Eliza stared at the last tray of food Max had prepared. Some sort of a rare pheasant was steaming under an ornate cover, with little bits of blood red sauce peeking from the plate it was on.

The decadent main course was surrounded by a harvest of fresh fruits, each berry and apple slice counted exactly to the queen's specifications. Adhering to Athansi's meal requests was one point on a very long list of negotiated requests that the fairy court had struck with the Heroguard after they imprisoned her.

The Lurkers and Max stayed outside. Max, still not keen on spiders of any size, kept his same smile, sending her off with a little wish of good luck and a tray of food.

Eliza preferred privacy with the Fairy Queen anyways.

She entered the small viewing room, hearing the heavy door click behind her. Runes upon the floor lit up with her steps, scattering across the walls to feed into the light enchantments fixed to torch holders.

Within moments, the small stone room was alight, a door to her back, and a wall of iron slates to her front. There were decorations for utility, a small wooden table to hold objects, a plain shelf with antivenoms, a reinforced swatter, and a carefully crafted sigil for Athansi's crest. And on the floor, three feet from the wall of slats, was a glowing red line.

The rule of thumb was not to cross it unless completely necessary.

Eliza had listened to that rule maybe five times in her entire career.

She approached a lever next to the iron slats, placing the tray of food on the floor and putting her body into cranking it. The slats pulled up into the wall, and a more natural light cascaded from the room it looked into.

The celestial prison had no physical barriers, it stopped all magic from leaving. The Heroguard simply built the cold iron and stone around it for a false sense of security.

Eliza wrapped her knuckles on the enchanted glass panes, eyeing the veil of ornately woven webs that acted as privacy curtains. Athansi liked to switch up the designs in the weave while no one was looking. This time she had added hearts into the stitchwork. "Wakey wakey."

A shadow passed the webbing, a woman, tall and proper. She propped her chin, barely turning to the glass.

"Your steps sound heavier…" the shadow spoke, her rich and soothing voice clear despite their obstacle. Athansi's shadow darkened as she approached the curtain. "Have you gained weight?"

"New shoes, harder soles." Eliza replied flatly. "They make a nicer crunching noise when I step on your clutch."

Athansi did not respond to the jeer, waving her hand to bat away the conversation topic. "My food will get cold."

Eliza unlatched the iron slot in front of her, a few tiny spiders skittering out as soon as she pulled it wide. A larger leg poked out, the bladed black appendage about the size of her finger. She forced the spider back in with the tray of food, letting the smaller escapees slide.

Eliza rifled around her satchel, grabbing an envelope. She loved getting letters addressed to Athansi. They only came from her daughter, without a return address, and seeped with a foul stench that could range from animal carcasses to incredibly aggressive flowers.

This one smelt like rotten eggs.

She cleared her throat. "A letter for Queen Athansi."

The shadow moved, passing the curtain, pacing slow. "From whom?"

"No sender, your excellence."

"Read it to me."

Eliza carefully cut open the letter, unfolding the parchment to hungrily skim the message. She held back a laugh before it made it to her voice - but Eliza didn't doubt that the spider queen knew these letters were the highlight of her week. "Another artistic rendition of you being brutally excused from life."

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Athansi kept to her pace, an unresponsive shadow.

"Oh sorry… there is a little something at the bottom." Eliza replied, flipping the drawing to the glass. "It says suffer and die." She waited for a moment, satisfied that Athansi had no reply, as she often did to the notes. "I'll leave it on the tray, darling."

Eliza pushed the lever up, the wall of slates sliding back down to cover the glass and give Athansi her privacy.

No sooner did Eliza pass the food slot and reach to close it did Athansi's voice leak through.

"I did not request a cupcake."

Eliza looked through the food slot, Athansi's twilight robes peeking into view, and a dollop of pink frosting on her fingertip from where she'd poked at the extra item.

"Your meal request is all there your highness, don't be a sour puss about free desert."

