I didn’t know why Lyall was doing this. Harming himself pointlessly by fighting the Manacle of Oblivion would not aid our cause.
She glanced at the constructs standing at each corner of the altar.
“Should he once more attempt to break free, smash his arms and legs again. But spare his face and cock until I’m done with him,” the Oracle commanded.
Turning towards her throne, she climbed the three steps up to the main floor.
“Let’s begin!” she commanded, gesturing at the four mages wearing black robes and gold masks who had been chanting during the orgy.
My heart dropped when all four of them started walking in my direction as the Oracle settled back on her throne. Three of the mages took position around an empty space in front of me. The fourth one picked up the staff with the hollow ring at the top and the medallion that had previously been imbued with magic from the orgy. He placed it on the floor, approximately six meters directly in front of me. To my shock, the stone tile appeared to melt as the pointy base of the staff sank into it before the floor hardened again, holding it firmly in an upright position. He then adjusted the necklace still dangling on top of this staff so that the large medallion would hang in the center of its hollow ring.
My pulse picked up as a sense of dread washed over me. I didn’t know what ritual they were about to perform, but the Oracle’s words hinted at my imminent demise.
His task completed, the fourth mage marched with slow but determined steps towards me. He was quite tall and broad-shouldered, although nowhere near as massive as the constructs. He stopped before me, and another wave of dread swelled within me when my eyes locked with a much too familiar blue gaze.
“No,” I whispered, horrified.
The cultist removed his mask, revealing the face of the man I had loved more than a mentor but flat out as a father.
“Father Paulus!” I exclaimed, devastated.
“Hello, child,” he said in a soft, almost paternal voice.
Despite the collar weighing me down, I managed to shake my head in hopeless denial, tears pricking my eyes to see such a pious man, completely devoted to the cause being thus corrupted. At sixty-one years of age, he remained a very handsome and fit man, with an elegant sprinkle of gray through his light-brown hair. A thin scar ran over his left eyebrow, the vestiges of an ancient battle he’d never allowed green witches to fully heal.
“How did they get to you? How did they brainwash you?” I asked, crestfallen, although it was more me musing aloud than truly asking him.
He gave me an apologetic smile as he shook his head.
“No one did, Eleni. I am not mind-controlled. I’m here by choice and out of conviction,” he said in a calm voice.
“It can’t be!” I exclaimed, refusing to accept such an outlandish statement. “You raised me! You protected me!”
“What I did was to prepare you to face your destiny. Everything I did was specifically to bring us to this moment,right here and now,” Paulus said in a firm tone, his gaze holding mine unwaveringly.
I continued to shake my head, wishing I could awaken from this nightmare. This could not be happening. Not him, not like this...
“You taught me that all this cultish madness was wrong. You took me away from this!” I argued.
“After the raid, I said what I needed to say to keep a strong hold on you until the time was right,” he said in a factual manner. “Frankly, seeing how rebellious you are, I didn’t think you would have lasted this long living with the constraints of the Church. We had to force Fate’s hands to get things back on track.”
My eyes flicked between his, looking for the slightest hint of deception, for the slimmest indication that the man I had revered had not been an illusion. The Onis had to have gotten to him somehow. But I couldn’t detect any sign of hesitation or confusion like had been the case with Vivian and Sienna when the fact they’d been mind-controlled had been raised. Either Father Paulus had been indoctrinated for so long that he now saw this brainwashing as his genuine beliefs, or worse, this was who he had always been.
How could I have been so blind?!
“All these years?” I whispered, my heartbreak audible in my voice. “You played me for all these years?”
He shrugged. “Time is unimportant, so long as it leads to victory.”
“I loved you,” I said, my voice quivering from pain, sorrow, and a devastating sense of betrayal. “You are like a father to me.”
“As intended, Eleni. As intended,” he replied, his face unreadable. “Carpe noctem, child.”
I stiffened. Why would he say that? Why would he tell me to ‘seize the night’ when, my entire youth, he told me the exactopposite? He warned me over and over to embrace the light, not the night. It was coded speech telling me to keep the darkness within locked away.
But the Oracle wants it unlocked.
Had he kept me from unleashing it so that he could continue to hide and train me within the walls of the Church?
