Lorian did not expect to find himself in the middle of another war so soon after returning home. It was not waged outright through violence or action, but in insidious whispers in barracks, chapels, and homes. And even when Lorian knew those who had begun to truly believe in the Angelic Faith, he was powerless to do anything other than observe them and track who they met with. Lothric had been clear in his orders - as long as they did not act out in display of their faith, they were not to be disturbed.

But Lorian's work did not solely include rooting out Gertrude's followers. Just because he had dealt with the threat of the Demon Prince, it did not change matters at large. The greatest threat they faced now was the threat of starvation as the villages and farms in the area fell victim to the Evangelists and hollows. He had worked for hours alongside Knight Commanders Oswin and Estrid to set up patrols and to try and offer support for the areas that required it the most.

For the first time, Lorian was beginning to see the reality his brother dealt with daily. They could make no action against the Evangelists, but there was also nothing that could be done against the hollows. They could not be salvaged or brought back to their senses to work the land and harvest food.

They were also running out of recruits. There was no population left to pull from, and those who were able bodied were encouraged to take up the plow not the sword. Where previously they were able to keep the senior ranking knights such as the Commanders near the castle with the exception being Lieutenants and occasionally Captains being sent outside the castle, they simply did not have the luxury for that anymore. Everyone was sent out into the outlands, including Lorian.

It was why he was out trudging in the cold near the Irithyll border instead of at the castle. The patrol was short, a day's journey there and another back as the lands continued their slow shifting, enclosing on Lothric's borders. Lorian had volunteered himself to go since every ranking knight was tasked elsewhere and the last two knights that had been given the task had not returned. One may have simply been a deserter, but two meant whatever monster was in the area was stronger than reports had suggested.

At last, in the distance, Lorian heard a pained moan. Cautiously he pulled out his sword and began moving deeper into the trees to where the voice was coming from. From past experience the voice could belong to anything - a hollow, a beast, or even a lure. The moaning was louder now, and Lorian could just barely make out a handful of words. "Please, help me, please…"

When he pushed through the bushes, Lorian was not expecting the gruesome sight before him.

Knight Captain Delywn was hanging from a tree, wrapped in some viscous material keeping him in place. His eyes oozed black pus of the abyssal curse and his body seemed to stop below his torso. By all means, the man shouldn't have been alive, but somehow, something had kept him going.

He turned his head towards the glow of Lorian's blade when he heard him approach. "Knight General? Prince Lorian?" He gasped out weakly, "No, no, no you shouldn't be here, y-you can't be here."

"What happened?" Lorian asked as he approached, lightly touching whatever material was holding him in place. It stuck to his gauntlet with a terrifying strength; trying to remove Delwyn from it would likely only quicken his death.

"That thing," he started, pausing to take a deep breath - talking seemed to be painful, "It came out of nowhere in the night. By the time I saw it… please, please kill me. Kill me and leave. Please kill me, please, please, please, kill me…"

Lorian took pity on the man, taking his life with a swift thrust of his blade into Delwyn's ribcage. The fire burned the viscous material away around the wound, and Lorian waited until he saw Delwyn slump over before removing his blade.

A rustling in the leaves above him caught Lorian's attention. He readied his blade as he looked up and locked his gaze on two beady white eyes that stared back at him from the darkness. A chill ran up his spine, his instincts screaming at him to move. He moved to step backwards, but as soon as the monster saw movement, it let out a blood curdling screech as it launched itself from the trees towards him.

Swiftly dodging out of its path, Lorian immediately followed its attack with a strike of his own, slamming his blade into the ground and sending forth a burst of flame outwards towards the monster. The creature, in the form of a monstrous arachnid, scurried away from the flames with another screech before spitting forth a fog-like gas.

He tried to avoid it, but his surroundings did not give him any space to work with and he was left choking on the poisonous fumes. Lorian pressed on, closing the distance to the monster and striking it with his blade, tearing through the flesh of one of its front legs. It lunged to bite at him, but its teeth couldn't cut through his armor, leaving him an opening for another blow.

As he struck, the beast let forth more gas, and Lorian found himself staggering backwards, light-headed, his body dragging him down like a stone.

From either side of him, Lorian could faintly make out the sounds of two sets of steps that sounded bestial in nature. But it was not beasts that emerged, instead it was two of Sulyvahn's misshapen Outrider Knights. They had similar posture to the Dancer he had fought so long ago, but where she had fought on her feet, twisting and contorting into low sweeps across the ground, these knights remained low to the ground, their attacks feral and mindless in nature as they swarmed the monstrous arachnid, pinning it in place to the ground.

