With that said, he started walking around the ice, looking it up and down through the glassy surface. After his third revolution, he pulled a chair from the side of the room and sat down. Taking off a large backpack and setting it to the side, he retrieved a sketch pad and got to work with a set of pencils.
Eva spent a moment watching his deft hands trace out minute details. He could have taken his profession as an artist and done rather well for himself, in Eva’s uneducated opinion.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t commenting during his drawing process. At least not out loud. His sketch had a slowly growing list of annotations off to one side detailing colors, estimated size of teeth and appendages, and other such characteristics.
That meant that, once again, no one was talking.
Gritting her teeth, Eva shook off her nerves. She walked right up to Juliana–the side opposite from Erich.
“Can we go talk outside for a minute or two?”
“Sure. Not like I have much to add. And I had something to talk with you about too.”
All three of them started off towards the door at the same time.
Juliana stopped and whirled on her brother. “I’m
“But–”
“No buts! You’ve been hanging off of me since I called you. It’s driving me insane!”
She turned and marched out of the room, barely managing to not slam the door in Eva’s face.
Eva gave Erich a half-hearted shrug before she chased after her friend.
Juliana had taken up a crossed-arms slouch against a wall out in the hallway. When Eva approached, the armor coating her arms clanked as she shifted.
“You alright?”
“Fine,” Juliana snapped. Pressing a hand to her forehead, she sighed. “I’m sorry. My entire family has just been unbelievable since the–” She paused with a glance around the hallways.
It was a Saturday afternoon; they were empty. Few students would be in the school on the weekend and fewer still down the corridor where they had set up the diablery classroom. The room had been specifically chosen for being in a lesser used portion of the school proper.
“The thing,” she finished.
“Oh?”
“Since telling my brother about it, he hasn’t let me out of his sight. And that is on top of the high tensions between him and my parents…” She shook her head. “Dad wants me to cut ties with you and Ylva, and for me to finish my education off at some ancient castle in Scotland–probably don’t even have working toilets.
“Mom’s the most reasonable, but she’s bedridden for the moment. The other two ignore everything she says the moment they’re out of the room.” She looked up and met Eva’s eyes. “You have no idea how irritating it is for everyone to ‘know what is best’ for you.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that. Zoe has been somewhat attentive of me as of late. You’d think she was my mother.”
Juliana laughed. A nice real laugh. “So things here been as hectic as usual?”
“Not really. Quiet, actually.” Eva thumbed over her shoulder. “Except for that thing, that is. Those enigmas have been showing up all over Hell, including both my and Ylva’s domains.”
Juliana’s eyes widened and her brow creased with worry lines. “Shalise?”
“She’s fine. Still in my domain. She had a brief run-in with them, but managed to dispatch two before I arrived. They’re not actually that tough. Sister Cross is keeping her company at the moment.”
“The same Sister Cross that told you to purify yourself through death or something?” Juliana asked with a flat stare.
“That was one of her minions. But yes, that Sister Cross. She showed up and tried to kill me. Naturally, I objected. We eventually came to the agreement that she should protect Shalise.”
“Just like that?”
“More or less,” Eva said with a shrug.
Again, a silence fell over the two. A silence that felt more comfortable than the earlier lack of conversations, but not quite how Eva remembered.
Eager to keep the silence from dragging on, Eva said, “I heard you were up to something with Ylva?”
“Ah, yeah,” she said, shifting forward and making direct eye contact. “Ylva hadn’t told you about it?”
Eva shook her head. “She tends to be the sort of person you have to directly ask to get an answer out of, and I only learned when your father returned my letter. Around the same time everything became hectic with Sister Cross and all the enigmas.”
“Well, that’s what I wanted to talk with you about.”
She glanced around the hallway again, looking out for any passersby. There were none, of course, but she still took an extra glance to either side.
“I want access to all of your diablery books.”
“Alright.”
Juliana blinked. “Just like that?”
“Why not just like that?”
“I-I stole your other book.” Juliana took her eyes off of Eva, glancing down towards the ground. “I kept it secret and I caused all sorts of problems for everyone.” Her eyes snapped up into a shallow glare. “And you’re just going to let me into your library?”
