"Lady I don't remember you [i]now?[/i] What're you tryin' to get me to forget? 'Cause whatever it is you don't gotta fight a war over it! Here, watch this!"

It was dangerous and scary to be like this again, especially in the face of someone Katherine didn't know and couldn't trust because of it, but the thing about her little warrior's heart is that once the spark [i]did[/i] catch it got real stinkin' hard to put it back out again. If she got blazin', that by goshies that's just what she'd do. 

She snaps her fingers and points to her first witness.

"Ok who can tell me what this crazy old lady's deal is? Ready go!"

"...The Lancer class is famous for its bad luck. Most anyone could qualify." lied Actia, through the magic of only speaking irrelevant truths.

"My wrists! They're pinching my wrists get them off get them off get them off!!!"

"Uh, Cy?"

"They're cold and clammy and ugh! They're rougher than the hands of a hundred wolfgirl bandits! I did nothing to deserve this! Nothing!!"

"...Cy?"

But Cyanis had resorted to chewing on the chains that bound her cutie little wrists. Which, as it turned out, was a horrible mistake.

"Ptuigh! Ackfth! Blegh! And they taste just [i]awful!!![/i]"

Kat did the only thing she could, which was to take that answer as a common cutie w and move her finger over to Opalis.

"Oh no! Is [i]this[/i] because of the cold? I'm so sorry, I swear I'm normally never like this! I just got so riled up by that other lady's speech, and I thought -- oh hold on, I've got a voucher for a very lovely masseuse in here if I can just... find it..."

Ok well that probably counted too! Everybody kept not making the point as, uh, forcefully as Katherine would like but in their own roundabout ways they were definitely reinforcing the main concept. Which was that nobody knew or cared about Juliwhatsit and her failed pizza restaurant. 

Not that Kat had no sympathy for the ghost lady, y'know? She's actually pretty familiar with having dark and terrible secrets she'd rather be erased, though she'd never try to, like, alter history to do it. Whatever Jewelbia's big whoopsie was it couldn't stack up to the time Katherine tried to surprise her friends with tea but forgot to add any tea before she served it so there was nothing for anyone to drink except very lovely cups of scalding hot water. And when she noticed and panicked she tried to take 'em back, see? But she was rushing and she would up spilling it everywhere, including her pretty new dress! And I mean luckily most of it got on the skirt which was very swishy so she didn't [i]burn[/i] herself, but it flustered her somethin' fierce and she was halfway to pulling it off before she remembered she was in front of company and, like, see? You could be... gosh I don't know, poked with a spear in the middle of a campaign to restore the empire you just wound up in charge of right after deciding you'd move faster without your armor and then have a famous quote attributed to you that gave props to your worst enemies that you definitely didn't say, just to toss something out there I guess, and I think that'd be maybe half as forget-worthy as our poor girl's nothin' tea incident.

Oh, if it makes you feel any better, she's since learned how to make the most wonder matcha latte you've ever tried. Consider askin' her for one sometime! Promise you won't regret it. Anyway we could move on to Diaofei's testimony but, uh,

"Om, Om,Om Ami Dewa Hrih Om..."

Yeah.

All of this got just, like, [i]no[/i] reply by the way. Which definitely meant it was working super duper well? Or that Kat'd managed to doom the entire world by choosing the Way of Rhetoric over the Way of the [s]Sword[/s] Axe. Which she still hated, thank you Ivar! The weight of it was much too clunky and it wasn't pretty like a sword and you could only swing it like a big dumb brute (as far as she could figure) and the haft chafed her delicate hands which was taking a lot a lot a lot a lot of foxy willpower not to focus on but it didn't matter anyway because the evil would be defeated in just one more strike!

Kat turned her finger toward Angelesia, who'd come to enough to react to being pointed at. But before she could ask anything, Angelesia lifted off of the ground with a yelp, a squawk, and a yeep! Ivar had appeared again, with Kat's sword now tucked delicately against her very prominent hip, but a wicked curved dagger held in her hand opposite the girl she now held in the other.

"Much as I appreciate what you're trying to do," Avenger sighs, "We have a better use for this one."

And then she -- what? No she didn't knife the girl! What is the matter with you?! Obviously she threw her at Lancer!! Duh! 

Screaming her war cry of "help me help me catch me catch me please aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!" the girl-missile flew contrary to her name (the missile part. 'Cause she hit. I dunno what'd it even mean to fly like an Angelesia) straight into Lancer's face. And in that moment everything broke into chaos. Ivar scooped up Kat and tossed [i]her[/i] at Berserker, who whatever her other faults might have been was very good at taking a hint and so grabbed her Master and one end of the Great Sillyhead Chain and started running. Avenger, meanwhile, hefted the dragon side of the group onto her back and ran apace. Between them this had the effect of dangling a very indignant and screaming Cyanis in the air across a taut chain on either end of her wrists, while Diaofei half ran and was half-dragged along behind everyone else. Which was an arrangement that suited Ivar perfectly well.

"What the fluff?!" asked Kat, "What is? Why is?? Where are we going [i]now?[/i] Did I screw up the plan? Wait is that girl ok?! 'Cause if you hurt her I!"

"Quiet, little fox. Angelesia is fine. Whatever her many flaws, Lancer will not harm her Master. It risks too much. As for us, we are not running."

"Sure looks like we are! You are! Berserker is! You know what I mean!" shrieked Kat, kicking her little legs for emphasis.

"We have nowhere we can run to. Even with my skills anywhere we could hide would be sniffed out before we could justify the time it took us to reach it. What we are doing is buying time."

"To do...what?"

"To stab this dragon." said Ivar, very matter of fact.

"WHAT?!"
"HUH???"
"MY ARMS ARE FALLING OOOOFFFFFFF!"
"E-E-E-EXCUSE ME?"
"CREATURE OF EVIL, WHAT DO YOU INTEND?"
"NO NO NO NO, WHAT?!?"

"Not to [i]death[/i]," Avenger rolled her eyes, "We just need her blood."

"M-my blood?" asked Opalis, politely not trying to wriggle free from the warrior woman still technically carrying her to safety.

"Yes. Enough of it to make a summoning glyph. It may not accomplish what I hope, but I still wish for you to be your own sacrifice."