Summary: It’s the summer of 1984 and the Satanic Ministry is thrown into chaos by a series of shocking murders. Three orphans unaware of their connection to each other find themselves entangled in the chaos.
Fourteen year old Copia has three friends in the world; His adoptive parents, his rats, and a newly summoned young earth Ghoul called Mountain. When Mountain is accused of murder on unfounded grounds, Copia is determined for them to prove his innocence.
Twenty-four year old Terzo is home from college for the summer and determined that this will finally be the year he charms his childhood sweethearts. But when a Ghoul is accused of murder, the tension that’s been building between the human Clergy and Ghouls experiences a sharp rise. With the tensions growing higher and past wrongs coming to light, Terzo finds himself leading the charge in defense of Ghouls.
Fourteen year old Perpetua is alone. He lives in a closed wing of the Abbey, kept away from the public by the order of his father, apparently for his own protection. That is, until a young Ghoul comes literally crashing into his life and, seeing the opportunity that Perpetua’s secret reign of the Abbey presents, the two begin a game as “spies”.
Read here or on Ao3! Next Chapter
A/N: Me when I finally post the fic I've been saying I'm going to??? I won't post all the chapters here all at once because I don't want to get in trouble for spam, but I do have all the currently written and edited chapters up on Ao3!!
Chapter One: Throw Yourself Into the Vessel of Possibilities
It’s not hot enough yet that Terzo is sweating as soon as he steps out of the airport. He’s grateful for that, as he dressed for the fact that he would soon be seen more than he dressed for the comfort of travel or to prevent overheating. It was a problem when he was sitting in the plane seat and vaguely uncomfortable in a way that wasn’t strong enough to elicit complaint, but now that he was standing and waiting for the car, he was perfectly fine. And he looked it, too, that was the important part. Dressed just glamorously enough to be mysterious and wealthy but not enough that he was clearly asking for attention. Designer sunglasses to hide his mismatched eyes, black hair perfectly styled. He was the ideal man to be leaning against the shadowed wall of an airport, waiting for his ride.
He knew his thoughts were justified by the fact that there were both men and women openly staring at him. Two women in particular were watching him, giggling behind their hands and whispering. He let a small grin lift the corners of his lips, small enough to be unseen. He did, after all, need to maintain his calm, cool exterior.
“You look like an idiot.” Despite his earlier determination not to let anything ruffle him, Terzo startled at the sudden voice. He looked to his side and frowned. Dressed all in black in a well tailored but just casual enough suit, with light olive skin, mid-length, blond curls, and mismatched eyes shining with laughter, Secondo was a sight for sore eyes.
Not that Terzo would ever tell his brother that.
“Says the one in the suit,” Terzo responds, letting his sunglasses slide down his nose just enough to make sure Secondo could see his judgemental stare.
“You like it?” Secondo responds, shaking his arms out slightly to readjust his cuffs and grinning at the shine of his cufflinks.
“How long have you been standing here?” Terzo asks, largely to avoid having to answer the question. And largely because he did, indeed, like the suit.
“Long enough to see you adjust yourself to perfect casualness to seem cool,” Secondo laughs, slinging an arm around Terzo’s shoulders. Secondo was an average height, but with Terzo as far below average as he was, his brother towered over him, and Terzo couldn’t fight the urge to calculate just how far his coolness factor just dropped with one simple move. Secondo seemed to know it, too, as out of the corner of his eye Terzo watched the other man wink at the two young women that were previously admiring Terzo, now openly staring at Secondo.
“Let’s just go to the car,” Terzo complains, shrugging Secondo’s arm off his shoulder and flicking his hair back.
“Oh!” Secondo’s voice was excited now and he stepped in front of Terzo, a grin on his face as he practically danced backwards. “Guess where the car is?”
“I assume in the parking lot,” Terzo replies, his voice dry and unamused.
“Nope!” Secondo grins and gestures to a sports car parked behind him that Terzo had previously paid no attention to. A classic Ferrari red, the iconic horse logo in all the right places. Terzo blinked rapidly, as if trying to wake himself from a dream, and then looked at Secondo in shock.
“What!?”
