Juliana snorted in spite of herself. He had very nice abs. Juliana was willing to admit that. Despite her earlier reservations, the rest of him wasn’t so bad either, though his hoofed feet and red skin disturbed her a little. Just something unsettling in an inhuman manner.
Nothing about him was irresistible though.
Maybe if she were older.
She stopped rolling her eyes mid-roll. Unless he wasn’t talking about his body. Continuing to talk to him suddenly felt like a bad decision.
“In any case,” he said without a prompt, “you may call me Prax.”
Juliana didn’t respond, opting instead to stare out the barrier.
This was going to be a long night.
Prax
Something jabbed Shalise’s side between her ribs and her hips.
Shalise jumped to her feet. That didn’t last long. She teetered and wobbled at the sudden lack of blood in her head.
She let out a light groan as she moved a hand to her forehead.
“Sorry,” said Juliana. “You weren’t waking up.”
Shalise looked around as soon as the spots cleared from her eyes.
The big winged demon still sat in his chains against the wall. Juliana sat against one wall. She looked like she was holding on to wakefulness by a thread. Her eyes were somewhat droopy. The red barrier still separated them from the rest of the prison.
The prison.
“Oh,” sighed Shalise, “we’re still here.”
She had wanted nothing more than for the entire previous day to be a nightmare and nothing else. Waking up back in her warm dorm bed…
Shalise turned one cheek away from Juliana and gave it a subtle pinch. Just to be certain.
Nothing happened.
At least the demon was still chained up. Juliana hadn’t let it go while she slept. That was one worry unfounded.
“How long was I asleep.”
“No clue. Not exactly any clocks around. Any longer and I might have fallen asleep as well, so I had to wake you up.”
Shalise nodded and slapped her cheeks. She didn’t feel well rested, but it would have to do for now. “My turn to take watch, right? Do you want my lap?”
“Nope. I think I would have gone insane if I didn’t have the metal armor on my legs. As it was, my feet were falling asleep.” Juliana stretched out, arching her back. After a brief yawn, she removed her shirt and wrapped it in a ball.
Without the cloth, the metal armor she wore was plainly visible. It wasn’t shiny. It wasn’t even silver-colored. Sort of a bronze-ish color instead.
The knight in dull armor lay down, placing the balled shirt behind her head.
“How is it comfortable to wear that?”
“I have a little bit of padding, and I picked up a few books on actual armor design. Of course, I’d prefer to sleep outside of it, but it isn’t designed to be removed without ferrokinesis. A problem that I will definitely be correcting as soon as possible.
“Now time to sleep. Wake me if anything happens. Oh,” Juliana’s voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, “careful talking to Prax. He might be able to influence us through words.”
“Wh–” Shalise narrowed her eyes as she glanced off to the side.
The winged demon gave a four-fingered wave–he didn’t have any more fingers–rattling the chains as he did so.
“Oh.”
“That said, I had to talk a little or I would have fallen asleep a lot sooner.”
Shalise frowned. Not talking to him would have been too much to ask for. What was Juliana thinking?
Now and back then.
Shalise’s memories were fuzzy, but she definitely remembered Juliana drawing out a summoning circle.
It was betrayal, of a sort. Not necessarily towards Shalise, but to Eva. Stealing a book had been mentioned, but that was second to all the sneaking around behind Eva’s back.
Of course she had to go and drag Shalise into it after she had promised Sister Cross that she would keep her distance from the demon things. Not that Juliana knew that little detail. Still, it was the principle of the matter.
“Are we actually letting him out?”
“Talk after I wake up. I have a headache and can’t think properly.”
With that said, Juliana flopped over and nuzzled into her shirt.
She was snoring less than a minute later.
Shalise stayed on her feet, too worried she might fall asleep again if she sat down.
The winged demon was chained to the wall. Grinning at her.
Shalise shuddered.
She poked her head out of the barrier and glanced left, right, up, and down–not that there was anything down other than the floor. Aside from the demons in their own cells, the hallway was otherwise empty.
Crossing her arms, Shalise frowned. There had to be more to being on watch than that.
But there was nothing to do. Nothing aside from getting lost in her own thoughts and worries.
Shaking her head, Shalise looked over the original occupant of the cell.
His neck, both wrists, both ankles, and his waist all had massive manacles holding him against the wall. Both the chains and the clasps were made from the same pitch black metal that seemed to adorn everything in the prison. A metal very similar in appearance to the stuff Eva’s dagger was made from.
