Brother Oblax Claré had been one of the few bastions for God’s will in Allusia since he first set foot into the ancient city. By the good grace of his lord, brother Oblax restored the glory of a once abandoned church to glistening standard. As far as he was concerned, his life was truly blessed.
So, as he removed a third destroyed candelabra from its sconce, this one a gift from Hachie Defron, he said a rare curse under his breath.
The arrival of the siblings from Guan had made his life very complicated. His normally pristine white robes were creased from his constant scrubbing of the floor recently, whether it be muck from the catacombs or even blood. When they left the underground, their efforts clear in their sweat and frustration, he had taken to stay
Po Kahn had charmed him on first meeting, but something was very changed in the man since his arrival in Allusia a few days prior. When he wasn’t aggressively exalting his plans of domination for the church, he was gorging himself on food or drink. Excess is a sin to the church, one that brother Oblax was currently forced to ignore.
One of many.
With his church in something close to presentable, the man left his tainted sanctuary and moved into the city to clear his mind. The siblings had been in a fervour since last night, though neither of them had decided to elucidate upon their issue. Whether Oblax would have helped them or not would probably depend on the state of his nave and chancel. So likely not.
Avoiding further noise when one or both of them inevitably exploded at each other again, Oblax chose to walk the roads of Allusia for a day. It filled him with a kind of morose sadness actually. Things would change drastically for the people of Allusia and though Oblax was sure that, through his guidance and the helping hand of the church, life would get better he was also certain that the coming upheaval would be painful for many.
Brother Oblax patted his breast pocket, a necessary addition to the clergy’s uniform that Oblax had needed to add himself. Within this unsanctioned container Oblax carried the one item that he truly considered precious. The handwritten words of the pope, signed additionally by the emperor himself!
He could follow any path, agree with any course of action, when his holiness himself was guiding the way. Even dealing with the Po siblings.
His mission was clear. Keep the soul relic contained. Remove it from Guan Yo Shen if possible. Oblax had done his best, and it hadn’t been enough. He would have to live with that for the rest of his days. For now, all he could do was contain the emaciated boy and the lance he held so firmly and that would have to be enough.
“Brother…” Came a piteous call from a darkened alley. Just a few metres within its confines, a man lay looking starved and beaten. Oblax nearly smiled at the sight, though that would not have been appropriate. He was simply glad to see his purpose laid out before him so clearly.
“Yes, yes,” the youthful priest said as he approached the man, kneeling down to see him, “I am here.” The man’s jaw was hanging limp, maybe a heavy kick to the face. He was also holding fast a wound on his stomach, both of which could be ruinous to a man’s life. Oblax was happy he had found someone to help.
Until the man righted himself and smirked, the lolling jaw a facade, the blood on his shirt not his own. Two large shadows separated themselves from the dark walls behind Oblax, cutting him off from the road. “Thank you very much, brother,” said the man with a voice full of scorn, rising from his faux injured position, “if you’ll just come with us. I’m sure you have a tithe or two to spare.”
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“This is not the way, I promise.”
“If we believed the promises of your lot, we’d be wearing white. Move.” This time, it was one of the two men who had peeled from the walls behind Oblax. The priest did as he was told, moving further into the shadows. He began once more to tell the men the folly of their ways but a swift kick to the back of his thigh had him limping and quiet.
“I told you that I did not want to do this.”
Brother Oblax Claré was no master, by any means. His control of the weave was lacking from a fundamental point but he had made it work for him. Without incantation, Oblax Claré reached forward into the air and grabbed onto as much mana as he could. Ambient mana was weak but with the right understanding, could be made potent. Oblax had that understanding. He slashed both his hands forward.
Two heavy rakes of clawed paws erupted on the lying man’s back. The two behind Oblax yelped in confusion and rage, attempting to grab Oblax as instinct. He jumped forward quickly, slipping away from them before turning and planted his feet. He spun his hips and moved his centre of gravity alongside his punch, adding rotation and weight to his next blow.
Manaless, Oblax’s muscles were more than enough to do the job and he felt ribs shatter under his knuckles. Of the two men who had been bringing up the rear, Oblax had decided to attack the smaller one first. He expected that one punch would be enough and was happy to be proven right.
“What are you-” The last man’s question was cut off as Oblax punched forward, collecting mana yet again. When his fist hit the man’s jaw, the resulting crunch was both satisfying and a little gruesome. Before he had even hit the ground, Oblax was worried that he had gone too far. The stress of Guan Po Daiyu and Po Kahn’s increasingly futile attempts had rubbed off on him, maybe.
Maybe he was just frustrated that each time he tried to help someone, a trick, caveat or betrayal seemed to be waiting literally around the corner.
“Is everything alright?” Oblax looked up from the men and saw two teenagers, a boy and a girl, both watching him. He looked around for a moment, but nothing he could do or think of would explain this situation any better than the truth.
“These men tried to mug me. Not that there’s really anything to take.” From the look the girl was giving the men, she believed Oblax and agreed with his course of action here. The boy looked slightly more worried and approached as though to help. The girl wore a thigh length woollen jumper alongside thick trousers and sensible boots. The boy had similar clothing
“Tried and failed.” The girl was blunt, her demeanour one of ambivalence. It was clear she would have just avoided the situation were it not for the boy’s intervention. Oblax found himself wishing that they had. She looked over the fallen men, smirking at the teeth missing from the largest man’s mouth. “They deserved what they got. Do priests normally mete out justice like this? Or this well?”
The girl was asking her friend the question, and there was a playfulness to it, but it made Oblax uncomfortable. “If I let these men harm me, they might have been able to harm others. If they harmed me too much, I wouldn’t have been able to help anyone.”
“It’s true enough…” The boy said. Oblax looked at him in the face for the first time and his breath caught. Eyes of pure silver sat surrounded by faded but hateful scars. This was Guan Ah Dan. Which meant this girl was-
The man which Ah Dan was tending to started to groan and move. “Stay where you are. There won’t be lasting damage now but…,” He looked at Oblax with fierce eyes, though they were currently kind, “you do deserve what you got.”
Oblax watched, stunned and bemused beside what must be Guan Fa Lian, as Ah Dan removed the vicious slashes upon the first man’s back, even regrowing the largest man’s teeth. He could only assume that the shattered ribs of the smallest man were also, likewise, no longer destroyed.
Oblax felt a surprising amount of gratitude towards the boy. “Thank you, thank you. These men scared me and I assaulted them with too much force. Meeting you has allowed my mistake to go unpunished and for that I am supremely grateful.”
“Oh,” Ah Dan suddenly looked uncomfortable and began walking back to the main road, “it was nothing… really.” Oblax gave the men, still groaning and slow to rise, one last look before following the now leaving Guan children. While his mission was simply to contain Yo Shen and the soul relic he held, there was a good chance these children may be the key.
“If I may,” Oblax manoeuvred himself in front of the now leaving pair, “I really would be very grateful to show some hospitality to someone so helpful. Do you know much about the church of the empty god?”
Fa Lian seemed impressed by the bravery to stop her, though it was really Ah Dan he needed. Oblax had heard the mutterings of Po Daiyu as she planned to get Ah Dan to her church and somehow convince him to remove the spear from Yo Shen’s hand. How quaint it would be, then, if Oblax were the one to do all of that heavy lifting. How much prestige that might give him…
“If not today, then at some point please visit…”
The two were already leaving before he could finish his sentence.