Mehily had been ready to give up. She hadn’t really thought anymore, just concentrated on healing her own throat to prevent it from going too hoarse to keep shouting. Regardless of that neat trick, she couldn’t halt time and the time she had was limited. Then, suddenly, the angel just stepped toward her, looking resolute and crying.

The question had slipped past her lips before she knew it. Something that bubbled out of her core. That, beyond all the doubt, it was faith she first spoke about was oddly soothing. Beyond all the doubt she currently experienced, she still had that central pillar of herself to hold onto. The question she received in answer, however, was what her active mind was immediately occupied by.

‘Believe or obey…’ she thought. ‘Did I move because of what I believe or because I was ordered… so that was it…’ It just suddenly fell into place. The gods were no tyrants. What they taught was not something she just had to follow blindly. Faith was to believe in the message of the gods. Believing did not mean that she had to accept everything at face value. ‘I have gone to the Church to seek the truth, then stopped and accepted the first answer I was given because it was spoken by an authority,’ she realized. ‘So that’s it, the mistake that unbelievers and people uneducated in faith equally make, thinking the values presented are complete and unquestionable.’

That was scary. Unfathomably scary. Not even the message of the gods presented a complete picture of anything, not even they could solve every problem properly. No absolute certainty existed, no absolute authority on anything, only guidelines.

However, that didn’t suddenly invalidate the gospel she had been taught. She had to think and actually understand it. If it was fundamentally false, then it wouldn’t have survived for so long and had led to such a prosperous organization in the Church and the worlds following the faith would have long collapsed. It wasn’t false, it was incomplete and needed its followers to think for themselves to accurately follow it. What an odd faith that required people to constantly question themselves.

“Which is it?” the melodic voice of the angel ripped her out of her thoughts. Aclysia had no idea what the sudden silence meant. If she had known, she would have been confused. What Mehily was racking her head over was as clear to her as breathing. Not that this meant that Aclysia was without flaw she needed to improve. Just this thing, a tendency towards dogmatic thinking, she was born without.

Mehily felt a little dizzy for a moment, holding her head. She would have to reflect more on this another time. Better yet, she had to talk to the Cardinal about this. Perhaps, now that she had finally found why doubt was good, he could show her something else. “I am sorry… you have brought me an answer to a question I embodied,” she explained herself poorly. No better way came to mind, so she answered the actual question. “I came here to find you – by myself. I came without order, grasping at straws. Believing, I would say, I came here believing.”

Aclysia looked around, then at her hands. In doing so, she lowered her head just enough that somebody could try to get the drop on her. When a rustle in the nearby bushes reached her ears, the metal fairy suddenly spread her wings and seemed ready to take off. Mehily was already raising a hand to try and beg her to come back, but neither of them ever moved from their spot. Only a feral cat tapped close to them, then backed off and into the forest again. Just a curious creature.

Slowly, Aclysia folded her wings behind the cover of the cape again. Nobody had taken the bait that gesture had presented, it seemed she truly was safe. With that basic thing poorly confirmed, she could no longer hold the question back that was truly burning in her mind. “Did you scream that just to lure me out or is it true?” she stared at Mehily with wide open eyes. A spectre of fury boiled under the surface of hope. Which would devour the other, the Priestess’ answer entirely dictated.

“It is true,” Mehily answered and, a few seconds later, when the words registered with her mind and no lie could be seen in her opposite’s expression, Aclysia began to tremble. Her whole body was shaking, the strength sapped from her legs. While the tears rose in her eyes, the metal fairy slumped together. Although the two were nothing even approaching friends, she did not mind when Mehily caught her and then she started crying.

It wasn’t the same, unbelieving sadness that had overcome her at seeing her darling die. Not remotely in feeling and not even in appearance. Back then she had just cried as her body went through mechanical motions, unable to fully comprehend what had happened. Now the tears were running wildly over her face as her thinking mind entirely shut down, dissolved in a sea of endless, unreasonable happiness.

There wasn’t even a hint of grace when her sobbing echoed out with each ripple that went through her. Parts of her violently convulsed and relaxed. A deeply unpleasant feeling, her whole body was experiencing it. It was quite odd that such joy was exemplified by turning her body into a mess.

“Thank you…” Aclysia managed to press out between sobs at one point. “Thank you… thank you so much…”

They both knew that this was a thanks of the highest irony. Without Mehily and her actions, one when she forced Reysha from her group and two when she had reported Apexus as a dangerous existence, they wouldn’t even have stood there. Regardless, Aclysia’s words were genuine. Yes, the past between them wasn’t clear, but for the moment it seemed that news were genuinely good.

After about ten minutes, during which Mehily was entirely confused as to what she should do with the crying angel, half laying in her arms, Aclysia had calmed down again somewhat. The tears had washed out the superfluous emotions and now she was able to think again.

