“I turned it on for a few minutes before remembering that I really don’t care about your high school squabbles.”
“But you play video games?”
Catherine just shrugged. It wasn’t remotely the same thing, but she didn’t expect Eva to understand even if she tried to explain. So she didn’t bother.
Reaching the end of the cleared out studio, Eva left the paved pathways. She hopped over a small fence that separated the area from the rest of the Infinite Courtyard’s forest. Catherine paused, watching as Arachne stepped over the fence without breaking her stride as if it wasn’t even there. So far, nothing had been all that odd. At least if she ignored the fact that they were out wandering the Infinite Courtyard.
But now, Catherine stared.
Eva took three more steps before pausing and turning back around. “What’s wrong?”
“Why are we going so far out? I don’t like this.” Even if Eva wasn’t going to do anything to Catherine—which Catherine honestly believed, even if the whole situation was odd—wandering around like they were didn’t sit right with her. Eva had been the one to warn her about the hunter after all. What better ambush place could there be than a dark and isolated forest?
The prison was nice. Really nice. The constant wards surrounding the place prevented people from simply teleporting in and wreaking havoc. By Eva’s own admission, they could be taken down from the outside; however, it wouldn’t be an instant thing. So long as she or Devon noticed, they could prepare defenses. Not that they had to deal with any attacks since Catherine started living out there.
Catherine had definitely grown accustomed to the peace of mind granted by the wards. And the peacefulness. She had only scarcely thought about the hunters while out there. It was a nice change of pace from the nuns, necromancers, and hunters that seemed to be a persistent feature at Brakket.
“We’re going so far out because I needed a large and isolated area.”
“You couldn’t have just used the courtyard of the prison? We could have moved or temporarily erased your treatment circle.”
Eva put her hands on her hips as she frowned. “You would have complained. Don’t try to deny it. Besides, I needed the space.”
“More space?” The treatment circle occupied the basketball court in the prison. Catherine understood that it wasn’t a fully sized court—not that she had ever watched human basketball—but it was still sufficient for a fairly large ritual.
“You’ll see. Come on. We’ll be meeting up with Srey and Vektul in a few minutes. Srey can tell when someone is watching us, so if you’re worried about that, meeting up with him will be better than standing around in the open.”
Catherine bit her lip. Glancing around, she hesitated for just a moment before grasping her shirt and pulling it off. She might have torn it in the past, but buying new shirts constantly was a tedious affair. Instead, she simply folded it up and draped it over her arms. As soon as it was off, she spread her wings wide. Just in case the hunter had set up teleportation wards. Wings should suffice for escaping, especially if the hunter had Eva and Arachne to worry about.
She considered flapping her wings and flying over the fence, but it really was more for decoration than actually barring someone from crossing, so she simply hopped it, placing her hands on the rail while swinging her legs around to one side.
While Catherine undressed and jumped over the fence, Eva just stood there, watching and staring with her red eyes. She couldn’t say exactly why—red eyes were perfectly normal among demons—but something about her look just had Catherine on edge. It was probably the general situation more than Eva.
“Alright,” Catherine said after a moment of just standing on the other side of the fence, “are you going to lead the way or just stand around all night?”
“No, nothing like that. Come on.” Eva turned her back to Catherine, took a few steps, and paused again. “Oh, and watch your step. There are tree roots and berry bushes… all kinds of things to trip over.”
“I have never tripped,” Catherine said, following as Eva started walking again.
“Never?”
“Not once.”
“Something to do with you being a succubus?”
Catherine hesitated for just a moment before nodding her head. Though she was behind Eva, the blood mage should be able to see it. But it wasn’t something she had really considered before. All succubi had a natural grace. Their steps were always sure, their movements smooth and sultry. It wasn’t even a conscious action. Neither had she trained herself for it; the day she entered existence, she moved exactly how she did to this very day.
Not that it was really a thing worth considering. Probably. So long as she was trying to change things about herself, would changing her gait do anything? Probably not. It would be hard to increase the confidence of her walk and turning her stance submissive or otherwise lacking in confidence simply did not appeal to her.
Even if she did try something, it would be later. After boasting to Eva, tripping now because she had decided to mess around would be far too embarrassing. She liked being the demon Eva looked up to for advice despite how Eva felt to her demonic senses. At least so long as she was useful, Eva wouldn’t have any reason to either kick her out of the prison or do something worse.
“Lucky,” Eva said. “I mean, I don’t trip either. But I cheat. There is a fine mist of blood spread through the air that I can use to spot branches and roots well in advance, but it isn’t quite the same as being able to ignore everything because I’ll naturally avoid tripping.”
Catherine didn’t bother responding. Eva managed to drag her into small talk. Instead, she just walked in silence.
As Eva had estimated, it took roughly fifteen minutes before they came across anything but open woods. Srey and Vektul were leaning against a tree. The former with a book open in one hand, the latter just standing stock still. Catherine had met the two before. The very first day they arrived in Brakket, Catherine made sure to spend at least a few minutes interacting with every demon.
“Catherine,” Eva said as she gestured to the two demons. “Srey and Vektul. Not sure if you’ve met or not.”
“We’ve met.”
Neither had struck her as all that special. In fact, just the opposite. Both were weak demons. Vektul barely had a presence at all. She didn’t know what kind of demon he was, but he wasn’t anything special. Srey, on the other hand, was an oculus. Catherine had heard of them and yet had never actually met one. Assuming Srey was an average member of the species, Catherine was not impressed. She felt no fear towards either one of them. Even if both tried to attack her at the same time, neither would succeed in anything but accelerating their own demise.
Not that either looked like they were considering such a thing. Between Srey’s book and Vektul’s vacuous eyes, they weren’t worried about anything.
“Srey, everything alright?”
“Haven’t noticed anyone watching us. Of course, they could have been watching you up until you arrived.”
“Perhaps, but so long as the ritual circle is left secret, it doesn’t matter. Shall we continue?”
Srey shrugged as he snapped his book shut.
Together, they all walked on in silence. Not for quite as long this time. Maybe five minutes, ten at the most. When the forest faded away to a large clearing, Eva paused and turned to face Catherine. She spread her arms wide. “Well, what do you think?”
“Think? Of wha–”
Catherine blinked. At first, she had thought this was just a clearing. Looking around, she started to notice grooves carved into the earth. Long sweeping lines that dragged around the entire area. And the area wasn’t small. It stretched out probably four times the size of the small basketball court that Devon had turned into a ritual circle.