Zoe slammed open the door and strode out of the room, not even bothering to wipe her feet on the mat–it was already soaked to the core with blood. As she moved, she fished her cellphone out of her pocket and took a moment to shoot off a quick message to Wayne.
Two sets of bloody footprints led through the common room and out the exit. Both were of the distinctive, almost skeletal imprints left by Arachne’s feet. One set was slightly smaller than the other, matching Eva’s size.
Zoe followed them in a run. They tapered off a few feet outside of the women’s ward, but that didn’t matter. There were only two real destinations outside of the women’s ward and Zoe couldn’t see a reason to head towards Devon’s building.
Unless all the blood was from him.
A faint buzz in her hand pulled her out of her thoughts and back towards her cellphone.
Zoe’s thumb hesitated on the touch pad. Was it an emergency? Possibly. That amount of blood would certainly mean that there was an emergency for someone.
Shaking her head, Zoe decided to press on towards Ylva’s domain. If nothing else, Nel could point her in the right direction.
She didn’t get another reply before her signal dropped to zero. Inside Ylva’s domain, Zoe was surprised to find the main room entirely empty. The throne lay bare and neither Alicia nor Nel hung off its sides.
Zoe almost started off towards the augur room, the location where Nel would most likely have been. She stopped as some movement caught her eye.
The augur in question paced back and forth outside one of the archways. Her pallor was sickly and her hands rubbed one another constantly as she mumbled something to herself.
“What happened?” Zoe called out as she ran over to the archway.
Nel froze in her pacing, back towards Zoe. She turned slowly. Opening her mouth, Nel started to speak.
“It’s already been an hour?”
Nel’s mouth snapped shut as both women turned to the new voice.
Eva stood in the doorway, slightly hunched over with all of her weight on one foot. Arachne stood at her side, offering support with one arm around Eva’s shoulders.
Both were coated in a decent amount of red blood.
Ignoring the demon for the moment, Zoe focused on her student.
A portion of Eva’s shirt had burned away. Zoe immediately recognized the marks on her skin. The tree branch-like pattern marring her thigh and waist was all too familiar to anyone who used lightning. The gaping hole filled with what appeared to be black rods at the center of the lightning mark was slightly less familiar.
Eva moved her hand up, slightly covering the hole. That only served to draw Zoe’s attention to the girl’s arm. A bracelet of lightning marks wrapped around her chitin plates. The marks went up towards her elbow, turning bright red as they crossed over from carapace to skin.
“What happened?” Zoe repeated, this time to Eva.
“Met an old friend. You remember Sister Cross.”
Zoe blinked. Of course she remembered. But… “She did this to you?” Zoe gestured towards where Eva had covered her hip.
“Tried to do more. I’m mostly certain that she was going to kill me until I threatened her with Shalise.”
“Threatened–”
“She did attack me first,” Eva said, indignant. “Viciously and maniacally, I should add. She’s lucky I didn’t kill her. Twice. Though the second time would have been accidentally.”
“Accidentally? The blood?”
“All hers. I kind of forgot about my wards when teleporting her here. And the teleport wasn’t pleasant on its own,” Eva said, glancing down at herself with a sigh. “Yet another shirt I’ve ruined.”
Zoe winced. She hadn’t forgotten Genoa’s screams when she had first arrived at the prison. “Is she alright?”
“Alright enough. She’s been stuffed full of potions. Apparently she has a method of healing herself as well, though I don’t know if it will work in Ylva’s prison. I couldn’t get more than two words out of her mouth before she started shouting at me.”
Enhancing her hearing, Zoe shut her eyes to listen to the room beyond. Apart from slightly laborious breathing, there wasn’t a peep. “Seems quiet now.”
“She’s gagged.”
“Ah.”
Zoe stood there as she considered how to react. She couldn’t be sure without meeting the nun in person, but the woman known as Sister Cross had always struck Zoe as being a level-headed person during her brief tenure as self-proclaimed protector of Brakket City. Even during the fight with Zagan, she had radiated a certain calm aura up until the last few minutes when her powers failed her.
‘Viciously and maniacally’ attacking Eva didn’t sound like her style.
