Natalie scoffed, uncaring of whatever emotion Seth’s words carried. “Like you really care.”

“Natalie,” Seth protested. “Subjects of the Baron aren’t allowed to hold positions in the church.”

“That’s why I won’t be graduating. I’ll just be there for a few semesters and then I’ll be done. Besides, it’s not the church’s convent you’re thinking of that I’m going to.”

If it wasn’t the church’s convent he was thinking of, then…

Realization dawned on Seth like a snake on its prey. “The priestesses,” he mumbled.

They were an enchanting copy of an unaffiliated group that wore cassocks called priests. Priests were rarely ever seen and only showed up when there was a fissure letting out reia and soul beasts, or when a particular horde of native beasts, souled or not, began running rampage. They were not religious in anyway but their school was referred to as the seminary, much like that of the Catholic church’s. And whenever they were seen, they were dressed in cassocks similar to the ones priests wear.

The convent of priestesses, however, was called an enchanting version of them because they were beholden to the church of the bleeding goddess. They were amiable until the arrival of danger, almost actively nice. They celebrated masses and gave alms to the less privileged. They answered to neither Baron nor government and had branches in different countries. They were basically the dream of every young girl. But they did not accept just anyone. Seth had heard their screening process was strict but knew naught more. Confirmation of the rumors was as elusive as Natalie’s feelings for him.

Their relationship to the priests existed in the sense that they practiced hidden away from the eyes of the world, just as the priests did. The convent was a sanctuary protected by some accord or the other signed with both governments and Barons. How they’d garnered the agreement of all eight existing Barons as well as the wandering Baron was suspect but nothing Seth could or ever bothered to figure out.

The seminary’s secrecy, however, was more archaic. Their location, while not public, was not necessarily a secret. There was only one known to the world and it lay on the outskirts of civilization, in lands ruled by neither government nor Barons. Lands where Golds or silvers or lesser died on the whim of which direction the wind chose to blow, where very few ventured and even fewer cared to know. They grew there, thrived even, in the land of the lawless.

So rare was the sight of a priest—or Reverends as they liked to call themselves—below the authority of gold that it was believed, regardless of how young, that there was none. They came without request—though some requested their aid—and Seth wondered how they did so. They were said to hold subtlety in one hand, and in the other chaos and carnage screamed with the beauty of the dead.

There exist rumors that once, in a desire for a united control as earth had once had before the first world crack, the government had teamed with the Barons and stormed the seminary to bring the priests to their knees.

Everyone had suffered for it.

There had been casualties on both sides but no one knew the extent of that of the seminary’s. However, what rumors knew was that eight Barons had gone in for the subjugation. The battle had lasted for four days, and four Barons had died in it. One for each day. Apparently, the wandering Baron had not been a part of it.

The government had returned with its alliance of Barons in defeat and rumors spoke nothing of a second attack.

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The priestesses as far as a few were concerned were—regardless of how powerful—a mockery for two reasons.

First was because they’d come to life at least a decade after knowledge of the priests came to light and they wore cassocks and alternate battle gears just as the priests did. But most notably, while they’d tried as they had, the second reason was glaring. In the wake of the seminary’s existence, stories of the violence of priestesses paled in comparison. Where the priests had rumors, they had stories. And while their stories were filled with blood, guts, and glory, the rumors of priests had a mild deviation. The rumors spoke of blood and gore, carnage and terror. They spoke of efficient chaos, deaths the likes of which brought Barons to tremble. But they never spoke of glory. No. There were no glories in the rumors of priests. Merely what had to be done. Priests had no allegiance. Theirs was to the slaying of beasts and monsters. In the event that someone stood in their way, death was carried out swiftly.

Seth grabbed Natalie by the wrist, worried. “This is madness.”

“No.” Natalie shook her head. “It’s punishment.”

Gently, she removed her arm from his hold.

“I leave tomorrow,” she added. “I hope you’d be past this when I come home for my holidays. I know it might not look like it sometimes, but your friendship is important to me.” Her eyes softened a touch now, a mild fear caressing their edges. “I’m not sure what I’d do without it.”

She steeled herself a moment after, then turned and left.

Seth knew he should have said something. He knew anything would have sufficed. And yet, he had let her go, watched her walk away in the robe she hated so much. Her hips swayed mildly in the blessings of puberty only girls enjoyed. Its beauty was only dimmed by the robe she wore. Seth remembered a time when her hips had never swayed; a time when their friendship had been simpler. Still, he said nothing.

He watched her go and let her leave.

When she was out of sight, a voice spoke from somewhere behind him.

“Pathetic.”

He recognized the baritone of Derek’s voice. It was smooth where Jonathan’s was slowly becoming gravelly like their father’s. Seth didn’t need to turn to confirm it.

He wasn’t in the mood for his brother right now.

“You’d let a friendship that beautiful end just because of a few kisses,” Derek continued, uncaring of what mood Seth was in, then scoffed. “Her friendship is wasted on you.”

Seth heard the shuffling sound of feet on grass a moment sooner and knew his brother was gone. He was well and truly alone now. And while he wondered what gave his brother the right to judge him, his focus was more on something else. In Derek’s voice he’d heard something he’d never heard before, something he’d never known his brother could feel towards him. In his brother’s voice he had heard disappointment.

Seth’s head dropped in a bow and he let out a tired breath. As stressed as he was by recent events, something existed that stressed him more.

His head still ached.

…………………………………….

Natalie left the next day, as promised. The family of Darnesh visited their home to see her off and Seth held his tongue throughout. He’d had nothing nice to say so they’d settled for a hug and a simple wave as Natalie boarded the car that would take her away.

The vehicle was one of the few in the continent. If Seth’s memory held true, there were less than a hundred left from before the first crack. They were split unevenly between the church, the government, the Academy and the Baron of the Deep. Adventurers and hunters were said to possess so few they weren’t even counted. Like all cars belonging to the Baron, this one was the color of ocean blue. It had four doors and stood high on four massive tires. Natalie had needed the help of one of the guards to climb in.

Cars were the symbol of the rich and those with authority. Lessers rode on horses and whatever domesticated reia beast was trending for transportation. It made it difficult to believe that once upon a time cars were a necessity everyone had. The thought, in and of itself, was mind befuddling.

It was a week after Natalie’s departure when Seth's father broke his own news to the family while they were seated at the family dining, eating a dinner of potatoes in the silence of the evening.

It was gentler but not lighter.