Chapter 24

Brodil woke up in a bright white room. He squeezed his eyes shut against the harsh light, then squinted and opened them slowly. He tried to move, but he was restrained by white leather straps around his ankles and wrists.

His mind was foggy, and his mouth was dry and gummy. He tried to think, but his thoughts were slow and jumbled.

He looked around the room. It was large and oval-shaped, with white walls and no windows. There was a door in the wall, but it was closed and there was no handle. The only light came from bright white runes along the ceiling.

Brodil tried to remember what had happened to him. The last thing he could remember was leaving a building with a large, short man who had helped him out. He didn't know why he had been there, but he remembered stumbling down an alleyway after leaving. He had seen a sign for The Hard Roc, and he had thought he would go in for a drink.

After that, his memory was blank.

His head hurt, but not as badly as he thought it should. He couldn't tell how long he had been there, but he knew he wasn’t drunk. That was how he normally woke up now. His body should have been screaming for more alcohol, but strangely he didn’t feel the familiar need. "What is going on with me?" he thought to himself as he struggled against his bindings.

Brodil was starting to get scared. He started yelling, "Hey, where am I? What's going on here?"

There was no immediate answer. Brodil's hands and feet ached; he could feel the blood constricted, barely able to keep his appendages alive. They were cold. He continued to yell, his voice getting louder and more panicked.

"Hey! I said let me out! You can't just hold me here like this! Where is this? Who are you? What's going on?"

A loud bang echoed through the room, and Brodil froze. His eyes darted around until he saw the door slowly opening.

He watched, panting, as a man dressed in a white lab coat entered the room. The man's fur was also white, except for small circles around his eyes. He wore a small black hat with a white star on the side.

Brodil's heart sank. He knew exactly where he was now. He was in the Black and White Church, the Ailuropoda had him.

"Brodil Otsoa," the man said, emphasizing each letter. "It seems you have had quite the jaded few years. It's been almost two decades since your last visit to your congregation. Tsk tsk." The man wagged his finger back and forth.

"What's going on here?" Brodil growled.

"Calm yourself, I am here to have a civilized conversation. However, from what I witnessed yesterday, that may not be possible." The man said calmly as he moved to stand closer to Brodil.

"You may not know this, but we have been watching you for a while now. That is how I know of your altercation with your son and the physician.”

Brodil didn’t understand. He had no recent memories of his son or the physician. At least, he thought he didn't.

The white furred man continued, “You see, from time to time, one of our more distinguished clergymen receives what you would call a vision or prophecy." The man slipped on white gloves as he spoke.

"This vision involves you for some reason. Although, to be honest, the real focus of this prophecy is your son Harlow and his mate, the physician." The man said the word "mate" with obvious distaste.

"But it seems you do have a part to play as well. That is why we are here now." The man said and stuck a needle with a syringe filled with a brownish liquid into Brodil's arm.

"What kind of nonsense are you talking about?" Brodil asked, his fangs bared. He was curious, but there was something about this man and the way he both spoke and moved that gave him the chills.

"As I have been trying to explain," the man said, "you have a role to play in this vision. You see, the church is organized into several levels. The grand Archon sits at the very top. He has seven counselors, called the Archons. It is within this circle of clerics that the vision has come."

"Apparently, if we don't stop your son from fulfilling some kind of misguided quest, the entire planet will be in danger again. You know the old stories, right? The Cataclysm? Apparently, Harlow has something to do with the next cataclysm, which could happen much sooner than anyone would want."

Brodil was stunned at what this man was saying, but there was something underlying in his tone. Brodil could tell he wasn't being told the entire truth. He hadn't been a good father, he knew that, but he didn't want his son to fall victim to the Ailuropoda. He could only imagine what they would do to him, since his own circumstances were so precarious and apparently he wasn't even a large part of the vision this man was talking about.

"So now it is my duty to prepare you for your role. You see, while you may play a part, it doesn't necessarily have to be you. I have already purged your system of the toxins you have pickled yourself with. Now it is time to purge the "you" from the story and place in our own Brodil."

Brodil felt a hand clutch his tail, which he only now felt was stuck through a hole in the table. "What the fuc-"

"Now now, no need to be crude," the Ailuropoda clergyman cut Brodil off with a sharp yank. "This won't hurt at all."

