“That doesn’t make him any more of a doctor. I know that I would feel better if a proper doctor at least examined her. You care about Eva, I know you do. Why not do everything that has even a chance of helping?”
Arachne stared. She opened her mouth. For a moment, Zoe thought she was about to agree.
The door slammed in her face.
“Hiding out isn’t helping, Arachne! You’re not the only one who cares about Eva.”
There was no response from behind the door.
There was a response from behind Zoe.
“No one cares about Juliana though.”
Zoe closed her eyes and let out a slow sigh. She opened her eyes, steeled herself, and spun around, slapping the idiotic woman as she did so.
Genoa teetered back and forth before falling on her butt, eliciting another sigh from Zoe.
“Of course I care about Juliana,” Zoe said in a quiet voice. “Don’t suggest that I do not.” She knelt down and pried a brown bottle out of her friend’s fingers. “You need to stop drinking. Remember what you were like just after she went missing? You were ready to jump into Hell itself to find your daughter.”
Zoe stood up, looking down on the woman. “Now look at you. You’re no help to anyone. Even if we did find out something about Juliana, you’d be useless. Completely and totally worthless.”
Genoa flopped down, spreading her arms flat against the cement floor of the women’s ward.
She hadn’t ever been this bad. The closest was after two of Zoe’s classmates had died during the guild’s trials. Genoa had blamed herself for not preparing them properly.
It was misplaced, of course. Neither of them had taken anything seriously. It was their own fault.
Part of the older woman’s depression then may have been due to Zoe deciding to leave the guild at the same time.
“Come on,” Zoe said. She made a cushion of air to help move Genoa back to her bed. “Where is Carlos?”
“Having an affair.”
Zoe raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think Carlos would do that to you.”
“He is. I smell Ylva’s death on him when he comes back.”
Zoe opened her mouth to respond. And then closed it. “You… I don’t…” Zoe shook her head side to side. There was no way he was sleeping with Ylva.
She decided to simply ignore that part.
“I’m surprised you can smell anything at all. You reek of alcohol.” Zoe released her spell, dropping Genoa onto her bed. “I’ll be right back, just going to go through Eva’s potion closet. Maybe if you’re good, I’ll find something that will help.”
Eva’s potion room was set up to brew most common potions. Nothing that required any kind of specialized equipment. Simple, but it worked.
Unfortunately, nothing was labeled. Some were identifiable due to their coloration, such as the light blue general remedy potion, but Zoe couldn’t name most of them. Wayne could have identified more had he been there.
One that Zoe knew, though she rarely took, was missing completely. It took Zoe a minute to figure out why.
Of course Eva would be missing an alcohol dissolver or hangover cure. She was far too young to be drinking.
Zoe pulled a light blue remedy potion from the shelf. It cured headaches, so maybe it would do something for Genoa.
“Alright,” Zoe said as she reentered Genoa’s room. She uncorked the vial and held it up to Genoa’s lips. “Drink this and then try to get some sleep.”
Helping someone else drink a potion, or anything really, always felt awkward to Zoe. There was just something clumsy about it that never sat right with her. Doubly so if the person was so out of it that they ended up drooling half the potion out of their mouth.
Luckily, Genoa did not drool. Zoe only had a single dose of awkwardness that Genoa probably wouldn’t even remember.
As Genoa laid back to get some rest, Zoe did a quick search through the room. There were only four bottles that had some liquid in them. More that were empty. Zoe gathered them up and dumped the contents down the drain in the kitchen.
She’d probably missed a few, but that might help a little.
With nothing left to do in the women’s ward–unless she wanted to shout at Arachne through the door for a few hours, which she didn’t–Zoe headed out into the prison proper.
If the women’s ward was a pigsty, the rest of the prison was a thing out of nightmares. Rocks and boulders littered the ground. While they had cleaned up the bodies, a few dried splotches of blood still lingered here and there. Mostly around where Genoa had fought the inquisitors.
Walking with a cane across the disturbed terrain was not fun.
Zoe made a beeline towards Ylva’s domain. She had no desire to take in more of the scenery.
The interior was much the same as it always had been. For the most part. The storm clouds overhead might be leaning more towards the storm aspect of their name. No ring of light illuminated the throne in the center of the chamber. The pinhole in the clouds had vanished.
Zoe stopped at the entryway and frowned.
The throne was empty. Ylva wasn’t in her usual place.
Carlos, on the other hand, sat on a chair fashioned from marble just outside one of the alcoves. Zoe wasted no time in walking up to him.
