Thomas was pacing from one side to the other at the church. It had been some time since they went in and he started to worry about what the Inquisitors could do to him, his family or the people he walked in with for intruding into their deeper chambers.
Some people in the church started to take notice of him, but they would only throw him a few weird looks and nothing else since this was the Gods’ house and they couldn’t make a commotion about it.
“Argh, I hope they didn’t get into any trouble…” Thomas mumbled to himself, a look of worry hanging on his face as he looked at the closed door. “I shouldn’t have allowed this…”
As he was pondering and worrying about the whole thing, the door at the side of the church finally opened. He turned to look at it with expectation, hoping that it was the group and nothing else, but to his dismay the person that walked out was one of the Inquisitors, a young woman wearing the same hood as the man that had greeted them before.
He was disappointed and was about to turn away, but the Inquisitor noticed him and walked over to him. He tried to put up a serious face in an attempt to hide the fear that he carried inside him, and hopefully, with the Inquisitor’s hood covering her face, she wouldn’t notice anything amiss.
“Hello Young Master Thomas,” the Inquisitor said, her voice carrying a gleeful tone, completely different from the last hooded man. “What brings you to the Gods’ house?”
Thomas put up a polite smile on his face, similar to the small smile that the Inquisitor had on hers as he turned to greet her. “W-well, I’m planning to go on a trip to the capital, and I decided to come get some blessings before setting out.”
The smile on the Inquisitor grew slightly more when she heard that. “Is that so? Sadly I’m currently still not good enough to be granting blessings… but I think Father Rogier or Her Eminence are going to be done soon with their praying and they’ll be able to give it to you.”
“Ah… Then I guess I’ll wait a little longer for one of them…'' he responded somewhat awkwardly to the Inquisitor.
She tilted her head to the side, it seemed like she was trying to have a better look at Thomas’ face, despite the fact that her eyes were covered by the hood. He noticed what she was doing and turned his face to one side. She followed up by tilting her face to the other side as well, and yet again, Thomas turned his face to the other side.
“Is something wrong, Young Master Thomas?” she asked, her smile now gone from her lips.
“W-why do you ask that?” Thomas awkwardly asked back, avoiding the look from the Inquisitor.
She hummed, placing one finger on her lips as she focused on Thomas’ expressions. “You seem to be acting strange…”
“In what way, sister?” he asked as he tried his hardest to have a serious face.
“I might be an Inquisitor in training, but part of seeing the true nature of people—as Her Eminence says—is having a discerning eye from the very start, and I can see that Young Master Thomas is worried about something,” she answered, leaning slightly closer to Thomas.
He moved the staff he always carried to be in front of him, making it so the Inquisitor couldn’t get any closer. “It’s… nothing for you to worry about.”
She chuckled and leaned even closer, placing one hand on the staff as she slightly pushed it aside. “You are in the Gods’ house, we must worry about all people, as the Gods would, so your worries are our worries. Come, share them with me.”
“N-no, it’s fine, I-I-I think I’ll just sit and pray instead,” he quickly said, an awkward laugh following right after.
He tried to turn and go to one of the many empty benches, but when he tried to take a step, he found himself stuck. He turned to look back, and realized that the Inquisitor was firmly holding on to the staff.
“Young Master Thomas…” she said, a serious tone and cold expression on the part of her face that could be seen. “It couldn’t be that you—”
The door at the side of the church opened again, making both the Inquisitor and Thomas turn to look at it. He decided to pull back on his staff now that she was distracted, but her grip on the staff was like that of a Knight, making it impossible for him to pull it without using force—the kind of force that would definitely get him in trouble. She seemed to ignore him as she faced the opened door.
From it, Natalia, Marcus, Eden, and finally Kent, walked out. They all seemed calm and composed, as if they didn’t just intrude into the church’s deeper zones. They noticed Thomas, as well as the Inquisitor holding on to his staff, and they made their way to him.
“Ah…” the Inquisitor said when they were close enough to hear her. “It’s Her Eminence’s uninvited guests.”
“What?!” Thomas resplied almost jumping back in shock from the nonchalant response. “You knew about this?!”
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She chuckled in response, her hand still gripping hard on the staff. The group got closer to her and Thomas, with Natalia looking with curiosity at the situation. “I believe we don’t know who this is.”
“This is the woman I saw leaving the lower zone of the church when we were hiding,” Kent responded before anyone else could.
“Oh, so you were already inside,” the Inquisitor responded with some surprise. “I was sent by Her Eminence to see if you had tried to go in, were still waiting up here, or had left completely.”
“I guess we pulled a fast one on ya, huh,” Marcus said with a smirk on his face.
“That is…” she said, somewhat awkwardly. “I guess I still have a long way to go in my training…”
“We are sorry for intruding,” Natalia followed up. Her face, however, not showing much remorse as she looked as serious as ever.
“It’s fine, it was expected, after all…” the inquisitor responded with a forced smile. “You may call me Sister Jenna,” she continued with a slight bow and her hand still holding hard on Thomas’ staff.
“We are—”
“It’s ok, we were informed of you, Lady Natalia, Lord Marcus, Eden and… Kent,” she said, her face looking at each one.
