This is my tangle... (Rei)

[Rei]

Re had followed the femme, slipping past scarred trees and mangled brush. He had little doubt that the damage had been wrought by she in whose wake he now tread. However, he refused to judge her on one event. Even the most pious forgot himself in the throes of rage, and he could not believe that she was any different. It was not in his place to weigh her sins; that task belonged to one alone -- no, two: one earthly, and one Almighty.

Then they had come to the church.

Re approached the heavy wooden door, unafraid. His battered, yet regal, form seemed dwarfed by the solemn swirls of rain-darkened carvings, despite the actual size of the building. This building had been built to awe the casual believer, every elaborate arch demanding piety and the fear of God. Catholic, most likely -- but the building had recently fallen upon hard times. Araejius and Sivebielzar stood out against the bleak landscape like red rose petals on a black silk sheet; seeming delicate and somehow lost among an endless field of somber monotony.

Re's head was held high as he called out, in a pure and resonating voice: "I would wish to speak with you, of one who has recently passed through." His words bounced off of the thick stone walls, echoing and empty, before being muted by the thick, musty air.

][ I think I spelled her name right... ^^; *going on memory* ][

[silverdust]

((Yep ))

There was silence for awhile, long enough that Sive considered tearing down the door and rushing the cursed, as the Crusade they were so long overdue for. But as the thoughts formed the door creaked open, throwing down a delicate rain of dust. In the doorway stood a young man, dressed in a coat of black that might've been priestly, if not for the silver trace of designs about the sleeves and hem. The strange coloring of the hair, though, and the marking of a dove above the thin scrap of black material that covered his eyes, betrayed him as a Priest, and not a mere human.

"Madame Cardinal, I see you've brought a friend," he leaned his long frame against the doorway, tipping slightly in a show of greeting. "Sir Bishop, I'm afraid that I am not one to answer your questions. But if you, and the Lady if she would so wish to tread our halls again, would enter, I can take you to our Cardinal."

He opened the door wider. "We have had many wanderers come through this place, but if you both are in shared company, I can guess of whom you would speak. Come."

With that, the Priest disappeared into the shadows beyond the portal. Sive brushed by the Bishop, her voice low. "Trust not the elegant words. He speaks the same as the theatre demons, and that is nought to be proud of."

She sighed in disgust. Just what manner of Church as this would be allowed to live in peaceful obscurity. It should've been razed long ago, for all its depravity. She shuddered to think they were her brethren of some same ancient bloodline, now so tainted. But she was one to throw stones; at least she could take somfort in that she were not blinded so.

[Rei]

Areijius followed the human Priest, his proud wings brushing against the edge of the ornately carved doorway as he entered the decripit church. The air in the darkened hall was as heavy as the decor of the building's exterior, weighed down with the sins of the residents, perhaps. Re was not so weak as to visibly shiver as the less-than-holy atmosphere of the place manifested itself, but something deep in his stomach twisted as the scent of sorrow washed over him. If the members of this church were as twisted as the Betrayer, he could well understand where the abstract evil that soaked through the building had originated. The place would even start to drive him crazy, if he were to remain for too long.

[silverdust]

If the Baptism could pick up on Re's misgivings, on his apprehension, it showed not. His step was hazarded elegance, leading them down twisted corridors. This place was not a church of convention, seeming more of a labyrinthine mausoleum than a place of the divine. Shadows were thick, dust thicker. Sive gave a low hiss in the back of her throat as she followed the Bishop, her muscles tense and almost a shed protective. She had led him here of his own volition, but she wanted no more blood upon her.

The young Amuni stopped suddenly, in front of a wayward door that Sive recognized all too well. He rapped once, politely. "The Madama Cardinal has returned, and she bears a guest."

There was a low murmur of sound from the inside, undistinguishable but the priest seemed to understand. He opened the door with a grand, sweeping gesture, one that mirrored to a near amazing imitation of the Euclide's greeting games. "Enter, if you will. Our Cardinal will see you."

The door opened to a small study, and in it the Cardinal. Sive's eyes narrowed, but the other only gave a tired smile. A Hell breed, fox, with large wings clamped tightly against his back. He gave a polite bow, to Re and Sive in turn. "I would bid you welcome to our cathedral, Sir Bishop, Lady Cardinal. As Sive has heard before, I am Raj'nishael. I am the keeper of our group for now."

The door whispered closed behind them and the priest's steps faded down the hall. Raj's eyes drifted to Sive, and she witheld her inclination to spit in his jaded features. "I...suppose you would be here about Judasethile, again."

[Rei]

][ *_* I remember that bebe! Didn't you win him? If so, I know who you're talking about. ][

Re paused, a sudden stillness overcoming the previous air of determination that had seemed chiseled into his elegant features. He hadn't much thought about what would happen upon his meeting with this Cardinal. A meeting with the Betrayer would be easier, almost, as he had a concrete argument against that loathesome serpent of temptation. Here, and now, there wasn't much to say...he could certainly go with the most obvious approach, damning Judasethile with a harsh sermon; but in the end, what would that accomplish? No, if the serpent was not here, there was nothing to gain by antagonising this church.

Araejius seemed to pause for a very long time, but when he finally spoke, it was with the slow deliberate manner of a sage, turning each word around in his head before adding it onto the sentence in the same way that a skilled tradesman would build a sturdy wall out of bricks.

