All this creature research was getting in the way of her revenge against Sawyer. She really needed to be searching through blood magic books.
Eva frowned as she glanced over to Zoe, specifically her hands. The professor had returned to grading her papers. On the middle finger of her right hand rested a dark ring. It had been rotated so that the skull engraving was on the inside of her hand, but it was unmistakably Ylva’s ring. The void metal made it quite obvious.
Juliana had a ring like that. Presumably, she was still wearing it. Did Sawyer still want it? Was she in danger from Sawyer just by being off on her own?
Ylva meeting with her probably acted as a decent deterrent, but Sawyer was opportunistic. He proved that much when he kidnapped Nel. Unless Ylva had Juliana under constant surveillance, it wouldn’t be hard to slip in between visits and kidnap her.
Replacing the zoology book on the table, Eva got off the couch and headed for her library. She didn’t have all that many books on blood magic. What she did have had been all borrowed from Devon–notably not a haemomancer. That combined with the fact that blood magic books weren’t exactly the sort of thing you could find in a regular bookstore had led to Eva having only a couple.
One was the basics. It held everything from bloodstone creation and attunement to the exact thought patterns needed to properly manipulate free blood. It also contained fairly in-depth descriptions of uses for blood and a few tables on blood potency by creature.
Another was about positive rituals. The healing spell she had used on Sister Cross came from that book. Cleaning the zombie infection from Shalise did as well. It also contained the ritual that gave Eva the ability to heal from minor cuts–an amazing ritual for any self-sacrificing blood mage–and the ritual she had performed on Basila.
Eva paused, blinking. In all the excitement with the enigmas, she had almost forgotten about Basila.
Plucking the negative blood ritual book from the shelf, Eva slipped into her room and plucked Basila from her end table. She brought both out to the common room.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you about this,” Eva said as she set Basila down on the table. She slipped the blood tome just under the couch. It wasn’t something Zoe needed to know about just yet.
Zoe leaned forward to inspect the miniature basilisk. “This is one of Genoa’s statues, is it not?”
“It is,” Eva said with a nod. “She gave it to me for Christmas a year ago. I’ve since made a tiny modification to it. Basila on.”
The little snake let out a huge yawn. Both black fangs had the tiniest droplet of blood hanging off the tips. Its jaw unhinged enough to make its mouth open almost a full half circle. As it glanced around the room, Eva watched as it stopped on Zoe and opened its eyes wide.
Probably trying to turn her to stone.
After a moment of abject failure, Basila turned and slithered up Eva’s outstretched arm.
Eva smiled as its coils tightened around her wrist. She had been worried when, immediately after the ritual, Basila tried to attack her. The ritual was supposed to instill some loyalty among other things. That failing wouldn’t have been good, but it seemed like it took some time to take hold. Not once since had Basila attempted to attack Eva.
Basila hadn’t even tried to petrify her.
Of course, the downside was that it still couldn’t attack anything. It wanted to–placing it in a cage with a rat showed that much–but it just couldn’t.
“You might notice that the scales, teeth, tongue, and the eyes aren’t quite the normal color for a basilisk.” At least, she was pretty sure they were the wrong color, given her little blood infusion. Its eyes were still silver, but the black veins definitely stood out.
“It was a ritual normally intended for actual living creatures. Blood enhances the durability of the scales in a manner similar to my shields. Strength and loyalty should also increase. And in this case, the venom glands have been replaced with blood glands. Blood that I should have some control over once injected.”
Truthfully, she hadn’t actually tested that part just yet. Mostly because she couldn’t.
“The problem,” Eva said, “is that it is hard to inject blood when it refuses to bite. Some kind of mental conditioning that Genoa put on. Probably to avoid lawsuits and such.”
“You’ve turned Genoa’s gift into a weapon?”
Eva winced at the incredulity in Zoe’s voice. “Not a weapon per say. A pet. A super cool pet that can defend its owner from threats. It could be a whole new marketing line for them!”
Assuming people were willing to resort to blood magic.
“At least for me,” Eva amended.
With a sigh, Zoe rubbed the exact same spot on her forehead that she had brushed over while they were discussing Carlos.
Pretending she hadn’t noticed, Eva continued. “I was wondering if you might have any ideas on how to circumvent that limitation.”
“I’ve asked her about them in the past. Fascinating bit of magic. Unfortunately, neither Genoa nor Carlos ever mentioned how they work. Family secret is all they said.”
“And you’ve never taken one apart yourself?”
Zoe blinked and shook her head. “You said this was a gift. Have you seen how much she normally sells these for?”
Eva shook her head.
“Let’s just say that I would be somewhat upset if I damaged mine in experimenting on it. There are jokes about teachers’ salaries being poor, but even with the hazard pay I get from Brakket, I wouldn’t be able to buy more than one or two of the cheaper ones.”
Falling silent at that, Eva glanced down at the coiled basilisk. Juliana had mentioned that they had only created a handful of basilisk replicas. And each replica needed an imprint from the origin species.
Eva was no magizoologist, but she had a feeling that basilisks were not the most common of snakes nor the easiest to work with. They probably needed all kinds of special equipment just to ensure safety against a stray glance at their eyes. And then there was venom and the pure crushing power of the rest of their body.
“You got one,” Eva asked, “as a gift? What kind of creature is it?”
“A winged manticore. Something similar to a sphinx though far more ferocious. Manticores are not one of their cheaper products. It came as quite the surprise, really.”
“Oh?”
“Shortly after I dropped out of the guild’s training program, Genoa stopped by. She had it all wrapped up and basically thrust it in my face saying, ‘here, sorry.'”
Eva frowned. “Sorry?”
“She may have been partially responsible for a handful of the trainees leaving the guild. Though in retrospect, she couldn’t have known what would happen. It is, however, something of a long story. Regardless, to this day, I still don’t know if she was feeling guilty or if she merely wanted to remain on friendly terms. Either way, we met up several times for lunch or, in the earlier days, an impromptu spar. Became friends through that.”
Zoe, after finishing speaking, got a distant look in her eyes. As if the world around her just disappeared and left nothing to stare into but space.
Eva was mostly certain that Zoe was far too young to have that look on her face. “I had been wondering how you two knew each other,” she said after a moment of silence. “You are like thirty or forty years younger, aren’t you?”
Zoe’s faraway look turned to a low-effort glare. “I doubt she would appreciate being called so old.”
With another sigh, Zoe picked up an essay. “Anyway, I don’t know the answer to your problem. Maybe you could ask Carlos when he comes by.”
“Maybe.” Telling him that she had modified their gift might not go over so well, especially if they actually had risked their life to imprint the basilisk.
Before Eva could think to pull out her book, the door to the women’s ward slammed open.