Braggarfall

[Marine]

Location: Braggarfall Our Saints Cathedral

Allistair had found Priest Mardahiem. A choir boy loitering the cathedral steps pointed his slouched figure sitting at the first pew's end, head down. Other shadows lingered within. Robed men hunched over racks of Our Lady Blessed Incense, sheparding a lit wicket across the rack, lilaq smoke drifting towards the rafters. Sunlight streamed broken colors, bathing him and the Priest in shifting hues. The incense smoke thickened.

When Allistair paused at the pew's arm, Mardahiem ignored him, mumbling into his robe cuff.

'Expecting me Priest?' Allitair inquired. The tails of his greatcoat swirled the fog of incense away.

"Many of our young boys aren't used to seeing..." He paused, delibrately. "You."

'Nonsense.' The inquistor sucked his teeth. 'Surely they saw what Inquisitor Loural did to your son?'

"Gregor was innocent, and they still took him to the pit. The inquisitor wouldn't let me keep his ashes and just smeared them in that damn book of his."

Allistair smiled. He wrapped a finger around the steel chain and pulled his diary enough for the filament title to show. Even with his head bowed, Mardahiem shivered. Allistair smiled.

'I simply keep a diary, Priest.'

The thick strands of hair rose slightly, enough to see the sloped forehead and the bridge of his nose. "To catalogue your dead. Each page with an imprint of the one you killed, innocent and not."

'Twenty heritics and creatures counting.' Allistair chimed. 'However, there's a page that's missing its entry.'

That straightened Mardahiem. His face was pudged, glistening with sweat. He refused to glance towards Allistair, his eyes wide like a child's. "I have done nothing Inquisitor!" He spat involuntarily.

'But you have.' Allistair crossed in front of Mardahiem and hovered his face near his, a pungent odor of barely between them. He could see moisture collecting in his eyes. 'And you have the privaledge of telling me.'

"Of what could interest you Inquisitor?"

'You ran into someone yesterday, coming out from the wood where you chop your lumber. Did he say anything to you?'

"I approached him." Marahiem locked gazes with Allistair. "When I was coming back from the pub."

'What would encourage a Priest to encroach said stranger?'

"I felt something about him, about his sword."

'A sword you say,' Allistair cooed venomously, 'and you still approached him?'

"Every creature deserves a chance Inquisitor.  I felt for the young man's safety, that blade was ill, it was cursed."

'What did he say?'

"Nothing much. Just confirmed my suspisions. I remember he wanted to get rid of it, inside Braggarfall."

Allistairs gaze narrowed. 'Did he now?'

Mardehiem wriggled in his place. "Yes sir."

'Did you catch his name?' The man shook his head. 'Then let me enlighten you.'

Allistair's hands were already flipping pages of his black journal. Each weathered page gave a glimpse into a life now expired, purged by his hands, and christined with their blood. Most of the pages remained pressed-new, however, the page his fingers stopped at were dyed red.

"God's Blood!"

'His name is Shadow. He's a Han'yo; half-daemon, half human. He inherited the ears of his father but the vessel skin of the mother, and looks like a human mutt.'  Allistair smiled again, watching the pupils across fom his grow wide, screaming. 'Would you like to know how I know?'

He let Mardehiem rise from the piew. "You're mad."

The moment felt perfect. Terror gripped his eyes as Allistair pressed the pages towards him, each markd with a stain of blood. His pupils reflected Allistairs scripture of 'Daemon' and 'Human' underneath.

"I killed his parents."