The Spark of an Angel

Chapter 10 - Confessions of the Outcasts

At the crack of dawn, Patrick and Welt were escorted back to the chapel, they were greeted with a large crowd of people as they entered through the large wooden doors. They were walked down the aisle, being escorted by five guards this time, then placed in front of an extended stand from the single stand that was there the day before, a lot of chatter filled their ears, "quiet down, everyone!" Luca shouted and the crowd immediately quieted down, "so how this works for our people who are on trial, is you will be asked a series of questions with the truth serum that has been perfected by our finest researchers. Now honesty is something we believe in, so this way you can't lie."

Patrick swallowed, he inched his hand towards Welt, "you-" he pointed to Welt, "will go first and if both your stories line up... you and all your friends will go free, if the council feels so inclined to do so." Their little fingers touched briefly, before a large man dressed in iron armor separated Patrick from Welt.

Patrick stood on the side, watching intently as Cara, the general, walked out carrying a glass of something what Patrick assumed to be the truth serum, Welt glanced at Patrick, his eyes filling with fear as he looked over his shoulder, his hands were placed on his chest, right over the area of his heart, he closed his eyes before removing one of his hands to reach for the glass, Welt tilted his head back and consumed the liquid, "now, we'll wait for the serum to take full effect."

It was an agonizingly long time, finally Luca rose, looking down at Welt, "what is your full name?"

Welt grimaced, creaking his eyes open, "We-" he began, "Vesper Alexander Thomas Armstrong." He spoke, through grit teeth.

Luca glanced at the council members before continuing, "Why do you go by the name, Welt Matthews?"

His eyes filled with pain, "because my friend had the last name Welt and Matthews just fit it."

"We'll get back to your friend in a little bit. What is your occupation?"

"Scientist, studying how to make a bomb powerful enough to destroy an artificial intelligence."

"What was artificial intelligence doing?"

"It threatened to destroy the world I was living in." He spoke, looking at the tiled floor.

Luca was satisfied by his answer, "what happened to your friend. I presume he's dead as most people take the last names and adopt it as their own from people who are dead, Mr. Matthews."

"That would be correct, he died in an accident."

"Elaborate on the accident a little bit more." The council person next to Luca on his right said.

"Me and... ten other scientists worked in a lab, obviously, one of them being my friend, so we went to work like any other day..." his voice trailed off, "that day we were testing small amounts of a radioactive substance that was highly dangerous and one of us made a mistake that caused something bad to happen... an explosion and the other chemicals that we had in the room mixed with the radioactive stuff which created the big explosion, everyone somehow survived but was burning, we pounded on the walls and screamed, I couldn't see anything, I could hear really good though. Then all the screaming and pounding suddenly stopped because everyone had died, everyone expect for me."

"Why didn't you die?" Luca asked, he was leaning on stand.

"Because the gods didn't want me to." Welt's eyes closed, as he heaved an inhale, "can we not talk about this?"

"Alright, did you and your friend have any other relationship outside of work?"

"A friendship, yes. That's all we had. We'd hang out at different bars after work every Friday and..." his eyes shut, "I was catching feelings for him. I don't know if he felt the same way towards me, so that's why I never told him."