As he stared at the stew, Kai recalled the Simon he had met during his Initiation Mission and waited for the Faceless man to speak.
He didn't know Simon's actual identity then, but he strongly doubted that even Arlen was oblivious to it, what with him being the Set Lord's blood brother.
Nevertheless, Kai had noticed the oddity about Simon, despite him not finding out the reason for it. Then, on the very next mission, he had met him again. Kai had instinctively felt that the second and the first Simon were different, but only after listening to Meg's explanation about the Faceless Men of the Temple of Byagoona did he learn the cause behind those instincts.
Now, once again, the same instincts were prickling his mind.
Those monstrous instincts screamed this Simon was neither the first nor the second, but a third person different from all, entirely. These instincts had no base, but had they ever let him down before?
No.
It was then Simon lifted the mug and spoke. "A man met you during your Initiation Mission," he told Kai, drinking a mouthful of wine. "Based on what a man saw, your Code Name got reported as a potential Priest. Now, more often than not, a man waits before checking up on the growth of the potential candidates. What happened next was entirely unexpected. A man met you again in this world, a different timeline of course, and then reported your inexplicable and unexpected growth to the Temple."
-/That Simon was different,/- Kai said brusquely. -/Besides, the second Simon didn't even recognize me./-
The Faceless cackled. "A man is Simon, and Simon is a man, Red," he told him, breaking a piece of bread and dipping it into the scalding broth of the stew. "A man had never expected you to be there in the sewers. A man had also not expected you to be the kidnapper. Anyway, checking for tempered memories is a fairly common routine."
Kai stared hard at the one-eyed man who blew on the morsel before putting it in his mouth.
The Faceless man continued. "The Temple upped you on the list by quite an amount after that, almost to the top," he said, chewing at the same time (-Meg threw a nasty look at him-). "A man was waiting for a chance meeting, but then something happened which no one had expected. It was the most bizarre of the news."
Kai waited for him to swallow the food.
"The High Priest of the Temple of Hastur has sent a fallen Priestess to monitor Contestant Red," he whispered, smiling slyly.
Meg couldn't hold herself back. "Impossible!" she snapped, her voice matching her age; hoarse and feeble. "He is lying, Captain. This matter was only discussed among the top Priests and the High Priests. Ask him how he got to know it…"
Kai didn't need to ask. The Faceless man cut off Meg's words, answering her doubt. "A man hears things, ex-priestess Margrethe II of House Ingrid," he said to her, sipping the wine. "A man is everywhere."
Kai gulped. For the first time, he could sense a hint of apprehension bordering on fear.
If he were to believe this Simon, then there were not one but many Faceless priests of Byagoona, hidden in the other Temples. How must it feel not knowing if the man who was standing next to you had another face? Kai asked himself. Not knowing that the person you thought to be your friend had already died, and now someone else was playing his character. Or not knowing if that friend had ever even existed.
Questions rang in Kai's mind, and from the gaped mouth of the old woman sitting opposite him, he could tell that Meg was also questioning herself and her existence.
The Faceless man let the silence run its course before continuing. "A man had considered you dead, then, honestly," he said casually. "A man even regretted not giving you that gift himself. Nothing would have given a man more pleasure.
"However, when it seemed it was all over, and nothing a man could do about it, another event happened that even shocked the High Priest of our Temple. The priestess, who was supposed to kill you, betrayed the Temple. It must be said, never has a man faced so many surprises from a single Contestant before. Since then, a man has been waiting to meet you. But our High Priest seemed to have other thoughts.
"He found you worthy enough for him to sacrifice to the Many-Faced God and get the details of your mission. The only answer he got was that you would soon ask for a team. So here we are. And a man is here with a warning. A warning for both of you."
Kai mulled over all that this man had told them. Not one thing he believed, but dare he ignore the warning that this Faceless man had come to deliver after his claims of sacrifices to an Old One?
Meg had more to say about it, though. "For me?!" she sneered like an old hag. "You claim to know me, my name, and the reason for me to be here. Why would a piece of twisted garbage like you warn me of anything?"
The corners of Kai's lips twitched at hearing that. She hadn't downplayed when she told me that the rivalries among the priests and priestesses of the different temples run deeper than the depth of the abyss.
The Faceless man smiled. He passed a mystifying glance at the old woman with that one eye of his. "A man was curious about why a priestess, fallen or not, betrayed the Temple," he said, chuckling. "But a man has no business knowing such things. Our High Priest agrees with it. You were a Priestess, true. Now you are not. As you are with Red, our offer naturally extends to you."
-/Cut the crap,/- Kai said icily. -/What's the warning?/-
No point in not hearing the man out, or so Kai reasoned with himself. Things had already proceeded too far for him to back away now. He almost knew something like this would happen when he had forced Meg to be his servant. But he didn't regret it, and if given the chance to go back, he would do the same, Kai knew.
An Item like her is worth just short of my life, Kai thought, waiting for the words Simon had brought out of the hell.
"The Temple of Hastur is not happy." The Faceless man started with the obvious. "But the anger they are showing openly, and discreetly, was the cause for us to take such prompt action. There are whispers of enslaving you after your return to the Primordial Tower.
"A man has no notion why Hastur's spawns are going so out of their way regarding this matter. All sins naturally end with death. And thus, enslavement tells there is more to this than what is being shared among the clerics of Hastur. You perchance do not have any knowledge about the cause behind it, do you?"
Kai was perplexed himself.
What could be a more vile reason than him turning a Priestess against the Temple?
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Yesterday Power Count: 56
Bonus Chapters: 0
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