Welcome to Chapter 15.

A quick thanks to my amazing editing team. Your grasp of the English language allows these stories to be what they are. Thank you to the rest of you for your comments, feedback, and high ratings for each chapter as well, not to mention a huge thank you for your participation on the Discord server.

Now, on with the story.

********

The air was fresh and warm. The skies were clear, and people of all descriptions mulled about doing whatever it was that Evos did here. The collective was the Sect's answer to the vaulted and hallowed halls of their cathedral, but whereas the cathedral had an air of formality and prestige about it, clearly designed to make the simple Evo feel small in comparison to the whole, the collective felt more like a community. Far from being grandiose or imposing, this place made you feel part of something. The Cathedral had mountainous banks of bookshelves, all of the accumulated knowledge of their order, and hundreds of desks for that history to be studied, but I couldn't even guess what the members of the Sect did while they were here. It was clearly more than just a gathering place, but what exactly that was, I had no idea.

I felt my eyes unconsciously wandering around them, watching them, and just taking in the subtle undertones of calm tranquility that seemed totally at odds with the turmoil in my chest as we walked away from the meeting house. Arthur was on one side of me, Agatha was on the other, and Charlotte was on the other side of her.

The council had sat in session for more than fourteen hours, apparently one of the longest meetings in their history. Whereas Charlotte had needed to see the replay of my conversation with Miguel six times to let it sink in, the council had only needed one. I'm not sure if it was a product of their age, maturity, or their group mentality, but they seemed to be a lot calmer about the whole thing than I was. That alone was stoking the embers of suspicion still inside me.

"I'm not sure how much help we can be," Arthur said with the smallest hint of a sigh. "Ours is an insular society. We have had to keep to ourselves since our foundation to ensure our safety. Aside from our own history, the information given to you by that Inquisitor is news to us too. Although we agree with you that it is unlikely he is lying, we simply don't have any new information to add to it."

"But," Agatha added. "We may be able to point you in a new direction going forward."

Charlotte gave me a quizzical look from beyond Agatha. This was not the answer she had been expecting either. "I'm listening," I said cautiously.

"As a group, we have had almost zero interaction with the Conclave for centuries," Agatha explained. "But as individuals, some of us have had more experience with them than most. We do not believe that the majority of the members of the Conclave are aware of this peace treaty, and they certainly don't know about the dialogue between the Conclave and the Inquisition."

"What makes you say that?"

She paused for a moment, as if trying to word her response properly. "Let me ask you this, do you trust Uri?"

"No. I don't trust any of them."

"Yet, the looks of surprise and shock on the faces of people in Malaga, people you thought to be your enemy, were enough for you to be convinced of their honesty. During the hundreds of times I imagine you have watched the attack on the party in your mind, have you ever stopped to look at Uri's face when it was all happening?"

I blinked for a moment. That was a damned good question. I had been so fixated on Faye and the mysterious attackers, I hadn't really paid attention to any of the surviving Evos.

"He was as surprised as the others," she went on. "At least to our eyes. But, we have to concede that, as you have rightly pointed out, our ability to spot deception is somewhat lacking. It would be wise for you to apply that logic to everyone who was at the party."

"I... hadn't thought of that."

"There is something else," it was Arthur talking this time. "We cannot reconcile Uri's involvement in this conspiracy with the fact that he directed you to Malaga. If he were involved, he would have wanted you as far away from anyone who could have given you the truth as possible."

I hadn't thought of that either.

"That's true," I nodded. "But Uri is a cog in the bigger machine, and he is completely loyal to it. Whatever I find out, he is going to report to someone higher. Even if Uri can be trusted, I have no way of saying the same about his superiors."

"Yes, we considered the same thing," Agatha answered. "But, there are some very simple truths that he will have no choice but to accept, even if he questions the communication between the Conclave and the Inquisition. Firstly, is the peace treaty. The Conclave keeps the memories of its most important members. Someone from that time would have known about it, and he would be able to access those memories to confirm it. Secondly, the meeting at the Villa, the note, and the revelations about Reinard Montreuax and the Royals... That should be more than enough evidence that there are factions within the Inquisition, and it is not a single, united institution as we had all thought. One of those factions is responsible for attacking Evos, and he is going to want to find out why. The presence of a mole within the Conclave, coupled with the accusation of collaboration within the upper ranks... should be enough for him to want to dig into this further. The Black Knights are an ancient order. It was ancient even when I was there. But their mandate is to protect the Conclave, even from its own members. Now, add to all of that the fact that this Miguel character has promised to put you in contact with his superiors. That is a much bigger deal than I think you realize, and Uri will certainly be interested in that. He may be convinced not to report any of this if it means finding and eliminating the source of the threat to the Conclave."

