“I thought you were on our side. You even forced all those restrictions on us.”
Arachne growled as she took a step forward.
Assuming succubi hearts were at all similar to humans, Catherine was scared. She tried not to show it on her face. Her smile slipped just long enough to confirm Eva’s suspicions.
“Catherine, Catherine, Catherine. I want the nuns gone as much as anybody else. But it isn’t ready yet. I have a plan for blocking out the students, but it won’t be ready until tomorrow. Then it will take a few days to propagate.”
The demon turned back to Eva–though she kept her eyes on Arachne–and put on a small smile. “Tuesday, Eva. That gives you all day tomorrow plus whatever is left of today to work on it. If you aren’t part of this, I don’t think we can continue to adhere to your conditions.”
“Unacceptable,” Eva said. “I’ll be ready. Though I am still confused on why you need me.”
“Aside from the ‘gesture of goodwill,'” Catherine said with air quotes, “that oversized bovine claims that nothing would be interesting if he handled it all. ‘Why do something yourself when you can force others to do it for you?'” She shook her head. “If I had that kind of power, I wouldn’t be slaving away for some no name human.”
“You want power?”
“Everyone wants power.”
Eva thought back to her meeting with the bull. He had questioned her desires. She hadn’t been able to answer, more due to his interruptions than anything else, but it brought up a good question. What did demons want?
All demons had an enticement–something to draw them out of Hell. That could end up being almost anything. A golden coin, a vial of raven’s blood, or several sacrifices in the case of Ivonis.
That raised the question of what would be required to draw Eva out of Hell, but that was not immediately pressing.
Enticements didn’t seem like the kind of desires or ambitions that a mortal would have. It certainly did not seem like power. Not unless feeding Ylva raven’s blood would increase some arbitrary measure of strength.
“What options are available for you gaining ‘power?'”
Catherine blinked as she set her cup down on the table in front of her. It took another second or two before she quirked her head to one side. “What?”
“Well, you’re a lesser succubus, right?” The demon narrowed her eyes but did not dispute the claim. “Can you become a full succubus? Or perhaps something else entirely?”
There was a moment of silence as Catherine tilted her cup back and forth. Eva did not miss Arachne’s odd glance in her direction.
“I am what I am,” came the eventual reply.
“You can at least become stronger amongst your peers, can’t you? Even Ylva offered to teach Arachne how to–”
A quick and forced cough from the spider-demon interrupted Eva. Was her being unable to create void metal some stigma?
Eva shook her head and changed her line. “How to do something she hadn’t known how to do.”
“Where are you going with this?” Catherine asked with a frown.
“I’m just curious about you and your motivations, I suppose. You said it yourself. You’re slaving away for some no name human. Does doing so grant you power or prestige?”
Catherine’s frown wordlessly deepened.
After another few moments of silence, Eva shrugged her shoulders. “At the very least, you could be following the old adage of knowledge equaling power. Surely you don’t know everything. I bet there are plenty of books in Brakket’s libraries that you’ve never read.”
The cup in her hand shattered. Shards fell to the table. Not one cut her delicate fingers.
“Tuesday, Eva.”
A strong smell of brimstone replaced the woman as she vanished from her seat. It took Eva a moment to realize that the man behind the counter disappeared as well.
Eva sighed. Catherine was certainly more personable than many demons, but she couldn’t help but wonder if she’d offended the succubus.
She definitely got Arachne to stare at her.
Eva turned towards Arachne and raised one eyebrow.
“What was that all about?”
“Like I told her, just curious. It has come to my attention that I don’t know nearly enough about demons. Especially given my close proximity to so many.”
“You’re putting ideas into the mind of a creature that likely hasn’t had an original thought in several millennia.”
“So what?” Eva made a couple of last-minute notes about the rune system before she forgot. As soon as she snapped the notebook shut, Eva glanced up to the silent demon. “Is she going to become some sort of super succubus and try to destroy the world? Because I told her to read a book?”
“You laugh now,” Arachne said with a feral grin. “You won’t think it is so funny when you’ve got a super succubus running her fingers down your spine.”
“That is a possibility then?”
“Doubtful. She’ll run off, grab a book, start reading, and then stop. She’ll remember that she hates doing anything not involving copious amounts of bodily fluids and continue brooding about how miserable she is.”
Eva frowned. “That sounds like a dreadful existence.”
“She–most demons know nothing outside their own little domain. They found their niche long before the dawn of time and haven’t changed since. Those that do get out,” Arachne waved her arms around the shop, “treat it as a brief vacation.
“We are different. I might be old, but compared to a creature like that,” Arachne pointed a finger at the empty chair, “I might as well be a baby.”
“How much have you changed over the years?”
Arachne went silent. She glanced off to one side for a moment before she shrugged. “It is hard to see your own change. When did you notice you stopped being a six-year-old girl and became what you are today?”
Eva just shook her head with a frown.
“Exactly.”
That wasn’t the answer she had hoped for. Surely Arachne could look back on the thousands of years and see something different in her past self.
Even if it were impossible to notice the day-to-day changes, Eva could see a clear difference between herself of today and herself of the past. A small shudder ran up her spine. Especially the six-year-old who called herself Evaleen.
Eva shook her head, trying to disguise the shudder with a brush of her hand. “We should get going before someone else walks in. Not to mention all the work I need to do before Tuesday.”
— — —
“Free? I can’t believe it.”
“Not just to our customers. Every student. Every room. Both the Rickenbacker and the Gillet.”
“Even the boys?”
“Almost everyone has already discovered the scrying packets,” Eva dismissed with a wave of her sharp fingers. “Besides, shouldn’t their privacy be protected just as much as ours?”
“Well, I mean…”
“Unless you’ve been scrying on some of them.”
Juliana felt her face heat up despite the ridiculousness of the accusation. “Of course not.”
“Then there is no problem,” Eva said as she shoved the box into her arms. “Your job was to collect money and distribute the packets. Hop to it.”
“But, free?”
“Consider it this way: we’re expanding our market. We’ll be charging for the next round, that’s for sure. Think about it. Twice the customers; twice the money.”
“Twice the work,” Juliana mumbled as she peeked into the box.
It was nearly full. It felt nearly full. Her heavy training sessions, both personal and in Kines’ class, made the box not difficult to lift or carry. Her training did not help relieve the pressure on her hands. Using one of her rings, she activated her ferrokinesis. The liquid metal provided a modicum of cushioning between her fingers and the heavy box.
“When did you even find the time to make all these?”
“Shalise helped,” Eva said as she rested her hand on the brown-haired girl’s head and gave a light scratch.