“The people are terrified!” Johannes slammed his fists onto the wooden table, wincing at the same time. As the town go on with its daily affairs, at a hidden chamber inside their quarters, a group of people gathered for a discussion about the town’s problems and updates. The loud smack filled the tense atmosphere inside the Council’s room.

The unofficial organization claimed one of the quarters inside the chapel with the help of the members of the Church. Every month they supervised a gathering between the five figures, like what they did a fortnight ago. However, they had to schedule an emergency meeting due to the calls of their Sire.

At the head of the long table, a man, respected and feared sat. Vicar Johannes and Vicar Heinrich secretly glared at the said man. With the man’s unusually sharp facial bone structure added to his skinny figure and an imposing look on his birdlike features; he seemed more like the henchmen of Satan that guarded the gates of hell than a well-known, respected, rational, political individual.

“Sire, the sightings of, most likely, werwulf, were increasing in the town. The longer we let this be, the townspeople would be more frantic and uncontrollable,” Lampert added, with his head lowered, to Johannes’ and Julius’ chagrin. The birdlike man, wore a permanently etched frown on his face, nodded at the man on his right.

“Why do you seem agitated, Vicar Johannes? For your knowledge, I have already dispatched my men in pursuit of the culprit that wedged their way into our midst.” Their Sire lifted his thin eyebrow, folded his hands together and leaned towards the centre of the table.

“Sire! I am afraid that Vicar Johannes was spent due to increasing number of people coming to him for divine blessings, hoping to avoid encountering Satan’s demonic creations. They have been merciless to us, vicars,” Heinrich hurriedly defended his fellow vicar, before pulling him by his hand.

“Do not lose control, Johann! Or do you want to lose your head instead?!” He hissed. Johannes lowered his head and meekly apologized through clenched jaw, accidentally uttering the words ‘my lord’, forgetting that their Sire hated to be called as such.

“I apologize, my lord. It was unbecoming of me.” His eyes widen as their sire eyes him. “I- I mean…!”

“How many times do I need to remind you, Vicar Johannes, to call me as Sire or simply Verdun?” Verdun’s squinting eyes formed thin slits on his face. “I would suggest for you to keep your silence throughout the gathering, Johannes.”

An awkward silence passed through the room before Julius decided to break it with a clearing of his throat. The uneasiness crept in the two vicars’ napes, feeling the subtle stare that Verdun gave them. Fortunately, Julius ceased their suffering as he diverted the attention from the two.

“Sire, I have a proposition for the Vicars.” Julius grinned at Johannes. He terribly found amusement from his colleague’s squirms.

“Speak.”

He cleared his throat, once again, brushing an invisible strand of hair from his forehead. “What if they performed a blessing of sorts in the town with the purpose of hypothetically purging the town from evil?” Julius felt immense unrivalled pride in his system as he watched Verdun listen to his words, puffing his chest. “This might lessen their fears. If ever, we could also use it as an excuse to detain some townspeople under the suspicions of associating with unwanted forces by announcing them as… an accomplice of a hiding werwulf or… something.”

Lampert glanced at their Sire under his lashes. He contemplated on doing Julius’ idea, judging by the gleam on his hawk-like eyes and the subtle smirk painted on his face. “Sire Verdun didn’t care much about Hemlock’s sanity more than his lord’s amusement. He wasn’t only known for his cunningness but also for his cruelness.” he thought. Lampert needed to inform of this to that person immediately.

“I will immediately arrange this, quite possible, solution to my lord,” Verdun said, causing his bleak eyes to widen.

“Sire! It will be a tedious job for the members of the church. Despite the small scale of Hemlock, it was still quite a big town to perform blessings in with a mere ten qualifying staffs,” Heinrich argued. All eyes pointed at him at his sudden intrusion. He blinked at their gazes. As Julius gave him a smug look, he felt his stomach sinking at the realization of his action and words.

“Johannes and Heinrich, you should have just told me if you are already tired of serving your time in this council. I could easily get more reliable and resourceful heads to arrange the upcoming blessings of the sort.”

The two gaped at each other before glancing at the man with rounded eyes. “Of course not, my- Sire Verdun!” their heads lowered until their foreheads reached the surface of the table. “Heinrich and I will immediately and swiftly take charge. You do not have anything to worry about.”

Saving the vicars from further humiliation, Lampert glanced at the smug looking Julius before speaking. “How about the matter of letting outsiders in, Sire?”

