It wasn’t the first time Nel had seen such an event. The first time she had seen it was while she still worked under Sister Cross. Since then, it occurred on a fairly regular basis. Every three months or so.
Though an audience was rare. Eva, Devon, and Arachne were normally the only ones attending. Ylva occasionally stopped by to watch, but never did anything but stand in a corner.
Nel ceased her glimpse and merely stood outside the door. Intruding on a nude Devon, angry professor, and the unconscious Eva and Arachne wouldn’t get much done except embarrass herself. She had more than half a mind to run back to Ylva’s domain and call it a day.
A tiny sliver of her mind argued that if she returned, she probably wouldn’t leave again for a long time.
But she still wasn’t keen on walking in on them. Especially Devon. She got enough of an eyeful to last a lifetime with just her near-instantaneous glimpse.
Turning from the women’s ward, Nel started wandering. It was aimless for the most part. She wasn’t about to leave the prison walls–even if she wasn’t worried about being hunted, there wasn’t much outside save for a small ghost town that originally housed whoever worked at the prison. At the same time, she didn’t return to Ylva’s domain.
As she walked around the prison yard, Nel slowed and eventually ceased her glimpsing. Her headache was slowly growing and there was still no sign of any Elysium Order inquisitors. If they were going to do something…
Well, they were probably in the middle of doing it.
Nel wanted to believe that they
Not many left the order. A good portion of the Elysium Order’s recruits came from places that undead had overrun. Few of those were actually capable of casting magic naturally. Once they had a taste of being able to use magic, few ever chose to return.
Even then, many who left the order did not warrant being hunted down. Most who did leave had their eye surgically removed, ready to be implanted within another recruit.
Because of that, there wasn’t need for more than a single chapter of inquisitors. And because of
Nel really should be spending some of her time spying on them.
But for now, she was taking a brief break.
February’s air was cold enough that Nel could see her breath. Oddly enough, none of that cold penetrated her robe. Lady Ylva must have placed some enchantments on the thin garment.
She walked on through the cold air, musing about her station in life and wondering just what, if anything, lay in her future. Lady Ylva, obviously. But would there be anything more?
Nel never had many aspirations. None she could remember, in any case. Since becoming an augur, she had spent most of her time being used for her abilities. The rest of her time had been focused on not being killed.
Eva had once called her paranoid.
Maybe. Maybe not. As the saying went, it isn’t paranoia if they’re actually after you.
And, as an augur, a number of people could and would be after her at any given moment in time.
Not having anything for herself, and given Lady Ylva’s presence in her future, Nel asked herself one question aloud, “what does Lady Ylva need?”
With just how much the domain provided, Nel was having trouble coming up with anything useful.
“What, indeed, does any demon need?”
Nel connected to the source without the slightest hesitation. Lightning arced off her fingertips, flying into
The last time an unfamiliar voice sneaked up behind her, it was Sawyer just before he kidnapped her. She was not going to make that mistake again.
In the brief instant it took for the lightning to leave her fingertips and reach their destination, Nel glimpsed that which lay behind her.
Hoofed feet, bare chest, thick arms,
Nel gasped, throwing herself to the ground. She wasn’t quite fast enough.
Lightning sparked against her backside, burning a hole straight through the seat of her robe. Luckily, it wasn’t that painful. Not only did her connection to the source take much of the pain off of her mind, but she hadn’t put much power into her attack. Just in case whoever it was had a reason to be at the prison.
She was relatively certain that the devil that had very nearly killed her was not one of those people.
Nel’s heart was halfway out her throat before she shunted a good portion of her emotions away to the source. A moment of clarity overcame her utter panic.
