Chapter 10- Caius Ashfall

Chapter 10

 

Caius Ashfall

 

 

            He could feel the cold steel seeping into the skin of his left shoulder. The hideous Cruorian raised his jian high up again for another strike but Caius was able to slip his dirk in his heart before he could descend it. Two more bayonet gunshots went of behind him and two more Cruorians fell dead. Another hopeless rebel came running into the pub, yelling with two jians, only to end with a bullet between his eyes from Caius’s revolver. Nine dead, zero captives, Caius thought to himself disappointed.

            He signaled the White Coats to clean up. He was disappointed with how things turned out but grateful that Sia’s information continued to be reliable. Nine more members of Paradise Lost dead meant more results to show Charles. It also helped ease his restlessness. There’s no orgasm like cleansing the filth off Judicium.

            On his way towards his horse, a White Coat stopped him. “Sir, your shoulder is bleeding.”

            Caius glanced at the blood dripping. He hadn’t realized how deep the wound actually was until he looked at it. It hadn’t hurt him much due to the crylist flowing through his veins. He had taken an early doze in case things got hectic.

The White Coat handed him his cravat. Caius took it and wrapped it around his shoulder. “Thank you.”

            The White Coat continued to follow him as Caius continued to make his way towards his horse. “Sir, my name is Oswald Lightheart.”

            Caius turned. “Can I help you with something?”

            “I-I, well, you’re the first Shadow I’ve ever met, that I was aware of anyways. It’s always been my dream to be part of Judicium’s Shadow. I thought maybe you could put a word in for me…”

            Caius studied Oswald. He was older than him, mid-twenties or so. Tall, skinny, cowardly looking face, lower class judging from his demeanor, naïve and a youthful hear. Perfect for a spider. “I’ll consider it. Open your eyes and ears for me for the day I may need you. In every shadow we see truth.”

            Oswald smiled a crooked smile. “I-It’d be an honor!” He crossed his arms and saluted. “Sir, what might I call you?”

            “I have no name. When I need you I will find you.”

            With that, he left. Caius mounted his brown stallion and galloped through the darkness of the night. There was hardly a thing as curfew in the lower districts where most of the inhabitants were homeless. All that the nighttime meant was more White Coats roaming the streets.

The road back to the Sun district was not a particularly short one. From the lower districts, one had to cross through the maze of buildings in the Town District and then over the hills of the Sun District to reach Charles’s manor at the very edge. The entire trip took about an hour. With some luck, Caius might get four hours of sleep before it was breakfast time with the family.

            He had been especially dreading the next family meal after his recent discoveries. The Veritas household had become quite the house of lies in the light. Liana Veritas, formerly Liana Evermore, was a believer of the faith, crystallite engineer, and daughter to the infamous drug dealer, the Mother of Cryst, which he had personally killed. Venir Veritas, the non-believing seed of his father, was also a follower of the Church. One of his Spiders claimed to have seen Venir entering St. Gilles Cathedral, pray, and even participate in confession. Once upon a time I knew a man named Charles whose eyes saw everything. If love is blindness, I pray I never find it.

            As the manor came into sight, Caius felt his head beat like a drum. Knowing too much was a curse if you could do nothing about it. But would he dare tell Charles? Charles had strictly said this wasn’t a job. How would he react if he discovered Caius had been spying on his family the way he did on Cruorians? The thought alone made Caius shiver but to remain silent while having knowledge of it might be a bigger a crime altogether. Then again, this was all an entirely personal matter. What happened within Charles’s family hardly disrupted Judicium’s order. It was not for Caius to intervene. And what about if Charles murdered the Moon? Is that reason enough to intervene?

            When Caius finally arrived at the manor it was asleep for the exception of the Black Coats stationed outside. Caius made his way up the spiral stairs and walked through the long hallway to the front of his room. Someone is inside.

Motions could be heard and moving shadows could be seen beneath the line of moonlight at the bottom of the door. He reached into his frock coat with his right hand and gripped his revolver while he grabbed the doorknob with his left hand.

            He slammed the door open and aimed his revolver ready to shoot. He lowered his gun once he saw it was just Liana. Her golden hair was loose and she was wearing a white sleeveless nightgown. The thin fabric took the shape of her voluptuous figure in the moonlight. Her eyes were fixated on him without the slightest remnant of surprise, with her right hand holding a Holy Grimoire. If that’s my Grimoire, which I’m guessing it is, it means she also saw the syringe.

