<h4>Chapter 307: The Big Seven Takes Over (Greed)</h4>


    When Kara came back into the room with water for Kat, she found a peacefully sleeping subus. So, Kara just smiled and left the water off to the side knowing Kat would be fine, and wasn''t suffering dehydration yet. She stroked the red head''s hair thoughtfully, before checking the measurements the bed was collecting. Satisfied that Kat was healing well, Kara nodded and headed for the door, ready to get back to waiting for a crisis.


    -----


    When Kat woke up. Her minding together much quicker than it had the past few days as she pushed through the water and let out a deep rxing breath. This peacested all of a second before Kat had the horrifying realisation that she was in the hospital and hadn''t informed her fr-family that she was fine.


    *System can you send them off a message telling them I''m alright?*


    Aplices are always kept informed when there connected User is Banished because of extensive wounds. Aplices have been informed User Kat is stable. Does User Kat wish to give more details?


    *Uh…* Kat tried to get her mind to work on a proper response but it was still slow. Without Kara to help ground her and give her something real to focus on Kat found her mind trying to drag itself back to the pond and put her to sleep. Kat pped herself in response.


    *Focus dammit. They are important and I will not allow myself to sleep just because my demonic energy is on the fritz.* Kat looked around the room for something to give her rity and found the water left by Kara the previous… whenever it was. Grabbing it and taking a long swig, Kat let her mind drift just a little bit and muse over the fact that demons still drank water.


    *Unless it''s like a cultural thing? Did they only give me water because I was human before? Kara clearly knows and maybe it''s part of my medical history? Boy is that a weird thought that something like that coulde up in my doctor''s appointments.*


    Kat shook her head and downed the rest of the ss. *Enough of that. I''ll just send a quick message letting them know that I''m recovering at least and that nothing permanent is happening.*


    Kat sent off the barest details of the condition, letting the everyone know (including Minor once Kat realised she''d have gotten the notification about her hospitalisation) and was just finishing the finer wording that boiled down to ''we can talk about thister'' when Kara walked back into the room.


    She was smiling as usual, her eyebrows raised slightly seeing Kat sitting up and functioning a bit better, while her snakes seemed to be curled up for some reason. During Kat''s previous waking hours, they''d all been happily dangling from her head and watching the world. Now they were all in one big pile wrapped into a bun on top of her head and looked to be sleeping. *They can sleep? How… how does that make any sense? Are they part of Kara or not?*


    Kara just smiled when she saw where Kat''s eyes lead. "Yesss, they do sssleep on their own. They are me, and yet they are not. They can sssleeep in my ce, though it cannot go on forever asss they are not me. However, becaussse they are me, it can work for sssome time."


    *I don''t really understand properly but I think I get it? It''s a bit like a more advanced version of my tail… huh I wonder if it''s exactly like that? I mean… she is part subus… but surely the snakes are from the medusa side… but maybe full medusas have more or less control over there snakes? And this is how they express themselves in a mix like her?*


    "Um… if this isn''t too rude to ask… are they like that because of your subus heritage? The way you describe them reminds me a little of my tail. I mean, I wouldn''t say it isn''t me… but it is also clearly different from my other limbs. It… well, it seems to have more instincts than the rest of me… if that makes sense" said Kat


    Kara smiled at her, face brightening even more with faint traces of white sneaking out of her teeth. "Yesss, it isss posssible of courssse. I take no offence, it''sss lovely you try to find a way to rte. To anssswer your quessstion I''m not sssure. It might even be that your tail isss very dissstantly rted to Medusssa heritage. What you sssaid makesss senssse though… I''ve never had any asssk me like thisss though, and none of the sssucubi would bring it up becaussse to them, it''sss jusst normal. Your human… heritage is the wrong word… upbringing I guesss makesss it easssier to asssk sssuch thingsss. If you have any more interessting quesstionsss do assk."


    *Maybe I should direct you to Callisto instead. She would love you to bits… well… you might end up in piecester if I did actually introduce you… hmmm. Ok, no introducing Kara and Callisto until I make sure she isn''t going to be poking around too much.*


    "Thanksss Kara" said Kat with a smile, and then a wince as she felt her energy start moving slightly.


    Kara giggled at Kat''s slip up, but decided not to call attention to it. "That''sss alright, want to hear about another faction now? Probably Greed." Kat nodded and Kara continued speaking "Right, well… Greed is rather different from the othersss. I mean sssure everyone who issn''t a Wrath demon or the immediate family of one would think they are all weird, but you can underssstand them rather sssimply.


    "Greed… well, Greed isss more like a loossse collection of other guildsss that band together ssso that they can find each other with even lesss rulesss. I''ll exin it a bit more, but jusst know that many people think if the Greed demonsss sstopped fighting amongssst each other they''d take over the ce in a century or two.


    "The reassson isss becaussse while other factionsss vie for power between each other, Greed mosstly jusst fightss internally and everyone elssse leavesss them to their own fighting. Thisss isss becaussse it''s not a physical fight, so it boresss Wrath… and everyone elssse isss happier thisss way.


    "We are all told sstoriesss growing up that when the other factionsss pusssh Greed too far. They jussst sssudenly drop everything and blitz the othersss, perfect co-ordination, no infighting, jusst overwhelming financial might… and normally a bunch of hired Wrathpatriotsss.


    "When that hapennsss every one elssse losssesss. I''ve never ssseeen it happen but my Medusa mother told me ssstoriesss about it. Ssssheee apparently sssaw it when ssshe wasss a young demon. Ssssheee wasssn''t involved directly… but it wasss horrible. I doubt you would enjoy the detailsss, and I''d… like to avoid it if I can" said Kara


    It was the most ufortable Kat had actually seen Kara so far. She was still smiling, but it was pinched and tight, more like Kara was pulling on her cheeks then actually smiling. "No please do dwell on it for my sake"


    Kara nodded. "Right… were wasss I then… yesss, Greed''sss sssplit prioritiesss. Ssso, Greed isss made up of variousss mercantile interessst groupsss. The trade houssse that makesss the mossst money hasss the mosst ssway over the faction. I believe they have a council, but I don''t know how many people or the exact requirementsss


    "Anyway, the council runsss the faction, and preventsss the infighting from getting too bad… but for the mossst part the biggessst rule is no attacking outside the faction unlesss you know they were hired by sssomeone within, and don''t get caught. Honessstly, they make betterwyersss than anyone elssse even if they never join the public officesss.


    "The main thing that sssetsss Greed demonsss apart, other than their mercantile endevoursss isss that many of them are required to consssume sssome sssort of valuable. Mammones, the original specieisss of Greed demonsss require a certain amount of gold to keep themssselvesss healthy for example.


    "Thisss isss why many get into the faction. It''sss becaussse asss cutthroat asss it isss, they ALWAYSSS provide enough sustenance for a demon to live on asss long asss they try. Now sssure the faction keepsss track and forcesss you to pay it back when you… well… sssafely might not be true, but sssaferly, pay it back.


    "For thisss reassson a lot of Gluttony demonsss actually join Greed instead to fuel their appetitesss. Gluttony as a faction get on with them like oil and water though, becaussse Gluttony thinksss Greed make them look bad or sssomething. I don''t really underssstand it but they don''t get along.


    "Oh, and Greed lovesss Wrath. Thossse guysss will do sssomething sstupid and dangerousss for Greed and half the time, Greed getsss paid becaussse they sset whatever it isss up, and Wrath sstill isss happy with them at the end…


    "Guesss, I''ll cover them next, they are much sssimpler."