“Exciting, exciting!” he said, rubbing his hands together. “I hope you all are looking forward to the next event. Enjoy the rest of your feast and the rest of your nights!”
As he slipped back behind the table and retook his seat, Eva stared down at the squid bowl.
“Nope,” she said standing. “I’m done.”
Juliana popped up at the same time. “Me too.”
“Don’t worry,” Eva said, putting a hand on Shalise’s shoulder. “We’re just going back to the dorm room.”
Shalise, having started to shovel down as much food as she could, started to slow down. She swallowed up her current bite before looking at Eva with narrowed eyes. “You’re not disappearing again?”
Eva glanced towards Juliana and shook her head. “Not tonight. Take your time, we won’t be going anywhere.”
“If you’re sure,” she said slowly, looking back to her meal with a smile.
With a small chuckle, Eva waved goodbye to Irene, Shelby, Saija, and Jordan as she passed. She did pause as she came up to Randal.
The half-elf sat with poor posture. Something everyone did, but it was notable on the normally appearance obsessed elf. His fork pushed around a few eggs in his bowl without real direction or meaning. Not out of disgust, but out of depression.
Probably.
She knew that a few of the other students had been giving him a hard time about being too slow or… whatever.
So she patted him on the back. “Cheer up. We’ll get them next time,” she said with a false optimism in her voice.
With the rankings given by Redford, Eva was feeling much better than she had the night before. The vampire couldn’t dispute any claim of who won between them. Neither did she actually care about ‘next time’ or anything after that. She was still hoping that the world would ‘end’ before the third event.
He just gave her a sad smile before going back to toying with his food.
Eva and Juliana almost made it back to the Rickenbacker before Eva noticed someone running up behind them.
She turned, ready to blink or toss a fireball depending on the situation. Despite her paranoia, she smiled.
“Emily, did you need something?”
The girl flinched, stopping several paces away. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “You guys deserved to win.”
Eva just shrugged her shoulders. She almost told her that they were better than the Nod Complex, but decided to remain silent instead. Mostly because that should be obvious from their elevator trip where Eva had all but told everyone that she didn’t care what happened so long as the vampire lost.
“The next event involves construction. Magic assisted building.”
“That… sounds really dull. I’m glad I can’t participate in it.” Though she supposed she could tell the rest of her team. It wouldn’t hurt any. And if they kept it quiet from the vampire and beat him again, all the better. “Does the rest of your school know that you told me?”
“I– No, they don’t,” she said with a sigh.
“Then better run along before people get suspicious. Thanks for telling me though, we’ll try not to beat you guys too bad,” Eva said with a grin.
As she ran off again, Juliana turned to Eva. “What was that all about?”
“Don’t know. Maybe I made a friend.” Eva watched her go, thinking back to the event.
She had used both flames and earth with roughly equal proficiency. Something that could be handy in construction. Of course, since she was barred from participating in the second school event, maybe Eva could offer her another opportunity to show off her skills.
“Think she wants to help bring a Power into reality to do battle with another Power and potentially end the world?”
Juliana shook her head with a sigh. “You should work on your sales pitch.”
One for the Angles
“Construction?” Neuro asked with a frown, toying with of the golden triangles that adorned the tips of the demon’s long hair.
“Yep. Building a house maybe,” Eva said with a shrug. She couldn’t really think up anything else it might be.
Saija’s eyes narrowed to thin slits, glancing off to one side to avoid looking at anyone. Her lips curled back into a teeth-clenched grimace.
“Building?” She nudged Irene in the side. “I told you we should have done that last event. How am I supposed to build things?”
That was a good point. Something the other two demons apparently agreed with, judging by the nods of their heads. Really, even regular mages might find themselves not particularly useful. A fire mage wouldn’t have much to do in a house building contest. Unless they acted like a kiln to harden an earth mage’s structure. Really, it was air mages who wouldn’t have much to contribute.
Maybe not building houses then, but something else that still needed construction.
“For all I know, Redford is going to drop you off in the amazon jungle and tell you to survive for a week, build some shelters and hunt or scavenge for food.”