The whole area was coated in the toxic fog, but the Outriders didn't appear to be affected in the way that Lorian was.

"Prince Lorian," he heard from behind him, "I must confess I was not expecting to find you of all people here, lurking around my borders."

Pontiff Sulyvahn came into view and he stood in front of Lorian, inspecting him with a frown. The last time he had encountered the Pontiff, Lothric had warned him that the man was likely not above killing him to achieve his goals. Now, here he was, and Lorian was alone at his borders. It would be simple enough to pin Lorian's death on the same creature that had gotten Delwyn.

"You had me followed?"

"Not at all, you disturbed the barrier and I was pleasantly surprised to find you here, as well as that one there." Sulyvahn gestured to the creature his Outrider Knights were keeping at bay. "I am deeply grateful you didn't kill it before we arrived, we have been after it for some time now."

"The monster is from Irithyll?" Lorian struggled to ask, lungs like lead in his chest.

"Not precisely. But I am happy to study it and keep it where it will not turn up more corpses." The Pontiff kneeled in front of Lorian, seemingly ignorant of the effect of whatever poison was affecting him. "It has been some time since we last spoke. I heard you were given the title of Pillar; allow me to offer my sincerest congratulations."

Lorian stared at the man, brow furrowed, and said nothing.

"Of course, it was regrettable I did not receive an invitation, but I understand the reason why." Sulyvahn flashed him a smile that made Lorain's skin crawl for reasons he could not explain. "Might you indulge me on a matter?"

"If it concerns Lothric policies-"

"Nothing of the sort, I assure you. A more interesting topic, I'm sure you'd agree. It was quite the news, to hear you had managed to slay this elusive Demon Prince. Especially when my good friend Wulfred had called for the retreat of your assisting troops when Prince Lothric fell ill."

Lorian was grateful that his helmet concealed the majority of his expression. Much of that information had been private, and while he knew of the man's former ties to Lothric and his father, to hear the scale of information he knew of was unsettling. Was it possible that he had influenced Wulfred's actions? Lorian schooled his expression into an emotionless one. "You are well informed."

"As I told your brother all those years ago, the politics in Lothric are but a single section of a larger tapestry. A curious thing about tapestries - while the creator may have a strong vision in the beginning, the pattern can always change. I am pleased to see you taking a larger role."

"And what role on this tapestry of yours have I taken?"

"One so deeply interwoven I fear I could not remove you from it without the entire piece falling apart if I tried." He had dropped the smile and was now solemn as he stared at Lorian, who felt as if he was only now meeting the man for the first time. "The Demon Prince… now that is a foe for legends. It is almost impossible to believe it could be fought single-handed and live to tell the tale, even by a warrior such as yourself."

"The corpse remains, buried deep, should you wish to examine it with your own eyes."

Whatever the Pontiff had been about to reply was cut-off by the terrible screech of the arachnid creature as the knights struggled to keep it sufficiently restrained.

"Take that to a cell," Sulyvahn ordered. At once, the Outrider Knights complied, somehow keeping a solid enough grasp on the beast that they were able to drag it away, deeper into the forest. Once they were out of sight, the smile was back on his face as Sulyvahn placed his hand around Lorian's arm and stood, pulling Lorian up with him. "Now, you should return home, these are dangerous times we live in, Prince Lorian."

Sulyvahn began walking away but paused and turned back to Lorian, "One other thing - do inform Prince Lothric on my behalf that I received King Oceiros's invitation and will be visiting soon."

Lorian hadn't been aware his father had been communicating with anyone outside of the scholars in recent times. "My Father invited you?"

"He seeks a second opinion on a piece of his research... I hear he has made the most fascinating discovery." Sulyvahn turned away once more. "Until we meet again, Prince Lorian."

Before heading back to his horse, Lorian took a moment to stare at Delwyn. There was nothing to recover from the body as everything had been ruined by the material he had been encased in. It was thankfully a brief walk back to the road where Lorian mounted his horse and began the long ride back to Lothric.

The effects of the poison had diminished some as he rode, but he still felt as if there was a great weight dragging him down. But more importantly, Lorian had not heard of any recent discoveries Oceiros had made, in fact no one other than perhaps Wulfred had heard anything from him at all.

For him to invite Sulyvahn now meant something had happened. Had Oceiros finally transformed into the twisted creature he so desired to be?

x

It was early evening by the time Lorian passed through the main gates and the sight he was greeted with was chaos.

