The Way of Shadow

Chapter 8 - The Priory of St John Vianney

The Priory was located in the heart of the City of London – not the greater London area, but the very heart of it. It was old – ancient and unimposing. It had been rebuilt many times over the centuries it had existed, it had been co-opted by the Christians at one point and named the Priory of St John Vianney during the Norman conquest, but it had nothing to do with the Christian faith, and the Catholics had quietly forgotten about it – no doubt thanks to the Covenant.

All faiths were inventions of the Malakhim who'd tried to control humanity over the centuries, Buddhism, Islam, Mormonism, and all of the so-called Christian faiths had their roots in things the Malakhim had done, before the Covenant had stepped in and put a stop to their interference. If people knew the truth, the actual root of the religions in the world... The Malakhim would be in trouble, and so would the world. For every good thing done in the name of religion, there had been plenty of evil done in the same name as well.

It was all fucked up, and something I kept away from. God, or a higher power – if they existed, would be hard-pressed to clean this mess up. Whatever the Word and Song was, it was enough that it and the Covenant kept the Malakhim in check at the moment, and Az and Ur had no desire to upset the cart by standing against the rest.

The Priory was not something they'd had a hand in creating – it was a creation of man and had come into existence during the final war to defeat Gabriel, as had the First Covenant when the Five groups had come together to stop the renegade fallen Malakhim lord. Five groups, Man, Malakhim, Vampires, Skinwalkers and the Berserkers – the last three had been created by Gabriel but had turned against him in the end. Five chairs were placed around the Covenant's table, but only four were occupied. The Berserkers, Gabriel's final weapons who had turned on him at the last moment, had all died during that conflict, but such was the admiration the other four armies held for them at the time, that they had placed a fifth chair around the table for them, a chair that would never be filled. Five chairs, but only four were ever occupied, the empty chair being symbolic.

It spoke of the current state of the Covenant, and maybe the Priory as well. Symbolic, but not completely toothless. Each faction enforced it, but each walked a fine line not willing to take on the other three. The Priory might be a place for scholars, but knowledge was also a weapon.

The current iteration of the Priory stood on the foundations of the original that had been founded after the last war, back in the old days of the three brothers. It had been in this location since before the Romans had built a small port called Londinium that had grown up to become the capital it now was. Like I said, the Priory was old.

Rumour said that Gabriel was buried here, the last of the three original Malakhim. Charlie had once said that he thought it was more likely that Gabriel was bound and chained somewhere in the depths of the old structure, which all the modern iterations of the Priory had been built on. I'd shuddered at that idea, the idea of being trapped for several thousand years.

Whatever the truth, the Priory was the human centre for the Covenant and a place of importance to all its members. If there had truly been a theft here, I would have expected more of an outcry. I would have expected the Priory to contact me directly, not through the Malakhim. But then the Priory had always had a reverent relationship with the damn angels.

I'd met the current head of the order, Father Simon many years ago – he'd come to me, I think mostly to find out what sort of man I was and was scared by the fact I was part Shadow. There had been no invitation then or since to visit the place.

Until now that was.

Amelia and Charlie were right, something was wrong with the whole story Raph had told me, something wasn't right if they were all of a sudden allowing me access. Something didn't fit... The Malakhim, Vampires, Skinwalkers and Priory all had their own agendas – I couldn't really trust any of them and never had. They were the ones running the Covenant. The Asura, demons, had never been invited to be a part of the Covenant. Apparently, they were too chaotic and so, had never been invited to be a part of it – even though they were bound by its rules by the other groups. Didn't mean they played by them; demons walked a fine line sometimes. It was one of the reasons I had more faith in them, yes, they had fucked me around in the past... But they had never played politics with me, not like the others had.