I nodded. I would love to be able to say that my mind was racing with possibilities, but the simple fact was that I was distracted. It had never occurred to me that Faye, or at least some part of her, was waiting for me inside my city. I could still feel the differences inside me, the ones that happened as her city took on that bluish hue of mine, and a large lake representing her love of water grew in one of my parks. I instinctively knew, without having to check, that the lake and its crystal-clear turquoise waters were still there waiting for me. But the task at hand was too important to rush or put off. Considering the problem we were trying to deal with was the one responsible for her death, I couldn't afford to get this wrong.

"I am going to need you to be careful," I finally said, directing my statement more toward Charlotte than anyone else, but leaving that point vague enough for Arthur and Agatha to listen as well. "That note said they would be targeting anyone associated with me, and Charlotte certainly falls under the category of someone close to me."

"I can look after myself," Charlotte answered back with a smile that said although she appreciated my concern, she was not willing to hide from any perceived threat.

"I don't doubt that," I said back, making it equally clear that I wasn't really asking. "But I would rather not take the risk. The same goes for the rest of you. That mansion was about as incognito as a white-power rally. You know how Inquisitors can be hurt now. I strongly recommend you take precautions."

Agatha and Arthur flashed a glance at one another. "They have left us alone, for the most part, for a very long time," Arthur commented.

"Yeah? Who's they?" I leveled my stare at him. His lack of concern about this whole thing, mixed with his general non-committal demeanor, was starting to spike that suspicion again. "Until a few hours ago, you had no idea there were different groups within the Inquisition, and not all of them are hostile. Plus, you weren't helping me before. I'm not asking you to pick a side, but not taking extra precautions is just..."

"Naive and foolish," Agatha finished for me, nodding slowly.

"But we will not pick a side in this conflict; remaining out of the way and hidden is how we have always survived," Arthur interjected. Another look was shared between the two elders. This was clearly not an issue that a consensus was shared on.

Charlotte, on the other hand, looked like she had been slapped. "Fuck that! You can all cower behind your walls if you want, but I have picked my side! Pete, I'm with you. I don't know how much help I can be, I don't care if I only serve as moral support, but I'm with you. If they want a fight, they are going to find one!"

I couldn't help but smile at the fire behind her eyes. I gave her a grateful nod.

"Charlotte, the decision has been made. Going to war with an unknown enemy could put the entire Sect in danger," Arthur spoke with a hint of warning in his voice. "More than that, violating the will of the council has consequences."

"What are you going to do? Kick me out? Jesus, you are a coward," Charlotte said in disgust, shaking her head and looking at Arthur like he was something she had just scraped off her shoe. "You may be able to sit back and let other people fight your battles for you... again... but I am not! This is a threat to all of us, and when they come for you, neither your position on the council nor your ability to hide like a rodent will be able to save you. You are on your own! I'm out!"

With that, and with the angry look still on her face, she vanished, presumably re-emerging in the real world. I cast a look at both of the elders. "Usually, I am the hot head," I said with half a smile. "But she isn't wrong. This threat, this conspiracy, has been responsible for every single Sect death for the past two centuries, and it's only getting worse. There is no fence to sit on this time. Your unwillingness to act in the interests of your own self-preservation is more than a little concerning." The slight smirk on Agatha's face didn't go unnoticed. "And doing nothing, trying to sit this one out, is not acting. I will see myself out. Thank you for meeting with me."

"Good Luck, Pete," Agatha said from behind that faintest of smiles.

Charlotte was already out of her seat and storming toward the mahogany doors by the time I left the mindscape and re-entered the real world. The other people around the table, people I knew to all be members of the council, were still sitting in their chairs, their eyes closed and their breathing level. She pulled both of the doors open and almost walked headlong into Margaret on the other side. "Charlotte! You should know better than to..."

"Margaret! Shut the fuck up!" Charlotte barked, leveling a stare at her that would have rivaled my look at the party.

"Well, in all my years, I have never..." The older woman said with an indignant gasp.

"And now you have. Now, move out of my way, or I will move you!"

