It wasn’t the first time Nel had seen such an event. The first time she had seen it was while she still worked under Sister Cross. Since then, it occurred on a fairly regular basis. Every three months or so.
Though an audience was rare. Eva, Devon, and Arachne were normally the only ones attending. Ylva occasionally stopped by to watch, but never did anything but stand in a corner.
Nel ceased her glimpse and merely stood outside the door. Intruding on a nude Devon, angry professor, and the unconscious Eva and Arachne wouldn’t get much done except embarrass herself. She had more than half a mind to run back to Ylva’s domain and call it a day.
A tiny sliver of her mind argued that if she returned, she probably wouldn’t leave again for a long time.
But she still wasn’t keen on walking in on them. Especially Devon. She got enough of an eyeful to last a lifetime with just her near-instantaneous glimpse.
Turning from the women’s ward, Nel started wandering. It was aimless for the most part. She wasn’t about to leave the prison walls–even if she wasn’t worried about being hunted, there wasn’t much outside save for a small ghost town that originally housed whoever worked at the prison. At the same time, she didn’t return to Ylva’s domain.
As she walked around the prison yard, Nel slowed and eventually ceased her glimpsing. Her headache was slowly growing and there was still no sign of any Elysium Order inquisitors. If they were going to do something…
Well, they were probably in the middle of doing it.
Nel wanted to believe that they couldn’t do anything. Ylva had decimated the inquisitorial chapter. Unlike other, undead hunting chapters, there was only the single chapter of internal inquisition.
Not many left the order. A good portion of the Elysium Order’s recruits came from places that undead had overrun. Few of those were actually capable of casting magic naturally. Once they had a taste of being able to use magic, few ever chose to return.
Even then, many who left the order did not warrant being hunted down. Most who did leave had their eye surgically removed, ready to be implanted within another recruit.
Because of that, there wasn’t need for more than a single chapter of inquisitors. And because of that, they hadn’t had time to train up a whole new chapter.
Probably.
Nel really should be spending some of her time spying on them.
But for now, she was taking a brief break.
February’s air was cold enough that Nel could see her breath. Oddly enough, none of that cold penetrated her robe. Lady Ylva must have placed some enchantments on the thin garment.
She walked on through the cold air, musing about her station in life and wondering just what, if anything, lay in her future. Lady Ylva, obviously. But would there be anything more?
Nel never had many aspirations. None she could remember, in any case. Since becoming an augur, she had spent most of her time being used for her abilities. The rest of her time had been focused on not being killed.
Eva had once called her paranoid.
Maybe. Maybe not. As the saying went, it isn’t paranoia if they’re actually after you.
And, as an augur, a number of people could and would be after her at any given moment in time.
Not having anything for herself, and given Lady Ylva’s presence in her future, Nel asked herself one question aloud, “what does Lady Ylva need?”
With just how much the domain provided, Nel was having trouble coming up with anything useful.
“What, indeed, does any demon need?”
Nel connected to the source without the slightest hesitation. Lightning arced off her fingertips, flying into whatever was behind her.
The last time an unfamiliar voice sneaked up behind her, it was Sawyer just before he kidnapped her. She was not going to make that mistake again.
In the brief instant it took for the lightning to leave her fingertips and reach their destination, Nel glimpsed that which lay behind her.
Hoofed feet, bare chest, thick arms, wings, and horns. Flames and smoke lit the area where his feet connected with the ground. Two bright gold eyes didn’t so much as glance at the lightning as he casually swatted it away with the back of his hand.
Nel gasped, throwing herself to the ground. She wasn’t quite fast enough.
Lightning sparked against her backside, burning a hole straight through the seat of her robe. Luckily, it wasn’t that painful. Not only did her connection to the source take much of the pain off of her mind, but she hadn’t put much power into her attack. Just in case whoever it was had a reason to be at the prison.
She was relatively certain that the devil that had very nearly killed her was not one of those people.
Nel’s heart was halfway out her throat before she shunted a good portion of her emotions away to the source. A moment of clarity overcame her utter panic.
Before, she had managed to escape. Sure, she might have been nearly dead for three days, but she still lived in the end. And she would again escape. This time, she just needed to make it to Ylva’s domain and pray that the devil wouldn’t enter.
Nel started crawling on the ground, trying to clamber to her feet somewhere along the way. She let out a strangled cry–the women’s ward was on the opposite end of the prison, but maybe someone would come and help–before a heavy hoof impacted the small of her back, sending her flat against the ground.
Her cry turned to a scream as the flames accompanying his hooves seared into her backside. The eyes implanted within her body squirmed, pressing up against each other in their mad attempts to flee from the heat.
“Such a strange greeting you nuns have. I can’t recall a single one I’ve met that hasn’t tried to kill me the second they saw me. And you didn’t turn to look!”
The hoof keeping her down disappeared from her back. Nel tried to move again.
It came back, hitting her in the side of her chest. She flopped over onto her back with the force.
Again the hoof came down on top of her. This time, she could see it coming with her regular eyes.
Despite the brief warning, bracing her stomach did nothing. Her cry of pain cut off as the air was forcibly evacuated from her lungs.
“It’s almost as if you lot are completely suicidal.” He let out an exasperated sigh before drawing in a deep breath through his nose. At that, he blinked and quirked his head to one side. “I know you, yeah? You smell,” he paused to take another breath, “familiar.”
Nel was in far too much pain to even consider responding. That pain also prevented a proper reaction to him gripping the neck of her robes and pulling her up.
They stared at one another eye to eye. Nel’s vision of his golden eyes was marred by a combination of a heavy squint and her own tears. Eventually, he stuck out his tongue, swiping it from her chin to her temple.
“Taste familiar too.” He blinked, recognition lighting up in his eyes. “Oh. You’re that nun. Did I threaten your life the next time we met, or anything similar?
“I would hate to be found out as a demon that did not keep his promises.”
Nel grit her teeth, pulling away from his hot breath without saying a thing. He probably had threatened her–Nel couldn’t remember. She had been trying to repress those memories.
“Ah well, a matter for another time.” He shoved her back.
Flailing her arms to keep her balance, Nel tried to turn and run. A hand clasped down on her shoulder to keep her from fleeing.
“I didn’t plan to meet you, but this is most fortuitous. I’m wondering,” he said, completely ignoring her efforts at escape. Rather, he pulled her in close with a glance from side to side. As if they were conspiring together. After satisfying whatever he was looking for, he pulled a small brass sphere from somewhere. “I’m wondering just what you can make of this.”