Bells rang out everywhere, causing me to snap awake and rise abruptly from my bed. I looked around, gripping my blade while untangling myself from the legs of the women who accompanied me. I grabbed the shirt I had tossed onto one of the chairs the previous night and opened the door, nearly ripping it off its hinges.
My lieutenants were already standing right outside. — "What happened?"
— "An incident at a priest's house!"
— "All this uproar for that?" I questioned, tucking my shirt beneath my trousers.
— "This priest is also an inquisitor."
— "By the god of the seas! Let's go then!"
Dozens of carriages filled the streets as they moved toward the noble quarter of the city. Everyone inside the carriage was nervous and sweating heavily, their skin reflecting the glow of the streetlights. The closer they arrived, the more they could smell something burning. Civilians ran back and forth, dodging the official carriages to avoid being run over.
Finally, upon turning a corner, a massive flash momentarily blinded their vision before their eyes adjusted to the gigantic pyre of fire that used to be the mansion. For a moment, all the soldiers stood still, staring at those flames that seemed to want to scorch the clouds above.
— "Move, men! Search for survivors! Block the streets and find the culprit, now!" Gregos shouted, forcing everyone out of their trance.
— "What the fuck are we supposed to do about this fire?"
— "Where are the inquisitors?"
— "There!" one of them pointed upward, spotting a group of five individuals dressed in blue cloaks, hovering as they approached the house. Without a word, the priests divided themselves, covering each area of the house to form a square, with a single individual remaining in the center of the flames, protecting his body with a magical shield around him.
Once they were positioned, gigantic screens of blue light began to form a square barrier around the house. The walls closed in against the fire at high speed, cutting through movable walls and corpses alike while making the fire vanish. Without smoke or resistance, the blue square finally disappeared in the middle of the house, taking any trace of fire along with it.
The five descended into the residence before anyone else.
— "Move! We're not letting these inquisitors take over our investigation!" Gregos bellowed as he ran with his men toward the blackened carcass of the house.
They ground to a halt when they entered what should have been the entrance hall. A vast number of charred corpses lay scattered all over the place. Their bodies looked like raisins, and the stench was repulsive in an indescribable way. Some of the men covered their mouths as they bolted outside, vomiting bit by bit.
— "Holy god of the seas, I hope these people were already dead when the house was burned! Only sinners deserve to burn alive," Adulo said, wiping the sweat from his brow.
— "No, look at the crushed skulls, missing bones, and broken ribs. Aside from the punctures in the ribcages, these people were killed before being burned," Lunam said, following Gregos to the second floor. They bypassed what was left of the stairs, using the frame that held the handrails in place. When they stepped onto the corridor, they looked around: scorched paintings on the wall, a carpet completely consumed by the flames, and what appeared to be a toasted wardrobe that had ended up collapsing in on itself. They heard voices coming from a half-toppled door held up by a few hinges; the other door was broken sideways into the room.
Burned books lined every shelf, chairs were overturned, and a beautiful desk, half-consumed by the flames, tilted toward the floor. The chair that must have been imposing in the past was now nothing more than a charred frame.
Gregos looked at the floor and spotted a body partially melted by the flames. Its head was completely ruined, its abdomen empty, exposing wide ribs filled with what should have been the lungs and heart. One of the inquisitors was removing a ring from the dead man's finger, slipping it into his pocket with his index finger and thumb. Right behind him, the other four stared and whispered toward the fireplace.
Gregos approached slowly, stepping past the men until he witnessed a scene that would give him nightmares for the rest of his life. A semi-nude woman, her dress consumed by the flames, fingers wrapped around the fireplace grate, appearing as though she had been trying to pry them open. Her mouth was wide open in a post-mortem scream, her eye sockets empty. A part of her body still had cooked flesh, her legs were arched backward, and only a few strands of hair remained on her blackened scalp.
— "Lord of the waters!" He ran and vomited behind a chair. The others turned to him but showed no disdain; no one there could blame him.
Lunam and Adulo felt dizzy for a few seconds and looked at the shelves to compose themselves.
— "Are they... are they the masters of the house?"
