“Anything else?”
Martina looked pointedly at the spectacled man standing among the mage-knights. Of all of the new hires, she had a read on him the least. Fredrick Hatter spoke only when spoken to during the interview and in very short sentences at that. His name came with a myriad of recommendations, so Martina had no cause to actually turn him down.
He didn’t respond. Neither did any of the others.
“Very well. Zagan will further brief you on the situation in the staff meeting room.”
“Follow me,” Zagan said, sounding extremely bored, “we’ll get everything sorted out, yeah?”
Everyone filed out after him, including the two demons. They’d already been briefed on everything and more that wasn’t going to be revealed to the regular security force. Their purpose in Zagan’s meeting was simply for the appearance of solidarity among the new hires.
Martina started to turn back to her desk–and the endless supply of work it seemed to conjure up–but stopped when she noticed Gregory hadn’t moved to follow Zagan.
“I thought we weren’t going to have an issue,” she said.
“That doesn’t make my curiosity go away.”
Martina frowned. She’d already considered letting the guards know about the demons running around and had dismissed the idea. Gregory had already found out. She made a swift decision.
“There are currently six demons allied with Brakket Academy. Two of which are not directly under my contracts. My secretary, Catherine, is a lesser succubus and my familiar. Zagan. Just Zagan, no species. Both of the specialists, a morail and an axopodia.
“The two not under my direct command belong to a student, one who calls herself Eva. Ylva, a daughter of Hel, and Arachne. No species there either. Eva is fond of the professor who was attacked and moved Ylva in to protect her. Arachne stays on Eva’s person at all times.”
He hummed for a moment. “A bonded familiar?”
Martina felt her eyebrows raise. This mage-knight must have more of a history with demons than she initially suspected. “No,” Martina said, “she is her own entity. Zagan believes she is not even a familiar, merely contracted.”
“Temperaments of those two? I assume those contracted with you will not be a problem.”
“They won’t,” Martina said with as much finality as she could muster. So long as Zagan followed her orders, neither of the specialists would be a problem. “No problems from either of Eva’s demons are expected so long as they’re not antagonized. I’ve never met Arachne, but Zagan believes she will violently defend against perceived threats to Eva.”
“And the girl?”
“Happy to attend school. She’s had some problems recently due to her inhuman appearance, but most of that has died down in the past week.”
“So not a ticking time bomb in the middle of a school.”
“No.”
“Good. You don’t want the others to know?”
Martina paused in thought for a moment. It wouldn’t be feasible to keep it hidden in the long run. Especially with questions that would undoubtedly be asked about Eva’s appearance. “Get to know them and use your own discretion. I’ll leave it up to you.”
“Alright. I can work with that.”
“You seem well versed in demons.”
Gregory shifted his weight to the opposite foot. “I had a gangrel that I summoned on occasion.”
Martina frowned, but otherwise did not say anything. Hellhounds were not something she felt much fondness for. She liked her demons to be smart enough to comprehend orders at the very least.
“He was a decent companion. For a demon. He was crushed in a trap meant for me a few years back.” His shoulders slumped ever so slightly. “I haven’t been able to summon him since.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Martina said as she tried to keep her expression neutral. A companionship with a hellhound? Unheard of. “If it makes you feel better, the demon is not dead. They have to reassemble themselves, for lack of a better word. A demon of Zagan’s power could accomplish that in a few days, but non-sentient demons could take thousands of years.”
Gregory drew the obvious conclusion. “And Toto was probably not very powerful.”
Martina pressed her lips together. She carefully got herself under control before even attempting to speak. “If there’s nothing else, you should attend Zagan’s briefing. He will be unhappy at having to repeat himself.”
“Of course,” he said. He left the room, shutting the door behind him.
Martina stood stock still for another minute before she finally moved around her desk and slid into her chair. With well-practiced movements, she retrieved the bottle of Hellfire and poured herself a tall glass.
Even through the burning pain, Martina struggled to contain her laughter.
— — —
It didn’t take long for the student body to notice the now omnipresent security force hanging around every hallway. There were whispers and rumors about each member of the team, as per anything new in Brakket Academy. The place had so little news that anything could become the flavor of the month for discussions.
The elf was easily the most discussed member of security among the female population. Eva hadn’t even seen the thing in person yet. She’d sensed its blood as it walked by a classroom, but nothing more.
Their presence did not actually change much. Brakket wasn’t a violent school. There were a lot more fights at Eva’s old middle school in a week than there had been all last year.
Unless Eva counted all the business with necromancers and nuns.
What did change was the amount of attacks against Eva between classes. While walking around with Ylva had temporarily stopped the harassment on the basis that Ylva was intimidating, the students quickly reverted to slinging mud balls in the halls.
The security force, on the other hand, had given detention to two separate groups that had been harassing Eva. After that, the rest got the hint. She still got glares or the occasional whispered comment under someone’s breath.
Nothing she couldn’t handle, but it was good that they had ceased. Arachne would probably have killed half of them in their sleep had they continued.
Well, she would have if she were around. Arachne spent most days at the prison, fighting Genoa.
Eva didn’t have much problem with that. Especially since Arachne, while she didn’t outright lose, didn’t seem to win. The training could only be good for her.
But Arachne’s absence did lead to an interesting predicament. One she was certain would have been resolved with much blood and disembowelment with Arachne around.
“So, spill the beans,” the sixth year student who hadn’t bothered to introduce himself said. “What are you? I know half-breeds and you’re nothing like them. What kind of a monster spawned you?”
Eva sighed, wondering how she managed to get maneuvered into a corner. Juliana and Shalise were nowhere to be seen, but it wouldn’t surprise Eva if some other students had pulled them away as they had done to her.
“I was born human. Through a series of experiments, I don’t think I qualify anymore. But,” Eva said before they could comment, “none of those experiments altered my hands, eyes, or legs.
“Thanks to a certain necromancer, I had fingers and toes cut off with a rusty, dull knife. It took hours. I was awake, conscious, and given no painkillers. The rusty blade hacked and sawed away until I could see bone, then it hacked and sawed more until it broke away.”
Not true, but close enough. Their imaginations would be much worse than reality. Eva proceeded to describe the removal of her eyes mostly without exaggeration. Not a memory she liked revisiting, but the steadily sickening pallor of her harassers made it all worthwhile.
If they decided that the necromancers were the cause of the experiments, all the better.
“A short time later, I had my hands removed and replaced by what you see now. Legs as well. Found the eyes later, but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth just because they’re red. Do you know how hard it is to see without eyes?”