Requiem 22

Aclysia kept her head down as Mehily talked to the Inquisitor, this Evmeria woman. It became apparent quickly that they wouldn’t be able to approach the Cardinal. The metal fairy had planned, in first instance, to talk to him directly and tell him what she knew or at least what she thought she knew.

Remezan needed to be informed about things. If the Cardinal wasn’t on their side, there was a risk for things to turn lethal quite quickly. However, the need wasn’t pressing, not right now. Mehily hadn’t been able to speak to him before the ceremony, for various organizational reasons. She wouldn’t have been able to relay everything anyway, as Aclysia refused to enter the church. She trusted Mehily far enough to work with her, but didn’t think she had the influence to keep the metal fairy from getting imprisoned again, should she be recognized within those walls.

Instead, they had opted to secure the perimeter. Aclysia had looked everywhere for Reysha that could have been in striking range down the path. That she was nowhere to be found meant that there would be no nasty surprise, for now.

As she also wanted to avoid making a scene in public, Aclysia didn’t press the issue. Now atop the podium, the Cardinal was quite secure. Reysha didn’t have the means to kill a man of his Level from range. The only way to even attempt it was to get the drop on him, something that she could hardly do from the crowd. A ring of guards made sure that people stayed at least three metres away from the podium.

‘Apotho was truly lying about the time of the assassination,’ Aclysia thought as she sorted through the plans she had made for this branch off point. ‘The current question is then whether he lied about the entire assassination or not? To what end would he want me here then? What is his advantage of me being here and Reysha not?’

North, something about north, Gizmo’s words still echoed in her head. Had she misunderstood; did he mean even further north? North of the church itself, even? Was Reysha trying to get into the building to attack the Cardinal once he was back inside? The northside would have been the best way to do so.

Mehily and Evmeria were still exchanging silent talks, one trying to convince the other to let them speak to the Cardinal right now. The Inquisitor was blind to Aclysia’s true nature, thanks to her current state of being stripped of her divine authority. Ironically, it was the person that previously could have found her anywhere on the leaf that was now unable to see through her minimal disguise.

There were two things she now had to decide between. Follow her hunch about Reysha’s position or stay and wait for Apexus. By both heart and logic, there was only one decision she could make, which was to stay. She didn’t know, for sure, where Reysha was. However, she could be incredibly certain that Apexus would make his appearance. As terrible as it made her feel, if she was forced to make a choice between the two, she would go with the slime.

That didn’t mean, however, that she now had to just forego Reysha entirely. “Mehily, we need to…” Aclysia quietly said and pulled on the Priestess sleeve. Immediately, the Inquisitor turned her head in her direction. The forceful motion looked like somebody had pressured her neck joint for a while and some resistance had finally allowed it to snap into a different position.

“I know your voice,” Evmeria stated and the metal fairy didn’t dare to continue as her eyes widened. She had underestimated the distinctness of her melodic voice or the ears of the Inquisitor, either way, this could be bad. There was a change in the Inquisitor’s expression, her disdain mixing with confusion. “Mehily… tell me truthfully, is that the angel?”

The Priestess tensed up, knowing full well that there was no way out of this situation. Whether she said the truth or lied, Evmeria would know, and therefore make it impossible to wind out of the yes or no question. “Yes,” she conceded the point, as the pause itself was already all the answer needed.

“Why would you return, Aclysia…?” the Inquisitor asked towards the divine creation. “Are you planning to kill the Cardinal… no, no, Mehily wouldn’t support you in this. She is a struggling Priestess, but faith still burns inside her. She wouldn’t help in anything that would harm the Cardinal or the church…”

Mehily actually felt touched by the trust the Inquisitor gave her there. It would have been less touching could she have seen the raw logic that brought Evmeria there and that she disliked the Priestess regardless. From the Inquisitor’s standpoint, she was just recounting the facts. Which caused things to not line up as well as she needed them to.

“What are you doing here, misguided angel?” she asked again and this time Aclysia found the time to answer.

“Listen, I will make this short,” Aclysia didn’t like to make a spur of the moment decision. She was bad at them, she needed the time to properly think things through or at least question them extensively beforehand. She had already wasted enough time, however, and thus she decided to propose a deal. “It might be that Reysha is trying to infiltrate the church from the north right now. I have no evidence for this, just a hunch. I think she might do something horrible if no one stops her. I ask of you to try and do so, catch her alive and I will answer whatever your Cardinal wanted from us.”

Evmeria immediately nodded. “I accept, then.” For her, the only thing that mattered was to finally get those answers. The Cardinal needed her protection less than he needed her to finally tell them whatever was for Remezan to know. “Let us go.”

“No, I will stay here,” Aclysia firmly clarified.

That did cause the Inquisitor to reconsider. Aclysia could feel the blind eyes dig as deep into the angel’s being as they could. She wasn’t as easy to read as a human, it was harder to come by experience to read an angel and their nature was different from creations of flesh anyhow. Regardless, unable to detect any ill-intent, Evmeria nodded a second time. “Fine then, I will save your sinner of a friend without you.”

The Inquisitor still thought all three of them as villainous creatures, but if they could get them back under control rather than have them roaming around, that was progress towards whatever fitting punishment there was. If it had been anything but the angel that had proposed the deal, Evmeria wouldn’t have agreed, though. Unlike a monster and a tiger girl that had become half of one, an angel was at least inherently trustworthy.

“Do not forego your word,” she warned.

“I swear by my father,” Aclysia promised and that was good enough for the Inquisitor as she and Mehily hushed into the building.