“Whoa!” A familiar voice rumbled gently, before long arms were there, caching her about the hips. With a small curse Ann softly distanced herself and rounded on the man, who she had felt watching her all morning, and now seemed to be right at her side.

“Excuse me, Brother Mordrake!” Ann apologized as she came about to face him. She dusted at her short hair and took a breath. “I don’t know what I was thinking moving so rashly.”

“Please...think no more of it Sister.” Mordrake proffered, putting up a hand, and leaning towards her so he could whisperer without disturbing the other Brothers and Sisters still bent to the Mat in prayer. 

“I came over because I had planned on waiting for you to finish your Divination’s, then I had hoped to take you aside. I have urgent business to discuss with you concerning the wellbeing of the Brother Hood. And seeing as you are now the Second Hand...I feel it is important that we speak.”

Ann bottled away the panic still drumming in her ears, as she licked her lips and gestured Brother Mordrake to step to the side so she could follow him across the room.

Brother David Mordrake was an Alchemist, many Sisters would have killed to have spent even a second of his attentions on. At least a second longer then it took the Brother to sleep with them and cast them out of the door the morning after.

Ann could not deny that there was a certain raw magnetism about the man that most women would find irresistible. He was a beautiful specimen of manliness. Big, long, lean and large. He had hawkish brown eyes, which glittered with more then intelligence. They sparkled with a lust for power, life and prestige. He had always been a man know by his drive and passion, with a face more suited to that of a sculpture. A strong slanted nose, soft cheekbones, a defined chin and skin the color of wheat.

Under it all there was the fact that he wasn’t just appealing to look at. Brother David oozed that special something that drew the eyes and lifted the ears when he spoke. It was that same special something that had magnetized her will and her soul to Eric’s as a naive girl, so long ago.

But she no longer saw the special something as anything she should respect. She now conflated it with death, sorrow and loss. She hated that special something beaming forth in David’s spirit, because it was a lie...an illusion. The spackled remains of kindness and charisma, that somehow remained even after the Awakening to Mana, but it was only a shadow.

Men like Brother David had lost the ability to truly be kind or charismatic, the moment Mana became a part of them. Just like all the Alchemists. Like her.

And yet some of them pretended, they put on beautiful masks and other clamored to their sides. A Mask was what had made Eric so special to her, because it was his kind spirit she had once coveted.

But the illusion was no longer like sweet honey to her. She didn’t want to pretend to see the things in Eric, in any other Man, or Mana user for that matter. So she turned from the lie she had indulged in with Eric and in David she beheld him as he truly was. A power hungry, dangerous and methodical Alchemist, who treated the Sisters like cattle and possibly saw her as nothing better.

In silence they traveled towards the outer rim, and stopped at the edge of the southern side of the room. There was a mass of bodies on this side of the room. Brothers and Sister of all ages, longed and congregated atop plush pillows.

When David smiled and took her hand, pressing a kiss to the back of her knuckles in a show of respect, her skin crawled as he tugged on her to walk with him more in step. More in his control.

David shared her eyes for a moment, then dipped his chin in a show of greeting. “I hope you are well Ann, I pass my greetings upon you.” Brother Mordrake rumbled, his voice deep and smooth like the soft bellow of a mountain, now that he was no longer whispering.

Large warm hands closed about her wrist and another settled unbidden around her shoulder as the Alchemists sidled up beside her and fell into step. Clusters of other Brothers and sisters communing in hushed circles of five or ten seemed to watch every move they made. Though eyes turned aside when she looked to them.

Some of the Alchemists had their cowls down baring their faces and crowns to the pale candle lights, Ann choose to ignore the eyes that chased her and David across the room. She pretended not to notice the dark glances and softly supportive calls they made to David. They did it loudly and with obvious need to make her aware of whom they were supporting.

“Blessing upon you brother.”

“Be well Brother Mordrake”

No one seemed to see her at all. No one spoke or acknowledged her. To Ann this was nothing new.

Ann had always been somewhat hated by the others in the Brother Hood. She was too callow and cunning for most of their liking and to quiet and humble for the rest of them. She was also the only Sister to hold the Mantle of Third Hand...or Second Hand for that matter, in nearly twelve Centuries.