"Okay, I lied. This will actually hurt a lot."

Brodil gasped as the man pulled his tail down hard. It was all he could do to keep from passing out. The pain was immense, unlike anything he had ever felt before. There was no pleasure, no sense of connection, only pain and the feeling of the strong gloved hand wrapped around Brodil's tail, pulling it downward.

Then, without being able to resist, being too inundated with pain and fear, Brodil felt a sharp heat in his tail and he screamed. He screamed like he had never screamed before. He screamed until his lungs could no longer push air through his mouth.

As he inhaled, the man stood up from his crouching position and held up Brodil's tail. His severed, bloody tail. "You won't be needing this anymore."

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Jenba stormed out of the clinic, furious. She couldn't believe Kyaro had fallen for such obvious lies. She had her faith, which told her what was right and wrong, and those people were wrong!

She huffed and panted as she made her way to the main street. She cursed when she saw that the festival was happening. She had all but forgotten about it with all the happenings of the last few days. It was early, but already people were out in full force. "This is just another complication, another obstacle to overcome," she grumbled to herself.

She set her jaw and marched on. She had no time for revelry, no patience for people and their frivolities. They were nothing more than objects in her way. She had to get to the church's compound and alert the ecclesiastical authorities.

They would understand. They would help her. She would return and show them how evil and wrong those men were. She would let the church handle these matters, just as they should and did handle most things in this town.

In Jenba's opinion, the Ailuropoda needed to have influence over all of Erulxe. Their ways were the ways of civilization and mutual respect. They taught manners and politeness, not the savagery these people clung to. She had often considered bleaching her fur to show her faith, but her devoutness would have made Kyaro's mayoral duties more difficult.

Jenba liked when things went smoothly, so she kept her color. She knew that it was actually her manipulations that governed the town. A few words in her husband's ear, a few gold coins slipped into the right hands, and she could get anything she wanted.

These thoughts raced through her mind as she unceremoniously pushed her way through the crowd, drawing stares and comments that she ignored. Her destination was locked in her mind, and nothing would stop her.

She made it through the main square and continued marching down the street heading east. The stone church loomed in her vision as she trudged forward.

A small cry broke through Jenba's focus for a second. It was Kija, her daughter.

"Mama, where are you going? Where's father? What's going on?" Kija cried as she ran up alongside her mother.

Jenba's determination wavered for a moment. Kija was crying and needed her mother to comfort her. Jenba briefly thought about stopping and pulling Kija into a tight hug.

But the thought was fleeting. Her anger and fear won out in the end.

"Go home," she said, her voice harsh. "I don't have time for this."

The small part of her, the part that felt ashamed and scared, the part that loved being a mother and having her family around, that part cried out as it suffocated underneath the need for her retribution.

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Kija heard her mother's words and stopped in her tracks. Her mother just kept walking, and Kija felt her heart sink. She started to cry, confused and scared. She watched as her mother continued down the road, and she felt her world start to crumble.

"Mommy?" she called out, but her voice was barely audible. She fell to the ground, her bottom hitting the dirt hard. She cried and cried, her entire world feeling like it was falling apart. Her brother was sick, her mother was walking away, and her father was with her brother with the other men. She didn’t want to go back there. She didn't know what to do or where to go. She just sat there and cried.

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"Little girl, are you okay?" a soft voice asked Kija. She looked up to see a woman with long pink ears looking down at her. She knew this woman wasn't a bunny and that it wasn't polite to call them that, but she couldn't remember what the bunny people’s names were right now.

"My mom left me," Kija cried.

The pink furred woman reached out and gently stroked Kija's hair. "There, there, little one. It's okay to cry. I'm here for you."

Kija wrapped her arms around the pink humanoid and buried her face in her soft fur. She needed the touch, the affection, and she was grateful for this kind stranger who was offering her comfort.

"My name is Jikky," the woman said. "What's your name?"

It took a while, but Kija was finally able to get out a squeak through her sobs. "Ki… Kija."

"It's nice to meet you, Kija," Jikky said. "Why don't you come with me and we'll get you something to eat and drink."

Kija nodded and let Jikky lead her away. She felt a little bit better knowing that she wasn't alone anymore.

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The large wooden doors of the sanctuary resounded loudly as Jenba pounded against them. She had marched through the gates to the sanctuary, where she now stood at the doors and used her fist to introduce herself.

