judgement may be, she’s not going to let them die, so it’s not a pressing issue.

“If…if you say so.” Rose said. “Just come and ask me if you need anything, alright?”

I will. Lia replied. Actually, since you won’t be directly seeing the options, I figured I might as well ask now, but I was thinking of making the banshee into a scout to work under Chrys. Being…you know, a ghost, seems like it’ll have some applications in that regard. Does that sound good to you?

“A scout is a fine use of a ghost.” Rose confirmed. “We have no need for assassins or the like at the moment, so I think that should suit it perfectly.”

Alright, I’ll go get to it, then. Thanks for your input!

“Anytime. It’s what I’m here for, after all.”

I’ll check up on you two every now and then, so I’ll…see you around, I guess. Lia said, hesitantly beginning to walk away from them.

“You…can stay too, if you would like.” Rose offered. “I could use the company.”

I…might take you up on that. Lia said. But only after I get this banshee converting and check up on the troll. So…yeah. Lia fully committed to leaving, walking off quickly. She didn’t want to drag it out any longer, because she was afraid she would end up sitting there with Rose, and she didn’t want to do that until she had set things in motion.

So, she left, walking through the camp until she reached the place where they had left the troll cocoon converting. Once there, she placed the banshee cocoon on the ground, went to check her options, then hesitated. She needed to find a rat first, so she could get a boost to the conversion’s strength. It didn’t guarantee one, at least not if the troll was any indicator, but it couldn’t hurt to put that in her options.

Just as she was leaving to go find the rats, one dropped out of the air in front of her, no doubt courtesy of Amelia. Lia quickly cocooned it, added it to the banshee cocoon, and paused again. She knew she wanted a scout, so…why not add in the smoke ball and spyglass like she did for Chrys? Fortunately, she still had enough Blood Money to afford that, so one quick shopping spree later she was finally ready to really look at her options.

The first basically did nothing to the banshee but give it rat features and make swarm creatures immune to its shriek, which Lia decided to keep in the back of her mind; if none of the other options were…scout-y enough, it would certainly do.

There were a series of options that made the banshee living again, and Lia dismissed those out of hand. They all made the banshee corporeal, and none provided good enough compensation to make that trade worth it.

And that, aside from the option to make the thing a drone, left her with two options.

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