Nothing really happened for the rest of the night.

I waited for Mother Heidi to exit her room when the sun came up. When I noticed that she stayed with the administrators just outside her office after breakfast, I decided to rise, burn the documents in the trash bin, take a bath, and light another cigarette to cover the burnt smell of papers. Then, I went to sleep.

-

What time is it already?

My head is aching as I rise from my bed. I really hate cigarettes. I fix my bed and head out for lunch.

Didalus is nowhere to be found in the dining hall, but I order some food from the food counter and eat on our table anyway. There is less people at this hour in the dining hall. I guess people really only come back at night. I also notice that Mother Heidi is not on the administrators' table. In fact, she is not present here at all.

So, I return my tray to the counter after eating, and head to her office.

Let's start the day.

"Come in," she says after I knock on the door.

I enter. "Ah, dear Azure. It's you! How may I help you?" She smiles sweetly.

"I just woke up, actually," I say as I feign sleepiness. "I thought about it and wanted to ask for your opinion on something."

Mother Heidi sets her documents aside and gestures for me to sit where I sat last night. "What is it?"

"I..." I act as if I was hesitating. "I thought... maybe..." I breathe and say, "What do you think of me going back to the Church to personally apologize to the Pope?"

I see mischief through her sweet smile. "Why, that would be a good idea!" Mother Heidi exclaims.

I widen my eyes at her to show innocent hope. "You really... think so?"

"Yes!" He smile widens, and she solemnly says, "A personal apology is always a sincere one. The vulnerability that your presence brings shows that you are ready for the consequences of your actions." She continues with a smirk on her face, "I am sure the Pope would understand and forgive you."

We both know the Pope's not like that. You really want to see me fall, huh.

I exhale loudly like I was holding my breath all this time. I breathe hard to fake my relief and smile at her, "Thank you, Mother Heidi."

I hurriedly exit her office and race to the train station.

-

I enter the Church with my head down. After all, I am still banished, am I not? And everyone in the Church heard the commotion yesterday.

I smile weakly at the reception desk, and slowly make my way up to the Pope's office.

I lightly knocked.

"Come in."

I breathe and open the door.

"Azure."

I look at him in the eye and say, "Pope, I want to apologize."

He nods; I enter and close the door before heading to his desk.

He says in a low voice, "Why are you here?"

"Sir," I, too, lower my voice and launch into a summary of the documents I read, "Mother Heidi and Cardinal Suarez are colluding until now. The nunnery has an underground place they call the Guardian of Hell because of the statue situated above it, and they assigned Waterlily the Nun to oversee the operations they have below it."

His eyes are hard as he stare directly into mine, "What operations?"

So he has no idea. "I have not seen it myself, but based on their formal correspondence through the Chapel's lines, it is an underground farm Cardinal Suarez wanted to have in the Grand Market he built along the Hoxwell-Dimmertown road."

"Grand Market... he built?" The Pope looks confused and raging mad.

"Sir," I carefully say, "their correspondence are formally made and I assume documented because they are using the Chapel lines. He has been signing as 'Señor Zeus'." I take the this chance to ask, "Sir, is Cardinal Suarez being Zeus a secret or not?"

The Pope stands, takes the vase of flowers on his desk, and smashes it on the ground. "FUCKING BASTARD!!!"

My heart races again. Is he acting? Are we acting? Is that me or Cardinal Suarez?

The Pope lowers his voice again and asks, "Tell me your purpose here because I know reporting is not just your job here. What the fuck do you want me to do before I kill that fucking traitor and everyone colluding with him?"

I hurriedly say, "Sir, I will infiltrate the Guardian of Hell tonight and I need backup. It will be best to find all three of them in one place, but I do not know if Cardinal Suarez ever visits their operation site."

"I will get him to visit them," The Pope solemnly says as he sits. "What time do you plan to infiltrate?"

"Midnight, sir."

"NOW GO! I DO NOT NEED YOUR FUCKING APOLOGY." The Pope takes his whiskey glass and hurls it at the door.

I take this as my cue to leave, so I hurriedly race down the stairs and exit the Church with an ashamed look on my face.

-

I return to the nunnery with a defeated look on my face. Mother Heidi greets me at the gate again when I enter the grounds.