Margaret timidly stepped aside. Charlotte stormed past her and toward the car. "For Fuck sake!" Her voice echoed from the hallway. "How the hell do I get out of this fucking place?!?"

********

We were most of the way home before she said anything. The gentle vibration of the engine and her eyes being fixed firmly on the road seemed to have calmed her down a little. "I'm sorry for that," she said softly. "I love them like family, but sometimes..." An adorable little growl erupted from her lips. "... I'm so sick of them acting like none of this is our problem, and because it isn't our problem, we should bury our heads in the sand and stay away from it. I'm not the only one that thinks that lack of action is no different than complicity, and this has been an issue for a long time now. Agatha is different from the rest of them; she is from a time when you either fought or you died. But most of the council would hide from their own shadows if it were possible. Jesus, I wasn't expecting them to immediately start banging the war drums, but dismissing it out of hand like that was just... it was chicken-shit!"

"Does it strike you as odd," I said after nodding in agreement with her, "that the Sect is so unconcerned with being discovered that they meet in an actual mansion?"

Charlotte cast a glance into the rearview mirror, despite the stately home being well out of sight by now. "Hiding in plain sight, they call it," she answered. "Evo powers had nothing to do with getting that place. Arthur is related to an Earl or something. His giving up his ancestral home for no explainable reason was agreed to be more suspicious than staying there."

"Hmmm."

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know," I said slowly. "Just something nagging at me. I know you are a member there, and this may be a little difficult for you to answer without bias, but did anyone in that meeting seem even remotely concerned about being discovered?"

Charlotte didn't answer for a few moments, but her hands tightened a little on the steering wheel.

"I mean, I know that keeping a low profile is technically being concerned," I went on, "but the attack on the party was the largest and most deadly that has happened in a lifetime, there is a new faction of the inquisition actively hunting for us, and I was left a note that basically said that anyone associated with me is a target..."

"And they were acting like it was business as usual," Charlotte finished for me.

"Yeah."

She sighed heavily. "The problem with the council is that members like Agatha, members who remember what it was like to be part of the wider world, and not just members of the Sect, are in the minority. Arthur is almost a hundred years old, but all he has ever known is in that Collective. The idea that it is not enough for the younger generation, or that things happening in the outside world affect us as well, just doesn't occur to him. He, and the council members like him, are insular and isolationist. At least, I hope they are. The alternative is that they are the sort of fools who believe that a problem will go away if you ignore it for long enough. Do I think we should be suspicious? No. But there is more than enough apathy and indifference there to come close to it."

I nodded but didn't answer. I turned my head and watched the world roll by the window as Charlotte navigated us toward home. "What do you think about what they said about Uri?" I asked after a while.

"I don't know Uri," my strawberry-blonde friend answered after a pause to consider her reply. "I had heard his name through the grapevine a few times when I was with the Conclave, everybody had, but it was never in a good way or in a bad way. It was only ever about how powerful he was. I never met him to make my own decisions. But the things Agatha and Arthur said about him do have a certain logic to them. It is Marco I don't trust."

"Alright, what is it about you and Marco?" I asked. "I'm not questioning you, but I just don't see what is so bad about him."

"I don't know," she huffed, a little exacerbation sneaking into her voice. "There is just something about him - like there is an ulterior motive behind everything he does."

"Well, yeah. He's trying to recruit you."

"No, it's... It's more than that. Look, have you ever had someone be really nice to you, but you can just tell that they are only doing it to get into your pants?"

I deadpanned her.

"Oh, right, yeah... but you know what I mean. He's not like a used car salesman who is always trying to sell you on the Conclave, and he has never acted all sleazy and lecherous. I have never got the sense that he is lying about anything. But there is just something about him that I don't trust. This is not the first time I have thought about it. I want to say it's just me, but every time I hear his name, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I have no idea why."

I nodded, just considering what she said. Maybe it was a form of female intuition, maybe it was a personality clash, maybe it was a misunderstanding, but given my own mistrust of the entire Conclave, despite the fact that I knew that not all of its members were complicit in the conspiracy, I was hardly in a position to question her reasoning. Aside from being a little slow on the uptake when it came to my training, Marco had never done anything to deserve the suspicion I now held him in.

I sighed heavily as I turned my gaze back to the passing countryside. Marco was not the only person who that could be said about.

Jeeves, send a message to Uri. Tell him it's time to meet... alone.

