Eva wasn’t entirely sure. Even within the wards, some things were still difficult to accurately discern.
Whatever smile might have been on his face vanished as she got to Zoe Baxter discovering more than she should have. Sister Cross all but stalking Eva only worsened his feelings.
“This might complicate things,” he said as her tale drew to an end. “I need to run some tests before we begin.” He turned but paused. “I assume my cell block hasn’t been given over to some demon?”
“Nope. Ylva is the only one here.”
He growled. “It is still here?”
“She comes and goes,” Eva shrugged. “She doesn’t leave cell house two unless invited by me.”
“And you invite her often?”
“No,” Eva admitted. Only once since the hel set up her throne room had Eva invited her to wander around. Eva was getting something out of it at that time. A little lesson in how to properly slingshot through Hell.
Devon turned without comment and headed out of the building.
“Arachne,” Eva called out. “Pick me up and carry me to bed.”
She wasn’t sure how long her master was going to be, but the barber chairs were not comfortable.
Arachne didn’t come.
Eva scrounged up the effort to drag herself out of the chair. Arachne stood in the doorway to their bedroom. “Arachne,” Eva repeated.
“It is doing the thing again,” she said. One long finger rose up to point behind the wall.
With a sigh, Eva walked up beside her demon companion. The black skull sat in its usual place on her dresser. Arachne’s gift hung from the wall just above it. Eva hadn’t felt safe carrying it around with all the nuns stalking the town.
The smooth metal of the skull had a glint to it even in Eva’s blood vision. A pale white light leaked from the eye holes straight into her brain.
“Alright,” Eva said. “Would you carry me over? I don’t want to walk.”
Arachne swooped down and gently lifted Eva into her arms. “You should have taken my legs.”
“I know.”
Eva’s vision lessened as they moved outside the women’s ward building. It was still there. Even without flecks of blood orbiting around her. She’d expended no small amount of blood filling the entire prison with blood wards, though none were actually active as defenses.
Sadly, even with the extra wards, Eva wasn’t yet at the level of nigh-omniscient seeing outside her home in the women’s ward.
It was a work in progress.
“It is like a grating in my skull when she does that.”
“You’ve said so before. I still don’t feel anything,” Eva said as Arachne carried her across the prison yard.
“I think she does it to me specifically, just to annoy me.”
“Or she just wanted our attention and it doesn’t work on me, at least not yet.”
Arachne huffed, jolting Eva in her arms. She let out a light groan as her sore muscles hit Arachne’s carapace. “You shouldn’t give a demon any benefits to any doubts.”
“I give you the benefit of the doubt almost constantly.”
Arachne bared her sharp fangs in a grin. “I’m special.”
“Uh huh,” Eva sighed.
Inside cell house two was another matter entirely as far as her vision was concerned. Blood spread out as Arachne pulled open the door. It hit walls and bars, beds and buckets. Her mental topography painted the picture of the cell house as it was before Ylva moved in.
She knew the cell house looked nothing like that anymore. Only once had she been inside before losing her eyes. It became unrecognizable after Ylva moved in. Eva could walk all around the chamber, touching the marble pillars and hanging her legs off the edge of the pit.
Moving through the chamber disoriented Eva to the point of throwing up the first time she tried to navigate by blood.
Eva pulled back all the flecks into a single ball that hovered just out of arm’s reach.
“Ylva,” Eva called out. “I would appreciate it if you stepped out of the light. I cannot see you that way.”
There were short taps of something hard against stone. The taps gave way to the sound of bare feet slapping against stone.
Slapping might not be the correct word for one of Ylva’s bearing. Without eyes, it was the most amusing thing Eva could picture.
Once the feet changed sounds, the rest of Ylva’s body entered Eva’s vision.
A disturbing body. Her blood didn’t move within the circulation system. It might not have been fluid at this point, yet Eva could see it.
“You wanted to speak, I presume?”
“We wish to make a request.”
Eva waited. The demon never made a request. With a sigh, Eva said, “what is your request?”
“The one you called master has returned to perform his, you called it treatment? We wish to observe.”
“I thought you could see through the skull.”
“It is not the same as seeing it through Our own eyes.”
Eva turned her head towards Arachne. Even though she could see her demon without moving, staring in one direction lacked the social cues necessary to nonverbal communication.
At her glance, Arachne started shaking her head. Her face was twisted into a scowl.
Almost exactly what Eva expected to see.
“Three conditions.”
The blood making up the demon’s head gave a slight nod. “If they are reasonable.”
“You do not interfere with anything.”
“Acceptable.”
“You do not act to harm myself, Arachne, or Devon.”
It was hard to be sure, but the hel’s face may have twisted into an offended look for an instant. “Acceptable,” she said as soon as she regained her features.
“I wish a favor in return.”
“We shall have to hear the favor. This is a small request We make. Our eyes are worth far more than this.”
I wasn’t going to ask for your eyes. They probably wouldn’t even work in a proper living body, Eva didn’t say. “I wouldn’t ask for your eyes without just payment. I believe my favor to be minor.”
“Very well, We will hear this favor.”
“I have in my possession a golden dagger and sheath. They are quite the burden to carry. You turned a golden skull into a black metal that feels heavy but can be lifted without effort.”
“You would ask Us to turn your implements to void metal?”
“Is that asking too much?”
Ylva tilted her chin up. She stayed posed like that for a minute before she looked back down. “No. We will do this task.”
“Excellent,” Eva said. She let out a short breath of relief. “So you’ve agreed to my conditions, I agree to your request.”
Another light nod from the hel.
The three headed back across the compound and into the women’s ward. Ylva walked confidently, each step exuding grace and nobility. In comparison, Arachne sauntered. She carried Eva, but her gait barely changed from her usual lazy walk.
Ylva stepped outside her building and into the late February sun. The moment she did, her circulatory system vanished. Ambient blood wards allowed Eva to see her in her skeletal form. A long dress clung to her bones.
Even though the dress probably shaded her legs, her transformation into a skeleton seemed to be an all or nothing thing. Eva had never seen the hel in a state of transition.
“You should still be keyed into the wards. I’ve not removed you since November.”
The hel stopped in her step. She turned her skull and nodded. “We appreciate that.”
Her brief pause gave Arachne the chance to speed up ahead. She carried Eva into the women’s ward and set her down in the barber chair.
“Would you go retrieve my dagger? I think it is on the couch.”
Ylva stood to one side, frozen circulation system back now that she stood indoors. She tilted her head to one side as Arachne took off to the back of the room.
“Have you become incapable of walking on your own?”
“Just tired today.”
“This tiredness causes you to be incapable of walking?” The way she said ‘tiredness’ made Eva wonder if the demon had ever experienced the feeling.