He sighed- a heavy sigh full of hopelessness and despair. They were coming for him- there was no need for magic now. The years he'd spent poring over the sacred and the heretic, the magic and the faith, were now over- he knew now that they had been wasted. The fortune- his fortune, his daughter's fortune- he'd used to soak himself in silk and fine parties, was gone, and now so was his title, his estate, his freedom… and soon, he knew, his life. Wasted. He closed the heavy book on the desk leant over it. He had very little time left. He could surely sink no lower. The depths of his own depravity and perversion were no longer a calm, still place, of shadows and whispers and smoke. They were now beginning to swirl, faster and faster, as thought God himself were shaking Gilles' life like a tambourine. It made him nauseous. With every second his life was less in his control- and the less control he had, the more he realised the power he once had, and how he had abused such power. He stood, and gripped the desk as he circled it to the window. It was dark outside, and raining. It had rained for a week. He rested his forehead against the stone of the wall. What had he done? Everything had seemed so good for him- there was a time when everything had been good. And now, now that it was all being taken away, he could see exactly where things had begun to darken.
His years of feeding his own loathsome passion had caught him, and now that they had, they were going to flay him to his death. He could now understand that his lust was, indeed, loathsome. He had betrayed Christ, betrayed his wife and daughter, betrayed his house, his name and himself. And he'd betrayed those children… all the children he'd kept in trust, then disposed of in such fiery, cruel ways…His eyes burned. He blinked hard, and tears began to stream from his face, mixing with the rain on the window ledge. 'Father,' he whispered. 'Eleison…'The words offered him little comfort- his fall from holy grace was a gruesome one, stained with the blood of infants and with his own seed. He had once rejected God- now, he felt he deserved that God reject door opened. He turned.'Gilles…'His face melted into soul-consuming tears as he reached for his lover. 'They're coming, Francois.'