Children of the Clergy

Season 1 | Episode 22 | Era of Serpents

***one year has passed since the Ether was sent back to its home dimension and the Clergy is mostly, if not completely, back to normal***

Secondo's recovery was an agonizing and seemingly endless process. He progressed slowly from being too exhausted to even dream to be startled awake every night by a nightmare. The remnants of the Ether played with his mind so much that, at times, he would be fully convinced that everything was just another illusion to the point where the nurses would have to sedate him just to keep him under control. The remnants slowly faded over time though. Random bursts of energy in the middle of the night often ment a morning of searching for him for the rest of the Clergy. He slowly and steadily went from not being able to stand, to collapsing instantly if he tried to walk, to short strolls around the West-Wing, to walking perfectly fine, to, finally, being back to his normal self. Mostly. He was still very causious and would avoid Seestor at all costs for a while.

Primo and Terzo had stuck by his side all the way, their Quarters being left abandoned due to their absence. Papa Nihil and Seestor Imperator had been seeing him much less though, rarely being seen anywhere near the Infirmary.

No-one in the Clergy had seen Errapel since he'd saved Secondo, but Primo just supposed that he was off, tending to his own demonic business. After all, the healer had never actually told them about Mephistopheles or the deal he'd made with him.

Seren recovered seemingly over night. 'Just another thing to add to the list of strange things about her' Primo had said. She too had stayed with Secondo during his recovery. She was Anya's apprentice, after all. The young witch had some powerful magic in her, the likes of which even Anya couldn't compare to.

Sister Angelina, however, had taken her time recovering from the strain of the ritual. She'd been no-where near ready to face the likes of the Ether. She was only a sorcerer-in-training. But, pretty much the moment she'd been alright enough to be left alone, Primo had gone to visit her. Not to check how she was doing, but because of the skull. The skull that hadn't left his mind since he'd seen her holding it in the chapel.

Their conversation had been awkward at first but, by the time he'd left, she'd gives him an answer that had managed to calm his nurves: It was the skull of her former mentor, who had died performing a high level containment ritual. It was an unspoken rule between sorcerers that if a mentor was to die in that way specifically, their skull was to be given to their student. It provided extra power for them when they were casting spells or performing rituals.

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Secondo sat on his bed, Primo and Terzo sat either side of him. His younger brother was leaning on him, half asleep.

Seestor and Papa Nihil were stood just outside the door, arguing about something. They were trying to decide whether or not to tell Secondo something that Papa seemed adamant that he was ready to hear but Seestor didn't want him involved with at all. They were going back and forth, whisper-yelling at each other and, eventually, Secondo decided that he was bored of listening to them squabble.

He stood up suddenly, making Terzo almost fall over. Primo chuckled to himself, realizing just how fed up his younger brother was with their parents. "Just tell me!" Secondo yelled, throwing open the door.

Seestor and Papa froze for a moment, clearly not having realized just how long they'd been going at it for.

"Well," Papa Nihil started. Seestor grabbed his arm, seemingly trying to pull him away. She was persistent, but Papa was done negotiating, "We wanted to ensure that, in the future, the Ether would not be able to get to you again. And we remembered that the ghouls were all unaffected when in direct contact with it." Secondo froze, still not too sure exactly what they were planning, "So, we realized that, if you were to have ghouls of your own, they could keep you safe."