********

There was something markedly different about my city when I stepped into it an hour later. Charlotte had dropped me back at the Queen's Head, and, knowing what I would be doing, she bid me good luck and headed home.

My city had always been vibrant; there was an energy to it. The motes of white lights that zoomed overhead always had an urgency about their movements, the blue hue of the light being emitted from the metropolis's buildings had always been bright and vigorous; everything had just felt... alive.

It didn't anymore. Everything was muted, dull, and dreary as if a thick, damp fog had descended upon the wide, tree-lined avenues. It hadn't, the weather was as clear and bright as it had always been, but the city felt cold and empty. The color and the life had been sucked out of it.

My city was in mourning.

Grief, for those of you who are lucky enough to have never felt it, is a cruel emotion. The initial shock, the debilitating pain, that all fades. It allows you to act with a semblance of normalcy and behave much as you always have done. It lets other people, maybe even yourself, make the mistake of thinking that you are moving on, that you are healing. But the hurt, the heartache, that profound, marrow-deep sense of loss and emptiness never really goes away, and every now and again, something happens that reminds you of that hollow space where your chest used to be, and you are right back to square one again.

My city had no such luxury. It had started the process of merging with another; it had met its counterpoint, the mirror of everything that made it and me what we were. And it had been ripped away. I understood now that the bonding between Faye and me was in its infancy, but it was still the deepest connection I had ever dreamed of feeling. Faye had left her mark on my city, on my very being, and her loss was one I knew would haunt me for a very long time.

I sighed heavily as I looked out of the crystal clear, turquoise waters of the lake. Under any other circumstances, it would have been beautiful. Now it was just an acutely painful reminder of everything I would never have.

"Well, jeez, who pissed on your chips?" the soft and familiar Irish-lilted voice sounded from behind me.

My eyes closed. I didn't want to turn around. I didn't really understand what Agatha had meant when she said Faye was waiting for me, whether it was just a memory, a representation, an idea of my ideal, or if it was actually her. This would be the last moment of hope that I'd have if the answer to that question was not the one I wanted.

I felt a hand slip into mine. "Pete, you can open your eyes, darlin'. I'm here. It's really me."

My eyes flickered open. I blinked through the blur of the quickly forming tears as I forced myself to look at her.

Her fiery red hair filled my vision, those gorgeous green eyes, the freckles, the soft curve of her jaw, and the gentle, affectionate, reassuring curl of her lips. "I've been watching yah," she smiled. "You've been busy."

"I... I didn't know... I didn't know you were here. I'm so sorry. I would have come if I had known." I pulled her into my arms, wrapping them around her and squeezing tight as if letting her go would shatter the illusion, and she would fade away like the smell of her perfume on the breeze.

I could feel the wetness of her tears on my skin as she buried her head into my neck. "I'm sorry I left you," She whispered.

"No, you have nothing to be sorry about. It was... them"

"Aye, and you certainly made sure they were sorry," there was a sniff and the slightest of giggles. "Nicely done by the way. Now we just have to work out who they were."

"You saw all that?"

"I did, love," she pulled herself back to look at me properly, causing me to once again fall hopelessly into the green pools of her eyes. "This is like the ultimate definition of living vicariously. I see everything you do."

"But... Are you... Are you... you?"

She smiled again. "I almost forgot, you're still brand new, aren't yah? Bonding is a complex process and not one that is easy to explain. But in essence, our minds recognize that we have found our perfect mate, then we sort of copy each other's minds," she explained as she led me to one of the benches that overlooked the lake. "Everything about us, all our memories, our personality, our values, everything is copied. When we say our cities merge, it isn't literal. Your city has those big ol' power plants that make you the glorious force of nature that you are, I would never have had access to them. Your marketplace would never have replaced mine, it couldn't have, I still would've needed mine to breathe 'n' stuff. Same with your palace, we wouldn't have become one person. But your mind would have changed your city to recognize my place in your life, just like mine would have changed to represent you. You grew your very own lake for me. What I am, is not the girl yah met at the party, but I am what your mind created as its representation of me..." I could feel myself slump as she said it. "... But, if it makes you feel any better, the copy is always perfect. I'm as close to the real me as you are ever going to find. I'm me in every way that matters, my love, warts 'n' all."

I nodded slowly. Of course, it wasn't the real her. It's not like my mind downloaded her entire consciousness before she died. But I was starting to understand that her place here was not a result of her death but of the product of our bonding. Somehow, that made me feel a little better. "Will you always be here?"