            “Just what exactly were you hoping to find?” he asked her. “The Grimoire is hardly a cover-up to invade another person’s room.”

            “In all honesty, I only meant to search for the Holy Grimoire. Every person of the faith keeps one somewhere; I figured you might have one. As for the rest, I just happened to see by chance. Crylist. So you grew up in the Youth, after all.”

            “Crylist is easy enough to come by for anyone who works in the Youth. You think I’m the first person who ever wanted to try the super soldier drug on themselves? You should know. Your family made the damn thing.”

            She laid the Holy Grimoire on his bed. “Let me be the first to inform you that me and my family no longer have any ties.”

            “You certainly took a thing or two from them before you cut your ties. That’s quite the garden you have out there.”

            She smiled her gorgeous smile. “Thank you, but allow me to take all the credit for that.” She cocked her sideways. “Did you dye your hair again?”

            Caius had dyed his hair dark brown the first chance he could. He had liked how black looked on him until Emilia brought into question the idea of him being a Rat. “I change the color from time to time.”

            “I like it. Makes you look more Judician.”

            Caius didn’t appreciate the implications. “So do you normally barge into your guest’s rooms in the middle of the night and start a conversation with them as if it’s the most natural thing in the world?”

            She giggled. “Well, you’re the first guest to ever sleep over, seeing as the Rats hardly count as guests.”

            Caius stepped entirely into the room and closed the door behind him. “Your sudden change of heart after discovering my faith is astounding. So much that it’s hard for me to feed into.”

            She joyfully took a seat on his bed. “You’re too suspicious. Relax, you’re supposed to trust family.”

            “Forgive me if I don’t.”

            Caius moved further into the room. A beam of moonlight caught his wrapped up wound. “Your shoulder,” said Liana, alarmed. “You’re wounded.”

            He glanced at it and shrugged. “Sometimes you get injured training kids how to kill. It’s no big deal.”

            She stood up glaring. “That’s the crylist talking. That amount of blood doesn’t just pour out of a scratch. That cravat is drenched in blood. Take off your coat.”

            “There’s really no need. I’ve had worse injuries. In a couple of days it’ll heal just fine, thanks to the crylist.”

            She ignored him and grabbed the edges of his frock coat. “Are you going to let me help or not?”

            Caius could smell the intoxicating aroma from her golden hair in the short distance between them. As he looked down he could see her big beautiful hazel eyes and large breasts that were hardly hidden beneath the thin nightgown. He felt his groin react and quickly pushed her aside, turning towards his bureau.

            “I’m fine. You should go to your room, it’s late. ”

            She took a deep sigh. “You’re such a stubborn child. I swear you remind me of Charles in his younger days. Never wanting help, keeping everything to himself.”

            “You act like he’s changed.”

            “He has. He may be a horrible father and a worse husband but he does love us.”

            Caius turned around to face her. “Do you love him?”

            She looked down, ashamed. “I did…once.”

            “What changed?”

            “Everything. What about you, do you love him?”

            “He’s my superior, nothing more.”

            “Forgive me if I don’t believe you. For Charles to have this much trust in you there must be more to it than simply two individuals doing their duty. When he talked about you it was almost like he actually cared about you as a person.”

            Charles care about me as a person, Caius laughed inside. All he cares about are results, I just happen to be good at bringing them. “You have the man mistaken.”

            “Then perhaps you can help me understand him. See, until you came along I thought I had a good notion of who my husband was.”

            About as good a notion as he has of you. “I can’t fix your marriage, Liana. But if you want to understand him, perhaps you should start by letting him understand you first.”

            She looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “And have him beat me to death? If Charles found out I’ve been lying about my faith all these years he may well kill me the way he did his last wife.” She waited to see if Caius would have a reaction.

            “There’s no need to try and be subtle. I know all about Charles’s marriage to the Queen of Cruor.”

            Liana feigned shock. “You do?”

            “It’s not exactly a big secret if you know who to ask. For my case, I just happened to have a friend who likes to talk a lot.”

            “Did he also mention the part how Charles murdered his firstborn son and heir to the Cruorian Throne?”

