I wake up still to the smell of smoke from the stainless bin where I burned my plan after organizing it. I tried to dampen the smell with soap on the floor while running the shower before I took my nap. It wasn't enough. So, I take my cigarette props, light it, and throw it in the bin. I hate cigarettes and their smell, but it will be easier to explain than a burned paper. Vices aren't prohibited in this place anyway; what would a syndicate base get from prohibiting the vices they want people to worship? I stretch my body to shake off the sleepiness from my nap and open the door of my room to start my plan.

I keep my head down as I walk through the yard, "reflecting". Such a low structure yet it houses many people. I notice that the doors of the rooms are evenly spaced, so I can assume that the layout of each room is more or less the same. Except if there are occupants, they might change the layout and add or remove something.

I move closer to the greeneries and observe that the plants in the yard are not the usual house plants or garden plants one would have. Poppies, cannabis, hm? Decorative.

The decorative statues, too, I doubt are just regular decorative statue. I pace towards one and observe it.

"Knight Azure?" I stop before I reach the statue and turn.

"Good evening, Mother Heidi."

"Did you rest well?" She smiled.

"Surprisingly, I did."

"I smell cigarette from your room, though. Are you sure you're not troubled?" I hear the amused undertone from her feigned concern.

I put up an embarrassed smile, "I wasn't able to rest immediately because of my nerves and all. I had a stick before I slept. Guess I wasn't able to put it out properly." I look away and said, "Sorry."

Mother Heidi flashed a big smile, "That's alright! As long as you rested well."

"Thank you," I smile a tired smile.

"Will you join us for dinner?"

"Yes, if that's alright. I'm rather hungry."

"Good! Good!" She walks to me, puts a hand on my back, and guides me towards the dining area. "I hope you like the food here," she cheerfully says, "I made sure to ask the chef to make it extra good today!"

"Oh, thank you, Mother Heidi." I give her a gentle smile.

The dining area is on the same side of the entrance. The stairs on the right side of the entrance door lead underground where the smell of good food comes from.

"That smells good," I comment.

"Wonderful!" Mother Heidi exclaims.

When we enter the dining hall, Mother Heidi smiles and walks toward the lone huge table nearest the food counter.

"Mother Heidi," I call before she can get too far away. I hesitate and say, "May I join you for dinner? I don't really know anyone here."

"Oh, dear. I'd love to but I have to discuss some things with the other administrators here. But you can find some people, one or two, in your situation in that table right there." She smiles as she points to a table at the left-most side of the room.

I nod and head to that table. Am I being too pushy? Was that too obvious? I think back and conclude that it is fine as long as I do not suck up anymore tonight. She's the one who approached and invited me anyway.

"May I sit here?" I ask the man already seated on that table with half eaten food on his tray.

"Yeah, sure." He gestures to the seat on his left.

Good view from here. Perfect.

"Thank you."

"You're new here."

"Yeah, I just got here today," I explain.

"Banished by...?"

I look down. "...The Pope," I quietly answer.

He looks too shaken to respond, so I stay quiet and observe Mother Heidi's table from mine as discreetly as I can.

Mother Heidi sits with five other nunnery administrators on their table. They look like they are discussing something indeed important. Their table is also served with food, as opposed to all the other tables that require people to go up to the food counter, take a tray, and ask the cafeteria servers to scoop food for them and put it on their plate.

"Are you serious?" The man asks me like I am crazy.

I look at him and answer, "Yes."

"Who are you?"

"I'm Azure," I answer, stretching out my right arm to invite him to a handshake.

His eyes widen. He shakes my hand and responds, "I'm Didalus."

"Nice to meet you. I'm told that people who sit here are in the same situation as me." I ask, "You're banished too?"

"Yeah," Didalus looks smug.

"What happened?"

He smiles at me, "You first!"

Suddenly, Mother Heidi calls, "Azure, dear, make sure to get some dinner!"

I stand and respond, "Thank you, Mother Heidi!" I gesture to Didalus and head to the food counter.

I take a tray, walk along the counter, and point to the food I want. "Enjoy," the server at the end of the counter says. I nod and head back to the table.

