CHAPTER 108

Katarina preferred to travel light, even if she had the option of carrying more than she could. In preparation for her return to duty, she sorted through her things and settled on essentials. Several shirts, an extra pair of pants, her leatherworking and tailoring kits, a few other necessities. She sold the magical baubles and trinkets she didn't need to the Miskatonik, and when she returned from her trip, she found Olivia waiting for her.

"We all argued who amongst us should have the honor of giving this to you, but overall I think I was the most persuasive... though I think I would have gotten nowhere without the Grand Lady Cardinal’s agreement." Olivia presented a scrollcase, wrapped about with a heavy silvery chain. A holy symbol hung from the chain. "Your new Writ, and a new Holy Symbol for you." Katarina took the gifts and handed over her older Writ and symbol absently. The scrollcase was more robust, and stamped on both ends with purity seals. The chain of her new holy symbol was a metal Katarina didn’t recognize, and the symbol itself was the finest steel she’d ever seen, inlaid with Orichalcum and etched with holy symbols in solid gold.

Katarina sighed. "You all are making me feel ... I don’t know how to describe it. You all don’t have to go through all this."

"Yes we do." Olivia replied, with a strange tone to her voice. Katarina looked up, and recoiled a little. Olivia was furious. "We do. We have to honor you, and you, my dear, have to be honored. You don’t care about the efforts we’ve gone through to honor you? The coin we’ve spent to give you the things you need?" Katarina stepped back, but Olivia stepped forward. "You need to accept who and what you are. You were Katarina Pavlenko, you were Katarina the Witch Hunter, and you are now Katarina the Living Saint. You have a responsibility to live up to your station." She demanded, voice shaking.

"I’ve been trying to come to terms with it, Olivia." Katarina replied hotly. Olivia shook her head. "You have not. I see I was right, back at the beginning. You are a spoiled and fractious child: "Let me do my job! Let me do my job!" And now that you’re allowed to do your job, with the best tools we can give you, all I hear now is "It’s too much, it’s too much!"." She mocked.

Katarina was about to retort, but bit back her reply. She took a breath and centered herself.

"I just want to serve, Olivia. I don’t want to be anointed, I don’t want.... stories and ballads and ... fame." She said plaintively. "I am humbled by everything the church has done for me, I truly am-"

"Then accept it. All of it." Olivia interjected tightly. "No complaints. No objections. When you leave here with Armilla, do the job you were trained to do. Use the tools we have given you. Your stories and songs will write themselves."

Katarina shook her head. "You don’t understand, Olivia." She said, spreading her arms wide.

"I’m listening; make me understand." Olivia replied, folding her arms under her breasts. A long moment of silence stretched out between them as Katarina tried to find the words.

"I don’t know how to be a Living Saint." Katarina finally stated gamely. "All I’ve ever known was to be a Witch Hunter."

Olivia snorted, and then burst into laughter, dropping her arms. She stepped forward and slipped her arms around Katarina’s neck and pressed herself against Katarina. She raised herself up on tiptoe and kissed Katarina’s lips. Katarina responded and slipped her arms around Olivia’s waist.

"You’re being a Living Saint right now." Olivia replied. "Who you are hasn’t changed. Just ... be appreciative of the gifts the Church has given you. Be appreciative of the gifts the Golden Lady has given you, and stop complaining." She murmured.

"Armilla." Katarina muttered, and pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. "Why am I supposed to take a paladin as an apprentice Witch Hunter?"

"It's our guarantee." Olivia replied. "You've been places throughout the continent that we haven't yet explored. You've probably encountered plants and animals we have no knowledge of. There may be other nations on this land besides the Urthan and Nauders. Armilla will report these things back to us." She paused. "And should you fall, she'll return your remains back to us."

Katarina rolled her eyes at this. "She's no Witch Hunter." She paused and then added, "What makes a Witch Hunter unique is our ability to naturally resist magical influence. She doesn't have that."

Olivia rolled her eyes at that. "We also want you to keep an eye on her."

Katarina gave her a puzzled frown, but Olivia continued. "You see, she gained sponsorship from the Thibault family; a family that is currently being investigated for heresy. Since she no longer has any sponsorship, she can't be a paladin unless you take her as your apprentice- at which point you can use your authority as a Witch Hunter to declare her a paladin. The liklihood of her having any involvement in the Thibault's heretical ties is negligible- She's been interrogated by the Torchbearers, after all- but still... we'd like you to keep an eye on her."

Katarina sighed at this. "Think I'm going to go talk to Cyrillus about this. I think this is a bad idea."

