“My imprisonment is becoming increasingly more difficult to tolerate, lady priestess. I have written letters to the captain of the guard, the temple and even to the court and the head temple at the capital. Why must I still remain here to suffer?”
“I ask you for patience, Mr. Calavius. The looming war and its related preparations and precautions are making everything move increasingly slower. You would not even be here if it wasn’t for those in the first place.”
“Because you lot changed the papers?! I departed from Praelia merely a fortnight before arriving here. I was told at the embassy that all of my papers were in order to pass through any city and town in Limani! Yet you lot just had to change it up!”
“Your anger is understandable. I know that your words are genuine and you have my trust and support. But we do not have the authority to give orders to the guard. Much of this is outside of my power to resolve without having to convince the right people. I…I am sad to say that the rough encounter with the guards upon your arrival did not help your case. Some among them have accused you of being unruly.”
“Unruly?! Why those oafish- Haaaaghhhhh!”
The man cried out in pain as he grabbed the side of his head.
He drew in quick breaths as he steadied himself.
“Sister, I - Haaaaghhhhh!”
The pain resumed once more, now stronger than a moment prior. He gritted his teeth as he tried to fight back the burning sensation inside his skull and soon started to hyperventilate.
This had become a regular event during their conversations and she was told that the same was true when she wasn’t there. The poor man needed help, that was beyond doubt, yet his words over the last few days had caused worry to creep into her own heart for the first time in many years.
Eventually the man composed himself.
“Sister…I pray that you must never go through this. I pray that God shows more mercy to you than he did to me. We are blameless in this. All of us Tempered are. Yet this is an inevitable outcome for all that are blessed by the heavens. Sadly, the question is always “when” and never “if”.”
The azure priestess grabbed the bars of the jail cell.
“Do not say that brother. I will help you. You will not be left to fight this alone. And I shall not face the same fate. I am fine. All others that I have met are fine. You are the exception, brother. God has not forsaken us. He does not punish us who are blameless. Please keep your faith.”
At her response, the man could only muster a dry laughter.
“Hahaha…oh, how I wish that I could believe you sister, but your fortunate lack of knowledge is the only source of that unshakeable faith of yours. The writings of those that came before us did not lie. The voices that we are cursed with do not lie. We must find our end. Our saving end. I must go beyond the crystal wall and I can only pray that you will be able to join me there someday.”
After that, the man, as usual, devolved in a series of mad ramblings. He spoke of shapeless horrors biting at his flesh as he drowned in waters deeper and darker than the night, of beasts with scales like crimson gemstones which could sink mountains beneath each stride that they took, of great armies of legend led astray by deceivers cloaked in brilliance, some of the flesh and some of mind.
On and on he went and the priestess’ heart hurt. It threatened to break at the sight of this poor soul who she could feel such a kinship with. Never had she been so powerless to help a man who she could feel that God desired her to protect.
Fighting back her sorrow, the robed priestess took two steps sideways in order to look at the person inside the next jail cell.
He was unmoving, leaning against the wall and hunched over, slumped over himself as he grabbed one of his legs by the knee, as she could see that the other one was extended, as it peaked out from underneath his cloak. The rays of the moonlight falling directly on him, as they came in from his cell window, made him look like a porcelain construct. If it were not for the splatters of dried blood on his garments, he could have easily been mistaken by an abandoned doll with its strings cut off.
“Kenos Tehom”, the priestess called.
The child did not respond.
“Kenos Tehom!”, she tried again, empathising the frustration in her voice.
The boy’s head moved and he looked at her. Some years ago, those same words would have made him shower her with scorn, but right now, he could only muster a vacuous sense of apathy.
“What do you want?”
“That is no way to address your caretakers, boy!”, she reprimanded.
“Boy…”, the youth said, with ushed melancholy. “Well, that is more accurate, at least….to what do I owe this visit, oh priestess of the stars?”
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“Is that derision I hear, child?”
Ever so slightly, his lips curled upwards.
“It must just be your imagination”
“Mayhaps…I was expecting you to be more respectful in this situation”
“How come?”
“Most children your age would be trying to get on an adult’s good side if said adult could help make their punishment end quicker”
“Maybe I just am not the type to beg”
“Maybe you just feel comfortable here”
They looked at each other in silence and the atmosphere grew tenser with each passing second.
Eventually it was the priestess that broke the silence, loosening her shoulders of all tension.
“So which one was it last time?”, she asked.
It was a few moments before the boy finally answered.
He nudged his head to the left, pointing forward all the while.
“That one”
“And before that?”, she asked.
He pointed rightwards with his head.
“The one where the noisy creep is at”
“And before that?”, she asked again.
“Different jail. They don’t use it much anymore”, the boy said.
“All that and you still kept at it”, she bemoaned.
“Perhaps you are right. Maybe I just find this routine comfortable”, the boy smirked.
“Very funny Kenos…how are you feeling?”
“Not as bad as I could be feeling”
“How is your back?”
The boy didn’t answer.
“What was the count?”, she pried further.
“…ice”, the boy said, in a hushed tone.
“The count, Kenos”, she insisted.
“They did it twice. Happy now?”
“As if I could be happy with what you did.”, she retorted.
The boy scoffed at her and buried his face in his clothes once more.
“Since when have you been carrying knives around Kenos?”, she asked.
The boy didn’t answer.
“Do you bring them with you into the temple? Are you around the other children while concealing them?”
“What is this, a lecture?”, Kenos asked, annoyed. “Why are you bothered with that? It isn’t like I have ever had to use them on someone.”
“And the fact that you didn’t back then and, frankly, not ever, is perhaps the only reason why you just might be able to get out of here without too large a punishment. A single occurrence of hurting someone with them in your past would have probably crushed any hopes that you could have now.”