"You're close with Mother Heidi?" Didalus asks as I sit.

"Not really," I answer. "It's just she's the one who greeted me when I entered the nunnery."

"Still," he shakes his head as if failing to understand something, "I've never seen her interact with people other than the administrators."

I raise an eyebrow at him as I start to eat, "Why? How long have you been here?"

Oh, the food is good.

"Almost three months," Didalus answers as I continue eating.

I furrow my eyebrows at him, "What did you do?"

"You tell me your story first, then I tell you mine," I continue to look at him, so he continues, "You're the one new here. For all I know, you're making up shit to send me to hell."

"Hm," I think, "fair." So I summarize my tale, "I went to the Chapel to ask the Pope for something stupid. I didn't know he had a meeting with Cardinal Suarez at the time I set my appointment with him, probably something important. So when I asked him, he got mad at me for cutting his meeting with Cardinal Suarez short for shit. Banished me here for three days." I add, "Nice to meet you."

Didalus laughs, "Fucking hell. The Pope really has his temper."

I nod as I continue eating.

"Alright, I know that shit's real. Everybody has something like that with the Pope. I'm surprised you survived this long without an incident with him."

I chuckle at that. So that's why everyone's celebrating my banishment.

"I've been in employment with someone named Zeus."

Zeus? The name catches me off guard that I freeze with the spoon almost meeting my mouth. To save myself from making someone think I know the name, I look at him slowly and say, "Zeus? Who's that?"

"Aren't you from the Chapel? Like, not just a member but an actual Knight?" Didalus looks at me, confused.

"Yeah, that's why I'm asking. I've never heard of the name."

"Yeah, anyway. He had this elaborate blueprint he wants me to build and oversee. I accepted it; he offered good money." Didalus looks bitter, "We were already doing the project for two years—it's actually almost done—when all of a sudden, he sent me a letter—we never met; we only talk through correspondence—and asked me to build an underground farm.

"It's fucking ridiculous. Not only is the structure already done, but the foundation's already holding up so much. I don't know what he expects me to do, but I'm not demolishing years' worth of hard work and designing a completely different structure to hold everything up with an underground farm. So I ignored it and finished the structure. When he found out, he sent men to fuck me up and then sent me here for three months."

Zeus? Underground farm? "So you're almost done, huh."

"Yeah, so I'll get the fuck away from here after that. I have the money anyway."

"You think they won't find you?"

"Nah. Even you don't know him so he's not anyone big I'm sure," he smirks.

Oh, no. "You're not scared?"

"Why would I be? The Pope sent you here; you're not scared," Didalus grins.

I feigned amusement. Cardinal Suarez has been moving all this time.

"So what happened to the structure? Your project?" I ask.

"They kept it," Didalus looks proud. "It's on that road that connects Hoxwell and Dimmertown. Someone actually said the structure looks like something historic? I don't know."

Jackpot.

"Then you must be good. You rebuilt that and they kept it," I comment.

Didalus grins big. "Thanks, man! I'm pretty proud of it. That's why I didn't want to demolish it for an unknown man's whim. Anyway, the Chapel's benefitting from it, so there's that. Now, it's a hotspot for casual traders. And black market traders."

"Have you seen what they trade there?"

"Of course! The biggest there is poppy."

Figures. "I can only imagine," I laugh.

Some of the nunnery administrators are already dropping their spoons and forks to their plates, and standing to go. Mother Heidi still sits, talking to one of the remaining administrators. I scan the entire hall, pretending to idle.

Where's Waterlily the Nun? I have been keeping an eye on both Mother Heidi's table and the door. Not once did I see Waterlily the Nun.

When Mother Heidi stands and heads for the exit with the administrators, I tap Didalus' shoulder and say, "I'm heading back. See you tomorrow."

"Alright. Good night, man," he waves.

I return my tray to the counter and casually make my way to the exit, careful to not immediately head out just as Mother Heidi did. When I climb the stairs and leisurely walk through the yard, I keep an eye out for the nunnery administrators but pretend I did not notice them. Hm, the stars are bright here.

