“With the support of our new allies,” he said with a gesture towards Catherine, “I think that population and ability will matter far less. People will see what Brakket Academy has to offer. The real trick will be convincing them of the truth that we’re all still human and still in control.
“But enough of that. I’m sure you’re all very eager to see where you’ll be staying. Follow me please.”
He turned and led the group back towards the Rickenbacker.
Catherine didn’t follow. She watched as the little mortals eyed her, giving her a wide berth as they walked around.
It was a strange sensation. Thirteen-year-olds were typically just entering puberty. Humans at such an age were often trying to get closer to her. Not farther away. The idea that merely being outed as a demon could ruin mortals’ impulses towards her was somewhat insulting.
Or depressing.
She really needed to finish the ritual with the diabolist.
As soon as the gaggle of children had disappeared into the doorway of the Rickenbacker to finish their orientation, Catherine turned on her sharp heels and stalked off into the town.
She had been planning on putting this off for a time. With what she had just heard from Anderson, Catherine had no intentions of being tied down. She needed to act now.
The clicking of her heels only stopped once she reached a deserted alleyway.
A minute buildup of magic had her pulled straight into the gate room of the women’s ward.
Eva was sitting in her common room with Arachne. Just sitting, not talking. Perhaps she had been talking and stopped once she noticed Catherine’s arrival. Doubtful, but possible.
Arachne sat upright in her most human form with her back to the couch. Eva rested her head on the spider-demon’s lap, keeping her eyes half-lidded as Arachne stroked her fingers through Eva’s hair.
Both of them had faint smiles on their faces.
Catherine rolled her eyes.
Neither of them bothered to acknowledge her.
“Eva,” Catherine said after a light clearing of her throat, “I need to use my last favor.”
“Are you sure?” The girl didn’t even look up. Her eyes stayed half closed as she nuzzled further into Arachne’s lap.
Not a very comfortable looking lap. Arachne was as far from comfortable as a demon could get without being covered in spines and thorns.
“I’m sure.”
“It could be the last favor that I owe you for a long time yet.”
“Maybe,” Catherine said with a toothy smile. “Maybe not.”
Finally, Eva opened her eyes. She tilted her head up, moving just enough off Arachne’s lap to get the other demon scowling at Catherine.
Catherine didn’t bother getting intimidated. There was a time where she might have worried. Not any longer. She knew Eva well enough. So long as Arachne’s detention in Hell hadn’t altered her too much, she knew that Arachne would heel to Eva.
“What do you mean?”
“Your next treatment. You’ll need more demons, no?” Catherine forced a yawn, glancing at her fingernails before rubbing them off on her shirt. It was an action she had seen a number of times while consuming human media. A sign of derision and contempt.
Where the gesture came from, or what its origins were, Catherine had no idea. For all she knew, it wasn’t even a real gesture. She had never actually seen a person do so outside of mortal entertainment media.
But Eva apparently got it anyway. The girl narrowed her eyes, raising one eyebrow as she did so.
“I don’t know that I can offer my services for free. Another few favors might give me a little more motivation to join in.”
Eva rolled her eyes. Pressing her head back into Arachne’s lap, she twisted around so that she was looking upwards instead of outwards. “Well, your favors have been innocuous enough. I’m sure I won’t mind.”
“I’m glad you see it that way,” Catherine said with a low chuckle. “I need you to kill Martina.”
Author’s Note 007
Hello, thanks for reading.
Book eight will continue as scheduled. No intermissions or interludes. Tune in next time for 008.001.
As with last time, I’d just like to say thanks before anything else. So thanks to all my supporters on Patreon and PayPal. I really do appreciate your support. And thanks to everybody else for reading my story!
There are a couple things about this book—and the series in general—to talk about this time around.
First and foremost, villains. Way way back in Book 001 when I first started writing, I decided that I really liked Sawyer. The name, personality, and other things. He was supposed to have died instead of the other necromancer, but he managed to squeeze through.
Unfortunately, while an unrepentant monster, he wasn’t a very good villain to Eva. He didn’t really care about Eva specifically. His goals and plans were entirely background thoughts in my mind that never made it to the text. The ones that did weren’t even about Eva.
In one of his first appearances, he specifically stated that his goal was to get his hands on Nel (or any other augur) and only came into conflict with Eva tangentially.
Then Eva was mostly dead all day during Nel’s rescue.
I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this.
They just had no chemistry together.
So for now, word of the author is that he is dead. If I ever decide to make a sequel to Void Domain, maybe he and Des can come back as primary antagonists now that Eva had really ticked them off.
Which leads me into another topic. A few chapters ago, I responded to a comment asking how many books were left in the series with the answer of two more books.
That’s probably going to be true. Not set in stone or anything. Each book takes somewhere around three to four months to write. It doesn’t feel that long, but it is a huge amount of time. Time enough for things to change.
But I think we’re coming up on the ending I initially had planned. Not quite how I planned to get there, but the end all the same.
While I probably could continue writing forever, delaying the ending indefinitely with all manner of events beforehand, I don’t think I’d want to. There are other things I want to try, other worlds to explore, things I’ve done wrong in Void Domain and can’t easily fix, things I’ve done right that I want to use and improve upon.
Don’t know what the reaction to that will be, but as I said, its still a long way off from now.
Now for some side notes:
Again, thank you to everyone who has donated through either Patreon or PayPal.
As a reminder, I’ve posted a few chapters of a series that might be in the future for me on Patreon. While I do supremely appreciate the monetary support, I will probably be moving those over to a WordPress site available to all as soon as I finish the next chapter. First because it didn’t seem to act as a very big incentive to donate, given that it was only one chapter a month. And second because I would like some more varied feedback well in advance of any commencement on such a project.
So look for links in the comments on one of the upcoming chapters. Or maybe I’ll just make a mini author’s note on the chapter itself.