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Cyrillus greeted her with the same impersonal acknowledgement that he gave everyone; a barely-perceptible nod, his bald head runneled with scars and lines etched in by the ravages of time.

There was a ritual, rarely spoken of, that a Witch Hunter had to undertake before taking up the mantle: A soul-binding with the gun. In the hands of anyone else but her, the gun would be just that, a gun. Fearsome to be certain, but in her hands, each shot would be brutal, potentially shorting out a mages’ capability to perform magic entirely.

Cyrillus attended this ceremony as he had ten years ago after having survived the final tests, and when it was over, Katarina’s new gun was as much a part of her as her own hand was.

After the ritual, she was in a small antechamber, recovering from the effects of the ceremony’s requirements. She was gradually aware of whispering going on outside her room. There seemed to be a great deal of activity just beyond. She stretched, flexed, made sure everything was in order, and stepped out into the larger waiting room. The room was full of acolytes, priests, clerics, apprentices and maids. She glanced at the doorway, and the two halls to either side were equally filled with acolytes, priests, clerics in training, librarians, choir girls, and Cyrillus himself stood to one side. Katarina beckoned him over.

"Why are all of them here? Why are they not training?" She asked, eyebrow raised. "You’re usually much stricter with them." His mouth worked, she could see he was picking his words carefully.

"Your new... station has been published, Your Radiance. I decided that the students should have an opportunity." he muttered.

Katarina caught herself before she objected, remembering Olivia’s statements. She leaned towards the former warpriest, and asked in a low voice, "What is expected of me?"

His brows raised. "Nothing in particular. I wanted them to see you. If you want to speak a few words to each of them, I’m sure that could be arranged, but... there’s a lot of them, and it would take a long time."

Katarina shook her head. "Certainly not. Now that the ritual is complete, I need to devote the rest of my time to leaving."

Cyrillus nodded. "I’ll send them on their way when you’re gone."

Katarina nodded. "I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, old friend." She said, and Cyrillus nodded back. She threaded her way through the hall carefully, and nodded at Armilla as she passed by. Suddenly she stopped mid-stride, turned and went back to Cyrillus.

"I have a question, old friend." She asked. His eyebrows rose, but he crossed his arms, slipping his hands into the sleeves of his robe.

"What happens with the bond with my previous gun?" she asked. "I still have it with me."

He nodded at that. "I get that asked of me all the time. It’s not an unreasonable question. Unfortunately, you’re only capable of bonding with one weapon at a time. The bond on your old gun has been broken." He glanced at her. "What do you plan on doing with it?" He asked. She shrugged.

"I figured I’d hand it over to you, and you could pass it along to someone else."

His eyebrow raised. "You won’t give it to Armilla?" He asked. "She is your apprentice, after all."

"I thought about it, but I decided against it. Let her pick her own gun." She replied quietly. They stood there quietly, watching the groups of people who had come to see her mill around, form groups, break up, and reform.

"She doesn’t seem to have an aptitude for the pistol." He remarked. "I’ve coached her on the range. She’s much better with a rifle or shotgun."

Katarina smiled politely at that. "I guess I made the right decision, then." He nodded approvingly.

"You’re going to have a hard time adjusting to having someone you’re accountable for." He forwarded. She raised an eyebrow. "You’ve never been in a position of authority before. You’ve always worked on your own. This will be very hard on you, I think." He said.

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"Was it hard for you?" She asked. He frowned. He’d always been very blunt, straightforward, and by the book. He’d been pulled from the front lines abruptly, and thrust into an instructor’s position. In many ways he was very similar to Katarina, except that he’d never disobeyed any order and obeyed unflinchingly.

"Yes. I wasn’t used to dealing with ... students. My home had always been the battlefield. It was ... sobering." He sighed. "You’re going to have to be patient. She is going to make a lot of critical mistakes." He snorted. "She already makes a lot of critical mistakes." She chuckled a little. "Don’t laugh; you made the same mistakes." He scolded. She sobered quickly.

"I have been meaning to check in on her. How is she progressing?" Katarina asked. Cyrillus shook his head.

"I wouldn’t have taken her for a Witch Hunter. Sure, she’s diligent in the weapons training, and sure, she’s got the reflexes for it, but she’s ... lacking. If I could say there was a quality to Witch Hunters that paladins don’t have, it’s intuition. I'll tell you, in my experience, no paladin will ever trump a Witch Hunter's instinct, his insight, that ability to look into a situation beyond the obvious and discern its outcome, or a Witch Hunter's judgment. She lacks it."

Katarina eyed her old instructor curiously. This was the first time he’d ever been so candid with her.