I cannot hear their conversation, but I notice they are standing by a room on the right corner at the entrance gate's side. Then, I see the statue I was supposed to read earlier and remember I was not able to approach it. Just when I started to make my way to it, Mother Heidi calls, "Azure, dear!" Then, she addresses her companions, "Alright, good night. Let me entertain our new boy now."

She approaches me and I nod to her, "Good evening, Mother Heidi."

"Good evening, Azure. How do you find our nunnery so far?" She guides my back again toward the direction of my room. What, is that statue something?

"It's very quiet. If I was not banished, I'd think this is a legitimate retreat site," I smile.

Mother Heidi chuckles, "Oh, you. Just think of it as a retreat site. Why else would this be called the nunnery and the naughty kids be sent here?"

Because it's a front and you're training criminals. "Why, indeed?" I jokingly wondered.

Mother Heidi laughs and says, "Rest for the night now, alright?"

I approach my door and then turn back to her, "Mother Heidi. If I can't sleep, may I roam around the yard for a while?"

I see annoyance flash in her eyes for a split second, and then a brief weighing of her thoughts. "Why, of course, dear." She smiled an unsure smile. "If you need someone to talk to, you can just enter my office right there." She points to the door at the side of the entrance gate. Where they all stood talking...

I smile, faking gratitude, and say, "Thank you." Then, I take my time entering my room. I notice that she, too, is taking her time walking back to her office. She's suspicious of me. Too suspicious, she's selling herself out.

I close my door, turn on my light, and push the curtain of my window just enough to not seem like I am spying but enough to allow me to observe the yard. Mother Heidi keeps glancing back at my room while walking, and so I pretend to prepare for bed by dramatically spreading the blanket and fluffing the pillow by the curtain. She sees my silhouette throw the end of the blanket to the other end of the bed and the light turn off, and she quickly heads for her office without looking back again. Hmm...

I watch the light in her office turn on and observe for 30 minutes. Then, I walk to my door while ruffling my hair to make it seem like I tried sleeping. I head to the yard and fake a yawn. When I notice that Mother Heidi is not making a move, I immediately head to the statue.

"Kneel to the devil and a doorway to hell will open."

Hmm... I quickly scan the statue up, down, and all around, then immediately head to the bushes to stare up at the sky to feign contemplation.

It seems like an ordinary statue. I wouldn't wonder about it if Mother Heidi did not keep pushing me away from it.

I turn my back to the bushes to look at the statue again. Nothing out of the ordinary... I pace around the yard, trying to get a good look at it on all sides. It looks like a monstrous lion with a gorgon's wings, roaring. The statue sits on a platform made of marble.

To make it seem like I am not wholly interested in it, I walk away and observe other yard ornaments.

I hear a door open—good—so I stretch and yawn.

"Azure, still can't sleep?" Mother Heidi calls.

"Good evening, Mother Heidi. I might be too troubled to sleep." I give a weak smile.

Mother Heidi walks to me. For a second, I think I see her flash an irritated look, but she kindly smiles at me as she approaches. "Do you mind my company?"

"Not at all!" I grin.

"What exactly is troubling you, dear?" Mother Heidi sounds entirely sincere.

"It's just..." I scrunch my forehead and swallow. "I...I do my best i—in everything but... but it seems like— it feels like everyone's just waiting for me to fail."

Mother Heidi chuckles. "Everyone who's labelled 'the best' feels like that, don't you think?" I look at her and she continues, "You're in the Chapel. Everyone here wants to be the best. Everyone wants power. Everyone wants to be close to the Pope. You're who everyone wants to be. Of course they want to see you fail."

"Do you?"

My question catches her off guard, and then she laughs. "What do you think, dear?" She gestures for me to follow her. "I am merely Mother Heidi of the nunnery. I don't bother myself with outside affairs. That's for the Chapel to handle."

She leads me to her office, to my surprise. "Come in."

I follow her and she closes the door behind me. She walks behind her desk and gestures for me to sit.

Now that we are inside, her tone changes. "Tell me, Azure, why are you really here?"

There is an edge to her voice.

I debate whether or not to drop everything. In a split second, I decide.