To Jed’s surprise, the sun set with no sign of Metsa or Sotas.
“I don’t think they understood the message,” Jed said softly, his senses telling him there were several smaller warp demons passing by the back of the building.
“Maybe they’re just busy?” Gwen said, equally softly, though it didn’t sound like she believed it.
“I had thought it rather direct,” Mythlyn sent rather than said, projecting the sensation directly to Jed and Gwen.
“Didn’t catch that one,” Gwen said.
Just as Jed had been practicing his ability to manipulate warp-fire as they waited, Mythlyn had been attempting to improve her ability to communicate with Gwen. And he supposed, Gwen was trying to improve her ability to hear Mythlyn.
Her hand was feeling better, but she hadn’t felt up to trying to touch Mythlyn again.
Considering their circumstances, and how bad it had seemed to shock her, Jed couldn’t blame her.
“Okay, that felt like shouting,” Gwen said, rubbing her ear, Mythlyn having apparently repeated herself in a way Jed hadn’t been able to detect.
“I didn’t even catch a whisper that time,” Jed informed them.
“It seems direct contact allows me to increase the volume,” Mythlyn said, shifting her foot away from Gwen’s. “Or to direct it more properly, I suppose?”
“You sent it through my boots? How does that even… you know what, doesn’t matter. At least it didn’t hurt. Other than the yelling, I mean,” Gwen said, still rubbing at her ear.
“My apologies.”
“It’s fine. Might even be useful someday,” Gwen said. “Though we still need to work on you projecting to both of us. I think I’m getting better.”
“Very well, I shall continue.”
“Think I got at least part of that. Shall continue, right?”
Mythlyn nodded, and Jed did his best to drown them out as he focused on recreating the little beads of fire. He had only created one on purpose since he’d accidentally flicked the first to the side, but he’d repeated that trick several times more.
Unfortunately, his thoughts went back to Metsa and Sotas once more. How long should they wait for them?
He didn’t love the idea of spending the night in a shadow district, but with Mythlyn to watch over them, it should be relatively safe. Though he was starting to think they might want to find somewhere more secure than a ground floor lobby entrance in what seemed to have been a general store. They’d mostly stayed so that it would be quick to get to Metsa, or to run, if they needed.
So far they hadn’t, but the warp demons were getting thicker as the Eye slid into place overhead, blocking out the sun. Jed wondered at that. Were most warp demons nocturnal? Or did the sun somehow suppress their spawn rate?
Realizing he had two potential sources of answers, he repeated his questions, along with his thoughts that they might want to move to higher ground.
Not all the way to the roof though, since he could feel the occasional warp demon pass over the buildings as well.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind getting a bit of shuteye,” Gwen said, yawning. “Sleep in shifts?”
“I do not need sleep,” Mythlyn said instead of projecting as they climbed to the top of the remaining stairs. “And I do not believe there is any sort of suppressive effect. Nor were most demons nocturnal, though that may well have changed.”
“Yep, that changed,” Gwen said as she stretched upward, not quite reaching.
Jed cupped his hands, boosting Gwen up then receiving a hand up in turn, while Mythlyn simply used their bond to reform next to him once he was up. “So they are nocturnal?”
“Definitely more active at night. Maybe ‘cause we’re better at hunting them during the day?” Gwen said as they ascended to the third floor. “Most aren’t that smart, so I guess I never thought they’d figure that out.”
“Might just be natural selection,” Jed said, looking at the hatch reading upward. “Think this is as high as we go. Doubt we wanna be outside.”
“Let’s do a sweep. Your sense might’ve missed something,” Gwen said.
Nodding, Jed fell in behind her. The floor was clear but they did find what had been a living space at some point in the past, thought only the couch remained.
“Better than I was expecting,” Gwen said as she patted the cushions. “Did you want to sleep first?”
“Doesn’t sleep, remember?” Jed said, gesturing at Mythlyn.
“Ah. Right. It’s just… a little small for two,” Gwen said
“I can sleep on the floor,” Jed said, shaking his head.
“Or sitting up. He makes a surprisingly comfortable pillow,” Mythlyn offered.
“I thought you didn’t sleep?”
“She doesn’t have to sleep, but she likes to. And we cuddle. A lot.”
“I find it quite soothing.”
“I mean… yeah, we could do that. I’d feel bad about you taking the floor. Not so bad I want it, but sharing the couch. Sure, we could do that,” Gwen said, unbuckling the case for her rifle and letting it swing free.