"Azure..." I wave her off and pass by her with my eyes on the ground, but I still see that hint of victory in her sympathetic smile.

I turn to look at her and smile weakly, "Let me... rest this out for now, Mother Heidi."

"Of course, dear."

I slowly cross the yard with my head down to get a good look at the statue and its marble. There it is, on the marble platform, a tile looks slightly displaced, as if its grout has worn off and allowed the tile to be a little bit elevated. That tile is approximately a meter from the statue, as if allowing for a modest distance to kneel at a deity.

Bingo.

I enter my room, lock the door, and draw my curtains close. I take papers and write "reflections" again, crumple half of them to a ball to throw in the bin, while keeping half of them on the table. I arrange the remaining papers to cover the whole table, and carefully place my pistol on top.

I take out from my pocket the other things I took from my home before I went back to the nunnery: a cloth and a small bottle of oil to clean my pistol, black leather gloves and a black mask for the job, and five extra bullets.

I hide the bullets in one of the gloves, and tuck gloves and mask in the space between the wall and the backside of the drawer. I will not be opening this drawer anymore anyway. Then, I carefully and quietly disassemble my gun and organize them part by part on the table. I clean and oil them one by one, and then assemble it again.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Hey, Azure. It's Didalus."

Fucking hell!

I quickly throw the papers stained with dirt and oil in the bin, and arrange the clean papers on the table. I take the gun to the bathroom, turn on the faucet to mask any sound I make, and fit it in the space between the pipes and the bottom of the sink. I turn off the faucet after washing my hand, and then I head to the door.

"Hey. Sorry, I was cleaning when you knocked. Come in."

I close the door after him and gesture for him to sit on the bed. I lean on the table to secure the gloves and mask, while keeping an eye on the bathroom sink.

"What brings you here?"

"I did not see you at breakfast but I saw you come through the gate earlier looking like shit. I was worried, you know," Didalus looks away as if embarrassed.

I smile at him, "I woke up at lunch. Then, Mother Heidi said it'll be good if I do my idea of apologizing to the Pope."

Didalus' eyes widen in fear.

"As you saw," I gesture at myself, "it was a bad idea."

"Mother Heidi really set you up, huh." He shakes his head in disbelief.

I laugh, "It's alright." I'll set her up tonight.

"How about you?" I ask, "You don't eat lunch?"

Didalus explains, "You know I've been here for a long time, right? Well, I learned that the best dishes are served at breakfast and dinner. The lunch, it's just okay. But breakfast and dinner are the real deal. Because it's when people are really here."

"That makes sense." I think about it and say, "So there are only a few people here in the middle of the day? And they're people like us, banished and stuff?"

"Right!" Then, he stands and say, "Hey, mind if use the bathroom?"

How convenient. "Oh..." I think about it for a second before saying, "Not at all."

When he makes his way to the bathroom, I ask, "What time do they serve dinner?"

With this, instead of closing the door, he keeps it half open—good—to engage in a conversation with me. "Uh... It's usually served once the sun sets. Why, you hungry already?"

The sun is just setting, but I want a reason to observe the surroundings outside. "Yeah."

"Why don't we walk around the yard for a while? You'd know the food is served when you start smelling it," he smiles as he washes his hands and walks by me. "Come on."

The yard is pretty quiet since there is not much people around. Mother Heidi's office across the yard is open and I notice that the administrators are gathered inside. When Didalus notices that I am observing them, he tugs at my elbow to look the other way and whispers, "You know, it's actually Mother Heidi who asked me to check on you."

I look at him in surprise. "Huh?"

"She said she was worried because of how you looked. I'm actually quite surprised that she's really concerned about you. You're really close, huh.

I mask my smirk with an innocent smile. "I guess I should be thankful that people here are genuinely nice to me."

Didalus smiles at me. "If you need someone to talk to," he lowers his voice, "even just to trash talk the Pope, I'm your man."

I chuckle and genuinely say, "Thanks, man."

We walk around more and talk about mundane things. When the sun set, we finally smell freshly cooked food from the hall and make our way there. Just when we are about to step on the stairs, the gate of the nunnery opens and a group of people enters.