She closed the slot, eyeing the few little spiders skittering around the room. They were harmless, Athansi had to breed them without any magic to let them pass through the prison. Which left them as smart as your average house spider. Eliza left them most of the time. It was fun to see them spook the guards and other nurses. If she found any of them in her office, that was a different story.

She left the space, Max hanging by the door like an abandoned puppy. He lit up as soon as she came through. "How was she today?"

Eliza shrugged. "Same as. New curtains though."

She watched the Archon as her words seemed to slide right out of his ears. He was bottled up with some sort of news he found exciting, and seemed to be itching to find a way to get it out in their small talk. She helped the reveal along, paying him a cattish smile that immediately spurred a blush. "Anything exciting happen to you today?"

"I got invited to the quarterlies!" He blurted.

"You're an Archon, it's part of your job."

"Right, but I'll make sure to have leftover cupcakes."

Eliza snorted. She would have paid to see the look on half the Archons faces when Max walked in with pink cupcakes. She would have to get that story from someone else.

"Is that the surprise you had for me?"

Max's voice neared a scream at Eliza's words. "The surprise!"

"I guess it wasn't." Eliza muttered, lagging along as Max pulled her by the arm. "Max I love your little baking things, but I don't have a lot of time to watch you make something. I've got socials to do."

He kept his energy, shifting from pulling Eliza's arm to gently pushing her back. "It's not that." He squealed. "You're gonna love it even more than that!"

"I bet."

She watched the walls change as they wandered the psych ward. Max kept a spring in his step which left Eliza shuffling her feet to match his lanky strides.

The walls went from orange to magenta

And from magenta, to forest green.

Max stopped at one of the sealed doors, stripped of its number plate that could give Eliza any ideas. She hadn't familiarized herself with many of the first strike followers. It was the worst job in her opinion.

They had a thirty day holding period after serving their strike. Exposure to the arch for the first time rarely killed the first strikes outright. It was the complications that came in the following weeks. Fifty percent of them died in that stretch.

Eliza liked it when her list didn't change.

Max peeked through the small bar to stare into the room. "Close your eyes."

She sighed, putting her hands over her eyes and listening to Max fiddle with the door.

"Okay Eliza- wait watch the door." Max said, pulling her to the side a little and awkwardly guiding her into the room.

He left her facing what she presumed was a follower, then gently grabbed her hands to pull them away from her eyes.

Eliza stared at the person before her. Her heart sank to her stomach. She knew them. Unfortunately.

She liked them. Even more unfortunately.

They were just another tenant with the wrong type of magic.

And the wrong type of family.

"It's Rikka!" Max said, his cheering voice lighting up all the wrong things about the situation. His smile only died when Eliza's speechless stare stayed strong. "You like Rikka, don't you? I thought you'd be excited to see her."

Eliza searched for the words. There sat Rikka, as Max had astutely pointed out. A little cupcake with pink frosting was cupped in her hands, and a terror lingered behind her eyes. She hadn't touched the tray of food that had been delivered to her, instead huddled on her bed roll with her legs tucked tight to stop her body from shaking.

"Why is she here?" Eliza hissed.

Max's face twisted to a timid pout as he looked down at Rikka. "Strike one." He lowered his voice to a whisper, "she tried to kill Inprobus again."

"Fuck." Eliza stuck her finger up before Max could call out the language, pressing her forehead as she turned and left the room, more swears trailing from her lips.

She could still hear Max's loud voice as she entered the hall.

"It's okay Rikka, she likes you. It's been a stressful day. You can have another cupcake if you want!"

She heard Max's footsteps, turning as the Archon called her name. Her frown only died to disappointment as the man mouthed 'my office?' followed by a thumbs up.

Eliza held his stare, long enough to wind up Max's nerves and force him to scratch at his head nervously.

Then she forced a thumbs up, mouthing 'Tomorrow.'

Max sighed with relief.

Tomorrow was going to be an awful day as well.

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