It came as no surprise to Lucius that the rest of that night remained sleepless. He instead spent it trying to rid his body and clothes from blood without any inhabitants of the monastery noticing. Triumph briefly overpowered the gruesome memories in his head as he shut the door to his room with a bowl of stealthily acquired, lukewarm water in his hand, but it was a short lived feeling of positivity and he soon grimaced again.

The blood did not help. It coloured the water red in an instant and despite Lucius' best efforts his skin remained tinted red in places, and he had no hopes of getting rid of the stains on his borrowed rhenelis.

Sighing, he wrung water out of the cloth once again to rub his neck, suddenly flinching as there was a knock on the door.

"Lucius? Are you decent?"

Lucius glanced down at his bare chest. He couldn't claim to be, but the voice belonged to Eliza and she didn't give a damn about a man's body anyway.

"Sure."

Eliza's face was painted with empathy as she entered the room with a tray filled to the brim with a teapot, two cups, one plate with sandwiches, and one with chopped carrots and steamed broccoli.

"Hi," she said with a careful voice that would have been more suitable when telling someone their dog had just died. "I just came from Tom and Richard, and as I suspected you don't seem to have slept either."

"Difficult to." Lucius nodded with a disappointed look in the mirror as his skin refused to give up its new colour.

"Well, I thought I should bring you some breakfast at least." Eliza smiled, but Lucius could tell from the corner of his eye that it was forced.

"I don't..." His voice failed him, so he cleared his throat. "... I can't remember what happened, but—"

"Oh, no I don't think you did anything," Eliza interrupted him way too eagerly, shaking her head so locks of hair loosened from her braid. "Tom said he doesn't know what happened, and you— you would remember if something had happened— or done anything, so... You probably didn't."

Probably, huh.

He attempted an equally strained smile as she put the tray down, and his eyes lingered on the teapot.

"Is that tea?" he asked, feeling dumb, but the Rhimskan people's apparent love for coffee had made him cautious.

Eliza nodded though, so Lucius picked it up.

"Tea shouldn't stain too much," he said while pouring some into an empty bowl next to the blood dyed one. "And it's warm, so—"

Eliza yanked the bowl away from him.

"That is not what tea is for."

"It's better than looking like this."

"I will get you more water to clean off." Eliza forced the pot out of his hand to pour a proper cup of tea. "Now drink this and eat something. You know you need it."

Lucius relented. He had a stubborn tendency to neglect his needs, so if he couldn't get some sleep that night, at least some food couldn't hurt.

"So..." He threw Eliza an awkward glance in between his chewing. "... How's Tom?"

Eliza, who'd begun to reassemble her braid, made a face.

"Quiet, but that's hardly news."

"I'm guessing Richard's pretty upset?"

"Well... Yes," Eliza admitted with a frown. "But it's not your fault, you know?"

"Isn't it?"

"I don't— Well, I don't think it is? Not from what I've heard, and I reckoned you wouldn't think differently."

Lucius' gaze wandered to his knife, still untouched after the incident. He'd cleaned the holster just enough to hide darker stains but he refused to take the blade out. He didn't want to know. He'd killed out of necessity before and it was likely that night would have ended the same if he'd been conscious through it all, but Father Runar was dead and Lucius couldn't even tell if he was to blame.

Or at least how much of him was to blame.

It was a fear he'd tried to suppress many times, but the fact that the scourge had manipulated him into doing things before had made him wonder just how deep its clutches dug into him. The idea that he'd committed murder without knowing it was not half as terrifying as the possibility that someone else had, without his knowledge, committed murder while wielding his body.

His hand twitched as if eagerly waiting to pick up the knife, but the rest of him refused. Who else could have done it? The acolytes and Tom had been free from stains, unlike him. Still, as long as the blade remained in its holster he couldn't beat himself up over it so it could just as well stay that way for now.

Eliza was drumming her fingers against her knees with a sheepish look, having waited patiently for a reply that she apparently would not receive.

"It's... It will be alright," she finally said, as if silence was waiting to kill her. "I'll be there when they perform that sealing thingy, so—"

"What?" Lucius snapped out of his brooding. "No, you can't be there. We don't know what the Waste is gonna happen, and you're a mortal human."

"That's exactly why," Eliza reminded him. "Even if we knew these people wouldn't mind an unhallowed vampire stepping foot inside their walls I don't think Ethan prefers a permanently dusty appearance, and I believe no one would want Richard around when they without a doubt will cut your body open."

Lucius cringed. She was right in that no supernatural being would be able to assist them, and the reminder of whatever ghastly procedure awaited him was not what he needed at the time.

"What about Tom? He's mortal too but he knows about these things."

