Oxygen formed puddles of the bloody floor.
It arrived in his lungs the way water arrives in a space that wasn't built for it, filling and freezing the alveoli, and Andreas became aware of his body's numbness first, then the steam rising off skin that had no business being that cold, then the binds at his wrists which he pulled against once with no real expectation and they came apart like they were made of extremely brittle material.
He stood up and searched his body to see cracks and exposed muscle.
He exhaled deeply and said in a low voice, " I hope I'll be fine."
The room was worse upright. The table of instruments arranged cleanly and seemed to have been used recently.
He found a wooden board leaning against the far wall, it looks à broken of piece of some horrifying contraption.
He took the board and used it to cover his privates, and left the room, so disgusted by its implications he ignored the fact that he had kill three people.
The hallway was dim and smelled like something old trying to hide something older. Stone floor. Low ceiling. A light source somewhere that wasn't doing enough.
Andreas turned left.
The hand came from his right.
It closed around his throat and pressed him into the opposite wall in one motion, and the wall was cold against his back, the hand was large and the man attached to it was bald and dressed in white priestly clothes that were very clean for somewhere that smelled like this. He was holding a book in his other hand. The cover had a drawing on it in the bright flat colours of something made for children, it was the Divine Path's symbol.
He smiled.
"Good evening, Aldric." His grip tightened incrementally, the way someone does when they want you to notice the tightening. "Did you have a nice rest?"
Andreas looked at him.
His feet were not touching the floor.
He was holding a wooden board.
"Fall," Andreas said.
The man's legs went out from under him and he went backwards and down with an expression that got most of the way to a question before his eyes closed, and the book landed open on the floor beside him with the childlike drawing facing up.
Andreas looked down at him for a moment.
Then he looked at the hallway, which continued in both directions with equal indifference.
He crouched down and place two fingers to the side of the bald man's neck. Andreas held the contact for a moment longer than necessary and then removed his hand.
He sighed in releaf to feel his pulse.
He looked to his right.
Stairs going up, cut from the same stone as everything else down here, torches bracketed to the wall at intervals that left more shadow than light between them.
Andreas looked back at the man.
Then at his white priestly clothes.
He thought about it and smiled and chuckled.
"Wow! They fit."
He looked down at the man lying on the stone floor in his underwear, arms slightly out, expression peaceful, chest rising and falling with complete indifference to his situation.
Andreas chuckled again and walked toward the stairs.
***
At the chapel with high ceilings. Rows of wooden pews facing an altar that had been built for sermans. The torches along the walls burned low and steady and the light they produced was the colour of something almost warm.
Marilyn led them in.
Kihoko walked beside her with her hands loose at her sides, Katlego and Marcel a few steps behind. Their footsteps were the loudest thing in the room.
The first pew held four figures.
Naxys was at the far end, seated confidently puffing out he chest. Beside her, Dang sat with her eyes closed, hands folded in her lap, her breathing so even it was almost architectural. Anat was next, posture straight, watching them enter with an expression that gave nothing away. Dongmei sat at the other end, also eyes closed.
Katlego's gaze found Naxys and stayed there.
Marcel looked at both Dang and Naxys and did not look away and the effort of keeping his face neutral was visible in the set of his jaw, the slight tension behind his eyes, the general impression of a man holding something very heavy very carefully.
Marilyn stopped at the end of the pew.
"Naxys." She kept her voice low, the way people do in chapels without deciding to. "Kihoko is here."
Naxys looked at Kihoko.
Kihoko looked back.
The silence lasted the length of a full breath.
"Kihoko." Naxys's voice was even. " Good to see you again."
"Likewise mam." Kihoko inclined her head slightly, the gesture precise and genuine.
Kihoko sat in the pew across from her. Katlego and Marcel settled on either side without being told, Marcel angling himself slightly away from Dang with the careful deliberateness of someone who had made a decision about where to put their eyes.
"Did you already see aldric?" Naxys asked.
"No" Kihoko's tone was clean, but her eyes betrayed her suspicion as she turned to Marilyn.
Naxys considered that. "I see."
"By the way about our contract," Naxys said. "How is the persmission supposedto be given?"
Kihoko was quiet for a moment. "Anyway he wants, it could be by word of mouth, or a signed sheet of blank paper" The corner of her mouth moved slightly. "So where is he?"
"I want to know that as well," Naxys said, without judgment and turned to Marilyn.
"He is somewhere hidde, and we would like to negotiate his safety for you to take you work seriously."
Kihoko looked at her steadily. "..."
Naxys was quiet for a moment.
"Well then how about we go someplace else i know exactly where we can answer you."
***
Andreas lost in thought, turned toward a big window to his far left and a nun looked at him with a shoked expression, then as she noticed a blue glow in his eyes she turned her head downwards and quickly passed him and she continued to feel watch and quickened he pace