— You don't understand the power of the enemy you're facing! You think Others are powerful? You've never seen the devastation a Dream Catcher can cause. The way they gain power is much faster than you can imagine.
Madly was irritated by the proposal. The arrogance and ego from years of training, from the compliments, now having to lower herself to ask for help from an exile who calls himself the owner of a ruin.
"Damn it! Why am I getting so irritated by this!"
— You think you can face the Catcher alone? You can't even find him in the city's alleys. You don't know the spots where the Others are less likely to appear. Where he could be hiding. You don't even know what he looks like. — The man clapped his hands loudly, making all the explorers stop what they were doing and look at him. — My men can find him.
— And how do you know what he's like?
The man smiled, looked at his soldiers while drawing his sword. His single eye looked Madly up and down.
— There's no one new in this city. The only new person I saw was a malnourished prisoner inside the prison. — He gave a shrewd smile, but his expression remained arched. — You came from there, you must have seen something interesting to make you run to us. Something important happened in the prison. It would be too much of a coincidence if there wasn't a connection.
Madly stared at the leader. The way he had changed his thinking and his behavior demonstrated considerable command of his mind. However, she should have noticed this much earlier. Something was wrong and she couldn't figure out why. With the scarf over her mouth, she continued to speak.
— You already knew we were going to the prison. You also had an idea about the prisoner you had seen. You think he's the Dream Catcher? — Madly coughed a little.
— He doesn't fit your description: he was thin, malnourished, small, and bound by chains on his arms and neck. I wasn't with him for long, because I thought it was strange. I tried to kill him, but I couldn't through the prison bars. So I just left. If he was deceiving me to collect my dream, he didn't succeed, but he didn't seem to be lying. He seemed desperate.
— They are very good at pretending. They almost seem to be one of us, but they're not.
"Maybe it's him. Born recently. That's good, he must still be weak. If we can kill a Dream Catcher, we'll have done a great service for the Church. We'll save thousands of people."
Madly closed her eyes, thought slowly about what she would do from now on, but her mind was still troubled.
— Okay! — She huffed, opening her eyes. — What do you want to help with the hunt?
The big man laughed loudly. His long sword tapped on his shoulder, and all the other explorers moved forward, drawing their weapons and surrounding the woman. He lowered his body slowly, coming face to face with her. His breath, reeking of spice, reverberated in her mouth.
— I want to learn your skills.
— You want to learn how to use flow? — Madly should have guessed his request. — Advancing in Rank is difficult. It's a secret that only chosen acolytes can possess. I learned thanks to the Two-Faced Church; I cannot reveal the knowledge.
The woman didn't even want to mention soul advancement, nuances, among other segments one gains the opportunity to learn upon entering the church.
— Okay! Then make me a member of your church. Make me an acolyte. — His face was serious, but his tone became lower, hiding a secret. — A fair price, don't you think? For the head of a Catcher.
— You don't even know what you're promising!
— And you lose nothing by believing me! What do you lose if I don't get the Catcher? I'll buy time for your reinforcements to arrive anyway. And if I do get the Catcher, your church will have a new elite acolyte, who on his first mission helped kill the Dream Catcher.
"He'll leave the achievements to me. He's been thinking about this plan since he met me. Did he already know the prisoner was something special? How can I believe what he's saying? Shit! Where is Calvirs?"
— I need to talk to my partner. He should be here soon. His information will be important for us to define how the search for the Catcher should be carried out.
The tall man nodded. Madly started to walk towards the exit, but the warriors around her didn't make way, leaving her trapped in a circular arena.
The White Scarf looked around suspiciously. The smell of sweat and iron burned her nostrils, even with the scarf still over her face. The warriors began to move, their blades shifting slowly with their bodies, like coyotes preparing to attack.
— Make way! — Shouted the leader.
Everyone moved automatically, following the alpha of the pack. The path opened, leading to the outside of the Bell Tower. Madly felt a great relief upon leaving that hell. It felt like she could finally breathe. The heat of the place was fading from her body, but the strong smell of spice remained stuck in her nostrils.
— What's your name, acolyte? — Said the one-eyed man.
— Madly. — She said, finally removing the scarf from her mouth, breathing in the almost-pure air of the ruins again.
— Barton! Look for me when you have your answers. — He laughed at the woman's near-breathless state.
She watched the man disappear, entering that red butchery. She lowered her head, taking in as much air as she could. Her hand trembled in despair. She was holding herself together tightly to appear confident, but her mind was too troubled; it felt like she wasn't herself. She had never felt like this before, so out of her control. It was desperate; even her flow was lost, confused, weak.
"I don't have much time... This place is dangerous. These people are not ordinary. What the hell was the government thinking, leaving this death zone without any protection. We need to find this Dream Catcher soon. I don't want to spend another minute in this hell."
