Ones on the surface pranced around, treading on those beneath. More creatures exploded out of nowhere, landing on and crushing those too slow to get out of the way.
One particularly nasty set of animated teeth descended on a cat-like creature.
The cat didn’t stand a chance. It was torn to shreds.
Yet it didn’t die.
Despite not having a head or an upper back, the cat’s body sprinted away from the predator. As it ran, it started regrowing the missing parts.
A second cat, identical to the first, clawed its way out of the maw of the animated teeth after a few moments.
Nel’s sight went dark as she slumped over the altar. Maintaining that connection exhausted her. Yet despite her exhaustion, Nel had been unable to look away. It was a disgusting sight and horrifically enticing at the same time.
With shaky hands, Nel plucked the brass sphere out of the air. Taking great care not to jolt or otherwise disturb any part of it, she placed it within the safe that she used to store some of the more valuable fetters–Sawyer’s blood was among the residents. Once the sphere was in place, she shut the door, sealed it shut, and pulled out her gem focus.
Using every bit of her admittedly limited magical knowhow, Nel erected as many wards and defenses around the safe as she could fit. The air around it hummed with volatile magic from the somewhat conflicting wards she had laid around the safe. Anyone trying to unravel the wards would probably set off a chain-reaction detonating the leftover magic. That included herself.
Warding had never been Nel’s strong point.
But it would work. She couldn’t imagine anyone that both had access to Ylva’s domain and would want to steal her fetters, but she felt it all the more prudent to keep that sphere safe.
Lady Ylva would be able to undo it all with a thought should it ever need to be looked at again.
Nel desperately hoped that need never came about.
It took a moment to steady herself on her feet. Once she did, Nel headed straight for the kitchen. She moved past the main area and all its food and drink without a second glance.
After seeing the things she had seen, Nel felt she needed something a little stronger than water or juices of various types.
Nel removed the cork from a bottle of who-knew-what and proceeded to down a full half of the liquid. Her throat burned and some mild hiccups started, but Nel ignored it all.
“When are you coming back, Lady Ylva?”
The moment the words left her mouth, the ground started to quake.
Chapter 015
“They thought I had lied to them. Led them into a trap.”
Shalise started at the anger in Sister Cross’ words. “So they threw you into prison?”
Lynn shook her head. “After the public relations disaster with the riot involving my chapter, my augur disappearing, and the failure of the inquisitorial squad after being briefed by me, they stripped me of command.
“Leading them into a trap was just an excuse to dispose of me. I warned them about the devil-class demon and his involvement in Sister Stirling–in the augur’s disappearance. When this ‘Lady Ylva’ stepped in–whom I knew nothing about, I might add–they used my lack of briefing them about her to toss me into the cathedral’s dungeon.”
“But you escaped.”
“I wouldn’t be here otherwise,” Lynn said with a sad smile. Her smile vanished as she threw a glance around the alternate women’s ward common room.
It didn’t matter how much Shalise insisted that Eva hadn’t hurt her. Even mentioning that Eva had saved her from that enigma didn’t help. Sister Cross was dead set on suspecting Eva of everything from mind-control to torture.
“The six inquisitors that returned from their assignment were treated with hostile suspicion. Especially after word of their report got out. The mission had failed when one of the inquisitors that didn’t return went crazy and started attacking the others. One that had spent time, by her own admission, with the demons. No one wanted to be around the six that might go crazy themselves.
“After that, three of the six disappeared. Mind you, I was in a cell with few methods of finding out information on the outside. I learned all this afterwards.”
Lynn took a hesitant sip of a bottle of water–one of those endlessly provided by the kitchen.
For the first few days, Shalise had actually been worried for Sister Cross’ health. She had been refusing to eat or drink anything, even going so far as to make attempts at keeping Shalise from consuming the food as well. The words ‘tainted’ and ‘vile’ had been thrown around more than once.
It got bad enough that Shalise had leaned on Prax’s support and abilities to force feed Sister Cross lest she starve herself completely.
Even now, she wasn’t eating as much as Shalise thought she probably should.
Baby steps, Prax reminded her.
Yeah, yeah. Shalise suppressed rolling her eyes. Doing anything to give away the fact that Prax was speaking with her again would only lead to another lecture. Sister Cross had not been amused upon finding out about him.
She felt Prax’s presence recede to a small corner of her mind. Luckily for her, he had agreed with Eva regarding Sister Cross’ presence. Having someone around who could fight, should the need arise again, was a plus in his book.
“Suspicion immediately centered on the three remaining inquisitors. The thought going around was that one of them had betrayed their comrades. The three were worried that the higher-ups were targeting them.”
Lynn shook her head. “A foolish notion. Had they been marked for termination by the higher-ups, all six of them would have been taken care of at the same time precisely to avoid what did happen. Namely, the three flew the coop.
“They sneaked out during the night through the old church catacombs. I managed to threaten them into letting me out as well.”
“You threatened them?”
“Well, asked politely for them to let me out. I might have implied that I would make all kinds of noise for the guards if they didn’t–they didn’t want to be found missing until everyone woke up for the morning, you see. Anyway, they–”
Sister Cross was cut off as the entire women’s ward started trembling. She was on her feet in an instant. Her eyes, aglow with power, darted in every direction, looking for any kind of threat.
Shalise stayed in her seat, casually catching the bottle of water before it fell off the table. This quake wasn’t even that bad. Nothing to get up in arms about.
Seeing the worry, fear, and alarm on Lynn’s face, Shalise decided to explain that fact.
“Just a hellquake. They come and go–in fact, they’ve been somewhat infrequent as of late. I wonder if that means anything for the whole Hell situation,” Shalise mused to herself.
“Hell situation?”
“We found out–”
Shalise paused and sighed as another quake rumbled over her words. Her sigh froze in her throat as the rumble was accompanied by an all-too-familiar noise.
A high-pitched whine.
Muscles already growing, she leapt to her feet.
It hurt that Sister Cross jumped away, putting up her guard against Shalise. Unfortunately, she didn’t have time to complain.
The whine ended with a cannon blast inside her ears. Both Shalise and Sister Cross stumbled in disorientation.
“T-that,” Shalise said as she steadied herself, “was not a usual part of earthquakes.”
“Those enigmas that Eva mentioned?”
Shalise nodded. Not wasting any time, she ran for the window with the trap door levers. “I don’t know how many t-there are, but they burrow under the sand. Don’t assume they’re all gone just b-because we can’t see any.”
A heavy hand came to rest on Shalise’s shoulder.
Shalise jumped a good foot in the air.
“Don’t worry,” Lynn said. “Nothing will hurt you so long as I’m here. They won’t know what hit them.”