- The Church of Al Heim

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A/N: I apologize for the lack of chapters recently. I've been going through writer's block and struggling to plan out the next few scenes. Also, my classes have started back up, leaving me with less time to write. I'll try to push out what I can. I apologize.

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The streets were still crowded with people after yesterday's market, dozens of people chatting and laughing, moving along down the stoney street with little care in the world. To them, there was nothing more than what they had, day by day, hour to hour and the routines that would follow them like a dog to its owner. It was meaningless, like dumb lambs that moved though their own herd, bringing themselves closer and closer to the slaughter.

The Guest couldn't help but mock them. In his mind he saw how they were contempt to sit idly by watching the world die every day, yet when fire burned their homes, they would run and scream, cower and cry. Begging the gods for help.

'As if they ever gave them any. They tear down the woods and the mountains, mine the earth for their precious minerals and for what? To make themselves look pretty.'

The Guest peered from behind his hood at a passing bunch of women who gossiped and chatted, laughing with one another as they paid the man little mind. He didn't care, they wouldn't have seen him anyway if they had looked.

That was just the way it was with people. The rich and powerful saw only their own skins in the mirror, and not the skins of those who were holding up their cape. The ones that groveled at their feet were nothing more to them than replacements.

He had seen it. He knew well what those people were like.

'Vile and cruel, those are the only two faces these people know how to show.'

As the Guest tore through the shifting bunches of groups all heading for the Market, or the blacksmith or the carpenter or even the jeweler who would tell them some outlandish price for some chain of gold and they would be sent home.

'Useless.'

Everything these people did was useless; it had no meaning. They talked and chatted, gossiped and made remarks that at heart meant nothing, but in the eyes of another it always meant something. That was how lies spread, how gossip moved across the land from ear to ear like a wildfire that blazed in a dead forest. Like poison that plagued rotting flesh.

Plagues, fires, pollution and damnation - it was all the process of these people. Of their kin and kind. They laughed, joked, smiled and pointed fingers that were otherwise just as guilty as the one they blamed. People were two faced, liars, thieves and beggars. The only few this Guest had sympathy for were the ones who lied dead in the ground, for they would be rebirthed into another whining, sniveling and loud baby turned toddler turned teen turned liar fool!

He took a breath, sucked in the cool air as his mind raced and his heart pounded against his chest. He hated these people, but he knew his mission, and to do his mission he needed focus, poise, elegance and a clear mind.

'The mind is power. The mind is strength. The mind is…'

He came to a stop as the people passed him by, several figures leaning against a tall building with large windows and a hanging sign with the insignia of a large ham and ale tankard. A Diner.

The man said nothing as he stared at the sign, his deep blue eyes glowed from under his hood, the shadows that leapt from the corners of his skin as they covered his face. He stepped in, through the door as the bells jingled, past the bunches of people who slammed their glasses together and lifted their spirits high. It was warm inside.

So, the man watched the fire burn in the fireplace, the only waiter moving and shifting his body across the tables as he delivered the food and drinks to their customers. He didn't take a seat like so many others that passed him by did. He just eyed the fire.

Then his feet were on the stairwell and his body glided up to the second floor, almost floating as he left the warm touch of the fire and the sounds of laughter died in his ears as the distance between him and the people below grew.

He was close. He could sense it. His heart was pounding, and his mind was turning as he knew what to expect even before he found his door, even before he turned the handle and slowly, creaking in the silence, the door opened to reveal a small and dimly lit room.

Suddenly, steel flashed, and a sword was sailing though the parting air straight for his head, as the figure leaned their weight into the blow. It was perfect, careful and calculative. It was almost as if they were expecting him.

But as the man blinked, the steel was gone, the blade vanished, and the figure was nothing more than an afterimage. Some figments of his imagination that he stood staring at with a dull experience.

'What could have been, and what never has been.'

This was the power of the Mind. Of his Mind.

But even his mind couldn't have prepared him for the empty room that was laid out before him, as if no human had ever touched it.

His target was gone.

***

'Cain?'

'Yes.'

Lia frowned as she looked out beyond the rolling hills of grass and flowers, the forest of trees that dotted the land around her and the large, majestic farmland that stretched for miles on end. It was a wonderful little countryside, a countryside that Lia didn't expect to see for another two days.

'When I said that I wished I could be here by nightfall, I didn't mean teleport me!'

She clung to the side of a tree with her hands as her stomach churned on the inside of her belly, this morning's breakfast having done a number on her as it threatened to come back up. Her heart and lungs squirmed under her skin as it felt like her stomach was about to pop before the feeling was gone suddenly, vanishing like dust in the wind as if someone had snapped their fingers and the will of the body listened.

