Closing her book, Eva stood and gave her full attention to Ylva. Eva doubted the hel would call her a friend, but she did believe that they were on thoroughly cordial terms. Still, Eva had dragged in a prisoner and used a cell without permission; no sense in taking the chance at causing further offense.
That said guest riled Ylva’s pet up just made it more important not to be brazen or offensive.
“Ylva,” Eva said with a slight nod. Gesturing towards the occupied cell, she said, “Sister Cross. Shalise’s mother.”
Stepping in front of the cell, Ylva peered inside. “The one sharing her body with a cambion,” she stated, more to herself than anything. “We see the resemblance.”
“I apologize for bringing her into your domain without asking. You were gone and I lacked the facilities to store a hostile teleporter.”
“See that it does not happen again,” Ylva said without taking her eyes off the contents of the cell.
Eva merely nodded. The words weren’t said in a harsh tone or with anger and it was a perfectly understandable request. She wouldn’t want to come home only to find an enemy sitting around her room.
“You inflicted these injuries?”
“In a manner of speaking. It was more of a teleport oversight followed by her being within my wards and not keyed in.”
Looking away from Sister Cross, Ylva asked, “We were under the impression that your blood wards were deadly.”
“She’s an Elysium Order nun. They’ve got really strong shields. It lasted long enough for me to shut off my wards.”
“Elysium Order?” Ylva turned back to the cell. “Her attire is lacking for such a station.”
A set of robes appeared within the cell, looking very similar to the red and black attire that both Nel and Alicia wore. They draped themselves over the edge of the bed.
“You have quite a collection of nuns,” Eva said, not entirely sure of Ylva’s intentions. “While I don’t exactly care if you collect this one, I don’t think she would be very happy to join up.”
“Ali did not believe she would serve Us in the beginning, yet serves Us she does.”
Eva bit her lip. “Are you… certain about that?”
Ylva glanced over with one eyebrow raised. “Your meaning?”
“I mean she appears to serve you now, but…” Eva trailed off, not entirely sure how to broach the subject. After Nel had mentioned her concerns, Eva had spent a while thinking on the subject. This wasn’t how she had planned to bring it up, but it was a convenient segue.
She gave a quick glance to Arachne only to receive a shrug in return.
After casting her blood sight and regular sight around to check for any hint of the former nun in question and finding no trace of her, Eva took a deep breath. “She seems unstable, to a degree. I just want to make sure she isn’t going to betray you–”
“We will not tolerate betrayal.”
“No,” Eva said. “Of course not.”
Eva let the topic drop. Even if Alicia tried to kill Ylva, it was doubtful that she would succeed in doing any harm. In fact, it really wasn’t any of her business. Alicia was Ylva’s servant and therefore, Ylva’s problem. She could handle it herself.
“Anyway,” Eva said, “I was planning on dropping her into my domain with Shalise after she had healed a bit. Unless you had a better idea?”
Ylva shook her head side to side. Slightly. The movement was subtle enough that Eva almost missed it. Taking her eyes off of the cell, she turned to fully face Eva. “No. We find no issue with that plan.”
“Good,” Eva said, half-surprised that Ylva hadn’t objected on the grounds of adding another servant to her collection. “I’ll keep an eye on her as much as possible until then. You don’t think there will be any issues keeping her here, do you?”
“So long as she isn’t removed from the cell, she will not be able to affect anything outside of the cell. We suggest you keep her contained.”
Eva frowned slightly, but nodded. That might put a damper on her plan to heal Sister Cross with a blood ritual.
Zoe walked into the prison before Eva could verbally respond to Ylva’s suggestion. Her normally impeccable hair had been tossed up in disarray, like it had been an extraordinarily windy day.
She walked up to them, footsteps about as heavy as her breathing. She leaned up against the wall with a small sigh. “Great,” she said to her captive audience, “I need another shower.”
“You smell pleasant.”
Zoe’s eyes flicked over to Ylva with a questioning glance. “I… um…”
“Like a campfire,” Eva offered after taking a deep breath for herself. “A very pine-woody campfire.”
“Ah,” Zoe said, confusion disappearing with a nod. “We got your little accident under control.”
“Mine? I didn’t even use fire magic.” Eva thumbed at the cell. “And I didn’t ask to be attacked either.”
