“You sure you want to go through with this?”
“Of course. Shalise is my responsibility. I can’t just leave her.”
Wayne shook his head. He doubted he would be so interested in jumping into Hell after his students. Of course, Anderson and Weston weren’t the type to find this kind of trouble. Weston was far too timid and Anderson… well, there wouldn’t be much left of him by the time his father finished with him.
But, he thought, I’m here now.
“Together, then?”
There was a moment of hesitation before Zoe nodded. She held out her hand.
Wayne took it.
“On three?”
“Works for me,” Zoe said with a nod. She started counting and Wayne started thinking.
A medieval castle with statues of Ward. Vain–even Ylva didn’t have a single statue of herself around her domain–definitely not something he would have suspected from the girl. Further evidence that she was not herself.
As soon as Zoe said three, both ducked down beneath the waves.
— — —
Shalise blinked.
Or rather, Prax blinked and Shalise merely took notice of the brief blackness.
It is about time, Shalise thought. I don’t know how it is with demons, but human eyes need to be kept moist.
Prax’s continuing control of her body was doing a number on it. At least she had finally convinced him to eat something. Only after he had collapsed after not recognizing the signs of hunger.
She was fairly certain that her body had not slept since she woke up in the prison either. Not unless she counted the brief periods of him shutting his eyes in concentration. Shalise did not count that.
No progress had been made towards removing Prax from her body, either. It was starting to make Shalise nervous–as nervous as she could be in her current state. The longer they went without any progress, the more Prax’s thoughts drifted towards killing himself–along with Shalise–to escape.
“Silence, servant. I am considering nothing of the sort. Yet.”
That’s very reassuring.
“Someone,” he said, “has entered my domain.”
Really? I didn’t notice anything.
“You may have some modicum of control here,” he all but growled out, “but this is and always will be my domain.”
Shalise gave him a mental shrug. She didn’t want control of it. “So,” Shalise said before he could start complaining about her again, “who showed up? A friend? It isn’t your mother, is it?”
“Mother will be… busy. The damage to her body was minimal, thanks to the eternal kindness of her spawn, yet it is far too soon for her to return. One month of your realm was her usual time to return in the past. After centuries of imprisonment, it may be far longer.”
Ah, Shalise said. So–
“It is a human.”
Shalise sat at attention within her own mind. That might be the first good news she had heard in a very long time. Juliana?
Prax laughed. His deep laugh came out strange in Shalise’s voice. “Not unless she has had some very interesting experiences since our parting. The human is a man with a beard.”
Trying to think of everyone she knew that had a beard, Shalise came up with only one real possibility. Assuming the man was someone she knew. But why would a human show up in Prax’s domain if not for her?
A few of the teachers at school had beards. None of them had any real reason to come after her. In fact, it was doubtful that they knew where she was in the first place. But there was a man with a beard that might come for her. Eva’s mentor, Devon something-or-other.
She had only spoken a handful of words to him, but maybe Eva was trying to rescue them.
“And here come two more. A man and a woman.”
Eva and… and who? There wasn’t anyone else. Not unless Juliana’s dad had decided to come.
Actually, that wasn’t so far-fetched. His daughter was somewhere around Hell. He was probably looking for her. But that meant that the woman was probably Genoa and not Eva.
“You are assuming that it is easy to locate an individual in the vastness of Hell.”
Well, we know a woman who is covered in eyeballs. Finding people is kind of her thing.
“I will concede that human visitors are a rarity in Hell, unless they have been brought by some other demon. But generally, those humans would not leave their patron demon’s domain for fear of becoming lost, stolen, or damaged.”
All the more reason to believe that I know them. Aren’t you going to go greet them?
“I would rather not be seen in this sorry bit of flesh.”
Do it anyway, Shalise ordered in her most authoritative thought-voice. Or else I’ll start changing your domain. This place is so drab, it could use more greenery to change up the scenery.
“Servant! Do not dare to–”
It was too late. The moment her thoughts drifted towards how the place could be spruced up, the throne room changed.
Prax’s head whipped around as the faint sound of two trickling streams of water carved their way out of the wall behind the throne. The water flowed along the ground, digging in shallow canals that looped around either side of the throne.
Lush grass grew out of the islands formed by the streams of water. Thick trees–spruce, if Shalise was not mistaken–sprouted and stretched towards the ceiling.
A sickness in Shalise’s metaphysical stomach grew along with the daisies. She could feel Prax’s ire sizzling beneath his calm exterior.
Both armrests on the iron throne bent and crumpled under his grip.
Maybe not so calm.
I’m sorry, Shalise quickly thought. I didn’t mean to–
“Every time this happens, it becomes ever more appealing to simply end you.”
I know, I couldn’t help thinking it. Just, please go talk to them? Surely they can help us.
“I fail to see what a mortal would know of our situation that I do not.”
That was true enough. Shalise didn’t understand much of anything that Prax did not explicitly explain.
Except we know more than mortals. There is Ylva and Arachne. And… It felt like there were more, but no names were popping into her head. They could at least give you a second opinion on what went wrong.
He did not move. His emotions were going topsy-turvy.
Shalise kept silent, not wanting to garner further anger.
After several minutes of him emotionally debating with himself, Prax got to his feet. “I can hear them out. Given our current situation, assistance may be required. If they are not who you think they are, you must be prepared to defend us.”
Like how I kept you from torturing us earlier?
“Exactly,” Prax said through grit teeth.
As they moved down towards the castle entrance, Shalise kept her thoughts carefully in check. She did not want any chance of naked golden statues of herself to assault their visitors.
Shalise’s mind blanked out in a brief moment of static.
Prax!
The demon controlling her body stopped moving with a wince. “What is it this time?”
You can’t go down there while naked. Put on some clothes. Anything.
Even as a rack of clothes appeared in front of them, Prax shrugged and walked by. Rack after rack of clothing slid in front of Prax. Each one, he simply sidestepped and moved on.
Until a solid brick wall appeared in front of them.
Scowling, he tore a one piece dress off of its hanger and haphazardly draped it over himself. “Happy. Now?”
The black dress had huge cutouts at the sides and one strap was torn from his handling. Far from anything Shalise would wear, but she didn’t exactly have fine control over what appeared. The only reason it covered anything was because of Prax’s bulky muscles holding it in place. But, it was better than nothing at all.