The streets were filled with people protesting, and it was clear the knights were struggling to control the situation as the mob seemed intent on starting a fight. He managed to catch a few words of the argument, one side clearly shouting "Free her!" and the other retorting with screams of "Heretic!" and "Blasphemer!" which could only mean one thing.

Gertrude had finally been found.

"Prince Lorian!" One of the knights shouted from the other side of the mob.

Lorian dismounted and began to walk towards the knight who had called out to him. He towered over the crowd, and it didn't take long before they parted for him, all voices turning into a hushed quiet as he passed. Slowly, the other knights in the area gathered around him, waiting for whatever orders he would give.

He spoke loudly so all nearby could hear him as he declared, "Effective immediately, a curfew is in effect. Anyone found outside their homes will be swiftly imprisoned and assigned to work on the High Wall." Lorian scanned the crowd for the highest ranking knight, and was pleasantly surprised to see Eadric. "Knight Captain Eadric, see to the enforcement of this curfew."

"As you command," Eadric replied with a salute.

Lorian didn't wait to see his orders carried out as he returned to his horse and rode towards the keep. He could already hear the shouts announcing the curfew as he rode.

Servants were bustling around in the courtyard and a stablehand quickly rushed to his side to take his horse as he dismounted once more. "Where are they?"

The stablehand, paled at the question, stammering out, "I-I don't know, Your Highness, I only work in the stables."

"An emergency convocation of the Pillars was invoked." Said a familiar voice. Lorian turned to see Wynfrith, hair disheveled as she removed her helmet, riding into the courtyard on her own horse. "All knights ranked Lieutenant and above were ordered back early from our patrols in your absence. I just got back myself so I don't know any details, but I heard the curfew announcement on my way back; was that you?"

"Yes, though there will be many who do not comply."

She nodded. "There was a rowdy bunch that looked ready to cause trouble. I'll go help where I can."

Without waiting to be dismissed, Wynfrith turned her horse around and rode back out into the streets. Lorian meanwhile knew where to go now as he headed to the council chambers where Lothric and the other pillars were certain to be gathered.

The conversation was already well underway by the time Lorian entered the room, though only Gotthard seemed to notice him, a look of surprise on his face before a curt nod.

He only managed to catch the end of Emma's enraged shout, "-outright revolution if we allow these people to go unpunished!"

"High Priestess Emma," Lothric started coldly, "would you have me imprison half the populace on grounds of heresy?"

"Half the populace! How did we allow half the populace to be swayed by the ravings of a madwoman?" she hissed.

Gotthard, ever the voice of reason, countered, "If we had rounded up her sympathizers on no more than rumors it would have only stoked their outrage further. The more you try to suppress a group, the stronger they fight back,"

"They blaspheme the First Flame, they slander the Lord of Cinders, and they are making threats against you, Prince Lothric. So yes, I believe they should all be imprisoned instead of being permitted to run rampant in the streets."

"I enacted a curfew," interrupted Lorian, "everyone has been ordered to return to their homes, and any found out of compliance will be imprisoned and sent to work on the High Wall. It is a temporary measure at best."

Lothric's shoulders relaxed marginally at that, and Lorian only then realized how profoundly exhausted his brother looked. "It buys us a moment's peace to plan how to control the situation. What I am curious to know is why I was not consulted before she was taken in."

All eyes turned to Wulfred at that moment. The man was calm as he sat with his hands folded before him. "I believe you know the answer as well as I do, my Lord. Your Father had orders to capture her. The answer to what must be done to silence the heretics is simple - kill them. Nothing is more persuasive than the threat of an untimely death."

"Do they even fear death?" Emma asked.

"They do not all carry the curse of the undead, the Darksign," said Wulfred. "Indeed, many of them would certainly die permanently."

"We cannot afford to simply execute them," Lothric said darkly, "lest we find ourselves with more graves than people."

The group was silent and Lorian noted that at least Wulfred had the decency to look humble in the face of the daggers of Lothric's gaze.

"We can conscript those who are able bodied, send the rest to the fields," suggested Lorian.

"You would arm them?" Gotthard asked, incredulous.

"No," said Lothric in understanding, "he would keep them close enough to watch over them, and send the rest where their anger can do no harm."

"The nobility will object-" started Wulfred.

"Were you not the one who suggested we execute them?" interrupted Lothric sharply, pointing a clawed finger at the scholar.

"Death does not care for objections."

"Then we give them a choice: conscription or death. Gotthard and Lorian have been composing a list of those suspected to be sympathizers."

Gotthard spoke up, "They will be no better than the slaves, my Lord."

"If they choose to act in a manner that threatens the sanctity of the kingdom, then they will be stripped of their rights accordingly. They have made their choice." Lothric's tone was not that of anger, but of deep bone-aching weariness. "All who agree?"