“Old one’s in the junkyard,” Secondo laughs. “Engine finally crapped out on me and I got the old man to agree that this was a rational use of my funds.” The old man in this instance referred to their eldest brother, Nihil, who largely oversaw the two youngest Emerituses spending budgets, at least on larger purchases such as a brand new sports car.
“Unholy shit…” Terzo mutters, approaching the car almost reverently. Secondo grinned and grabbed Terzo’s luggage. He’d only brought two suitcases for the summer, the rest of his things in his apartment in the city near campus. Secondo - either afraid of being yelled at by Terzo or happy enough to see his brother to be unwilling to piss him off intentionally - gently placed both pieces of luggage into the trunk while Terzo admired the car.
“This is- dude.”
“I know!” Secondo cackles, big and happy, as he climbed into the driver’s seat. Terzo didn’t even have it in him to be upset that most of his cool points were likely to be gone by now, given his gawking at his brother’s new car. Terzo found himself laughing as well as he climbed into the passenger’s seat.
The drive was long. The airport was as close to the Ministry as possible, but that still meant it was an hour’s drive away. Secondo had turned the radio on as soon as he turned the car on and occasionally drummed along to the metal music coming out of the speakers on the steering wheel, singing along. Terzo instead watched his brother, cataloguing all the differences ten months made.
Terzo never returned for the winter break, always preferring to finally have alone time in his own apartment, away from any responsibilities with the Ministry or his family. Which was all well and good for himself, but it did mean that while studying, he spent the majority of the year without ever seeing any of the men he had grown up having for constant company. Secondo hadn’t changed much in that time. His blond hair was a bit longer, curls slightly better maintained than last Terzo had seen. His shoulders were broader and chest larger with muscle. But ultimately, he was still the exact same as always, down the way he squinted in the light of the sun. Terzo sighed and pulled an extra pair of sunglasses from the carry-on at his feet - he always carried a few extra pairs, just in case - and handed them to his brother. Secondo accepted without looking and put them on.
Secondo was older by three months, which meant practically nothing to the rest of the world, but Secondo assumed meant absolutely everything and that he automatically had authority to treat Terzo like the babiest of brothers in existence. That never stopped him from accepting Terzo taking care of him, though.
“How’s the Ministry?” Terzo asks eventually, when watching his brother proved that nothing had changed, he had not missed anything important in the lives of those he loved.
Secondo had gone to college with Terzo initially, but where Terzo stayed to pursue a PHD, Secondo had wanted to return home. Now he did some nebulous job in the Ministry. A priest, technically, but most of his work involved the maintenance of the library and archives, at his own request. He also had a band that Terzo knew performed locally, although it wasn’t very popular at the moment, for now.
Secondo hesitated at the question before answering, “Things have been okay. They’re getting… tense.”
“Tense?” Terzo asks.
“With the Ghouls.”
Ghouls were a lower classification of demons, spirits, et cetera. Largely elemental beings, they existed in many different cultures. Ghouls to the Ministry - a preferred name for much of the species - and demons to Catholics. Djinn to certain cultures, and any other number of names. They were a part of a deal between Hell and the Ministry- Ghoul servants aided the Ministry in their mission and in return, emissaries of Hell were given a say in the running of the Ministry. The issue arose from the fact that Ghouls were subject to many, many rules under the Clergy’s direction. Dangerous, oppressive rules that often restricted them quite a bit. Things had been growing tense for years, since-
Terzo shook his head as if to physically shake a thought, a memory, from it.
“And Omega? Alpha?” Terzo asks instead. Alpha and Omega were two Ghouls, young by Ghoul standards, but by now old enough that human standards of age hardly mattered at all. Terzo had grown up with them around the Ministry, and if anyone asked, he would say he had been in love with them since he was capable of the thought.
“Good, haven’t seen them too much, honestly,” Secondo answers, shrugging a bit. “Probably busy.” Ghouls did a variety of work around the Ministry, although it usually was defined by what their element was and, thus, what they would be the best at naturally.
It all sounded a bit like eugenics in a fantasy setting if you asked Terzo, but people so rarely did.
“Good, good.” Was the younger’s only reply. He felt more than saw Secondo’s gaze aimed at him and had almost formed the motivation to snap at his brother to pay attention to the road when Secondo turned away once again.