            That I hadn’t heard. “Charles had a child with the Cruorian Queen?”

            Liana smiled darkly. “Yes. He loved her after all. They say Charles was still half human back then, full of laughter, joy, and all the other things that not even I got to experience with him. I would give the world to have that Charles, but that b***h killed any trace of that with the Crimson Treason. How it must feel to have the person you love most try to kill you…and even then, he still couldn’t bring himself to kill her. At the time anyways.”

            “She was the one who gave Charles his scar. She killed his brother and left Charles to die. Was the child the reason behind her betrayal?”

            “No. The b***h didn’t even love her own child enough to take it with her after she betrayed him. I guess it’s hardly a surprise considering she had killed her husband and King previous to Charles.”

            “Then why would Charles murder his child?” I’ve seen Charles murder an infant before, but if he’s as much the family man as he makes himself out to be, that should make all the difference.

            “He had no choice. It was either the child or him. Those were the choices the Fuhrer gave him. So he slit his own baby’s throat from ear to ear where all of Judicium’s officials could see and have it burned into their memory. Never to be spoken of or written in history for the rest of the world to know.”

            And thus was the order of Judicium. Half the truth always hidden in the shadows. What the light hit always half a lie. To the public, the Final Peace Treaty was never anything more than Cruor’s surrender to Judicium’s superiority. They could never know their peace was being promised with something as easily breakable as a marriage. Charles risked everything so his country could see peace, so no more would have to die, knowing he would receive no glory for it, and never knowing it’d lead to the biggest massacre and defeat in Judicium history.

            “So when do you come in? How could Charles ever learn to love again after a betrayal like that?”

            “It was four years after the Crimson Treason. The war was raging violently and Charles was leaving his mark in every battle. I met him in a victory celebration where a lot of the upper class households were attending. I felt drawn to him. He was unlike anyone else I’d ever seen. People cheered and praised him but…he was above it. What he did, he did for his country and nothing more. He didn’t care about the money or the glory. He was the first honest man I ever laid eyes upon, so I went to him.

            “At first he was stubborn and unapproachable. He didn’t care for what I had to say or do to try and get his attention. I had never met a man who could see right through me before, it was the first time I actually had to put any real effort to get a man’s attention. It wasn’t until I had given up and I excused myself to go pray that I got his attention, and it wasn’t the sort of attention I wanted. We argued about the Church for hours, and that was how it started.

            “We continued to meet after that, trying to convince the other that we were right, and a year later we were married. A year after that Venir was born. Then the war was finally nearing its end so I saw him less and less. The little time we spent together though was perfect. It was all I ever wanted in a marriage.

“Four years later Cruor was finally defeated. I was expecting to find my husband a cleansed man, free from all the hate, but instead he came back darker than ever. It was like he had forgotten the happiness we shared and nothing could reach him anymore. There were no more arguments, his word became law. He kept his family at a distance and everyone else further. He left the White Coats and started working for Judicium’s Youth. By then the only real thing left between us were our children.”

“He still loves you,” Caius heard himself say. “I’m not sure what exactly that means yet, but he does.”

Liana smiled but her eyes looked sad. “Thank you. Not just for telling me that, but also for listening. It’s been so long since I had anyone else near my life that I’ve forgotten what it feels like to open up.” She stood up, Holy Grimoire in hand. “If it’s not too much to ask, could I burrow this?”

Caius nodded. “Sure. Just make sure it’s back in this room before Charles gets back.” What the hell am I doing?

“Thank you. I thought for sure you’d say no. Your such an obedient man, after all.”

“Charles said to make sure you don’t leave the manor, he never said anything about you showing your respects to God. Besides, it’s the least I could do for intruding into the simple life of your family.”

She gazed at him in wonderment. “There’s more to you than you want to admit, Caius.” Liana walked towards him and kissed him in the lips without warning, briefly. “Goodnight.”

Caius was in too much of a state of shock to respond. Her lips tasted like heaven itself. The fact that it was wrong in so many ways didn’t even register at the moment. The only thing on his mind was the shape of luscious perfect lips pressed against his own. It was something he’d pictured in his head more times than he dared to admit from the very first moment he laid eyes on that smile.

