“T-three gallons?”
“It is all worthless. Several mixtures from different states of myself, stored for several months in a container that is not properly enchanted. It isn’t good for attacks, it isn’t good for defenses. I’m lucky it is still usable at all.”
“But, why?”
“Going to make a big sign that says ‘STOP’ in between them.”
Juliana and Shalise glanced at one another. Devon let out a laugh.
“That’s it?” he said. “I thought you were going to blow it all up or something exciting.”
“That’s plan B.”
—
“Arachne, you’re filthy. Shower now. I’ll not have you track dirt around my home.”
The spider-demon gave a happy nod of her head.
“Genoa, I can’t order you around, but you’re disgusting too. Arachne can show you how to work the showers.”
“Awfully cocky, aren’t you.”
Eva shrugged. “Like I said, my home. You’re not allowed to touch any of my furniture. Or walls. Or floors. Or anything, really.”
Genoa let out a loud laugh. She clapped her sweaty hand onto Eva’s shoulder and gave a firm squeeze. “Alright, I get it.”
I should have added myself in that list, Eva thought with a mental sigh.
She turned and walked off to follow after Arachne.
Her smile was exactly as wide as Arachne’s smile. It was somewhat disconcerting. Eva half expected Genoa to suddenly have sharp teeth as well.
The fight had both of them in a much different mood than they had been in earlier. Shalise might have been on to something with her comment.
No. There was no way.
And with that thought, Eva called out after them. “I swear, if my showers turn into a warzone, I’ll remove both of you from the wards and you’ll wish I was letting your heads explode just to end the pain.”
That earned a bout of laughter. From both of them. It cut off quick enough, but not so quick as to avoid a raised eyebrow from Eva.
“Something weird is going on here,” Eva mumbled to herself.
“You wouldn’t actually do that, right?” Juliana said as she walked up next to Eva.
“No,” Eva said. “Maybe. You don’t think Shalise was right, do you?”
Juliana just laughed.
“I’m right here, you know.” Shalise crossed her arms and huffed. “Didn’t you send them off together because you wanted them to get closer?”
“I figured they’d hate each other and take less time in the interest of getting away from one another.”
Shalise sighed with a disappointed shake of her head.
Eva felt somewhat vindicated when both of them returned in less than five minutes. Genoa, however, emerged with nothing but a towel wrapped around her and two knives in her hands.
“Carlos back with my suitcase yet?”
“I have clothes if you need something to wear.”
Genoa looked Eva up and down with a grin. “You might be my height, but you don’t have half the core I’ve got. I’d tear through anything you try to put on me.”
“I’m sure I’ve got some loose-fitting clothes,” Eva said as she marched to her room. Arachne followed close behind.
“So?” Eva asked as she shut the door.
“Oh, she’s fun. Every once in a while, I’d come very close to being damaged. Almost like she was going easy on me to get me to let my guard down. A sharp rock would fly straight at my forehead, or perhaps a boulder trying to take off my head altogether.” Arachne let out an almost content sigh. “Can I keep her?”
Eva turned away from her dresser and locked eyes with the demon. “No.”
“But–”
“No ‘keeping’ my friend’s mother. You’re free to spar, but no keeping and no killing either. Even if she’s trying to kill you.”
Eva ignored the pouting Arachne. A skirt might work. They might need pins or something. As Genoa said, the former mage-knight had far more muscles than Eva.
In the end, Eva decided on her largest skirt and a button up shirt. Even if Genoa couldn’t button it up all the way, it would probably end up being more than she normally wore.
With as many scars as she had, it was a wonder that Genoa hadn’t gone the Juliana route. A hefty layer of metal covering her entire body would do wonders at keeping additional scars away. Then again, she seemed the type to take pride in scars.
That mindset always seemed odd to Eva. Advertising that you get injured on a regular basis did not appeal to her. Unless the purpose was to advertise that you survived grievous injuries. Wouldn’t that make an opponent try to put you down even harder?
Then there was the fact that she was covered in scars in the first place. Did she purposefully avoid healing them? Were all of them cursed? That seemed unlikely.
Eva shook her head as she opened her room door.
Carlos and Zoe sat on the couch next to Juliana and Shalise. Before Eva could greet the two, the door opposite from Eva’s room opened. Genoa stood there, wearing nothing but a tube-top and shorts with the top button undone. “Ready,” she said.
She came out of the library, Eva noted with a repressed frown. Few rooms were more damning. Though she couldn’t have spent much time in there. It hadn’t taken Eva more than three minutes to find clothes–clothes she tossed over her shoulder back into her room–and Carlos hadn’t returned before she entered her room. Not enough time to get dressed and to snoop around too much.
“You’re taking them to cell house two, Eva?”
Eva nodded to Zoe. “Might as well get it over with,” Eva said as she walked towards the women’s ward door. “Well, come on. It’s on the other side of the prison.”
“What do you mean by ‘get it over with’?” Genoa asked from Eva’s side. She started fingering one of the daggers at her hip.
“Nothing bad,” Eva said quickly. “But the place we’ll be staying at is one of the few places here that is not mine. You’ll need to be vetted before you’ll be allowed to stay there.”
“And what does vetting consist of?”
“Introducing yourself, being extremely polite, and not agreeing to anything, or offering anything. At all.”
“I think I see where this is going,” Genoa said without removing her hand from her dagger. “I don’t think I like it.”
“Probably not. I will say that it is the safest spot to be, probably on the entire continent.” Even if it isn’t technically in our reality. “So long as you’ve got the favor of the owner.”
“And you’ve got it?”
“We have it. We were already ready to stay there.”
“I see.”
“Ylva,” Zoe said, “will be there tonight. After tonight she will be living with me back in Brakket. We decided that the best course of action was to keep the children safe. I’ll be out in the open. Ylva will be there to help fend off anything that might attack me again.”
“Your plan was to leave the kids alone while you went off as bait? What’s stopping your assailants from hitting the softer, undefended target?”
“Assuming they made it past my wards, myself, and Arachne–”
Genoa scoffed at that.
“–they’d have to get into cell house two. She’s something of an expert on wards.” Eva stopped in front of the door to Ylva’s domain and pulled it open. “Especially space expansion ones.”
Genoa walked into the domain, mouth agape. Carlos wasn’t far behind her. Even Eva took a moment to stare.
Ylva must have been excited to host a few guests.
The throne platform was back in its proper place with all four chains properly attached. A waterfall of fog poured out of the overhead clouds, collecting in some sort of receptacle behind the throne before billowing out to spread across the platform. The floor of the platform couldn’t be seen through the fog.
The relatively small waterfall to the throne somehow spread out enough to fall off the entire platform and into the pit. There wasn’t a single spot of marble visible through the fog.