It wasn’t transparent. Nel could simply see the entire thing, inside and outside, at once. And any time an eye that wasn’t on her face saw it, something broke in her mind.
The demons were on her side–until Eva and Devon deemed her not worth the trouble–but that gave her no solace. She didn’t need them to be killing her. Her augur condition felt like it was actively trying to drive her insane.
“Alright,” Devon said.
Finally.
“Demons are covering us. We get the nun to Ylva’s domain. Once she is safe, we can move to rout the inquisition.”
That was a good plan. Amazing even. It would have been a better plan if she’d never have had to leave, but Nel valued her spine’s current location enough to not complain about that.
“The Lord of Slaves will put itself between us and the Elysium Order. His minions will be our escort.”
At his words, the masked demon reached out and tapped the nearest three ghosts on their shoulders. The wispy forms solidified into people from the point of contact.
One looked like the stereotypical knight in shining armor–if such stereotypical knights wore rusted iron that had been battered out of shape.
The second wouldn’t have looked out of place in a civil war reenactment troupe. He carried an old-fashioned rifle and had a slightly curved sword attached to his side. His uniform was marred by several holes that were still bleeding.
The final ghost wore burlap clothing and a straw hat. His hand gripped a flaming torch that gave off no smoke and no light. Blood dripped from one of his temples.
Devon didn’t react to the sudden materialization of the ghosts. He simply looked them over before giving a reluctant nod.
Eva launched herself away from the ghosts. The two orbs of blood darted around wildly as if she were trying to decide which to attack. Only when none of them made any movement did she calm down.
“You need to stop springing things on me. Something is going to end up dead that we don’t want dead.”
Devon gave her an almost mocking smile. “In addition to not shaking its hand, don’t die around a Lord of Slaves. You’re less useful, but bodies can still serve.” His smile slipped into a frown. “Though, I suppose if you died, you might not care what happens to your body.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
The three slaves moved as one towards the exit to Devon’s cell house. Nel watched as they walked past, carefully keeping her eyes on them and them alone.
They appeared undead. How much good they would do against any members of the Elysium Order was somewhat suspect. The order’s primary abilities were tailored specifically to fight undead. But there was something odd about them. They might be more akin to golems or some other construct.
Connecting to the source would tell her, but she wasn’t that curious. Her eyes would undoubtedly be drawn to the other demons in the room. Not to mention that giving the source time and information to formulate a plan would help their enemy.
The knight exited first, moving with his shield up and his head low. The other two followed behind him. Nel started to follow, but stopped as she realized she was alone.
No one else moved. Not the demons, nor Devon and Eva.
Nel shifted her weight from foot to foot and back again. Why aren’t we going back yet? They were just standing there while the ghosts got further away.
Neither had glassy eyes or any other sign of mental manipulation. At least no sign that Nel was aware of.
“Shouldn’t we be moving?”
“The slaves are moving to engage and distract. Eva’s wards are still active. With their interference, they may just stay up.”
Nel frowned. There were thirty members of the inquisitorial team. What were three ghosts supposed to do?
“But shouldn’t we be running to Ylva’s domain while they’re distracting? They have augur support. They know we’re hiding here.”
“After they engage, more will appear to escort us. We don’t want to be caught outside if her wards fail. This building is far more defensible than open courtyards.”
“Why just three? He has a whole army of ghosts!”
“And they’ll be used later. The marksman–”
A high-pitched whine interrupted Devon. It was a somewhat familiar noise. Nel couldn’t quite place it.
It grew louder and louder as he, Eva, and the demons all looked around for the source of the noise. A blackish-red shield sprung up around the two of them.
Nel was too far away, being much closer to the door than they were.
A mounting horror grew in the pit of her stomach as Nel realized what the noise was.
“Oh no.”
Nel threw herself to the ground as far from the open door as she could reach in a single leap.
White light scarred several eyes that had stubbornly refused to shut. Her eardrums rattled in her skull as a piercing shriek tore through the air. The eyes that had remained open were crying tears of pain. And those were slowly blinking away the white spots.
Dragging herself to her feet–wobbling all the while–Nel patted herself down. Nothing was missing. Ylva’s robes weren’t even burnt. The cell house hadn’t collapsed either–they probably thought the prison was too sturdy to fall.
Their plan was probably to trap her inside this building, away from the one the augurs couldn’t pierce.
Not wasting her good fortune, Nel ran straight for Eva and Devon. The former let her shield down long enough for Nel to get inside.
“…said: what the hell was that?”
His voice sounded like a television’s white noise grinding on brillo pads. It took another minute and his hand gripping the front of her robes for Nel to realize that voice was directed at her.
“Th-they cracked the sky!”
“That means nothing to me,” he shouted. “What is it and how do we stop it.”
Nel pushed away from Devon. Being so close that the unkempt whiskers of his beard were touching her face was not something she wanted to experience anytime soon. He let her go without the expected fuss. As such, Nel bumped her head on the shield.
She winced, rubbing the spot as she answered him. “They fell to their knees before an idol, beseeching the Lord Himself to smite their foes. Us! They got authorization to crack the sky to get at us.” Nel started chewing on a thumbnail. Through her glove.
Devon let out a soft snort. “Got bad news for ya girl, your ‘Lord’ doesn’t give a damn about what happens around here.”
He rubbed his forehead before shaking his head. “No. This idol, it is a legendary artifact, isn’t it. Maybe a grimoire? Channel magic into it and get laser beams from the sky. Sounds familiar, but can’t quite remember. But, we blow it up and it stops. It has a range, what is it?”
Nel blinked. He wasn’t wrong, at least about the last part. “It’ll be nearby. Protected near the rest of the inquisitors… probably.”
“Don’t just stand there. Find out where.”
Nel was about to protest about the lack of frankincense on hand, but he immediately turned to Eva. He wouldn’t listen anyway. Nel closed her eyes.
Glimpses of the surrounding area flickered through her mind. Maintaining any one vision was impossible without frankincense, but quick flashes were within reach.
Starting where she last saw the inquisitors, Nel flickered her vision around. Four of the inquisitors, low rankers by the single bar of gold on their shoulder, held their hands outstretched towards the walls of the prison. Red-black particles of magic siphoned into their hands.
Ward breakers.
Nel made a note of their location, but moved on. The command tent was easy to locate–it was the only tent for miles. They had a map inside along with another augur. A red dot lay exactly where Nel herself was. A few other-colored dots surrounded her.