The aroma of blood hit him with all its strength now that Nyle was standing right next to Arden’s poor battered body. Piles upon piles of cotton bandages, stained in macabre shades of red, pink, and brown laid right next to the bed frame, discarded as if they had been nothing more than a nuisance.

Looking over his body, trying his best to suppress the hole in the stomach that he felt as his eyes clearly understood the gravity of what the carnifex had inflicted with such gruesome precision, Nyle felt a strange mix of anger and pity that was making his chest constrict. No matter who experience had taught his to suppress such emotions, it was never easy when faced with such display.

Avron instead, who was on the edge of losing what little composure he had left in that trying moment, decided to look towards the wall, where dampness and corrosion were the only things his eyes could see. A good thing given how jumpy and nervous he was in that trying moment.

“Please, cleanse his wounds. He’ll risk an infection if he stays like that.” said Nyle.

“And whose fault is that? Asshole…” said Avron huffing loudly. His right hand was opening and closing in a steady rhythm.

Nyle interpreted that as an involuntary gesture to relive tension. Or maybe he was simply trying to calm himself down. In any case, nothing good would come out of that room if Avron let himself loose control like before. He hoped that rookie had learned his lesson, but he also knew how unlikely that scenario was.

“As I’ve said before…” said Nikolaus, as if he hadn’t heard that last insult. “I did not decide, nor I have participated, in any of this. This was unavoidable. The best I can do now is deal with all the consequences and help him get better at the soonest opportunity.”

As Nikolaus crouched down to slowly cleanse the wounds, delicately passing a water-soaked gauze that he had left submerged into a backet of water he had hid in a corner the day before, blood began to ooze once again out the healing wounds, turning the droplets of water red. Fortunately, during all that procedure, Arden remained unconscious. Had he awakened, which Nyle hoped with all his might would not happened, he would have faced certain agony. The shivers, the constant pain that couldn’t be avoided, the certainty of being powerless befo-

Nyle stopped before those thoughts would eventually spiral down into an even harder place then the one he was already in. Now wasn’t the time to let the mind wonder free, or to lose himself into the complicated maze that was inside his head. He had to stay focus if he wanted to decipher that mysterious man that was in front of him. Yes. Because to him, Nikolaus was a complicated puzzle with a difficult, if not outright impossible, solution.

How could a man like him, powerful in the hierarchy and clearly an excellent fighter with years of training on his shoulders, be powerless against that so called Council? Nyle wasn’t an expert when it came to Order of the Flame and its inner dealings, but the way that information rolled of him mouth as he silently repeated all that, as Nikolaus was rubbing in some sort of ointment that had some mint undertones to it, if his nose wasn’t wrong, made him turn up his nose. It was clear that he either was lying, which he didn’t seem to be the case, or, as Nyle thought to be more likely, the situation in the Order was not as peaceful and calm as it appeared. Of the two options, he didn’t know which one he preferred to be true.

“I know what you’re thinking…” suddenly said Nikolaus. His hands were now delicately rubbing the ointment on the most difficult zones to reach.

“…And that is?”

“…something that I cannot answer.”

“AH!” said Avron sarcastically. “Now he doesn’t even want to talk. Nyle, we should-”

“Be patient and worry about our witness.”

Nyle turned briefly his head towards him, staring him down. He understood the anger and frustration he was feeling. What was he thinking? That he wasn’t feeling anything? Well, that was no true. He too was outrage by such needless violence. But they couldn’t let themselves be swept by those emotions, no matter how much they wished to, only because it was, in the ample scope of things, the morally right thing to do. He was just a rookie, so Nyle still approached the subject with some tact, but the sooner he learnt that things were never black or white, the better.

After all, what was life if nothing but beautiful shades of greys?

A sigh escaped Nyle before he could have stopped it. “…I know how you’re feeling. Just…just bear with it, ok? We have a job to do.”

Silence was the only answer he got. He supposed that was the best he could have hoped for, given the situation.

