Children of the Clergy

Season 1 | Episode 14 | Wings in the wind

Papa Nihil searched around the ministry frantically. This couldn't be happening. Had she really gone this far?

He'd gone to the Emeritus Sons' Quarters in the hopes of apologising to Primo, but instead he'd found two of his sons in a panik and one supposedly missing. Primo had been trying to comfort a crying Terzo who'd walked into Secondo's room to find it empty of all of his belongings and his brother nowhere in sight. Papa had left to find Secondo immediately. During his search, he'd found Seestor Imperator's room in the exact same state as his son's. Completely empty.

He wandered aimlessly through the twisty corridors of the ministry, praying to the Dark Lord that he'd find them somewhere even though he knew that the chances of that happening were slim.

Primo and Terzo suddenly bolted down the corridor in front of him, yelling for him to follow. Papa Nihil ran after them, confused as to what exactly they were chasing.

He followed them all the way to the courtyard and across the field to the Clergy's private landing strip, which was used for their private jets and planes. She didn't...

Primo stopped suddenly, staring at a small crowd of five that stood on the landing strip. His ghouls. That's who he'd been following. Pascal had his arm outstretched as if he was reaching for something ahead of him, in the sky.

Papa turned to Primo, expecting to see him attempt to take his ghouls back to the ministry. Instead, Primo just looked very concerned, "Primo, is something wrong?"

Primo turned to face him, "My ghouls were only able to defy the control of the masks because of the presence of the Ether. So, if the Ether is truely gone, how are they doing this on their own?" Papa Nihil froze. But Secondo had said he was fine. Had that been the Ether talking? Or had it hidden itself so well that not even Secondo could tell that it was still there? "Also, I have six ghouls. One for each element. But I can only see five."

Papa turned and counted the small crowd of ghouls on the landing strip. There were, indeed, only five there. So where was the sixth?

The wind suddenly picked up drastically, blowing Papa's robes about, as well as the two brother's ponchos. Terzo's hair wiped around, the wind picking up even more and blowing back towards the ministry. Primo suddenly heard the distant whirring of the engines of a plane. Pascal was dragging it backwards, trying to pull it down to the floor.

Secondo sat in the Mind Space with the Ether wrapping itself around him, so overwhelmed by the pleasure it was sending him that he couldn't even bring himself to consider fighting back. The Ether waited inside his body, sat in a seat of the private jet him and Seestor were taking. They planned to stay at the Transylvanian party house that Seestor had lived in for quite a few years before meeting Papa Nihil but, considering the insight that the Ether had just been given, they wouldn't be there for long. Long enough for the Ether to get what it wanted out of the experience though.

It turned to face Seestor, who was pacing up and down the isle of the plane. She noticed Secondo's stare and frowned, confused, "What's with the blank look? You did want to leave, did you not?"

The Ether made Secondo's eyes glow dark red and the small red lines creep up from the tips of his fingers and the bottom of his neck, causing Seestor to gasp as she recognised the unique display.

She strolled over and sat in the seat opposite it, staring into its eyes in shock. As far as she, and everyone else in the Clergy, was aware, the Ether had left a week ago. It was completely unexpected to be seeing it back in control of Secondo's body, "You're still here."

The Ether nodded.

A sinister smirk crept its way across her face and she reached out her hand to caress its cheek. Before her fingers could meet its skin, it grabbed her arm and held it firmly in place. The Ether let out a pleasured sigh as it closed its eyes and drifted into a visionary state, peering into her future. Seestor watched in amazement as the Ether breathed slowly, allowing the small red lines to crawl further up its skin.

Fire. Funeral. Infernal.

Its eyes drifted open and it slowly withdrew its hand, lifting its gaze to meet Seestor's again. She smiled back at it gently, "What were you just doing?"

The Ether lifted its hand and placed it on her head, spilling its answers into her mind. Once she knew as much as it wanted her to, it withdrew its hand and gazed back at her with a blank state.

It could feel its grip on Secondo coming loose so it simply doubled its sensations and effortlessly kept him under its control. Without any way to contact the Clergy to come help him, Secondo was losing hope. Which was giving the Ether the opportunity to play off of his insecurities and mess with his mind enough to keep him at bay. It was beggining to enjoy the power it had over its vessel.

All of a sudden, the plane shook violently and the lights started to flicker. They weren't moving anymore, but the engines were still running and they were no where near their destination.

Anya and Seren stood next to Pascal, muttering a spell to assist his power and help to keep the plane in place. Papa Nihil was frantically trying to contact the pilots of the plane and tell them to turn back. Unfortunately, they'd temporarily cut of contact with the Clergy, most likely under Seestor's orders.

Primo and Terzo stood to the side, watching the situation unfold. Primo hugged his younger brother into his side. He'd started crying a few minutes before, heartbroken at the though of Secondo agreeing to leave them. Primo had to keep telling him that there was no way Secondo had done it out of his own free will, but he was starting to doubt that fact now too.

Primo suddenly gasped and ran over to Papa Nihil, "Papa, where's the book I returned to you yesterday?"

Papa looked confused but went right back to his call anyway, "Now is not the time for reading, Primo." Primo persisted and Papa sighed, "It's right here. I forgot to put it back on the shelf."

He took the small blue book out of his pocket and handed it to Primo, who snatched it out of his hands and started flipping through the pages frantically. Terzo glanced up at him, equally as confused as Papa Nihil now was.

Primo stooped on a certain page and looked up at his ghouls, "My multi ghoul is missing," Papa stopped his attempts to contact the pilots and focused his attention on Primo, "And this book mentions that multi ghouls are the only ghouls with, retractable, wings."

Pascal suddenly shuddered and his arm dropped back down to his side. The harsh winds died down immediately. The Ether must have done something to him after realising that he'd been causing the interference with the plane. Papa Nihil stared in the direction that the plane would be flying in, hearing the whirring of the engines slowly fade.

Stuck on the ground with no way of contacting anyone on the plane, the Emeritus family stood in silence, trying to comprehend what was happening.

However, somewhere in the sky, a private jet was on its way to Transylvania with a winged servant creature of hell hooking itself onto the side.