That didn’t sound good. Yet Eva didn’t protest as the nurse pulled out padding and the cast wrapping. She sat still while the nurse set to work.
The cast had been the easy part. Eva’s right arm hung in a sling all wrapped up in a cast colored bright green. Her shoulder was where things became complicated.
Nurse Naranga actually let out a short shriek when she saw Eva’s shoulder.
“What happened here?”
For once, Eva was glad she couldn’t see. If her wound was anything like the wound her master received, it was a bubbling mess of puss and fused cloth from her shirt. Whatever happened to her shoulder must have been bad.
“A nun’s lightning.”
Oddly enough, it didn’t hurt. There was a throb and when the nurse touched it, a sharp sting ran up and down Eva’s back. Other than that, her arm hurt more.
She had been given painkillers, so that could be part of it.
The nurse set to massaging in some potion or another. That had Eva hissing through her teeth.
Plucking bits of her shirt out of her back increased the intensity of the sting. She had to cut into Eva for a few scraps of cloth.
“You heal these cuts unnaturally quick.”
“A side effect,” Eva hissed, “of everything.” Blood magic, mostly. She shouldn’t have healed them at all, but it was almost unconscious. Stopping now would just raise more questions.
Nurse Naranga just hummed.
The blackish color of Eva’s blood never got brought up. She didn’t know how to explain it, so the lack of questions suited Eva. The nurse was certainly forming her own theories and opinions. Hopefully they were far from the truth.
As soon as the nurse finished plucking debris out of her back, she went back to massaging in a potion.
“It is just a local regrowth potion,” she said after Eva asked. “It isn’t working as well as I hoped.”
“That is also a side effect of everything, I think.”
“You’ve had a lot of everythings, have you?”
Eva shrugged. She immediately wished she hadn’t. Pain flared out in a star like pattern from her shoulder-blade. She gritted out, “a few.” It didn’t make sense. Hopefully it would dissuade further questions.
“Well,” she said as she pulled her hands off of Eva’s back, “I think I’ve done all I can.”
“I can go then?”
The nurse let out a laugh that sounded like the twittering of birds. “Most certainly not. You’ll be here for close observation until I am satisfied. You’ve had a terrible shock and I just pumped you full of potions that may have unintended side effects with your,” she made a short humming noise, “
Eva slumped back against the soft pillows of the infirmary bed.
“I know that’s not what you wanted to hear, but it is dangerous to move around while you’re injured.”
She was right. That wasn’t what Eva wanted to hear. There were things that needed doing, not the least of which included checking on Arachne and making sure she hadn’t done anything foolish.
Not that Eva thought Arachne would do something like attack the nuns. Still, if it wasn’t her then, as Sister Cross put it, there was a demon running around town.
“If you need anything or have any odd pains,” Nurse Naranga said as she handed a small button on a cord to Eva, “press the buzzer. I’ll be just over in my office.”
Eva nodded and waited. She’d already waited over an hour in the company of the nurse, another hour wouldn’t hurt. Besides, she was exhausted. A short nap wouldn’t hurt anything.
—
It was the middle of the night before Eva awoke. She groggily tried to slip out of her bed before she realized where she was. A short curse tumbled out of her lips.
Immediately, Eva channeled magic into herself. She concentrated on her end goal. Despite her haste, she channeled slowly, taking her time. Screwing up and becoming trapped in Hell again wasn’t something she was all too eager to repeat.
She spent five minutes building up her charge. With a light popping in her ears, the world around her vanished.
Screaming agony replaced the nurse’s office.
Not Eva’s agony or screams. She didn’t know whose they were.
Screams echoed into her mind. Even if her arm wasn’t in a cast, plugging her ears would do nothing.
Eva fell, tumbled through a tunnel dripping with viscera. She could see, but only in grayscale. Like her island.
The heat scorched her flesh. It burned far worse than the side effects of Professor Lurcher’s attack.
Eva breathed in gasps. The dank musk of burning flesh surrounded her. She tried to slow her breathing and could not.
Flesh curled back from her feet. It moved up her body, slowly stripping her of all her muscles and tendons as they turned to ash. Heat scorched her bones to a charred black.
Only her claws were unaffected.
It all ceased before Eva could think more.
Eva once again went blind.
Blind save for the blood infused wards of her prison. She stepped out of the gateway circle she set up to receive her and collapsed against a wall.
