“Later.”
Shalise released Juliana’s arms, walking towards the red barrier and away from the fighting demons.
Her walk was unsteady. Stumbling almost.
Juliana wasn’t unsympathetic. A few steps of her own had her legs feeling like jelly. At least she knew why she wasn’t walking properly. Her dizziness and the lost time between Prax’s cell and this crystal room… it was obvious that she had been unconscious.
But the way Shalise was walking, something about it unnerved Juliana. Whatever was causing her movements to be unsteady was slowly getting better.
Or whoever.
Signs of a battle lay strewn about outside of the crystal room’s barrier. The remains were far messier than inside. Half-machine humanoids lay in pieces. White blood was splattered around each corpse, so they weren’t demons. Or not demons that she had ever heard of.
Most of the actually fighting moved on to gather around the hole in the crystal room’s wall.
Shalise strode on, uncaring and oblivious to the fighting.
Juliana narrowed her eyes.
She could keep Shalise in sight. She would keep Shalise in sight. Until she was sure, Shalise wouldn’t be at her back.
— — —
Nightmares were just dreams that had gone wrong. Instead of a normal day at school, it was a day without pants. Or instead of a normal haunted house, it was a haunted house with a serial killer actively in pursuit.
In fact, Shalise was quite certain that she had had this nightmare before. The feeling of being trapped in her own body while it walked around was oddly familiar. She could see through her eyes and hear through her ears, but she couldn’t move her eyes or turn her head.
Except this time, it wasn’t a nightmare. Or perhaps it was, and it was just a really long and terrible nightmare. One thing after another kept going wrong. If it wasn’t being stuck in a prison full of demons, it was Juliana getting sick.
Or her body getting stolen.
At least Juliana had woken up on her own. Shalise very much doubted that Prax would have continued to carry her had she stayed unconscious.
She should have listened to that doll.
Of course, she was planning on touching the crystal anyway. Even if the earthquake hadn’t pushed her into it. Prax hadn’t been lying about that–Juliana got better, after all. So something good must have come from touching it.
For Juliana.
For Shalise, that seemed to be the catalyst needed for Prax to assert control. If he could have done it earlier, he probably would have done it earlier.
The only real consolation she had was that Prax seemed to be heading towards the exit with all haste. So much haste that Juliana was having difficulty keeping up.
Escape to where, she didn’t know.
His feelings were easy to get an idea of, though he hadn’t felt much aside from barely constrained rage since they had touched the crystal. But Shalise still could not hear his thoughts.
“I wish I could say the same. Your thoughts are broadcasted for all the world to hear.”
His voice came out barely above a whisper. Shalise still jumped. Or she would have; her body was not currently obeying her commands.
Give me back my body!
“I would if I could. You think I want to be stuck in this worthless mortal meat sack?”
Shalise sulked back in her mind, wishing she could do something to show her displeasure. If Prax didn’t want her body, he shouldn’t have taken it in the first place.
“I was not trying to take it. You cannot make a decent servant if I have to do everything in your body.”
I’m not your servant!
“I must have overestimated you,” Prax continued on without even acknowledging her. “Disappointing really, given how little I thought of you. Whatever you did to screw up the brand must have been grand indeed.”
Screw it up? The brand did this? That was worrying. If something went wrong there… well, magical medicine could do a lot. Healing her skin might fix things, or at least give her a second shot at drawing out the brand.
“Second shot? Fool. Your brand goes far deeper than a mere etching on your skin. You should have ensured it was correct the first time.”
I followed your directions! You were even watching me. If anyone screwed up, it was you. How long has it been since you last did something like this? A couple thousand years at least, right?
Prax didn’t respond. Not verbally; his anger was starting to bubble though.
Good. If he was going to lock her away inside her own body, he deserved it.
With a mental sigh, Shalise thought, what did you mean by deeper than my skin?
“A bond like that etches straight onto your soul.”
According to you, I didn’t even have my soul at the time.
“A miscalculation.”
So this is your fault.
“You should have kept better track of yourself, foolish mortal.”
Shalise tried to bite down on the edge of her lip. It didn’t work, of course. With another sigh, she asked the one question to which she had been dreading the answer.
D-do I have my soul back?
There was a brief pause. For a moment, she thought Prax was going to bite his lips. Or her lips. Whatever.
“Yes,” he finally said.
Had she been in control of her body, Shalise would have smiled.
That was a relief all on its own. It almost made up for Prax. In fact, if not for him, she would never have known her soul was missing. She and Juliana might have found a way out and only realized too late. Prax had mentioned ‘disparity’ after time passed without her soul and body being one.
And, even better, maybe her etchings were only skin deep. Her soul was left nice and untarnished.
Was that even a thing?
She didn’t know. She didn’t think about such things during everyday ordinary life.
My life has been anything but ordinary for a long time, Shalise mused.
Prax gave an amused snort out of her nose.
Shalise closed her eyes. It didn’t actually close them, but it cut off the sight to her mind. It was very disjointed. She was still getting the information from her surroundings. The endless walls of red-barrier cells and the occasional glance Prax made over her shoulder towards Juliana.
She knows, you know. There’s no way she hasn’t noticed. You don’t act like I do.
“If she attacks, I will take her head.”
D-don’t do that! She won’t hurt me.
“I would not be so confident regarding her inclinations towards me.”
Not while I’m here. P-probably. But you have to tell her that I’m here. Though if she thought Prax had killed her and was just wearing her skin or shapeshifted into her, things might be a little different. If she was even close to half her mother’s daughter, she could easily hurt Prax.
“You think I would lose to a pathetic mortal?”
Juliana’s strong. Way stronger than I am, especially if you were right about regaining our magic after touching the crystal. And, as you mentioned before, you’re currently in one of those pathetic mortal bodies.
Shalise felt her body flex. Prax made no large movements, he just tensed as many muscles as he could.
Part of Shalise’s uniform tore around the shoulder.
“As pathetic as this body is, it is far superior to her with my gifts. She is not the only one who regained something they lost from the crystal.”
Just talk to her. If you tell her, Shalise thought to Prax, she will probably try to get you out of my body.
“Then our goals are aligned.”
Prax stopped. He stopped and turned to face Juliana.
She jumped back, dropping into a fighting stance.