Cardinal Lawce believed in the mercy of the Lord. He believed in his grace, blessings and his overflowing love for human kind. But also, he believed in his fiery judgment, pious fury and his wrathful vengeance to the sinner and the devil. So when Catholicism was already the greatest religion—the only religion—in his hometown, he had done his best to help the town’s guards to eradicate the sinners and the would-be sinners. The bible stated that thieves and murderers were sinners, so he had done his duty and handed the necessary money to officials to clean the evil that lurks at night. And if that involved blood spilling, ransoms or torture, then so be it. All for the better good.

When it came to sodomites, adulterers and prostitutes, he had given his best to shun and educate the people who came to his sermons and to bring these people into the light of the Lord. And whether the people interpreted that as calling them in names, harassing them in public or plain ignoring their presence, he didn’t care, as long as the people listened and as long as they did their duty to the Lord.

But now that he had found himself working with a settler, the very devil the Lord had banished from heaven, he was somehow disturbingly confused as to what to do. Of course he would work with the man since he had indirectly had asked for his help. The settler was introduced by the queen herself, and she called it: fighting fire with fire. Although he did not have trouble with settlers killing each other, he had just found himself unable to proceed with a calm mind—a trait he usually carries with finesse.

“Pardon, you were saying?” asked Lawce. He went through parchments and parchments of requests and demands from the Vatican in his apartments in London while the settler stood a foot from the table explaining something Lawce hadn’t really given attention to.

The settler with one arm burned and no eyebrows crumpled and pulled his hat while he had his hand behind his back. “Perhaps, I should come at a different time.” He tried a smile, but clearly appeared forced.

“Nonsense, Samuel. You are here. Now speak.” He glanced at the settler for a moment and then dived back to the reading he had on his hand.

Samuel breathed deeply and exhaled, “As I was saying, everything is going as planned. We have already attained the necessary ingredients for the spell.”

“If you have, then what is the reason for our talk now? Shouldn’t you be heading to the queen herself?” His eye poked up.

“Um…yes. About that…there is one thing that we require that you may be able to help us with.” Sweat slipped down to his eyelids, that should have stopped on his brows if he had any.

Lawce sent daggers at him. “And this is what exactly?”

He gulped. “I understand that a few days ago, you encountered…a number of our people and—“

“What about it?”

“Your Eminence, we require two of them.”

“Two?”

“Yes, Your Eminence, we require a man and a woman. One alive for the harvesting and the other not so…alive, so to speak.”

“And you are telling me this why?”

“Your Eminence is a great man. And with your divine powers from God and the faithful pope’s blessing, you could obliterate any sinner, human or settler.” Sweat now dotted the surface of his tunic’s collar.

He lay the papers down and suddenly shifted his whole attention on him. “Are you asking me to abduct two settlers for you, devil?”

“Abduct, taking, grabbing—words are playful with their meanings, Your Eminence.” He grinned wide, showing his rotting lower front teeth.

“And you are asking me to do this because…”

“We are not warriors, Your Eminence. We necromancers tend to shift and hide under the dark. We let our minions usually do the fighting for us. And when confronted sometimes by our fellow settlers, shameful to admit, we usually lose. Especially when we confront minstraels, they are one of Telios’ finest warriors.”

He clasped his hands together and rested his chin above. There must be a reason why God had put him in this very position, working with the devil. God taught us to love our enemies and give them a chance. Maybe he should act on that very lesson and reach out to them. Maybe they could deliver something he prayed for every day. “Very well. But there is something I would require of you,” he stated.

Samuel’s hairless brows perked up. “Anything, Your Eminence. I shall be gladly to oblige.”

“Then we have ourselves a deal.” His diamond eyes pierced even deeply from his spectacles as the lantern’s light reflected on it. This was the will of the Lord. How could have he not seen it before?