Letter Addressed To The Fire

The Traitor: The Story of Waterlily the Nun

The moon is already rising as I get home to study the documents from Priest Miguel. I cannot help sighing at the weight and intensity of this mission. The Apocrypha as in on the line.

I have to get a lot of things in order. The biggest of all being the Poppy Contract. But I have to get first things first: the traitor. Thus, I open the folder containing the pictures and pieces of information of the suspected Chapel members. Waterlily the Nun, Mother Heidi, and Cardinal Suarez. Cardinal Suarez. I still cannot believe that Cardinal Suarez himself is being suspected of such a grave crime. Cardinal Suarez, the most trusted aid of the Pope himself. How could they suspect him?

Before diving into that rabbit hole, I decide to take the easiest prey first: Waterlily the Nun.

Waterlily the Nun, according to the files, is a 30-year old female with a height of five-foot-six and weight of 135 pounds. She has been a member of the Chapel for six years. The story goes that Waterlily, who was known as Liliana before promising herself to the Church, was the daughter of Marigold, a florist, and Fiorello, a fruit farmer. She grew up in a small farm in Birrough. Hm, a north Nerosian.

Photos of her parents, her family, and her as a child are clipped to her document. I set her family information aside to finally reveal where it all went wrong. When Liliana was 12, her father, Fiorello, started making and selling wines called Birrough's Best. This propelled them to wealth and prosperity, and they were able to buy a land in the outskirts of Hoxwell. They built a two-storey building, and they moved here when Liliana was 14. On the first floor, Marigold sold her beautiful flowers while Fiorello sold fruits. Eventually, they moved their flower and fruit stands outside the building to make room for a winery and bar. They left the flower and fruit stand to Liliana's young hands so that Fiorello could continue making wines while Marigold served the customers of their bar. But what happened to their small farm in Birrough?

Contracts and certificates prove that they did not sell their land. It was in that land where they got their flowers and fruits, both to sell and make wine. They hired Birroughnians to guard and tend to their farm. These Birroughnians were their neighbors; one could even consider them friends. On paper, this seems noble and kind, but the written testaments and letters of these Birroughnians prove otherwise. In the first six months of their employments, Marigold and Fiorello were diligent and generous with the payments to their neighbors. Liliana's parents even wrote that they were their "valued business partners" in the letter that accompanied their pay slips. Past that six-month mark, their pay slips started coming late, with less and less money coming to them. On the tenth month of their employment, the Birroughnians wrote to Fiorello that they ought to be paid more over time, as Birrough's Best was demanding more and more produce, which meant that their business was earning more. But when Liliana turned 15, the Birroughnians were getting only half the money they received in the first six months. Hm, a family of four would need at least N8000 a month.

This is why the Birroughnians stopped working on that farm all together. Fiorello was furious. According to a news article, Fiorello dragged Marigold back to Birrough the night their wine sold out and they had to close early, and screamed at their "valued business partners".