Genoa gave Eva a wide grin. “Look forward to it.” She glanced down at her barely touched soup and picked through it with her spoon. “I wonder if I could get them to toss this into a microwave for a minute.”
Eva chuckled at her distress as Juliana led her out of the shop.
“She’s so embarrassing,” she said once they were outside.
“Oh? I thought most parents told stories about their children to embarrass them. She spent most of the time telling her own story.”
“That’s embarrassing in its own right.”
“At least the story was good.”
Juliana scoffed loudly and abruptly. Eva stopped moving to avoid running into her, but the blond didn’t stop.
Eva took a few quick steps to catch up to her. “I thought you liked your mother’s stories. You mentioned as much over the summer.”
“Yeah. That was before I got my own stories.”
“Your stories?”
“The abandoned house, the crypt, even Halloween. Most of them consisted of me running around scared or doing nothing at all.”
Eva frowned as she followed after the girl. “Well, I can’t say much about the house, but like I said earlier about Halloween; don’t sell yourself short because you watched over Shalise. That was important and I’m sure it means a lot to her. A lot more than me running off into the night.
“And don’t forget you took out those archer skeletons plus tunneled us out. We might not have lived if it wasn’t for that.”
Another scoff erupted from the girl in front of Eva. “You could have killed those skeletons. I saw that spell you did.”
“Could have, but we very well might have died if I had.”
“That was ‘your’ magic, wasn’t it.” The blond stopped, seemingly ignoring Eva. “You knocked away a massive horde with that.” She spun, facing Eva. “Teach me.”
Eva slowed to a halt next to the blond. “I can’t. Or perhaps won’t.” She moved in and whispered in the girl’s ear. “There are reasons black magic is called ‘black’ magic. You do not want to take that step.”
“How do you know what I want,” she hissed.
Eva shrugged and walked past the still blond. “You’re a powerful earth mage. Focus on that. I’d hate to see you stunt yourself the way I have.”
It was a lie to be sure. Eva didn’t feel stunted, just unpracticed. Still, it felt a good excuse for the girl.
“You’ll have stories to rival your mother in time. You just need practice and patience. And practice at embellishing as well as your mother.
“Trust me. You’ll be much happier with yourself if you can look your mother in the eyes when you tell your stories.”
Juliana in the Dorm
An awkward air hung about the usual group. No one talked, no one laughed. Everyone sat around picking at their food.
Everyone except for Max. He had his usual double helping of refried beans and a side of string beans.
Eva wasn’t sure what was up with everyone. Juliana, she could understand. The girl had barely spoken two words since Eva refused to talk about blood magics or demonology.
She didn’t think she had done anything to the others. None of them asked about Shalise. Either they already knew she was back at home or they didn’t care.
Even if they were, Eva didn’t know what to say. Juliana did not seem to like her opinions on the matter. The twins would probably like it less.
Eva picked through her own salad.
It wasn’t just her table in a mood. The rest of the lunchroom kept to themselves as well. A table holding a lot of normally loud fourth years was completely subdued.
The round table that normally held the student council was completely empty.
Eva regretted not finding out at least the years of the deceased students. The student council had more than six members, but if some of them died then the rest might be absent.
Or their parents had pulled students. There were at least two students in the first year whose parents wouldn’t allow them to remain at school. More might have followed suit had the Elysium Sisters not showed up.
One of the nuns stood guard in front of the large windows looking out into the Infinite Courtyard.
She barely avoided a glare from Eva as her thoughts drifted in the Sister’s direction.
Her hands were clasped behind her back as she slowly sent her gaze across the cafeteria. The nun should really be watching out the windows. It was almost as if she was expecting a horde of zombies to teleport inside the room at any moment.
Which, Eva supposed, they could. She’d seen several flesh golems materialize out of thin air in the street. Even with that, Eva wasn’t about to give the nun the benefit of the doubt.
Despite there being swarms of the nuns dotted around town and campus, Eva hadn’t been accosted by any of them since her first encounter outside the dorms. That didn’t stop Eva from being annoyed with their presence. That they seemed to spend most of their efforts watching the students rather than hunting necromancers only compounded Eva’s annoyance.
