They said we will live forever.

They asked us to be pious and we’ll be blessed.

Blessed with the light of the eternal Aurinko we’ll wake up every day with smiles on our faces, a stomach filled to the brim, and a heart satisfied. For we shall live as long as ‘He’ does.

Many still question. How can ‘He’, someone who has to fall below the Kelluva Saari every night for hours be the bearer of immortality? How can ‘He’ who has lost to ‘Kuu’ many times in the past, hope to gain the reverence of us?

I never witnessed it, but my father talked about his great - great - great grandfather experience when he was a kid, how several members of the ‘Kuumainen Brethren’ organized a public incitement in the public square. They spoke of her greatness, described her boundless beauty, the spirituality she showers the world with every night.

They oh so arrogantly made claims about her immortality, a real immortal, they claimed ‘Her’ to be. They claimed she always watches us. The night she protects us from the unbound astral of our past and the noon, from the unbound greed of our heart.

The shock and anger at the moment in the square is something I can only imagine as I asked my dad about whatever happened to the blasphemers. Did they get out alive?

He responded with a sigh and said, “The matter had blown out of proportions and was only soothed by the sudden ushering of bishops, diocese bishops, archbishop, and…… the metropolitan of the metropolis.”

“It was a scene of sudden silence, and the only noise being rustling of clothes and whistling of wind.”

He spoke of how the entire metropolis, as in sync, stretched their right hands in the air, index, and thumb joined in a circle, the rest stuck together facing the clergyman and with their other hand on their chest bought down their hand in pace with a bow, greeting them in the way of ‘Hoita Elysium’.

It was a scene worthy of someone like the Metropolitan.

Not everyone thought the same.

“Sir Metropolitan, it’s an honor to have gained your audience. Are you here to listen to our preachings?” an olive-colored man with sparse hair and a fatherly body spoke up among the brethren. He had a genial smile and greeted the clergymen with the distinct ‘Kuumainen salute’

“Benjamin, it’s been a while since I last saw you. You were merely a kid back then. Look at you now….. tell me, how is it that my grandson found himself against our beliefs? I’m sure you’re old enough to be out of your rebellious phase.” the metropolitan asked with a calm expression as if educating a kid.

“I’ve always had my questions, Sir Metropolitan. Only you were never there to answer them. But now? Now I’ve found a place I belong to, found a lord I can serve with no doubts. Found a path to the goal you’ll never achieve.”

“Sigh, it has, after all, been my negligence. Ask away. What is it that you question?”

“Sir Laine, you believe in the immortality of Aurinko. You ask us to believe in his immortality, but you never answered, why? Why should we believe in someone who can’t even bless us for the 24 hours of a day?”

“Benjamin, tell me one thing, you are a father, are you not?” asked Sir Laine, the calmest still rooted in his voice.

“Yes sir, I am.”

“Then you should know about the care of a parent, the strictness of a parent, and the love of a parent. Aurinko, ‘He’s’ the same. ‘He’ cares for us, and hence shoulders the loneliness every day to give us a few hours to rest.

“‘He’s’ strict towards us, and hence punishes us for having excess greed.

“And ‘He’ loves us and wants us to be with him forever and ever and blesses us with his gift.” Sir Laine explained in a calm and soothing voice. His voice strung in the hearts of the people and brought a natural reverence.

“You talk of his gift, but you’ve never shown us. How are we to believe in mere words with no substance?” the man still adamant, questioned again.

“I foresaw something like this. If a demonstration is what you require, then you shall have it. Let it be the final verdict in the hearts of everyone who still questions and holds the seed of doubt.” with that, one of the bishops behind him moved ahead and bought out something from a bag and handed it to the clergymen there and held one themselves.

It was a plant with a white root and a stem with purple splotches. It had small, white flowers with petals that grew in an umbrella-shaped cluster.

“Hemlock!”

“Poison!”

“It’s Hemlock!!”

Cries erupted among the crowd, and the answer was simple. The demonstration they promised was a life after death.

Before the crowd could erupt further, the metropolitan raised his hand, and it was a sudden spell of silence. With that, he lowered his hand slowly and swallowed the whole plant at once along with his clergy and closed their eyes.

Seconds flowed by in a growing depth of silence and tension as everyone waited, observed, and searched for symptoms. Anything they could find. Unusual sweating, gasping for air, trembling of muscles, swaying of body

But with seconds of useless search, this gave birth to a new undertone among the feelings of the crowd. It was a silent excitement and anticipation.

10 mins were the time it took for the first pair of eyes to open again. It was the metropolitan.

He didn’t say a word and silently waited for his fellow clergy to open their eyes. After another 4 minutes, the last bishop opened his eyes and looked at the crowd with calm pride.

With a silent grace, the metropolitan raised his right hand, another hand on his chest, performed the Elysium bow, and chanted two words,

“Ylistä Aurinkoa”

The bishops followed,

“Ylistä Aurinkoa!”

