Chapter 557

• Jes rolled her eyes. Caera sat down across from the pool. Even Acelina eventually joined them, and sat in the typical overly-feminine way she liked, leaning on one hip and both legs to one side. No one said a thing, and all five of them gazed down into the fire the scrying pool had focused on. The scrying pool's supposed purpose was to make souls miss the surface, but it had upsides, too, and this was definitely one of them.
• Nothing soothed the soul quite like sitting around a fire and watching wood burn. The fires of Hell were nothing like it, not even the burning bushes that never really burned. And absolutely nothing in Hell even came close to the sound of ocean waves. Ten, twenty, thirty minutes slipped by as they rest, recuperated, and listened for laser bombardments by angels. None came, yet.
• Movement drew their eyes again. Whoever was in the tunnel, hiding around the distant boulders and curves of the cruel tunnels, they stuck their head out again. Heads. Four heads?