Devon, for his part, did not appear to be paying attention. He had his thumb on his goatee and his brow furrowed in thought.
“That’s all well and good,” Eva said, slowing down her speech further. “Where, Nel, do I get one?”
Nel bit her lip. She glanced over to Alicia–whose face had remained entirely impassive throughout the entire discussion–before turning to face Eva. “You’ll have to steal one. There are only six that I know about.” Again, she glanced over at Alicia. “The closest would probably be in the Salem Cathedral and Training Center.”
Eva snorted. “A bunch of vampire hunters made a home base out of the home of the witch hunts? Wonder if they worked together with the puritans back in the day. It would make sense, both have far too much zealotry for their own good.”
For the first time since Eva had shown up, Alicia laughed.
Actually, for the first time ever, as far as Eva knew.
It wasn’t a happy laugh. Rather, it set Eva’s nerves on end. Both Wayne and Devon–who had come out of his thoughts at the noise–looked a bit unsettled as well.
Nel shot a glare in the ex-nun’s direction, but turned a pained look on Eva.
“Um… Salem Oregon,” she said, voice barely above a whisper. “Not Massachusetts.”
Her voice wasn’t quiet enough to avoid Devon’s ears, evidenced by him turning a smirk in Eva’s direction.
“Point still stands,” Eva said, ignoring everyone at the table. She cleared her throat when Devon opened his mouth. Whatever snide comment he had could be kept to himself. “Anyway, can you spy on where you expect it to be? I’d rather not waste my time running all the way to Oregon if it isn’t there.”
“I can try,” Nel said with a nod. “But how are you getting there?”
“Well,” Eva shifted her glance towards Wayne, “there are two people I know of that can teleport without needing something at the destination. Although, Zagan could probably do it.”
Nel flinched while Devon glowered.
Eva shook her head before either could say a word. “I’m not going to ask him though. Even if he agreed, it would probably be at some exorbitant price that I am not interested in paying.”
With an extra heap of gravel in his voice, Wayne said, “you feel you must drag myself and Zoe into this?”
“It is for Shalise. When I told Zoe before heading here, she essentially gave a blanket offer of assistance.”
He mumbled something under his breath that sounded roughly like a curse, but Eva let it pass.
“If you are scared,” she said, “you could just wait outside. Stealing it won’t be that hard, right? Just have to get around a couple of nuns.” Eva glanced at Devon.
While she was fairly certain that he hadn’t had to use her before, if he could summon up that waxy, headache inducing demon again, they could probably just walk right in. The demon would incapacitate everyone while they browsed the Elysium Order’s wares.
Eva tried not to consider raiding the place straight away, but she couldn’t help but think that perhaps there would be more of value than just the obelisk. The Elysium Order had to collect a number of artifacts and tomes that they could not or simply did not destroy.
Under her stare, Devon’s eyes grew wide. “Oh no. Nope. Don’t look at me. We’ve tangled with the nuns enough for one decade. Call me again in ten years when they’ve had a chance to cool off.”
“But just a few demons with the right abilities will make it our easiest job in years. Probably.”
“
Eva gave a slight start. She glanced around the table to confirm her fears.
No Arachne.
“Has anyone talked to Arachne since all the sky and things have happened?” Eva was staring mostly at Devon, but was open to a response from anyone.
No one said a word.
With a sigh, Eva said, “I’ll have to go see if she has even noticed the sky after this.”
“If you’re done with that drivel,” Devon said, “I would like to hear more about the happenings of Hell.”
Eva shrugged. “I don’t know what more there is to say. There was an earthquake. Sky turned colors. That’s pretty much it.” Eva glanced up towards Ylva before asking, “were there tremors here?”
“Enough for only Ourself to notice, not enough to shake the walls of Our domain.”
“And your sky?” Eva asked, glancing upwards. She still wasn’t certain that sky was the proper term, but said it anyway for lack of a better word. The storm clouds overhead obscured any view of the dark void, but Ylva probably had enough awareness of her own domain to know what was happening regardless of whether or not she could see it.