Ann ignored the eyes around them, as David continued to walk with her in silence, and gestured. “Ok Brother, you wanted to talk, lets talk. You said it was urgent.”

Brother Mordrake smiled and pressed close to her side, he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and glanced around. “It is Sister. It is also too important for us to speak of it in this unguarded space.” David drew back. “Here, come with me.”

He’s trying to get me out of the open...Interesting. I wonder what he hopes to gain by getting me alone?

Ann smirked as she let the man walk her across the space, then completely out of the Sanctum and into a large hallway, which branched off from the main chamber they had left and tilted up towards a secondary chamber reserved for private Divinations far to the lower rear of the Sanctum.

Far up at the top of the slightly slanted walk way there would be a room, much smaller than the Sanctum decorated on every open surface by the Scions Eye.

David did not walk her to the private quarters, instead he turned her at the crest of the hallway, and Ann wasn’t surprised to find herself in a large, windowless open vented walkway, the ceiling and walls pressed in close, and the walls were decorated with a few glittering lights.

A single Mat sat on the ground, and large clean bowl, sat at the far end of the room, upon an alabaster podium. This room was where Mana Users often sought out for seclusion and concentration. The bowel was used in the Alchemic work of Transmutation.

Mana was often not the only catalyst needed to create things, like weapons or items with special properties. The Bowls were powerful relics bathed in the blood of past Alchmists, who once used the bowels to concentrate large amounts of weapons and concoctions she could only imagine, back in the era of endless war and human suffering. There were only seven of the bowls left in existence. Four of them were scattered about at various points of the Saviors Base. The other three bowls were at other Bases in the other three corners of the world.

Ann had no use for the bowels, only because she had no use for weapons or the art of Transmutation. She had never proven very good at making or doing them either.

The room hummed with the discordant buzz of Mana, it zinged in the air of the silent little room. The hum spoke of the generations of Alchmists who had poured their energy into its pours depths. In search of death, and power.

In the back of her mind she felt the buzz all the way to her bones, but she pressed the Mana soaked presence to the back of her head, and focused her mind on the Alchmists beside her.

“Come Sister...” David softly motioned. “Take a seat, so that we may talk away from the prying eyes of the masses. I have something pressing to share with you concerning us all.”

Ann considered her options. She could all but sense the alert, and domineering energy of the man coming off of him in waves. Hawkish eyes, hooded as he dipped his head and gave her a small pull forwards. She knew then that this was not an invitation.

The man dropped at the edge of the mat, directly before her, large legs and arms folded, and beneath the robes they pressed against the fabric in obvious detail of how large the Alchemist was. He out flanked her, even though they were both on their hips. And Ann knew that she was a solid 5′10, taller then most women in the Base.

Then David was speaking, his voice, rumbling like bottled thunder.

“I feel that I must first offer you both my congratulations and my condolences. I am so saddened that we lost yet another Brother to the touch of the Abomination. I, like all of the Brother Hood mourn his death.”

Ann frowned. The Alchemists words hitting a wall of disconnect in her head. “What do you mean?”

David rose an eyebrow at her, then he chuckled and shrugged. “I’m simply expressing how unfortunate it is that Eric would follow in his Uncles footsteps. To die by the hand of a creature. I hope it was a quick end.”

Ann herd the words, but she still couldn’t make them form into sense....until with a gasp it clicked.

Hovel! He must have told the others that Eric was killed by that boy, by that abomination holding the Acris.

Ann clenched her jaw, feeling sick.

He told them that Eric feel to the creature, instead of the Bane...That callous bastard!

Ann understood why had done it, even as her gullet burned with the curse. The truth would create a Hysteria, a fear. A fear that they had displeased the God in some way and now were hapless to feel its Wrath. That they were all subject to the Banes anger. It was a concept none of them would be able to reconcile with the unflinching flowery view that they held for the Scion.

She knew that many Alchmists would feel panic at the prospect. She wondered if that was what she felt now. Hysteria.

Ann shared his gaze, for a moment. David smirked as he settled forwards, elbows on his knees and he softly continued. “I’m sorry if I have brought up fresh wounds. I meant no harm.”

