I backed away from the scene. It seemed way too hot, and I couldn’t imagine getting associated with it possibly ending well. If they found out the monster they’d just killed was actually another version of me, there was no way they’d let me walk out of this place alive. I didn’t know how advanced their investigative science was. It seemed like a good idea to not be around when they started analyzing dental records. Thankfully, it seemed that goddess of theirs was smiling on me, because almost as soon as the paladins finished hacking the other me to pieces its corpse crumbled to black dust. I felt the tension in my shoulders relax. There was no way they’d be able to tie me to a pile of dust.

“Hey! What just happened?” one of the paladin’s asked.

“Never seen that,” another added.

A few of them started saying prayers to Marketh, a process that involved touching the pointed ends of the starbursts on their chest. “Doesn’t matter,” a paladin with a more commanding presence said. He snapped his sword away in the sheath on his back, then pointed to one of his fellows. “You,” he ordered, “grab that curseblade. Brother Fennoc, Brother Marcus, take that dust with us. We’ll let Father Koril decide what to do with it.” The three indicated paladins banged a fist against their chests in acknowledgement, then moved to obey.

At hearing Brother Marcus’s name, I remembered the warning the other me had given. He stuck out as the tallest paladin in the room as he stooped to gather black dust into a cloth sack with his hands. Later, I promised myself, I’ll find him later. Now wasn’t the time. I tried backing out of the room. With any luck, none of them would notice me leaving.

The paladin that seemed to be in charge took his helmet off and scanned the room. His gray skin was paler than most rissians I’d seen, though his head was shaved completely bald. He spotted me backing away toward the exit and pointed at me. “You there, citizen, don’t go anywhere!” For just a second, I considered making a break for it, but then another paladin slapped a gauntleted hand on my shoulder from behind.

“Captain’ll have questions for‘ya,” the paladin who’d grabbed me said. Whatever accent he had caused the last two words to blend together.

Future me had been strong and possibly undead and the paladins had made mincemeat of him in a matter of seconds. I knew I didn’t stand a chance. “Whatever you need,” I said. “I was just trying to get away from that monster. Same as everyone else.”

The man I assumed was the captain and two more paladins came up to me, surrounding me on all sides. Someone must’ve given the all clear, because the gates covering the windows pulled back to let sunlight back in. “Are you hurt?” one paladin asked.

“Did you see anything?” another asked.

“Why didn’t you run away like everyone else?” the captain asked.

“I can’t—I don’t—can you keep it to one question at a time, please?” The fear of saying the wrong thing and being called a liar only increased when I couldn’t tell which question I was supposed to be answering. I didn’t want to end up in trouble for something the other me had done.

The captain held out a hand to forestall the others. He took a knee to better meet my gaze. His helmet was tucked under his arm. His head was bald, so I couldn’t see his hair, but he had a network of fine wrinkles around his eyes. He gave me a smile that looked like a genuine attempt to soothe me. “It’s okay,” he said. “We’re here to protect the members of our community. We just want to know as much as possible about this attack so we can help prevent more like it. You’re not in trouble. We just want to ask you a few questions.”

“O-okay,” I said. I wasn’t attempting to appear nervous. That part just came naturally.

“You don’t need to baby‘im,” that same paladin with the accent said. He was the one that had stopped me from fleeing the room.

“Let me worry about this, Brother Gregor,” the captain shot back. He nodded at the speaker—the one that had grabbed me from behind when I tried to slip out—and told him, “Why don’t you go let the Porter’s know the monster has been taken care of?”

The speaker bumped a fist against his chest. “Aye, captain,” he said, and hurried off down the hall.

The captain turned back to face me. “Okay, why don’t we take this one question at a time? I am Brother Jerod. I’m a captain in the Holy Order of Paladins, and that makes me the highest ranking paladin in Haemir. What is your name?”

“Vince,” I answered.

“Okay, Vince,” Brother Jerod said. “Are you okay? Did the revenant hurt you?”

“I’m fine,” I said. The topmost tine of the triplet medallion on the paladin’s chest plate glimmered for a moment.

“Are you sure about that?” Brother Jerod pressed.

“Er, well, I guess he hurt me a little,” I admitted. “But that’s not why I’m not fine. I have a medical condition.”

A paladin with a sack in his hand walked up behind Brother Jerrod and pointed to me. “Hey! I know this little punk,” he said. He was the tallest of the paladins.

“What?” I said. My heart sank. Getting recognized was about the worst thing that could happen to me.

Brother Jerod looked up at his fellow paladin. The other man lifted the visor on his helmet. I saw the little soul patch under his bottom lip. It was Brother Marcus. “He came to the church yesterday,” Brother Marcus said. “Ferrith Daze dropped him off. What’s he doing here?”

“I do not know,” Brother Jerod said. “If you would allow me to talk to him, maybe we can find out.”

“This stinks,” Bother Marcus said. “I don’t like coincidences. He probably has something to do with this attack.” He stepped forward and stabbed a finger into my chest. “Are you one of them? Are you one of the Black Masks? Were they behind this attack? Is that why the curseblade didn’t kill you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said truthfully. Brother Marcus’s “Black Masks” sounded like they might be related to Brookie’s “Skinners”, but I couldn’t confirm that and I wasn’t about to try. I knew I needed to be very careful not to utter anything that could be considered a lie.

“Brother Marcus,” Brother Jerod said in a harsh tone. “Please wait outside. This is not the time or place for your conspiracies. I am the one conducting this interview; you have not been trained for this.” Brother Marcus let out an annoyed grunt, then stormed off down the hallway leading out of the Porter’s Doorway room, muttering something about going to see Father Koril. “I’m sorry about him,” Brother Jerod said.

“It’s okay,” I replied. “I don’t have anything to—against him.” I nearly slipped up and said I didn’t have anything “to hide”, but realized at the last second how obviously untrue that statement would be. That I didn’t have anything against Brother Marcus was true. If anything, I wanted to help him look into the conspiracy he was obsessed with uncovering.

“He’s young and passionate,” Brother Jerod said. “He means well, but he doesn’t really know what he’s doing. When we paladins are interviewing, we normally only ask a single question at a time and only ones that can be answered with a simple yes or no. Anything more and it’s possible for clever people to mislead you.”

I could swear I felt my heart skip a beat when I heard that. There would be no way for me to fudge my answers if the captain kept to those types of questions. I prayed to whatever gods Earris had that this paladin didn’t ask me anything incriminating.

“Okay,” Brother Jerod said. “Sorry about that interruption. Where were we… you were saying you weren’t hurt?”

“Not in any way you could treat,” I said.

“Did the revenant single you out personally?” Brother Jerod asked.

I could see where that line of questioning was going to lead, and I had no intention of going there. “I actually have no idea what a revenant is,” I answered instead.

“You… don’t?” Brother Jerod asked. He looked down at his chest plate, almost not believing that it didn’t signal a lie.

“I’m new to this world,” I said. “That’s why I was traveling today. A professor at Oxenraith University wanted to interview me. I’m a… subspecies of ogre that was summoned here by Ferrith.”