He only heard the door to his room open and close when she left, his mind still trapped in paradise. Did that just happen? Suddenly the image of Charles popped in his head and the fear and mistake felt very real. I just kissed my Mentor’s wife!

 

***

 

Awkward did not even begin to describe how breakfast went. The world was spinning backwards and no one but Caius seemed to notice. It was like walking outside and everyone was walking around naked going about his or her daily business as if nothing were different. As crazy as Cruorians dressing up as Judicians and Judicians pretending to be Rat slaves. As outrageous as God worshipping angels and angels worshipping men. But yet here he was, eating breakfast right next to his Mentor’s wife, like nothing had happened just a couple hours ago.

Conversations at the dinner table went right over Caius’s head. He recalled Venir mentioning something about the Week of Repentance and Liana overjoyed with approval but found it easier to just stare and listen to his food instead. Any glance at Liana’s beauty or noise from her voice made him nervous like he didn’t even know he was capable of anymore. 

It was clear more than ever now that this was not his place. He should’ve never came in the first place. Charles placed his trust in him and he violated that trust in the worst way possible. How can I ever face Charles now? What Caius enjoyed the most about when he was with Charles was that there were no lies. Now every minute he spent with Charles would be a lie. He could confess, but if he did he might as well load the gun himself.

As soon as breakfast ended and Venir left, Caius was the first one to his room. He decided to catch up on all the sleep he missed. Falling asleep came almost automatically because of how exhausted he was but along came the nightmares as well.

            He dreamed of him and Liana making love, her perfect skin touching his own. The pleasure was so great he couldn’t open his eyes until after he climaxed. When he did though, her throat was open from ear to ear, blood trailing down her perfect breasts. A shadow loomed over him and he woke up almost immediately. He scanned his room but he was alone. After a couple minutes, he fell back into slumber.

            In this dream he was a baby crying in his mother’s arms. They were in a dark room with no light. Gunshots were being fired outside and the screams of people dying were all around him. He cried and cried and the mother tried to stop him but he kept on crying and crying so she left him on the floor and tried to make for a door that had appeared in the darkness. She opened it and in front was Charles’s silhouette. He heard another gunshot and his mother fell. Charles started to approach him and then he woke up into another dream.

            This one wasn’t so much a dream as it was a memory. He was looking down below from above like he was God. Beneath he saw himself alongside Raziel, both children, beating up another kid. The kid cried and begged for mercy but they didn’t stop, they kept beating him until the kid was no longer breathing. After the kid was dead Raziel started to cry and laugh at the same time hysterically and Caius crouched and hugged his knees in a corner.

            Knock! Knock!

            Caius jumped up awake in full alert.

            Knock! Knock!

            He shook his head to wear off the drowsiness. “Who is it?”

            “I-It’s Rose.”

            Rose? He looked out the window. The sun was still bright. What the hell could she want at this hour? He stood up and went for the door. Caius was wearing nothing but his trousers. Scars were scattered across his chest, abs, back, and arms. His newest wound was tightly wrapped in bandages; already well on its way to a healthy recovery. He opened the door and Rose’s eyes popped open in shock and were soon taking in every inch of his muscular lean physique.

            “Can I help you?” he asked, showing his aggravation.

            “I-I’m sorry,” she apologized, eyes still locked on his body. “The Lady asked me t-to check up on you to make sure you were okay. She said you seemed unwell at b-breakfast.”

            “I’m fine.”

            He tried to close the door on her but she took half a step in to block him. She looked through her lashes, flustered. “S-She also said you m-might need other…s-services.”

            Is this Liana’s way of playing games with me? Just what exactly is she after? “The only thing I want from you is to bring the Lady Veritas up here.”

            Rose stepped away embarrassed, the disappointment in her face clear as day. “R-right away.”

            With that she scurried away down the hall. Caius closed the door and decided it was better if he dressed himself a bit. He put on a white shirt and green vest over it. He opened the drawer with his Shadow locket and put it in his pocket just in case Liana decided to welcome herself to go exploring around his room again.

            Caius started pacing back and forth waiting. Seconds seemed like minutes and minutes like hours. Is this what it feels like to be nervous? He had forgotten the feeling and while he didn’t particularly enjoy it, there was a certain thrill about it. Just what exactly am I hoping for anyways? I’m calling her over to put an end to this charade. Nothing more.

