“302”
Arachne let out a short snort as she typed it in. “Who am I contacting?”
“Turner.”
“Martina Turner?”
NO ZAGAN
“I still can’t sense him. I can handle Catherine if she shows up.” Arachne stared down at the brick, looking for Turner.
Too many buttons.
Password was easy. Self explanatory. After entering the password, the screen changed. There were so many buttons. Moving a finger to the side only made more.
None of them said Turner.
Arachne glanced over at Eva. She would be fine after some time. At least as long as her self healing worked itself out.
No. Assistance would be for the alchemist. Arachne wasn’t entirely sure what the effects of fire on humans was, but the blackened and cracked skin couldn’t be good. He was talking and conscious, so it shouldn’t be too bad.
In the end, what did Arachne care?
He wasn’t her master. He wasn’t her master’s master.
Arachne was about to toss the brick over her shoulder when the blood buzzed in front of her face.
CALL
With a sigh, Arachne knelt down next to the fallen Alchemist. “Wayne Lurcher,” Arachne said quietly.
“Did she not answer?”
“Um. Yes. That is correct. She did not answer.”
The blood swirled in front of Arachne to form a frown on an eyeless face.
“I mean, I might have called the wrong person.” Arachne grit her teeth together. “Walk me through it to ensure I did it properly.”
If the stupid human had been in any shape to laugh, Arachne was sure he would have. He let out a loud cough before getting to the directions as it was.
A mocking cough.
Most humans were beneath Arachne’s notice. Few could harm her, much less kill her. The nuns knowing how to banish her was an inconvenience that didn’t matter so long as she had a beacon active. Many annoyed her, especially those that surrounded Eva, but some well placed stress relief could manage most negative inclinations towards them.
Never before had she wanted so much to stick her fingers into a human’s heart and crush it in her grip.
Arachne restrained herself as–through her efforts–Martina Turner’s voice picked up on the small brick.
“Wayne? You said you’d call me when you got there. What–”
“He is burnt. He needs help at Zoe Baxter’s house.”
“You’re not Wayne,” the voice said. “What did you do to him?”
“As much as I want to, nothing. Yet. You better hurry with someone who can fix burns. He’s all charred and his skin is cracked. Boils and pus leaking everywhere.”
“Who is this?”
Arachne sighed. Tell her or no? Whatever. Maybe this would finally force Eva away from the academy and away from Zagan. “Arachne,” she said.
“Eva’s demon? Why would you attack Zoe? What happened to the other demons? Catherine says they’re gone.”
“I killed the two demons who were attacking. Wayne was injured in the process. Send help for him or not, I don’t care.”
Arachne crushed the tiny brick in her claws before any more annoying queries could be directed at her.
Wayne let out a short cough as the bits of plastic rained down to the ground. “Someone’s coming then?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care. I told her. If I continued talking, I would have ended up stabbing you to death.”
“Me?”
“You. You’re the only thing available to stab in the immediate vicinity.”
The alchemist fell silent and resumed his shallow breathing.
Arachne started back towards Eva before she froze. “I’ll be back in one moment,” she said.
Sprinting full tilt, Arachne grabbed the container of eyes off the ground and ran straight back to Eva.
“Look what I have!”
HA HA
“Ah, you won’t be able to make those jokes soon enough. Surely there is blood inside these, surely you can tell what they are.”
EYES
“That’s correct.” Arachne grinned down at the immobile girl. “As long as you’re lying around not doing anything–”
CONCENTRATING ON HEALING
“And you don’t have to stop that. You didn’t think about your arms or legs at all when we swapped them over, did you? But these things will go bad if we don’t do something with them soon.”
The blood in the air condensed into a bubbling sphere.
“If you delay, we’ll be back to searching for a demon to barter with.”
That got the blood moving. QUALITY OF SIGHT
“I haven’t tried them myself.” Arachne tried to keep the deadpan out of her voice. “But they’re vertically slit pupils. You’ll have fine control over the light entering your eyes thanks to your horizontal eyelids. They don’t look human at all. All the whites are black and the colored part is bright red. Or it was, it dulled somewhat when I detached them.”
TIME TO WAIT?
“I have no idea. They were only severed from the carnivean ten minutes ago. If they start to decompose, it will likely be painful, dangerous, or even impossible to transplant them.”
“You’re doing an eye transplant here?” Wayne said with a small cough. “Skipping sterility? Anesthetics?”
Arachne didn’t deign to answer the human. She could sense the lesser succubus moving towards their group. He would be out of her tendrils soon enough.
Keeping an eye on the bubbling mass of blood was far more interesting.
Eventually, the blood coalesced into a decision.
DO IT
“Gladly.”
Arachne plucked the headband from Eva’s face with a snip of her fingers. Carefully moving her fingers to Eva’s eyelids, Arachne inspected the insides.
It didn’t look too bad. Arachne never saw Eva cleaning out the sockets, but perhaps she managed using blood magic to obliterate any dust and debris.
“I’ll need to make fresh cuts for the new eyes to attach to.”
ALREADY SAID: DO IT
Arachne wasn’t one to argue. Using all of her legs, Arachne held Eva still–she couldn’t have her squirming in pain and dislodging the knife in her chest–and made two quick cuts in each eye.
Licking the small amount of blood off her fingertips, Arachne said, “alright. Putting in the new eyes now. The carnivean was much smaller than you, so they should slip right in.”
TOO SMALL?
“Your hands and, presumably, your legs are shrinking to fit your body size. I imagine they would grow even if they were too small.”
PROCEED
Arachne pulled out the first eye. A brief blow of air hopefully brushed off more dust than it added. She tried not to breathe a sigh of relief when the eye slid into place just as Arachne said it would. She hadn’t been entirely sure on that.
Cutting away at the bone around Eva’s eye sockets was terrifying and appealing all at the same time, but not something Arachne particularly wanted to do.
Eva might banish her to the prison again.
The second eye slid in as easily as the first. Arachne quickly oriented each eye with the slits vertical. She wasn’t sure if it mattered–they hadn’t been precise with either the hands or legs and both turned out fine–but she wanted to make sure nothing went wrong. Eyes were far more delicate than arms.
Of course, they might be upside down. It was hard to tell.
“Starting to join them to you,” Arachne said.
Arachne started channeling her magic.
It was an odd feeling. A foreign feeling. She didn’t like it. Magic never worked properly around her. Some side effect of starting her existence as a human, she was sure. Other demons got by without much problem, even if they relied on their own abilities most of the time.
All Arachne had for demonic powers was the ability to shapeshift. An incredibly common ability among demons. It could never match up to something like Zagan or even the jezebeth.