Of course, those thoughts weren’t entirely pleasant. Distancing herself a whole step from the Priestess, Aclysia asked, “Tell me everything. How is he alive? Where is he? How is he? What do you plan to do with him?” Mehily hesitated for just a second, enough for the metal fairy to grow somewhat suspicious again. “Why do you even tell me this?” she put the foremost question last.

“Because… the Cardinal and I, we have come to the conclusion that we made a mistake,” she took a deep breath, knowing this next information could infuriate the angel, and with good reason. “We kept the truth from you, because the Cardinal did not want to risk you trying to flee and meet the sli- Apexus.”

“That worked out perfectly for him, didn’t it?” Aclysia asked drily, feeling somewhat surprised herself that such mockery exited her mouth. However, she wasn’t angry. Resigned would be the way she described herself at that point. This all could have been avoided if the people in charge of the holy institution had been closer to humanity and tried less to look at things from above like gods.

“He planned to tell you after the Day of the First Ascension!” Mehily assured, looking at the floor afterwards. “You must understand… he has been very strained. His energy is focused elsewhere. I do not know what he needs to know of you, neither am I aware what he keeps his attention on, but leaving the church will apparently strain him…”

“You are quite open in sharing this,” Aclysia observed, surprised more so than suspicious.

“I already said, we have seen our mistake. There is need to do right by you,” Mehily explained herself, then paused again as she struggled how to put the other information into words. “As to how, where and his current state… I do not know. Nobody does. I can tell you the exact chain of events of his resurrection, but that is all.”

“Please do,” Aclysia said and listened carefully. From what had happened to her awakener’s core, to his resurfacing, his flight and his last sighting. By the end of that tale, Aclysia was fuming. “He was used as a private exhibit?” she asked, her voice as sharp as a focused sunray in absolute darkness. “No, worse, you forced him into a position where he had to kill.”

“Yes,” Mehily hung her head. “That blood is on our hands. As is that of the guards Reysha killed,” a remainder of her disliking for the tiger girl caused the blonde to say, “although only in part of that one, she had different choices.” Of course, she was unaware of the death sentence that Reysha had supposedly received.

Aclysia’s index finger stabbed against the Priestess’ collarbone. “I am not remotely interested in your blame game,” the metal fairy felt genuine anger right now, that and hearing the Rogue’s name had reminded her of the time and the events to happen tomorrow. “No, Reysha is not perfect. She is an immoral, insane and unsteady person. She might have more character flaws than I can count, but I still care about her. Whatever sins she committed while fleeing prison are not yours to judge. You are neither a part of her group nor a person who runs society. For now, you are just one Priest, so see yourself as such.”

Mehily felt dumbfounded by that sudden aggressiveness, could only nod. “How come you know she is free?” she could not help but wonder, however. They had kept that information from her as well.

“I know more than that she is free, more than you, but less in other regards,” Aclysia stated as she straightened herself and closed her eyes to recover her calm. She had to think, think what this all meant. Did Apotho know Apexus was alive as well? If yes, then that would mean Gizmo had tried to tell her that she would actually meet him at the day of the First Ascension. Reysha was also supposed to be there.

At the building. North. North of what? The place of the parade? Apotho had said Reysha would try to kill him at the start of the parade. There were too many pieces. What was the most likely scenario? How would Apotho profit in the different ways she acted?

‘What are the doubtlessly true parts?’ Aclysia asked herself, trying to stitch together the plan that would most likely allow her to gather the group again, get off the leaf unhindered and also cross all of Apotho’s schemes. ‘Reysha is going to be somewhere north. Apexus will be at the Day of the First Ascension. What are the questionably true parts? Reysha is going to try and assassinate the Cardinal. Reysha will do so at the start of the ceremony. What are the definitely false parts? I can’t find any.’

She had no clear knowledge of when she could meet Apexus. However, she had, if doubtful, information of where Reysha would first make her appearance. Even if that was something Apotho had said, if he had actually believed her plead for vengeance, than he would have told her the truth. If he had done so and she wasn’t there at the start of the ceremony, there was a fair chance that Reysha would get herself killed.

The guards being doubtlessly vengeful aside, Reysha wasn’t the sort of person that would just let herself get captured easily. Either she would be pressed down by an overwhelming force or she would fight until she dropped, dead or otherwise.

Now it was Mehily that grew irritated by her opposites prolonged silence. “Angel Aclysia?” she asked, causing the same to look at the Priestess again.

‘Right, I don’t need to plan as a sole actor,’ the metal fairy thought, although she didn’t quite trust the Priestess yet. “I will need your help to right things as they are,” she simply stated, being obtuse where she could and saying what she had to. “Are you willing to?”