The rain fell like needles the night the stranger staggered into the Iron Quarter. He wore the tattered white-and-gold tabard of a **Templar of the Luminous Church**, but it was stained with mud, blood, and soot. His face was gaunt, his eyes hollow pits of guilt. He collapsed outside Bastian's rebuilt forge, clutching a small, charred doll made of straw and blackened cloth.
Kael and Elara found him first. Elara, ever cautious, mimicked a street urchin's voice from a nearby rooftop: "Templar! You lost, shiny-man?"
The Templar didn't react. Just clutched the doll tighter, his knuckles white.
Kael knelt in the mud beside him. "Why are you here?"
The Templar looked up, rain mixing with tears on his scarred cheeks. "I need… to find the Gutter Ghost."
Kael didn't flinch. "Why?"
"Because I hunted him for weeks," the Templar rasped, his voice raw. "Followed whispers from Veridia to the capital. Then I realized…" He choked, clutching the doll to his chest. "He's not the monster. **I am.**"
He told them his story in broken fragments, between shivers and gasps. Three months ago, he'd been ordered to guard the perimeter of **Oakhaven**, a village accused of "harboring heretics." He watched Captain Rourke—the man he once called brother—throw a mother and her infant into the pyre. When he tried to intervene, Rourke beat him bloody, shouting, "Weak! The Light demands purity. Even if it burns!"
That night, the Templar deserted. He hunted Rourke for three months, surviving on roots, rainwater, and guilt. He killed him outside the capital, then stole his journal—proof that Oakhaven's "heresy" was a lie. The village had a well that produced water the Church deemed "unclean."and it's a lie, but the truth is Archbishop Malrik wanted the land for a **soul-farm**.
He shoved the journal at Kael, his hand trembling. "His orders came from Malrik. Oakhaven wasn't punishment. It was **harvesting**. They took the children… for the Penitent Blades."
Kael didn't believe him. Not yet. Trust wasn't given—it was **tested**.
"Prove it," Kael said, standing. "Steal the patrol routes from the Templar garrison. The shift changes. The password for the catacomb entrance. If you're lying, we'll leave you for the crows."
The Templar nodded once, a sharp, desperate movement. He disappeared into the rain before dawn.
Three days later, he returned—missing two fingers (severed in a trap), his tabard torn, but clutching a sealed scroll. He collapsed at Kael's feet in the Root Cellar, the charred doll still in his hand.
"You're in," Kael said.
Only then did the Templar whisper his name, his voice barely audible over the crackling fire: "**Garrick.**"
> **[BACKGROUND: GARRICK VOREN]**
> **AGE:** 31
> **ORIGIN:** Rural Aethelgard (raised in a Church orphanage)
> **TRAUMA:** Joined the Templars at 16, believing in the Light's purity. Witnessed Oakhaven massacre at 28. Failed to stop it. Carries the charred doll of Lissa, the infant thrown into the fire.
> **SKILLS:** Templar combat tactics, Church hierarchy knowledge, soul-binding detection, pain tolerance.
> **WEAKNESS:** Crippling guilt ("I should have died that day"), night terrors, distrust of his own strength.
>
> **[STATUS SCREEN (GARRICK)]**
> **STR: 10 | AGI: 7 | VIT: 8 | INT: 9 | WIS: 13 | CHA: 6 | VOD: 8**
>
> **[QUEST COMPLETE: VERIFY THE TEMPLAR'S LOYALTY.]**
> **[CRIMSON LOTUS: MEMBER #4 — "IRON RESOLVE."]**
> **[VOID ARTS UNLOCKED: SOUL-THREAD — CAN SENSE EMOTIONAL STATES AND SOUL-BINDING MAGIC THROUGH TOUCH.]**
That night, Garrick sat by the fire, turning the charred doll over in his ruined hand. Lyra cross-referenced his journal with Church manifests. Bastian forged him a new sword—lighter than Templar steel, its edge infused with Void energy. Elara practiced the voice of Captain Rourke, dead but not forgotten.
Kael placed a hand on Garrick's shoulder. The Templar flinched, then stilled as Kael's **Soul-Thread** ability flared—a gentle pulse of awareness, not judgment, but *understanding*.
"You're not the monster, Garrick," Kael said quietly. "You're the witness. And witnesses… make the best executioners."
Garrick looked up, his hollow eyes meeting Kael's. For the first time in months, the guilt in them was joined by something else: **purpose**.
> **[SYSTEM NOTE: GUILD COMBAT CAPABILITY +40%. TRUST BOND FORMED. PUBLIC TRUST +3%.]**
> **[NEW INTEL: PENITENT BLADE NURSERY CONFIRMED — CATHEDRALS OF VERIDIA AND CAPITAL.]**
> **[NEXT OBJECTIVE: INVESTIGATE CATHEDRAL CATACOMBS.]**
Outside, the rain slowed to a drizzle.
Inside, the fourth pillar of the Crimson Lotus had been forged—not in fire, but in **atonement**.