'You also said you wanted to get this done with as fast as possible. I thought I would cut the time.'

'By teleporting me into the middle of nowhere!'

She sat down with her back against the tree as Cain appeared in the corner of her vision, leaning against her neighbor tree as he stared at her. Her body was heaving with exhaustion and sea sickness, a look that did not suit her beautiful features and golden tan skin.

"I'll make a note of that next time."

As if something had snapped in her head, Lia's face turned to him with the look of a demon in her eyes, raising one finger to his direction in an instant.

"Absolutely not! Don't you dare ever do that to me again, I would rather walk than get transported over a dozen miles in five seconds!"

To Cain it appeared as though Lia was throwing a tantrum as she slammed her fists into the ground, her face stern in anger as the man simply shrugged and waved it off, gesturing to the distant dirt and muddy road with his head. He was busy with other things at the moment, his mind already turning he gears.

"Let's save this conversation for another time. You need to get moving."

"Ugh! I don't even know where I'm going."

Suddenly Cain vanished and Lia was left standing in the middle of the woods as she loaded her pack on her back, her eyes tracing the distance for any signs of life. It was then that she noticed the reason for Cain's disappearance as a small wooden cart rolled down the muddy trail.

'Perfect. Hopefully he knows where I am and doesn't teleport me into the middle of nowhere.'

'I said I was sorry. Next time just get a thicker stomach.'

'I was born with it!'

Lia huffed and puffed as she made her way down to the road, its dirt fresh with mud and a light spring shower that had passed over the land just the day before. Thankfully the man stopped, and Li was able to get the man to give her a ride of the nearest village, a village that had been marked on Lia's map.

When she had gotten him the day before, she had turned over the little paper the Knight had given her about a dozen or so times to make sure what she was reading was real.

In the north you will find a small town called Steamwick Falls, where an illness has been running through the streets and poisoning the people's beggars and poor. The town turned a blind eye to it for many weeks, but after a child came down with the plague and died, they called the Duke for his aid. Your task is to find out what happened to the town and report back. Don't make enemies, don't let them learn your name.

'He said it like it was a choice. Gods, I'll have to deal with some virus now.'

She crumpled up the piece of paper and threw it over the side of the cart, letting it fall under the wheel as it was crushed in the mud. She wouldn't need it again, and hopefully it would be her last. This trip was simply meant to be an investigation mission and one that involved eyes and not the sword.

Hopefully she would remember that.

"So, tell me. You're on your way to Steamwick?"

The driver turned his head around to ask Lia, who was sitting calmly in the back of his wagon, eyeing all the bags of grain and food he was carrying. It seemed like he was holding a feast, but then again this could simply be the leftovers from the Main Square Market, she had heard of people traveling miles to reach it and sell their goods there.

"Yes. I'm going there in hopes of seeing a relative. They left a while ago and I just want to check up on them."

A slight look of sadness crossed the man's face as he turned back around, muttering under his breath as he wiped the reins to his donkeys, causing them to move faster down the muddy trail.

"...I'm sorry then. Honestly, I wouldn't get your hopes up. That town has been sicklyfor days, always burying people and burning bodies."

"Do you know something about that? I heard it was bad, but I didn't know."

The man simply waved his hand as if to shoo away a fly, his head ducking a bit lower as she spoke softer. It was clear to Lia that this man must have lost one too, as his expression just got darker and darker with each passing second.

"I suppose you could call it god's retribution. Many people in the surrounding farms think the gods are punishing the people of that town for doing some heinous deed."

"Heinous deed? I hardly think one action demands the death of dozens more."

The man simply shrugged and snapped the reins again, muttering to himself as they drew closer to what appeared like small stone cottages on the edge of the hills.

"Who knows. The Gods work in strange ways…"

***

The old man dropped Lia off by the church as they passed through town and he advised her that she should take her relatives and leave the town before the sickness took them as well, if they were still alive. Lia almost felt bad lying to him about all this, but in the end, she knew the man and his kind hearted way would have never taken her to the town.

He wouldn't have put her in that much risk of walking across this hollowed earth, plagued by the dead and filled with the smell of rotting and burned flesh. It stunk up the air as they passed as the dead and dull looks of dozens of villagers filled her vision and burned their places in her memories.

They looked dead, hollow, and alone.

Broken.

She sympathized with them, and promised herself that she would do whatever it took to get this issue resolved quickly. But as Lia entered the church, she felt a chilling wave of fear wash over her, a fear that was as if the entire town's worries and terror had been combined into this one small and dimly lit stone building.