"If I had a room filled with a hundred people- people of different backgrounds, statuses, and vocations, and I said, "one of these people is guilty.", I would trust that you would be able to find the guilty party, and I would trust you with the dispensation of justice. That intuition is one of the Witch Hunter’s greatest assets. She doesn’t have it. I’m afraid she will always be a paladin, no matter how we try otherwise. Straightforward, guileless, unimaginative. You’re going to have to contend with that until the day you die."

Katarina sighed. "Now you know why I object to taking an apprentice, Cyrillus. This is worse than being married."

He chuckled. "Speaking of marriage, any plans to wed the Lady Cardinal Olivia? That woman dotes on you, you know."

Katarina shook her head. "We have our respective duties, and I have no idea if I will ever see her again."

He snorted. "Is that ever a reason to avoid marriage?" he asked mockingly. He touched his chin. "here, I’ll tell you something you may not know."

"What’s that, Cyrillus?" She asked.

"The Lady Cardinal Yuriko is married." He started, and Katarina nodded.

"I met her daughter."

Cyrillus shook his head. "She hasn’t seen her husband in almost sixty years. He lives on the islands of the Yamato. He never comes here, she never goes there. Ask her if her marriage is pointless."

Katarina shook her head. "it doesn’t seem practical to me." He shook his head.

"Just like your Ascension, there are rewards beyond the obvious." He shrugged casually. "Far be it from me to tell you what to do with your relationship, though."

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Katarina was reluctant to return to the room she shared with Olivia. She was leaving, and she didn’t want to face her. Her duty dragged at her. Her chest was tight and her heart hurt. Her stomach churned as her hand found the door latch. Unbidden, Cyrillus’ semi-sarcastic words came to her mind and her attempt to smile resulted in a grimace. She snarled at the door and pushed her emotions to the back of her mind and strode into the sitting room.

Olivia sat at her desk, poring over a book. "Hey, you." Katarina greeted the smaller woman, slipping her arms around her.

"Hey yourself." Olivia replied with a small smile, as she turned a page. "Are you leaving today?" She asked, as she dipped a quill and began making notes in her small, rounded printing.

"Tomorrow. I have no desire to try flying at night. I’ll have Armilla with me too, so I’ll need to be doubly careful." Katarina replied. "So tonight will be our last night." She began unlacing Olivia’s dress from behind.

"What do you think you’re doing?" Olivia asked, irritably.

"What do you think? I’m getting you naked." Katarina said playfully, but sobered up. "I want to ... spend a good night with you. Make some memories. I have no idea when I’ll see you again."

"Maybe I don’t want that." Olivia replied bitterly.

"I don’t understand."

"You’re leaving. I don’t want you to leave. Oh, yes, I know, you have your duty. I do too. Our precious duty." She laughed jaggedly, throwing down her pen. "I don’t care. I don’t give a fig about your duty. I want you to myself, and I don’t want you leaving tomorrow. Or ever. I think I have a right to be upset." She said, folding her arms across her chest.

"You’re being childish, Olivia." Katarina replied.

"Of course I am. The one thing I’ve wanted most of all, I finally get and then i just have to... let you go? It’s not fair." She said, and kicked her desk.

Katarina picked up the smaller woman, who immediately began yelling and flailing about. She hoisted her over her shoulder, and carried her into the bedroom.

"Stop it! Put me down! I don’t care what you think of yourself, Katarina Pavlenko, but I swear you’d best put me down right this instant!" she hollered. Katarina unceremoniously tossed her onto the bed and then straddled the smaller woman.

"Stop!" Olivia cried, struggling. "I don’t want to be like this, I don’t want to be happy, I don’t want to make love with you because then I’ll have to feel miserable all over again tomorrow." She cried.

Katarina tried to kiss her, and Olivia turned her head away. Katarina sat back, and then smiled. She reached into her belt and pulled out a sliver of steel as wide as her pinky and as long as her index finger.

She reached down to olivia’s bodice and made a small cut in the fabric, stowed her blade, and then with her phenomenal strength ripped the front of her dress apart. Olivia, who had held herself very still while Katarina was cutting, let out a yelp.

Katarina took a deep breath, and smirked a little. Well, it couldn’t hurt to ask. she thought, and leaned down and kissed Olivia while she prayed silently to the Golden Lady in her head. Olivia fought back, but Katarina was relentless and implacable as she made love to Olivia.

"I want you to be happy, Olivia." She whispered. "I want to leave here with a smile on my face, and I want to see the same smile on your face, the face of my beloved."

