Alex didn’t know how much time he had. There were too many variables and to his regret he couldn’t eliminate any of them with the most risky being – the guarding priest could return any moment or the bishop himself could arrive. But in that case there were not many ways this adventure would end and in the worst case scenario he would just reincarnate again.

He finally found the college library – it was hidden below the church and probably accessible only to the bishop. Alex didn’t quite understand why, but the most likely answer was that the young chosen had to go through intensive brainwash and too much reading would become more like a hindrance.

The whole place looked like a wine cellar, except instead of the shelves with bottles, it was filled with dusky shelves containing scrolls and parchments.

‘Big mouthfuls often choke.’ Alex reminded himself the old Italian proverb when he saw a shelf full of maps.

During the professional years Alex developed a principle – when on the job, focus on your goal and never touch anything else. Greed has been downfall for too many. Thus he held back his curiosity and quickly moved on looking for the little wooden boxes the young chosen received once a year. This was the most reasonable place to store them, but there were none on the shelves.

‘Alright, that leaves us with the containers.’ Alex said to himself and moved to the side of the room where a dozen large chests in a size of a bathtub were neatly stacked one on another, ‘Please, be on the top, pretty please!’

There was no way he had enough time to go through all of them, in addition he was not certain if he could lift any. And it turned out to be so – the expensive looking wooden chests were so heavy he couldn’t even move them by pushing.

‘How the hell did they get them down here?’ Alex thought, but then smiled in satisfaction and moved on – it was unlikely the chests containing the rare and prescious Lord’s seeds were so big and heavy anyway.

Few seconds later in another corner he noticed four smaller chests, maybe double the a size of a regular shoe box.

‘Bingo!’ Alex immediately recognized the metallic luster of the wooden container – the chests were made exactly from the same wood the little ones he received every year.

He opened the top chest and saw neatly stacked tiny boxes, probably a hundred or so, inside. Alex didn’t linger and directly emptied the container in the sack he brought along, then repeated the same with the other three. Afterwards he stacked the boxes similar to how they were before and quickly left. He spent here over two minutes and it was way too much time for him to feel comfortable.

After he verified the church was still empty, Alex closed the trapdoor, stepped on it and made sure it was properly sunken in the floor. Then he put the candle back on its spot on the altar, grabbed the bulging sack and ran towards the window.

Once again Alex could hear the shouts outside and this time there were no more screams of panic, but only angry orders. He stepped on the windowsill, closed the window behind and like a cat landed in the shrubs.

Smoke and smell of burnt was filling the college grounds while Alex kept dashing from shrub to shrub continuously checking his surroundings. After throwing the sack through the window at the side of his bed, he closed it from outside and soon joined the crowd of shocked chosen only to be immediately sent back to his room exactly like the others.

The timing was perfect – when Alex arrived priests just began to disperse the crowd. To his great surprise the fire was already somehow extinguished and now only the walls of the two buildings remained. Apparently the holy power skills these people wielded were not limited to fast movement or combat abilities.

Few minutes later Alex already sat on his bed and in the darkness quickly, but carefully emptied the little boxes from the sack. After ten or fifteen minutes there was a neat little pile of Lord’s seeds in front of him.

Alex looked at the small golden seeds reflecting the weak light from the window, sighed and while resisting the urge of grabbing a handful and putting in his mouth, took his staff and removed the finial. Below it, at the end of the staff, there was a hole which Alex quickly filled it with the golden seeds, shoved a piece of cloth on top so the seeds wouldn’t rattle and put the silvery finial back on.

‘Alright!’ He said to himself, ‘The easy part is done.’

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To think of hiding the seeds in the staff one didn’t have to be rocket scientist. The bigger problem was – what to do with the small boxes.

Alex’s harvest turned out to be much larger than he expected. But even though he couldn’t realistically use all the Lord’s seeds by himself, he didn’t intend to leave any for the rape squad that was groomed in this institution. And there was no difference if he stole fifty or three hundred seeds – he would die a miserable death if he was discovered anyway. Therefore he didn’t shy off and took all.

The biggest problem he was left with was the sack full of the empty little boxes, but it had to wait till the morning. For now he threw it under his bed and went to sleep.

Even though he just burned to death close to thirty youths and was ‘sitting’ on a pile of priceless stolen items, Alex immediately fell asleep and spent a dreamless, refreshing night. Contrary to him in the college no one slept at all.

