Eva shook her head and took the open seat. “Neither Zoe Baxter nor my mentor felt there was anything odd about the book. Zoe is going to continue her own investigation and my mentor is going to snoop around a bit on his own.” She turned to Juliana, “additionally, he thinks that the zombies were meant as a trap. Probably for a relative of the family. Someone who owed money or something similar.”
Juliana did not look happy about that. A scowl formed on her face and she started idly rubbing one of the metal bracelets that ran up her entire forearm.
“So the book was nothing? No big ritual?” Shalise asked.
“Nope. I was overreacting for nothing.”
Shalise sagged back into her chair at Eva’s words. The ritual seemed to have been a point of major worry for the girl. Eva was glad to see the tension leave her. Then it all came flooding back. She screamed. Shalise tipped over in her chair and continued scrambling backwards, pressing herself up against the short refrigerator.
Juliana snorted. “Oh right. Eva spent the night elsewhere last night. You haven’t met Rach.” She gestured at the spider climbing out of Eva’s shirt and onto her head. “Don’t worry, she’s harmless.”
Eva could see Arachne’s fangs twitch at the comment. She quickly moved to start stroking the spider’s carapace, shooting a glare at Juliana at the same time. “You’ll offend her,” Eva said. Eva ignored the shrugging woman and turned to Shalise. “Rach, this is Shalise Ward, our new roommate. She’s off-limits. Shalise, my pet tarantula, Rach.”
“Y-you have to say we’re off-limits?”
“I shouldn’t have to, but it is nice to make sure there are no ambiguities.”
“Like I said, don’t worry. She lives between Eva’s boobs and rarely strays from there.”
If Eva didn’t know better, she’d think Juliana was upset that Arachne had never hurt anybody. Did Eva know better? Maybe she was disappointed. Eva hadn’t forgotten the girl’s story about waking up to venomous bugs on her face.
Maybe she would have Arachne latch onto the blond’s head one morning.
“
Shalise didn’t move.
It was too much to hope for that both her roommates would be fine with Arachne.
“But the book,” Juliana said, ignoring the poor girl’s fear, “it has to be something, right?”
Eva shrugged at that. “Not that I know of. You could try searching the bookstore to see if anything else is amiss.”
“They wouldn’t have destroyed it without a reason.”
“Maybe it was an actual accident. They just decided to blame us rather than admit to it.”
Juliana shook her head. “No. I don’t believe that and neither do you.” She massaged her temples with a light groan. “I can’t think. I’m tired and going to bed.”
Shalise hadn’t moved from her spot on the floor. Her eyes still tracked the top of Eva’s head with every movement.
“She’s really not going to hurt you,” Eva said. “If it bothers you, we have other sleeping arrangements. Although, once school starts I doubt we’ll be using them much. Might be good to get used to her now rather than later.”
Shalise got up slowly. She kept her eyes trained on Arachne as she circled around towards the beds. “I-I don’t want to kick you out of your room. I can handle it. There were spiders at my old home.”
Eva doubted she was going to sleep tonight despite her words. Still, better to get used to Arachne now than being unable to sleep during school.
“It really isn’t a big deal,” Juliana said, “the only time she detaches from Eva are when she goes out on ‘hunts.'”
Juliana was definitely waking up with an Arachne attached to her face one of these days. Eva would make sure of it.
Brakket Magical Academy
Classes at Brakket were far more interesting than any class at a non magical school. That was simply by virtue of most classes having magic flying around them. The teachers themselves weren’t all that different. Class might be better if Eva had been more new to the whole magic scene.
The school building itself was a boring affair. Eva felt sure it was built by regular people. None of the rooms even had the oddities that the dorm study rooms had.
The only exception to this was the courtyard. The building was a ring with a large three-story section to one end. The center held a massive forest that was given the wildly inaccurate title of the Infinite Courtyard.
Trees, plants, bushes, benches, grass, even large ponds and hills all fit in the courtyard. Bridges arced over streams, huge weeping willows hung over the dirt paths. Birds chirped and flittered about. Other animals occasionally stalked within sight of the pathways. Eva was almost sure she saw a cait si at one point.
As you went further into the courtyard, space expanded. Apparently the dead center was several miles away from any part of the building. There were paths set up to go along the edges before the space really expanded, and all the paths had signs stating the nearest part of the building.