What little light there was that flickered from the candle wicks that dripped in wax and the dull light of the stained-glass windows illuminated the room in a warm fiery glow, the darkness reaching out form the walls and the floor with cold and chilling hands.

And in the center of it all, a man knelt in heavy and dark robes, the statues of his gods surrounding him as they were engraved into the walls. There is something odd about him, something cold, something quiet and yet like a snake it was bold.

Even as Lia watched him for several minutes, the fire illuminating her skin as she stood half cloaked in the darkness, she felt as though she couldn't move. As if the world was ushering her on to pry apart his man's mind and pull from it the very questions that still lingered in her head.

Questions she was even afraid to ask Cain.

"...You can come out now."

His voice cut through the air like a silent blade that cut and parted the flesh of an innocent victim as warm blood snaked down their skin. His voice was just as cold as he felt, his figure rising from the floor in seconds as if he were afloat, whisked away in the air and across the sky.

Lia didn't move, she didn't speak, nor did she breathe as the darkness enveloped her by a silent sign. But as the man stood his eyes peered out beyond the long rows of benches and chairs and into the darkness where she lingered, always hiding, but never hidden.

"If you are afraid, you mark the tenth today. People come in and they hide in the back rows of the benches, alone and always afraid of what comes tomorrow."

He turned his back to her and began to bow his head once more, bowing to the statues of his gods that looked on with stone eyed gazes and looks of pure and utter stillness.

"If you've come to pray, pray. I won't stop you."

Lia could feel her heart beating, and before she knew it her feet were already moving across the stone and her figure was dyed in the pale dull light of the evening sun, how it glowed beyond the storm clouds that danced overhead lingering in the sky. Like demons in the night.

She needed answers, even if it was from the devil himself.

"I've come for answers."

The man didn't bother to turn around, though Lia could feel he was smiling on the other side, watching the ground as the darkness danced around his feet like wisps in the wind.

"Then you will find them. Stay the night and tomorrow you will know."

"I haven't come to pray. I've come for another matter."

The man chucked, his dark robes bouncing under him as he fell to his knees slowly, carefully as if all the world was at his back and all the experience in the world was his to give.

"I know. The Duke has already sent word, so it is best you find some sleep."

"...so, his influence reaches out even here."

Lia shook her head; she could get mad at them later but for right now daylight was losing ground in the sky and she needed to be done with this place as fast as possible. Something about the small town and its stone cottages and large woods sent chills running up her spine.

Chills that creeped her to her core.

"I appreciate your offer, but sleep is for the weary. I need answers now, so -"

"And you will get them."

The man's voice was calm and silent like a whisper, but it left such an imprint on Lia that she didn't dare to speak again. Her mind was already called froth from the walls of the darkness it hid behind and her ears were set to attune and listen. Listen closely, closely…

Closely.

"If you walk out through those doors, you will find nothing. Nothing but broken people and false dreams, dreams of leaving and flying away like sparrow birds in the day. But if you sleep, give our mind rest and time to think, you will find the answer that you so desperately seek."

"...and what if I don't?"

His words were careful and cold, but Lia could feel something drawing about them, something that pulled her in and turned her ears towards his every word. He was smart with his words, he never said anything he didn't need to.

The man turned his head over his shoulder and peered into the darkness behind her, a look that Lia didn't catch, but one that held a great meaning behind his mask.

"Then you simply have to ask. But for now, sleep. My friend will guide you."

Suddenly a nun appeared from the side, her figure walking from the darkness as if she too was one of its touch one of its kind as the shadows lingered on the edges of her skin. She bowed her head and gestured to a small wooden side door that led deeper into the church.

She knew he shouldn't take the offer, he knew that she should have just walked away and found some inn a few buildings over, if they were open to strangers. But the man's words continued to echo in her head, and once again, Lia felt herself falling for his voice as she stepped forward and the door closed slowly behind her.

Like a silent hand that brought down the ax.

***

In the midst of a dark forest, deep in the misty woods, a lone man sat against a tree, contemplating his life. he lived well, through many ups and downs, though many friends and many enemies. There would always be others, there would always be a time after this one, but would come so soon?

The man didn't know.

Instead he looked up to the sky, the pale moonlight that fell through the crowded canopy, and lit up the undergrowth. It was a beautiful sight to see, but in the darkness of the sky he knew eyes were always witching him.

Just as he watched another.

Suddenly there was a shift in the air, a shift that no mortal would ever feel, but he felt it. He felt the way the trees howled and the sky darkened into black, disappearing behind a canopy of shadows. The world was getting ready for a change.

'They're finally moving. I guess I was a fool for believing I could keep this hidden. I wonder what they'll say when they find out?'

This would be fun to watch.