Essence of Quinn Parts 3 & 4 (MxM)

Uninvited

The second Quinn set foot inside the Abbey again he got a bad feeling. He frowned, scenting the air and trying to figure out what it was that had made him so edgy.

Air noticed and he felt him tense beside him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

Quinn hummed, unable to answer him as he had no idea.

“Bad feeling,” he offered with a shrug.

Earth cursed from behind him.

“Oh great. Care to give us any clue as to why?” the big ghoul said.

He glanced around to see if anything seemed off. He could see the magical wards that separated the public and the private areas of the Abbey twinkling away undisturbed. The few people who were milling around were all residents of the Abbey; it was too early for anyone else to have arrived.

The ether was whispering to him again though which was never usually a good thing.

“Your guess is as good as mine, but something isn’t right,” Quinn said.

Earth sighed and they headed to the security office to pick up the comms equipment that they used for events like this. The ghouls would be dispersed amongst the crowd and around the edges of the chapel in case of any security threats so it was useful to be able to communicate with each other if necessary.

Earth would be watching Secondo, Omega was bodyguard for Terzo and Veles was with Primo. Air, Mist, Alpha and Ifrit would be surveying the crowd from the edges. Water, Lir, Swiss, Rain, Cumulus and Cirrus would be dotted in amongst the congregation. Primo’s and Terzo’s ghouls loved to get involved in things like this and for a big event that involved the public, they were usually drafted in as extra security. Copia’s ghouls Aether, Sodo and Mountain were looking after Papa.

The ghouls all went over the plans for the evening, conducted their final checks and took their places around the public chapel ready for the worshippers to arrive. It had been decided that Quinn would be outside of the chapel with Fire, Vukan and Stratus, keeping an eye on the exits. For him to be in amongst so many humans was not a great idea, especially as the ether had been teasing him badly today.

As soon as he left Air’s side the visions began. They were unrelated to anything, random insight into the future of the humans who had started to drift into the Abbey. Pointless and exhausting. The attendees were being greeted by Sister Angelina and some of the other higher Clergy members and then ferried into the main public chapel.

The Abbey didn’t often welcome strangers into its midst, only for festivals and holidays like this. Parts of the Abbey were used just for them and access to the rest of the building was restricted to those who lived and worked there. They couldn’t just have random humans wandering around the hallways, so anywhere that could be locked down was. Wards were added to keep people out of the places they weren’t meant to be.

The chapel was filled to beyond capacity this year with some of the people and ghouls having to stand near the back of the chapel. The recent surge in success of the Ghost Project had brought with it new followers, curious about the message. The more serious of them seemed to be in attendance tonight.

Quinn saw Itzal and Sunshine enter once the public had stopped filing in and they settled in right at the back.

He resumed wandering the hallways, making sure that nobody was where they shouldn’t have been, but he hadn’t been able to shake off that bad feeling he’d had.

Fire gave regular updates over the comms link and the ghouls all checked in every so often. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, nothing out of the ordinary, no threats. That is, until the mass was over and the people started slowly leaving back out into the night.