Finally, he turned to Risa and pointed to the wall.

“Go through.”

“Excuse me?” Was this his way of telling her to get out? 

“Go through. I need to see.”

Risa was confused by the whole event, but did as she was told, and walked over to the wall. She put out her hand first, not fond of the idea of face planting, and when her finger tips melted through she followed through easily. She stayed out in the hall for just a second, and when no one came after her she decided that the best thing to do was to go back inside. With the same method— arm out first— she went in. 

Leo was looking at her with an expression as close to shock as she had even seen on him. The girl, arms crossed, seemed smug. She tucked a free wisp of hair behind her ear and the self-controlled chores behind her seemed to move only faster.

“I told you,” she followed up. “She can just walk right through, despite not eating all of the seeds.” She turned back to Risa and looked her up and down, the suspicion gone now that Leo was there. Instead, she seemed almost proud or admiring, respectful.

“Why do the seeds have anything to do with using the portals?” Risa asked in confusion. “When I first… came here, the spirits led me through a wall just like this one. And I was alone except for them and Ravi.” The mention of her friend made her heart wring tightly for a moment, but as Leo began to answer her questions it eased.

“Only those who reside in the underworld can make and use portals. Those of us—” He held up a hand to stop her as she went to interrupt, insisting that she did reside in the underworld. “Those of us who aren’t human.” 

Her paused as she chewed over his words. “Alright, but what about the first portal I went through?” She asked again. Leo nodded.

“That was specifically made for humans, as was the one I took you through afterwards. You shouldn’t be able to cross through a portal like this unless accompanied by a resident of the underworld. You shouldn’t even be able to know it was there.” Leo looked to the wall as though he could see something she couldn’t, analyzing it.

“Well,” she began again, “I didn’t know it was there. My hand just went through…” She trailed off, suddenly embarrassed that she had been searching for the portals. In the end, she probably could have just asked him.

The girl made eye contact with Leo, communicating without words. Awkward, Risa decided to cut in. 

“Um, if I’m not supposed to be here, I can leave? I didn’t mean to—”

“No, it’s fine.” Leo spun on his heel, making for the portal. “Stay as long as you would like.” And then he disappeared through.

“But…” Risa fell quiet, and then stood there awkwardly in the empty space as she tried to decide what to do. If she could get into one portal, she could probably get into other. A large part of her wanted to go find Ravi and explore together, but considering how surprising it was to Leo that she was here, that probably wouldn’t be a good idea.

“Well,” she said, turning to the girl. “My name is Risa. It’s nice to meet you.” Introductions sounded like a great place to start, and Risa wanted to know how she was making the chores act on their own. 

The girl seemed a bit surprised at suddenly being addressed, but quickly broke into a confident grin. A dish clattered into the sink behind them as the girl raised her hand.

“I’m Eva. Nice to meet you.” Risa shook her outstretched hand. “Welcome to my kingdom.”

Eva smiled devishly, tucked her hair again behind her shoulder, and then spun around to look at the room with pride. Risa, for the first time, got a good look at everything. On the left was a kind of kitchen area, with dishes frantically washing and drying themselves and vegetables being minced to nothing by an expert knife. On the right there was a whole other manner of chores going on, clothes being washed and sewn and the floor being swept, all by their own power.  

“Are you doing all of this?” Risa asked, voiced colored by sincere awe. She had never seen anything like it.

“Yep,” Eva said with pride. “That’s my gift. Everything in here is under my control.” She swept her arm out, motioning to the countless items taking care of themselves. “Leo says that I shouldn’t stay down here all the time, but I like it. Gives me something to do.” Eva plopped down into a chair next to her, one of a few, Risa noticed, though she looked anything but busy as she hung her legs over the side. 

“Sit.” 

Eva demanded, motioning to one of the empty chairs next to her. Somehow feeling inferior despite their obvious age difference, Risa complied immediately.

“So,” Eva continued, looking Risa up and down yet again with another judging look in her eye— this time, perhaps a bit more open minded. “How is it? Being the Queen of Hell?”

Risa felt herself pale at the sound of her new title. She didn’t like it. But, as for how it was…

“It’s not bad,” she said honestly. She was quite sure that Eva wouldn’t accept a lie, anyway. “But I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, really.” That might have been more than she wanted to share, but…

Eva crossed her legs and slumped further down while the dishes, now all clean, began to gather themselves together. She didn’t pay them any mind as they clattered against each other.  “You just need to release the souls.” She stated, and shrugged as though it was easy.

“I don’t know how to do that…” Risa murmured, wondering why she was having this conversation in the first place.

Eva, apparently uncomfortable with her new position, spun around and pulled her feet up under her. “You can feel them, right?” Eva asked, and clarified when Risa apparently wasn’t following quickly enough. “The souls. All you have to do it let them go after.”

Risa felt her annoyance growing. “It’s not that easy—” 

“Yes it is. Have you tried?”

Well. As best as she could. The spirits always faded away on their own before she did anything, as if they were going back to sleep in the flower and we're done with their silent conversation. Annoyed that maybe she hadn’t tried to specifically let them go, she snapped back at Eva instead.

“How old are you, anyway?”

Eva smiled deviously, as though the question amused her far more than she would ever say aloud. “How old do you think I am?” She snapped back, twirling a strand of hair around her fingertip. Risa shrugged.

“I don’t know, fourteen maybe?” Too young to be speaking to her that way, that was for sure.

Eva threw back her head and laughed, the sound rich and full of sincere amusement. “Fourteen?!” She shrieked, kicking out her legs. “It’s been ages since anyone has told me I seem like I'm fourteen!”

“Twelve?” Risa adapted, but that only seemed to make her laugh harder. “Fine,” she conceded. “How old are you?”

Her large eyes glittering from tears of laughter, Eva grinned. “Not telling. I’m flattered, though.” She flipped her hair again, and Risa simply looked her up and down. Well, she certainly looked like she was that age, if that counted for anything. “I see why Leo likes you.”