Slowly, the door cracked open and a white-furred face met her own. The small ring of dark brown that surrounded his eyes revealed no expression. "I am sorry, but it is not an appropriate time for service, mam," the emotionless voice spoke to the obviously furious woman.

“I don’t care if it’s appropriate or not, I need to speak to the ecclesiastical, my son is being seduced by perverts and my husband is allowing it! The church needs to respond immediately!” Her voice rose in volume with each successive word until she was all but yelling at the man at the door.

Jenba raised her voice to the monk at the door, but his stone face didn’t change. Apparently, she was heard by someone inside though. A voice she could barely hear said to the man at the door, “It’s fine, Launor, let her in.”

Without further encouragement or a change of expression, the man swung the door open and allowed Jenba into the church. The sight she beheld was not at all what she was expecting to see.

Where usually rows of pews sat for sermons, there were now tables filled with Ailuropoda monks. They all sat neatly with plates before them, but their attention was now focused on her. She could feel each set of eyes stare at her with contempt for interrupting their meal.

The sight was somewhat intimidating. Not only had Jenba forgotten what time of day it was, not realizing that the church members would be eating their evening meal at that hour, but also at the sheer number of members here.

This town and its church usually only housed a meager thirty or so members, but what she saw before her had to number in the hundreds. A strange new thought broke through her rage for a moment as she internally questioned, “Why would there be such a large contingent here?” The notion was not hers to wonder about, though; that was obviously church business.

A larger table sat slightly elevated above the rest and was located at the front of the large sermon hall. A large white hand raised upward and waved her forward. She looked at the man who beckoned her. There were no distinguishing physical characteristics to the man, but there was one large difference between him and the others sitting in this hall: his hat.

Rather than the small, round, black hat that the common members wore, his hat towered above his head in an almost unbelievable fashion. There were five members flanking him whose hats were tall, denoting them as ecclesiastical or clergymen who had been promoted from the common monk, but this man, who smiled and waved her forward, his hat made the smaller hats look normal and short by comparison.

Jenba swallowed hard and slowly stepped forward. She had built up such a head of steam getting there, but upon seeing the grand Archon sitting before her and allowing her to speak to him during his dining hour, made the news she brought seem insignificant.

Still, she moved forward, her anger sustaining her. In her current circumstances, she was unable to apologize for interrupting. She was also unable to excuse herself and come at a later time, or to ask to speak to someone of a lesser rank who would be more befitting the complaint she had.

She slowly and with all eyes trained on her, made her way towards the front of the church. She was embarrassed and yet felt honored to even be acknowledged. Upon arriving at the table, past the looks of the members surrounding her, Jenba knelt before the head of her religion.

"Don't be silly, Jenba, come sit with me," the old man said before she could truly prostrate herself. The men at his side picked up their plates and moved down a chair, while another member brought out a plate of food for her.

Jenba wasn't sure what to do. She wasn't anyone special. She shouldn't be able to sit and eat with the Grand Archon. It astonished her that he even knew her name. She could feel her paws becoming moist and her fingers began to tremble.

"I am not worthy, Grand Archon," she told the man and bowed her head.

"Nonsense," the Grand Archon replied. "I have been expecting you. Come, sit. Tell me of your troubles."

The Grand Archon's voice was sincere and had a quality to it that befitted one of great power. It was deep and smooth, yet held a large amount of inflection and compassion. He spoke with an air of knowing things that others couldn't.

Slowly, and with trembling steps, she made her way around the table and sat down next to the holy man. The plate in front of her held a large piece of meat, which she thought was Elboar. There was also a tuberous root vegetable that had been mashed and covered in gravy. On the other side of the meat was an arrangement of wilted greens, which glistened with the fat they had been cooked in.

"Eat, Jenba," the Grand Archon said. "This is a time for sustenance. Eat and speak of that which is important to you."

Jenba stared at her plate. She was still too nervous to eat.

Jenba knew that it was considered impolite to speak of unimportant things during meals, so the implications of what the Grand Archon had just said were immense. She didn't know if she should speak only to him, or whether she was to speak to all those gathered here.

She looked out again at the mass of black and white robes filling the hall. Luckily, most of them had returned to eating their food, their attention diverted from her rude interruption.

