It was an early morning when Alex tripped coming out of his room and slammed in Vova’s door. After quickly apologizing he rushed to the church to sweep the floor as usual.

Approximately half an hour later the college grounds were filled with another commotion after a few weeks of peace. Apparently someone died yet again, except this time the fire was localized and only a single person burned to death.

Bishop arrived at the scene in an instant, but the poor chosen was not to be saved. All he saw was a large chunk of charcoal that smelled like a burnt flesh and still had smoke coming from few places. If Alex was here he might have been even more shocked than the onlookers.

“What happened? Who’s room is this?” Bishop angrily barked at the closest priest.

“It’s … it’s Vova, your grace.” Urid stuttered while stressfully plucking his black beard.

“Lock the college down! Order chosen to not leave their rooms!” Bishop commanded, “We need to find out what happened … this time by ourselves!”

Highpriest Galen was ordered to perform the autopsy and did his best while keeping the brittle black corpse from falling apart. Meanwhile bishop went on to question the chosen living in this house.

He just started talking to the third one when huffing and puffing janitor-priest Gustav ran in. Similar to many other priests here, he was an old man and running like that was completely out of his character. At least he was experienced enough to not scream and shout to not make unnecessary ruckus.

“Your grace!” Gustav whispered after approaching annoyed bishop Phelippe uncomfortably close and leaning even closer, “There has been an incident. You need to see this.”

“Another?!” Bishop hissed through his teeth.

“Uhmm … no, not this bad. But you really need to see this.” Gustav instinctively took a step back as if feeling danger, “It’s in the church …”

He didn’t finish the sentence, when bishop left the room in a gust of wind leaving him and the confused chosen behind.

With a bad premonition bishop arrived at the church few moments later. At first he didn’t even notice anyone inside and it took him a while to discern a couple of figures in the back, behind the altar that was weakly illuminated by the light of several candles.

With few long and silent steps he covered the distance of over forty meters to arrive at the side of a priest, the one who usually guarded the church during the night. Currently the old man was kneeling at the side of a young chosen whose face and dark robe were bloodied all over. Bishop immediately recognized Alex, but latter didn’t notice him and only kept staring to the front with dim eyes.

“What happened?” Bishop quietly asked.

“Earlier he came to sweep the floor as usual and after he was done, I think, he left. I’m not certain if anyone else was inside when I ran out to see what the commotion was about, but when I came back, the church was empty. At least I thought so. It took me a while to smell the blood when I realized something was wrong.” Priest explained, “That was when I found him lying here, in a pool of blood.”

Then the priest scratched his head in embarrassment and said, “I think we should check that place. Something fishy is going on.”

“Bring him to his room and order someone to stay with him.” Bishop said, but then added, “No, wait! Find him another empty room to stay, for now … and tell Gustav to clean this up. We don’t need anyone to start panic.”

Priest nodded and picked Alex and his staff that lie nearby up and went towards the exit, but the latter inwardly smiled – he heard the trapdoor on the floor opening behind him with a click. Everything went as planned – the rest was up to the investigators and if they were smart enough to figure out the ‘proper’ timeline of events that transpired this morning.

As expected, no alarm or any kind of commotion was raised and apart from Vova’s mysterious death nothing happened. During the day teachers tried to do their best to keep chosen in check, but when investigators, this time in a six men team, arrived the same evening, by bishop’s order everyone was locked in their rooms.

Alex didn’t know what the situation outside was and lie in the bed faking unconsciousness under the diagnosis of a ‘severe concussion’. But he wasn’t delusional to hope he was not a suspect. In fact, Alex was certain he was currently the prime suspect. Creating an alibi with a self inflicted disability without any witnesses was the oldest trick in the world, but these guys were the real deal. Just because they didn’t have any results the last time, or maybe – didn’t announce any results the last time, didn’t mean they were stupid.

When two of the investigators in the familiar black leather outfits came into his new room, Alex heaved a sigh of relief – bishop Phelippe arrived along side of them. That meant Alex’s worst fear was not becoming a reality and he was not going to be tortured during the questioning, at least for now. Even then his body instinctively jolted from the bloodthirsty presence of the investigators, but he masked his shock by faking waking up with a groan.

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Alex opened his eyes and ‘tried’ to look around the room, then ‘concentrated’ on bishop and weakly asked, “Your grace, what happened? Where am I?”

“I’m the one who’s going to ask the questions here!” One of the investigators stepped closer and loudly said in a deep voice that resonated in the walls. Alex even felt goosebumps covering him from head to toe from the instinctive fear he felt from the man.

‘Damn! These are not your regular police detectives!’ He thought to himself and inwardly smiled, ‘Alright, let’s see if they have some kind of miraculous mind reading abilities!’

“Who … who are you?” Alex stuttered faking and not faking fear at the same time. It was not the first intimidation in his lives and he cared more about his own performance than the scary scar faced man in the leather outfit.