"Aye, I will, darlin'. Even if you bond with someone else..." She gripped my hand tighter, holding it still against its almost reflexive recoil away from the idea of there being another like her "... Which I would love for you to find again in the future, by the way, but even then, I will always be a part of you. Unless yah kick me out, of course."

"Why would I do that?" I snorted.

"I dunno. I could snore?"

Despite myself, I laughed. "Yeah, that would be a deal breaker. Or eating in bed."

"Yup, that too. But if you try wearing socks to bed, you'll be sleeping on the balcony."

"Deal. It'll be like camping."

It was her turn to laugh. God, I had almost forgotten how much I missed hearing it. I squeezed her hand again.

"Okay, now listen, my handsome man. We have all the time in the world for us, but we need to talk first. What happened to you, to us, was a shit show. Nobody should go through what you did. It's the sort of thing that makes me think that God either has a sick sense of humor or he is just a kid on top of an ants nest with a magnifying glass. But you need to be careful."

"Yeah," I sighed. "I'm getting that impression."

"You need to find allies," she went on, still wearing that reassuring smile. "Trusting nobody is a great way to make sure you are not blindsided again, but it is going to make getting to the truth a lot harder."

"Any recommendations?"

"Uri and Marco would be good places to start. Both of them would want answers as much as you do. Failing them, Rhodri would be a good choice too."

"Rhodri?"

"Aye, he was a bit of an asshole when it came to dueling, but when it mattered, I always found him trustworthy and reliable. Besides, he and Neil were bonded, fully bonded. He is the one person who would want payback even more than you do. Don't expect him to be useful for a while yet, though. As much as you are hurting about what happened to me, what he is feeling is a hundred times worse."

I nodded again. "Anything else?"

"Yeah. When you find out who is behind all this, I want you to make it slow."

I blinked at her. That was the last thing I expected out of her lips, yet at the same time, also reinforced the idea that she was still her and not just my idea of her.

"What?" she grinned at the surprised look on my face. "They fucking killed me! I made all that effort to look pretty, and they shot me in the face... let's just say it's not the shot to the face I was hoping for when it happened." She finished with a seductive wink.

It took her glancing down at my groin for me to get what she meant. "Wait, is... that... possible?"

"Shagging? I dunno. I guess there is only one way to find out," she almost purred at me. "But not right now. You have more important things to think about, but get back here after your meeting with Uri, and we will see if it can be done... many, many times."

She leaned into me and pressed her lips to mine.

In less than a heartbeat, I was lost again, lost in her touch, lost in her presence, lost in the taste and the feel of her, lost in her closeness, lost in the moment. We melted into each other. The bottomless ocean of love, affection, tenderness, and recaptured connections expressing themselves in a single, lasting, ethereal kiss.

She was here.

I was home.

It was a relief the likes of which are impossible for me to adequately describe. I could spend a dozen lifetimes trying to articulate the warmth and completion I felt in that moment and never come close to succeeding. Our two halves may never join the way they should have, but knowing that it had not been as lost as I had thought was almost too much for me to process. I knew that she felt it, too; I could feel everything she felt just like she could with me.

We were one. As we were always meant to be.

"Now, it's time for you to go, love," she smiled as she finally broke the kiss. She had to; both of us knew that I would never have done it. "You are at war, and the battles won't win themselves. But now you know I am here, you have more reason to come home. I will be waiting in your bunker for you."

I nodded again and smiled back at her.

With a wicked grin on her lips, she pressed both of her hands against my chest and shoved. The city went dark and I blinked my eyes clear to stare at my apartment as it faded into existence around me.

Wait, did she just kick me out of my own city?

The fainted echo of mischievous giggling echoed through my mind.

"I'm gonna get you back for that!"

"Promises, promises."

********

The usually stern-looking mountain of a man sat in his chair at the diner as every imaginable look flashed across his face. Furious indignation, pale-faced horror, utter disbelief, and indescribable shock. I won't lie; I had expected some sort of angry backlash when I had shown him the events in Malaga. I had expected him to demand to know why I didn't come to him as soon as I got off the plane. I had expected him to argue ardently in defense of the Conclave. I had at least expected him to try to say that Miguel had been lying.

But no, he just sat there... processing.

