Everything Is Eternal (Book Two)

XXXII

They left the sanctuary. Kate didn't miss Matilda's pinched expression. Will's sister regarded the whole thing as a waste of time. Evelyn seemed worried the visit would send Kate into a depression. It was hard to conceal the thoughts swirling in her mind from the two women. Once they got back to the Morris home, she shook the nurse off, saying she needed privacy.

Alone in the vast bedroom, she finally looked at what Aoi had given her. She read, hoping that Vanessa had a plan in place for her to escape this ornate prison. Her sister had written in code. They had done that a few times, but this entire letter was nearly completely in code. She unraveled the code easily enough, but as she did, she saw why Aoi had insisted that she would want to stay.

Kate flew out of her room, rushing down the grand staircase. She knew Matilda would be in her father's office and she burst into the oppressive room.

Matilda looked up with a cross expression. "What is it now?"

Though she had recovered from the ordeal of her purification, the running left her more winded than she would have been in the past. "I've news..."

"That's not news," Matilda said, not waiting for her to catch her breath. "If you think my father wasn't aware of the reason you went..."

"It's about Will!" Kate blurted out.

For one of the first times, some true humanity crept into Matilda and she blanched. "What is it?"

"He's not dead!" Kate said quickly, getting to the most important part first.

"Are you certain?"

"What is ever certain?" Kate fought off the constant misery always threatening to pull her down into a dark hole. "But according to my sister Vanessa, my last piece attracted more attention than anyone realized, more precisely mention of Shin Watanabe. A note was sent to the paper in the capital. Shin Watanabe has been seen at Bloodstone Sanctuary, at the small Bloodstone settlement near the capital."

Matilda's eyes darkened with disappointment. "That does not mean my little brother is alive!"

"Wait!" Kate raised her hand. "The note mentioned that... Shin attacked someone at the Bloodstone Sanctuary. Quite viciously. This person is blond and the anonymous writer claims it is Will. It says that he isn't even registered as a prisoner under his name, just a number! That's why no one, not your father, not my allies, has been able to find him."

Matilda pursed her lips. "That's illegal."

"It happens all the time. All Will had to do was anger the wrong people, and he did." Kate's stomach clenched. "They might be attempting to turn him... like Shin."

"I don't care if Will comes out ready to be an acolyte. I want my brother back," Matilda said.

Kate almost agreed, but if he came out that way, he would no longer be Will. If Shin had turned, then he would no longer be Shin.

***

George Morris had a different concern. "Are you certain this isn't a feint? To lure you, and this family, into provoking the Sacred State? Isn't it entirely possible that Watanabe is angry with you for throwing light on his betrayal?"

Kate didn't want to think that Shin was so far gone that he would set up such an elaborate scheme, but she couldn't deny the possibility. "There is a more genuine feel to this letter," she argued. "Our paper gets many anonymous letters from servants of the Eternal who grow outraged by such horrific acts. We've all had sources from sanctuaries. Just a few short months ago, Will liberated an unhappy acolyte. That acolyte reached out to the paper through a letter. Will tracked the acolyte down and persuaded her to talk and there was even less information in that letter!"