51: Hero
Lucian stood before an incredibly large crowd of the monastics of Heavenwatch Monastery. All of them looked beyond unsettled. He couldn’t exactly blame them. In one fell swoop a demon had invaded their home and their powers had been stripped from them. Worse yet, Lucian was the cause of most of it. People called out to Lucian, but their voices were too closely intertwined to make out anyone in particular. Eventually, one authoritative voice cut above them all.
“Lucian!” Abbess Dorothea called, moving through the quieting crowd. The wound that she sustained in the fight against Metterand’s devil had faded, evidently healed. “What’s happened?” She looked around frantically before focusing on him. “What have you done?”
Lucian looked at the crowd. They were all waiting for him for answers. Aurelia still looked shaken—he needed to move quickly before she snapped out of it. His experience with his unnamed benefactor had taught him that honesty might be the best policy.
“I’ve put the Mentor’s Seal on all of you,” Lucian shouted. “And I swear to you that I’ll remove it as soon as I’m certain that we’re all safe.”
There were various reactions from the crowd, ranging from indignance to disbelief. These people were decent enough not to immediately form a mob to lynch him. Even if they were diminished, they had enough numbers to overwhelm him easily. Some of them still trained in more conventional arts despite possessing a divine beast form. In other words, he wasn’t out of the woods yet.
“Safe?” Dorothea said, walking forward. She stopped a healthy distance away. “A devil invades our home and our powers vanish shortly thereafter. You have a strange definition of safety, Lucian, if you truly have taken away our means to defend ourselves.”
Lucian had to be careful about how he approached this. The evidence was on his side, but public goodwill for Aurelia was much higher than his own.
“I had to act without informing you because there was a rogue element among you,” Lucian said. “She intended to seal the forms of every divine beast except for themselves. You’d be powerless to resist her after that. Instead… I sealed everyone’s forms. I swear to all of you that I will release your seal when the situation is cleared.”
“Rogue element?” Dorothea said in disbelief. “Who do you mean? Do you imply that demons have infiltrated Heavenwatch Monastery? Who would you accuse?”
Lucian took a deep breath. He couldn’t accuse Aurelia outright. He needed to present the evidence as objectively as possible and allow them to come to their own conclusions. This would be a very delicate process. One mistake, and it’d be all over. He’d need to conjure maximum brain power. It would require the utmost deliberation and care, the best arguments the world had ever—
“It was me,” Aurelia said.
Lucian looked at her in disbelief. Well… that works.
Aurelia collapsed to the ground, crying. Dorothea looked like her brain was short-circuiting. Lucian wasn’t much more comported than the abbess. He had no idea what she was planning.
“Aurelia?” Dorothea said in disbelief. “What did you just say?”
“The devils…” she said in between sobs. “Dorry, they… they acted through me. I was powerless to resist. I told you…” She looked up with a tear-streaked face. “I told you that I was a cursed child. Told you that you should’ve killed me!”
Things clicked into place in Lucian’s head immediately. Aurelia knew that the evidence against her was overwhelming. Rather than try to deny it, she was attempting a plea deal. She would confess to her crimes on her terms, obfuscating her culpability. He had to admit, her acting was convincing.
“Lucian, you…!” Dorothea looked between Aurelia and him, clearly distressed. “What did you—"
Aurelia stood up and moved between Dorothea and himself. “Please don’t blame Lucian. He’s not responsible for any of this. He saved all of you.” She choked back a sob. “He saved all of you… from me.” She looked back, where only Lucian could see her face. It was one of uneasy pleading. “He’s a hero.”
Lucian stood before the crowd, which had calmed considerably. He didn’t know what to make of this yet.
***
Lucian lifted up his head when Dorothea exited her chambers. She shut the door behind her, then walked up to Lucian.
“Her body has been purified with holy magic. It’ll be impossible for demons to establish contact with her through her dreams,” Dorothea explained.
“Are you sure of that? If there’s even the slightest chance—”
“We did it thrice, once by myself, and twice by the best holy spellcasters among us,” Dorothea interrupted.
Lucian shifted on his feet uneasily. Demonic influence could be purged with holy magic. Why didn’t everyone just do that? Well, for one, it required a great deal of expertise in holy magic—expertise in short supply. And for two, it had been standard policy… until the Inquisition abused that power to unjustly invade people’s homes and imprison people under false pretenses indefinitely.
“I understand your concern,” Dorothea said earnestly, meeting his gaze. “She told me what you are.”
Confused?
“The Last Inquisitor,” Dorothea said. “A hunter of demons. She told me that you employ their methods against them to hunt them. Is that right?”
Reluctantly, Lucian nodded. There wasn’t anything technically untrue about that.
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“Lucian…” Dorothea reached out and took his hand, and he narrowed his eyes. “I love her so much. She’s so, so very dear to me… she’s like a daughter. A precious daughter. She’s all my hopes and dreams bundled up into one package of joy.”
Lucian gaped, unsure of what to say.
“When people call her cursed, I… I just saw a beautiful little baby girl. I lost my daughters, you see, and she lost her parents. She… she filled that hole I had. I tried to do the same for her.” Dorothea wiped away tears. “She’s my little baby. My little girl. When I see her suffer like that, I just want to steal away her pain, make it my own. I wish I could bleed for her. I wish I could be sick so that she never is.”
