Essence of Quinn Parts 3 & 4: Papa IV Era & The Main Event - Fate Breaker (MxM)

Grim Task

Phenex was late. He’d been due to arrive earlier that evening, but as of yet there was no sign of him.

Earth and Quinn had been waiting in the summoning chapel with Secondo but the circle remained eerily quiet. Shay had gone to try and commune with the Council to find out about the delay, but as of yet there was no news. Sometimes the connection could be unreliable at best.

Secondo checked his watch and sighed. He was sitting on one of the side pews, scrolling through emails while they waited but Quinn could tell that he wasn’t giving them his full attention.

“We should have been well underway by now,” Secondo grumbled. “Itzal will be beside himself, worrying about this.”

Quinn didn’t respond. He gritted his teeth when the ether forced a vision into his mind, flashes of images and impressions but nothing that seemed to be useful. The fire though, the fire was familiar. This was the second or third time that he’d had the vision of flames and pain and grief, but as fucking usual, the ether was holding something back.

He came aware again and Secondo and Earth were standing in front of him, both looking concerned.

“I’m fine,” Quinn snarled and Earth snorted a laugh.

“Your eye’s gone again,” he said, nodding towards it.

Quinn blinked and rubbed at his eyelid, expecting there to be blood but there was none.

“Fuck, is it bad?”

Secondo narrowed his eyes and reached out, cupping Quinn’s cheek and tilting his head so he could get a better look.

“It’s haemorrhaged again. It looks bad but it seems to be superficial. I’ll call Omega to take a look, but I can cast a healing spell for now.”

Quinn sighed but he didn’t protest. At least it wasn’t as messy as when his nose bled. Secondo must have picked up the stray thought because he chuckled.

A few minutes later and Secondo had cast his spell, satisfied that the healing magic was getting to work. He went to settle back on the pew where he’d been sitting, but a shimmer of magic in the circle made him pause.

“Finally,” Quinn said under his breath.

Earth glared at him and they took their positions, ready to greet Phenex.

The earth ghoul appeared a moment later and this time he got his bearings a little quicker.

“Phenex. Welcome back,” Secondo said. “I trust all is well?”

Phenex smiled and stepped out of the circle.

“It is.” He slid his eyes to Quinn and then back to Secondo. “Boreas was delayed in signing the paperwork. He had another matter to attend to. The connection today is weak so we could not let you know. He sends his apologies.”

Secondo nodded.

“These things cannot be helped. Shall we?” he said, gesturing for Phenex to follow them.

They made their way to Shay’s office to finalise everything and then headed down to the basement. It was just after eleven so already a good few hours after they had planned to do this.

Alpha and Omega were guarding the doors to Santos’ hallway and they nodded respectfully and moved aside to make way for the procession of ghouls that followed Secondo. They opened the doors to let them through.

Quinn opened up the cell using blood pricked from his thumb and they all piled inside. Secondo, Phenex, Councillor Shay, Earth and Quinn stood in a semi circle before him.