Bab 38: Second Steps (2)
Hearing Cassandras proclamation all the members of the brotherhood pupil's dilated. But soon a few members recovered from there shock and started protesting.
"If he is so much of a threat shouldn't disciples of higher status be set against him?"
Snapping her head toward the woman that spoke out Cassandra glared.
"Are you questioning our lords power? Remember with the lords power behind us we are indestructible."
"No! That was not my intention your holiness, I simply think that us peons are not worthy of such a task. We still lack training and faith."
Cassandra sneered at the woman who spoke up and snapped her finger. Making him grasp at is throat desperately as if he couldn't breath and after a few minutes of struggling he stopped his struggle.
"Remember this, every decision that is made by the me is given to me by our lord. If I have given you this task you will naturally be able to do it. This is all in Luxuro's plan, if I stepped in and killed him right now you all would learn nothing and become complacent and weak. The Brotherhood of the Labyrinth has no use for weak people."
Seeing that her message had gotten along clear Cassandra leaned back in her chair and motioned for them to continue their discussion.
Gulping Daniel decided to lead the conversation.
"Do we know what Jack's weakness is? I don't know much about him as he remained very mysterious with my time with him."
Killsman put his finger against his chin in contemplation before looking up, but before he could speak Specter beat him to it.
"He is friends with a certain man and woman, Shark and Annalise. They are his close allies, if we attack them it would probably get his attention. "
"Alright, but keep in mind that if we get rid of them that people will have a higher chance of noticing us. Especially if we go after Annalise since she is a widely recognized citizen."
A masked man spoke up for the first time at the table. Killsman frowned has he rarely heard this man speak, but whenever he did it was usually good advice. Seeing that everyone was still thinking about what Specter and the masked man had said Killsman spoke.
"As you all know he works for my son, so we could use him. I have noticed that he has a certain fondness to my granddaughter Elizabeth. And last but not least he is an informant of the church for us. If we can catch him on unawares in the church we might stand a good chance."
A very elderly looking woman looked towards Killsman and eyed him suspiciously.
"Are you sure you're prepared to sacrfice a son and granddaughter for this mission Killsman? You may be a cold man but this is pushing it a little bit."
To this Killsman faced the woman and coldly said, "I am not going to shy away from killing a son and or granddaughter, after all if it saves several of my brothers lives I am killing family to save family."
Looking into his eyes for a while the woman searched for something but never found it, turning away she snorted.
"Very well."
Discussions lasted a while longer as a plan slowly formed between the brotherhood. And after 30 minutes of discussion Cassandra ended the meeting and set the members to leave one by one. When about half the people had left Killsman got up and put on his blindfold letting the feeling of magic fill him and fade before taking it off and arriving in the palace basement once more.
Stepping out he left the premise and started thinking about what the elderly woman had asked him. This lead to him thinking about when the brotherhood first found him.
Killsman was born into a loving family, albeit strict, but it was still fairly normal for nobility. But he rarely showed affection back to his family, and when he did it was in scenarios were he was required too.
In modern terms he was a sociopath, Killsman could not connect with other human beings on a emotional level. His apathy towards human was great but he still did have desires, he wanted power. He was taught since a young age that he needed to become powerful in order to succeed. And so that's what he did.
He gathered his power through business and slowly became an reputable noble within Forgemire, but he was still not satisfied. When he was still a young man no older than 25 he had just gotten married to Regina, it was of course an arranged marriage. But he acted lovingly to his wife to boost his public image.
But late at night after Regina was sleeping off the reception Killsman decided that he wanted to take a walk to gather his thoughts. It was a habit that he had developed while expanding his power.
But on this night he witnessed something that he shouldn't have. One of his business rivals at the time was speaking in an alley to a robed figure. Standing quietly around the corner of the alley he listened in to the conversation hoping to gain something to black mail him with.
"You have betrayed us, we have no more need for you anymore."
"I did not betray you I swear my allegiance is to Luxuro and Luxuro alone. I swear please believe me I am innocent."
The robed figure sneered and spat on the ground.
"Really now? Shall I call forth your brother to testify?"
"NO! anything but that."
"Then you will die."
Then the mans screams filled the alley way as Killsman could only imagine what had happened to him. He was about to walk away before the robed figure called out.
"Wait."
Killsman turned around and walked into the alley facing the figure, his rivals body was no where to be seen. Despite this Killsman retained his cold exterior and looked at the robed figure calmly.
"What do you want?"
"Hehehe, what do I want? I want you to die."
"Alright."
The figure who was about to attack Killsman paused at hearing his response.
"You know what I change my mind I find you interesting. Say do you want power?"
"Yes."
"Good, because we can supply you with it. All we ask of you is your Faith."
"That might be hard I do not have faith for anyone."
The figure cocked their head and scoffed before speaking.
"Just pray to our lord Luxuro and we shall see if you have no faith."
And with that they disappeared into the night leaving Killsman alone in the alley.
Breaking out of his memories Killsman snorted and kept walking back to his house.
(Ridiculous, faith me? There god probably doesn't care about how sincere I am at all as long as I don't pray to another god. I haven't felt a thing towards another human being ever, and it shall continue to be that way god or not.)
If someone where around Killsman at this point they would probably have sworn that his footsteps became heavier and his demeanor menacing as the walked in silence to his residence.
=============
Celine was falling asleep while reading the Labyrinth's of the Divine. And as sleep finally overtook her she started dreaming. Inside her dream was an island with a warm sun and light breeze ruffling the leaves on the palm trees.
Sitting on a towel laid out on the beach was a elderly looking man smoking a pipe. Walking over cautiously Celine spoke up.
"Excuse me but, where are we and who are you?"
The old man looked at Celine for a brief moment before smiling kindly at her.
"Why were in your dream of course, and as for me? I suppose you could just call me a cursed soul."
"Cursed soul?"
Chuckling the man waved her question off and kept smoking his pipe.
"Who I am is not important, but what is important is you my dear. Is there anything you need to know? I am quite old, in fact even with this appearance I look good for my age."
Celine stared at the man for a second before deciding to trust him and started pondering. After a couple of second she looked up at the man and spoke confidently.
"What do you know about the Brotherhood of the Labyrinth?"
Upon hearing her question the man's facial expression darkened as if he was remembering something unpleasent.
"Ah, that cult of blood thirsty bastards. Well I can't tell you much but I will tell you this, they are smart and brutal. They serve Luxuro, who is by no way shape or form a good being, they have a ranking system which leaves a tattoo on a random part of their body. I don't know what the specifics of the tattoos are but I can tell you that they are all related to serpents. Until you get to the upper echelons of that cult, where they start to take the form of draconic beings."
Celine blinked at the man's over load of information and quickly memorizing it.
"Ah it seems our time is up, well thank you for asking a question and staving off this old man's boredom for a while."
And with that Celine woke up to her maid shaking her awake. Being awoken Celine immediately stood up startling the maid. Celine nearly ran towards the door of her room putting on a coat.
"Where are you going miss?"
"The church."
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone