“What are you going to do?” Juliana asked.
“Head to the dorms, or maybe my place. Check up on things there.”
“You’re not hunting bulls with wings, are you?”
Eva almost laughed at that. “Run around in the cold for who knows how long? I don’t think so. Like I said last week, I don’t think it is such a big deal.”
“Good.” Shalise smiled. Her smile turned stern. “Don’t make skipping a habit.”
Eva didn’t respond with anything but a smile and a wave.
They took that as the cue to run and catch up with the others.
Eva stayed in her seat for a few minutes, watching as the rest of the students walked by.
More than a few students gave her odd looks. Even a full two months after she’d come back to school, she was still the freshmen freak show. A blind girl who never took off her gloves yet still managed to get around fine–for the most part.
Not that Eva cared. The opinions of her friends mattered to her, but only just. The opinions of random people whose circulatory systems she couldn’t be bothered to memorize? Not even worth thinking about.
As the lunchroom cleared, one of the circulatory systems walked with purpose towards Eva’s table. An adult, one she didn’t know. Or perhaps a very big student.
A nun, Eva decided as she looked closer. All of the nuns had something right in the center of their chests. Something no one else had. It wasn’t very big, maybe the size of a ping-pong ball.
Whatever it was, it had blood flowing through it.
“Shouldn’t you be heading to class?”
“Should be. Not going to,” Eva said. She crossed her arms and leaned against the edge of the table. “Shouldn’t you be hunting necromancers?”
Eva grit her teeth just thinking about it. It was her fault Sawyer got away. She’d been too distracted with his friend. Too unused to her new sight to pay attention to her surroundings.
The metal of the table leg creaked from where she’d had it gripped. Eva took a deep, calming breath before resuming her eyeless glare at the nun.
“The Sister’s business is none of yours.”
“I can say the same to you.” Eva shooed the nun away with her hands.
The nun didn’t move.
“Is there something else you needed?”
“I know what you are.”
“Yes,” Eva sighed. “You and most of your order, if their stares are anything to go by.”
Despite her words, Eva couldn’t help but feel the hairs on her neck rise. She couldn’t move towards the knife on her back without being obvious about it, but a vial of Arachne’s blood could be opened easily under the table.
“Why would you do that to yourself?”
The question caught her off guard. Eva expected her to fight, but she almost sounded concerned. Her glare–if it was a glare, a thing not always easy to tell without eyes–remained steady in either case.
“You’re going to have to be more specific.” Eva cast her awareness around the room, there weren’t any stragglers save for a handful of people in the adjoining kitchen. They were probably too far away. Just in case they weren’t, Eva added, “not too specific. I’d rather not have the whole school know.”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
“I’ve done a lot of things to myself that I imagine nuns would take issue with.”
Her straight face turned downwards and a frown spread across it. “Your hands,” she said softly.
“Ah, that.” Eva brought one hand out from under the table and flexed the fingers. The other held onto an opened vial of blood.
The nun took a quarter-step back.
“Some terrible person decided I didn’t need hands anymore. Naturally, I disagreed. When a passing creature offered new hands with no strings attached, I accepted.” More or less anyway. Mostly less. Close enough for the nun in any case.
“There are always strings attached.”
“In this case, there weren’t. Though I imagine there might be some strings when I get around to replacing my eyes.”
“You’re planning on doing it again?”
“And my toes,” Eva said, pointing downwards. The nun wouldn’t be able to see it, not unless she was doing the thing Sister Cross already did. “I plan to use the stringless method for those, however.”
The nun gave Eva a sad look–as far as she could tell. “One day you will look back on your corruption and weep.”
Not likely, Eva thought with a small smile. She was rather looking forward to her blood being as powerful as Arachne’s for blood magic.
Another thought occurred to Eva. “Are you offering assistance? I’ve heard the Elysium’s healers aren’t too bad at their job.”
Eva wasn’t sure if she was supposed to know about healers. The nun’s reaction didn’t turn hostile, however.
The nun shifted nervously. She glanced side to side herself before answering in a whisper. “There are only six in existence at any one time. Petitioning one to heal you would,” she sighed, “be a waste of time.” The nun placed her hand on her chin. “Perhaps if you were to join us…”
“You’d accept someone like me?” If her earlier question had caught Eva off guard, recruiting her threw her for a complete loop.
“You would have to undergo cleansing. Very thorough cleansing. You might not survive.” The nun sighed. “No. You almost assuredly would perish. But that would be more desirable than your current path. If you did manage to survive, a healer would surely see to you.”
Eva almost responded–in the negative of course; even if surviving was assured, she wouldn’t take it–but something made her stop and jump ten feet into the air.
“I’ll not have you stealing one of my students in the middle of the school day,” a voice all but shouted behind Eva’s back. “Leave at once.”
The nun opened her mouth, about to say something. It snapped shut almost immediately. She turned on her heel and stalked straight out of the cafeteria.
Eva cast her sight around as she turned despite already having recognized the voice. She never remembered being startled this easily when she had eyes even though she couldn’t see behind her at any time. Keeping constant awareness with her new method of seeing needed work and practice.
“Miss Eva.”
“Zoe Baxter.”
“You’re the last person I would have thought they would recruit.” Eva could tell that her eyes narrowed the slightest amount. “You’re not thinking of joining them, are you?”
“I don’t know,” Eva said with a ponderous expression. She might as well have a little fun. “They offered to heal my eyes.”
“Eva,” Zoe’s teeth grit before she let out a sigh. “I know things have been hard. I don’t think you would be happy–”
“You don’t want me to remain blind when avenues of recovery are at hand, do you?”
Zoe’s eyes narrowed again. “You don’t intend to join.”
Eva let out a short laugh. She overdid that last line. “Of course not. Not even if she didn’t say I would assuredly die being ‘cleansed,’ whatever that means. I plan to acquire new eyes without a high chance of death.”
“Eva,” Zoe Baxter started in a warning tone. “You’re going to wind up kicked out of school.” Her voice dropped to a hushed whisper. “I’ll be kicked out as well if anyone finds the stack of books I’ve got.”
“Don’t look at me,” Eva said as she held her hands up, “I didn’t force you to take them.”
“I’m reading them because demons,” she hissed almost subvocally, “are deeply related to the well-being of a certain student.”
“Don’t pretend you’re not enjoying reading them. I know at least three of the ones I lent you had nothing to do with anything about me.”
“Academically as a theorist only,” she said standing up to her full height. “It isn’t often a pile of books of that type are available to me.”