Author's note

Nothing much to say, didn't edit this chapter at all, as I should have been to bed half an hour ago. You can point out any mistakes you find and I'll correct them - otherwise I might just look the chapter through tomorrow sometime.

Words in total: 14373

Words this chapter: 1676

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Aitken disappeared into the forest, leaving the flaming church behind for good. Aitken’s feet made small twigs snap as walked through the pine-woods, with only the smell of smoke as his companion.

Aitken walked till sundown before he climbed a tree, to finally get a full night's rest. As he laid down on a thick branch, he noticed that his hunger had all but disappeared, since the ignition of the church. He pondered briefly if imps had different eating habits than humans, then he fell into a deep sleep.

Aitken awoke from footsteps far below him. When he peeked down, he saw a familiar black-haired witch.

Uh oh, what is she doing here?

He carefully hid in his branch as she walked by.

I wonder where she is going… Does she perhaps have some ties with someone who opposes the church?

Aitken kept at a long distance, silently shadowing her from afar. She walked straight for a little larger town, located about half a day’s travel away.

She stopped to eat soon after, making a small fireplace and putting a metal contained with water and a handful of grains in there.

She boiled it for a while and calmly put spoonful after spoonful in her mouth.

“You can come out, I know you are there.” She yelled, not even looking away from her spoon.

Aitken hesitated. Perhaps she knew he was there, but did she really know where? and did she really know exactly who was there? And how did she figure it out?

A few moments passed by without a reaction.

“What are you hesitating for? Come out already.” She lifted her hand, and slowly pointed it Aitkens direction. “If you don’t come out, I’ll make you.”

Aitken put his leg outside the cover and shifted his weight.

Snap.

A dark male voice suddenly reacted, from two-thirds the way to Rosedriah.

“Did you hear that? I told you this place isn’t safe. Someone or something is out there.”

Rosedriah grabbed her pendant and stared around carefully.

“You are right, this isn’t as safe as I had thought.”

Rosedriah and the man started walking - but at a fast pace.

Aitken struggled to keep up and remain hidden at the same time.

The two picked up the pace as they neared the town, and Aitken was slowly set further behind where he could speed up safely.

As darkness fell on the forest, the witch and her new companion reached the town, and the two talked to a guard outside the wall.

Aitken froze.

I didn’t think. I can’t just enter a town, I’m considered a demon now, I’ll be attacked on sight. Damn, they might just have slipped away this time… No, perhaps not yet.

Aitken stared briefly at the wooden palisade, then he proceeded to walk up to it and dig his claws deeply into the wood. He put one hand over the other and forced himself up, finally silently tumbling over the top.

Where did they go?

Aitken looked around, and realised he was in a small alley. He saw a villager walking around on the street in front of him. The villager squinted and looked into the alley Aitken was placed at, and Aitken slowly crept backwards, into the darkness. He clenched his fists tightly.

Darn, they’re gone. My hands are tied while I’m in settlements.

Aitken climbed the nearby stone house, it was really dark between the palisade and the house, as they didn’t put torches on the palisade itself.

When Aitken got onto the straw-roof he laid down and very carefully moved towards the top, making sure to stay around the edges where he figured the support would be the strongest.

He peeked up, looking at the town itself. It was medium-big and had a fairly large church in the center - much unlike the solitude of the first church he had encountered. A few stragglers would be walking around the streets, but at this hour it was nothing major. He didn’t spot the witch or her companion, and likewise, he didn’t spot a place he thought they would be likely to go either.

I guess I’ll have to give up on the witch and a prospect of an organization… She probably just met this man for something like supplies anyway… No, I’ll simply have to handle the church on my own.

He glanced over at the church in the center of the town. I will start my crusade on the church of light with you. Perhaps I should go investigate first, like last time. It seemed to go better that way.

So Aitken slowly made his way towards the church, approaching as far as he could along the darkness from the palisade. He crept along an alley, and crawled over a house to get near the church. Finally, he arrived on top of a house, looking down on the plaza surrounding the church.

The church itself wasn’t even as big as the complex he had burnt the last time, but it was situated in the middle of the town. To make matters worse, the open plaza would make for a terrible escape path. The church itself was made from stone with a wooden roof covered in tar, it was a single long building but somewhat wider than the average building. No spires or third floors of any kind was present, but as before, the bottom floor did not have any windows except for small ones located at the very top of the two-times-normal-height ground floor..

What’s with them, and their lack of windows?

Aitken swallowed his spit, as he saw the sheer amount of houses facing his way. If a single person inside one of those houses would see him and alarm the guards, he would be in a bad pinch.

He looked at the church in front of him. Wooden roof, huh? I’ll simply torch the church again, it can’t be much easier.

Aitken decided to go inspect the church up-close, while it was still dark. He hid as well as he could in the shadows, slowly moving to the church.

He crawled up the church and peeked in through all the windows.

While there was a rooms for different things, nobody actually slept at the church.

This complicates things. So if I’m to harm them, I’d either have to burn it during daylight, or find and murder their members individually? But again, it’s empty now...

Aitken could barely squeeze his way through the tall but narrow windows, but when he finally made his way through, he looked around the room. Shovels, brooms, old tables and chairs were all stashed away in this room. Aitken shrugged as he grabbed the door handle and opened it carefully.

A long deserted hallway met him, consisting of grey boulder-walls and darkness.

Aitken snuck around, looking at the layout for a while… Then he arrived at the kitchen. A large kettle for large amounts of food was above a similarly sized fireplace. The stoves and kitchen utensils witnessed of large amounts of food.

Are they that many in this church?

His stomach rumbled and he stared at all the fresh fruit.

How much could I take without them noticing?

He wasn’t sure, so he only grabbed a few pieces of fruit and chowed one down quickly.

He walked down some stairs, and arrived at a large room. The room was large enough for a great deal of people to stand inside. At the end, there was a platform several imp-heights above the floor. This platform was accessed from a door, as the platform ended in a vertical wall, cutting it off from the place where people would stand.

I do wonder why I’ve never been in any of these before… Speaking of which, our village only had that guarded fortress church.

Aitken pondered for a moment. If he had decided to assassinate, it might have been effective to kill the priest in front of the crowd.

He looked up at the roof, staring at the wood. No support beams, huh? This might be the case of igniting the entire thing from ontop.

He stared at the large gate at the very end of the room, opposite the platform he was next to. The first floor was utility, while the ground floor was for gathering people, while being around two times taller than the first floor.. The stairways were located next to the platform.

Had it not been for the gentle moonlight shining through the small windows on top, it would have been completely dark in the room.

He stared at the large wooden gate.

Good, only one place I have to block off. This should be easy enough.

He continued inspecting the large pillars supporting the room, figuring out where to hide and block off the gate. It seemed it would be a difficult task to block off the gate, unless he was inside already, finding the perfect time for blocking it off when nobody was around.

He finally settled on hiding in the room behind the platform - the room had plenty of cupboards, wardrobes and crates filled with robes, vials and other effects - it seemed it was essentially a room for things he could show off as well as a place to put on special robes, should the need arise. Behind the platform room was a hallway leading to the stairs to the first floor.

Aitken hid in a wardrobe, hoping the priest would not be needing to switch robes - or that the mass wouldn’t even start the next day - but which days and times the church of light had its masses, he did not know.

Aitken napped inside the wardrobe, and finally dawn arrived. The clicking sounds of the gates opening and the footsteps of a myriad of people over the course of many hours could be heard.

Aitken felt ready to set the entire church ablaze, but this was first possible when the opportunity presented itself - thus far, footsteps had been outside constantly, and he had not had the opportunity to move.

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