She stood up, slowly tidied her clothes, folding her sleeves and cleaning her overcoat. She put the white scarf in her overcoat pocket when she noticed it was reddish, stained by the spice that had entered her body through her breath the entire time she was inside the Bell Tower.
"Shit... Shit..."
She finally understood the reason for her different behavior. She had been consuming the spice, even without knowing it. Now, only despair remained over the consequences of this act.
Before getting lost in thought again, she saw Calvirs approaching.
...
— Valen Kiren affirmed that? We won't have any support for 1 week?
Madly was distressed. The information confirmed that they had been left behind.
— I know... It seems like suicide, but we have to endure. We need to protect the people and not let the Catcher get out.
Calvirs seemed calmer. His right hand rested on his injured eye, which was slowly recovering.
— We can contact the Empire. The territory is theirs. They can help us keep things in order. If the Catcher gets out, it will be their problem too.
— He said we shouldn't contact anyone. Just do what he ordered: Protect the Civilians and don't let any living being leave the city.
A feeling of betrayal rested in her soul. She knew she wasn't worth much to the church, but this mission was leaving her to die, giving up on her. She knew she was talented, and Calvirs was more capable than most sigilists she knew. The man had made a report while being a 1st Rank Soulless. It was a feat worthy of a genius.
— Fuck! How are we going to control the entry and exit of creatures from a city? — She scratched her head in anger. — We don't even know how many exits there are. We are only two people.
Calvirs had also understood the true meaning of the mission. He was down, almost depressed about the situation, however, seeing Madly like that was bizarre. The woman wasn't one to talk much, let alone curse and express her anger so easily.
— We can blow up the exits... and try to keep watch. Or just hide and wait for him to arrive. — He didn't believe in any of the hypotheses.
— If we hide, they'll know we didn't try; we'll be expelled from the church. Not to mention that the blame for the Catcher escaping will be ours. How can we live knowing that we let a deadly calamity loose in the Empire.
— Then we must accept the explorer Barton's offer. It will be our only option until Father Valen arrives with reinforcements. — He looked at Madly's confused, irritated, and thoughtful expression. — You yourself said that they seem to be stronger than normal humans because of the spice. They might be the only way we can deal with this problem.
— But I don't know if they're stable. I spent a few minutes inside that tower, and I feel out of control. Besides, if the enemy managed to inflict a lethal wound on an Arche, he must be of a Rank above ours, or at least have a strong soul. Even if they can compare to almost 1st Rank in physical strength, they don't use flow. They could only hold the Catcher for a short time.
Madly walked through the city's alleys as she spoke. She was tired of standing still. Calvirs followed her, pulling out his pipe to smoke. They both walked towards the carriage they had arrived in. They needed to restock their supplies and analyze their stock of coins.
— That's true, but the explorer leader didn't say that the Catcher seemed weak, chained, similar to a prisoner. There might be a chance he was born recently. — He puffed out some smoke and rethought. — Born, created, who knows how they appear.
— It's a hypothesis, but we have to think about the Others too. We're managing to deal with the common ones easily, but I know there are special ones among the race. Not to mention those who have learned to control flow, which luckily hasn't happened in this death zone yet.
The woman quickened her pace and slowly began to bite her fingernails as she thought. Noticing what she was doing, she lowered her hand in anger.
— Let them deal with the Others; they hunt them anyway, they must know how to move and how they act. Besides, leaving the Others active is useful for us to detect the Catcher. — He breathed in the smoke again and coughed slowly. — Let's let the Explorers work, I'll gradually explain to Barton about flow, Rank advancements, and the potency of souls. Maybe I can convert him to the Two-Faced Goddess.
Madly looked at Calvirs and couldn't hold back her laughter. Seeing her partner make a joke like that in the midst of all this chaos cheered her up.
— I highly doubt that a man like him cares about religion or the afterlife. He just wants power, and for someone who has lived in this place his whole life, I can even understand. The better I look at it, the angrier I get at the Empire.
Calvirs tapped the ashes out of his pipe, hitting it gently against a nearby wall. He put it in his inner pocket and gave Madly a slight smile.
— And don't all good acolytes start like that? Seeking the church just to gain power. It won't be any different with him; we just need to do our job well. — He looked at the two dark horses in front of him and slowly entered the carriage. — And survive this hell.
Madly looked at the city around her. She thought about the week she would have to spend amidst the destruction of the ruins and the smell of spice. The worst of it wasn't that, but the lurking fear of the Catcher appearing; the memories of the Rabbit report came to her mind, how a bishop was killed so easily. No matter what information Barton gave her, or Calvirs's hypotheses, she could only imagine the terror and dread that this horrendous being would bring to everyone in this city.