Though Gotthard and Emma hesitated, eventually all came to agree unanimously.

"This needs to happen quietly and it needs to happen fast, before they realize what is happening."

"It will be done," Lorian said.

Lothric dismissed them with a wave of his hand towards the door, and one by one each of the pillars left the room until only Lorian remained. "A word, Lothric."

He watched his brother physically deflate where he sat, scrubbing a hand down his face. "Dare I pray for good news?"

"It seems Father sent an invitation to Pontiff Sulyvahn. He requested that I inform you that he will be arriving 'soon'."

"On what grounds, pray tell."

"Apparently Father has requested his presence for a second opinion on his research."

Lothric narrowed his eyes at that. "The timing is conspicuous, would you not agree?"

"There is a chance it is a coincidence."

His brother barked out a laugh. "Dear brother, when have we ever been granted the mercy of coincidence?"

Lorian nodded his head, conceding his brother's point with a small smile.

"How did you come across this information?"

"The beast I hunted led me into Irithyll's borders where it was being hunted by Sulyvahn and his Outrider Knights. They approached me shortly after I discovered Delwyn."

Lothric stood, approaching him. "He allowed you to go? Unharmed?"

"The creature had beaten him to it already," Lorian said, "poisonous gas, of some sort."

"How long ago?"

"Nearly a day."

"And the effects linger?"

"Faintly. They were stronger before; I will be fine. You have more pressing matters to concern yourself with - as do I."

"You underestimate your importance to me."

"I will be fine."

"Very well, then go, we both have much to do."

Lothric pulled away, moving to sit back in his seat while Lorian left the room to begin the process of conscription.

x

It was a gruelling process. Even with Gotthard and his hunters' assistance, it took hours to assemble and coordinate enough trusted knights and hunters to carry out the task. Oswin, Estrid, Wynfrith, Eadric, Baldric, and Maerec were the highest ranking knights that Lorian trusted, regardless of any rumored sympathies to Gertrude's cause. They were each paired with additional knights and hunters to support their efforts.

Lorian stood now, a dozen men and women on their knees with their hands bound behind their backs. "You are each here on the crimes of treason and heresy. Each of you has a choice: conscription, servitude, or death." He stood before the first man and demanded, "Your choice."

The man, clearly a noble by his clothes, spat at Lorian's feet and sneered. "You wouldn't dare kill me, so I choose death. Now I demand you let me go at-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Lorian felled his head from his body in a single motion. Immediately, the scent of burning flesh began to fill the air and Lorian saw the others flinch as the man's body fell and his head rolled across the ground, stopping at the base of the fountain.

He moved to the next person. "Your choice."

The woman, also a noble if Lorian had to guess, croaked out, "Conscription."

Lorian gestured one of the knights to his side. The knight pulled out a dagger as Lorian asked, "Will you spill your blood to show your willingness to sacrifice yourself in the name of the Kingdom of Lothric?"

Frantically, the woman nodded even as tears streamed down her face. "Yes, yes, anything."

He nodded to the knight who took the dagger and slid it across her throat. Her blood ran freely, but not excessively. "The wound is shallow, it'll stop bleeding shortly," said the knight reassuringly as he led her to her feet and pushed her towards the rest of the knights assembled.

The next two also wisely chose conscription and so the process was repeated until he reached the next. The man was older, and when Lorian prompted him for his choice, he was the first to answer, "Servitude."

One of the hunters stepped forward this time, taking a black sack and pulling it over the man's head, then securing it in place with a piece of rope. There were slits cut in front so the man could see. "Come on then," the hunter said, "congratulations, you'll be working the fields."

The process took the entire night, even divided into as many groups as they had. At the end of it, dawn was just beginning to creep over the horizon. Gotthard had assigned Allric, Albert, and Kamui to see to the relocation of those who had chosen servitude. They would be escorted outside of the kingdom's walls to the nearest villages. With them went a group appointed as overseers to ensure that they did not attempt to rebel or escape.

Those who had chosen conscription, were sent to holding cells near the barracks where they would be held before being integrated as knight recruits over the coming weeks. They did not have the manpower to try and arm and integrate them all at once - to do that would almost certainly lead to an open revolution.

Emma and her priests came for the bodies; they would be offered as kindling for the First Flame where their bodies would be reduced to ash and they would remain unkindled.

Exhaustion pulled heavily on Lorian as he made his way towards his room. He hadn't been allowed to rest for nearly three days at this point, but he intended to steal a few hours before the next catastrophe arose.