Chapter 110: Our Turn
A bloody sight welcomed Valens beyond the main gate of the Cathedral. Lines of men lying in their own dirt, being attended by prayers and lifemana of the Priests. It was busy work in the Blessed Father’s house, and those faces looked lost and confused more than ever.
Garran led them through the din with his sword clasped tight in his hands, people giving way as he and Dain bounded across with golden plates shining. Valens appreciated the fact that they were known here, unlike him, who happened to be a new recruit with not a lot to show for it.
These are all young men and women. Look at those faces. They don’t even know what the hell has happened.
Silencing the voices that told him men were dying around him proved disturbingly painful as he moved past them. He wished he couldn’t hear the frequencies—the gushing of blood and the sorrow of the cries, of the coughs and the choking tears, of the death creeping slowly to claim its price.
All for a bigger purpose, he reminded himself. He wasn’t a small gear in the giant machine that was the Empire now. Back then, his sole duty was to attend the wounded and think not much about it. Heal the wounded and get back, wait for the orders to come around.
Here, he was out searching for the one behind all of this. That was a mission beyond his troubles. A duty above anything else that he had ever done.
Trouble was, the voices weren’t just muttering about the Healer within him. They tried reaching for the Mage, telling him that it was high time he cast the other side into the oblivion. Let go of the pain and the past—become a man of his own. This had nothing to do with him. So long as he embraced these urges and let the Apathy take control, he wouldn’t have to endure this heavy pressure.
That’d be the easy way of doing this.
Felt like a coward’s thinking, however.
“I’m not made for this place,” Nomad grunted after him, dragging himself, wincing down the hallway, lips stretched into a tight frown. “Not entirely made out of sacred material, you see? These walls are creeping over me.”
“Don’t worry,” Valens said, waving a finger at him. “I’ll put a stop to them if they ever get too close.”
“Right,” Nomad forced out a smile. “Forgot I have you here.”