“…As I was saying-” said Nikolaus. Even then, he seemed unbothered by such open hostility towards him. A peculiar reaction. But maybe the martial proficiency he had displayed earlier was giving him such confidence that something as small as that could have never irked him. “I cannot tell you exactly what is going on.”

“And why is that?”

“Because even walls have ears in here. I cannot risk creating a rift that will end destroying the Order, even when a metamorphosis is the only thing that is ahead of it. That is something that I will never do.”

“Then why even tell me-”

“However!” he interrupted him exactly when his hands had finished bandaging up Arden’s tortured body. A smile appeared on his square face, which had an impressive jaw that wouldn’t have disfigured on a statue, as he took a last look at the work had done. Then, clearly happy about it, he turned around, becoming immediately serious the moment his eyes met with Nyle’s.

“That’s a different story if we meet up somewhere else. In that situation, if we manage to meet up in a secluded place where no one could bother use, than I can explain freely.”

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“…Where?”

“Oh, anywhere really. As long as it’s a secure and trustworthy place than I’m good with it.”

“Something more specific than anywhere?”

Nikolaus laughed shortly. “You’re the one who’s always sticking his nose around town. You should know better than me. Your reputation precede you after all, Inquisitor Nyle.”

“How the hell-”

He stopped. A thought, crazy and perhaps more bad than good, crossed his mind. But what other choice did he really have? If he wanted to speak privately, without even a single soul to interrupt them, he only knew one place that fitted that criterion. He sighed. Now that was a problem.

To be honest, he didn’t even know if the owner would even agree to something like that. Even hoping that everything would unfold smoothly was something so farfetched the even he didn’t believe in it. And how could he? Most of times everything went south before he even had the remote chance to try anything. So why would this time be any different?

No. Not this time, dammit!

This time everything would unfold as he wanted to. He’ll make sure of it.

“…Do you know where the Civil Order’s Main Headquarters are?”

“…yes?”

“There is a place I know where we can talk freely. It’s a cafe, nestled between an ancient villa and a merchant guild. You cannot miss it.”

Avron eyes shot up in sudden surprise. It didn’t take long after that for him to voice his disbelief, having understood exactly where Nyle wanted to bring that man. But Nyle would have none of it.

The decision was made. Now it was only a matter of waiting.

//////

After what had felt like an eternity, Nyle and Avron resurfaced from underground. Nikolaus instead had chosen to remain down there to further tend to those wounds, stating it was a thing he had to do. Or at least, that’s what he said. In reality, Nyle believed that was just an excuse, but he decided to not act on it. First, he had no way of knowing if he was lying. Second, at that point he just wanted to get out of there.

That’s why, unconsciously, he breathed in a sigh of relief the moment they left that underground behind. He would have never admitted it, as he always wanted to maintain the image of having a strong and indomitable will intact, but he sure was glad to be out of there. He didn’t know if what they saw down there had something to do with it (it probably did), but that place had given him the creeps. Even now that he was out of it, he couldn’t shake away completely that feeling. What kind of madman had even thought about building something so…oppressive?

A rhetoric question, of course. In reality, he couldn’t care about it.

What he cared for was the sudden deal he had reached with Nikolaus. After some back and forth, they agreed to meet exactly at ten of clock right where Nyle had suggest. Avron of course wasn’t happy about it. Not in the least. But he didn’t care. Saints be damned if let that rookie spoil that sense of happiness he was feeling after that small victory.

However, he couldn’t feel that ecstatic. Arden was still down there, held inside a dark, claustrophobic room, with his flesh opened up by whip wounds. Yes. He was sure of it. Arden had been whipped. And by the constant blood that was oozing out of his flesh, he was hit pretty damned hard.

Those fucking bastards…

How could they do something like that? To one of their own nonetheless?! If Nyle had his way, he would have barged right inside that cell, took Arden over his shoulders, and carried him away from all that madness. To hell with them and their fucked up believes.

