Frankly, that went a lot smoother than Ailn had expected. He rubbed his aching temple. Maybe his people skills were improving.

Of course, now everyone in the abbey was staring at Renea, who still had the cowl tugged over her face like she was a blue Halloween ghost.

“Ailn?” Renea called out softly from under the cloak, moving her head around. “Did you leave…?”

“I’m right over here,” Ailn said. He kept his voice casual, although he was a little confused how she could lose track of him in two seconds. “Renea? I’m right next to you.”

But Renea kept looking around—even craning her neck upwards, which was odd to say the least. Then, apparently having failed in her search, the blue cloak visibly sagged in disappointment.

“Good… goodbye,” Renea said, sadly.

Ailn wasn’t really clear on who she was talking to. Was it to him? That seemed like a bit much. No way.

“...Well?” Kylian asked, suppressing the doubt in his voice. “Are the humors balanced?”

“Give her a few more seconds,” Ailn said, averting his eyes.

She could come out whenever she wanted now, but she probably did actually need time to calm down. If she took too long, though, it would only make her look more suspicious.

Aldous, ever the man of action, trudged over with flaring nostrils and wrested the hood up. And Renea, suddenly face to face with the man who’d spent the last twenty minutes vilifying her entire existence, understandably gave an instinctive shriek.

But her eyes were blue.

“Aldous, could you show a little class?” Ailn asked, stepping in-between the two. “Do knights nowadays not believe in chivalry?”

“Do you think I’m an imbecile, Your Grace?” Aldous asked. “It’s apparent you used the cloak to obscure how you dispelled her eyes.”

At that point Sophie came running over, pushing Ailn aside so she’d be the one to protect her sister. It was a genuine two-handed push that nearly made him fall over.

Ailn was certain now. Sophie had to be the biggest brat in all of Varant, if not this entire world.

“Show your proof or cease your babbling,” Sophie said. She was nearly back to her usual stoicism, though the subtle hints of her fury could be discerned between her brows.

“Move, Sophie,” Aldous growled. “I have seen her demon’s eyes myself.”

“Why should hearsay prove Renea a demon, when it fails to prove I’m your daughter, you hypocrite?” Sophie asked.

It was only the end of her sentence that sounded like it might break into a shout. But she kept her emotions cool as she continued speaking.

“Renea… will speak the truth, now. And it will be clear what a farce this has been from the start.” Sophie’s voice took a regretful turn. “Even if the fault begins with us.”

“Huh?” Renea started shaking behind Sophie. “I will? Right now?”

“... Yes, Renea.” Sophie sounded a little angry. “Right now.”

“W-wait, no…” Renea blanched. “I never… I never said I was going t—”

“Right now.” Sophie wasn’t having it. And Renea bit her lip hard again and started tearing up at Sophie’s admonition.

Yeah. Renea’s fears were never going to clear up just like that—especially not with Aldous glowering over her. The worst had passed, but what was left would still be painful and difficult, and Renea just kept on quietly trembling behind Sophie.

“Renea, what truth could be so terrible you would let yourself suffer so?” Ennieux asked, coming close to Renea. She sounded genuinely heartbroken. “Everything will be fine.”

Renea kept trying to speak, with more than a few false starts. Ailn felt a little bad thinking it, but the way Ennieux and Sophie were treating her with kid gloves almost made the whole thing feel trite. From her perspective, the world must have felt like it was ending.

But from the outside, right now she looked like a kid being tugged through the door at the dentist.

That was true for a lot of people’s plights though. Hardship always looks trivial from the outside.

“I-... I…” Renea looked like she was about to throw up from anxiety.

She probably never imagined the moment would actually arrive when she’d have to divulge her secret.

“T-the d-divine blessing,” Renea stammered very quietly, so barely anyone could hear. “I d-don’t have it…”

She suddenly covered her mouth in a panic, and actually had to choke back a dry heave.

“I—urk—” Renea took a long while to calm her nausea. “I’m sorry.”

----------------------------------------

The silence in the abbey was staid and procedural.

“Could… could you repeat that, Renea, dear?” Ennieux was having a difficult time processing what Renea had said. And Renea had said it in such a thin and fluttery voice she wasn’t sure she’d heard her correctly at all.

Renea winced, palm tight against her mouth, her eyes anxiously flitting to her well-meaning aunt.

