Varian stood outside the large church. Like always Vega was by his side, the small animal never ventured away from him since the day they had met. Varian assumed it was some kind of special bond they had formed, but it also could have been from her past.

He continued his way up the steep marble steps into the cathedral. Placing his hand softly on the wooden door, he slid into the darkened sanctuary. There were a few people up at the front praying, some sat in chairs a few feet away. He was not one of those people. Varian was here to get a look at the place, he was  tourist afterall, and he had planned on coming late to miss the crowd. He stood in the way back, behind the large marble pillars that held up the balcony full of seats above him. The church had large glass windows that went down the sides of it. The pews were painted a soft white to match the rest of the church. Varian tugged his jacket tighter around him, and rightfully stuck his hands into his jean pockets. It was a shame that the church seemed to have a lack of heating. Varian peered down at vega who was curled up next to his legs, ignoring the cold that seemed to be existing around him. Maybe it was the curse messing with his insides again, or maybe it was the church just having poor insulation. Either way Varian didn't know.

finding the spiral staircase up to the balcony, he climbed slowly up the stairs. From above the church was much prettier, you could see more and the alter up in front held an ethereal beauty. The few remaining worshippers slowly filed out of the church as they finished. Only those who lived in the church remained. Varian took a seat in the front row of the balcony, he was out of sight in the dark. The only noises were the sounds of the father praying silently while he put out the alter candles.

His presence at the building had been requested by one of the officials there who was seeking his assistance in a future mission that he and another would undertake likely his wife, Alice given their situation and ability to work with each-other. Of course he was still clueless on the complete details of the mission however he had been informed that the matter was urgent though with every matter from an organisation was urgent in their eyes. Given he would be in a well guarded area with numerous other Holy Knights stationed throughout the building he could have left behind his weapon in the room he had been stay in while he remained in Crocus. Instead however he took the heavy weapon upon onto his right shoulder. While he was not completely helpless without the weapon, he still liked to have it around just in case. Afterall he might need to shoot something a great distance away from him.

As Kon walked through the crowded streets he looked at the various people he past noticing their downtrodden expression stemming from the loss of their former king and princess who was adored by the community. While slavery was a terrible thing, the death of the king wasn’t the right way to go about removing it and without proper transition to another working system there would be an economic instability within the country for some time. Kon when he listened to the new “emperor’s” speech left him viewing the man as an idealist who didn’t seem to understand would happen in the long term. The use of force illustrated by leading all of his problems to Zade was equally problematic as it would and could spark rebellion throughout the country having the inverse effect to his one of his goals: gaining more power implied with his self-proclaimed title of Emperor.

For now however he had more important things to look after such as his family and his responsibility within the Holy Knights. As he reached the steps of the great building, he put down his heavy cross against the wall and lit a cigar placing it between his lips waiting for another to open the door, now leaning on the wall as well next to it. Fortunately it only took a few minutes for an elderly woman who looked judgingly at him to come along and open the door giving him enough to time to take up his weapon and enter the building holding the door open with the base of the gun itself.

His presence would quickly become apparent to all those on the main floor, his appearance was unlike that of any other in the cathedral with his hair being a stark white, an odd colour for someone so young while behind a blanket of the coarse fibers concealed his golden eye from the general public, his gun was fashioned in an not so subtle design while his clothes suggested he was nothing more than a vagabond with just a simple overcoat worn from a white shirt and some pants. Blending in with the crowd had never been his strong suit nor was he about to start any time soon because of this he simply chose to ignore the onlookers and walk to his destination bypassing the center and moving to the door restricted to the public.

Making his way past the neatly lined up altars he quickly scanned each person for anything of significance, so far it was mostly just the grieving widows and families of fallen soldiers that he came across. “Was this what his family could be in store for in the future?” He thought to himself with a sense of dread. Just as he was passed the first half of the altars something or more specifically someone took his eye, his golden eye. It was a woman roughly the same age as him hair as dark as midnight who seemed to have a both light and darkness as two separate entities unlikely Alice who also held two element but as one combined effect. “Just who was this woman?, surely not a Holy Knight?, a third party outsourced individual perhaps?”

