Chapter 43

“What!?” I can’t believe what I’ve just heard.

“Sorry for lying to you about tonight. Had to expedite welcoming you into the outfit with all the shit that’s going on. We’ll be put through the wringer tomorrow and the next few days when Midriver’s Finest gather their goons and can’t be leaving my back to someone I couldn’t trust. Had to see how you’d react in a situation like this. Remember what I told you when I first met you? I’m the one who’s judging whether you’re fit for Derriv’s outfit or not. I think I told you this before but if I didn’t then Quinn probably did. Derriv’s pretty picky about who he lets into his outfit because we’re… unusual by the city’s standards. It’s mostly because of Derriv himself and how he chooses who joins up with him but we don’t conduct ourselves like the rest of the gangs in Midriver. You remember how I told you we sold those bricks of Belle to another outfit? We actually burned them and all the money you got came from the locked box you brought back. We’re all people with histories and stories and that’s what made us into who we are today but we never lost what makes us human. Derriv hates this city’s filthy underside like I do and holds himself and his outfit to his own standards rather than succumbing to the city’s and he’s surrounded himself with people who have that same mindset. That’s why we call ourselves Candle in the Dark. In a city filled with criminals who’ll readily commit the most heinous of evils at the drop of a hat for a couple of coins in their pockets, we’ve created a place where we can stay true to ourselves and won’t have to relinquish our humanity, just like a candle flickering in the dark. You can think of tonight as a sort of test for me to see what sort of person you are. It’s not like if you kept quiet and accepted when I told you to learn how to shrug off things like this, I’d fail you and reject you from the outfit, but you would have lost my respect. I’m glad you didn’t. I’m glad I watched you struggle with yourself for nearly half a fucking hour in this office over your humanity and I’m glad your humanity won out in the end.”

I’m speechless. This whole thing, this whole night was a test to see just how heartless I’ve become since I’ve gotten to this city. Huh. This whole time I thought the answer to surviving in this city was becoming heartless but if I really did, I’d have failed Bertrand’s expectations instead? How odd. Candle in the Dark. No one really told me what Derriv’s outfit was called before and I never really questioned it but it all makes sense now. I think. But there’s a more pressing matter. I don’t think my humanity really won in the end. It was more so the guilt I felt towards Kayman’s daughter than my strong feelings for the rest of the kids on this ledger. “Bertrand, I don’t think my humanity won out in the end like you said. The thing is, this little girl in the latest entry in the ledger, Mary, is the daughter of a man I killed during a mining collapse before I met you and I said all those things because of how guilty I felt towards her. I feel bad for the rest of the kids on the ledger as well but I only really struggled that much because of Mary and the obligation I feel towards her.”

I lower my head in shame ready for him to tear into me but it never comes, instead, he says something else with a chuckle, “You really didn’t think I’d know about what happened with Kayman in the mine? Of course I knew. That’s why we’re here, that’s why I pointed out Mary’s entry to you in the first place. I knew Mary was Kayman’s daughter before we even came in here tonight and I knew about what happened between you and her father. I pointed out her name because I wanted to make sure you found out as well. If you went along with what I was saying and ignored her even knowing about your connection with each other, then that’d be a whole other story for tonight. By the way, you don’t need to worry about her, we’ll talk about her when we get out of here. Also, since when has guilt stopped being what it means to be human? Guilt’s as much a part of being human as any other feeling and disregarding the fact you want to do the right thing just because you feel guilty is stupid. You’re smarter than that. Though I do suppose you’re not fully grown emotionally yet. It always surprises me to think you’ve only been through 14 winters with what you’ve shown me but I’ve heard from Quinn you haven’t had it easy either. I’ll get you to tell me all about it some other time, but not now, we still have some work to finish.”

When Bertrand finishes what he’s saying, he seems to turn into a different person than who he was just seconds ago. His eyes are cold and there’s a lethalness to his demeanor now. He quickly shoves the ledger and all the papers we found in the false bottom drawer into his leather pack. He closes his brightstone in a box and shoves it into his pocket while signaling for me to do the same. Once the room’s dark again, he creeps up to the office’s door and puts his ear upto the door. When Bertrand thinks the coast is clear, he takes out the knife from before he used to open the window and jams it into the keyhole, the door opening with a click. Okay, I’m definitely asking him to teach me that later. Wait a second, why’s there a lock on this side of the door? Taking a look at the door, it has locks on both sides. A false bottom drawer and a double sided locking door, I’m starting to get an idea of who we’re dealing with here. Bertrand quickly darts out the door and into the dark hallway outside and I follow right behind him. This church seems pretty wealthy judging by the various tables lining the hallway and the glass vases with flowers in them decorating each table. This entire hallway’s floor is even fully covered with an expensive looking red and gold rug. We make our way quietly down the dark hall when we come across a set of double doors. Bertrand works his magic again and uses his knife to open the door without making a sound aside from the lock clicking open. When we go inside, Bertrand carefully closes the doors behind us and right in front of us is a giant bed covered with a white veil.

Now that’s a bed I’d like to try out once. Sleeping in the huge bed is a handsome middle aged man with brown hair. He’s still sleeping peacefully even with two intruders in his room less than a few feet away from him. Bertrand creeps over to him but signals me to wait where I’m standing, right in front of the double doors. When he’s right beside the bed, Bertrand slowly reaches past the white veil with his left hand that’s covered with a black leather glove holding some sort of cloth in his grasp. When his left hand is right above the sleeping man’s face, he quickly shoves the cloth inside the man’s mouth and clenches the man’s mouth with his hand, tugging down slightly. There’s an audible cracking sound that rings throughout the room when he does this. Holy shit, did he just break this guy’s jaw with his fucking hand? The sleeping man’s awake now as he tries to scream in pain but the cloth muffles his calls for help from being heard by anyone except for the two intruders. While his left hand’s still on the man’s mouth, Bertrand holds up a single finger with his right hand and puts it to his lips, shushing him. Once the sleeping- no wait, once the awakened man acknowledges Bertrand and stops trying to call for help, Bertrand calls me over and I oblige. “Isaac, come say hello to Priest Jerome. Or is it Director Jerome now? Doesn’t matter, Jerome, meet Isaac, our newest member in Candle in the Dark.”