Ann sighed. “I know. I am just a bit touchy on the matter. Eric was the Second and I was Third to the Savior for many years. His dedication to his work will be sorely missed, by us all.”

David nodded. “Missed, but not forgotten.” He agreed, then he glanced away. “Though I will tell you Ann, I am so saddened that his passage is to go without Rites. If anyone deserves to have the Rites passed over them it was Eric. Now his name and legacy will know only obscurity.”

Ann stifled a whimper and simply fluffed the cuff of her left sleeve. She didn’t speak for fear of her voice trembling, but David’s words stung her deep.

Eric, would assuredly receive no Rites, if it was believed that he had suffered a humiliating death at the hand of the Abomination. It was known that any Alchmists that fell to claw or beak of a beast was unworthy to receive Rites upon death. They had created weakness. They had shamed the Bane and the entire Brother Hood by their failure.

David ignored her silence and continued. “Negating this unfortunate fact, I do hope that before he passed you were able to understand how much Eric respected his Mantle as the Second Hand...and I hope that you will endeavor to emulate this. We deserve nothing less...don’t you agree, Sister Ann?”

Ann hackles raised at his continued probing and she shot him a steely look. “I understand and respect this Mantel Brother Mordrake. I want nothing but to emulate his tireless works.”

David smirked. “Do you truly Sister? I fear your frustrations are blocking out what I’m actually saying to you, about Eric and about yourself.”

His eyes danced, but Ann cared nothing for the dark tune they seemed to give away.

“Enough, I didn’t not come here to gossip David.” Ann bit off quietly.

She lifted a hand in his direction, palm up. “Now you said you wanted to speak to me of something important? Something concerning the welfare of the Brotherhood. Please speak. And speak plainly. I have tasks that require my time and energy, beyond this one, as the Second.”

She knew her voice was sharp, but she couldn’t care. All she could think about was the lie being fed to them about Eric...and she knew she could never speak the truth. She could almost imagine how quickly Hovel would set upon her if she started speaking of the things she had seen.

She was never supposed to be down in the Bowels in the first place. It was a sacrilege against their Creed that anyone besides the Savior and the Second go before the Bane. She had gone...and she had hated what she found. This truth alone made her terrified to even think of speaking the truth. No one would believe her anyway.

After her command to hurry along, David’s smile did not fall, instead he seemed amused by her stern rebuke.

“Well, look whose settling into their new role snug as a blade in its sheath.” David murmured, dusting at his robes. Then he made a sound of disgust. “You know...I must say that I was surprised that you took the mantle of Second so readily after Eric’s demise. Many of us couldn’t help but find fault in your...eagerness. As I now find fault with your tone.”

Ann frowned, alarms starting to pound in her temples, she lifted her chin and shook her head. “I accepted the Mantle with an open heart and with a soul driven by my duty to the Scion. There was no eagerness in me! I simply steeped up because by Creed Law the Third Hand must become the Second.” Then Ann glowered at the man. “And if my tone gives you pause? Perhaps you should get to the point, Brother David!”

David shrugged. “Very well, but I have already expressed what I wanted to express. The long and the short of the problem facing the Brotherhood...is you Sister Ann.”

“Me?” Ann slowly straightened herself. “How so?” She asked even as she already knew the answer.

“Well, Sister, I say this only in hopes of helping you.” David began and softened his tone. “You see there are some in the Brotherhood who have been speaking of invoking the Game upon you, Ann.”

His brown eyes widened in alarm and concern for her. “Their numbers remain unknown to me, but I must warn you that there seems to be a multitude of them. They all want you taken from the Mantel of Second. They feel you do not deserve to wield that place at the Saviors side. You are in terrible danger and I had to warn you Sister. I fear for you if this continues.”

And there it is....the Game has begun at last.

Ann mused in silence. She guarded her tongue as her mind twisted along the valleys of thought.

Ann cleared her throat as she pulled her arm out of his grasp, stepped into the room, and walked over to the only mat in the space. Descending to the floor, she crossed her knees under her robes, and watched as David followed her.