“She’s a murderer,” her father had said. “She kills people to fuel her magic. You don’t get more despicable than a blood mage.”
He hadn’t said it to her. Juliana had been sitting outside of her parents’ room, listening in on their conversation. He had gone on to say something about how he should never have trusted her in the first place but had been too blinded by the prospect of examining demons and gargoyles and the like.
Juliana hadn’t focused on her father’s excuses. The bit about fueling her magic with people had stuck in her mind.
It really hadn’t been a surprising revelation. Juliana had never seen Eva kill someone. At least, not someone who wasn’t already dead. Eva had killed zombies and skeletons in her presence. Not much brain power was required to come to the conclusion that Eva was a far cry from being a saint.
Eva had outright admitted to killing one of the necromancers back in her first year. Juliana hadn’t thought much of it then. The necromancers had obviously been evil, killing them was a natural progression.
She probably had her mother’s stories to thank for ignoring any ramifications of that. Hunting down dangerous mages and capturing or killing them was a big part of the mage-knight job description.
Though she didn’t know the exact details behind how Eva’s blood magic worked, the idea that killing people was required revealed a great deal about a certain conversation they had held back in their first year.
Eva had refused to teach Juliana anything about her blood magic. Her abject refusal had probably been one of the main causes of Juliana stealing a diablery book after Eva went blind. Or at least, it had contributed to her feelings of inadequacy.
But now, if that had truly been the reason why Eva had refused, it might have actually raised Juliana’s opinion of the other girl.
Eva did bad things. That was something that Juliana knew. But she hadn’t sought to make Juliana like her. She had tried to wean Juliana off the idea.
Something Juliana had snubbed and gone on to screw up all on her own.
She supposed that she should be worried about the fact that Eva was a killer. But, it wasn’t like she had ever tried to kill anyone that Juliana knew. In fact, Eva tried to save people more often than not. The incident with Zagan and Sister Cross being a prime example.
And then there was her mother’s response to her father’s ranting.
“I’ve killed people as well. Devon assured me that she only used unscrupulous sorts of people.”
Of course, the conversation had then descended into arguments about his trustworthiness, diablery, influences on Juliana, each other, and all manner of topics that Juliana hadn’t bothered to stick around for.
The gist of it was that her mother was conflicted on the topic of Eva. She believed that Eva would push Juliana to work harder on her magic. Life was dangerous and Eva was hardly the most dangerous thing around. Better to be prepared for later than face all sorts of elements such as demons and blood mages when she was unprepared.
Her father and Erich were of the opinion that Eva should be avoided at all costs. Given her mother’s state of being mostly bedridden, they would have won out had it not been for Zagan.
That was a whole other can of worms.
But her brother and father weren’t around right now. She would do as she pleased.
Though, since Eva popped back into the dormitory room, she hadn’t done all that much to prove Erich and Carlos wrong. In fact, just the opposite.
Juliana was still a little queasy from seeing the inside of that apartment room. It was like thin intestines had been splattered around the entire place. Not necessarily the most pleasant of things to have come back to. And then there was that vampire.
A vampire that was apparently Zoe’s friend. That had been something of a surprise.
Juliana shook her head as they reentered the apartment building.
While all the excitement was a nice change of pace compared to sitting around and listening to her family argue over her, she wished that everyone could slow down. Just for a few minutes.
She had barely had the chance to talk to Eva, let alone Zoe and Ylva.
As Eva started skipping up the staircase, Juliana considered just taking the elevator. Stairs were another of those things that were easier without armor on. For as long as Juliana had known Eva, she had never once known the girl to take an elevator. Juliana always followed Eva up the staircase, so it wasn’t like she didn’t have the practice.
My vacation must have made me soft, Juliana thought as she placed her hand on the railing.
The climb wasn’t as bad as she had feared from the bottom floor. Though she had skipped up the first few steps, Eva slowed down after that, keeping pace with Juliana.
“So,” Eva said somewhere around the second floor, “taking any electives next year?”
“I guess so,” Juliana said after a moment. She really hadn’t thought about school much. Even though she was coming back to a school, class just felt like such a low priority compared to everything else. “We have to take at least two, right?”
Eva spun around, climbing the stairs backwards. “I think I’m going to take golemancy and warding. Maybe I’ll be able to apply what I learn towards some improvements to my blood wards. I’d consider adding on enchanting for its relation to warding. Unfortunately, I tend to find myself busy,” she said with a wave of her hand in the direction of the upstairs floors. “Maybe in my spare time.”
Mulling it over for a few minutes, Juliana tossed back and forth a few ideas. She wished that she had a list of all the electives, but it wasn’t like whatever she said to Eva was a binding agreement or anything. “Golemancy,” she said after a moment. “That sounds good. I think my parents were already planning on teaching me how to make the miniature creature golems one day. A background in golemancy can’t hurt.”
“My thoughts exactly. Minus the parents teaching me part. Given how useful Basila was, learning to make more would be handy.”
“Useful?”
“Oh, right. I haven’t talked to you since then,” Eva said, trailing off with a somewhat somber look crossing her features. That look disappeared after just a moment, replaced by a wide smile. “I kind of turned Basila into a monster. She was quite helpful in getting Shalise and Prax separated.”
“You… turned her into a monster?”
“Using blood magic and a growth potion that Wayne got for me.” Eva stretched her arms out as wide as they could go. “She got pretty big. But it is a bit of a long story,” she said as she dropped her arms to her sides. Her smile once again vanished. “Longer than this staircase anyway.”
“Right. I’ll hold you to telling me later then.”
“Can do.”
Eva passed right by the third floor. Zoe and Ylva must still be on the fourth.
“I think that I might take more of Professor Twillie’s classes. A few extra years of magical creatures might make my dad happy.”
Though, that was a big might. Juliana doubted that much of anything would make him happy at the moment. Nothing save for a sudden and inexplicable demise of Zagan and Eva combined with Juliana agreeing to ship off to Scotland.
Eva just hummed at Juliana’s choice in electives. There might have been a slight disapproval in the tone, but nothing too serious. Eva wasn’t the biggest fan of the magical creatures class.
At least it wasn’t history.
Though, that was a required class anyway through the fourth year.
As they climbed up to the next floor, Juliana heard shouting. She tensed before sprinting up the few steps to reach Eva–who was looking significantly less concerned than Juliana felt.
But she didn’t protest as they both sprinted up the final flight of stairs to the floor that had previously held Lucy.