Diverting his path he made his way over to the female mage to introduce himself reaching her however would prove to be a slight challenge as a number of individual had started to notice the smoke that was casually lingering around him. Noticing the sensitive times that everyone was in, he promptly stamped out the cigar into a nearby pool of water. Eventually those around him went back to their praying allowing him to reach the woman passing through the line of altars behind her before standing opposite to her with him from the right while her to the left as one entered the church from the main entrance. While it was a place of worship typically meaning those within it should respect those around them, Kon opted inside to openly begin with a more casual tone. “Beautiful building isn’t it?, The Grand Cathedral of Crocus, I hope I wasn’t interrupting you it’s just something about you caught my attention is all. I’m Kon by the way nice to meet you.” Extending his left hand while his right remained firmly within the handle of his gun. “And this it’s just a relic for the church ignore it as best as you can, I know I try to….”

900/5000

for a little while the place continued to loose tourists as some filed out slowly and some quickly. Varian continued to eye the alter as the night continued. It happened to be one of the few wooden things in the building besides the pews. It was a lighter wood, birch maybe? But that seemed to bright. The carvings were intracare and the legs of the alter had been carved so a raised vine pattern crawled up the legs of the alter. The vines all converged into what looked like a wooden garden. It had roses and other grasses carved into its sides. Whoever had built it had serious dedication.

As he let his eyes wander, the sent of cigar smoke drifted into the room, causing both Varian and Vega to sneeze lightly. The noise was almost inaudible by the clanking of the father and the footsteps of the leaving tourists. Peering down, slightly annoyed by whoever was smoking in the building, Varian observed the people from his hidden spot. One man stuck out, his hair was white and he had obviously just put out the cigar. So he had been the smoker. The man began a donversation with a rather uncomfortable looking girl. Varian preferred people watching, not in the creepy Im gonna follow you home kind of way, but in the “other people have lives that you don’t know of” kind of mystery.

Eventually the girl popped a look over at the balcony where Varian sat, she didn’t seem to notice anything at first, but eventually her eyes momentarily stuck on the bright orange fur of Vega who had been climbing on the pews. Trying to keep his postition a secret so he could further observe he snagged Vega and slid along the floor and out of sight. Slowly he sneaked back down the stairs. Settling down in the doorway to the stairs, Varian returned to his people watching. He made up stories of the people who were filing out the door in front of him, one young woman who held the hand of a child in her’s was dubbed Amelia, and she was a strong woman who had recently married a man of nobility and was currnetly worried about the upcoming times, and that was why she came. Another was a man who Varian had dubbed Vaun, who actually happened to be a member of the guild grimoire heart and was really working for the new king to weed out the unloyal in the church. Obviously Varian knew none of this untrue but it gave him a way to pass the time. He had decided on waiting for everyone to leave so he could indulge his curious side and investigate the church.

Finally, as the last tourist left, except for the two people who remained chatting in some of the pews, Varian broke away from his mental story. Everything seemed to be going fine until he noticed Vega was missing. Peering out from his hidden doorway Varian looked around the sanctuary for some glimpse of her bright orange fur. Finally he noticed her bright orange tail slip into a doorway at the back end of the sanctuary behind the alter. Varian willed enough confidence into his body to stand up and slide down the far end of the pews, on the other side of the sanctuary from the two remaining people. He tried his best to stay in the shadows, he had no idea if he was even still allowed in the church. The two people could have been church operatives for all he knew. His footsteps were precise and careful, and eventually he was standing in front of the door where Vega slipped in. Grabbing the handle to pull it open a little further so he could slip in, his own nightmare happened. The opening of the unliked door hinges created a shrill grinding noise that was sure to catch the attention of the last two people in the sanctuary. Varian froze like a rabbit, hoping that they wouldn’t see him, which was undoubtedly wrong. Taking a breath he didn’t wait for the onslaught of questions, he simply turned around and stared the duo straight in the eyes, which was hard with the lack of light. He wasn’t going to be the first to speak.