Eliza rolled her eyes, increasingly offended by the implication that she wouldn't be of any help.

"He'll be there too. We need someone expendable in case things go south."

"Eliza..."

"Yes, yes, he can do other things." Eliza held her hands up in resignation. "But if there's one thing I'm certain of it's that he's of absolutely no use when it comes to physical strength, whether it's assisting with the ritual somehow or if something goes wrong, like those veins breaking free and starting to attack people, or such."

As much as he wanted to, Lucius honestly couldn't promise something like that wouldn't happen.

"I still wish you'd stay safe though," he therefore said, but released a reluctant sigh. "But you're also right. Tom is useless when it comes to strength."

Eliza chuckled, but choked it as the door suddenly swung open, and if Lucius had learned anything about the people with him on that journey it was that only one person had the audacity to not knock before opening someone else's door.

"I know I said I wasn't in the mood for you back at the ship," he said to Frey, who didn't even bother with a greeting. "But right now I'm really, really not in the mood."

"Can we speak alone?" Frey did not return the snark, which Lucius found deeply unsettling.

"Is something wrong?" Eliza asked, but was already getting up to go along with his request.

"Most likely." Frey did not elaborate further, but sat down in Eliza's spot to wait for her to leave.

The expression on his face was new. It wasn't the usual, heart wrenching concern that he usually liked to show. It was grave, and not meant to tug at emotions at all.

Lucius swallowed.

"So?"

"As you know, I've been forced to stay here for the night due to yours and the others' paranoia concerning Mr. Hargreaves," Frey began, pausing as if Lucius would have a hard time following. "Except they expected me to share a room with others which I promptly declined."

"Unsurprising."

"But they apparently also thought I'd left," Frey continued, leaning over to steal Lucius' unused teacup. "So when those miserable acolytes returned to talk to the chamberlain in a room near here, they must have believed no one knowledgeable in Hrimska was around."

Lucius' eyes widened.

"You overheard something."

Frey nodded.

"They told him about something Father Runar had said to you at the graveyard, and how they worried about being in over their heads."

"He spoke in Hrimska." Lucius suppressed a shudder while trying to remember the hazy events. "I have no idea what he told me."

"He said you and the chamberlain—"

"Aldrik."

"He said he'd had enough of the likes of you two, but perhaps specifically him, and the gruesome temptations you're spreading." Frey drew a silent breath. "And that he wouldn't let him cause more innocent people to disappear."

Lucius blinked.

"The what? What innocent people? No one's disappeared."

Frey's lip curled with scepticism.

"So where is Father Runar? Where are the chamberlain's two men who followed you?"

"That—" Lucius paled, having foolishly hoped that Jan and Mats would leave that part out of their story. "But that was after. That wasn't us, it was Father Runar's doing. Innocent or not, it wasn't Aldrik's fault. It was his friends, if anything he should be the one most upset by this."

"Except he's not."

"He's...?"

"He dismissed their worries," Frey continued his eavesdropping story. "Said they all knew the risks of what they were doing, but they're doing it for the greater good so there should be no qualms."

Lucius wasn't sure what to think of it. It didn't add up. No innocent people had been hurt up until then that Father Runar could have referred to, and while the removal of his veins was important he doubted Aldrik considered it important enough to put others' lives at risk.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised," Frey said. "I witnessed the crumbling of The BBT mansion myself. I knew you're capable of bloodshed, but I didn't think it was all about self preservation."

"Those filthy anglers had it coming," Lucius objected, never in his life willing to regret what he'd done. "If you knew half the—"

"I'm well aware of the South Kerilian upper class scum," Frey interrupted him. "If I had disagreed with what you did I would have told on you in an instant, but it was perhaps the first and only time I found a shred of respect for you."

As always, Lucius worried about the child.

"After... Me blowing up over a hundred people?"

"A hundred bags of vermin, yes." Frey looked dead serious. "With the risk of complimenting you, I misjudged you when I said you were just a fraud."

"... Oh?"

"You're a maniacal fraud, with no regard for the filth residing in your town," Frey explained, making matters worse again. "Who better to keep Lord Hargreaves from running it all than someone who happily walks over corpses to stop him?"

"But this is different," Lucius insisted. "I— I never intended to put people in harm's way during all this. I didn't know what would happen."

"Would it have mattered?" Frey raised an eyebrow. "From what I can see you've put people, even those you care about, in danger multiple times already but you keep going, because you value your life before others'."

"That's not true!" Lucius snapped. "I didn't even want to come here. I didn't want people to follow me, or protect me, or die because of me. I wouldn't actively hurt anyone without good reason."

