“Outdated, archaic, old, not worthy of learning by any mage, and I’m a terrible person for using them. I know.”
“I was just saying: there are wards we could set up instead.”
“Know any?”
“Well… no.”
“Runes it is then. Let me know when you find some anti-scrying wards. Until then, these will do.”
A thoughtful look crossed Juliana’s face again. “You should sell them.”
“What?”
“I’m sure there are tons of people here that would like them.”
“That’s…” Extra money would be nice. The boys were just an excuse. Eva didn’t care if they saw her. The skull and her daggers, as well as Arachne when she came back, were the bigger issues. “We’d have to keep it secret. I’m quite confident in my rune-work, but I’d rather not have people trying to find ways around.”
“Hmm hmm.” Juliana smiled. Her usual smiles were rare and when they showed they were barely there. This smile was a borderline grin. “I want ten percent for the idea. For an extra twenty percent I’ll find you customers.”
Eva stared at her new friend. The girl was entirely serious. Eventually Eva shrugged. “Alright, go for it.”
“We’ll need to find a way to keep people from just copying the runes after they buy it. Otherwise they’ll just make their own after buying once.” The pulled her hand to her chin, deep in thought. “Can you use some kind of invisible ink? Or perhaps an envelope that instantly incinerates its contents when opened.”
Eva hadn’t seen the blond this interested in something since she showed off Arachne. Eva offered comments on questions about what all she could do with the runes. She relaxed against the back of her chair as Juliana went over several aspects of their new business. The girl wrangled an extra five percent for ‘consultant fees’ out of the poor runesmith.
Not that Eva minded much. This would just be an extra cushion on the stipend that came with her scholarship.
They went to bed after coming up with the full plan. Juliana would begin quietly testing for interest and advertising for anti-scrying shields. If enough people seemed interested, they’d go get some supplies and begin production.
The Prison
A hard hand clamped itself around Eva’s mouth. Her eyes snapped open. She reached for the vial of Arachne’s blood hidden between the wall and her bed.
Her hand froze half way there as her brain registered the eight red eyes staring at her. A slim finger was placed vertically over Arachne’s lips.
Eva glared at the spider-demon as she withdrew her hand from Eva’s face.
“Eva, I–”
Eva slapped her own finger over Arachne’s mouth. She pointed to the window, then upwards, then at her sleeping roommate.
Arachne nodded and stepped towards the window.
Slipping out of bed, Eva quietly slipped into some clothes and grabbed her daily carry of a set of blood vials, her usual dagger, and her wand.
Whatever the demon’s reason for coming back now was, Eva wanted to be ready for anything. She showed up in Eva’s room, while her roommate was in it, in her human form. Eva felt angry at that, and that was before the fact that it had been nearly four weeks since Eva had even seen her contracted demon.
Ready, Eva moved to the window and grudgingly let the spider pick her up and carry her up the side of the building. Eva could have made it to the roof herself, but it would have taken several steps without a handy fire escape in sight.
When they got to the roof, Arachne turned on Eva and said, “I found a place I think you might like.”
“Arachne,” Eva said, “you’ve been gone almost a month. I thought you had run out on me.”
Arachne shifted where she stood. “I’d never.”
“We were contracted for less than a week. I thought that maybe you decided I wasn’t as great as you had hoped.”
“Nothing like that. There were just some things I had to take care of. And then I found this place but it wasn’t ready yet.”
“Things to take care of?” Eva crossed her arms. “Do I want to know?”
Eva did want to know. If only so she could deal with whatever fallout presented itself sooner rather than later. Most of her imagination revolved around blood and viscera dripping off of Arachne’s claws. She just hoped the owners of her imagined blood were people deserving of such a fate.
Then again, Arachne had felt different since their contract. Sure, she pulled out the throat of a nun after impaling her several times. The nun attacked first though. Yet the very next day, Eva expected to find a trail of dead people until one of them could point the spider-demon in Eva’s direction.
Instead there was a nearly panic-stricken spider almost crying tears of relief when Eva returned. Not that Eva thought Arachne had tear ducts; her face might resemble a human face, but Eva was pretty sure that resemblance was only skin deep, if that. Or carapace deep.
Perhaps the spider-woman’s viciousness could be attributed more to Devon. Eva knew it was on her master’s orders that Arachne had torn apart four grown men the night they met. It took Eva years to get over that image, even with the circumstances.
