Mimicking her actions, Vektul took a bite out of the side of the apple. His own teeth weren’t quite as sharp as Eva’s. They certainly weren’t the triangular interlocking knives that made up most demons’ teeth. Of course, Catherine’s teeth weren’t sharp while in her human form. He was probably hiding them.
After the first bite, he took a second. That was quickly followed by a third.
Soon enough, he had finished off the apple, core and all.
“She wanted to be alone?”
Eva blinked, confused for a moment before realizing that he was still talking about that student.
“Maybe not alone, but not with us. Demons scare most people.”
“Most. But not all?”
“No. Not all. In fact, I’m sure that plenty of students will be all to eager to meet with you all.”
“Good,” he said. There was a note of finality to his otherwise emotionless voice. “Though I have my mission to assist you, I hoped to speak with mortals.”
“Speak with mortals?” Eva frowned. “Anyone in particular?”
“No. Merely beings who are not constructs or Void. Someone… new.”
Eva fell silent for a few moments.
Much like Lucy, this demon must have been one of the ones who had never interacted with anyone or anything outside of his domain. His isolation was manifesting itself in an entirely different manner. Rather than the fascination with everything around and an almost unbearably chipper attitude that Lucy possessed, Vektul was emotionless. As if he didn’t know
“Now that you mention it, your mission. What exactly is the intended outcome of assisting me?”
He tilted his head to one side. He must have learned that gesture from somewhere.
“To complete the ritual to tear open the fabric of reality.”
Eva shared a quick glance with Arachne.
“Ah. That ritual. To bring Void to the mortal realm?” It was a question, but she was trying to make it not seem like one.
“Were you working on another ritual?”
“Me personally? No. I wasn’t working on any other ritual.”
His lips curled downwards into a slight frown in possibly one of the first real facial expressions she had seen on the demon. “You haven’t collected the necessary demons and mages? Or begun clearing a space for the ritual circle?”
Eva blinked, confused for just a moment before she grit her teeth. He was acting like she should have known this already. A quick glance at Arachne showed nothing but confusion on her face. Why was she expected to know these things.
“At least we have yourself. That is the most important part.”
“Why don’t we start at the beginning and go over this ritual step by step. Everything that you know about it.”
Saija and Srey
“Weren’t you supposed to go back and visit your mother tonight?”
Juliana glanced over to Shalise and shrugged. “Still plenty of tonight left.”
“But… why are we
Leaning back in the booth, Juliana snacked on a plate of chips. “There aren’t many places open in the evenings.”
Shalise frowned, sulking slightly in her third of the booth, leaning into the corner.
Her dislike of the location was understandable, though not very sensible. The Vertex club had a bit of history with Shalise. It being the location of the little Halloween party during their fist year. Also the location of Shalise nearly dying from zombies.
It wasn’t a very sensible distaste because zombies really had nothing to do with the place. The structure had been fixed up, cleaned, and reopened for business. Sawyer was dead, so there was a much smaller chance of zombies spontaneously wandering in through the doors. Even if they did walk in, they could handle them now.
The zombies had shown up roughly two months into their magical education. Juliana could have taken them out then; she hadn’t. Seeing some zombies earlier in the year might have given her a small bit of trauma related to zombies. Since then, however, she had seen and done plenty of things far worse.
Shalise wasn’t incapable though. Sure, she had missed a portion of her first year and a larger portion of her second year, but she still kept up in her studies. Her tutor hadn’t been the best. That was something Juliana was slowly finding out about as she helped get Shalise up to speed. She could only help a little though. General basics and theory. Air and earth magics just weren’t compatible. But she knew that Shalise was getting extra tutoring from Zoe to help catch her up.
At the very least, she should be able to create strong enough gusts of wind to keep shambling zombies away from her. Her lightning was a fair weapon as well, though probably not the best to use against zombies.
“Besides,” Juliana said, “if there is one thing that I’ve learned, it’s that demons like entertainment. Anywhere else around here lacks the small bit of excitement that we can use for distraction if need be.”