Jed nodded, sitting on the end of the couch, only to have Mythlyn giggle as she sat on his lap. He just rolled his eyes, straightening his knees and back, sending the giggling archangel to the floor.
“You two really are just friends, aren’t you?” Gwen asked, laying her head on his lap once he’d sat back down.
“Is that so strange?” Jed asked as he shifted, realizing that Gwen was heavier and more solid than Mythlyn. And that her resting her head on his leg might not be great for circulation.
“Guess not,” Gwen said, shrugging before adjusting her head, her arm serving as a pillow as much as his leg, which helped restore circulation. “Night.”
Jed nodded as Mythlyn sat against his legs, curling up and setting her head on top of her knees. Jed reached forward to ruffle her perfect hair, chuckling softly as she reached a hand up to swat his away. “Night you two.”
He had just started to drift off to sleep when the building rumbled.
At first he thought Metsa and Sotas had finally shown up.
“Up, up,” Mythlyn was saying, pulling at Jed’s hand.
Which was when he realized it wasn’t the building rumbling, just him. And Gwen by extension.
“What’s going on?”
“There are some sort of snake like warp-demons coming up the stairs. They are resistant to my fire,” Mythlyn explained, a note of panic in her voice.
Which Jed could understand. There weren’t just the snake-demons on the stairs, there were others out front of the building and a demon on the roof, just over their heads. A fact he immediately passed on, gesturing upwards and indicating one enemy.
“How do we want to do this?” Gwen whispered even as she checked her revolvers and rifle.
“I’m suddenly very aware of the fact I didn’t bring any weapons with silencers,” Jed said, cursing himself. “Didn’t even think to ask if that was a thing.”
“Uh. That’s ‘cause silencers don’t matter. Unless you can still the warp, other demons will notice the disturbance when you kill one,” Gwen said, squinting at Jed.
“Metsa must not have got to that lesson, eh?” Jed said, glancing towards Mythlyn. “Could you? You know, still the warp, like she suggested?”
She shook her head. “Not as I am now. Once I have practice… perhaps.”
“I thought you were an archangel. Aren’t you guys supposed to be the Empress’ heavy hitters?” Gwen asked, her voice terse and annoyed.
“The Empress stripped me of most of my sanity and my power after I rebelled,” Mythlyn replied frostily. “I have only started recovering the latter after Jed and I arrived in this hex.”
“Right. Right,” Gwen said, nodding to herself. “Just… guess all Metsa’s training is getting to me. Last month I would’ve charged straight in, certain I could handle a half dozen snakes.”
“There are only four snakes,” Jed said, holding up his hand. “Unless the one on a roof is a snake, but it doesn’t feel quite right for that.”
“Probably some sort of flier,” Gwen said. “Luckily those aren’t too common at night. Might even ignore us, if it’s nesting.”
“So… four snakes. Deal with them, then hope whatever’s out front doesn’t try to knock the building down with us inside?” Jed asked.
“Let’s do it,” Gwen said, raising her rifle.
Jed nodded, drawing his non-warp-fire revolver and following her.
The snake-demons were split up, with two having made it to the second floor, and the other two struggling to make it past the gap. Which made target selection easy.
Jed took the one on the left and Gwen the one on the right.
Each of them hit their targets. Jed’s target even cooperated and went back down over the stair’s edge, landing on the others.
Gwen’s just got pissed off and started slithering towards them, fangs glittering with warp-infused venom.
A second and third shot rang out as Jed and Gwen kept firing. One of their shots took the thing in the throat as it opened its mouth to lunge. They must’ve hit something important, because it flipped backwards and writhed in place for several seconds before stilling.
With the floor secure, they both reloaded then made their way over to the broken stairs.
The three snakes were dealt with easily. It was easier than any of the practice they’d done.
“Almost wish I could eat demon,” Jed said, looking down while reloading his revolver. At least they’d brought plenty of ammo, since they’d been planning to alternate between the obstacle course and shooting.
“Are you that hungry?” Gwen asked, screwing up her face even as she reloaded her rifle’s half-empty mag, having already swapped the spare.
“Little bit. We probably should’ve stopped for food,” Jed said as he swung the revolver closed, sighting down the tentacle thing that was currently screaming as it popped forward a couple feet, only to stop in place and scream again.
“Damn, Screacher variants,” Gwen said, already shooting. The sound of her rifle was barely audible over the demon’s horrible voice.
“Jed,” Mythlyn said from her place by the window.
“Yeah, I know, I can feel them,” Jed said holding his fire so he could cover for Mythlyn. Outside another dozen demons were approaching. “I think it’s gonna be a long night.”