He was met with a quick response with the black haired woman agreeing with his sentiment while accepting his gesture of an handshake. Suspicion grew around her as she identified him by his last name as well though quickly returning her own. Perplexed as to how she knew of his name, he couldn’t help but retort. “I’m curious about something, Akira, How is it that you know of my last name and yet we have not met?” There were perhaps a handful of people that could spot him from a crowd, being able to recognise his name from just his face and nickname was another thing entirely. Afterall he had been constantly undergoing physical changed whether it was minor such as his whitened hair or his golden eye and his own family likely would be unable to recognise him from these changes.

For now though things would be resolved in a civil manner with them being inside a church and him being unaware of almost anything about her, she may be a worker within the Rune Knights having a record of his name. It seems however his cross would enter the forefront of their conversation with an answerable response of her being unable to ignore it entirely though it was wise of her not to. “Perfectly understandable, few can ignore something like this.” The conversation drew dull swiftly with Akira noticeably opting to scan the building seeming to spot something in one of the higher floors, turning as well at her request, he too spotted something albeit briefly. It was less than a flash of colour not enough for him to get a clear look to reveal whether or not it was something of importance,

“It was something but I couldn’t get a clear look, anyway what brings you to the cathedral if you don’t mind me saying you don’t look like the religious type, I don’t mean to offend there’s just something about you that doesn’t scream Illumin.” Idle chit-chat was not something he was the greatest at frequently being brief and straight to the point. While comfortable wielding such a weapon in one arm it was impractical for him to do so within the church nor appropriate instead he gently placed it down at its base. The building despite its vast size and large base of followers had been surprisingly sparse perhaps due to many still recovering from the conflict because of it seemed they were the only people within the great room itself aside from the odd priest roaming around in the background talking to themselves holding holy symbols at least to his knowledge.

That was, at least, until he noticed a man behaving immensely odd, seemingly trying to leave the room into a side room only to freeze in place as frozen in place before turning towards them. As he turned, memories of the church in Baska returned to him, they had met once before in an odd encounter, obviously something had transpired with him to behave in such a manner as this. Wanting to right whatever wrong there was between them, he reached out to him perhaps too loudly in such a building as this. “No need to be scared, my friend let us deal with whatever issue there is between us.”

Varian stood quietly for a few moments. He watched one of the last people go and then turned his eyes back to the kind man. His demeanor was kind, but yet there felt like there was something about him that made you cautious when conversing with him. Varian smed gently. ”Sorry for intruding, my cat just managed to get a little turned around, that’s all.” he said with a smile. He didn’t want to be a haste to anyone so he swooped into the private room and snagged Vega. ”it is a beautiful place, I can’t remember ever seeing a church like this.” Varian said. Then quickly under his breath ”or seeing any church ever.”

Varian turned his attention back to the platinum blonde man and gave a smile. ”if you don’t mind me asking why are you here so late, seems a bit odd. Now It is odd I’m here so late but that’s because k wanted a nice view of everything after the tourists left, but what about you?” Varian asked, arching a single eyebrow. Varian tried very hard not to be to oppressive he didn’t want to set the man off, that would be impolite and the man was currently being very nice to Varian. Varian readjusted his grip on Bega who sat a little restless in his arms, but he didn’t mind too much, she was still somewhat obedient at least.

Despite his initial intentions to interact once more with the individual whom he had briefly encountered months ago, Kon forced to end their conversation abruptly having been interrupted by a priest of the Grand Cathedral calling him by his true name for god knows reason much to his annoyance. “Konstantin?, Konstantin Sokolov?, Your presence has been requested by the high magisters within the church please follow me.” With a heavy sigh, He nodded lazily as he heard his name and the summons. Wanting to ensure that they would not leave off on a bad note, Kon further bent into a bow and apologised humbly and sincerely to the gentleman who stood in front of him. “My apologises unfortunately we will have to part ways here perhaps we will see each-other in the future.”

Having given his goodbyes and begging the pardon of the stranger, he left him and caught up to the priest who seemed to be walking at a noticeably brisk pace, speaking in an undertone to ensure he wasn’t overheard. “The magisters need you to do something for them, more specifically track someone down and retrieve them before anyone else can claim the person they are after.” Reaching the door to an inner section of the building, the priest held open the door letting him in before parting ways with him. “Here is where I leave you.”

[Exit]