She glanced to her side and saw the Grand Archon holding a piece of cut meat on the end of his fork. He placed it in his mouth as he stared at her in anticipation.

Jenba was still in shock, but she brought her trembling hands up to the table and grabbed her fork and knife and began cutting her meat. With a small, shaky voice, she began to speak. "Thank you for being such a gracious host, Grand Archon."

"Call me Xed," the Grand Archon told her before she could continue. "We're all here to share a meal, and formalities are set aside while dining."

"Yes Grand… I mean Xed," Jenba said, correcting herself. She paused at the slip, then readied herself to speak about the important information she had come here for. To sully this place with silly banter would be sanctimonious.

"I believe I need a squad of monks," Jenba said, her voice trembling. "There is a situation at the clinic in this town. My son was injured and taken there to be treated. He is now in a coma, and the physician claims he may not recover. But today, I caught him and his apprentice..."

Jenba looked around, unsure of who was listening and unsure of how inappropriate it would be to mention this sort of thing in this company. She swallowed hard again and continued. She needed to get through her story.

“They were connected to his tail. The physician, Mr. Haramin, and the boy named Harlow, who is his apprentice but who the physician used The Bonding to ensnare as a deviant sexual partner, were joined with my son and now they are attempting to do the same to my son.”

The more she poured out, the more her courage returned to her. The more her voice grew, the more the anger she still held within her could be felt in her words.

“When I called my husband, the Mayor, he came to assist but was deceived by those two deviants and their incestuous associates into believing our son was molested by the twins' younger sister. Then they had the gall to ask for my permission to allow her to be bonded with my son!”

“Now my misled and manipulated husband is defending the perverts and wants to allow The Bonding to my son with this Mika Poldare. They are all guilty of sacrilege and working outside the church's tenets. They must be stopped!" By the time she finished, her voice echoed off the walls of the hall, and she had almost stood up, her tail only just touching the chair that she had been invited to sit in only moments ago. Her hands clutched the utensils and pressed them hard onto the table on either side of the plate of food that had been brought to her.

All eyes were trained on her again. This time, she felt the stares were justified and she relished the attention. This was her story, her need, her anger. She had fed this crowd and she eagerly anticipated their reaction.

"Oh my," said a knowing yet seemingly unaffected voice from beside her. "That is troublesome, isn't it?"

Jenba turned her head away from the enraptured monks and realized once again whom she sat next to. Her heart was still pounding in her chest from the exhilaration, but those heartbeats now turned to fear and anxiety. She quickly sat back down and bowed her head. "I am sorry," she said. "I got a little carried away."

"That is completely understandable, Jenba," Xed said as he calmly took another bite of his food. "It sounds as though this situation requires a bit of haste. You were right and justified in sounding this threat."

Jenba watched as he chewed and swallowed, her nerves becoming more frazzled with each movement of his jaw. Then the Grand Archon turned to the man standing behind him and whispered something. Jenba hadn't paid attention to the man before, thinking him some type of butler or servant, but as he bowed and then moved away, she noticed a small white star upon his hat.

"You are welcome to finish your meal," Xed said, "but if you are in need of such haste, you are excused. If you wish to follow Kye, there is one other person whom you should meet before leaving this place." He placed another bite in his mouth before continuing. "Kye will take you to him."

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Kye did not wait for the woman. His role in this matter was not to assist or serve her, but to ensure that his project was ready and fulfilled its role. He walked deeper into the keep and opened a door leading downstairs. He left the door open in case the woman followed, but he paid her no more attention.

Kye walked down the stairs at a brisk but leisurely pace. He was tall and his legs were long, giving him a natural gait that was quick and easy for him to maintain. Few could keep up with him if he chose to move quickly.

At the bottom of the stairs, he waved his hand and the light runes activated. Before him was a large desk next to a door. The space was relatively small, but it was what he had to work with here.

Kye moved to the door and pressed the large, round button attached to a plunger. The rod inside the door moved and disengaged the lock with a loud bang. He pushed the door open and stepped into the sterile room.

He moved to the man strapped to the table. The drugs he had been administering should have been completely metabolized by now. The man wearily opened his eyes and watched as Kye unfastened each of the straps.

