The Lost Scholar

CHAPTER: 07

THE EMPRESS

It mortified Gabriel seeing his mother trapped in a small cage, hung from the post near the gallows. She resembled a bird imprisoned; an angry and oppressed bird. Grizelda was the talk of the town and the centerpiece of the week. “Mother!” her son shouted desperately. “Mother, are you all right?” he knew her response would be obvious, but he needed to hear it. “I’m all right, Gabriel. I am so sorry for this mess…!” She was embarrassed. “Lady Lillian will take care of you till this is all over…”

“What?! You can’t be serious!”

“Gabriel, please! It will only be for a while…!”

“I won’t let them take you, mother!”

“All right, all right. Enough of this drama…” Magistrate Müller drew their attention. “You know you cannot speak to your mother while there is an investigation.”

“What do you mean — that is ridiculous!” Gabriel shouted scandalized. “It is common sense to speak to the defendant!”

“Not if you conspire with the defendant.”

“I need to know when the trial will be!” Gabriel demanded.

“Tomorrow morning. Now run along so we can investigate this case,” the magistrate dismissed them and retreated to the church.

“But!” Gabriel refused to let him leave. “Let’s go,” Roy growled lowly and yanked the boy by the wrist to make him move the other way. The angry cleromancer had dragged Gabriel to his home. The boy pulled his wrist away from the drunk. “Why did you do that?” the boy asked.

“You want to bust your mother out?” Roy countered with a proposition.

“Yes!” The boy exclaimed.

“Instead of wasting time fighting with someone who is mocking you for even existing, investigate this mess of a murder your mother got tangled in.”

“R-right…”

“Let’s start in your home.”

“My home? Why? You and I both know she is innocent.”

“Exactly, but we need evidence to support that claim,” Roy said as he reached for his pocket watch to read the time. “It is eight thirty now. We have to make every second count to save your mother.” Gabriel nodded. “What do you suggest we do first?” the boy asked.

“Does your mother keep an entry book for her patients?”

“Of course. She needed to keep one specifically to keep track of patterns in sickness and pregnancies. Why do you need that?”

“She was most likely to be near these women and children right before their death. We can compare the evidence against her with her findings.” Both the cleric and the apprentice walked inside the residence quickly feeling something wasn’t right. “What is that smell…?” Roy covered his nose from the offensive scent.

“It smells like after birth…” Gabriel was all too familiar with the scent. The child rushed over to the clinic to find the source; the sack to house an infant. The confused child blinked several times wondering why that was thrown there. “That’s disgusting…” Roy said cringing at the sight.

“My mother uses it as medicine. She can use it to skin graph, create a protein pill, or even make it into baby food. But at the current state it is too rotten for use.”

“Yuck… Then what is it doing on the floor?”

“I think someone was here.” Gabriel and Roy searched the entire first floor looking for things out of place. They started with the clinic. The icebox where Grizelda kept the umbilical cords, the sacks of waters, and liquid remedies was empty. “Who the hell just randomly grab gross stuff from a fridge?” Roy wondered.

“You don't think they will use that as evidence against mother?” Gabriel asked worried.

“That's actually a great assumption. We have to be sure nothing else is taken,” the drunk cleric suggested.

They looked in the clinic, the living room, the kitchen, and found nothing out of line. It startled Gabriel when he couldn't find his mother's journal anywhere. He assumed she hid it well and that he would find it, eventually.

They walked up the stairs and searched Grizelda’s room.

Roy looked inside her drawers through her knickers and intimates and Gabriel underneath her bed. He found an old picture of his mother and father when they were young. Gabriel smiled fondly at them, his mother never stopped loving him, and neither did Gabriel despite him leaving. It was a confusing emotion and thought to have, but he thought he was young and foolish.

His mother had a wet nurse attire and her face was flawless and bright and in love. His father had fire for hair and brilliant duo tone eyes, purple and silver. He wore pure white robes similar to those of the church. Now that he sees them, they both wore crosses given by the Vatican for those who become powerful clergymen. Gabriel frowned and realized that his parents served the clergy. “Roy, can a nun and a priest fall in love with each other?”

The man didn’t answer.

The child sighed as he stood up on his feet. He scratched his head in deep thought, trying to guess where the piece goes when it was the only piece he had. The child turned to the cleromancer and asked and called again, “Roy?”

Roy flinched and slammed the drawer shut so hard he almost broke it. He wiped his gloved hands over his leather tunic. He was several shades red and irritated. “Let’s get the hell out…” and he did just that. Gabriel wondered what bothered the man so much that he ceased the search when they barely started.

“Wait!” The child pulled the cleromancer’s coat to draw his attention. “I asked you something!”

“What is it?”

“Can a nun and a priest fall in love?”

“They can, but they are not supposed to. They have sacred vows they must follow: poverty, chastity and obedience.” That explanation left Gabriel wondering the origin of his parents. He reached again for the small portrait and showed it to Firestorm. He didn’t flinch. “Your mother nailed- Uh.. yeah. Your dad--...” Roy was tripping over his words which made Gabriel suspicious. “What about my mother and father?”

“She was Reverend Mother Virtue, and he was Pope Johan ll. They didn’t care about that rule.”

