Deep Sea

'Cainhurst, what are you plotting again?' Lady Maria was deep in thought as she led Karla towards her quarters. The Upper Cathedral Ward was directly linked to the hunter's tower. It was there where direct disciples of the first hunters resided. Hunters in Yharnam were countless. Some were mingled in the street, others were part of the healing church while other displayed themselves outside proudly.

The reason behind that was for hunters to precisely predict anomalies and remove it before it spread. The beastly scourge was dangerous. It was spreading fast and hunters had to cut the root of evil before it sprouted. Thus, hunters were everywhere "protecting the people". Citizens didn't seem to mind their presence everywhere. However, hunters dreaded the spies.

There too many kinds of spies in the city. Some were foreigners who came to the city to steal its secrets. Others were appointed from the castle to spy on the healing church. There were also hunters from the order hiding in plain sight. Their job was to observe and notify their direct supervisors if anything abnormal was noticed. It didn't matter if the abnormality came from a citizen or a fellow hunter. There was no room for mistakes with the Order of Hunters.

Lady Maria was originally a direct descendant of the queen of Cainhurst Annalise. She could feel a trace of Cainhurst blood in Karla. She just couldn't link her to the Castle. She was an outsider. She definitely looked the sort. Moreover, outsiders who are transferred to Cainhurst never leave the castle ever again. 'None of this makes any sense. The queen will never let a slave out of her grasp no matter what.'

Yharnam was after all in a fierce political battle against Cainhurst. Lady Maria was part of the hunters though. It was only due to Gehrman's trust that she was allowed into the Order and the Healing Church. The Healing Church was wary of people of Cainhurst. To make matters worse, she was directly related to the queen, which made the Healing Church doubt her even more.

However, Laurence seemed to have accepted Lady Maria after Gehrman's convinced him of her true intentions. She was even granted a prominent position within the Healing Church. She only wished to rid the world of the beastly scourge that had plagued them all. Most of all, she was a skilled hunter, second only to Gehrman and Laurence. Some even suspected that she was stronger than Laurence.

As she walked down the tower, she would occasionally glance at Karla. The mysterious lady looked amazed by the interior of the tower. Her gaze was everywhere as she seemed to absorb every little detail of the place. This increased Lady Maria's suspicion towards Karla.

Little did she know that Karla was helplessly contemplating the place and comparing it to its future state. She felt horrified. She was still unable to tell when she was. After all, Karla didn't know who Laurence or Gehrman were. She heard legends about the founder of the healing church, but she never listened when Surgit and Francis spoke about it.

Karla was simply lost in her contemplation. She was afraid to witness the fall of the Hunter's Order. The Old Hunters were mostly all wiped out by the time she and her party landed in Yharnam. She didn't know what led to that state, but she knew that the event that led to it might lead to her death as well. She needed to find a way out and come back to when she came from. The chair was her only hope. But she secretly suspected the hunters to have retrieved it.

In fact, Laurence was studying the chair with great interest. Lady Maria hadn't disturbed him yet to announce that Karla awoke. She knew though that he wanted to interrogate her personally. From looking at Karla however, Lady Maria knew that she didn't have any arcane powers. She wasn't even a hunter to begin with, so she couldn't control Arcane.

She suspected Laurence of going mad. He saw everything as a threat and was deeply absorbed in studying the beastly scourge. His discovery of healing blood was heavily clouded by the beast plague that appeared with it. 'There has been a number of foreigners suddenly showing up in Yharnam lately.' Lady Maria was absorbed in thought again as they descended the deep tower.

Beside her, Karla didn't speak a word. She silently walked while listening to the sound of their heels hitting the floor. She was too mesmerized by the majesty of the tower. She had observed this tower from afar while waiting for Francis to come out of it earlier. She didn't think it would have been this beautiful on the inside.

The circular tower was composed of many floors that extended forever under the ground. Karla felt like she was sinking towards the center of the earth. Each floor had dark brown wooden floors. In each floor there were different doors that led to God knows where. Karla couldn't access them at that moment.

There were large chandeliers that could hold up to 50 candles hanging on each floor. Sometimes, they would cross someone who had just entered a door to the tower. A gentle breeze would follow and wash over Karla's face. The person would immediately greet Lady Maria respectfully and leave hurriedly.

Lady Maria stopped at a door and opened it. She led Karla inside a small tunnel which gave way to a beautiful square. In the middle of the square there was a large well from which one could fetch water. "The house on the left is where you'll reside from now on," Lady Maria's melodious voice reached Karla's ears. "You will be provided with fresh water to bathe in. There are different sets of clothes in your room inside. Have a nice bath and change your clothes, you don't look like you belong here." Karla had been given patient clothes during her ministration. Lady Maria had come to find her immediately after she woke up.

"I will come back to see you in the morning. For now have a rest, your body still needs to adjust after the ministration. There will be a woman inside to answer to your needs, do not hesitate to call on her." With that the fair lady left Karla and turned towards the tunnel she came from.

"Has our mystery lady been appraised?" asked an old man as soon as Lady Maria entered the tower again. "She's definitely hiding something, but I can't put my finger on it. These foreigners are becoming a real pain in the ass." Lady Maria smile had disappeared completely. She frowned as she unconsciously went for her weapon in its sheath. "We'll carefully observe her and make our own conclusions. For now there's the matter of the fishing hamlet that we need to discuss."

At the mention of the fishing village, Lady Maria turned towards the man. "Did they find anything?" The old man in front of her smiled as he said: "A deep, bottomless sea."