“I look forward to watching you fail again this year,” Secondo says eventually, a smirk on his lips. Terzo’s face instinctually screwed up in an ugly pout, resisting the urge to throw anything at Secondo, as the high speed and open convertible top meant it would more likely fly away and be lost to him forever. Or go back and hit him in the face instead.
“I will not fail this year,” he declares, offense only growing as Secondo simply laughed and turned the music on the radio up.
----
The Abbey was much the same as it was when Terzo had left last August. It was June now and most of the plants that decorated the sprawling grounds were in full bloom. There were, of course, abbeys stationed all around the globe under the Ministry’s control, there was even one fairly close to where Terzo went to school that he attended for Dark Mass. But this was The Abbey. Where the head of the entire Clergy personnel lived and operated, where Papa lived and operated. Well. Papa to the rest of the faithful. To Terzo and Secondo, he was Nihil. Or, more often, “asshole”.
Their eldest brother, he was a little more than twenty years older than the two youngests, and had raised them since they were babies. More accurately, he had been there occasionally, but had largely allowed various nannies, both human and Ghoul alike, to do most of the actual raising. He’d never explained what had happened to their parents, and neither had Primo or their sister Marika. The whole thing was a family secret, and it appeared that Secondo and Terzo were still considered too young to be let in on family secrets.
There were children scattered in the Abbey’s yard, clearly celebrating the end of their schooling for the year. The Abbey housed many children for many different reasons. Lots of them were children of the many Brothers and Sisters of Sin that lived on the Abbey grounds, and still more were orphans that had been taken in by the Clergy run orphanage that was on the grounds. As the brothers walked from where Secondo had handed the car off to a Ghoul to park and take Terzo’s luggage in, Terzo scanned the crowds of children for a familiar head of brown hair. There were children of all ages and the young teenager that Terzo was looking for wouldn't have looked out of place, save for if you took too long a look at the quality of his clothing or managed to make him make eye contact with you.
“Where's Copia?” Terzo asks when his search proved lacking in fruit.
“Still in class, I imagine,” Secondo replies, shrugging. “You know how Salty is, the boy's getting the same education we did.”
Copia was, technically, family. He was technically the son of a friend of Marika's, Terzo and Secondo's older and only sister. His father never knew he existed, according to Marika, and his mother had given him up soon after birth. Legally, Marika was his guardian with no relation, but she'd been Aunt Marika to him since he was young, and Auntie Mari before that, and Ma when he was too young to form any other sound.
Terzo looked at Secondo, aghast, “He's getting a papal education?”
“Salty insisted.” Secondo shrugged again. Salty in this case was, technically, Psaltarian, Marika's husband. Terzo had never bothered to learn his first name and neither had Secondo. The man had never learned theirs, either, referring to them exclusively with “you” and a point. He had no time in his busy schedule for anyone but his wife and ward.
“Nihil won't be happy about that,” Terzo says eventually, letting his eyes slide over the gathered children with a significant lack of interest now that he knew his young nephew wasn't present among them.
Terzo wouldn't say he was close to the boy, they spoke only at family dinners when it was required of them. But his eyes - the same mismatched as Terzo's own - had always intrigued him. If anyone asked, Terzo would say that there was more to the story of Copia's lineage than anyone was willing to admit.
People so rarely did, though.
Either way, his interest in the boy was passive. The same interest anyone would have in what was, by law, their nephew, but not nearly enough that he was motivated to seek the boy out actively.
“How’s Primo?” Terzo asks. It was a question that he had wanted to ask since they got in the car but hadn't been able to find the words for. Secondo's hesitant step when he processed the words and the way his chin dropped closer to his chest gave a partial answer on its own.
Around July of last year, Primo had begun to lose his vision. The doctors had done test after test and had not yet found a reason for it, and his eyes remained the same as ever. One dark green, the other white. There was no visible change in him, no reason for the loss. But it had just begun to slowly fade away, day after day. Primo rarely let it stop him, though. Five years Terzo’s senior, he was in the prime of his life and it showed. Already an archbishop, Primo led the flock of faithful proudly and strongly, preaching not just in the Abbey but journeying around the world to do so. All the while he aided the Abbey’s earth ghouls in the maintenance of the garden. The only difference now was the water Ghoul always at his side, a guide dog with far more intelligence and danger to it than any dog.
