Nameless Ghoul

The Mission

The next few days passed without incident, and Itzal had well and truly fallen for his new life. If this was normal? He couldn’t get enough of it.

Itzal stayed in bed late, ate way too much, and drank even more. He ran with Papa’s ghouls and ghulehs. He took a bath with Sunshine, which turned into a lazy afternoon in bed, getting to know each other even better and learning more about what his limits were with being intimate. He spent an evening alone drawing in one of his new sketchbooks, doing sketches of the people and the ghouls he’d met since he came here, along with impressions of other things around the Abbey that had caught his eye.

He and Sunshine binge watched the first few seasons of Game of Thrones and he watched a movie at Secondo's ghoul’s lair with them. He cooked scrambled eggs and toast for the others and he helped to clean the lair with Aether, Swiss, Rain and Mountain.

He was happy, and his bad dreams were kept at bay. He and Sunshine slept soundly at night, curled up and wrapped around each other in their nest of blankets. Sometimes they'd sleep in his room, sometimes in hers.

If he had let himself think about what the perfect life would be like while he was still Santos’ slave, this would be it.

He knew, though, knew it was too good to be true. He had kept the threat of Santos and his witches at the back of his mind, and he had let himself enjoy the time. His physical wounds had all healed up now. He was well fed, well rested and the healthiest he’d been for a long, long time. So when Secondo summoned Itzal to his office on the Friday for a meeting with his other ghouls, he felt prepared. 

Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Quinn and Itzal lined up in front of Secondo’s desk in his study. Secondo greeted them and came around to the front of the desk, perching on the edge casually as he spoke to them.

“I trust you’ve all enjoyed Yule? It seems to have been extra special this year.” They all voiced their agreement. “It has been good to have a break, good for everyone. But now we must return to work,” he said as he looked at Itzal. “Water and Air have been investigating Santos and we have gathered what we know.”

He nodded to Water, who stepped to the front as Secondo went to sit behind his desk.

“We checked out the church where they were based, and they've abandoned it. They’ve cleared out everything. Even the wards have been disabled. But we were watching them as they did it, and one of the witches slipped up. We followed her. We think we have their new location,” Water said.

Itzal’s heart picked up speed. The thought of going after Santos brought every one of his ghoul instincts to the fore. The promise of a hunt and a chase appealed to their wild nature, and he could feel the others getting restless with anticipation as well.

“We need to confirm our intelligence, though, before we make any moves.” That seemed to snap everyone out of it. Going in unsure would be dangerous and stupid, as Itzal well knew. “Itzal, we need you to get closer to them, not too close, but close enough to confirm if that’s their new base. If you can ghost close enough to pick something up then we can plan how to get rid of this threat for good.”

Itzal wasn’t sure how he felt about that. If he stayed in his shadow form, he would be safe enough, but the thought of willingly going near Santos and his witches again made him uneasy. He was part of this team now, though. Secondo hadn’t just chosen him out of the goodness of his heart, he’d chosen him because he had skills that the team needed, skills that the Clergy needed. This was his family now, and he would do anything to keep them safe. He nodded his agreement and hoped that he wouldn’t let them down.

They decided he would go after sunset and see what he could find out. In the darkness, he would be invisible and in his shadow form he could sense magic and wards more easily, so hopefully wouldn’t trigger any alarms they may have set up. The other ghouls would keep their distance and wait close by in case something went wrong and he needed backup. Secondo’s ghouls all bore a warded tattoo that gave them some resistance to certain magic, and he had agreed to get one as well.