Children of the Clergy

Season 1 | Episode 18 | Mephistopheles

Secondo lay on the small bed in the infirmary, unconscious. He was visibly shaking as thin red lines crept up his skin from his fingertips and the bottom of his neck. Primo was asleep on a chair next to him, resting his head in his folded arms on the side of the bed.

Terzo, however, was wide awake and sat in the chair next to him. He stared at Primo's ghouls who stood stoically around their Papa. He couldn't bring himself to sleep while they were in the room with him.

They were all waring their uniforms and their heads were bowed. Terzo always found their silence off putting, even though he knew that the control of their masks prohibited them from speaking even if ordered to.

Secondo shuddered again, whispering something in a language Terzo didn't recognize. He reached up and gently patted his older brother's head, saying a prayer to the Dark Lord as he did so. The lines crept further up Secondo's skin and Terzo instantly withdrew his hand.

Just then, Papa Nihil barged into the room with Seestor Imperator, Anya, and Seren following behind him.

Seestor still had a few scars from her time in the torture chamber but now, with a fair amount of makeup on, they were barely visible. She hated having scars or marks on her body. She viewed them as imperfections and a sign of weakness.

Seren practically ran over and threw her arms around Terzo, pulling him into her comforting embrace. Once again, that strange feeling of calmness that she caused returned to him.

Anya walked over to Secondo, placing her hand on his head and whispering a gentle pain-relief spell to help him relax.

Papa Nihil gently shook Primo awake and he groaned, his eyes slowly drifting open. He was exhausted and his father could tell, but had chosen to wake him anyway. Primo's ghouls growled at Papa Nihil as they noticed their Papa waking up when he still needed sleep and Seestor glared back at them, as if that would scare them into quieting down.

Seestor was one of the, unfortunately, many people who viewed ghouls as being lower in intelligence and, therefore, status than humans. From her point of view, she was above them and they should have to respect her. She often treated the ghouls like servants or pets because of that opinion and it always infuriated Primo that he knew there was no way to change her mind on the matter.

"Can we finally hear what happened now?" Terzo asked, impaciently.

Anya glanced over at him before turning to Papa for his approval. He nodded his head to her and she began to explain.

By the end of her story, Primo and Terzo were both staring at her intensely, occasionally glancing down at Secondo with pitying expressions. Seren stroked Terzo's back gently, trying to relax him as he processed what he'd just been told.

"So, considering that the other world he was in was designed to kill him and would have done so had someone not been there to summon Errapel to save him," Primo explained, "Does that not mean that Sister Angelina technically saved his life?"

Papa thought about it for a moment and then his eyes widened. He smiled, "I suppose that it would. She should be rewarded for her actions, no?" Primo and Terzo both nodded and Seren smiled. Angelina had been the one to show her around the ministry and the abbey when she'd first arrived and she respected her greatly because of that.

"If you wouldn't mind," came a soothing voice from the corner of the room. Errapel's voice, "I need to contact my associate. They may be able to remove the Ether from his mind and rid him of its vile curse."

Papa Nihil turned to the tall demon and nodded his approval. Errapel bowed slightly before disappearing into the white flames that burned out from beneath his skin.