Despite her best efforts at escaping his grasp, Nel found her eyes drawn to the object as it cracked open with a small hiss.
Her slight curiosity vanished as she recoiled back from the slime contained within. Unbidden retching almost forced her to her knees. Had the devil not tightened his grip, she would have gone back down to the ground.
He just laughed and pushed her aside.
The pain in her back and stomach vanished as she stumbled. Nel glanced down at herself. Where there should have been charred skin, everything was fresh and new. Not the slightest hint of a burn.
Unfortunately, she could see her unblemished skin. The robes Lady Ylva had made for her were burned straight through.
“I imagine your owner wouldn’t be pleased with our little roughhousing session. Besides,” he tossed the now-sealed brass sphere towards Nel, “you need to be able to concentrate. Go perform your far-seeing upon the contents. I need to go visit with the little embryonic girl.”
Nel fumbled with the sphere. It took her three tries of accidentally knocking it higher into the air before she finally caught it. Her fear at the devil momentarily fled and was replaced by a fear of smelling that stench.
Blinking in confusion, Nel watched as the devil completely disregarded her. He turned and wandered off in the vague direction of the women’s ward.
He isn’t going to kill me?
The moment the thought crossed her mind, the devil froze.
Nel didn’t wait to see what he was going to do. She turned and ran.
“Take care not to touch it,” he called out after her.
The words barely registered. All of Nel’s concentration was centered around placing one foot in front of the other as fast as possible.
By the time she had crossed the relatively short distance to reach Ylva’s domain, Nel was panting and sweating. Only part of it was born out of fear.
The rest was simply because of the unexpected exertion.
Unlike the Elysium Order, Lady Ylva hadn’t imposed any stress filled exercise programs. No waking up in the morning to run several miles, no weight room, no sparring. Living in relative peace for a full year had done wonders for her sense of laziness.
As Nel leaned against the wall back in the safety of the domain, she considered restarting her old training. Surely she would be of more use to Lady Ylva if she had the physical capabilities to, at the very least, flee effectively from immediate threats.
Of course, none of that would matter if that demon decided to burst through the doors and finish her off.
Nel took several minutes to calm her pounding heart. In all that time, the devil never broke through the door.
He let her go. Again.
Sighing, Nel pressed her forehead against a cool marble column. She glanced down at the brass sphere in her hands. He would be back. While he didn’t come with her to watch her scry on the gunk inside and he hadn’t set a later date for her to deliver whatever information she gleaned from it, he would definitely be back.
Fondling the black skull attached to the band around her neck, Nel mumbled to herself, “where has Lady Ylva gone?” Nel would be feeling much better if she were around.
With a start, Nel glanced down at herself. Maybe it was a good thing that Lady Ylva was gone. She was in no way presentable as she was now. Her clothes were a mess, her hair was matted with sweat, and, though the devil had done something to remove her burns, he hadn’t done anything to remove the dirt that had stuck to her clothes and skin.
With renewed vigor, Nel headed straight for the bath.
After soaking away her harrowing experience outside the domain–a process that took a good hour, at least–Nel found a set of fresh clothing and retired to the throne room to await Lady Ylva’s return. As she waited, she went over exactly what she would say in her report.
Elysium habits died hard, when they weren’t about exercise that is. As an augur, Nel had given her fair share of reports to superiors. Mostly about things she had seen from afar. This time it was about something in person, and that changed things. There were so many personal things that she wasn’t sure she was going to share. Her worries about the future, for instance.
A clock struck somewhere within the domain–added for Eva’s friends, who had needed to know when to wake up and when to eat in the otherwise time-averse domain.
Eight chimes.
Nearly three hours since Nel had left the domain. A good two and a half since she had met the devil. An hour and a half since she moved to kneel at her place on the throne’s right side.
And almost a full day since she last saw Lady Ylva.
Biting her lip, Nel changed locations. She moved through the domain, passing over the bottomless pit and through one of the alcoves on the side.
The heavy scent of frankincense stung Nel’s nose as she maneuvered through the augur room to her altar.
Nel found herself at a loss.
She lacked any sort of fetter for Ylva. Something within the domain would probably work. An item that Ylva found to be tied to her in some intrinsic manner, or perhaps a stray hair. Nel couldn’t quite imagine Lady Ylva leaving hairs lying around, but there might be something similar.
Neither did she have a fetter for Alicia. She would be the easier of the two to search out a stray hair, but Nel wasn’t fond of the idea of being caught snooping about the other servant’s things should they return.
With a groan of frustration, Nel decided to cycle through her existing fetters. She dismissed Shalise’s hair right out–seeing anything from that would require standing in the waters–and started with Eva.
Something she should have done as soon as she escaped from the devil.
Eva looked none the worse for wear. Tired by the looks of things, but otherwise unharmed by any devils that may have attacked. Arachne held her in her arms as they both slept on the couch.
Zoe was nowhere in sight, so Nel moved on to her fetter next. Like Eva, she was asleep. Unlike Eva, she slept in an actual bed.
After spending a moment looking around and making certain that there was nothing worth raising the alarm over, Nel moved on.
A handful of others cycled through with nothing of particular happening to note. Sawyer’s was blank as always, as was the boy known as Hugo.
She found Juliana searching through the shelves of a musky library. Unusual, but Nel couldn’t find anything worth watching after a minute. The girl was just reading. Diablery books, by the looks of things.
Really, Nel thought with a frown, you’d think she would have stayed clear of anything resembling demons.
Eventually, Nel was left with only a single fetter left.
A brass sphere she had clipped to her belt by way of the rotating rings.
Nel held it out in front of her. She didn’t want to expose herself to the vile stench, so she didn’t even try to open it–not that the devil had told her how it opened. Concentrating on the contents, Nel sought out its past and present.
A deep drain had her sagging in her seat almost immediately. It felt like she was looking farther into Hell, like when she had found the two children.
Except worse.
Wherever she was looking, it was far away.
Through the haze of her sudden headache, a picture started to form.
Something akin to a planet. From far away, it actually looked beautiful. The air was crisp and clear. Greenery everywhere. And everything on the planet’s surface was in a state of constant motion. There was a slight tinge of purple to everything, but that hardly stood out with everything else going on.
But when Nel zoomed in, she found her stomach churning.
There were plants, animals, monstrosities, and things she couldn’t begin to categorize. Every inch of the planet’s surface was covered in these things. For all Nel knew, there wasn’t even a surface to cover. It could have been just a massive ball of creatures.