“Alfons, these the men are here under pope’s orders. There are some things they want to find out and you’ll have to honestly answer all their questions! Trust me, they’ll know if you are lying.” Bishop Phelippe said.

It was not clear if he was trying to help Alex or the two investigators, but while the former seriously nodded weakly trying to sit up, the latter ignored the bishop and directly stepped towards the bed picked Alex up by his scruff like a small kitten, shook him and angrily asked, “How many Lord’s seeds Vova gave you?”

Alex immediately began to cough, blood seeping though the corners of his mouth and eyes rolling to the back of his head. It did look like he was passing out from previous injuries or something the investigator did.

Even though he prepared this part of the act for the case of emergency, this already was one – the moment man grabbed him, he noticed few relatively fresh smears of blood on his forearm. It looked like they had ‘interrogated’ other chosen before him.

“Real?” Alex heard the second man asking in hushed voice.

“Mhm.” The first one nodded and threw Alex back on his bed, “Wake him up.”

“Shouldn’t we call the doctor?” Bishop asked. He sounded genuinely worried.

“No need. You can leave. We got this.” The second man said, picked something from his side pocket and smeared under Alex’s nose.

‘F*ck!’ Alex inwardly cursed, ‘Ok! Stay calm! What would be my natural reaction to this shit?’

He felt his upper lip being touched and a disgusting stench assaulted his senses. In a flash he decided to ‘wake up’ as if ammonia spirits were used, similar to how he practiced in his first life. Actually it was easier than he expected – from the bad smell his eyes teared up by themselves and he felt a terrible itch inside his nostrils.

Alex let out an involuntary groan trying to suppress the sneeze and as a result his eyes watered even more. As if confused, he rubbed them, then looked around, saw the interrogators and jolted back ‘in fear’.

“Real.” The second interrogator softly whispered, but loud enough for Alex to catch that.

Even though these were good news, Alex didn’t relax and continued to perform.

“I’m s … sorry!” He blurted out.

The first interrogator sat on his bed and said, “Alright, let’s start over. Tell me everything you know about Vova.”

Alex heard bishop sighing in relief as he left the room, but focused his attention on the man on his bed.

“I … I first met him in the nursery …” For the next quarter of an hour Alex told investigators in detail everything he knew about Vova, including ‘helping’ Vova to awaken, how Vova picked on him in the college, a fake story how Vova tried to take away his Lord’s seed last year – basically acted as an obedient and frightened boy with incredibly good memory. Of course, during the story he ‘almost’ fainted a couple of times, but ‘gathered his willpower’ and continued.

In the end, after asking few more questions, investigators intended to leave when the third one of them entered. This time Alex didn’t hear what they whispered to each other, but from their reaction he understood they finally found the small boxes that once contained the Lord’s seeds.

Of course, Alex knew where – he himself neatly stacked them under Vova’s floor planks few weeks ago. And it was clear the investigators would tear down the whole establishment looking for the seeds.

Alex knew Vova was definitely dead. Even though he didn’t know how exactly the guy died, it was unlikely he consumed all the seeds at the same time. Alex banked the investigators in the end would decide that the seeds were consumed over a longer period of time and Vova stole them on several different occasions in the end becoming greedier and more careless.

While investigators were discussing something between themselves, Alex with a faked effort got up in a kneeling position and began to murmur some prayers. He didn’t pay attention when two of the men in black leather left, but the one remaining began to brutally break everything down.

At some point Alex felt someone lifting him up, but when he opened his eyes, he was partially put, partially thrown in the corridor outside and saw how investigator began to take apart his bed. As if in confusion, Alex got up and staggered outside, only to join a small crowd of confused and scared chosen. He immediately joined few others who disregarded everything else and piously prayed.

The ‘investigation’ continued for two more days during which chosen were separated in two larger groups – each under supervision of one of the investigators and the college’s priests were gathered in another group. Basically everyone got herded like cattle while college itself was taken apart stone by stone. The tenacity and willpower of the investigators was worthy of admiration and their speed even more.

On the second day there was a small incident when one of the investigators who continued to question the chosen, noticed their staffs and suddenly realized they were way too suspicious. Within few minutes the staff of every chosen was turned into a sawdust looking for hidden items within, including the one belonging to Alex, but the latter only inwardly smirked.

Actually several staffs had hidden holes and even hidden knives built in. The idea Alex and his teachers had was nothing unique. Unfortunately no Lord’s seeds were found.

The same afternoon, under the surprised eyes of the onlookers, Alex found a branch and began to craft another staff for himself. Since there was nothing much to do, most of the chosen joined him and soon everyone had at least some kind of staff in their hands.

On the third day, all chosen and priests were gathered together and one of the investigators informed them about the upcoming changes in their lives – all the present would join cardinal Isidoro in the expedition to the western wilderness regardless of their current affiliation or position. They would leave in few days time for the final preparation. Of course, they were not told where to.

Some became despaired, others beamed with happiness, but to Alex these news didn’t really matter. All he needed was to get to Woodsted one last time before the departure.