"Eve?"

Your question isn't answered so you keep moving in the direction the denial had come from. You risk checking the magic in the area but can't find anything. If that is because you are exhausted and can't even see auras at the moment or that there is no aura to see.

"She's not here." The voice was much closer, closer than your pace should have put it.

"Don't suppose you have a light?" You ask taking your left hand off the wall to grope at the darkness thinking Eve should be around here.

"No light." It was Delilah's voice, devoid of all emotion but their voice. "I need the darkness."

You left hand touched skin, it was burning hot and you pulled back biting your tongue to stop the surprised shout. "Did you pull me out of the water?"

"You should go back. Leave me here." Eve said and you heard her moving away from you.

Lot of singular pronouns being used right now. A flash of memory, Delilah on a stone slab with your hand pressing a dagger into her chest and Eve saying she was gone. "Seriously you actually think I'm going to do that. Talk to me what's going on? Why are you in here?" You hesitated before asking the next question, "What happened to Delilah?"

"I broke her." There was a small flash of red, illuminating the cave you were in. Eve stood in the centre, her body covered with the fissures that appeared around her eyes when she lost control.

"No you didn't." You response was instant without thinking about it.

"You saw what I did, you were there." Another flash of red and Eve's eyes were on yours, a lingering glow of two dot where they had been. "I did everything to her. I felt the poker sinking into her eyes, as she ..." A sob cut the sentence off. "I did to her what they did to me. Why did I do that to her?"

"She's not dead." It's not that you have some strong conviction, or are denying reality when you say that, it's not even close to that impressive, "Because my mother had set all of that up, and if Delilah was gone because of this my mother would have know I would burn every note I found from here on."

Eve was quite for a moment. "Zara."

There was a flicker in the cave wall. Odd since it is totally black in here. "Yeah, so if Delilah's gone we'll be able to find her again. I'd bet when we get home there will be a letter sitting on my pillow explaining just how to do that. All we have to do is wait until -"

"I am home." Eve said softly.

"I recov - Huh?" You cut yourself off. "Are we near the Capital?" You may need to refresh your knowledge of the kingdoms coast line.

"No." There was sound from Eve. "I need to go deeper." You heard her walking off and hurriedly stepped after her. It was a good thing the caves, surface was so smooth and there were no rocks for you to kick or step on in this lava tube.

"What explain." You say reaching out for the sound of steps but don't find an Eve where she should have been. "Eve?" There was no response this time around. "Hello?" Your call went unanswered by even it's own echo. "Deeper it is." You keep walking, it's not like you'd actually leave Eve alone in here, exhausted you may be but that doesn't mean you are incapable of questionable decision and descending down a perfectly smooth lava tube to follow a previously extremely unstable not exhausted former wraith seems questionable. Shame you like her so much or else you might have turned back.

The floor gains a slight gradient, the walk around the inside of the curved cliff face becoming a decent. Something tickled your brain about all this, not just the follow Eve but about all of this, the bay how you got here. You couldn't put a finger on it what it was but felt like it was lots of small things.

You kept moving downwards. You think you were still moving around a curve which didn't seem possible but in the total darkness you didn't have that much of a context for how fast you were moving. "Eve are you there?"

"You should go back." Her response made you jump a little. It sounded like she was the same distance away from you as last time.

"I thought I went over the chances of that happening." You took your hand off the wall and reached for her. The feel of too hot skin on your fingertips this time didn't make you pull away, instead moving to hold. You were holding her boob. "Sorry." You pulled your hand away.

Eve was silent for a long time. Just before you asked if she was still there she said, "Then come." You felt a hand grabbing yours and pull. You stumbled at the sudden movement.

"Can't see anything." You complained, trying to move with her pulling without falling onto your face, the smooth floor was not helping as much as it had been, the lack of traction an issue.

"Have to be dark." Eve said not changing her pace. "Last light was red. Darkness is constant." You shut your mouth and put up with it. The last thing she'd seen before constant darkness had been the poker used to burn her eyes out.

You kept moving downwards, without a hand on the wall you've no idea if you are still curving but you must be, but you shouldn't be, you'd be well under the bay by now, you didn't know a great deal about ocean volcanoes but you would be far below sea level by now. If this was an island it was too small for that to be the case, and the lava tube shouldn't be holding up with this much mass above it.

"Where are we?" You asked Eve as you just kept on descending.

"Home." She repeated.

"Home, as in, you're original home?" You tried to remember anything about the empire Eve had ruled but there was basically nothing about it, it had existed so long ago that the history had mostly forgotten it, even finding out who Eve had been had required you and Clare to go back to basically the oldest book in the Royal Library, and even then it was only the cover of the book that explained things.

Eve didn't respond but she did speed up. The tickle in your brain came back, you couldn't hear your steps, well you could you just couldn't hear the echo, in a lava tube with walls this smooth there should be a lot of echos.

Then it clicked. This island didn't make any sense. There were trees and grass but no fresh water, the only fresh water on the island you found had been from basket plants filtering it, but they were going though a lot of water and it clearly hadn't rained for a while even before your arrival, the sand was dry so was the grass. There were no birds but there bugs, land animals not being here sure, maybe lizards were hiding, but no bird, it was an island there should be some level of bird life. The lava tubes were in were smooth, like freshly made smooth not have been her for a long time, and there was no echo in here. And your right hand was still missing, but you'd cut it off inside whatever aura illusion or mental landscape Eve and Delilah had been in not in real life.

"Eve what's going on?" You asked stopping your walk. Eve's hand stayed in yours so she stopped as well.

"I have to go deeper." She said.

"Why?"

"I have to go."

"What's deeper?" You asked hoping this way a asking the question in the right way type deal.

"Home."

You took a second to think. Eve said Delilah was broken and gone, she hadn't actually said she was dead, that was you. "Where is Delilah?"

"Home. You should go back."

Ok, this might not be real, which means, leaving with wings might not work. Eve had been insane and without Delilah's consciousness to hold them both together she'd unraveled and when you touched her aura with yours you got that vision, so maybe when you crash tackled her to the ocean you'd gotten thrown back into that vision.

"I'm not leave you to face anything alone." In the end it didn't matter if this was real or not, Eve and/or Delilah were in trouble you weren't going anything but to help them.

"Why?" The word echoed around you in a somewhat deliberate manner.

"Cause I love you two weirdos." You answered, it was so obvious you were almost confused by her question.

"Weirdos?"

"Delilah used to, apparently spy on me when I masturbated and steal the cup I'd filled for what I am not getting into. And you," you pause a moment, "actually you're probably the most normal person I'm currently sleeping with ... Goddess included." If that isn't your taste in women surmised you don't know what is.

Eve doesn't respond but you feel a breeze and the hand in yours disappeared, in it's place you felt a handle.