Chapter Nineteen - Reasoning of the Diseased

"Why are you helping me?"

"Because... lawks, this is difficult to explain. You killed my master yet I do not want you dead. I had my suspicions but... I refused to believe that Cardinal Batiste could be fallible, that he could be evil, that he could be insane. He saved me; I was indebted to him. And then I saw what he truly was when you were lying on the floor, all cut up like that. No good man could do that to another, even in self-defence. No, Cardinal Batiste was not a good person. At least, he wasn't near the end. I remember when I first came to his small church on Sanction Road. He took me in and gave me a good life. He was a kind man, but then... as he got more and more power in the church, he became more and more troubled. I knew what was happening but I refused to admit it to myself. I didn't want him to change, so to me, he didn't."

Regnak just lay there listening, most of his body covered in bandages. There wasn't much else that he could do, he was still too weak to get out of bed. That very fact was slowly driving him mad; Ashley had saved him twice now and he needed to repay that debt. Whatever it was that was going on, he owed his life to his fellow ex-Riskbreaker, that and his soul. When Ashley showed him the truth, Regnak realised how close he had come to murdering an innocent. No, Regnak had to help Ashley...

"Why did Batiste change? From what you say, he sounds like he was a good person, but the man I killed in the Cathedral most certainly wasn't."

Adren wrung his hands, staring down at them as he shifted his weight from one foot to another. "I... don't know. It was a gradual process, I'm sure of that. If he had just changed into another person, just like that, I'd have known. I wouldn't have believed it was really Cardinal Batiste at all. No, it was a gradual process; bit by bit he slowly changed..."

"Something had warped him, sucked the sanity from his soul. Batiste was a good man, but he was corrupted by something... is that about it Adren?"

A muted nod was the only response from the hunchback.

Silence overcame the room, before Regnak broke it. "How long 'til I can get out of this godforsaken bed?"

"I'd say three or four more days to be on the safe side, but you'd probably be alright in two."

"Two days..." Two days until I'm coming Ashley. Two more days and that's it...


Tears were all that seemed to be forthcoming from both of them, except for the occasional strangled sob and rush of words from the blonde. The brunette just lay there, crying, mourning the loss of her eyes. She wore a bandage wrapped around her head, covering her ocular cavities, while her arms and legs were bound to the table by leather restraints.

This wasn't supposed to have happened; they were destined to be together forever and live happily in eternal bliss. How it had come to this VKP Observer/Pretender Sondra Felsham didn't quite know, but then, it didn't really matter. Chaos ruled supreme inside the confines of her mind and there was no hope of retribution from the darkness that bound her.

No, it wasn't meant to be this way...

Footsteps came from behind Sondra, but she didn't react to them; she was far too wrapped up in her grief and sorrow. Even when the hand came to rest on her shoulder, she didn't pay much heed to it. She just wanted the pain to stop, for her and Callo to be together forever. She didn't turn around to see Grand Stewart Le Sait standing behind her; she just didn't care. The tears were everything to her...