Eva took a deep breath. “Last year,” she said, “I was trapped in Hell for a short period of time and only escaped thanks to Arachne.” Eva sent the spider-demon a small smile. “After getting back, she taught me how to escape without her help. I don’t intend to go back, ever, but it seems a prudent step to take. Unfortunately, escaping requires one of you to help.”
Neither girl made a sound. That suited Eva just fine. There would be plenty of questions later.
“This,” she held up the black sphere in her gloveless claws, “is a beacon. There is an official name for it, I’m sure, but I’ve never heard Devon call it anything else.
“When active, it allows a demon one free escape from Hell. It can be activated multiple times, but can only hold one ‘escape ticket’ at a time. As far as I know, that ticket lasts forever until it is consumed.”
Juliana opened her mouth, but Shalise beat her to the punch. “W-what does it take to activate it?”
“A mortal, like you,” Arachne growled, “must accept it. They must know full well what the giver is–a demon–and have at least a general idea that the beacon will allow the demon to escape Hell.”
It wasn’t the phrasing she might have used, but it wasn’t inaccurate. Eva nodded at Arachne.
“A demon,” Juliana said. “You?”
Eva sighed. “That is the part you cannot tell anyone. My master, Devon, is currently running an experiment that aims to turn me into a demon. I was born as human as you.”
Shalise’s heart started beating harder. Juliana’s did as well, but she started to smile as well.
“You’re turning into a demon,” Juliana said. Her eyes turned off to glance at Eva’s claws.
“Nope,” Eva said, “my hands and legs have nothing to do with it. They’re there simply because Arachne gave them to me, as she could with anyone.”
“Even me?” Juliana asked as her head twisted towards Arachne.
Arachne let out a low growl from half under Eva’s bedding. “You couldn’t pay me enough to consider it.”
“Anyway,” Eva said, “accepting my beacon will hopefully allow me to escape from Hell should I ever fall back into the Void.”
Shalise blinked and said, “hopefully?”
“Well,” Eva ran her claws through her hair, “I escaped with Arachne due to a technicality. I’m roughly half and half at the moment, according to Devon. For all I know, it won’t work until after another year or three of treatment.”
“Y-you want us to take a dangerous artifact without knowing if it will even work?”
Eva shook her head. “It isn’t dangerous. I mean, a demon hunter could find out if you told them, but associating with Arachne would be condemning enough, I think.”
Shalise gave a short glance and a frown at Arachne. The spider-demon merely shrugged.
“Really, they’d be hard pressed to find out. After accepting it, you could leave it in a drawer–better yet, you could leave it within the blood wards at my prison.”
Fidgeting with her hands, Shalise shifted back and forth in her seat. “I don’t think you’re a bad person. I wouldn’t want you to be stuck in a place like Hell–”
Eva doubted her idea of Hell was anything like its actual form, but she decided not to interrupt.
“–Taking a demonic artifact. I don’t know. I promised Sister Cross that I would keep away from things like that.”
Eva gave what she hoped was her friendliest smile. “That’s quite alright. I’m not forcing anything.” She turned her head to Juliana. “If your mother–”
“I’ll do it,” Juliana said. “Though, I want to be the one to drop it off at your prison.”
A smile worked its way across Eva’s face. “Thanks. I suppose that as long as I’m going to be a demon, I should start doing contracts like accepting the beacon and taking you to the prison in retu–”
“Don’t,” Arachne said slightly louder than normal. “Freely given. You can’t use contracts while giving a beacon.”
“I guess you’ll just have to accept the beacon.” Eva let out a short sigh. “I suppose I might be enticed to take you to the prison for completely unrelated reasons.”
“That will suffice,” Juliana said in a stern voice. It almost resembled the way Zoe Baxter spoke while in full-on lecture mode. A grin spread across Juliana’s face a moment later. “So what do I do?”
Eva held out the black sphere. She dropped it in Juliana’s open palm.
The sphere was just large enough that Juliana couldn’t close her fist around it.
“That was it?”
“I think so,” Eva turned her head towards Arachne, looking for confirmation.
The demon simply shrugged. “When you think about it, there will be a tingle in the back of your skull.”
Eva tried to think about it. The black sphere with a red streak.
She felt something. Not so much a tingle as it was a low buzz.
“I think it worked,” Eva said.
Shalise walked from her bed to Juliana and stared at the sphere. Eva noted that she took care to keep a good foot away from it, even as Juliana tried to give her a better view.
“So,” Shalise said, “you can teleport to it at any time now?”
