Nel’s breath hitched in her throat. She glanced up with confusion in her eyes.
Lady Ylva had already turned. Her long platinum hair and low-cut dress swung in the air, trailing after her as she left the room.
Alicia shot a look before turning to follow. Nel wasn’t quite certain what to make of it. Amusement? Ire?
With every passing day, Nel found herself liking the other former nun less and less.
Maybe I misunderstood the question. She was suddenly extremely relieved that she hadn’t said that yes, she wanted to stay.
But she had been left with an order.
Nel did not have much. She came to Ylva with nothing but the tattered remains of her Elysium Order habit. Everything she had, everything she wore, everything she ate, all of it was provided by Lady Ylva.
Aside from a few spare changes of clothes, there was only one thing that she could think to take.
Her fetters.
Most had containers already. Only the one she had most recently been using, Sawyer’s hand, was out of its jar. Nel wasted no time in sealing it up and dropping it into a bag.
She glanced around, ensuring she had everything. Several strands of hair, Sawyer’s hand, the little girl’s friend’s blood. She hesitated in taking the brass sphere that the devil had given her, but decided that throwing away a fetter wouldn’t do anyone any good, even one as disturbing as that.
And that was everything Nel could think to bring. She headed out to the main throne room.
Lady Ylva stood near the exit doors alongside Alicia and one of the professors.
It took a moment to understand the reason for the professor’s presence. Her apartment had been connected to Ylva’s domain as well.
“Ready,” Nel said as she ran up to the group.
“Let Us proceed,” Ylva said, moving to leave her domain.
The two former nuns and the professor all followed her out, with the professor watching Ylva like a hawk.
Once everyone was outside, Ylva gripped the handle of the door and swung it shut. She held on for just a moment longer than necessary.
“It is done.”
“That’s it?” Zoe asked, her voice carrying a hint of disbelief.
Ylva gestured one arm towards the door.
Accepting the wordless invitation, Zoe stepped up and opened the door once again.
Gone was the gigantic room, the pit, the throne, and the storm clouds overhead. What lay behind the door was indistinguishable from any other cell block in the compound.
“What do you intend to do now?” Zoe asked without taking her eyes off the interior of the building.
“The necromancer is still at large. We would stay near your presence until his termination.”
“Because of the ring,” Zoe said, thumbing the black band on her finger. With a slight jump in her stance, she tore her eyes from the cell block and stared at Ylva. “Juliana still has hers. She’s been gone all this time.”
“Juliana has had Our personal attention for a time,” Ylva said, holding up one placating hand. “For the time, We may send Ali to watch over her. It would be preferable were she to return.”
Alicia opened her mouth just a hair. She snapped it shut in an instant.
Nel didn’t much care. She was too busy staring into what used to be Ylva’s domain.
There was something that she had forgotten.
She could almost feel the tears welling up at the corners of her eyes.
With a heavy heart, Nel wondered if she would ever see Lady Ylva’s bath again.
— — —
Embarrassed.
That was the only word that Riley Cole could think of to describe her situation.
Perhaps not her situation, but the situation of the Elysium Order.
They were an upstanding organization that hunted down the evils that lurked in the night. Anything that threatened human life or livelihood. Vampires, undead, zombies, liches, ghosts, ghouls, revenants, wights, wraiths, and even mummies. All fell in the name of protecting the living.
And yet, they had wound up a laughing stock. The inquisitors had been decimated. The few survivors claiming that a literal god of Death had stripped them of their powers. Scattered incidents around the country involving demons had further hampered their efforts to keep the living alive.
They had tried to keep the theft of the Obelisk of the Pure Moon quiet. The thieves had the gall to return it. When they did, they ensured that everyone in the area knew it was there.
Luckily, a stone obelisk with a handful of fireworks going off around it down the road from the cathedral had been passed off as a simple curiosity. No one who saw understood the significance of the obelisk.
Riley recognized the demon that had perished in the cathedral. As had a number of the Charon Chapter nuns. It had been standing on the roof overlooking their warehouse the night of the riot.
It all stemmed from here. Prioress Cross–Former Prioress Cross had antagonized the wrong people at Brakket City. They had spent far too much time around the city itself when they should have been hunting the necromancer. Their augur had been tied up spying on students rather than searching through caves, warehouses, and other necromancer haunts.
Given the demon infestation in the area, Riley could see the logic behind it.
But they were not demon hunters. They were undead hunters. Former Prioress Cross had failed to follow regulations. If she had truly been concerned about the demons, she should have put out the word for hunters to find. Otherwise, they should have stuck to hunting the necromancer and left the demons well enough alone.
Riley had lost more than one good friend to Cross’ madness.
The demons were the ones embarrassing the Elysium Order as a whole, now.
That could no longer stand.
“The tip was right. I would call this a ‘cursed city.'”
One of her companions–Riley restrained a sneer at thinking the word–had his head tilted towards the sky.
She couldn’t actually see his face. His entire body was encased in an armor that was, frankly, medieval. There was nothing to see of his face, the thin slit for his eyes was not wide enough to let any usable amounts of light inside. Faint clouds of mist curled off his armored back in the light breeze.
“We could have found this place on our own,” the woman at his side commented in a sing-song voice. She arched her back in a long stretch, jutting out an indecent chest as she moved. “This sky will be the talk of the nation if it isn’t already. I doubt that even the mundane news will leave it alone.”
Riley frowned. The woman had hardly glanced at the sky. Her sole eye had focused on the town below them and nothing else.
“Shall I cancel the payment?”
“Clement!” She slapped his armored side with her bare hand, not even wincing despite the loud noise it made. “If we don’t pay those who tip us, word gets out and we don’t get more tips. It’s bad for business!”
“I require no payment,” Riley said.
“Not you,” the woman snapped. Her head turned to face a single green eye in Riley’s direction.
Riley was somewhat glad that a simple black eye patch was covering the other side of her face. The sole eye had more than enough ridicule aimed in her direction.
“We only pay the first one to tip us.” Her sing-song voice took on a mocking tone. “Shouldn’t have sat on the information for a year.”
Riley started. That last word had come out harsh and throaty.
“You should leave,” the armored man said. “Gertrude and I can handle this. You’ll only get in the way.”
Narrowing her eye at the man, Riley said, “I’m not about to–”
“Let her stay,” she said, back in her sing-song voice. “She can watch.” Gertrude shoved one hand through her light red hair. Her green eye leveled back at Riley, cold and hard. “Someone has to show them how it’s done.”
Clement’s armor failed to make a single noise as he shifted where he stood. “Plan?”
“Investigate, poke, and prod. Find weaknesses, find domains, poke harder. Disconnect domains. Draw them out. And exterminate every last one of the bastards.” She looked up at the armored helmet with a disgusting smile on her face–it came to a sharp point in the center of her face with the corners drawing up far too high on her cheeks. “The usual.”