"What... what's going on?" Brodil asked as he felt the circulation of blood return to his hands and feet. His memory was even more foggy than usual, but he felt grateful for the release of the restraints. He couldn't remember why he had been restrained, but he assumed it had to be for a good reason.

"It is time, Brodil," Kye said as he finished with the last buckle. "Stand and gather yourself. There is one last thing I must do to you."

It took a great deal of effort, but Brodil finally managed to move his body off of the table and onto his own paws. He was shaky, but it felt good to be upright. He noticed a woman enter the adjoining room. She was different from the man who had unstrapped him. She had color to her fur.

He looked down at his own body and noticed the thin white cloth that covered him. He also had color to his fur. He looked back up at the woman and tried to smile. His face felt as though the muscles didn't want to work right, so he wasn't sure what expression he had actually made. The woman's eyes widened and she grabbed the frame of the door as if needing support.

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Jenba watched as Kye released a man from a table. The man stood shakily, and she easily recognized him. "This is Brodil Otsoa, the father of Harlow, the physician's apprentice," she thought to herself.

Kye, the monk with the white star upon his hat, moved back outside of the room, excusing himself around Jenba. He retrieved a strange-looking device from the desk. "Would you mind standing here to the side, Miss Ansong?" Kye asked her politely.

Jenba moved to where he pointed and stood, her eyes still locked on Brodil. The strange expression he had made caused her to question what exactly had been going on here. Questions swirled through her mind.

Kye moved back into the room with the unusual-looking device and stepped behind Brodil. "This may sting a little," he told the man with a smirk. As he did, he grabbed what was left of Brodil's tail with his left hand and placed the device against the stub with his right.

Jenba couldn't believe what she was seeing. Brodil's tail had been all but removed. Now Kye was attaching something to it. She looked closer. Brodil let out a yip, but Kye held him tight by the nub of the remaining tail. The device made a whirring sound, then a click, and Jenba watched as small silver needles shot from the device and into Brodil's tail.

“There you go,” Kye said as the device attached itself. He watched as an image of Brodil's original tail flickered into view. “Now no one will even notice.” His wicked smile split his face, and he looked up to see Jenba staring at the process.

“It’ll take a few days for your fur to lose its color, but that works in our favor for now,” Kye continued to tell Brodil, but he spoke more to Jenba.

Kye then moved from the room and walked over to Jenba. “The Grand Archon wishes you to take this man with you,” Kye told Jenba as he held out a ring to her. “He is yours as long as you wear this, he will do whatever you tell him to do.”

Jenba looked down at the small ring being offered to her. It was simple, a silver band with a small blue crystal attached at the top. Her mind was reeling. There was too much happening for her to be able to fully understand what was happening around her.

“Why?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

It felt like her entire world had just been thrown upside down. The man she loved had moved against her wishes, and now the church she had always believed in had shown her a strange secret underbelly.

Her eyes darted from the ring to Brodil, who stood next to the bed, still and expressionless. It was as if his personality had been erased, and he had been wiped clean to be used as a tool. She looked once again down at the ring sitting in Kye's hand.

She knew that she should refuse it. She knew that she should walk away from this madness. But she couldn't.

With a shaking hand, Jenba took the ring. She didn't know exactly what the Grand Archon was doing or why he wanted her to see these things and have this ring, but she would figure those things out later. "Who am I to question a spiritual authority like him?" she thought as she slipped the ring on her finger.

As it settled into place, she felt a small sting come from the finger she had placed the ring on. She looked down at the ring, thinking it must have been it that had caused the pain. Before she could focus on the ring, a wave of rage washed over her. All the anger and animosity she had felt earlier while confronting the men in the clinic washed over her again, but burned now even hotter.

Jenba instantly forgot the strange location she was in. Gone was the reason she had looked down at her finger. Brodil was her tool now, that's all that mattered. She was going to use this tool to find and deal with those that had wronged her.

She looked back up at Kye. He had been stoic up until only a few moments ago, but now he showed his vicious intentions. His eyes burned with rage, just as she imagined hers did now.

"Shall we go get your squad, mam?" Kye asked as he flourished his arm towards the stairs.

Jenba could feel her lips curl into a wicked smile. She was going to enjoy this. She turned back to Brodil, and without having to ask aloud, he moved up to her and shared a similar sinister smile.

"Let's go get those monsters."