He didn’t even look up.
It was difficult to see through his coke bottle glasses, but his eyes were certainly closed.
From the way his head was slumped into his chest, he was either dead or asleep. Given his snores, Zoe was leaning towards sleep.
She reluctantly rubbed his shoulder. It was almost cruel to wake him. Carlos looked peaceful while he slept.
Just when Zoe decided to leave him to his nap and go find Ylva on her own, Carlos stirred. He pulled his glasses off, gripping the lens between the palm of his hand and his fingers.
Zoe shuddered. She had worn glasses when she was younger. Back before she could use air magic to augment her sight. Even the slightest speck of dust drove her insane.
After rubbing his eyes, Carlos replaced his glasses without even wiping them off.
“Have you seen Ylva?” Zoe asked, pointedly ignoring his poor glasses handling.
“She is,” he paused to yawn. His eyes went wide behind his glasses. “Oh. She’s um, talking to the prisoner. In the uh, torture room.”
“I see.”
For a moment, they simply stared at one another. Genoa, while she was lucid, had no issues with the current treatment of their guest. Carlos had been more outspoken against using the torture chamber.
Treating another human to the machines within Ylva’s torture chamber should elicit feelings of disgust or sickness. Zoe was finding it hard to care. Besides the fact that the nuns had attacked, she was all cared out between Eva, Juliana, and Shalise. Des and Hugo’s absence as well, though to a slightly lesser degree.
Hugo was dead. Ylva had confirmed that both with her mother and through her eyes on Nel. Des had been present during Hugo’s untimely demise, tied up like Nel. Since she’d been untied and had started working with Nel’s captor, Ylva no longer saw a distinction between her and their enemy.
“How long have they been in there?”
“What time is it?”
“Nearly three o’clock.”
“About two hours then. We were discussing possible places Zagan might have sent Juliana before she decided to uh, talk with the prisoner.”
“Any progress on Juliana and Shalise?”
Carlos looked down at his lap, slowly shaking his head. “S-she confirmed with her mother that Juliana’s soul is not in Death’s Domain. Juli is alive, somewhere. Since Nel is apparently in immediate danger, Ylva decided to focus on her.”
“I’m sorry,” Zoe said as she gave his shoulder a hopefully reassuring squeeze. “We’ll find her. If we rescue Nel, maybe her ability will help in finding Juliana and Shalise.”
“Yeah. Silver lining or whatever, I guess.”
Zoe went silent for a few moments. What to say to reassure someone depressed and unable to do anything?
Nothing.
Zoe was in much the same position. None of the girls were her daughters, but the situation was the same. Pretty words given as some sort of placebo would be exactly the opposite of what she would want to hear.
“I gave your wife a general remedy potion, put her to bed, and then took away as much alcohol as I could find.”
“She’s going to be angry.”
“Good. Let her get angry. She
“You don’t have to live with her when she’s like… how she is.”
“If you can’t handle it then tell her to come talk to me.”
Carlos sighed, but nodded. Zoe was fairly certain that it was only her imagination, but she could have sworn she had heard his bones creak as he rose to his feet. “I’d better go sit with her. She shouldn’t be alone and it isn’t like I’m doing anything productive here.”
Zoe nodded and stepped to one side. Watching him leave brought up whole new feelings of despair. He had his shoulders hunched and drawn close together, making him look even smaller than he normally was.
She slapped her own cheeks once he was out of sight. There was no room to be depressed. Zoe had to hold her head high or there would be no one left.
The only person–the only human not affected by the atmosphere at the prison was Devon. In his own words, he cared nothing for Shalise or Juliana and was only going to assist due to an agreement with Ylva. Though she had no idea what, exactly, he was doing for Ylva.
Ylva stood there, staring. Her blue lips pressed together for a brief moment.
“Good day, Ylva,” Zoe said. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”
“No. We have finished speaking with the Elysium Nun.”
“Do I want to know?”
“Unlike Nel, Ali did not enter Our service willingly. We are merely convincing her of, as mortals term it, greener pastures.”
“How does having her as a servant help Shalise and Juliana?”
“Information is key in any engagement. Ali will escape and return to her order. We will receive information from a specialized skull We intend to implant within her chest.”
