Deroch’s gaunt features were composed in concentration. He felt a spike of fear from the Brother Benli following in the rear, but it was quickly put under control.

‘He does have potential.’ Deroch noted while leading the way. Most priests would cower away from facing an entity capable of upending the logic of this world.

After backtracking a few times, the Inquisitor grew increasingly certain that their quarry lay within one of the five dwellings to their left. His lined face broke into a frown while looking up to find another five wooden huts perched precariously over the ground level units. This made sneaking up on their prey difficult, and the chance of collateral damage nigh impossible to avoid.

“Our target is in one of these ten dwellings.” He defined the boundary of their investigation and motioned two Paladins to stand by and cut off the escape route on either side.

“We must evacuate the citizens behind us!” Priest Benli urgently whispered to Deroch and made to approach a door that hadn’t been marked. The Inquisitor firmly gripped the conscientious Priest’s arm and yanked him back just in time.

“You will do no such thing!” Deroch hissed at his younger self, “Do you want to alert the Abomination and bring about greater casualties?... ask me how I know this.” He tried to incinerate the youthful optimism with callous words borne from experience.

With a pale face, Priest Benli shirked back from the boiling rage filtering through their party connection, and resolutely pursed his lips at the massacre that would undoubtedly take place. He didn’t know what trials the gaunt Inquisitor had gone through, but it went against the Church’s tenets to put citizens in harm’s way.

Deroch ignored the stalwart righteousness emanating from Brother Benli and with the assistance of the remaining Paladin, began breaking down the doors of the houses one by one.

The first two on the ground floor were empty, its residents no doubt out on the streets at work. However when the Inquisitor approached the third door, the smell of decaying flesh and the slightest hint of… wrongness suffused the air.

He quickly motioned the two paladins securing both exits of the alleyway to converge on this location. “Our quarry lies beyond this door, keep back.” He hastily ordered Brother Benli who staunchly stood by his side.

With dual assassins daggers drawn, glowing softly with holy benediction, Deroch kicked down the door of the hovel. The Paladin that had been at his side threw an illuminating cannister into the darkness and the small interior was immediately bathed in warm white light.

Priest Benli gasped at the sight of a twelve year old boy, kneeling beside the decaying corpse of his mother. He immediately recognised them from the soup kitchen he supervised in the evenings. They hadn’t appeared for over a week, and the boy was obviously starved and unwell, too weak to even raise his arm against the illuminating cannister.

“That is no abomination! I know the boy, he used to frequent the bread lines.” Priest Benli ignored the Paladin’s grasping hand and weaved his way to the boy’s side. The kid’s forehead was clammy to the touch, and he was clearly dehydrated.

He ushered the boy to lie down, and watched him greedily gulp the cool water from his canteen. The kindly Priest ignored the shouted warnings that eventually faded away when nothing happened.

Inquisitor Deroch refused to sheathe his dual blades and watched the little boy with hooded eyes. He had seen them employ all manner of tricks to blend in with the living, to prey on the vulnerable from the shadows.

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There was no doubt the kid was an Aberration, and the Inquisitor would have immediately stabbed its heart if the young Priest was not in the way. Further complicating matters was his recent interaction with Exill, who had sown doubt in his heart.

Perhaps… they could be negotiated with.

‘After all, aren’t I negotiating with them already?’ Remembering the ritual at the Cycad Elderbough’s glade, he reluctantly lowered his blade and gestured the Paladins to step back. There could be value in studying Aberrations. He was reminded of an oft ridiculed faction of the Church who argued everyone, even abominations should be accepted in the Will’s embrace.

Deroch warily moved closer to the kneeling Priest, prepared to drag him immediately out of harm’s way if needed. In spite of his caution, the boy appeared to have fallen asleep in the Priest’s warm embrace, and only then did Deroch sheathe one of his blades.

“Get word back to the Order that we have a containment situation.” The Inquisitor whispered to the Paladin at his side, and stood tense for the next fifteen minutes, waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

Eventually, an hour later, Deroch was keeping his distance outside the doorway when he saw the Paladin return with a giant beast of a man clad in armoured sanguine robes that clinked softly as he approached. The second Inquisitor’s name was Hyathorn, and he haughtily glared around the decrepit slum while wielding a spiked battlestaff with one hand.

“Blessings to you Brother.” Deroch contained his dismay.

“Blessings to you too.” Hyathorn rumbled in response.

If Deroch’s eyes were considered cold, the newcomer’s were absolutely frigid, and it felt like all the warmth in their vicinity was sucked away under Hyathorn’s glare. The Berserker / Inquisitor was known for his fiery temper and no-nonsense attitude, and was the absolute worst person to be dispatched to a sensitive situation as this.

“Is it the boy?” Hyathorn sniffed inside, and similarly caught a whiff of the wrongness within.

“Yes, and we need to carefully escort it to the Inner Sanctum to seal its power and enact the containment procedure.” Deroch replied, wondering where the Oracle should stay while the protocol was enacted.

“Tsk… it should be simple then.” Hyathorn bent his head to step inside the hovel and immediately ordered Priest Benli aside, “Step away from the abomination.”

Brother Benli was roughly shoved aside, and the colossal Inquisitor scooped up the startled awake boy by the back of his tunic. The Berserker shouldered through the crumbling doorway on his way out and grimaced in the direction of Deroch.

“Keep up.” He beckoned.

It was at that moment the boy released an unearthly scream at the thought of being parted from his dead mother. It was a shriek of agony that tore at the very fabric of reality. Hyathorn’s arm began to wither, and the burly Inquisitor released the boy with a pained yelp.

“Bloody Heathen!” The enraged Inquisitor’s face was mottled red with berserker fury, and he backhanded the boy down and raised the sanctified battlestaff above his head.

“No!” Priest Benli exclaimed from the collapsed doorway, his ears bleeding from the deafening assault.

But it was too late, and the spiked battlestaff descended with the full might of the towering Berserker into the boy’s head, crushing it like a ripe watermelon.

Silence filled the air as the boy crumpled to the ground and Hyathorn cursed again while flicking his battlestaff on the blood spattered ground. Priest Benli knelt beside the convulsing corpse of the boy, horrified by the senseless violence.

Deroch merely pursed his lips and directed his Paladins to clear up the scene. He had half expected this to happen the moment his bloodthirsty colleague had entered the scene.

‘What a waste…’ Deroch lamented. At the very least, the Aberration could have provided the Order with a new Inquisitor recruit. Judging by the features of the young priest, there was only disgust directed at the callous deeds.

“Tsk… I hope you learn from this mess Brother.” Hyathorn cradled his desiccated arm in a makeshift sling, “Nothing good comes from negotiating with these filthy abominations. Stop complicating things and just do your damn job.” And with that last rebuke, the brusque Inquisitor assembled his team and left the slums.

Deroch crouched beside Priest Benli and coaxed him away from the scene of death. The house that the Aberration had resided in was already beginning to crumble around the collapsed doorway.

“I knew the boy and his mother… they were good people…” The traumatized Priest whispered while clinging to Deroch’s robe. “How… I mean, why?”

Deroch hesitated, and provided the advice his mentor had provided him when asked the same question decades ago.

“We live in a senseless world… the best we can do is to protect those who are vulnerable, and guide them safely to the light.”