An Angel Called Eternity

To Bet on Losing Dogs - Cardinal Sin VIII: Two Black Hearts

Cardinal Sin VIII: Two Black Hearts

The Twenty-Seventh Day of the Seventh Moon, 873 AD.
Aegos, Aegan Hills, Western Dathan.

His meeting with Adikos was going to be a stormy one, that much he was sure of. In his own mind he knew that he had done the right thing, even if she'd been set free with a slap on the wrist rather than any true punishment. The display had earned him some allies in the form of the Aegan Watch and the Chief Inquisitor, so that was something at least. None of that really made him feel any better about the meeting that he was about to endure, however.

"Cardinal Sin. His Holiness, Archcardinal Adikos, will see you now."

Sin nodded to the secretary and made to stride into the chamber.

"Oh, one more thing." The secretary said. "Your cane. Leave it here."

Sin froze for a moment, weighed his options and, realising that he didn't really intend to kill Adikos here today, acquiesced to the secretary's request.

"Thank you, Cardinal. You may now enter."

He strode into the Archcardinal's office with as much steel in his spine as he could muster. The office was a grand thing, toned down a little since the theocracy had been established, but still with marble walls and golden ornaments adorning tables and surfaces. There was even a noose of golden thread hanging from the ceiling, as if the First Saint would have cared at all for the colour of the rope around his neck whilst he swung.

The office looked grand, yes, but the Archcardinal himself just looked... well, he wasn't imposing, not with how thin he was, but certainly intimidating. There was a fervour behind his eyes, a gravitas when he spoke, a measure of surety in all that he did. His mitre and ornate robes were carefully laid out to one side on a chaise longue to one side. He was wearing a far plainer set of white robes at the moment, a stark contrast to the black and crimson of Sin's own robes, and yet of the two of them it was this old man who was the more intimidating.

"What in the name of the First Saint were you thinking, Sin?"

Sin swallowed hard, taking a step forwards and then moving to kneel on one knee.

"I- she attempted to have me killed, your Holiness. Worse still, Spyridon might have been caught in the volley and killed as well. I needed to see her arrested to ensure that there were no further attempts on my life whilst I smoked out the rats who'd been supporting her in this endeavour and seen them repent."

"Nevertheless, you arrested the wrong Cardinal. Trios was the one you should have arrested. Killed as well."

Sin blinked a few times in confusion. He hated Trios, yes, and the man had tried to kill him before, but in this instance he was likely to be at least mostly innocent.

"But Trios was not the one who attempted to kill me, your Holiness."

Adikos scoffed.
"Does it matter? You're Cardinal Sin, my favourite successor. The only man in all the Aegan hills who could countermand your words is me, and if you were to have said it was Trios then I would have backed you to the hilt."

"Admeta was the one who tried to kill me."

Adikos shook his head and spoke in a tone of warning.
"It was not Admeta."

"It was, your Holiness! She intended to-"

"IT WAS NOT ADMETA! The first rule of governance, Sin, is to never let a good crisis go to waste! Admeta is influential, valuable even, but Trios? It has simply been said that he blackmailed her into committing such actions. As we speak he is being tied to a stake and burned. His co-conspirator as well, a Canoness who now languishes in a cell beneath the barracks. Admeta will be admonished in private for her actions, as should have been done from the start, Sin. Your little spectacle has cost us greatly in the eyes of the public, in the eyes of those who now sit in the senate.