Luca sat calmly at the wooden table. It had been hours since the chaos, and he'd grown a little calmer since then.
The chamber was deep beneath the church; a hidden place few in the city would ever know existed. There were prisons and chains bolted into the wall. And, of course, interrogation rooms like the one he sat in now.
Most of the questioning had already been done.
Before they'd brought him here, the knight called Haider had searched his quarters with a string of divine spells. That was how he'd discovered the compartments where Luca kept his coins.
The explanation Luca had given earned him a raised brow and little else. He hadn't expected sympathy, anyway. Only someone who had lived counting every copper, unsure of the next meal, could understand the kind of caution that led to stashing money away in floorboards.
Haider hadn't pressed further.
Knights like him didn't need to.
Luca had heard the stories since childhood. Chosen by the Sun Father, trained since childhood to carry out the justice of the church.
They were ruthless men. They didn't hesitate or doubt. If they thought you guilty, you were already as good as dead.
And yet, he was still here.
'I guess that counts as luck… if you stretch the word.'
Nothing had been uncovered to tie him to the mage, so Haider had simply escorted him to the nearest church. The bishop there had looked startled when his eyes landed on Luca, but he hadn't questioned the knight's order. The boy was led into this room, questioned again, and somehow managed not to falter.
But one final test remained.
The door creaked open. Haider entered first, his presence filling the chamber, followed by Bishop John. Haider still wore his helmet, almost as if he wouldn't allow himself the comfort of taking it off.
And the bishop wore his usual smile.
He was wondering how this boy had lived through both a high mage's intrusion and the suspicion of an Order knight. Others in his place would have been ash. Perhaps the Sun Father's light truly lingered on him.
John raised his hands in prayer and began to chant. The words were nonsense to untrained ears, but the air rippled slightly as he spoke them.
They were words imbued with the energy of the Veil which was called Stellar energy or simply mana.
Mages and priests like John cast their spells differently, but the source was the same. Every priest, knight, even mage, drew energy from the Veil. As long as you were tapping into supernatural power, it came from the Veil.
No one in the church would admit it, of course. To say priests and heretics shared the same source was the kind of heresy that could shatter faith. But truth didn't bend just because men turned away from it.
The chant ended. Light surged from John's palms and spread across the chamber, brushing against Luca's skin.
"Eye of Truth."
A golden eye appeared above John's right eye. Its iris burned like a miniature sun.
John's smile returned. "I'll ask a few questions. The Eye will know if you lie. So don't waste either of our time."
Luca gave a small nod.
"When did you first see the woman in your house?"
"Like I said," Luca answered evenly, "when I returned from work. She was standing in the center of the room."
The Eye pulsed faint green. Truth.
"Good. Did you intend to report what you saw?"
"Absolutely. She didn't notice me. I was about to leave when Knight Haider came to..." Luca gave a faint grin, "...heroically finish her off."
John's lips twitched. The Eye pulsed again. Truth. He glanced at Haider, as though to say: 'The boy knows how to speak.'
"Did you know she was a mage?"
There was the briefest pause before Luca answered. "Yes."
The Eye glowed green.
But Haider's gaze sharpened. "Why hesitate?"
"Ah, that's-" Luca hurried to clarify before the knight's suspicion deepened. "I only realized because of the oddities. Like the blood and the weird markings on the floor… all of it pointed in the same direction."
He laid out his deductions in quick order. The room was quiet when he finished. John gave a thoughtful nod. Haider said nothing, though his eyes lost some of their edge.
The questioning continued. The Eye watched with tireless light, but Luca's answers remained steady. Each time, the glow confirmed the truth.
At last, John let the spell fade. The golden eye vanished. "It seems you're free to go, young man. We apologize for the disturbance and the... damages. The church will see to it that you're compensated."
"Ah, it's nothing." Luca raised his hands quickly, modest on the surface, though inside he nearly exhaled in relief.
"Nonsense," John said, firmer now. "Humility is noble, but the Father rewards honesty as well. We'll return your coins and add compensation besides. And a word of advice is to not speak of this to anyone."
Luca bowed his head. "Thank you, Bishop, I understand."
"You should thank the Sun Father instead."
He didn't argue.
Minutes later, Luca left the church with his pouch heavier than before.
'I guess it wasn't all bad in the end.'
He didn't immediately search for a new place to stay. His feet carried him instead back to the two-story cottage he'd been renting.
The place was stripped bare. The blood and the body were both gone, and all the debris swept away. The Church left nothing behind.
Only faint marks remained. The charred hole in the roof couldn't be fixed immediately. The circle scorched into the floorboards, its pattern almost erased but not quite. Small signs most would never notice.
Either way, it was clear. He couldn't stay here anymore.
Luca lingered in the doorway, staring at the room that he had lived in since his parents died five years ago. Then he turned to leave.
However, as he did that, unbeknownst to him or anyone else, a thin streak of dark light flashed out, sinking into his back before vanishing without a trace.