Dorothea took a moment to collect herself. Lucian felt his throat seize up hearing the abbess. He almost saw his own mother for a moment. Was she crying about him like this? He missed her. He should’ve called her more. Now…
“Please. I would do anything, Lucian,” Dorothea said, holding his hand tightly. He tried to dismiss those errant thoughts of home, but they lingered. “Anything at all. I would give you everything in my power.”
“What do you mean?” Lucian raised a brow.
“…she’s asked to see you. To discuss what should be done about her,” Dorothea said, comporting herself. “When you two have come to a consensus, I’ll be waiting.”
At that, the abbess walked away. Lucian watched her for a moment, and then turned to the door to meet Aurelia. With a breath to steel himself, he entered. Aurelia sat up in a bed, covered in blankets. Lucian shut the door.
“The hell are you doing?” Lucian asked.
Aurelia stared back at him. “Trying to survive.”
Lucian walked a little closer, but kept his distance. She could try anything.
“Perhaps you had cause to treat me like an idiot. You certainly played me like one,” Aurelia said, her shrewd yellow eyes watching him with as much unease as he felt. “And now that all the cards are on the table, I’d prefer to choose a winning hand.”
“You’ve been plotting to enslave all the people of this monastery for most of your life,” Lucian said. “And when you learned that you might not be able to do that, your first response was to plan a slaughter. I know full well what you’re capable of.”
Aurelia smiled. “Then you should know that I’m capable of helping you just as much as I was capable of helping the First Emperor.”
“If you want to help me, kill yourself,” Lucian said bluntly.
Aurelia’s smile stopped. Death was her preeminent occupation. Aurelia feared death more than anything in this world. It was why she had sought out nine lives. Actually, she’d sought out immortality, but all she got was nine lives.
Shoot for the stars, you might hit the moon.
“The only thing that I want is my life,” Aurelia said.
“What a coincidence. That’s all I want, too,” Lucian retorted.
Aurelia’s neck vein bulged as she smiled. “Let’s take death off the bargaining table.”
“Only if we’re putting it six feet under.”
Aurelia’s mask fell. “What exactly did I do to you? Why are you doing this to me?”
“Were you listening? Or do you not realize how utterly—” Lucian trailed off, and he scoffed in disbelief. “Listen. I’m not going to try and teach you empathy. You… are a dog with rabies. You need to be put down, for your own sake as much as everyone else’s.”
Aurelia held her arms out. “You’ve taken my power. I’m as weak as anyone mundane out there, now. On top of that, I’ve confessed that demons manipulate my actions. Every single person in this monastery is going to be watching me day and night for anything odd. You’ve cut me off from the demons, you’ve sealed my power, you’ve ruined my reputation. What more do you want?”
Lucian shook his head. “100% certainty.”
“If you kill me, you’ll leave this place, at best, as an ally with a troubled introduction,” Aurelia said. “They may help you, but they’ll never do it wholeheartedly.”
Lucian chuckled. “I’m sure they’ll overcome their grief when we’re killing your beloved First Emperor and all of his cronies.”
“On the contrary, if you spare me, I’ve already demonstrated that I can make these people support you with all of their being,” Aurelia continued.
“I never expected to leave here with an alliance,” Lucian said, half-bluffing. It was a stretch goal.
“I want to live,” Aurelia said fiercely.
“Should’ve come to that conclusion while you were painstakingly carving those demonic rituals,” Lucian said. “Plenty of time. Each little skull character, each bone-looking letter. You must have reflected on death a lot.”
She clenched her hands together. “Can’t someone change?”
“Not rabid dogs.”
“Healers cure rabies all of the time!” Aurelia protested.
Lucian gritted his teeth together. “You’re not staying in this monastery any longer.”
“I could come with you,” she suggested frantically.
“Please, that’s enough. I don’t need more reasons to kill you,” Lucian cautioned.
Aurelia sat on the edge of her bed. “You saw how powerful I am. You saw how I can help you take down your enemies. I could follow along, and when the time is right, you could use me against your foes.”
“I don’t have a leash your size.”
Aurelia stood. “You do have a leash! You have the Mentor’s Seal. That provides you total control over my transformation, and renders me incapable of hurting you in my Divine Beast form. The moment I try, I’m forcibly shifted back. You can break my transformation any time you will, and then I’ll be powerless once more. If that isn’t a leash… what is?”
Lucian sighed. Frankly, he shouldn’t even be having this discussion. But hell, even Heisenberg had to make sure the guy was going to kill him with the broken plate before breaking out the old bike lock choke technique. All he could think about was Dorothea crying, begging, pleading. Old ladies crying—his true weakness.
“…god damn it.” Lucian closed his eyes. “I wish I were more like you.”
“You do?”
“Being a soulless, cold-blooded abomination that should’ve been smothered in the crib would make this a hell of a lot easier.” Lucian sighed again, then turned around. He paused at the doorway.
Lucian took off his belt, and then set it on a nearby dresser. He tapped it a few times. “In case you change your mind.” He pointed to the rafters, then left.
Aurelia was trapped in here. Lucian wasn’t. He needed to gather all of the evidence available—all of it—and present it.