“That is impossible, my parents can’t possibly be part of the clergy…”

“I served under them--” The boy cut in before he could explain himself. “... You what…?”

“Used to, till they suddenly “vanished” from the vatican,” Roy explained as he examined the picture. “Why did they leave?” Gabriel asked.

“To have you…” Roy said in a rather sad tone. “I helped them run away, the moment they said your name.”

“Why didn’t you tell me-- If you are such a great friend of theirs, how the hell could you abandoned them in their time of need?!”

“I have my own problems… I wanted to find something in this place, I didn't expect my previous commanders to settle here.”

“That doesn't answer my question. Why do you refuse to help me?”

“I have my own problems…” he struggled to say. “...problems that everyone thinks can fix, and I rather solve it in the comfort of my solitude.” The entire time he spoke, he avoided the boy's judging stare. The only thing in Gabriel’s mind was how pathetic this cleromancer actually was, and selfish too. “I rather not disclose them with a child…”

“I wouldn't care, anyway. I have my problems too.” It was harsh but Gabriel felt betrayed someone would just turn a blind eye tagging themselves a close and dear friend. However, the child couldn't ignore the dark and gloom aura the man possessed, along with a depressed complexion.

“...We… should continue,” the man hesitated.

Roy walked in Gabriel’s bedroom and searched again through his drawers. The owner of the chamber didn’t have much to look, but he opened the drawer of his nightstand, his drawings and he books his father wrote were gone. “W-what?” he wondered if he misplaced them and frantically searched all around the room. Now he was certain someone was in his home. “Boy, you are a broken prism…” Roy commented. “What's with you?” he added.

Gabriel turned, tears budded from his eyes. “Someone stole my father's story book…”

“Calm down,” Roy said. “It's just a storybook. It can be replaced.”

“N-no…! it's the last thing my father left me…”

“First of all, who would want a story book?”

“I don't know…!”

“Let's keep searching…” Roy lifted the covers of the bed and there it was. “Is this it?” he asked, holding it up for the child to see.

“You found it!! But how!?” Gabriel snatched it and flipped through the pages making sure they were all intact.

“Someone was in your room--” the cleromancer halts when he realizes what book he just came across. “Dear Judas and the holy trinity…” He traced his fingers over the pages of a map and description if the Amesthyn kingdom.

“What?” Gabriel honestly didn't expect him to be wowed over a book.

“...This is a lost relic. The Amesthyn inheritance,” the man said almost breathlessly. “You have an epic origin of the Amesthyn family.”

“Don't be silly, this is just a story book my father wrote,” Gabriel dismissed the wild allegations of the drunk man.

“This is no time to act ignorant! You have the most powerful book known to man and demon kind!” Roy suddenly yelled. “What…?” The instant shift of moods startled the little Amesthyn.

“Wait… if they settled here, then that means the tomb of the fallen king must be in this very location— Do you have a basement, cellar, emergency hideout, secret room?”

“I don’t know, why are you asking? Shouldn’t we ignore some fairy tale and just help my mom?”

“I am sure Grizelda would be smart enough to hide important things in that secret room.”

“You just want to find some silly artifact…”

“You do realize that if there is a secret room that is breached by an outsider and there was something incriminating her by any out of context value, and we don’t know how to explain it, she will hang.” Roy was anxious and suspicious and that didn’t sit right with Gabriel.

“Fine, but if something happens to my mother, I will make sure you will freeze to death…” The boy warned.

“I’ll let you know if it kills me or not,” the cleromancer waved it off and wandered down the stairs and back into the clinic with the book and the small Amesthyn in tow. He moved tables and shelves looking for a door or a secret passage. “There has to be something so someone as big as Grizelda and Johan can fit through…” Roy wondered to himself. Gabriel wondered what would that door look like. Then the child remembered the afterbirth placement: near a shelf filled with jars and dried medicine. “Roy, move this.” The boy instructed, Roy moved it with ease and gently so nothing could fall and break. It was as easy as opening a door because they designed it to move like a door.

“Amesthyns are geniuses; even the lost kin have amazing engineering...” Roy commented. Gabriel is amazed there was such a door in his own home. Which brought up his wonder why would his parents have something to hide?

What they saw inside was a literal tomb with bright blue lanterns, offerings and crystals. The walls were covered in stained glass of Lord Amesthyn and his kin, and the floor depicted the entire world in precious stones and other precious materials. “Holy fuck--...” Roy exhaled.

“W-what is this…?” Gabriel admitting they frightened him would be an understatement. The glass and floor were like the book he owned. He almost dropped it the moment his eyes gazed at the ceiling: a depiction of Crow the hermit of knowing, and the god of creation.

“M-my parents are witches...!” Gabriel squealed.

“They are still your parents…” Both Gabriel’s and Roy’s head dropped seeing a man wearing glossy black leather armor standing in front of the amethyst coffin. “Whether they are worshiping a fallen god or their ancestors,” the man spoke again.

“H-he…! He was in the clinic the other day!” Gabriel shouted. The pictures of the king and the man before him were identical. “Y-You’re King Amesthyn?!”

“My name is Yuri. I was once the advisor and twin brother of the King. It is a privilege to meet you properly.” The ghost dipped his head in a proper bow.