The final ray of sunlight shines on the face of the tall man leading the group. Should I even be surprised? The sound of their footsteps send the nunnery administrators into a hurried exit from Mother Heidi's office.

Mother Heidi quickly makes her way to directly meet the leader of the group. "Señor, to what do we owe the pleasure?" She lightly bows. Cardinal Suarez and his group simply walk past her to stand in the middle of the yard.

He looks around and then at her, saying, "Have you gone mad?!"

Mother Heidi looks confused. The nunnery administrators look at each other, and then at Mother Heidi. She simply nods and they immediately dispersed, as if forgetting their gathering and dinner.

"Cardinal Suarez, I do not understand." Mother Heidi slowly walks towards the cardinal. "Everything here is as it should be."

"What is this I'm hearing that an underground farm is existing here?!"

My blood runs cold.

What?! He does not know? Isn't he Zeus? What's happening? Pope...?

Mother Heidi, too, is stunned. She looks pale.

"I was told it's under this yard. Men, look around and leave no stone unturned!"

Cardinal Suarez looks hard at Mother Heidi. Then, she forces herself to be at ease. They seem to communicate through looks, and that is when a glint of understanding dawns on her.

"There is nothing here, my good Cardinal. Please, be my guest and do what you need." Mother Heidi smiles.

She looks around, and then her eyes fall on Didalus and me. Her irritation goes unmasked and she casually says to Cardinal Suarez, "Señor, let us talk in my office."

"What? Did you see that? We were quiet and all, why's she mad at us?" Didalus says.

Indeed, we have been like statues by the food hall, but unlike Didalus, I am beginning to understand what is happening.

"Later," Cardinal Suarez's single response is full of undeniable authority. He slowly walks around, observing, and then stands by the statue of the Guardian of Hell.

Oh?

"Do you not want me seeing something here, Mother Heidi?" Cardinal Suarez mockingly inquires.

"It is nothing like that, Cardinal. I only hope to settle this without unnecessary audience." Mother Heidi's eyes trail towards me.

"What is happening?" Didalus whispers.

Cardinal Suarez sees me and grunts. "If there is nothing you are hiding, audience will not matter."

"Understood."

Both of them stand there until Cardinal Suarez's men finish searching and gather in front of him.

Mother Heidi smiles. "See, Señor? Nothing."

Cardinal Suarez nods, to Mother Heidi or his men, I do not know, but his men quickly exited the grounds. He looks at me and then turns to Mother Heidi. I hear him say, "Let's go."

Mother Heidi nods and leads him to her office. She closes the door behind them, and Didalus tugs on me. "Damn, that was intense it made me hungry. Let's go."

I want to snoop around and listen, but that would be impossible. So, I follow Didalus to the hall, get some food from the counter, and sit on our table.

The administrators are not on their table. Must be hiding until Cardinal Suarez leaves.

"Why did the Chapel send a Cardinal here?" Didalus looks like he has been racking his brain about the commotion.

I shake my head. "I don't know, but it seems like a big deal."

"Yeah," he sighs. "In the long time that I'm here, I never encountered anything like that. I mean, look." He looks around the dining hall, then continues, "People did not even bother going here tonight. They're probably scared. Even the administrators did not come.

"I mean, even his men were afraid of him. They did not even come close to him even when they were searching."

I agree.

We eat in silence, contemplating. Then, we return our trays to the counter and head back to the yard.

I ask Didalus, "Do you think they're done talking?" It is a genuine question because I want to know if my assumption about all this is correct.

"Nah," he immediately answers. "If this something big, they would take much longer. See," he points at Mother Heidi's office, "they'd probably have to talk about false accusations, what's really here, what's happening, and all that. I mean, Mother Heidi talks about smaller things with the administrators for a long time, so this would probably take an even longer time."

True enough, I can still see two silhouettes past Mother Heidi's window. If what I am thinking is correct, this would be the right move.

I turn to Didalus to say, "If this is really something big, things can probably turn sour especially that there seems to be accusations. We probably need to call this a night." I keep an apologetic and worried look on my face.

Didalus looks back to Mother Heidi's office and say, "You're right. We wouldn't wanna be caught in a crossfire or something." He starts to walk and waves, "Good night!"

"Good night!"

 I make my way to my room, turn my light off, and sit by the window to wait for things to unfold.