Chosen met in small groups in their rooms and discussed the event in whispers while priests tried to grasp the situation that had never happened before. Indeed, a couple of pillars of fire destroying two buildings along with over thirty chosen in a matter of seconds was impossible to explain.

Most of the people in the college immediately assumed it to be the ‘divine judgment’ and this was what Alex already predicted. What came as a surprise was him overhearing guardian priest in the church discussing with another teacher the arrival of investigation squad from the capital.

Alex didn’t show any reaction and proceeded on his regular self imposed duties of sweeping the church’s floor while recalculating his plans. Hiding the small boxes was not that hard to do, but he also had to get to Woodsted as soon as possible. At most he had time till the next day, but it was unlikely anyone was allowed to leave the college until the arrival of investigators. In addition, any irregular movement he made could be considered suspicious.

From Alex’s point of view the morning prayer went hilariously. Half of the chosen barely could kneel still, impatiently waiting for the prayer to end, while the other half almost desperately recited different verses out loud as if afraid for divine punishment to strike them where they were.

In the end bishop Phelippe ended the circus and ordered everyone to go and attend their morning lessons. All chosen immediately proceeded to the training grounds – apparently last night they agreed on meeting there, but Alex rushed to meet priest Stan – the guy whom he assisted with the repairs and maintenance last summer.

From his point of view this was the only realistic way of leaving the college without raising any suspicions and soon he was proved right – after couple of hours of clearing rubble, sweeping walkways and washing windows, Stan needed something from the Woodsted and Alex tagged along. Neither guards at the gate nor Stan had any suspicions since the sight of Alex accompanying him had become a natural occurrence last year.

After visiting the carpenter and the blacksmith, they returned, but Alex already achieved what he needed. The next step was to get rid of the evidence under his bed. It proved to be as easy as he expected – Vova was still on the training grounds together with the other chosen and within half an hour the small wooden boxes were neatly stacked below Vova’s floor planks. He was still not out of the woods, but this was the best Alex could do for now.

Truth to be said, he knew that most likely all the chosen in his house would get tortured and killed if the boxes were found during the upcoming days, but there was nothing else he could do so he decided to not worry about it.

To great surprise of all the chosen, especially Alex, the investigation squad arrived already after sundown. It was one thing if they came directly from Serenity, but someone had to notify them – basically to go to the capital and come back in a day was unimaginable, at least up until now.

Those were three burly men in hooded black leather outfits with swords in similar black scabbards at their sides. While everyone found them scary and imposing, Alex knew he could relax. These guys were most likely masters of combat and, probably, torture – thus he didn’t need to worry at all. If some strange old priest with weird psychic powers came, that would be a completely different story.

Since it was already dark outside, the only thing investigators could do was to question everyone. It was not his first rodeo, thus Alex patiently waited for his turn explained he was sleeping when the commotion began. Afterwards investigators sent him to his room and that was it. Everything went as expected.

On the second morning, when he woke up and went to the church, the three men were already climbing the rubble trying to figure out what happened, but Alex was certain this was not a CSI team and most they could find were strange melted rocks.

The investigation squad continued their ‘investigations’ for two more days, poked their heads in every corner of the college, broke apart a couple of buildings and finally left. Two days later, after the morning prayer, bishop announced that the incident was caused by ‘sinners’ living in the two buildings who did ‘something unspeakable’ and therefore incited the wrath of the Lord.

It was not clear what priests thought of this, but most chosen bought it and the case was closed, at least in college and at least for now.

But political waves in Serenity were not so easy to calm down. The thirty odd chosen who died belonged to cardinal Francis and cardinal Isidoro used this opportunity to point out the ‘bad omen’ to the pope. After two weeks of going back and forth it was decided to appoint Isidoro as the leader of expedition to the west and Francis was left to sulk.

Unfortunately for Alex it didn’t change anything – he was still going to assist in ‘leading’ the troops, but it did cause quite a commotion in college. Chosen in the blue robes suddenly became the center of everyone’s attention, especially for the teachers of combat and languages.

While few of the chosen grew excited, most fell in despair. Until not that long ago their perspectives were amazing – it seemed that for the rest of their lives all they had to do was to preach and ‘bless’ in the relatively calm south, but now they had to go to the western wilderness with high risk to never return.

In general the life in college went back to normal. Alex continued to sweep floors, assist the doctor silently while grinning to himself how he reduced the amount of patients doctor had to treat by thirty.

But with the end of the spring and the midsummer event approaching rapidly Alex had to implement the next part of his plan.