“I w-was… I… I never was… b-born with… the… the divine blessing,” Renea stammered out. “It—it w-was always Sophie…”

All around the abbey, knights exchanged weary glances. The murmuring that followed was actually rather muted.

It was shocking. It truly was. But ‘shocking’ was a relative term. Compared to the idea that she was a demon, the idea of Lady Renea being, well, a swindler was actually rather tame. Their sense of what was reasonable had been broadened rather viciously by today’s proceedings.

More than anything, they were just tired. The Azure Knights of Varant were not, by their nature, the type of rabble to be led to easy agitation.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Something had left the air. And what remained in its absence was simple pain, frustration, and a slew of difficult questions.

‘Would that truly be possible…?’

‘Then Miss Sophie would have to be…’

‘It strains the imagination to think that each and every knight would have failed to discern it…’

More than anything, they were prompted to discuss the plausibility of her claim. Ennieux’s face was fraught with worry and confusion. She was clearly in disbelief. But to Renea, her aunt’s look of consternation must have looked like anger, because the girl turned away in shame.

Unfortunately for her, the man standing in the direction she turned to was none other than Aldous.

Renea actually retched. But Aldous hardly even noticed.

He was too thunderstruck.

As Ailn watched the subtle tremors on his face, he realized that Aldous had probably been more prepared for failure than futility.

Slowly, those tremors turned into an earthquake.

“The girl is lying!” Aldous shouted in a confused rage. “You fooled us all these years, have you—”

“Let her explain herself!” Sophie raised her voice, keeping it firm and controlled as Renea shrank behind her. “Everyone has had their chance to speak—except for Renea.”

“...That’s right,” Kylian said, his attention brought to the fore by Sophie. “If Lady Renea truly lacks the divine blessing, then she could not have attacked His Grace, Ailn. Nor… could she have healed him.”

He paused for a moment, before adding a question of courtesy: “Lady Renea, would you prefer to stand at the lectern or sit?”

----------------------------------------

With Renea standing somberly at the lectern, order had finally fully returned to the abbey. Her gaze was low, kept on the lectern itself rather than the knights in the pews.

“I met with Ailn every month, on the day of the bestowal ceremony,” Renea said, her voice as loud as her anxiety would permit, yet it still sounded airy and hollow. “Sigurd always made it hard for me to meet Ailn. It was the only time we could really spend together.”

Her voice dropped to a mutter, “And… it was also the only time I could stop pretending to be the Saintess.”

Renea found it ironic that she and Sophie only ever played their true roles when disguised. There were so many times in her life that she truly wished she was the maid.

“Ever since our mother’s death, Sophie performed the ceremony. That’s… why we moved it to that chamber in the first place. So that Sophie and I could switch without anybody realizing.” Renea’s speech had unconsciously drifted toward casual.

“When I entered the chamber early to pray, I was actually entering the passage,” she continued. “Sophie would enter through the courtyard, and we’d meet in the middle to exchange our garb. And that day—”

Renea felt the words catch in her throat.

The whole day had been a painful affair, forcing Renea to confront all of her old, buried wounds. But it was only two days ago she saw Ailn lying nearly dead in the courtyard.

Like a fool, she’d stayed by his side too long. In her fear, Renea had clung to the embrace of childish hope.

She thought that, maybe this time, maybe after all this time…

“Lady Renea?” Kylian prompted her. “Are you at ease?”

“Huh?” Renea slowly looked up, not realizing how long she’d been lost in thought. “I-I’m sorry, I just got a bit distracted.”

Renea took a deep breath to compose herself. But when she continued speaking again, she still felt her throat seizing.

“W-when I saw my brother that day, he was already nearly dead. For a minute or two I stayed by his side trying to heal him…” Tears started to drip down Renea’s eyes.

“Despite the fact you lacked the divine blessing?” Kylian asked. He had a look of consternation; he seemed utterly confused by what she’d just said. Of course he would be.

“Because Sophie was…” Renea couldn’t speak for a moment, and lightly pressed the tips of her fingers to her throat, “... so far. I didn’t think I could reach her and I thought—I hoped that God would answer my prayer.”

If she ran through the bailey and keep, it would have taken twenty minutes to reach the bestowal chamber. Even going through the hidden passage would only halve that time.