"You’re being entirely unfair." Olivia pouted, and Katarina laughed. "I guess you’re learning what it’s like to be me, when you ask me to do things I don’t like."

"Hey!" Olivia objected, but Katarina kissed her. "Hush."

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Katarina opened her eyes. Olivia clutched her tightly, mumbling in her sleep. She stroked the woman’s hair, and kissed her forehead. Olivia opened her eyes cloudily.

"It’s not morning, is it?" She asked huskily. Katarina smiled. "It’s still nighttime." She kissed Olivia again. "We have some time yet."

In the morning, Olivia was spooned against Katarina, who had her arms wrapped around Olivia tightly.

"I swear." Olivia murmured, and tried to extricate herself. With an amused sort of horror, she realized she couldn’t. Katarina clutched her with arms like steel bars. It was obvious to Olivia that the Witch Hunter didn't want to part with her as much as she didn't want to part with Katarina.

Katarina's grip relaxed as she woke, she ran her hand up and down Olivia’s hip and waist and kissed her on the neck.

"Where do you think you’re going?" She murmured.

"I’m getting up, and so are you." Olivia replied. Katarina nodded. "Fine, if I must."

As they ate breakfast, Olivia sighed. "I really am going to miss you, you know."

Katarina nodded. "And I you."

Katarina packed simply; her spare clothes only made a small bundle. Her pack contained a couple of healer’s kits, some potions and odds and ends. She dressed quickly, and strapped on her arms and armor.

She pulled out another smaller pouch that contained all the trinkets, amulets, necklaces and such that she’d collected, and began the task of attaching them to her belts and gear.

Olivia watched this process with growing trepidation. "You’re leaving... now?" She asked.

Katarina nodded. "Armilla should be along shortly. We’re departing for Norn. I have no idea how long it will take to get there, so leaving early is best."

Olivia gave her a hurt, pensive look, but refrained from saying anything.

Katarina checked the draw on Galatine, and made sure the holster tie was secure on her new gun. She looked at Olivia, hesitated, and picked up her backpack and strode out the door.

Olivia could hear her in the sitting room, moving about. She got up and moved to the other room. "You know, you have a drake." She remarked.

Katarina glanced at her irritably. "Of course I do."

Olivia blew out her breath. "I’m saying that if you wanted, you could fly back here and visit me whenever you wanted."

Katarina’s brows quirked. "Yeah, I suppose you’re right. I wouldn’t be able to do it all the time, though."

"Why not?" Olivia asked. Katarina cocked an eyebrow.

"Is this a joke?" She asked, puzzled.

"No, it’s serious. Why can’t you fly back and visit all the time?" Olivia asked.

"Because I’ll be hunting. That takes time. Sometimes it’s easy, people will say, "They’re over there" and you come and pick them up, and other times it’s weeks and months of research and trailing and sometimes you just wander the forest hoping for a clue. I can’t commit to the idea that I can come back between assignments because I honestly have no idea how long any assignment can last." She shrugged on her leather coat as a tap arrived at the door. She opened the door to admit Armilla.

"Good, you’re here." Katarina said in way of greeting. Armilla nodded.

Katarina turned towards Olivia. "My last assignment- before I got sidetracked in Norn, the one that ended in Aston- that assignment lasted eight months." She walked over to the smaller woman and embraced her. "I have no idea when I’ll see you again, Olivia. I hope I’ll see you soon."

"Be safe, darling." Olivia replied, hugging her tightly.

Katarina released her and stepped back. She turned back to Armilla. "Let’s go."

Katarina and Armilla walked to the stables together. Armilla announced, "I’ve never ridden on a drake."

Katarina shook her head. "Doesn't matter. For now, just remember to hang on, and lean into the turns."

Armilla nodded. "So what’s the plan?" Armilla asked.

"You remember what we discussed a few months back?" Katarina asked, and Armilla nodded. "Good. For now, we’ll assume nothing has changed. We’ll fly north to Norn. I’ll leave you there to get the troops. Once we’ve gathered the forces, I’ll fly ahead. We’ll pincer. You have to get them marching hard, or I’ll end up taking the brunt of the forces."

Armilla nodded. "I’ll motivate them."

They came to the stables, and Marcela was already saddled. Katarina went over the complicated straps and buckles of the harness and the master handler nodded approvingly from his position off to the side. She swung into the saddle, and pulled up Armilla, who perched behind her.

"Let’s go, Marcela." Katarina commanded, and the drake crouched down, muscles coiling, and then launched upwards. Armilla wrapped her arms tightly around Katarina’s midsection as the drake powered upwards, wings stroking hard as she rose to the sky.