The door to the kitchen opened slightly, but none of the girls working inside noticed. Each of them was heavily focused on their own little tasks: from cleaning the cups and the dishes to peeling potatoes, mopping the floor and bringing the buckets of water from the well outside. The girls seemed to be in a good mood despite it all, chatting with each other about their plans to sneak into town, maybe play a prank or two on each other and such. To the casual observer, they looked like a regular group of girls ages seven to ten.

But to Gabrielle, who was hiding on the outside of the kitchen, this felt like a turbulent warzone.

Time was passing slowly, Gabi felt the urgency to walk in and simply do her part, and yet her legs refused. She didn’t usually pay the others much mind, simply enduring the pain from their words and focusing on mechanically performing her duties, but since yesterday her resistance had completely abandoned her. She was afraid, but she wasn’t sure of what exactly.

Just get in, clean and get out. Be like Mustafá and don’t feel a thing. Be like Saint Martha and do what’s best!

Deep breaths came, in and out, as Gabi rubbed her forehead against the door in front of her. This wasn’t hard, it never had been hard at all! She knew she could do it, she just needed focus.

Get in, clean, get out. Get in, clean, get out. There’s no one there, you feel nothing! You are a Witch made out of stone!

With another exaggeratedly deep breath Gabrielle pushed the door and walked through, marching straight towards the kitchen’s sink from the outside access. Of course, everyone immediately turned to look at her, to the point where Gabi could feel eleven pairs of eyes locked on her figure. She winced, but tried to walk a bit faster and ignore it.

“Ugh, what is that smell!? Who let a pig walk in?”

Again with the smells. Gabrielle was convinced she was the cleanest among them, and yet they always talked about her smelling weird. She couldn’t stop and sniff at herself to check, not this time at least, so she simply focused on walking even faster, practically running with her little legs until reaching the sink.

The girls currently working there immediately gasped in disgust and moved away.

“What, did the other pigs get tired of you, Swine Witch??”

“Go away! Don’t stink in the sink now!”

Ignore them, ignore them!

“Silly filly, the animals shouldn’t eat here in the kitchen! Come on now, shoo, to the pen with you!”

They laughed. That was their favorite joke, just treating her like some sort of idiot.

Gabi couldn’t see who started that one, but felt the condescending tone sharply stab her heart harder than the other comments. Why? Why did that get her so badly? She managed to ignore them this time, setting the pot and the spoon into the sink and feeling the cold water on her hands.

Yes, yes, focus on the water. Cold water. That’s all you feel, you’re made out of stone Gabi!

Bonk!

Gabrielle winced, feeling how a wooden cup bounced off her head and into the sink. The children celebrated, laughing even louder. “We found a way to deal with the smell!” Someone said, and the rest cheered the inventive idea. Bonk! Bonk, bonk! More pieces of woodenware hit and bounced off the little girl’s head as she tried to clean her own pot.

She barely felt the hits, but the laughter was echoing loudly inside her head.

And yet, she didn’t move an inch. Gabi kept staring into the water and working, her breath a bit worked up but nothing beyond that… and that, of course, only annoyed the other girls. What was this, now? Was she ignoring them? Was she suddenly too good to play along? Some of the girls stopped working on their own chores to walk closer, encircle Gabrielle.

“Oi! Can’t you hear us, Witch!? We told you to leave! Get out! Shoo, shoo!”

“Oh, she must be up with the fairies again! Her dumb head is always full of air like that!”

“Get out of here, stinker!! We’re trying to work!”

I’m made out of stone. I am made out of stone. Be like Mustafá and feel nothing. Be like Saint Martha and do your duty!!

The words kept repeating themselves in her head, over and over again, overpowering some of the girls’ jeers as she finished cleaning. With her duty done, Gabi smiled a bit to herself. Yes… this was a victory.

Until something heavier hit her head. It made a loud echo not only inside of her head, but in the whole kitchen. A heavy iron pan clanked against Gabrielle, and then bounced a few times on the floor… that one hurt.

“Ooops!”

The entire world was shaking for a second, pain spread through Gabi’s cranium like waves as she covered her head for a moment and rubbed the spot to try and ease it. She never felt pain like that, why now!? How heavy was that pan anyways!?

B-Be, be like Mustafá, don’t… don’t feel…!

Gabi’s eyes locked on one of the girls, the one who laughed the loudest. She couldn’t recognize her blotch of a face, but by the posture she had it was obvious she had thrown the pan. The Culprit blinked, suddenly finding herself under Gabrielle’s gaze, and simply looked away and pretended not to notice.

“Hey piglin, over here!! Dumb, fat oaf!!”

They tried to distract her, but for some reason it didn’t work this time. Children yelled and screamed at Gabrielle and yet her eyes glared at this one girl… and the Culprit noticed. Her smile disappeared, as she became more and more aware that their usual strategy was failing.

Joy turned to fear in an instant, and that fear sublimated into anger.

“What are you looking at, pest!? Do you have a problem with me!?”

Be like Saint Martha, just do what you must…!!

Gabrielle was paralyzed, doing her best not to move or say a thing, not to betray emotion; but despite the lack of grimaces on her face, Gabi’s eyes betrayed the anger that she couldn’t even understand herself.

And the Culprit felt it.

Feeling singled out, she looked at her friends for support. They immediately stood between the Culprit and Gabrielle, making faces.

“Don’t even think about it, witch!! Begone with you, begone!!”

Not seeing that girl really did wonders to Gabrielle’s mood. She sighed, taking slow breaths, and simply started to walk back from whence she came. Carefully, calmly, trying to focus once again on her own words.

Yes, yes! You’re almost there! Don’t feel a thing, do what you must! You’re a rock!

