Near To The Darkness (Part 3)

(We rejoin Yanis and company.  I apologize in advance for it being rather short.)



Yanis and Arryn sat at the worn wooden table in the kitchen of the little mortuary college, joined by
Father Oren for the morning meal.  Yanis liked the little red fruits and had seen the twisted shrubs they grew on; but after several mornings of fogbrush apples and oatmeal the taste had worn thin for her.  She made a mental note to take some of the seeds back with her to plant in the gardens at the citadel;  Father Hioki always liked new plants.

Oren passed Yanis a bowl of oatmeal, then passed another bowl to Arryn.  He settled in his own chair and mixed in the slices of fogbrush apples and ate a spoonful.  While Yanis hated to ruin breakfast, there were important things to discuss this morning.

Yanis sighed. "I'm very certain there is more than one demon."  She looked at Father Oren with a distressed look on her face.  The news shook Father Oren and his spoon clattered into his bowl, overturning it onto the table.  Arryn looked confused by Yanis' statement.

So he spoke up. "What does that mean, Purifier?" Arryn had gotten into the habit of addressing Yanis only by that title over the past few days.

Father Oren was cleaning up the spattered oatmeal while Yanis answered the young acolyte. "It means that somebody is creating demons, Arryn."

"Why would any..." Arryn began.

"Because some people are damn fools." Father Oren interrupted, face red with anger as he wiped up the remains of his breakfast from the table "They think they can control ghosts and demons to be used for their own ends.  These fucking Goetics." The man practically hissed the last two words, and Father Oren was not one to casually use such a word.

Yanis turned to Arryn to explain. "Goetics are a heretic sect of Morticians, Arryn, like the Necromongers.  They want to understand demons by determining how they come to be and discovering how to control them."  She didn't tell Arryn that Goetic heresy had its roots in Purifier doctrines; that would only inspire distrust.

Father Oren had finished cleaning his place at the table. "This whole business has put me off my appetite.  What's next, Sister Yanis?"