The library wasn’t so far away from the rooms that it wouldn’t be possible to hear shouting from down the corridor, but it was far enough away that the only way I should have been able to hear Kale’s voice was if he were in the hallways already. And considering that we agreed before that he was going to stay locked in the room for safety until I got back, this was a very big and suspicious deal to me.

 

As I got closer and closer, the yelling became more and more discernible, along with the still calm and soft voice of Kale.

 

“-And you think it’s okay to make Meria like this?! Can’t you see how upset she is with you being here?!”

 

“Frieder please. We shouldn’t be doing this right now; Arissa will come back any minute…”

 

“Why didn’t you just go back to your mountain with the rest of the birds? Why do you have to stick around here and rub your existence in our faces?!”

 

“...I have only done what I must to keep a promise. I had no intentions of distressing any of you-”

 

“BULLSHIT!”

 

The group was getting clearer and clearer as I ran. Kale was there, standing in the for some reason now doorless doorway, and Meria and the quiet priest were both facing him. Even though Kale stood quite a bit taller than the quiet priest, somehow the quiet priest looked a lot more menacing. And there, tugging at the menacing priest's arm off to his side, was Meria, looking pitiful with clear panic on her face. Despite her best efforts to pull the quiet priest back and away from Kale, the man slowly drew closer and closer, barely affected by her struggles.

 

And with his most recent outburst, I could see him raising the arm that Meria wasn’t holding, getting ready to strike at Kale.

 

“Kale!”

 

I called out desperately, causing all heads to quickly turn my way. My hands reached for Kale as I called out [Benediction] after [Benediction] in the hopes of protecting him from the oncoming violence, but not a one of them worked, since I could only proc the skill through touch, since it wasn’t a healing ability. In the end, all I could do was call out Kale’s name again in worry and fear, pleading with him to be alright.

 

“Kale!”

 

My distraction only really worked for a second, really. Contrary to what I would have expected, the quiet priest didn’t lose momentum with my appearance, but instead gained it. I guess he’s the type of guy to double down on his actions when he’s caught doing something bad, unlike Meria who by now had completely paled and distanced herself from him.

 

Yes, the quiet priest doubled down, and now his fist, which I’d finally gotten close enough to see was holding some kind of sharp object, was sailing towards Kale’s face.

I wanted to scream.

 

If only I was closer, if only I hadn’t left Kale alone and gone to the library, if only I’d done better to fix things between him and the priests, if only if only if only…

 

I wanted to use my pressure to immediately knock the quiet priest down, but that too wasn’t long range enough for me to reach him in time, 3 rooms down as I still was. The only option that I really had left to use was my long range healing, and even though I didn’t want to let Kale experience any of the pain in the first place, it was still better than nothing.

 

I steadied my gaze on him and forced myself to watch the oncoming attack, ready to say the skill the moment that Kale was injured. Luckily enough though, I didn’t get the chance that I was waiting for at all. As I watched, Kale muttered something under his breath and waved his arm, and faster than the priest could finish swinging down his arm, he was launched away and slammed into the door across the hall, ending up pinned against it by a couple of particularly sharp feathers.

 

His screams of pain from the feathers that had cut and dug through his flesh were joined by Meria’s astonished screams only a short distance away.

If she’d still been holding onto him like she had been earlier, then she surely would have been blown away like that too.

 

Kale, seemingly completely unworried about the aftermath or the screaming, just turned and started walking towards me, meeting up with me only a short moment later with the stride of his long legs.

 

“Kale!”

 

I took his face in my hands and scanned it all over, making sure he really didn’t get hit by whatever it was the quiet priest had planned to use on him. It didn’t look like it made it to his face, but it’s not like my vision is perfect and the object was quite small, so I didn’t want to risk it. Of course, my next action after making sure Kale was fine was to come closer to where the quiet priest was still pinned and look at the object he’d dropped while being flung.

 

…It was a small kitchen knife.

You know, the kind you’d use for paring fruit.

He must have stopped by the kitchen before coming here.

Maybe after visiting Meria and losing his mind.

 

As I bent slowly and picked it up, I could hear Meria starting to sob.

 

“No no… I didn’t want this. I didn’t want this Frieder. Please…”

 

I couldn’t help but frown at how heartbroken she sounded. Sure, maybe I’d been seeing them like villains in my mind lately, but I highly doubt the fearful Meria would have wanted him to do all this. What had to go on in his head to make the quiet priest really do all this stuff?

 

My gaze inevitably drifted over to the quiet priest, who was still squirming in pain as he tried to move, seeming like he was desperately trying to turn his hands enough so that he could touch his palms to the door.

 

“...[Appraisal].”

 

{Frieder Senwild

Age: 29

Occupation: [Priest]

Health: Lacerations (Arms, Torso, Legs), Stabs (Arms, Torso, Legs), Bruises.

Energy: 170/230 (Shadow)

Status: Enraged

 

Skills: [Mend], [Clear], [Shadow Walk], [Remove], [Greater Mend], [Small Dimensional Space]

 

Born a war orphan, he turned to theft to help him survive, using his shadow skills to assist in his thievery. After stumbling upon one of his friends who’d joined the war coming back in absolute tatters and using his abilities to heal him, he joined the priesthood so that he could heal at the front lines. It was there that he met Meria and developed feelings for her.}

 

I see. I never would have guessed. Well, him liking Meria was actually pretty obvious I guess, and his war backstory made it really obvious why he disliked the bird-people, but the whole shadow abilities and everything… I’d heard that not just people with the holy attribute could heal, but I’d mostly thought it would be like water, earth, those kinds of things. If anything, I’d expect a more action oriented role from a shadow priest than what we do here. I suppose I would have figured all this out sooner if I’d been closer to him while we were all healing people a few days ago; Or, you know, if I’d just appraised him sooner. 

 

Maybe I should have reversed my rule on that after I decided I no longer liked the two of them.

Would have stopped the quiet priest from sneaking over and bringing out Kale.

 

By the way, which one of those skills did he use to remove that door? Was it [Clear]? No no, from the looks of it, that one should probably be his ‘cure’ type ability. Okay, so then it must be-

 

“[Remove].”

 

As I watched, the door behind the quiet priest slowly dissolved into an inky blackness, dripping down onto the floor and freeing him. He dropped down painfully, gritting his teeth and grunting as he tried to stop himself from falling onto the sharp dagger-feathers that were still buried into his arms and legs. However, it didn’t seem like he had any plans of removing them just yet, if the way he turned his murderous gaze to Kale and rushed up meant anything. Even while he struggled up, it was clear to see that all of his multiple stab wounds were oozing vastly more blood than they already had been, but maybe he’d just been too blinded by anger to care about them very much.

 

The quiet priest muttered to himself and a small dark rip appeared in the air next to him.

And from that rip, he pulled out yet another knife, this time bigger than the last.

_____

AN: And this is where we stop. Thank you once again for all your time, and I'm deeply sorry for ending it here unfinished.