            Knock! Knock!

            Time seized and Caius felt his life in the balance. Whatever was about to happen would change how he lived his remaining days in this house, arguably life. He wasn’t even sure what he was going to say yet. He wanted all these answers but didn’t know how to ask them. When it came to Liana Veritas, thinking straight was hardly possible.

            He opened the door as coolly as possible. There she stood, in all her natural beauty. Golden hair tied over her shoulder beside her large firm breasts, dazzling bright brown eyes, and perfect gorgeous lips. She was wearing a red dress, more shapely than it was extravagant, but elegant nonetheless.

            She stepped in without awaiting permission forcing Caius to step to the side uncomfortably. “For a while there you had me thinking you were going to avoid me all day,” she teased. “I thought Rose might cheer you up.”

            He closed the door behind her. “What is it you’re after? Do you want to leave this house? Do you want to be God’s loyal subject again? Do you want…”

            “You?” she finished.

            “Yes…” he said, embarrassed that he even entertained the notion. “Every conversation we’ve had I end up playing your game without even realizing it. I’ve done nothing wrong and yet with each encounter I feel like I’m betraying Charles more and more.”

            “Well, are you?”

            “No. I just said I’ve done nothing wrong.”

            “Then why do you feel guilty? If you’ve done nothing wrong, what’s the problem?”

            “I…I don’t know.”

            Her expression grew serious and she started walking idly in a circle around him. “I’ll tell you why. The reason you feel guilty is because you want to do all these things you supposedly shouldn’t. When you first approached me and stopped me from leaving the house, you didn’t want to, but you did so because Charles told you to. But deep inside I’m sure you couldn’t even begin to fathom why. Any Judician citizen has the right to leave their home as long as it’s before curfew. Then afterwards when I went to your room because we shared our faith, you shunned me. Inside I’m sure you told yourself there’s nothing wrong with believing in God, I mean why would there? You believe in him too. But then you threw Charles into the picture, the atheist who’d never accept anyone close to him believing in anything greater than mankind, and that changed everything. I bet the thought of bringing religion into this house sent a shiver down your spine. Finally, an intimate moment with the woman who’s had your eyes glued to her from the moment you stepped in this house. You finally got to taste the lips you’ve been drooling over all this time, but oh wait, it’s Charles’s wife so it’s not okay. Do you see the pattern here? Be honest with yourself, who is it you really serve, Judicium or Charles?”

            She was right. Every single word she said was right and he knew it just as well as she did. He’d been running from the truth all this time but deep inside he knew it. This whole time he’d been serving Charles. In his eyes, Charles was order. Charles was his justice. Whenever he was lost it was Charles who showed him the right path. Charles’s world was perfect, it had no holes, none but one. His family. That one hole shattered everything Caius believed in. Perfect order was nothing more than an illusion.

            Caius looked down at the floor, feeling a kid once more. “I thought…that if I could maintain Charles’s order, that perfect order could indeed exist. I’ve seen what Judicium really looks like. It’s ugly and filled with lies. Charles gave me hope that the world could be perfect.”

            “Charles doesn’t know what perfect looks like. His world is a world washed in blood. A world without God. A world without hope. A world without change. He wants to make Judicium the reality of the fantasy the Fuhrer preaches, but all Charles knows is death. Killing is all he knows.”

            “Killing is all I know…”

            “If you continue following in Charles’s footsteps, that’s all you’ll ever know.” She stepped in front of him and drew his face up with her hand. “But it doesn’t need to be that way. There’s another side to life.”

            She tried to kiss him but he leaned back. “If I do this…I’ll never be able to look at Charles in the face again. And what about your family? What about your kids?”

            She smiled the way she did, making Caius weak again. “Stop worrying about everyone else and worry about what it is you want.”

            “I’ve never cared about what I want before. I don’t know what it means to live for myself. All I’ve ever cared about is maintaining order in Judicium…the same as every other orphan in Judicium’s Youth,” he confessed.

            She wrapped her arms around his neck and gazed into his eyes. “How does it feel to finally be honest?”

            He looked into the stars inside her eyes. “It feels…good.”

            “Then kiss me.” And he didn’t hesitate.