There was some silence between the group as they looked at Jenna, only to be broken by Thomas as he pulled slightly on the staff again, making it ding the floor.
“Um,” he said somewhat awkwardly, “Can I have my staff back?”
Jenna turned to look at him as well, her grip not lessening one bit on the staff. She chuckled. “I must say, Young Master Thomas, even without knowing of your intentions from Her Eminence, that you are not very good at keeping things secret.”
“W-whatever do you mean?” he asked, acting as if he didn’t know what she was talking about.
She chuckled again. “I decided to try some of the Inquisitor intuition that we all should have on you, and just by having a glance, I could tell that the group had gone in. I was about to even force it out of you, but they came out before I could.”
“Oh…” Thomas replied with a broken smile. “Then I…” he turned to look at the group for a moment and then back at Jenna. “I’m sorry…” he apologized with a low voice.
Jenna smiled and finally released the staff, which Thomas pulled closer to him as quietly as he could, his face flushed in shame. Everyone else looked with curiosity at that exchange, with Marcus even shaking his head with a mocking smile hanging on his lips.
“So I take it that Her Eminence is done with you?” Jenna asked, looking down at the slightly glowing feather on Natalia’s hip and the carefree attitude on Marcus.
“Yes, she gave both me and Marcus a gift,” Natalia responded with a nod.
“Ah, that’s fantastic then,” Jenna said, turning to look at Thomas for a moment. “Then there is nothing more, unless Young Master Thomas wishes to get a blessing.”
“No, that is quite fine, thank you sister,” he replied with a forced smile.
Jenna chuckled slightly, turned to the other people, did a slight bow and stood in place without saying anything else. Everyone was about to leave, but the door at the side—from where everyone had gone into and out—opened again. Gregoria was walking out. She looked around, finally stopping her eyes on Jenna.
“Sister Jenna,” Gregoria said in a soft voice inside the quiet Church. “Please come here.”
“It seems like Her Eminence wishes to have a word with me. If you’ll excuse me,” she said to the group of people.
She quickly walked over to Gregoria, and the group looked at her for a moment before finally they too started leaving the church. A few short steps of walking and Thomas finally released a heavy sigh which was accompanied by a drop of his head.
“That was harrowing,” he said.
“What was? The conversation with Sister Jenna?” Eden asked, turning to look back at the sister talking with Gregoria, “She seemed like a nice person.”
“All of this!” Thomas exclaimed, now standing straight again.
“Oh come on, don’t be such a bitch,” Marcus followed up with a mocking tone.
“Just thinking about what would’ve happened to me if Her Eminence caught us… and Sister Jenna getting wind of something odd was truly terrible. I think I’d prefer fighting another Grand Demon,” Thomas continued, with his face full of a worry as he shook it.
Marcus released a mocking laugh, and Eden chuckled. Natalia and Kent didn’t respond to him, since for them, he was just letting out the stress of the whole situation.
“Knights! Wait!” someone shouted from behind them as they were about to leave the church, causing them to stop and turn around.
It was Gregoria, her voice carrying the same feeling of superiority that it usually did. She didn’t approach, and instead allowed Jenna to hurriedly catch up to them. Jenna got close to them with a somewhat wry smile on the half of her face that could be seen.
“What is the issue?” Natalia asked, swapping a look between Jenna and Gregoria, who was only looking from afar.
“Her Eminence…” Jenna said with some difficulty, “Wishes for me to accompany you to the capital.”
Natalia turned to look questioningly at Gregoria, but before she could say anything, Marcus scoffed as he looked down at the sister. “And why would we take you? We already have enough dead weight to carry around to also be carrying some weak ass nun.”
“I am not a nun. I’m an Inquisitor, and I can take care of myself,” she responded with determination.
“Then go to the capital by yourself,” Marcus said with a mocking smirk.
Jenna shook her head. “It is Her Eminence’s orders that I accompany you. For what reason? I do not know, but it is likely that she just wants to make sure I get there safely.”
“So more bodyguarding? For free?” Marcus said with annoyance, “No, thank you.”
“You’ve got something from Her Eminence. But you’re right, I’ll go to the Holy Cathedral and get you a reward for letting me accompany you,” Jenna insisted.
“Ah!” Marcus exclaimed, “Now that’s more like it. I hope that you can pay us in—”
“There is no need. You can accompany us,” Natalia interrupted.
“Huh!?” Marcus said, taken aback as he looked at Natalia.
“If you can take care of yourself during the trip, then I don’t mind you coming with us,” Natalia continued without looking at Marcus.
“Then I am grateful for your company,” Jenna responded with a smile and a slight bow.
The group continued walking out of the church as Marcus stood still watching with a frown on his face. Jenna didn’t take long to follow after everyone else, so Marcus eventually moved as well, standing next to her as he caught up.
“I’m still going to get something out of you for this,” he threatened Jenna.
“Don’t worry, my offer still stands,” she responded with the same calm smile on her face.
Marcus humphed but didn’t say anything else as they all left the church and went back on the streets of the city to where their carriages should be waiting. Gregoria at the back watched until they were out of sight, her expression unreadable as she turned and went back deeper into the church.