If the looks on the faces of all those office workers in Malaga were enough to tell me that they were telling the truth, the same was certainly true for Uri. This was a man whose fundamental understanding of the life he had made for himself, and the world around him, was being rocked to its very foundations.

I was starting to understand a little more about how lying worked between Evos. I hadn't, for example, made any reference at all to Charlotte or the Sect in my report to him. He had asked what I had found out, and I showed him. I just left those parts out. If he had asked me directly if anyone else knew, I would have had to give him the truth, but he hadn't, so I just said nothing. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this method of lying by omission could be scaled up to truly terrifying levels. If there was a person, or a group of people, at the top of the Conclave leadership who were secretly in communication with the Inquisition, all they would have had to do was not broach that subject, and they would have gotten away with it. It's not like anyone would have asked. The very notion of complicity with the Inquisitors would have been too ridiculous to even mention, and they could have used that to keep their involvement quiet. The looks washing over Uri's face told me that nobody would have even considered asking them that question outright, and with no opportunity to be caught in the lie, getting away with it seemed to be exactly what had happened.

"I need to go," He finally said.

"What? That's it? Nothing about the note? Nothing about the peace treaty? Nothing about one of your bosses having cozy chats with the Inquisition and having Evos killed? Nothing about a rogue Royal Inquisitor faking his death and going to war with us in secret? I thought you were supposed to be the guardian of the Evos, protecting them even from other members of the Conclave?" I asked challengingly,

"This is above your pay grade, Pete." Uri bristled as he stood up to leave.

"Oh nonononono, sit your fat ass down, big boy! If you think that shit is going to wash, then we have more to talk about than I thought. Let me just clarify something about my pay grade for you; you don't pay me! I don't work for you! And after learning all that..." I waved my hand in a random direction, "...I sure as shit don't work for your bosses. Now, you seem to have a pretty fucking serious problem on your hands..."

"Do you think I don't know that!?!" He hissed at me in that thick Russian accent, trying not to draw attention to us in the moderately crowded diner but sitting back down nonetheless. "I don't even know where to start with all of this. This isn't a mole! This is... this is..."

"Yeah," I said with a nod as he slumped deeper into his chair. "Yes, it is."

Uri ran his hand over his face and rested it over his mouth. For a man of his size, the look of heartbreak on his face looked woefully out of place. But these revelations had hit him harder than even I had expected. I had to give him credit, though. He wasn't trying to deny any of it.

"The Conclave is... complex," He said slowly. "There are hundreds of thousands of Evos in its ranks, and almost all of them have some sort of role. Like the Black Knights, there are Orders and councils and other groups of powerful people that have specific responsibilities within the Conclave. Everything from education and training, like Marco, all the way up to the science people who release new inventions to the market to fund it all. There are historians, archivists, politicians, and businessmen. Soldiers and geneticists and... More importantly, there are secret societies within the societies, some that not even I know about. The list of people who could be responsible for this is... long."

Agatha's advice echoed in my mind. "The Conclave keeps the memories of their more important members, right?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Do you think anyone involved in the peace process would have been important enough to have their memories kept?"

"Assuming they are dead, yes, I would think so."

"What?"

"It was only two hundred years ago. I would imagine at least some of them are still alive. The problem is, if they knew about the peace accords, then they would have known about the agreement to maintain communication. And if they knew about that and said nothing... They would be the strongest suspects. More than that, if they are alive and are involved, they would go to great lengths to keep that information secret. I doubt I would be able to just go to the archives and pull up the memories of one of their old friends."

I thought for a moment, a frown pulling at my forehead. "Maybe it would be enough to just know who they were rather than if they knew."

"I don't understand."

"Let's just say that this meeting between you and me was due to last a week and would happen in... I don't know, Japan or something. Who would know that you were gone?"

"I don't know," He answered with a frown of his own. "Only a handful of.... Ohhh!"

"There you go."

"So you are saying that I should look for the subordinates, the people who may not have known the details but would have known there was a meeting and who had attended."

"Exactly."

"That could work. I admit I am surprised by your aptitude for this."

"Yeah, well, the benefits of a lifetime of being lied to, I guess," I shrugged. "You get pretty good at finding ways to the truth. The more pertinent question is what you are going to do when you find out that truth. Let's say that you find out that Johnny fuckwit has secretly been in contact with the Inquisition and has been responsible for the deaths of Evos. What are you going to do about it?"

"That is the wrong question."