            Their lips locked and before he knew it her back was leaning against the bed with him above her. If heaven existed this was it. Her lips were like a fruit from the Tree of Eden. Their tongues intertwined rhythmically as he reached deeper inside her throat. In this very moment Caius didn’t care about anyone but himself. He was in a frenzied hunger for Liana Veritas.

            His hand started to reach for her breast, grabbing a handful of one with one hand while he grazed the length of her thigh with his other. She tried to speak but his hunger wouldn’t let her. She tried to stop his hands but the pleasure from her flesh wouldn’t allow him. He continued to devour her, relishing in all the lust he’d been containing up to this point. His hand reached between her legs, rubbing the wet cloth of her undergarments.

            She bit his tongue and his eyes shot open as he pulled away. She gasped for air. “I said kiss me, not f**k me.”

            He looked away, flushed and embarrassed. “I…I didn’t mean to get ahead of myself. It’s just…I’ve never desired a woman so much as I do you.”

            She smiled, innocently. “It’s okay, it’s hard for me too. It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed the pleasure of having a man inside me. It’s just…I wouldn’t dare risk it in this house. I’m afraid someone might hear us. Heavens know, we were noisy enough with our clothes on, imagine without.” The thought made his already erect c**k harden more inside his pants. Liana glanced down below and nudged him in the groin with her knee. “But it seems we’ll still have to do something about this down here.”

            She flipped him over on the bed so she was on top and pulled down his trousers releasing his fully erect c**k. “Try not to make too much noise. I’ll try to make this quick.” She licked her thick juicy lips and thwarted her attention to his head below. The first lick sent electricity through his body. The second fire. And on the third, which circled around the entire head, his whole body melted. Is this what love feels like?

            Her lips wrapped around the tip of his c**k and in one fell swoop, the entire thing disappeared in the warmth of her mouth. When she pulled out, his c**k was glistening with her saliva and her lips were wet and hungry for more. She sucked the whole thing deep once again only this time she kept it there for a bit before pulling out and gasping for air. The next time she sucked she only went half as deep but consecutively up and down his shaft numerous times before taking another breath of air. She continued to skillfully swallow his c**k, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes deep, and sometimes just sucking on the head. Her oral skills were clumsier than Sia’s but for whatever reason it felt infinitely better.

            Liana picked up the pace using her hands to jerk him off and massage his scrotum while she sucked on his c**k. She twisted and turned her hand, up and down, as she continued to suck on his c**k, up and down. He could feel the tip of his head hitting the back of her throat over and over again, saliva dripping from her juicy lips every time she pulled back, and being swallowed back up every time she pulled in. She stopped using her hands and picked up speed with her mouth. Caius felt his eyes roll to the back of his head as Liana took him to paradise.

Liana’s mouth touched the base of his c**k as he shot his seed directly down the deepest parts of her throat. She remained there until the stream finally came to an end. He felt the pressure from her mouth as she pulled out sucking anything else she might’ve left inside. She took a big swallow and then licked the edges of his c**k and sucked the tip one last time. After she was done she licked her lips, and smiled her gorgeous perfect smile like the angel she was.

“That solves that problem, and all without making a mess,” she said, innocently. “Hopefully next time it won’t matter.”

God, what have I done?

 

***

 

The church was isolated and dark, lit only by a few remnant candles. It was a simple church, nothing like a cathedral. When you entered it was just one big hall filled with seats staring at the giant cross in the far end. Caius preferred the smaller churches to the large ones. He felt they were more genuine. Considering he only went after curfew though it hardly mattered. While most people preferred to connect with God where a clergyman was present, Caius enjoyed his time with God strictly alone. Whenever he prayed he did it alone in the middle of the night, in an empty church if possible.

He got on his knees at the center of the hall, directly in front of the giant cross, and prayed. Forgive me God for I have sinned. I’ve broken the trust of the only person whoever treated me like a person. Worse, I no longer feel guilty about it. For the first time in my life I want to live for myself. It doesn’t make sense, and everything tells me it’s not the right thing to do, but it’s what I want. Charles told me love conquers all, is this love? I want to believe it is, so perhaps I could have some redemption in my selfishness, but can one truly fall in love so fast? Please, God almighty, help me find the right path.

            After his personal prayer, Caius recited several other ones taught by the Church from words taken directly out of the Holy Grimoire. Caius wondered if God would hear his prayers after all he’d done. One could argue he’d done worse but at least he’d always done things for someone other than himself. If one took a life for the sake of many lives, it could be forgiven. Could the same be said of someone who ruined a family for their own sake? It’s all Charles’s fault. None of this would’ve happened if he never threw me in his house to find love in the first place.

            Caius heard the door to the church opened and stood up instantaneously to see who it was. The moonlight from behind made it so only a silhouette could be seen, but he could recognize the figure nonetheless.

            “Still following me, Raziel?”

            Raziel raised his hands up. “You got me.”

            “What do you want?”

            Raziel walked up to him until he was clear as day. “Is it too much to want to visit a brother?”

            “I’m not in the mood for games.”

            Raziel’s eyes grew serious. “Good. Neither am I. I’m here to talk about Charles again. Still don’t think he killed the Moon?”

            “Nothing’s changed since last you talked to me.”

            “You still claim you don’t know a thing?”

            He’s being unusually persistent about this. Does he really think I know who killed the Moon or is this just one of his theatricals? Raziel was the kind of person who liked to make everything a bigger deal than it was. He had a sick theatrical mind and hated being ignored. When he had the stage everyone always had to watch, and if they didn’t, he made sure they did.

“Nothing’s changed since last you talked to me,” emphasized Caius.

            Raziel smirked. “Good, because if it does turn out you were involved, you might have an imminent trip to the gallows.”

            “What makes you so sure?”

            “I was doing a little research on your Mentor. Five years after the Crimson Treason, he married Liana Evermore, who I’m sure you must be well acquainted with in your babysitting duty by now. Now, I know you know the Evermore family well. You and Charles were in charge of tracking and putting an end to the Mother of Cryst, Elena Evermore. So you must know they’re the pioneers of crystallite engineering. I was desperate for a lead so I started studying up on crystallite engineering and stumbled upon a couple interesting facts. It turns out that a lot of the side effects when altering plants make them poisonous. These poisons can vary from drowsiness, to rashes, to paralyzes, and some are even known to cause heart attacks.”

            Caius had heard enough. “Raziel, give this up. You’re trying so hard you’re seeing answers where you want to see them. Even if Liana were a crystallite engineer, how would she ever manage to do it from inside the manor? Owners build crystallite farms for these things just to produce enough crystallite to experiment. Not only that, let’s say she did have her own farm of some sort and all the tools necessary to engineer, how would Charles end up with it? Charles is no engineer and he can’t exactly ask her for poison when he needs to keep the fact he’s part of Judicium’s Shadow a secret.”

            Raziel grabbed Caius by the collar. “Stop being naïve. They’ve been married how many years? Of course she knows.”

            Caius pushed him off. “She doesn’t. Part of my mission is to make sure she doesn’t find out, so I assure you, she doesn’t have the slightest clue. Neither does the rest of his family. There’s also no crystallite farm anywhere. I’ve seen everything the manor has to offer.”

            Raziel stood silent for a bit and then looked at the cross. “Let’s hope your right. I might forgive you if you’re lying, but God won’t.” He turned his back to Caius and started making his way out.

            Before he left, Caius shouted, “Why do you even care so much?”

            Raziel turned. “Because God gave me free will and it’s my job to help make Judicium the perfect world.”

            “Killing Charles won’t make Judicium a better place.”

            He shrugged. “There are some who would say otherwise.”

Author's Note

Now is your time to judge! :D What do you think of Caius? What do you think of Liana? How do you believe the events from this chapter will affect everyone else?

Reviews

[Dark Rider]

Know everything is starting to connect together. Like all the other chapters, I really like the whole idea of the plot. The flow of the story is incredible as well. And so far, Caius is still holding the spot of my favorite character. And I will potty himm greatly if, and/or when, Charles finds out about him and his wife. XD Can't wait to read more.

[Cynical_Art]

I'm excited you've made it this far :) After the next chapter it finally picks up a lot and big things will be happening chapter after chapter. I'm curious, what are your thoughts on Liana so far?

[Dark Rider]

She's quiet interesting. I'm not to sure what to make of her. I didn't think she would kiss Caius, although I sort of knew it was going to happen sooner or later. But I didn't expect her to be so direct with her attempts.