“I always… prayed for the day my blessing would come,” Renea said. It was getting hard to see, and her nose started to run, so she turned her face away embarrassed and covered it with one hand. “I thought that maybe after all this time… oh, t-thank you.”

A little surprised to see that Reynard was offering her a handkerchief, she gratefully took it, dabbed at her eyes, and blew into it.

“I was stupid,” Renea said quietly. “I hoped that maybe this time I’d be rewarded for my faith with… a miracle.”

Even sorrow disappeared from her face for a moment, replaced with an empty expression. “What faith had I really given…? My whole life, I’d only ever cast lies to dirt. Why would I expect fruit…?”

Her holy aura never came, of course. She only realized her idiocy when her own tears dripped onto her shaking hands and broke her out of her delusions.

“When I came to my senses, I called Sir Reynard over into the courtyard to make sure there was someone still with Ailn,” Renea said. “And that’s when Sir Reynard saw me running away. It was the fastest way back to the bestowal chamber.”

The corners of her mouth began to tug down unhappily.

“Sophie’s blessing is so powerful, it could have saved Ailn from death if she just came a second before,” Renea said. Frustration was coming through in her voice. “I knew the passage well enough that I was certain I could sprint through it. But I…”

Clenching her fists, Renea struggled to speak. Her words came out in a halting, resentful rhythm.

"When I was—" She paused, forcing back a hitching breath. "Running through a narrow part, I slipped and—" Her voice broke, and she swallowed hard, trying to regain control. "I couldn't—I couldn't catch myself in time. The lantern broke…"

"I... got lost,” Renea clasped her hands over her mouth trying to stifle her angry sobs. “And like a child, I—gave up and started crying. It was so dark—and I was so mad, if I’d just—had a little holy aura I could have lit the way.”

The resentful expression on her face kept crumpling. She looked sad and confused, as if she couldn’t understand her own inadequacy; her voice started rising in pitch at the end of her sentences.

"I was too busy feeling—sorry for myself. While my brother was—dying alone.”

Hearing this specific detail from Renea's testimony, Kylian’s eyes widened in realization.

One of the stranger pieces of testimony they'd heard these past few days had been forgotten amidst the intensity of the inquisition. The scrupulous knight had been ready to dismiss it as a figment conjured by Sir Tristan's temperament, yet it now made perfect sense. He shook off his surprise and maintained his low-key demeanor as a way of being considerate toward the crying girl.

“Then I suppose that would make you our ghost,” Kylian said. He shook off his surprise and maintained his low-key demeanor as a way of being considerate toward the crying girl. “The fragments of lantern we found wouldn’t have been too far from the kitchen. The narrow passage and stone walls must have amplified the echo into an almost ethereal wail.”

"I... I hadn't even heard of a ghost," Renea said quietly. "I was stuck in the passage until Sophie found me. And when we reached Ailn..." She swallowed hard. "He'd already—died. We were... too late."

Unsure of how to respond, Kylian blinked a few times.

“It must have been trying, Lady Renea,” he offered delicately. “I see even though… Ailn managed to survive, the event has still shaken you.”

Seeing that Renea only responded with a muted quiver of her lips, Kylian gave her one last thoughtful comment.

“I also thought His Grace Ailn was dead when I saw him,” Kylian said, honestly. “Maybe this time… God truly heard your prayer. ”

Renea gave a smile that lagged behind a flicker of deep sorrow. Perhaps she realized the knight was trying to buoy her spirits, as she spoke with genuine tenderness.

“Yes I—I suppose he must have,” she said softly. Her smile faded even as she spoke, though, leaving behind the same empty expression she’d shown earlier. “May I… sit?”

With a nod from Kylian she sat quietly next to Sophie, who gave her a hug.

For an inquisition that was so marked by intensity bordering on spectacle, Renea’s truthful testimony was a rather quiet turn.

The abbey once again settled into a deliberative mood, knights gauging each other’s receptivity to Renea’s testimony.

It was hard to argue with tears like that. Since most of the active hostility had vanished from the abbey, the chance of a vote declaring Renea guilty seemed low. There were still questions, of course, and more than a few of the knights wished for active demonstrations of Sophie’s divine blessing so they could be more certain.

There was, however, a big silver wolf the knights had forgotten; and over the course of Renea’s testimony, his stunned, disquieted expression had slowly calmed down.

Now, it looked darker than ever.