I arched an eyebrow at him. "That is the only question."

"No," he shook his head. "Perhaps my praise of you was premature. According to this Miguel, the Inquisition is not the problem. Even if... Johnny Fuckwit... is talking to them; they are not the ones killing Evos. Let's just say all of this is true, that there are people in communication with the Inquisition, and the names of Evos that break the terms of the peace treaty are handed off by the Conclave for death. So be it. If that is what is decided and agreed upon by the people higher up than me, I will not argue with them. My question would be, why is this truth not more widely known? Why do we fear the Inquisitors when they are no threat to us unless we break clearly defined rules? And more importantly, if the Inquisition is only responsible for 'a handful of deaths' over the past 200 years, who has been killing the rest? That brings us to Reinard Montreuax and the Royals. Who are they, and why did they attack the party? Are they the ones responsible for the other Evo deaths? And if so, where are they getting their information? Johnny Fuckwit knew that Evo X was sanctioned for death by the Conclave, but the Inquisition apparently killed Evos X, Y, and Z, yet he said nothing, or more likely, he knew no deaths were sanctioned at all, but the Inquisitors killed the Evos anyway. He would have known that they overstepped their bounds, but made no complaint. It would seem that someone, probably Johnny Fuckwit, wants Evos to fear the Inquisition and is facilitating that by letting us think they are responsible for all Evo deaths. To maintain that fear, he would need to ensure that sufficient numbers of Evos are killed regularly enough to keep that fear alive. But if there is someone else killing us, the Royals, for example, then Johnny Fuckwit would have to be in league with them. But how, and for how long? These deaths have been going on for two centuries, but Montreaux only faked his death twelve years ago. What happened before that?"

Yeah, there is nothing quite like being schooled by an asshole.

"Now, to answer your question," Uri continued. "If Johnny Fuckwit is as guilty as he sounds, I will do whatever is necessary to remove the threat, but I seriously doubt he is acting alone, and finding out who his accomplices are won't be easy. More than that, as soon as it becomes known that we are digging into it, the first thing they are going to do is sanction our deaths to the Royals. If we weren't targets before, we certainly would be then."

I waved the note at him. "No shit."

"We are dealing with very dangerous people here, Pete." He sighed. "And they are people who have been operating from the shadows since long before either of our great-grandparents were born." I had to remind myself that Uri, born in the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown, was barely forty years old, still pretty young by Evo standards. "As easily as you seemed to dispatch the attackers when they assaulted the party, you didn't see them coming until it was too late. None of us did. Your computer system is an impressive way to deal with this, but we don't know enough about it to call it a solution. And more than that, you have never fought an Evo, not properly. Especially if there is a group of them."

"What do you mean?"

"The Conclave has laws," he answered simply. "But how do you think those laws are enforced when the person breaking them is more powerful than the person enforcing them?"

I had no idea.

"Evos have the ability to pool their powers; we can group together to combat more powerful Evos. You are the most powerful single Evo ever known, but your power is nothing compared to the combined Conclave. All it would take is a sufficient number of Evos banding together, and they could overpower you. We have no idea how many people are complicit in this conspiracy or how powerful they are. Assuming you would be able to take them down with sheer force would be a mistake, especially if they know you are coming."

"Then we do what they have been doing to Evos all this time."

"What is that?"

"We take them out one at a time."

"Hmmm, yes, perhaps it will come to that," he nodded slowly. "But first, we will need to find out who they are."

"There is something else," I said after a short moment of silence.

"And that is?"

"We still don't know why they attacked the party," I said. "You said it yourself; the only thing different about that party was the fact that you and I were there. If we are still thinking there is a mole - and there is no reason to think there isn't one, even if it is Johnny Fuckwit - then they knew to pass that information on to the Royals. Someone wants one of us dead, and the simple fact is that I've only just got here, I find it hard to believe that I had enemies within the Conclave, or anyone else, before I even got to the party."

"You think I was the target." He nodded.

"I could be wrong, but how many people even knew about me before it?"

Uri ran his hand over his mouth again as he thought about it. "You may be right. But it means we are going to need to meet again, and soon."

"Does it?" I squinted at him, not able to follow his logic.

"Being an Evo is like being a child," he said. "You never stop learning. You showed a remarkable ability to not only fight off the attackers at the party, people who were Inquisitors even if they weren't members of the official Inquisition. More than that, you were able to overcome that crippling fear at the sight of Reinard Montreaux. That is a skill I need to learn."

