The white suit seemed from another world in that place. Many people struggled to get at the end of the month, elegant clothes were something completely alien to them.

The man ignored all the looks and attention and sat near a hospital bed. The man there was alive for a miracle...maybe, he heard strange reports about his health condition.

>

The man tilted his head slightly to the side > Pxan told him everything that he saw and lived. The temple, the light ray, the new body and strange vision. At the end of the tale the man looked at him strangely, he couldn’t decipher his expression, maybe he was angry or...happy?

> said this he left the little room and vanished.

Pxan could barely remain awake, maybe in a few hours or days, they would cut his prosthetics arts and sold them. Yet he didn’t felt panicked strangely, all those months there gave him a sense of peace. He felt like a rock...or more like water? He didn’t remember which one was correct.

The list was several pages long and contained thousands of names, next to the name and job of the cultist there was also what did it practised. He was suprised to see how many of the high society practised those dark arts, even more, suprised to see many members of the inquisitions there. While he scrolled through the list he nearly jumped from the bed when he read:

IDES, HIGH LORD INQUISITOR, 57, DEMONOLOGY AND MINDFUL MEDITATION

He had another call to make.

The men outside protested a bit about another call but given how much time the surgeons were taking they let him.

> Ides strangely listened without saying a single word. By the end of the call, he appeared more calm than before. But it wasn’t the angry smile of an inquisitor when people started screaming and firing.

> the black beast stood idle next to his bed > it was Terence and he had brought several Ulhems with him. He picked up the file before leaving. Reading it over and over again in an attempt to memorize it.

…

The next week felt surreal, the first few days he was suspended, then he was in wait to be judged. Then he was judged. By that time he had already memorized many pages and knew the names of many important people. Not that it mattered.

The room was nearly empty, there were but four people. Ides, Terence, the judge and him. It was a very short process, made even easier by all past infractions that Pxan had committed and by all denounces for being weird that Ides collected in case there were needed. Terence had to just say a few yes and no and the judge stood idle for most of the process. There was nothing that could save him. He read and reread what happened in those cases and how life in prison was.

The prison was a far asteroid, heavily guarded where no one had ever escaped.

He was immediately put apart from the others, given a “special” chain and uniform and always guarded by two or more guards. When the captain of the guards begun speaking he barely heard him, he felt so alienated and confused. Everything that he had done. Everything that he wanted to achieve was gone the moment he decided to touch the egg. No, before...maybe?

And while he rambled to himself and thought of what went wrong the door closed behind him. That was his new home. A 3x3 room with barely enough space to stretch the legs. He didn’t had a bathroom and his bed was a stroll. There wasn’t any light, nor that it mattered, he had habituated to live in the dark.

A strong whip broke his trance, then another and another. He had forgotten this part: he was a traitor and traitors were tortured day and night here. Day and night...until the end of their lives...

End of the first volume