But as she went, among the jeering and laughing of the children, Gabrielle noticed a void: an odd lack of noise, someone barely holding their breath and moving closer to her. She stopped, wondering if she should turn around… and then felt a hand suddenly pulling from her habit, revealing the hair hidden within.

“Shun the witch!! Shun the witch!!”

Laughter exploded again, but this time louder than before. Gabrielle felt suddenly naked, ashamed and nauseous. All thoughts stopped. The world itself stopped.

She couldn’t stop her own body as she turned right around, just to find one of the big girls waving her habit around like a flag.

Gabrielle knew she shouldn’t let this get to her, she knew she had to keep it down and simply tell the girl to give the habit back. But her body didn’t respond.

It just moved.

A fist flew straight into a smiling, laughing face.

—

The items in Arianna’s list were dealt with very nicely that afternoon. Following the tracks of Baraqiel and then covering them was easy, for they just needed to follow the confused Gabrielle through the forest; making a new plan to adapt to that situation also came out naturally! And after that, all they had to do was go straight to Gwynedd, talk to Marina and then buy some groceries before turning back.

All orderly and nice, couldn’t get any better!

As they walked the trek back home, Arianna and Alejandra exchanged a few smiles and conversed almost without a care in the world: the bigger nun was clearly excited to be a part of what she considered was the “true righteous path” of the Church, and even if Ari didn’t share her positive outlook of the whole deal, truth is that she felt much more at ease with the taller one having her back.

“I really should have told you this sooner, shouldn’t I? I don’t remember a day when things went this well.” Ari looked away in embarrassment. She had considered getting Alejandra into the operation for a few months now, but there was always some excuse to postpone it.

“Don’t worry about it, Comrade. I am sure you were only trying to protect me from complicated stuff!” Alejandra tended to think well of others, never to assume bad intentions unless there was a bad attitude to match such suspicions. “You’re also a bit of a rookie here, aren’t you? It’s normal to be scared of stuff.”

“I-I am not that much of a rookie!” Arianna pouted, despite this being her very first mission in the field, and only having a year or two of experience before infiltrating the chapel. “If you’re going to join the Chamber you need to respect your senior officer, understood ma’am??”

“Yes, yes. Whatever you say, Ari.”

Alejandra couldn’t show much respect for others, not even as a joke. She cackled and ruffled Arianna’s fluffy hair as this one protested and huffed, waving her hands around to stop the taller nun. Blushing up a storm, Ari really didn’t want this woman to see her all flustered and especially during the job!

But at the same time, it felt so nice to be fully honest with Ale, to no longer have to act behind her back and actually be on the same page about their operation, or anything really! Before working together they got along, but now… now Arianna felt that they could actually get to meet each other.

After a bit of laughing, both nuns simply fell silent and exchanged another candid smile. For some reason, they could feel themselves being in sync right then and there. There was no need to say much about it, and maybe it was better that way. Arianna blushed up a storm every time she needed to speak about feelings anyways.

“Well… what will be next then, comrade?” Alejandra sighed, she didn’t want to ruin the little moment but there were other things to focus on right then. “We go back at Father, tell them what we have, and then what?”

“After that, we need to go check on Gabi. If we can get her on our side things would be so much easier? But we just need to hope she doesn’t do anything brash.”

Their conversation was interrupted by a distant warcry, the voice of a little girl trying to sound as deep and intimidating as possible, cut very short by what one could only assume had been a very heavy hit. Both nuns looked at each other again, before running what was left of the way to the Chapel.

The ruckus came straight from the kitchen, and opening the door revealed what could only be described as children beating the ever-living shit out of each other.

All eleven remaining children had gathered in here for some reason, most of them in a circle around the main attraction: Amber and Kimmy, two of the older girls in the chapel, were both trying to find a way to surround a snarling, furious Gabrielle, who had pinned the much taller Samantha down to the floor and, judging by the blonde’s face, had been biting and slapping her for a while before the other two decided to intervene.

The nuns had arrived at the exact moment when Amber jumped right on Gabrielle, pulling from her hair to force her away from the confused, crying Samantha. As Kimmy ran right at them, Gabrielle grabbed Amber’s arms and simply threw her right at the running girl, all to be back to slapping the hell out of Samantha’s face.

“What in the blazes is going on!?”

Everyone stopped at once, taking a loud, sharp breath and turning to see both Sisters staring back at them with furious eyes. Of course, everyone ran the hell away as soon as possible, leaving only Gabrielle and Samantha in the kitchen. Alejandra pulled right from Gabi’s ear, while Arianna helped the crying, taller girl back on her feet.

“S-She’s mad! Insane! She attacked me for no reason!!” Cried Samantha, shaking and clinging to Arianna while trying to make herself look as pitiful as possible.

“She was laughing at me!” Screamed Gabrielle back, maybe louder than necessary.

“Because you smell!! You smell!!!” Not even after the fight did Samantha relent, stomping in place. “You stink all the time!”

“No I don’t!!” Gabi didn’t even have time to doubt herself then. “You also threw things at me, and you took my habit!”

Both Sisters looked at Samantha’s hand, still holding the stolen habit… of course the little girl quickly threw it away.

“Did not! You are crazy!!”

But it was too late, both sisters had already seen it, and getting an idea of what had happened in the kitchen, they looked at each other again.

“You take Sammy to clean her face, Ale. I will talk to Gabrielle.” Arianna was doing her best not to express much emotion, while Alejandra simply nodded and went to take the girl. “Thank you.”

“Let’s go, you. What have I told you girls about picking fights huh!?” Alejandra grumbled and nagged as she took Samantha right out of the kitchen, closing the door behind her.

Leaving both Arianna and Gabrielle alone for the heavier talk.