Genesis Chronicorum β1: Hellfire

Chapter 23: Hellfire

Hellfire
Dark fire
Now, gypsy, it's your turn
Choose me or
Your pyre
Be mine or you will burn

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The 26-year-old boy had been visited by the Archdeacon that night, blessing him for what he survived "I am sorry you had to go through such tragedies, my boy. You have done well in illuminating this great city with your good intentions your mother wished for you. I believe it is time for you to take your father's place as Judge. You were devoted to your studies and you have proved yourself a person worthy of keeping Notre Dame safe. " Said the Archdeacon. As soon as he stopped talking, Claude didn't hesitate to accept his new profession.

Claude: If it is alright with everyone. I would like to sentence my father and his witch tomorrow. As my take on the scepter.

Jehan: Claude, are you certain brother? Sentence our father to death?!

Claude: I must brother. They killed our mother. God gave me one purpose. Put me on this great earth to fulfill his wishes as to the next one in line to protect His great city. I must do it. And if the Archdeacon permits me, you shall be the next one after him.

The Archdeacon pronounced Claude as their new judge that night. He wasn't convinced that Claude's first step was to burn his own father, but Jacque took the first step to kill his own son. Still, he approves of such justice, He respected Laverne like a sister and was devastated by what happened to her. Right when everyone was asleep, Claude looked out his window, to the streets of Notre Dame. He wasn't tired, how could he? Everything that happened to him that day kept haunting him. He wanted to look for Maria and make her pay. He made a vow that night, Purge the wretched vermin that are fortune tellers and thieves from his beloved city to her former glory. He loved a person who died long ago, a woman that died when his mother died.  "Deus te adiuvet si iter iterum transeamus.  Omnia perfecte agimus tibi." He said, before drifting off to sleep.

He could've made his parents proud when he wore his new, official uniform. Robes black as the night (et anima), purple trimmed like lavender in the night (et ignes inferni), some of his father's rings on his fingers (quos odisti vincula) he was ready for the day. He started the day with a prayer, alone in his chambers, and then off to the breakfast room where his brother waited for him. There was silence along with them all day. In the afternoon he visited his father, the creator of a monster who was once a man. There, Jacque stood, kneeling, in chains, with his mouth covered, and beside him Fleur, in the same state her lover was. Jacque was brushed, hurt, and mangled by the wounds his son caused him, pale as the moon and weak as a poor old man.

Jacque looked at his son and swore there was a wicked, satisfied smile on his face and felt an aura as dark and malevolent as the devil if he would know. He saw his creation, he saw what his little boy turned into. He felt pain, sadness, and regret. "Are you proud of me, father? Didn't you want your favorite son to be what you once were? Tonight you will join mother...or maybe not, because you are going to a different place, hot and dark where the light does not touch. You were the author of my miserable life. I thank you for opening the gates...and my eyes. " Claude said as he left them alone, unfortunate to miss the time when Jacque shed tears for how sorry he was to be the worst of fathers.

Claude's words came true as Jacque and Fleur were taken out of their cell and to the front of the cathedral, before them there was a great unlit bonfire and in the center a wooden pole, for them to be tied, both beside each other, they were to burn together. Claude saw them arrive, his eyes locked onto his father, his satisfaction grew when he saw them afraid. People started gathering up as the guards dragged Jacque and Fleur then tied them up, facing the crowd. Jehan wasn't beside his brother, nor among the people, but in the cathedral, he was praying. Praying for his brother to heal emotionally and physically of the wounds that their father caused him, praying for strength and for the gypsies to be safe. Behind the big crowd, they were two people holding hands, cloaked in black, staring at the prisoners. A man and a woman, behind them just a mere boy with short black hair, their names were Maria, Pierre, and Clopin, once friends to the newest Judge of Notre Dame. 

Maria couldn't stop staring at the man Claude became, her heart broke in two that night, thinking that two people were going to die for her actions. " Jacque Frollo is accused of attempting to murdering me, controlled by the wretched with beside him. The sentence is death by fire!  For Fleur attempting to take control over me and my family's rights and the city!" yelled Claude for everybody to hear. He approached his father to hear his last words, even if he didn't want to hear them. Claude looked at his father's eyes one last time, at one point when he felt a tear across his cheek, and quickly wiped it away. "Any Last words...Jacque?" said Claude with the most calming tone to the point when Jacque started crying and in Latin, he whispered to his son "Ignosce me. te amo fili".

Claude's stone-cold face, and heart led him to take the torch and light the bonfire to see the couple burning and screaming. The gypsies didn't help but leave and lament them as they hid from their new enemy, a man who turned into a monster. A monster who found the most wicked and perverted way of getting rid of evil.

That was the memory he saw behind his eyes 20 years later, at the age of 46. When he was summoned to catch a new batch of wretched thieves roaming around his streets, probably stealing goods and leaving the city, a group of three gypsies, attempting to leave the city without causing trouble with the man who brought Notre Dame to her knees.