But he wasn’t a fool. He knew that such course of action was outright impossible, and for more than one reason.

First, even if he did manage to take Arden on his shoulders, he then had to carry him all the way outside while unable to fight. Now, under normal circumstance, that wouldn’t have posed a problem. Most people wouldn’t have attacked him. He was an Inquisitor, a sort of extension of imperial power. But in there, right inside the Order’s tower, nobody was above their creed and doctrine. NOBODY.

Second, they were only two against a whole Order. What could they even try with such numerical disadvantage? He knew what: nothing.

So, in the end, he gave up the idea. He had to. It was just one of those things that was impossible to realize. Needless to say, Avron didn’t like that too. For him and his flawed survival instinct, because he must have had some flaws at that point, that was not the right choice.

“I don’t like it. I don’t like one bit of it.” said Avron evidently agitated. His whole body was giving off an aura of anger that made the few people who looked their way question his sanity.

“You don’t have to like.” said Nyle adjusting his clothes.

“How can you tolerate it?! These-these assholes flogged one of their own like it’s a piece of dead meat and you don’t even care? How-”

“I do care. Partially.” interrupted Nyle. “But we can’t do anything about it. Not this time. Not unless you fancy getting beaten up to a pulp. So, just accept it.”

“…Accept it?”

“Yes.” he replied nonchalantly.

“…I can’t.”

As Nyle finished dusting off the thin layer of dust that he had evidently picked up down there, he finally looked ahead. It was almost a miracle he didn’t end up colliding with Avron, who was standing still without any sort of movement. The jolt that was consequential of that made him almost curse out loud.

“What the fu-”

He stopped. The look of sadness that Avron was trying so hard to conceal under that aura of anger, which wasn’t by any means false, made him understand that Avron was more vulnerable than he appeared. Under that façade there was a gentle soul. A soul that Nyle felt the need to preserve, but at the same time show the wicked ways of the world. He knew that, otherwise, the sheer pressure of what he was going to be exposed in that line of work would have broken him into tiny little pieces. And once broken like that, it was a hard thing to recover from. Nyle knew it well. He went through it all after all.

His gaze wondered towards the ceiling. Wasn’t his life already complicated as it was? Didn’t he already have enough problems to occupy his mind? Apparently, he didn’t.

Damnit all.

Feeling the sudden frustration towards the whole world was getting bigger by the second, he just turned towards Avron, put his arms around his back, and began pushing him towards the nearest exit, which, thankfully, was just a few paces away.

“Wh-what are you doing?” asked Avron utterly confused.

“Taking you out. This place isn’t doing you any good.”

“Stop! I can walk alone.”

“…Really?” he asked, his gaze completely neutral. “Doesn’t seem that way to me.”

As his hands kept on applying pressure to shove him forward, ignoring the protests that were raining down from the young man, Nyle noticed the firm tonality of his muscles. It seemed that the academy still enforced the hellish training he had gone through all those years ago. Good. Good. The memories of that time weren’t certainly fond to him. Far from it.

If he concentrated enough, he could still remember, even though he had tried his best to bury them in the recess of his mind, the maddening yells that the academy instructors voiced from the very waking hour. He exhaled sharply, as shivers ran down his neck. Better not think about it.

“Unhand me!” screamed Avron. This time Nyle listen to him. Not because he felt like humouring him. He couldn’t have cared less about it. He just wanted him to move and shut up at the same time. Was that too much to ask?

“Get a moving then. I’m not going to wait for you.”

“Why? Where’re we going?”

He spent the next minutes ignoring the bombardment of questions that Avron threw at him without any kind of mercy. It was particularly vexing trying to come up with a plan that might have avoided the beating they were most likely going to be subjected to at their next destination while blocking out the barrage of words that young man spitted out. But, even though he tried his best, nothing seemed to convince him fully. It seemed like that was one of those situations where he could only face it head on and hope for the best.

But, at that point, it mattered little.