Aramis and there rest of the grunts are told to go home. Your pay will be sent to your homes. The check is in the mail, as the saying goes. Normally, that would have been the end of it, but Aramis has mouths to feed at home and needs to know just how much he'll be receiving from the clergy before he can go home with any confidence whatsoever. And so, after redressing himself in civilian attire, he ignores the other soldiers pouring out of the temple in orderly single-file and heads on upstairs to the Cardinal's quarters.
      Lloyd Cardinal Staahl. A living relic of the Great War ninety years ago with steely blue eyes that bore holes through your skull and paper maché skin stretched over a web of blue-black veins. His face bears the heavy lines of a war-hardened soldier, and his shoulders hunch under the weight of a thousand deaths accredited to his command. A spinster at birth, his twisted spine pricks out under the heavy gold and ivory robes, a mountain range over the valley of milk and honey. He makes all of the big decisions for the Church of Deus in Gaia, even if he himself must bow to a higher power. But the Pope is elsewhere, unreachable. Aramis would have to talk to Cardinal Staahl directly.
      Using the battle tactics he's learned, Aramis doesn't knock to indicate his desire to speak with the Cardinal. He opens the door and locks it behind him. He gives the Cardinal no other choice but to speak to him. The Cardinal is old. His joints creak under the strain of movement, and it takes him a great deal of strain just to stand up.
      "Sit down," Aramis directs, pointing first at the Cardinal, then to his throne-like chair. The Cardinal's spindly fingers curl into loosely-formed fists, the heels of his palms arched upwards on the table surface. Moving causes him pain. It's a great disadvantage. Aramis snatches up the guest chair and pulls it in front of Cardinal Staahl's desk, sitting down across from him and crossing his arms over his chest.
      "We're going to have a little talk."
 Bleeding Apocalypse · Thu Mar 08, 2007 @ 06:12pm · 0 Comments |