— "Yes, unfortunately, they are Olete and his wife, Silvia."
— "God! First they take their daughters, and then this! What monster committed this... this abomination?"
— "I think we have some idea of who it might have been."
— "How?" Gregos asked, letting go of the back of the chair and taking a step toward the priests.
— "Olete saved a sinner named Alistar. He hid this man—or rather, this thing. He provided corpses for this Alistar to manufacture human dolls and sell them to the nobles. We were on his trail and had practically concluded the investigations; they were going to attack us this week."
Gregos looked at the inquisitors. Clad in blue leather trench coats, black shirts filled the center of their open jackets, while a silver chain ran from the shirt to the jacket pocket. With neatly styled hair, they carried a musky scent that drew his attention. It reminded him of why these people were the elite of the church. "Perfect" would be the correct description for every single one of them—a disturbing level of intelligence and beauty.
— "Seems someone got to him first," Lunam said as he walked around the room.
The inquisitors showed no annoyance at Lunam's words, maintaining only vacant expressions and eerily cold blue eyes.
Lunam reached the doorway, feeling a shiver run through his entire being. He averted his eyes from the group gathered near the fireplace and looked out the window behind the chair.
— "I beg your pardon for my man," Gregos bowed his head.
The woman in the center of the group waved one of her hands, clad in a white glove, in dismissal. She placed her hands behind her back as her high heels clicked over to Gregos.
— "We also lost Alistar. When we reached his hideout, the place was already empty. We believe he was the culprit behind this scene."
— "Have you performed the reconstruction yet?" Gregos asked, looking into the pale-skinned, beautiful woman's nearly white-blue eyes.
— "Inconclusive."
— "Again? That's no coincidence. My brother was killed and the same thing happened, then again, and now here as well. Madam, I believe there is a killer out there capable of bypassing the reconstruction."
— "Oh? You think there is someone out there capable of bypassing one of the most advanced magical technologies in the world, created by no less than three holy priests of the Church of the Seas?"
— "With all due respect, Madam, yes. I believe everything has a way of being bypassed or altered somehow," Gregos sweated continuously as he spoke to her.
She moistened her blue lips, and Gregos couldn't help but notice how red her tongue was, almost like blood. The inquisitor turned and began to walk, her extremely long, dark blue hair swaying from side to side. She stopped in front of the window, deep in thought. The others remained in silence, observing in a strange, almost robotic manner.
— "Whatever." Her dry, lifeless voice resonated through the room.
— "Whatever?! Madam!" Gregos took a step forward. The four men turned their faces toward him at the exact same time, causing him to stop dead in his tracks. Although their expressions didn't change, it was undoubtedly a warning.
— "It doesn't matter who did this. In truth, they saved us a tedious chore. We would have done much worse than he did, whoever he may be, to these wretched fools and their daughters. Sinners are bad, but traitors are far worse."
— "But shall we just let this killer go?" Gregos questioned, straightening his posture and lowering his voice.
— "People like that always return to doing things like this. And when he does, we will be there. And we will discover what makes him so special that he can block such a powerful magic."
— "You don't want to kill him, do you?"
She turned her face and smiled. — "We have nothing left to do in this city, so you take care of cleaning up this mess."
The inquisitor passed by Gregos, preventing him from speaking by raising her hand toward his face as she walked by. The men followed her and vanished into the corridor.
— "Who was that woman?"
— "Anastasia Andromeda Lutania," Adulo answered. — "Descended from a very ancient family of inquisitors called the Andromedas. She is of the seventeenth generation. It's not good to mess with those folks."
— "I can imagine. Those eyes are definitely those of a cold-blooded predator."
— "But she's gorgeous, isn't it? That oval face! That pale skin, those piercing eyes... my god, what an ass and legs!" Lunam said, striking a dramatic pose with clenched fists and his hand raised in front of his face.
Both stared at him, their eyebrows raised.
— "The woman looks like a corpse, dude!" Adulo said, pointing out of the room.
— "A sexy corpse!"
— "My God, I'm keeping you away from the morgue just to be safe," Gregos said, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger.