Chapter 23: Chapter 23: Of Excitement

He slipped. He finally slipped, ahahahaha!!

 

Everyone else had already fallen asleep, gently snuggled in their beds and snoring up a storm. Even Sister Alejandra, the biggest and strongest of all of them, couldn’t fight off the exhaustion of the day for long enough to really understand the implications of that last roaring thunder… but Arianna could. She could barely sleep at night anyways, so a sound that intense was more than enough to keep her up.

 

Especially because she knew for a fact that it wasn’t a natural occurrence. 

 

How do you like it now, Enrico? Facing the forces you were tempting all this time…?

 

Clinging to her sheets with a steadily growing smirk on her lips, little sister Arianna had to try her best not to just burst into a fit of laughter when she could hear the distant echoes of that crazy bastard, yelling into the forest. It wasn’t hard to figure out what happened: For some odd coincidence or maybe the intervention of a sickly God, one of his barbaric experiments had been a success! 

 

But of COURSE he wasn’t prepared for it, was he now?

 

Again she bit her lips to suffocate any giggles that could even try to escape her. No, she couldn’t wake the others up, it was better if they had no idea what just happened! Arianna just wanted to savor the moment when Enrico had to explain a giant hole in their home’s backyard. Oh, what excuses would he conjure up? Who would be to blame for this one? Of course, it couldn’t be the great and powerful “Demiurge”’s fault now, could it? It had to be someone else’s fault! 

 

But whom, pray tell? Whom else could be to blame for a man’s unchecked ambitions?

 

I never expected it out of Baraqiel though… good for them.

 

Arianna nodded to herself. It made sense in a poetic way, for the weakest prisoner to suddenly be granted a shard of Inspiration like that! She couldn’t wait to see them herself, guide them–

 

Hide them.

 

The joviality of the moment steadily died down as the woman remembered that this was, indeed, quite terrible. It opened an opportunity to raise her voice and finally put an end to the Hell that was this chapel, but it also could attract the wrong kind of attention in every single direction! From the Genesis to the general public, if word of this incident arrived to the wrong person at the wrong time, it could mean the end not only for Enrico, but for everyone involved in this situation.

 

Even the children…

 

With a deep, heavy breath, the sister rubbed her temples to try and think about it coldly and methodically. Focus, don’t lose sight of the target.

 

Make a list.

 

Alright, first: Investigate the Awakening Zone.

 

Thanks to the Silent Treaty of the Council of Alkairos, all magic was to be hidden and used only by the 107 Archmages registered in its great list. It was never to be taught again, all artifacts were to be destroyed and magic itself should be left alone until it eventually, and inevitably, starved to death. A simple idea that was almost impossible to apply without brute force.

 

Magic is infectious, and this was a fact of life.

 

Whenever magic was displayed in a fantastical, loud way, any and all witnesses with a mind open to its nature will receive a spark of it, and after this was done, it was a matter of time before new mages Awakened.

 

And Awakenings themselves were usually fantastical and loud.

 

Arianna had to make sure no other witnesses had gotten accidentally Inspired by this Awakening, and that no objects had gotten accidentally imbued with Baraqiel’s Waking Yawn. 

 

Which brings us to:

 

Second: Figure out what Rune did they see.

 

Every time a Mage awakens, their mind is “blessed” (Arianna had to repress the impulse of spitting) with a mysterious symbol: a “Rune” unique to them, representative of their initial Inspiration and the intensity of it. There were huge intricacies to how Runes worked and how to properly contain and reproduce them, but those were details that both didn’t concern and didn’t matter to Arianna right then.

 

She just needed to figure out what that Rune could do, just in case the child decided to go full-on megalomaniac with such powers as it was the usual route many young Mages took.

 

And people wonder why Genesis managed to gain so much importance. Arianna rolled her eyes for a moment before taking a deep breath. Third: Check on Enrico.

 

There was no way Enrico would be Inspired, and this was something Arianna knew since the first time she laid eyes on the guy. His idea of Magic was way too restrictive and tainted by greed, hungry for recognition and inflated with self-aggrandizing delusions. The man was an exploiter, not a creator.

 

… But it was best to check anyway. Magic was still so whimsical, and between its unpredictable nature and layers upon layers of censorship that Arianna had to go through in her training as a True Sister of the Church, she could never be sure that what she knew was actually the full truth.

 

One can never be cautious enough.

 

Why in the blazes do they need to make my work even harder!? Arianna bit her covers a bit harder in frustration, before continuing with the list. Fourth: Look for the kid.

 

She needed to make sure Baraqiel didn’t do anything stupid. Now that their Magic had been unleashed, it was a race against time until people took notice, so Arianna needed to stave off that moment as much as possible. Find the kid, tell them what you can and beg for them to understand.

 

I don’t want them to suffer anymore, but if they want to become a liability then…

 

Arianna fell silent.

 

Baraqiel was, right now, a beacon for trouble. She was confident in her ability to make them understand that this “gift” they got was something to NEVER be used until they fully mastered it, but if they refused… if they showed signs of being a problem for the others around them…

 

Then Arianna would have no choice but to skip right to the last step…

 

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Call Genesis.

 

She was, technically, a part of the Genesis Chamber! But her rank was so low she could only just blow the whistle and wait for the actual members to arrive. Sure, she had contact with the Chamber Priest, but not even he could control the group’s thirst for violence and “righteous punishment”.

