She doubted that she would be able to find a location that fit that criteria. She would have to make one. Eva planned to burn most of the plant life away.
Though, maybe bringing Juliana into the ritual wouldn’t be a bad idea. She could help level the terrain.
Not tonight though. Tonight it was just Eva, Arachne, Vektul, and Srey.
“You all ready to go?” Eva asked, glancing around at the gathered demons.
Arachne immediately stepped up to her side. She flexed her fingers as a few spare legs grew from her back. While she didn’t grow to her full size, she made herself as menacing as possible. They weren’t planning on fighting, but nobody wanted to be caught unprepared.
The other two were somewhat slower to jump to their feet. Vektul had taken a liking to the couches inside the women’s ward. At least, he was smiling a lot. Too much, really. Whoever had taught him about smiling should have mentioned that it wasn’t something to be done constantly.
He gave off too many Sawyer vibes like he was.
Well, not quite as bad.
Vektul’s smile, though just as wide as Sawyer’s, was more like that of an innocent child. He emanated none of the malicious vibes that Eva had felt anytime she had been in Sawyer’s presence.
On the other hand, Srey’s perpetual scowl only deepened as Eva turned to him. Not even her ‘honored’ status among demons could get him to smile at the moment. Or even look mildly content. He grumbled for a moment as he stood up. “We’re going to get ambushed.”
“Just keep an eye out for anyone spying on us. We’ll leave immediately upon being noticed. No chances.”
Tonight was for survey only. Nothing more.
Well, maybe a little foliage clearing if they had the time. Eva already had a spot in mind. An old farmer’s field not far from the prison. Far enough away that it couldn’t really be seen, but not so far that it would be overly troublesome to get to without constructing a gate.
Vektul, seeing that everyone else was up and waiting for him, finally got to his feet. Not before letting out a long sigh as he left the couch. Eva didn’t think it was that comfortable, the bed in his dorm was probably better. Maybe he had lived on nothing but beds of nails in his domain.
Either that or he was simply not emoting properly again.
None in their group could blink except for Eva, so they would be walking. Luckily, everyone here was a demon. They all had the stamina and speed to run at a decent pace.
“Follow me,” Eva said.
Running out of the women’s ward, Eva blinked to the top of the nearest exterior wall. Arachne quickly followed, though she jumped to reach the wall. Srey was next. Rather than climb or blink, he turned into his misty form and just sort of drifted to the top. He reformed into a solid demon just to the side of Eva.
Vektul stayed behind, looking somewhat confused. He turned almost a full circle around before tilting his head to one side. Glancing at the base of the wall before glancing up to Eva, he straightened his neck. “Our intention is to arrive on the other side, is it not?”
“If you put a hole in my wall, I’ll kill you.”
“That will not be necessary.” He crossed his arms across his chest.
Nothing else happened.
Eva was about to send Arachne down to pick him up when the ground beneath him opened up in a gaping black portal. He fell in and the portal shimmered away into nothing behind him.
The portal was something that Eva had seen before. Several times, in fact. Any time a demon was banished or died, they fell into a very similar portal as Void reclaimed them. It was similar enough that Eva had to turn to her companions and ask, “Did he just kill himself?”
Arachne just shrugged. Srey, on the other hand, actually took a step back. He was staring at the spot Vektul had just occupied with a look of bewilderment. Something akin to the looks that he sometimes gave Eva when he thought she wasn’t looking.
While neither said a word, Eva did get her answer.
“No. I haven’t killed myself.”
Turning to the sound of the voice, Eva found Vektul stepping out of an upright portal on the outside of the prison. He glanced around once before nodding to himself with a wide smile. “Yep. I’m fine.”
Opening her mouth, Eva found herself hesitating. Was it just a method of teleportation that looked like what happened when a demon died? Was it more than that?
Did it really matter?
Not at the moment. She might interrogate him later. For now, the longer they waited, the more likely it was that the hunters would turn their gaze in Eva’s direction.
“Alright. Let’s get moving then.”
Eva blinked to the ground, letting the others follow her in their own ways. Once on the ground, she just ran. Blinking might put her too far out of earshot to hear any warnings from Srey.
The actual run was a bit colder than Eva would have liked. Winter came early this year, though there was still no snow on the ground. At least it wasn’t pitch dark out in the early evening just yet. The sun was close to the horizon, but not quite at it yet. They should have a good hour of light. After that, if they were still outside, Eva could toss a few light spells around for a decent amount of light.
“This is around where I was thinking,” Eva said as they crested the top of a shallow hill. There was an equally shallow valley on the other side. Not too much plant life. A few stray bushes here and there. Lots of grass and underbrush, but that would be easy to burn away. Because it had once been a farmland, there were no major trees. Just little saplings that had sprouted since the farm had been abandoned.
Vektul hummed, glancing around the place. He walked along the top of the hill around to one side, pausing to observe from there. Eva followed behind him as he ran through his inspection. She gave the occasional glance towards Srey who always responded with a shake of his head.
So far, so good.
“It’s large enough.”
“Maybe not flat enough,” Eva said, preempting any arguments on that front. “But that shouldn’t be hard to solve.”
“No overhead cover. This weather you have around here might ruin any engravings or markings we make.”
“Also somewhat easily solved.”
Warding was an amazing thing. While she might have been able to whip up some sort of protective shield through runes—such a thing should be entirely possible, though she had never tried to do so over such a large area—warding could do it all and much faster. Not only did she not have to write anything down, she also did not have to experiment too much. Shifting most of the busy work to pure thought removed a lot of the effort.
Of course, she wasn’t quite certain that she was good enough to do something like that. Yet. Luckily, it didn’t need to be done right this very second. There was a good deal of preparation that needed doing before any real circle-making could begin.
“I think it should work then,” Vektul said. “You still have not collected the necessary mages and demons.”
“First thing,” Eva said, holding up a finger, “we have a lot of work to do before then. This ritual circle is not going to be drawn in a single night. One thing at a time.”
A month might be too generous of a time frame even if they recruited Juliana to help dig out the lines for the ritual. Without her, Eva would be out using a shovel. Her meager skill in earth magic wasn’t quite up to the task of drawing out such a ritual site.
Eva lit up her hands. First things first.
She started marking out a wide outline of a ring, keeping the flames carefully controlled on the outside so as to not burn more than she needed. The ring wasn’t perfect. She didn’t want it to be. At least not yet. Some hunters would almost assuredly stumble across this place. If it looked like an obvious ritual circle, they would do the same thing that she had done to Sawyer.
Fighting with Arachne might work as a cover guise should anyone start spying on them. However, there was a point where tearing down the bushes just became too much work and too impractical while mock-sparring. After a few minutes of no one watching them, Eva dispensed with the cover and started throwing flames around.