The crowd followed,

“Ylistä Aurinkoa!!”

“Ylistä Aurinkoa!!!”

I remember asking my father, what became of the kuumainen brethren? He explained how under the divine might, they grovelled and begged for mercy. They wanted to repent and forever serve aurinko and begged for another chance. The metropolitan being a noble person, gave them one.

After serving at the church for a month and making sure they had repented enough, he let them go.

I cherished this story as a kid, and even a few years after. I never had reasons to doubt it. For me, the church has always been the greatest strength of our empire.

It was only a few years earlier, when I became part of the ‘Inquisition’, that I started having doubts about the story. I can’t doubt the gift, being a bearer myself now, but it was the mercy plead of the brethren that bothers me.

Having been an Inquisitor myself for a few months, I often heard the word ‘Kuu’s influence’

It was this word that sent me searching through our dossiers, at least through the ones I had clearance of, and that was where I found characters of my fairytale in the living world.

The drawing board had just gotten bigger.

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I searched more and more and spent hours going through files. By the morning, the drawing board has enveloped the world.

I spent many hours searching for them, days, weeks, stringing clues not out of a sense of honor or justice, but a childlike fascination. I wanted to meet them, listen to their beliefs, and find out for myself. Am I truly as dedicated as I believe myself to be?

All we ever found were the low-level preachers, the proselytizers, and a few managing people.

It was another one of those days. We had just finished a raid on one of the hiding spots of the brethren. It was a complicated job since we tried to keep it hidden from the general public. But fortunately, this time we got away without any casualties.

This called for a small celebration.

Hence our captain being the ever generous, booked a table at ‘Nat’s’.

Since it was late at night, I and my team were also joined by some of my non-field colleagues. We had our receptionist, accountant, fleet and facilities manager and one of our dossier handlers were able to join us.

Because of the requirement of the job, we had to keep certain facilities of the office well protected at all times, and hence Benson, our evidence technician couldn’t join us, he had to quickly go through the records we found today and try to find anything out of it for us that’s time-sensitive, while also guarding the evidence room to a certain extent.

Neither was our other dossier handles, Old Kai, able to make it. Being of old age, he wishes more to stay in the dossiers looking through the records trying to solve some of his cold - cases from his ‘youth’, as he likes to say.

And also two more of our teammates who were on night duty.

“Captain, so how was the job this time? Those heretics didn’t seem to pose any trouble for you guys.” Claire, our receptionist, enquired.

“Haha, it was just a small group who were planning on coercing more people against god’s word. However, we do have suspicions about the group having more ties with a much bigger group. Hopefully, one with an actual bishop this time. We might have to work with more wennies if that happens.” the captain, quite happy with today, spoke in detail.

“Oh, and good job finding the hidden compartment, Oliver. God knows we needed those gold bars.” Captain exclaimed suddenly, looking at the half-dosing man in the corner.

That was me. And I was really tired.

“Han? Ah yes, thank you, captain, it was just pure luck. But can we not talk about work right now?” surprised, I took a second to process what was said and then gave a perfunctory humble response.

“Yes captain, let’s just get this over with. It’s been a long day and we’re all tired. Not to mention we don’t want Oliver sleeping on the food.” Morgan, my colleague, called out from the side. Judging by how he secretly traded glances with a waitress on the other side of the restaurant, he didn’t look tired to me.

“Hmm,” the captain hummed in agreement and called the waitress to note our order. It was the same girl. Weird, is the captain trying to match make? But too tired I just let him be.

While she noted our order, even tired I can see a tint of red on her cheeks while secretly glancing at Morgan.

What the hell? A little confused, I tilted my head and looked at Morgan again. Suddenly the man felt so unfamiliar to me. Not that he isn’t handsome, but he wasn’t that charming either. What have I missed?

After taking our order, she went downstairs to the kitchen.

Morgan also followed.

“If you’ll excuse me, gentlemen and ladies. I’m gonna have to visit the washroom for a while.” With that, he took off. The only washroom in this settlement was on the ground floor.

Watching him move towards the stairs, I turned my head a little towards Claire. I knew what was coming and I dreaded it. Her face said it all.

Cause as soon as he left our eyes.

“Oh my god, am I seeing things? Tell me I’m not seeing things right! Did Morgan just charm that poor lady with his eyes? HIS Eyes…?” She started loud but got much quieter when the captain gave her a stern look.

Still, she wasn’t done.

“Oh my god, this is more exciting than the time he failed in proposing to Leah!”

“I wonder if he’ll marry her? Though knowing him, he’ll probably mess up sometime soon and have to find someone else. But still, this day could be considered the crowing achievement of his life.”

“Hahhh, this day has been worth waking up to.”

At that point, I zoned out and stopped listening to her prattle on with others. Though I must say, I do agree with her partially. Today could indeed be considered a crowning achievement of his life.