 

If she could, Arianna would hide the kid and try to make it so the only one that was “righteously punished” was the one to blame for it all! But if they find Baraqiel, that meant that everyone needed to be censored.

 

Erased.

 

Killed.

 

Not even Arianna was sure if she would be safe from that either.

 

To be very fucking honest, I am not sure if I care much for that anyways.

 

Arianna didn’t have a particularly strong love for life and all of its pleasures, in fact, she always considered each day full of work quite the hassle to get through. If it was up to her, she would spend all of her days either sleeping or painting, but alas! A woman’s gotta eat, and this had been the profession she inherited in this life, so. Her hands were tied.

 

In fact. This had to be the very first day (or night, whatever) where she was excited to do her job! This was exactly what she had in mind when choosing to be a Scout for the Church: finding the wicked and pointing a finger at them, so the professionals could take care of the ordeal. But the Church seemed less and less interested in the matter of Magic, and the “professionals” were a bunch of rabid, bloodthirsty jackals! So, her determination had been dying down more and more with the years passing.

 

But at least now she had the chance to actually do something. No more standing quietly on the sidelines, no more abiding for the suffering of literal children! No. Tonight, she was taking a stand! And it all started with getting her quill.

 

Arianna carefully sat right up on her bed. She should wait until next morning for her report, but honestly, she knew she would be sleepy and absolutely burnt out by then, so she preferred to use her sudden energy for something good! It was risky, but the woman was done with all the waiting time: as soon as she felt confident with the other people sleeping, the sister got up from her bed, and carefully started walking.

 

She took long, slow and exaggerated steps, careful to use only the tip of her bare feet as she made way for the desk… and once she was there, she lit up the candle and opened her personal book log. Arianna quickly passed the pages, feeling up the texture until finding the Miracles hidden within the regular pieces of papyrus, finally took the quill.

 

Now, how to start this one? Ari needed to make sure she’d have the Chamber Priest’s attention! After all, she’d need him to plan this whole escape… She tapped her own cheek with the quill for a bit, before the words suddenly came to her mind. Yes, it was perfect.

 

With dextrous and practiced motions, Arianna got to work and started writing:

 

“WAKE UP CHAMBER PRIEST, WAKE UP NOW!! THE MOMENT IS HERE!!!”

 

The nun smiled, nodding to herself while the ink was absorbed by the paper… and then, it was just a matter of waiting. She knew for a fact that old Chamber Priest Giovanni barely slept, after all it was on one of those insomniac nights that they had met each other, so it would only take a few moments for an answer to arrive.

 

The moments felt so terribly long though, time had never felt as slow and unbearable as it did that very night.

 

Ari was about to send another message when, suddenly, words wrote themselves in the paper once again.

 

“Sister Arianna, I hope this really is important. I was having a very nice dream about counting pink sheep in a gentle meadow.”

 

Again with the pink sheep, he always rambled about those when trying to mock people. The sister rolled her eyes and grumbled as she cracked her knuckles and started composing the answer. She wasn’t going to even acknowledge the old man’s jokes this time.

 

“He slipped, Priest. He slipped and fucked up, pardon my Normadian! One of the children he was torturing Woke Up!! I am sure there is a hole in the side of the building now!!”

 

The words slowly disappeared again, and Arianna could barely contain her excitement. She jumped in place with a bright smile, rubbing both hands together and just waiting for the man’s answer. But then, she felt something on her shoulder: a firm hand patting her, comforting her?

 

“Comrade, are you okay? You were all restless tonight!”

 

Arianna froze, her face didn’t even have enough time to erase that smile before she turned around to see Sister Alejandra standing by her side. The bigger woman was smiling, calm as usual, the good intentions palpable in her eyes: a good friend of hers had trouble sleeping after a particularly strong storm, and she was going to offer an ear and some distraction!

 

Why now, Ale!?

 

“Ah, you seem to be in a good mood though. Are you writing something interesting?”

 

“W-Well, you see.” Arianna was many things, but good at lying? It was not one of them. Still, she tried to gently scoot between the Sister and her book. “I was just, thinking of a dumb prank to play on the Father, that’s it….”

 

“Ohohoh! What do you have in mind, then?” Alejandra’s mischievous streak had been perfectly hidden from the other sisters until that very night. “I’ve been thinking of adding bad milk to his coffee one of these days, that will teach him a thing or two.”

 

Ari couldn’t help but giggle a bit. The idea WAS good! But then, as she suddenly remembered she was supposed to cover it, the book shook slightly. And words started to be written on its pages.

 

“Let me see, then! What are you plan–...ing…?” The bigger sister’s eyes were suddenly stuck on the book,  staring at the ink magically blossoming from the paper.

 

“Really? Now?? This is wonderful news, Sister.” The words were written in nervous, rushed strokes. “Shall we begin preparations then? Tell me everything, we need to make sure the children are safe before we call the Genesis!”

 

Arianna took a very deep breath, gulping down some saliva while looking up at Alejandra, who was still trying to comprehend what the hell she just saw. And read. Their eyes locked on each other, Alejandra’s gaze now full of questions and a growing sense of fear as the implications of “Calling Genesis” were quite well known by any and all members of the Church, True or not.

 

With her mind racing, fearing for everything to fall, Ari had two choices that night: To trust, or to get rid of this woman.

 

…Yeah right, as if.

 

“Ale, I need you to breathe– calm down, and please, come with me outside for a minute okay…? I…” Arianna took a deep breath as well. “... I’ll explain it all. I promise.”

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