Tyrannus looked, calmer than usual. Perhaps it was the few days of test that he was afforded since Verlate and he had been back since their last recon mission. Perhaps his calm demeanor was just a front for his sinister nature. She knew that if he drew any suspicion if he were hiding something, it would end very poorly for him. Or perhaps he was just being set up? Was he truly behind any of this? Or was he simply a red herring? She didn’t know, she could no longer trust her instincts on who she could trust, and who she couldn’t. Tyrannus always stood out to her, he was somebody that she felt like she could never truly trust, yet she trusted Alarotha’s judgment of him. Was she wrong? Was Tyrannus behind these events? Just how many people has he killed? Verlate snapped out of her thoughts, she would get to the bottom of this.

Tyrannus was speaking with one of the other members of the Wilted Rose. There was a priest not too far off. He wouldn’t be talking about anything suspicious in front of them. She cursed under her breath. Why would he even do this? Is it the bans against necromancy? He must know that we all share the pains that he does. It wasn’t only his freedoms that were stolen from him, all of our freedoms were stolen. She walked closer to him, trying to figure out who exactly he was talking to, and what he was talking about. The hallways felt much brighter than before. Although the dark stone seemed to just absorb the light, rather than reflect it sometimes. She leaned up against one of the walls. Tyrannus looked over at her. She felt her whole body quiver. He looked away, he must have not noticed who she was. It was easy to blend in with the crowds here, and she tried to keep her pin hidden from his view. If he knew that an Apostle was following him, that would be trouble for her. She kept her face hidden as much as she could. Where was Sisyphus? She looked around the hall, yet she didn’t see them anywhere. She shook her head. He would be around, somewhere. He didn’t have any personal stake in this war against the necromancers, he wouldn’t help them unless perhaps they had more riches than Alarotha. She inhaled the surrounding air, did it smell nicer than usual? There was no way that they had more riches than Alaortha, and Sisyphus had known her for years. Yet she knew Tyrannus for years too, could Alarotha trust Sisyphus like she once trusted Tyrannus? She started hyperventilating. She carefully moved her hand over her heart. It was running, as if it wanted to escape from Verlate’s own body. Had she ever felt like this before? She steadied her breathing. There was no use getting emotional, especially here. She needed to remain calm, there would be time for grief, and fear later. Right now, she just needed to steady herself, and think.

Tyrannus ended his conversation with one of the other members and started walking down past her. He looked over right at her. Verlate locked eyes with him. Tyrannus grinned from ear to ear. “Verlate!” He exclaimed. “It’s good to see you again, how have you been.” Verlate looked around. One of the paladins was looking right at them, staring. She could tell that they were sneering underneath that helmet. She looked around some more. Where was Sisyphus? Tyrannus was right in front of her, and he was trying to talk to her, she needed some backup if things were to go south.

Verlate smiled at Tyrannus. “It’s good to see you, too, and I’m glad that you’re safe.” She took a moment to take a breath. “Have you seen anything suspicious as of late?” He asked.

Tyrannus rubbed his chin in thought. “No, I haven’t seen anything new around here, really.” He looked away from her, towards the paladin down the hallway, just a little bit. “That being said, I’m not really sure what to think that’s strange, or what’s not strange anymore.” He said. Verlate silently agreed with him. He turned back towards her. “Have you found anything new recently?” He asked.

Verlate shook her head. “Nothing of late, which I suppose could be seen as a good thing.” She said, “Although, that could just mean that they know about me now, and are purposefully hiding their tracks.” She peered at him. He looked a little, uneasy. Did she reveal too much? Is he aware of what she’s trying to do? She had to treat him like he was an enemy, at least for right now.

Tyrannus shook his head. “Well, I better head off, don’t really want to draw any suspicion with them,” he said, nodding his head towards the paladin in the background. She looked back over at them. They were definitely keeping an eye on both of them. She nodded at Tyrannus.

Yeah, we should head off.” She put a hand on his shoulder. “Stay safe out there, alright?” She said. Tyrannus smiled at her. And walked off, back to where he came from. He wandered down the hall just a little bit more. He playfully made a gesture toward the paladin, and as Tyrannus walked past, they shook their head.

She had to follow him, but she couldn’t be spotted once more. She knew these hallways, if she took an alternate route, she might be able to head inside his room, when he wasn’t close to it.