“What’s the point of romantic relationships? We have such a long life ahead of us, why dull our minds on such bothersome primal urges? You agree with me don’t you, Oliver? We could be considered to be the only few sane people in the office.” A disgruntled James, our other dossier handler, leaned and whispered to me.

Looking at him for a few moments, I asked “Have you been spending too much time with Old Kai these days?”

With that I went back to trying to keep myself awake, knowing that line’s enough to keep him occupied till drinks came. And surely enough, James sat there with a hand on his chin pondering over any hidden meanings in my sentence.

After another two minutes of chattering, the same waitress came back with drinks on a massive tray, followed by Morgan from behind.

While she served us the drinks, we gave an inquiring look towards Morgan, who under our scrutinizing eye, sat comfortably at his seat.

“I happened to run into this lovely lady on the stairs and engaged in a small conversation. Who’d have thought we’d have so much in common that we ended up exchanging addresses? The world is surely a small but great place.” Spoke Morgan with a humble and fascinated smile, as if he believed his own little story.

From the corner of my eyes, I could see Claire and Miss Elliot’s jaw opening ever so slightly as they looked at each other, confirming they heard correctly what they heard.

Even Martin who’s usually uninterested gave Morgan a brief glance of approval.

This world is coming to an end.

“The world is coming to an end.” I jerked my head to the side to find Aidan, my teammate, mumbling in a daze. Noticing me, he turned towards me and we gave each other a nod.

“Now Morgan, this is a great day for you, I’m sure you won’t mind paying for this party would you?” Captain asked amusingly while swirling red wine in his glass.

“Haha captain, how could I have bought my wallet on such a dangerous mission? You know how meticulous I am,” Morgan replied quickly, dismissively waving his arm.

“Of course you are, but since it’s the end of the week, how about cutting it from your salary? What do you think Miss Elliot, is this possible?” Captain gave our accountant a knowing look and she was one to catch quick.

“Ah yes, of course, it’s just a small matter. I’ll be sure to remember it well for the next week.”

Picking my beer, I continued to slowly drink while looking at others continuing to tease Morgan. Their target of tease doesn’t seem to be fazed by anything as he continues to drink with a happy smile.

With time and enough beer, the table transitioned into a happy chat as people talked about their family and stuff. I occasionally gave my input here and there and also talked to Martin from time to time.

Soon food arrived with some extra wine and the table was filled with the noise of cluttering as we focused on eating our share and made small talk here and there. I noticed Morgan looking more and more red as he drank a little too much wine. I can only contribute to him being too happy,

After a few minutes, Morgan was done eating first and with a glass of wine in hand, excused himself to the balcony to enjoy the cold wind.

By the time we were done and got off the table, Morgan was still on the balcony, looking down for some reason. So I called him while moving towards the stairs “Morgan come on, we’re leaving. You’ve drank too much tonight” I myself felt a little tipsy.

“Oliver, today’s such a great day isn’t it?”

He asked while still looking down the balcony. At this point, he was almost leaning on the railing.

“Yes, it is, let’s go now. And don’t lean on those things.” I replied.

It didn’t seem like he listened to me, as he continued looking down while still leaning on the railing.

Knowing he was too drunk and a lost cause, might as well go fetch him myself. And as such I changed my direction and moved towards the balcony.

“Morgan!”

I called out but still no response.

He was still looking at the ground in a daze as if it was the most beautiful scene he had ever seen.

And then, he jumped off the balcony.

Cruchspiree

For a moment I just stared at the empty balcony, waiting for my brain to process what it just saw. And then I dashed off towards the balcony.

What I saw below was the body of Morgan impaled on a huge cone of metal as blood gushed all over him.

My brain in a trance, decided to cut off all emotions as I ran towards the stairs and out of the building where I saw the others surrounding the cone with guns out of their holster, looking out for the perpetrators while Captain and Aidan inspected his body without removing him from the cone.

The non-field staff was still in the building looking over with visible fear and shaken eyes. They weren’t trained like us.

'My emotions don't control me.... my emotions don't control me..... my emotions don't.'

"This scene is under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition as of this moment. No one shall leave their positions, as anyone who tries to run will be considered a criminal and traitor of the nation. Someone will be there to shortly note your information."

Walking over I heard Sebastian shout, as I took over the captain’s place as he was needed with the others in looking out for any possible combat situations as well as to contact the church for quick medical attention.

His wounds were severe, his heart was damaged, along with his lungs and the other organs due to the impact of the fall. He had a severe blood loss and if not treated quickly enough, although he will recover, the infection might make it a painful and long process.

Going over the inner pockets of his vest, Aidan found something.

It was a white card.

Looking over, he quickly called out “Captain!”

Moving towards the captain, he gave him the card and I followed. As he read, the captain’s expression turned solemn as he handed me the card.

There was only a single line on it.

“How long can you stay awake?”