"Wait, you want me to teach you how to fight?"

"Yes."

"Well, shit, I wasn't expecting that."

"I mean no offense, but this investigation dies if I do. You simply do not have the access to the higher ranks of the Conclave that I do. It would take you decades to rise through the ranks of an institution you know to be corrupt if I were to be killed and you wanted to continue. Likewise, I cannot hope to take down the Royals alone. We need each other." He sighed, clearly not happy with the reality of the situation and even less so after hearing himself say it out loud.

"Fuck." I pinched the bridge of my nose. All this talk of death and destruction, not to mention the size of this quickly growing conspiracy, was starting to weigh on me, at least in those moments of clarity between bouts of vengeful rage. "You know, a few months ago, I was just a student."

"Yeah, and I wanted to be a pilot."

"So, now what?" I said after taking a deep breath and leaning back in my chair.

Uri drummed his fingers against his clean-shaven chin as he thought for a moment. "Perhaps it is time we involved a few of the other knights. Marco, Fiona, and Jerry would be valuable assets. They also share the belief that there is a mole within the Conclave, and all were supportive of your quest."

"Do you trust them?"

"Trust is a rare commodity these days."

"Mmmmm," I leveled a gaze at Uri. For some reason, I still couldn't bring myself to trust him, I could tell that nothing he had said had been a lie, but just like I had withheld the information about Charlotte and the Sect from him, I had a feeling there were things that he wasn't telling me either. I knew he didn't like me, and I still didn't care, but it was more than that. Just like Charlotte had said about Marco, there was something about Uri that just set me on edge.

I looked around the diner as I rolled my neck. A face in the crowd stood out to me. A man, probably in his forties, hunched over his table as he nursed a cup of coffee. With graying hair, he had far too many wrinkles around his eyes to be considered normal. I briefly thought there was something familiar about him, but I couldn't quite place it. I was about to reach for his mind when Uri started rifling through his wallet and distracted me. More than that, I was eager to get back home to Faye. It was already strange how quickly her presence had become normal to me. The feeling vanished as quickly as it had arrived. With my perfect recall and that overriding sense of paranoia in my chest, I shrugged it off as mistaken identity and a case of my senses looking for threats in every shadowed corner. I turned my attention back to Uri. "I think my next step is to start looking into a certain plane crash."

He nodded. "Be careful," he added. "Try to find the information from here, but If you need to go there, make sure you talk as little as possible. Enter the minds of humans, find the information you need, and then wipe any memories of them ever seeing you. Leave as small a footprint as you are able."

"And if I find something?"

"Don't make a mess. I also would like to be informed if you hear anything else from Miguel. I am sure the Inquisition leadership would like to meet you, and I doubt I will be invited."

"Yeah, you got it."

"I will see you soon, Pete." Without another word and without waiting for my reply, he stood from our booth, tossed a bill onto the table, and left the diner.

I sighed heavily. The last few weeks had been exhausting on a level I hadn't felt in years. I needed to go home and spend a few hours in my bunker sleeping. Then Jeeves and I would spend the rest of the day with the computer, digging up everything we could about the plane crash twelve years ago that supposedly claimed the lives of the entire Montreaux branch of the Royal Inquisitors.

I picked up the notes that Uri had left, snorted when I realized that he had grossly overpaid, and took them to the cashier to pay. Yeah, that sort of service, where you leave your money on the table, isn't really a thing in the UK.

********

The winter air was brisk and surprisingly refreshing. I hated winter. I didn't like being cold, and I didn't like being wet, but I quite liked the snow. The British weather in the wintertime, however, provided more than enough cold and wet without ever making enough of an effort to provide the snow. Just like the food and our overall attitude toward customer service, it was half-arsed. With clear skies and a light wind, though, this early afternoon was surprisingly pleasant; it could almost be called a nice day. I shoved my hands into my pockets and started the short walk toward home.

********

And that's a wrap for chapter 15.

After being reunited with Faye, things take a sudden and dramatic turn in the next chapter for our hapless hero. Stay tuned for something that not even an all-powerful Evo could have seen coming.

Thank you for your comments and feedback. It never ceases to amaze me how supportive and receptive the readers of lit can be. I look forward to hearing what you think of this, and my other story - The Island - in the comments or on the Discord Server.

Stay Awesome.

Nova