“Nice to meet you, Director Jerome.” The priest only gives a muffled, shuddering mutter in reply as he looks at me with terrified eyes, seemingly asking for help. Don’t think so bud, sorry.

“Jerome, Jerome, Jerome. You’ve been a bad boy and a worse priest. C’mon man, you’re supposed to represent Itia of the Inextinguishable Light and here you are, selling off kids right inside her godsdamned church to top it off. You see Jerome, the way I see it, kids are the only truly innocent ones in this cesspool of a city and it pains my heart to see them suffering because of people they’re supposed to be able to trust. Trust is a powerful thing Jerome. It’s a responsibility that one can never take for granted and not only did you take it for granted Jerome, but you threw it on the ground and spit on it. That’s why we’re here tonight Jerome. You’ve betrayed these kids and their trust in you and the only thing you can do to pay it back is by suffering. Don’t worry, you’re not going to die right now. No, no, that’d be too easy. Too quick. We’ll take our time and when we’re finally satisfied, you can rest easy knowing someone with an actual fucking backbone will be taking your place.” Bertrand punches the priest on his jaw and knocks him out cold. He turns to me and says, “Grab everything you can carry. Remember to search thoroughly since these two faced types like to hide their dirtiest secrets carefully like that drawer with a false bottom.”

Bertrand gets to work tying up the priest while I search through his belongings. There’s a few dressers in this room but I can’t find anything except clothes, clothes, and more clothes. There’s sets of linen wear that he seems to wear to sleep, there’s sets of wool wear for the colder months, and then there’s sets of priestly robes in a tall dresser that he wears for his priestly duties. There doesn’t seem to be anything here that looks valuable. But I keep looking because I’m the one who found the drawer with the false bottom and I have an idea of what to look for now. I’m finally rewarded when I find a dresser that looks bigger on the outside than it is inside when it’s opened up. Tapping on the dresser's back panel, I can hear a hollow sound after each tap and before long I’m able to remove the false back panel. There’s a few small wooden boxes behind the panel but every single one of them is locked and I can’t seem to find the key. There are four boxes in total and each box has lavish gold designs which means this should be what I’m looking for. I put all the boxes into my leather bag which Bertrand handed back to us this morning and shoved the bag back into my pack. When I give Bertrand the signal that I’m finished, he nods at me and throws the tied up priest over his shoulder. The priest’s bedroom doesn’t have any windows and it looks like we’ll need to head back to the office to get out of here.

As we’re briskly making our way down the dark hallway again, Bertrand stops abruptly and leans against the wall on the right, trying to minimize his presence. I do the same thing right next to him as my heartbeat quickens. These are not hiding spots. The moment someone looks over at us, they’ll see us and Bertrand’s giant body is not inconspicuous by any meaning of the word. I hold my breath in a vain attempt to lessen the amount of noise I make as I look in front of us down the hall. Before 15 seconds go by, a young woman with long strawberry blond hair in a long white nightgown walks across another hallway at the end of ours, holding a golden candle holder with a lit candle flickering in it. As I’m holding my breath, waiting for the seconds to go by as she walks past our hallway, she stops right before she disappears behind the hallways’ intersecting walls and says to no one in particular, “Make sure when you’re taking out the trash, you do it thoroughly.” And then she disappears down her hallway. Was she talking to us?

When she’s gone and we can’t see her or the light from her candle anymore, Bertrand whispers, “That’s Priestess Emerelda. She’s the one who gave us the tip off for what’s going on here.” Bertrand resumes down the hallway with me right behind him. When we get into the office, Bertrand quickly gets the window open and tosses the priest outside, his tied up body landing with a thud and a grunt. It looks like he’s awake but he’s not going to be able to speak for a while judging by that cracking sound I heard earlier. The both of us slide through the window and we’re back in the church’s backyard. This time to get over the wall, Bertrand gives me a foothold using his hands and lifts me onto the top of the wall. When I’m sitting steadily on the wall, he hands me the priest to hold onto as he gets over the wall by himself. When he’s over, I hand him back the tied up priest and I lightly land on the dirt road by myself. We quickly dart into a dark alleyway as we make our way back to Derriv’s compound. Instead of going in through the front door like we normally do, we get into the compound from the back. If I didn’t follow directly behind Bertrand as he led me through the back alleys, the buildings, and the wooden hatches, I’d have never known this route existed. I’m pretty sure we were even underground at one point and I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to replicate it if I was by myself. We end up in an outdoor area surrounded by the compound's rear buildings and it looks like a training yard of sorts. There’s a few wooden swords tossed around here and there and there’s straw dummies scattered randomly around this backyard. It’s a much darker area here than the front and much more dreary. Quinn and Wraine are already here when we arrive and when Quinn notices us, he pulls out a brightstone in a box and opens it wide, lighting up the whole yard and setting it down on a windowsill nearby.

Bertrand tosses the priest on the ground and he lands with a thud and a grunt. He’s been awake this whole time but he’s been behaving himself. I think he’s accepted his fate at this point. Or maybe he’s hoping that if he complies until the end, we’ll let him go. That’s quite a bit of optimism if that’s what he thinks. Bertrand looks to Quinn and asks, “How’d things go on your end?”