"It is I who would wish to speak." His voice seemed thunderous in the small, dark room. Here was one who could stir the masses during sermons in a village square; one who others came to in times of need; the ultimate authority of one who is always known to be right and just. The resonating tones seemed out of place in the stuffy office, with its aura of sin and suffering. Something so holy should not be in such a place; as with a wolf in a den of filthy jackals, the evil seemed almost to shrink away from the foreign intruder.

"...Judasethile and I," He continued, his prideful eyes never shying from the Cardinal, "Have recently had a...quarrel." He spoke now as if treading on uncertain ground, with a pacifying tone meant to convey a lack of hostility. "He is...associated with this Church, am I correct? Is there a chance that you might...know of his whereabouts?"

[silverdust]

What Sive despised about the Cardinal, besides the fact that he would dare harbor the Betrayer, was his ability to utterly dissemble his emotions. If he was stirred by the forceful and pure tone of the Bishop, he showed none but a spark of wearied respect in his amber eyes. He smiled thinly at Re, but not maliciously or with any of the wrath that one would expect.

"There's no need to dress words," he padded over to one of the simple bookshelves and pulled down a tattered journal, rustling the thin pages. "Judasethile confessed much while he was here. I know to an extent what he may have done to you, as well as the Lady Sivebielzar."

If she hadn't been forged in the hellfires of her suffering, tempered of a weaker material, Sive might have shuddered. Her name held in a mouth that so easily spilled the Betrayer's, perhaps even with a tone of a light endearment. Too much to bear but she would show no weakness to this spineless kind. But Raj couldn't know. Or could, perhaps, from their earlier meaning. No outward sign, no passion.

The Cardinal flipped to the last pages of the journal, scanned the darkened scratchwork, then shut it again softly, with something that rang of regret. "Judasethile was here, but he has gone since, for far too long past. I do not know where; he left without word or warning. But..."

The fox turned to face them again, and his tone again remained neutral and without spite of any kind, just a steady determination. "As I told Madame Cardinal, even if I did know, I could not tell you. Judas is just as much mine to protect as he is yours to condemn. I am afraid that is how the die is cast."

Sive's eyes blazed at the words, just echoes of what he had said before, same tone, same blaspheming sophism. Her tongue might as well be forked and spitting, the words flew with such acid. "You disgust me. You say you know so well and yet you can stand there and deny my suffering and the suffering of innocents-"

"I don't deny, and I can not condone," the amber eyes closed, as if repeating a mantra to a child. "Please, Lady Cardinal. It is not in my power."

((He's the prize bebe for Alan Rickman's foot ^^;; *snuggles*))

[Rei]

Re, who had been listening impassively during the brief exchange, suddenly spoke. His features were hardened and clouded -- it was impossible to tell his exact emotions as the words spilled forth, hollow and empty. "I see. There is nothing you can do, then." He nodded to Sive. "I should have known before I even came." Turning to Raj, the travel-weary head spoke again: "I can only hope that the Lord forgives you for what you have been doing here. Harboring the Serpent of Evil was the downfall of Adam and Eve, as well." With that, he turned towards the door. "I believe I remember the way out. Though I regret cutting this meeting short in such an abrupt manner, there is nothing more that I can learn here." The words were bitter on his exhaustion-muddled tongue. "And there are places I must be."

[silverdust]

Raj nodded to the Bishop; it was clear in his eyes that he had met many the same wall before, and knew what it must seem like for others to see him as such. He turned back toward his desk. "It was the Lord who bid the Serpent in the garden, it was He who bid the fruit. He Himself was and is the grand architect, and we nothing more to Him than beloved pawns. In any case, I bid you well on your journey."

It should have been closure, but Sive's anger would never allow such. Twice now, and it could go on no longer.

The Hell part of her would not allow it.

The rage became tangible, as sharp as a screaming, ripping blade, forcing the quiet shadows to shreds as it rose like a serpent and struck towards the Cardinal. Of course he felt it coming, even knew perhaps, for the golden eyes flashed hard in an instant and his own curse, his own insanity rose up about him, a veil of monsters. The battling demons flashed against each other, seeming to become almost tangible in the real world as the minds fought for control. Wrath, fire, blood, all in a hellish slideshow that flickered on and off in the broiling shadows, a madman's spectacle and a nightmare's wake.

Sive should be concerned for the Bishop, concerned for the backlash their powers might throw at him. The rest of this Church she cared not for, but he...wasn't he innocent? But that thought, that thought was too far gone or far too late. She only lived in this moment, this rending, to find that what she needed so badly, no matter if she had to forge the gates of Hell herself.

((blah..2 suckage posts *cries*))

[Rei]

Re was already halfway out the door when Sive lashed out at the Hellish fox. The backlash from their power hit him like the shock wave of a small atomic blast, and he stumbled as he fought for balance against the sheer power of the Amuni's wrath. Turning, his sharp eyes pierced through the flickering illusion and circling hellspawn to fix their steady gaze upon the rage-blinded femme. As instantly as he saw her, he knew what he had to do, what he had to do. Silently, he added his strength to hers, sending out the calm, cool fury that had driven him across the mountains for so many days.