A one-armed man strode up to her home. He marched straight past the still Ylva and up to Eva. Without asking, Devon grabbed her arm and plunged a needle into her skin. It stuck her just above the black curls of her exoskeleton meshing with her skin.
Blood flowed into the syringe as her master pulled back the plunger.
“I could just give you a sample with my daggers, you know.”
“I’d rather not contaminate the sample with more magic.”
Eva shrugged her free shoulder.
The needle left a tiny droplet of blood on her skin as Devon finished filling the syringe. Eva healed it near instantly.
He tapped out a small blob onto a square of paper. It must have had some sort of diagnostic ritual circle on it because Devon stared intently at the paper.
One soft sigh later and her master nodded to himself. “Alright. Your blood doesn’t show any increase in demonic influence. At least not any increase that is unexpected.”
He turned and paced back and forth across the short room. “That could be because there was no ritual going on. There is a lot more to this experiment than a simple blood transfusion.
“The ritual is designed to cause your body to integrate with the demonic blood rather than simply use and replace it with your own. With those hands, there may be unintended side effects during or immediately after the ritual if your body tries to further integrate the hands.”
He stopped pacing, facing away from a barely paying attention Eva. He sometimes went off like this. Demonology was his field, not hers.
“Given your experiences in Hell, I do not believe the addition of Arachne’s hands will invalidate my research even if something does happen because of them. I might need to find another person who isn’t tainted to act as a–”
He paused, frozen. At least, his body was frozen. His heart hammered.
“Eva,” he growled. “What is that?”
His only index finger rose to point at one corner of the room.
“Ylva,” Eva said, “agreed to perform a favor for me in return for being allowed to watch. Don’t worry, part of the agreement was her not interfering.”
The demon in the corner gave a light nod, her head still posed high.
Devon whirled on Eva. His face inches from her own.
Eva took a quick gasp of air and held her breath.
“You didn’t think to ask me before bringing some demon to watch.”
Hot air washed over Eva’s face. Even with her breath held, her master’s breath had a pungent odor she could never place. It wasn’t pleasant.
“I had a favor to ask, she had a favor to ask. It won’t hurt the experiment at all.” She tried to speak so her breath cleared the air. Eva took another breath of partially clear air before his hot breath pushed up her nose again.
Except it never came.
Devon whirled back to Ylva. He glared. His teeth ground together.
For a moment, Eva thought he might try to banish the hel.
He spun back to Eva and whispered into her ear. “You don’t know what you’re getting into, girl. I warned you about getting close to demons.”
“I’m not close to her,” Eva hissed back. “It was a simple request on both of our parts. Nothing more.”
His teeth grit in her ear. She worried he might crack his teeth.
“Fine.” He stood up. “Fine. You want to turn this into a playground for your little demon friends, I don’t care. So long as it doesn’t hinder my experiment.”
Eva sighed. She almost argued, but decided against it. The ritual would put her to sleep and maybe it would be a good nap. Of course, waking up never felt good after treatment, but that couldn’t be helped.
Devon pulled out the tubes and needles and started hooking her up to Arachne.
After double checking their connection, her master stripped down and stood in the circle’s smaller ring. There was a flare of pain and Eva’s vision went dark.
Theory: Simulacra
Zoe Baxter glanced over her fourth year theory class. Despair touched her heart as she scanned the vacant faces. Only two students looked happy to be in class. Most showed up out of routine or obligation.
At some point over the years, all the wonder of learning faded. The students found other things more important. Relationships, job searches, pressures from peers and parents, all contributed to the dampening of their yearning to learn.
Few things could be more tragic.
And these were only fourth years. There were still two years of older students currently in the school. Two more years to further remove the joy of learning.
“Magic is prevalent in our world. Even if more than ninety-nine percent of the world’s population cannot interact with or otherwise utilize magic, that does not mean it does not exist everywhere.
“There have been several items throughout the world, often weapons, that have become so infused with magic over the course of their history that they have taken on a legendary life of their own. How exactly that comes to pass is a topic for later in the year on which you will be writing several essays.”
That got several groans from her captive audience. At least they were listening.
