The Phantom Man

XIII - Betrayal

In the morning, the warlock went to town to buy some supplies for the trip and stopped on a tavern for some refreshment. There, he sat down at a stool and asked for something to drink. Suddenly, two inquisitors, who seemed to be following him, approached him. They looked at his provisions and noticed that he carried a sword. They asked him some questions in a low tone in order to avoid attracting the attention of the other customers:

"Are you going on a trip, my dear Klaus?" One of them asked.

"Yes, I am. As you can see, I have bought some provisions."

"May we ask where is our friend travelling to?"

"I have to take care of some pending family issues."

"You are aware of the fact that you work for us, aren't you?" The other inquisitor said, taking the mug out of his hand. "Or have you already forgotten?" Before Klaus had a chance to say anything, he continued to talk. "We have a job waiting for you. After you help us, you'll be granted permission to travel."

"I don't need to ask anybody permission to travel. I am my own boss. I have done a lot for you already."

"I'm afraid you have forgotten who make the rules here, you dirty warlock." The inquisitor replied, in a very low voice. "You have reached your position thanks to our support. Without our protection, you would have been annihilated from Earth just like the others that you betrayed. Now you would probably be nothing more than some roasted dust on the ground. We gave you properties that belonged to your wizard fellows, the very ones that you denounced to us so that you could guarantee your gains."

Klaus didn't say a word; his eyes were full of wrath. The man looked at him as if he was just garbage, then he went to the tavern's door and called the guards. They wanted to make some money, and the warlock would help them with his power. However, the former friend remembered the time when his father was an inquisitor...

One day, the chief of a village in Italy harassed Bianca Capunni, a woman of principles. She not only made sure to keep him at arms' length, but she also opposed herself to his attitude. Klaus' mother encouraged other women to denounce that behavior, which she considered abusive, since the chief was using his power over the peasants to impose his rules. That was a time when men like Filipo Mota, who was the village's absolute ruler, believed that they were superior to women, a belief shared by many others.

Bianca was against that vision. However, due to her talent to talk in public as well as her successive rejections of unscrupulous harassing men from the village, she was denounced for witchcraft as revenge.

But Giancarlo Rizoni, the inquisitor sent to that community, fell in love with the woman that would be the mother of his son. After abandoning his position, he fled with her and started living in another village. They changed names and, a few years later, Klaus was born.

As soon as the inquisitors discovered where the traitor was living, they didn't spare him or even Bianca, especially when they heard about her beliefs in gender equality. For this reason, the wizard carried a deadly hatred against the inquisitors since he was a child.

Wouldn't now be the time to pay back?

He had become their ally to obtain wealth and power. He felt sufficiently strong; thus, the alliance was no longer necessary. The feeling of revenge had overgrown inside him, reaching the boiling point of his blood.

Klaus thought that he had already done too much for them. They were already in debt with him for all the deaths and frauds he planned to make them richer. Now, it was his turn to go after his dreams. He wanted to be immortal, powerful and to never depend again on questionable friendships.