Saints and Sinners

Thirty-six:

Thirty-six:

Alina was surprised that The Apparat smiled at Aleksander like he was an old friend. The way that Aleksander talked about church, she thought that it hadn't been part of his life for a very, very long time. Yet The Apparat greeted him like he was The Prodigal Son Returned. Aleksander took off his gloves and pocketed them.

"Yes, Father," he said, "it has been a long time, but I've had other affairs to clean up, as you know."

The Apparat nodded. "You do like to keep a clean house when it comes to your work. It's one of the things that I've always appreciated about you."

"Appreciated about you?" Alina looked between the two of them. "You made it seem like you had no relationship with religion."

The Apparat smiled at Aleksander. "Aleksander is someone that I've known since he was a young boy. Baghra was a single mother, and Aleksander was frequently getting into trouble. I helped to steer him to the right direction. The church paid for his schooling because he spent so much time with us a child. We had all developed a great affection for him. He's also one of our biggest donors."

Alina frowned and stared at her soulmate, suddenly aware that she didn't know the man that was standing next to her at all. "Biggest donors?"

"I donate to places I feel benefit the community. If some poor bastard gets his jollies off worshiping a hire power, who am I to discriminate?" Aleksander had a stormy look about him, and Alina could feel the anger that seemed to be radiating through him. There was something off, and it wasn't just the church.

"I assume you two are here to talk about your next steps," said The Apparat.

Alina coughed. "Next steps?"

The Apparat clapped his hands together and smiled. "Marriage, of course. Aleksander is an upstanding member of this community. You might be soulmates, but even soulmates do not get exceptions for living in sin. You must make your commitment before the Saints, to show that you are honest."

Aleksander flinched. "We're not here to talk about marriage, Apparat. We're here to talk about something else."

"What could possibly be more important?" The Apparat asked, stroking his long beard.

Aleksander walked over to him, patted him on the shoulder, and calmly said, "We're here to talk about Hanne Brum, and how you supposedly 'removed her Blessing'. Which is not possible, the last time that I checked because something given by the Saints is not supposed to be removed. And if you are scamming people by running a fake operation, that would be illegal, Father."

The Apparat smiled. "You were always so perceptive, my dear son. I do not remove peoples Blessings. I would never do something so coarse."

"Then why did Hanne Brum have a chunk of her skin cut out that she says was done by you?" Aleksander asked. "She's met you on many occasions. She described you in detail, and she doesn't seem like the kind of person that would lie."

"My dear child," said The Apparat, "you more than anyone should know how the church works. When have you ever known for me directly to visit another country? We send emissaries, or those that are in training for that kind of thing. Unless, of course, it was a royal wedding but even then, most prefer a representative from their own home churches. And why would I remove a Blessing when Blessings mean business for us?"

"Business?" Alina said.

"Weddings," The Apparat explained.

"Ah," she said, and she didn't like the way that he was looking pointedly at her.

The Apparat pulled away from Aleksander and stroked his beard. "Though perhaps if you answered my calls now and again you would know about The Pretender."

"The Pretender?" Aleksander said, furrowing his brows together in confusion.

"Yes, The Pretender," said The Apparat, "I've tried contacting you on many occasions, but Miss Nazyalensky does not seem to be putting them through. There has been someone posing as me for some time now doing exactly what you've been speaking of. President Lantsov has refused to make this known because he doesn't want people getting it into their heads that they can remove Blessings and has bene forcing the newspapers to keep quiet about it."

Alina frowned. "Why would someone try to convince people to remove a Blessing? Blessings are supposed to be gifts from the Saints. I thought that is what everyone wanted."

"Not everyone sees it that way," said The Apparat, "some people see it as the church trying to control people. They think that we're the ones are behind it."

"What about the Blessed ink?" Aleksander said. "Hanne spoke of stealing some as a child."

The Apparat shook his head. "There are some churches that say that they have such things, and they sell it to tourists. But Blessed Ink is not something that is real."

"Can you think of why a soulmate would manage to stay alive if their soulmate was killed?"

The Apparat hesitated. "There was an old myth about brothers taking on wives if one of their siblings had died. They were able to keep the wife alive, but it would have only happened if the love was already there."

"Hanne Brum isn't Matthias's brother though," said Aleksander, "that doesn't make sense."

"No," said The Apparat, "but she is young Mr. Helvar's cousin. How else do you think that Matthias was able to get close enough to Brum to try and kill him?"

Alina shivered. "Brum was trying to marry his daughter to her cousin?"

The Apparat made a face. "The Fjerdians are very particular. They have a strong distaste of outsiders, and the church has made it known that we do not approve of their activities. And Jarl Brum is not a man to be trusted. He will do whatever it takes to get what he wants."

"Thank you for the insight, Father," said Aleksander, "come on Alina, we're going." He gripped her hand tightly and started to pull her from the church.

The Apparat called out as they left, "Think of what I said, my son. Your union deserves to be Blessed by the church."