“Well, wasn’t that fortunate. I guess keeping myself away from all the worthless chowder all this time paid some dividends after all.”
“Very rudely put together, but I suppose that even you understand the value of temperance.”
“It is almost as if someone with my habits needs to learn to be patient.”
“Your habits perhaps, but you yourself are a different story. You have always been the impulsive sort”
“…”, the boy said nothing.
“I suppose that we can go straight to the main topic then. Why did you do that?”, she inquired.
“You can figure that one out, I am sure”, he retorted.
“No, Kenos, I can’t. You have always pilfered from others, but this sort of thing isn’t like you. Even if something changed and now you actually wished to become a killer, you are smart enough to at least wait for nightfall…”
“So I ask you again, child. Why did you do this?”
The boy said nothing for several moments.
“Instinct… I suppose”, he answered.
“Instinct?”
“I only noticed when he passed me by, but that guy had something that I needed.”, the youth said.
“Which was?”, she asked.
“Aaaaaaahhhh… I haven’t had it in so long”, he said, suddenly lost in his own thoughts.
“I wanted it again… I could smell it on him.”, he continued.
Then he paused and all that could be heard in the jail cell was a low growl.
The boy’s voice changed. His tone was a lot more guttural, raw and animalistic, as if belonging to someone else entirely.
“But it was a lie! He didn’t have it! A trick! A forgery! A trace too far removed to be called even a scrap!”
“Get a grip on yourself, Kenos!”, the priestess reprimanded.
The boy looked at her with genuine surprise in his eyes.
Then he chuckled.
“Ah, sorry, sorry. I have been playing out that scene in my mind so much, trying to figure out what came over me back then, that I guess finally talking about it made me lose myself for a moment.”
The priestess breathed an audible sigh.
“You have always been difficult to handle, Kenos. You have always wanted things too strongly, be they big or small.”. The priestess paused, steeling herself for her own words. “We at the temple have overlooked and even tolerated your thievery because you never took anything from the other children or the staff, but this thing that you have done, to destroy a man’s arm like you did is not easily forgiven. Almost no one among the staff wants to pay any heed to your situation.”
“If it helps my case, I can tell you that that man was probably not a good person”, the boy replied.
“And how do you know such a thing?”, she inquired.
“Call it gut feeling. The thing that I smelled on that man is not something that any good or respectable person should have been in possession of or in contact with. He even looked more frightened of the fact that guards were coming to help him than the random youth from the crowd randomly deciding to break his hand. He probably has something that he wants to keep hidden from the guards and that is never a good sign.”, Kenos explained.
For a few moments there was silence.
“Why should I believe any of what you said and inconvenience a man currently recovering in the medical ward?”
“It is in your interests to make sure that the peace is kept within this town, right? If someone has a decent likelihood of corrupting the streets with shady dealings, is it not against your personal morals to allow this to happen, priestess? Do it as a favour to God’s trust in you and do it as a favour to one of the children under your care.”
“And all of this is going off of your gut feeling?”
“I am in this cell right now because of nothing but gut feeling and instincts that I can’t put my finger on.”, he looked her right in the eyes and smiled. “If the gossip is anything to go by, has not much of your own troubled life been driven by much the same?”
“Ah! So she is! It is true! The intuition will one day grow into overwhelming discord! It is as inevitable as fire consuming –“
“Shut! Up!”, the priestess reprimanded the man.
“Even those old, concocted tales still attribute any wrongdoing to a gift to follow God’s virtue.”, she countered, steadying her breathing. “I am a servant of the divine and you Kenos, unfortunately, are still just a sinful child.”
“Am I?”, he said, as he raised both hands above his head, exposing everything from his forearm up to the chill of the night. “You may not believe me, priestess, but there are no sins staining these hands of mine. By my faith, I swear on it. May my heart be damned if it lies to me in this hour.”
The woman paused, knowing full well the weight of the boy’s words upon his own consciousness. Despite all his faults, this child had never showed anything but respect for their faith and was one of the most devoted believers that she had ever laid eyes upon.
Yet strangely God never told her to look out for this child.
“Honesty can only take you so far, boy…still, your behaviour upon your capturing may be used to argue that you do not look down upon the law too much, all things considered. Very well, I shall make attempts to help you. There is someone dear to me that would not take kindly to knowing that I did not try to help someone that they cared for.”
“Leo?”, the boy could think of no one else that it could be.
“No. the one that cares for you is Aporia, the young Vermillion. I have been counselling her on her worship whenever I have had the chance lately and she has told me that she has been praying for you for a while now. It is not merely the boys you spend time with that think of you, Kenos. You should become more aware of that.”
The priestess left, walking up the stairs and closing the heavy wooden door behind her, leaving only silence in her wake.
The quietness persisted, unperturbed by neither words nor footsteps.
She has been praying for me?, the jade-eyed boy thought.
He looked at his hands, then his arms, then the torso hidden behind his clothes and finally his legs.
He took in all of himself, in his entirety.
I see…so that is what has been going on…
The boy smiled and could feel his left cheek grow colder as a single tear make its way down his face and coalesced around his lips.
“Thank you, God”, the boy murmured.
With his hope rekindled, for the first time in what felt like an eternity, he turned his eyes towards the window in his cell.
He beheld the eery glow of the moon, which bathed the town in its nurturing light.
He admired the fiery radiance of the stars, righteously gazing down upon the world of man.
And he surveyed the grim darkness of the night sky, deep and unknowable like the Abyss of legend.
He took in all the brilliance and all the eeriness of the heavens above in their entirety and accepted them and loved them without question.
For this child cherished the night sky more feverishly than anyone else.
Yet he caught himself. He wiped the mix of tears and saliva from the corner of his mouth.
“Aaaaaaa…what a beautiful night…”