"If Father Runar's last words were true though, you're gonna do it anyway."

Lucius gritted his teeth, then he grabbed Frey's arm before the boy could shy away and dragged him out of the room.

"We'll see about that."

"Let go," Frey hissed, but Lucius hushed him.

"You're the translator, so you're coming with."

"I don't wa—"

"Well I don't care."

He slammed his fist against Aldrik's door, giving the idea of kicking it down a moment of consideration, but fortunately Aldrik opened it shortly after.

"What exactly is this ritual?" Lucius growled. "Why is it putting people in danger? Why did Father Runar imply that it already has?"

Frey hesitated, eyes darting between Lucius and Aldrik before he sucked in another breath and took a step back to stand partly behind Lucius with a grip around his forearm. The voice he then used to translate Lucius' inquiries was far less ferocious than the original. It was the most disarming string of words Lucius had ever heard, and though he could not see the boy's face he could imagine the doe eyes and trembling lips as clear as day.

What a little monster.

Despite the sentences being modified, supposedly beyond recognition as far as Lucius could tell, Aldrik still furrowed his brow to indeed look troubled by the questions. He reached a hand out to pat Frey's head, resulting in an already strained grip around Lucius' arm to squeeze harder, and gave him what sounded like words of assurance.

Then he turned to Lucius, speaking as though the language barrier had been forgotten, with Frey hurrying to make up for it.

"He's... Sorry about the secrecy," Frey relayed. "He wished to keep some things unsaid for the sake of the ritual."

"Did he, now?" Lucius scowled, and Aldrik looked sheepish before continuing, making Frey pause for a second before translating.

"... He says you're not the first one to come to him in cases like this one. That he's had to seal unholy forces away before, and that it's always been a dangerous procedure."

"Dangerous enough to cost innocent people their lives, I assume?"

Frey translated the question, and Aldrik looked appropriately uncomfortable, running a hand through his unkempt hair.

"There have been... Casualties." Frey's voice had lowered. "Others have encountered the grim before with little luck, though he'd hoped that the help from Father Runar would have prevented it this time."

"With deaths occurring every time they've done something like this you'd think they would stop it already." Lucius clenched his fists, uncertain he wanted to suggest something like it as it remained his only way out. "If several have to die to save a person they need to find other ways to do it."

Aldrik's expression darkened, and he raised a hand to touch his necklace.

"It's not like they haven't tried, but even with such a dangerous ritual they've all still been willing to risk it, because they can't let evil roam our plane through human hosts." Frey did not look convinced either. "He says it's a shame, but a necessary evil."

"But we're— We're done now, right? We got the bones, so no one else needs to get hurt."

It was Aldrik's turn to look hesitant, but he still attempted a smile before continuing through Frey.

"They've actually prepared for the ritual by now, and could perform it as early as tonight," Frey said, eyebrows raised at the information but lowered them as the next sentence came. "... As long as we find the last component, which might not be too risk free either, depending."

Lucius groaned.

"What now?"

"The last piece to bind the unhallowed presence is to add physical proof that The Unity has triumphed over The Waste before."

"And how are we supposed to do that?"

"Well, he says that they've usually managed to defeat some kind of unholy creature." Frey's discomfort was beginning to show, and a chill ran along Lucius' spine as well. "Providing a part of it to the ritual."

Lucius' mind was hurting again. He should have known they were sinister people. Most holy people were as far as unholy beings were concerned, but would they go so far as to hunt down innocent creatures for the sake of a ritual?

Then Aldrik said something that made Frey's grip squeeze Lucius' arm to an alarming degree, but before Lucius could hiss at him to stop he spoke again.

"He says we shouldn't worry though, because they've already found someone."

Lucius froze, colour draining from his face as his heart seemed to shrivel up in his chest. Before a seemingly concerned Aldrik could say anything else however, he'd already freed himself from Frey's hand to turn on his heels.

Eliza had been right. She'd been followed after all. They'd all been followed.

He slammed the door to his room open to pick up the knife, throwing any hesitation he'd ever had to the wind before tearing off the holster to confirm his dreaded suspicions.

It was clean. There were no traces of stains at all. Someone else had been responsible for Father Runar's death. Someone else was making sure the ritual would proceed as planned, making sure that they found all ingredients necessary, determined to suppress and eradicate all Waste-bound beings from their plane.

Lucius gritted his teeth, dashing out of the room while remorse weighed his legs down. It was his fault again. He was putting his friends in danger again.

He was putting Ethan in danger again.

***

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Uh-oh! Shady people being shady! And Ethan in potential danger... Anyone got theories on what will happen next? And what did you think of this chapter? Please let me know!