Eva relaxed, slightly, glad for the more mundane talk than an accusation of dark magic.
“And now you’re relaxing.”
Eva frowned as did Zoe. She hoped she wasn’t quite so plain to read.
“I don’t know what is troubling you, and I am not a therapist, but I care for my student’s wellbeing. Eva, if there is anything you need to talk about. Please do. If you feel you can’t or don’t want to talk to me, we’ll find someone you can talk with. And if that man is hurting you at all…”
Eva blinked. She almost burst out laughing. “Oh no. That’s all wrong,” Eva said. Her jovial reaction must have come unexpected as Zoe’s stern expression shifted into one of confusion. “If it weren’t for my mentor, I would probably be dead. Or worse. He showed up on a shining white horse wearing full plate armor saying ‘don’t worry my lady, I will save you’ and proceeded to do so.”
Of course it hadn’t actually happened anything like that. Eva didn’t expect Zoe to believe it either. Just picturing her master doing anything so cheesy turned Eva’s stomach.
“If he were to hurt me now, however, be assured I would not stand for it. I’d probably…” What, kill him? I can’t say that. “Cut ties,” she decided.
Zoe frowned, perhaps even sensing the unspoken words. “Then why all the tiptoeing around everything?”
“Both I and he have mentioned him dealing with necromancers in the past.” Eva considered her words carefully. “Those are far from the least honorable people he’s interacted with. I’d rather not say anything to incriminate him. He’s a good person,” Eva said. “Mostly.”
Zoe Baxter gave her a hard stare. It was as if she decide on how to respond to that.
Eva wasn’t sure she wanted her to respond. She had basically told the woman that she was mentored by a criminal. Even if she believed the lie about him being a good person.
“He doesn’t have any current friendly dealings with necromancers?”
Eva scoffed at that. “I doubt he’s ever had ‘friendly’ dealings with necromancers. He doesn’t have much good to say about them.”
“Answer the question, Eva.”
“Then no. To my knowledge he has no dealings with any necromancers apart from investigating whatever happened in the house Juliana explored. If and when he finds them, I expect his actions to be hostile, not friendly.”
“And he intends no harm to any students or Brakket Academy?”
“That is correct.”
The hard glare started up again as Zoe scrutinized Eva. She relaxed slightly after seeing whatever it was she was looking for. “Then I don’t care what kind of past Mr. Carter has. You might be surprised at the backgrounds of some of Brakket’s benefactors and even students, or their parents at least. I doubt Mr. Carter could be much worse than the worst of them.”
You might be surprised, was Eva’s first thought. Demonology was generally considered one of the worst magics. Apart from the reprehensible idea of bringing demons to their feeding ground, willingly bringing demons to the mortal plane supposedly damaged reality to the point where it might one day be indistinguishable from Hell.
Eva had her suspicions about that. Devon didn’t seem to buy into it either. Demon summoning was well documented since before proper history began. If demons actually tore through reality, why wasn’t the world already a living Hell?
That brought up all the philosophical discussions on Hell and reality. Eva knew reality couldn’t be even close to Hell. She might not have ever been there herself but Arachne had. Arachne was quite adamant about how much better the mortal plane was than Hell.
As for the demons themselves; like she told her master, politeness and respect went a long way. Even the haunter her master had been so terrified of seemed pretty amicable after tearing through a herd of animals. He politely introduced himself and went to fetch her master without complaint. Sure, her master had shown up with injuries, but that was probably his own fault.
There were sure to be demons that were terrible monsters, otherwise where would the stories come from. Probably half of those stories were summoning rituals with poor enticements. Demons seemed to get antsy about that.
“Eva?”
Eva half jumped. It took her a moment to remember she was still sitting in front of Zoe Baxter. “Sorry, was lost in thought.”
“Anything I should know?”
“Probably. After you…” Stormed off? “Ended the meeting, we started talking. He thinks the zombies in that house may have been a trap for someone.”
“Who?”
“He didn’t know.”
Zoe frowned and seemed to get a bit lost in thought herself. When she snapped out of it, she asked, “if there is nothing else, Miss Eva, you may return to your room.”
Eva shook her head and waited while Zoe undid the protections on the study room. A sudden rush of noise caused Eva to jump until she realized it was just the calming noise the fountain made. It had gone completely silent during their meeting.
Zoe half smirked at that, earning a glare from Eva.
As the windows lost their tint, Zoe Baxter stepped forward and held the door open.
Eva headed straight to the third floor.
Her roommates were still up despite the late hour. Sitting and chatting around the small dining table. When she entered the room, they both looked up and Juliana said, “Well?”
Eva shook her head and took the open seat. “Neither Zoe Baxter nor my mentor felt there was anything odd about the book. Zoe is going to continue her own investigation and my mentor is going to snoop around a bit on his own.” She turned to Juliana, “additionally, he thinks that the zombies were meant as a trap. Probably for a relative of the family. Someone who owed money or something similar.”
Juliana did not look happy about that. A scowl formed on her face and she started idly rubbing one of the metal bracelets that ran up her entire forearm.
“So the book was nothing? No big ritual?” Shalise asked.
“Nope. I was overreacting for nothing.”
Shalise sagged back into her chair at Eva’s words. The ritual seemed to have been a point of major worry for the girl. Eva was glad to see the tension leave her. Then it all came flooding back. She screamed. Shalise tipped over in her chair and continued scrambling backwards, pressing herself up against the short refrigerator.
Juliana snorted. “Oh right. Eva spent the night elsewhere last night. You haven’t met Rach.” She gestured at the spider climbing out of Eva’s shirt and onto her head. “Don’t worry, she’s harmless.”
Eva could see Arachne’s fangs twitch at the comment. She quickly moved to start stroking the spider’s carapace, shooting a glare at Juliana at the same time. “You’ll offend her,” Eva said. Eva ignored the shrugging woman and turned to Shalise. “Rach, this is Shalise Ward, our new roommate. She’s off-limits. Shalise, my pet tarantula, Rach.”
“Y-you have to say we’re off-limits?”
“I shouldn’t have to, but it is nice to make sure there are no ambiguities.”
“Like I said, don’t worry. She lives between Eva’s boobs and rarely strays from there.”
If Eva didn’t know better, she’d think Juliana was upset that Arachne had never hurt anybody. Did Eva know better? Maybe she was disappointed. Eva hadn’t forgotten the girl’s story about waking up to venomous bugs on her face.
Maybe she would have Arachne latch onto the blond’s head one morning.
“Anyway,” Eva stressed, “she won’t even touch you without permission.”
Shalise didn’t move.
It was too much to hope for that both her roommates would be fine with Arachne.
“But the book,” Juliana said, ignoring the poor girl’s fear, “it has to be something, right?”
Eva shrugged at that. “Not that I know of. You could try searching the bookstore to see if anything else is amiss.”