Verlate gritted her teeth. She needed to be fast. She hurried in the opposite direction Tyrannus walked down. The hallway was much longer than she remembered, or perhaps it just felt longer. Her chest thumped faster and faster. Her heart would not quiet down. There was a small break in the hallway, that led to the left. She went down that direction. There should be a few more left turns that would lead her to Tyrannus’ room. She walked down the hallway. She passed by many doors, all of them either house or once housed another member of her order. Were they still with her? Were they still her allies, friends, family? Who could she still trust? Could she still even trust Sisyphus or Alarotha? She shook her head. Thought like that would do her no good here. Her best course of action here, and forever, would be to focus on her mission. She took another left turn.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

She was getting closer now. She steadied her breathing. She could be watched by anybody here now. She fiddled with the dagger that she had on her belt. It was easily accessible. If she needed a bigger weapon, she had her shovel back in her room. That would take time. Time that she didn’t know if she even had. She took the last left, Tyrannus’ room would be on the right side soon enough. There was a priest passing her by. At least she knew that they wouldn’t betray her, their hatred was on full display. It didn’t matter if there were any renegades within her order, they wanted to cut down The Wilted Rose all the same. She found Tyrannus’ room. Her heart felt like it was going to explode now. It was beating so fast that it felt like it was no longer beating.

She grabbed the doorknob. And twisted it. Locked, of course, it was, why would anybody leave their door unlocked? She glanced around the hallway. There was nobody around right now. She sighed. And walked back a bit.

“He better be up to something.” She muttered to herself. She raised her leg up, and slammed the door with the heel of her foot. The lock easily broke, swinging the door wide open. Verlate quickly ran into the room and shut the door behind her. The door looked, like it wasn’t damaged too much, hopefully

She shook her head. And started scanning the room. The room was, cluttered, very cluttered. It was hard to tell what was what. There were clothes on his bed, next to tomes. There was, what she assumed was, an empty water skin across the dark wood floor. Empty alcohol bottles were everywhere as well, on the floor, the bed, the desk. Some of the alcohol even came from Drunkard’s Folly, where Sisyphus’ people were at. There had to be something in here. She started throwing around pieces of clothes, and trash across the floor. Tyrannus would know his room was broken into, it was better to just go through this area as quickly as possible. She threw one of the bottles behind her. Then a tome, then some of the clothes. Nothing, nothing on the floor there.

“Shit.” She muttered. Even going at this pace, there was so much garbage all over the room that it was impossible to find anything. She had to find something, and fast. It’s possible that he was just hiding something in the clutter, it was also possible for him to just be extremely lazy, or possibly both. She signed, there must be something round here. She scanned the room once more. The bottles? It was hard to hide something in the bottles. Perhaps in the corks? She scanned the room. There were several corks strewn across the room. Verlate picked one of them up. She turned it in between her fingers. Nothing. Nothing there to find at all. What about in his sheets? Perhaps he had something hidden on his bed. Or maybe even under his bed? She rushed over to the bed and threw the sheets off the bed. Crumbs, more bottles, and more books. She checked under the bed. It was dark, very dark. She reached down there. There was a large cluster of bottles around there. She grabbed one of the bottles. It was an import? An expensive one, too. Did he steal this one? He couldn’t have bought it with just the money that he’d earned. She shook her head and threw the bottle.

She wondered just how much time she’d spent in the room. A minute, maybe two? Couldn’t have been that long now. Yet, every moment that she spent here was another moment where she could have been caught. She climbed back from the floor. Was she wrong? Was Tyrannus innocent the whole time? She knew that he was sympathetic to her plight, and didn’t mind being around her with Broer and Sedulur. He might still be following the rules, only being sympathetic. She sighed, just one last thing. There might be one more thing that she didn’t see around here. Perhaps the books? It wasn’t out of the question. People would often hollow out books to hide something within them. She grabbed one of the tomes on his bed. She quickly flipped through the pages. Nothing was hidden or hollowed out at all. Some of the pages had wear and tear on them. She put down the tome she had, and picked up another book. She flipped through those pages. Nothing there either. She started slowly flipping through the book in revere slowly. Perhaps he wasn’t a suspect, at least he didn’t hide anything in his room. Even still, there were others out there that she could look into. Somebody else who might -

There was a slight, slimy residue on one of the pages there. What was that? She rubbed it on her fingers. It wasn’t residue, it was an object, something held together. She dropped the book. What is this, thing? It felt, familiar. Was it blood? IT couldn’t be, it was cloudy and fresh. The book would have dried it out. She had just assumed when she first saw it, it was the wear and tear of the book. Flesh? It would have been a really thin piece of flesh. Her heart sank. She knew what this was. It was a slice from an eyeball. Was it from a human? Perhaps it had only come from an animal. She cast a small spell on it. It resonated, when she touched it, she felt the touch in the corner of her mind. She lowered her head. It was from a human. Her mind started racing. Where was Tyrannus right now? What did he want? Who was helping him? Was he following her every move? She heard a small knock at the door. She twisted towards the door.

“You find what you needed?” Compassiun said.