“Not what I was looking for.”
Eva shrugged. Unless it was some anti-demon or enigma weapon, Eva really didn’t care what she had been looking for.
“Very well,” she said, turning back to Devon. “Like I said, nothing to worry about. Just have to chop some arms off.”
“You ask me not to worry and then you say things like that,” he said, shaking his head. “Whatever. Do what you want. Just keep her away from me.”
Not having moved far from the door, Devon quickly moved back to it and started to leave. “And don’t get killed either,” he said before slamming the door behind him.
“Aww, he really does care,” Eva said with a roll of her eyes.
“Charming,” Lynn said. Her voice came out toneless and without any humor.
“You know, every single person I’ve talked to who isn’t named Shalise thinks that you’re going to kill me at the first possible opportunity. Or try to, at least. Even then, Shalise didn’t sound too certain of herself. It probably says something terrible about your personality.”
“I could make do without your taunts.”
“Not a taunt. Merely a comment.” Eva waved a hand around the room. “Take a seat,” she said as she made her way towards the potions room.
Arachne and Lynn glowered at each other, somewhat dancing around each other as Lynn moved towards the couch and Arachne towards the potions room door. Eventually, with a gesture of her arm, Lynn allowed Arachne to pass by, taking a seat as soon as the way was clear.
Leaving the door open as Eva started rummaging through the cabinet, she turned her head over her shoulder to call out to Lynn. “I have to say, I’ve somewhat neglected my potions upkeep. I can’t even remember the last time I brewed any. These are all at least six months old. Most older than that. Half of these ‘beneficial’ potions are probably more poison these days.”
Lynn’s voice echoed out from the common room, derision plain in her tone. “The more you speak, the more I consider taking my chances as is. Or doing it myself.”
Despite her words, she remained seated in the common room.
Eva pulled out one certain vial from the cupboard. A muted brown color potion. Not really what it was supposed to look like, but uncapping the top and sniffing at it, Eva didn’t find anything really wrong with the light citrus scent. It
It might not work as intended, but at least she tried.
“Here,” Eva said, tossing the vial to Lynn. “Same thing I took when I amputated my legs. It should make your entire body numb for a few hours. Though I did have to take about twenty vials of it, but potions don’t work too well on me.”
Lynn caught the vial out of the air, frowning at the color as she performed the same smell test that Eva did. Unlike Eva, she wrinkled her nose, pushing the vial away from her face. She opened her mouth.
For a moment, Eva thought that she was going to complain.
Lynn brought the vial to her lips and tipped it all back in a single swig.
She shuddered as her face twisted into disgust. The disgust quickly vanished as her face regained a neutral expression.
“Well, it works on my tongue at least.”
Eva waited, watching as the nun went slack-jawed.
“And rest of my body,” she slurred after a moment.
“Excellent. Let’s get to work.”
Eva drew her dagger as Lynn started removing her shirt.
The purple blotches on her arm reached just below her shoulder—luckily for Lynn, it would be much harder to remove the corruption if it had spread onto her chest. Eva couldn’t tell that anything was odd. As far as her blood was concerned, everything was normal.
The blotches cut off below her shoulder with a sharp line. Slightly curved.
“This is where the moonlight cut off,” Lynn started, slightly slurring her words as she traced the sharp line. “I moved my arm into the light before stepping fully into it. Obviously, I didn’t follow through with the remainder of the ritual.”
“If you had finished, would the corruption have been pulled away?” Eva mused as she cut a thin line into Lynn’s arm. “Perhaps it was only temporary.”
Lynn had abjectly refused to allow demon blood anywhere near her. Even after explaining that human blood wasn’t half a strong, she hadn’t agreed.
So if it wasn’t a clean cut, it wouldn’t be Eva’s fault.
“That wasn’t something I could chance. Not with Shalise sleeping a tent over. If something had happened… if I had turned into an enigma or otherwise lost my mind…”
“Probably good that you didn’t.”
Standing away from Lynn, Eva clapped her hands together right away.
The blood dripping out of the wound Eva had cut flashed white. When the spots died out from Eva’s eyes, Lynn’s arm was lying at her side, looking a whole lot more like mutilated beef than Eva had intended. However, Lynn herself didn’t look too bad.
Eva did let out a small groan as she hardened the blood around Lynn’s stump. “I should have had you move.”
Glancing down at the bleeding limb on the couch, she gave a half-smile. “Your loss,” Lynn said. “I feel…”