“What of it?” Verdun answered ignoring the bowing and sweating vicars.

“It will be harder to keep track of their actions and agendas because they don’t originally live here. Besides, the townspeople might start pointing fingers at them. We could not have other vulgar towns involving their hypocrite selves at our pure and sanctified town,” Lampert said.

While hearing Lampert’s words, Julius sneered.

“Then, I’ll also say that to my lord. However, you may already start barricading our borders. I assume that you already had something in mind that will diminish any types of suspicions from our neighbours, are you?”

“That will always be a given, Sire. I’ll personally see to it that no further problems from the outside will arise until we solved our own dilemmas,” Lampert smiled, cunningly.

“What about the outsiders that already entered Hemlock?” Julius childishly taunted. Verdun looked at him with amusement. Julius had the audacity to send Lampert a boastful glance.

Instead of reacting as Julius had expected, Lampert calmly spoke. “Sire, I want to leave that matter to Julius’ capable hands.”

Lampert smirked. Verdun nodded without care, not caring who handled the matter. He trusted that everything would be in order because his subordinates knew what consequences they would face.

“Sire?” Heinrich lifted his hands in defeat.

“How should we approach the problem about the murdered farmer from three days ago?” He was directly involved as the farmer’s family kept on bothering him for the last couple of days.

The look in their eyes changed at the topic that was brought up. Verdun narrowed his eyes at Heinrich causing the man to look away. The matter seemed like something that even their Sire had to handle delicately.

“In regard to that, I’ll personally see to it that the perpetrator will be caught. I will inform you, immediately, if another Werwulf Trial will commence,” Johannes and Heinrich gulped. They hated talking about the heinous trials, but they had to take responsibilities of their duties.

“May I ask, sire, if you already had some leads concerning that matter?” Verdun nodded at his right-hand man. If there was someone that could directly talk at the intimidating man, it was Lampert. The old man didn’t seem to fear anything including death.

“That would be your downfall someday, Lampert.” Julius absently thought. Being fearless would mostly cost you more than you bargain, than letting you gain something of more value.

“We already knew the identity of the man, however, we are still trying to completely make him submit,” Verdun suggestively grinned. The cunning man had uncovered something.

ՓՓՓ

While noon passed, and afternoon arrived, orange and yellow hues filled the solemn Church through its glass windows. Few people could be seen inside, some kneeled in front of the altar and some were quietly taking in the presence of the Lord. At the same time, a figure could be seen walking down the aisle towards the confessional box.

Verdun stalked with purpose inside the only chapel in Hemlock. A small frown etched on his pale complexion. The expression accentuated by his unusually sharp bone structure and his birdlike facial features. His presence didn’t belong inside the place as people caught the long blonde-haired man dressed in formal clothing with an unapproachable atmosphere around him.

“Where did you get the wolf?” the man asked as his feet halted a few steps below the pulpit.

“It was a token of gratitude,” a deep voice answered. The man, stood below the pulpit, waited until the man to whom the voice belonged to stop speaking. “However, I do not believe that you sought my presence merely to inquire about that.”

He huffed. “Why did you come here?”

“My lord wants your presence,” with his stiff posture and pinched mouth, the man crossed his arms without removing the sneer on his expression. A day ago, his chest felt great joy until he realized that he had to meet the unpleasant fox.

“Oho…” Amusement was apparent in the voice’s tone. A man, staring down at the appearance of the birdlike man, displayed a wide smile. “Did you, perchance, accidentally committed a mistake? Or…?”

The skinny man released a long, exasperated sigh before looking above, directly at the man standing on the pulpit. Their eyes met, hawk-like eyes from below met a dark, cold and bleak pair of eyes. He squinted at the smiling vicar’s face before glancing at his burgundy vestment. He didn’t hesitate to show his displeasure at the smiling man’s appearance, and scrunched his nose in a sneer.

The vicar chuckled, and a tense atmosphere filled the air between the two men. The birdlike man’s eyes slanted when the vicar’s chuckles vanished into a smirk.

“Stop pretending to be a vicar. It never suited you.” The scar on the side of his left eye twitched.

“That was why I am stationed in the confessional box.” The vicar said at the departing man’s back.

“My lord has a job for you. Follow me.” Marc smirked at the confident gait of the man. “He wants you to interrogate the man that will lead him to his success. His name is Gilles. Break him.”