“It's not coming back, if that's what you're curious about,” Secondo replies, sighing softly. It was rare for Secondo to exhibit any such care for another person so openly. He always felt it, Terzo knew that. He just didn't show it.
“Let's talk about something happier,” Secondo says before Terzo can ask another question. They stop short at the door to the Abbey, Secondo allowing Terzo a second to take a deep breath before they enter and are inevitably thrust back into the responsibilities of existing under the name Emeritus. Terzo nodded shortly, grasping for a subject as Secondo reached for the door. Just as Secondo's hand was about to close over the handle, however, the door was shoved open. Terzo and Secondo both jumped back, allowing the door to open fully, and Terzo's breath stops short in his chest.
The Ghoul standing on the other side of the doorway is tall, even by Ghoul standards. He stood well over six feet and possibly over seven as well, big and broad. He’s dressed all in black, his face covered by a silver mask made to resemble a doll's face. He has long, curly hair tied back away from his face and mask and short, sharp horns. He didn't say a word, had nothing about him that technically identified him as separate from any other Ghoul in the ministry. Regardless, Terzo's face broke into a smile of its own accord as he observed the Ghoul in front of him. He would know this man in death, in life. In the Pits when it was eventually Terzo's time, he would know the energy of the Ghoul in front of him by its presence alone.
“Hello, Omega,” Terzo greets, the fondness in his voice achingly obvious even to himself.
Nothing about Omega speaks of startle or exertion. Every centimeter of his clothing is perfectly pressed and arranged, every hair in its rightful place. And yet, his voice is breathless as he says, “Welcome back, your Unholiness.”
Chapter Summary: Terzo's first full day at home isn't going great, and his summer is off to a rocky start.
Chapter Notes: Warnings for this chapter include mentions of/implications of racism towards the Ghouls (this will be a theme in the entire story) as well as some mentions of/implications of vomiting. I have emetophobia and I project that onto Terzo, though, so it's not very obvious.
A/N: Chain prefers to be referred to only as a proper noun in my HC (meaning using only Chain's name) but when necessary, Chain's pronouns are it/its. I point this out here just to say that the use of it/its pronouns for Chain isn't part of the fantasy racism towards Ghoul's, that's just Chain's personal preference in my headcanon <3
Chapter Four: He’s The Shining and The Light
The Abbey is already in chaos when Terzo wakes. It’s just past dawn and it isn’t a natural waking, as much as he would like it to be, given the hours of travel he’d had just barely a day before. Instead, its banging at his door that wakes him. He groans and wakes slowly at first, until the door bangs open. Terzo sits up swiftly at that, clutching his blankets to his chest. He calms when he notices the Ghoul at the door, a pleased smile gracing his lips as he lets the blanket drop, exposing his chest in what he hopes is a seductive way.
“Alpha, how can I help you?”
“They found a dead body.”
Terzo blanches, his brain catching and stuttering on the sentence like a scratched record.
“A-- what?” Terzo asks, staring up at the big Ghoul. Alpha is taller than Omega, though dressed the same. His hair is short and spiky, and what Terzo has seen of his skin is covered in discolored patches, some areas lighter gray than others. He’s handsome, his tall stature and muscles making him a commanding presence, and right now he is entirely alarmed. His shoulders are tight, his posture held like a snake ready to strike or, perhaps more accurately, an elk ready to bolt.
“A dead body,” Alpha says again. His voice sounds impatient, but his posture is relaxing bit by bit with every second he spends in Terzo’s room. “You’re being called for.”
“Me?” Alpha nods tersely in response to the question and Terzo takes it as the sign it is. He gets up and dresses in record time, not even bothering to check if Alpha was watching as he stripped and changed his boxers or pulled his binder over his head. When he finally has his teeth brushed, hair styled (half-heartedly), and shoes laced and on, he indicates for Alpha to lead the way.
He thinks, at first, that Alpha is taking him to the morgue that he knows they have in the basement of the Abbey. It’s where they keep bodies - generally those who died of natural causes - to prepare them for funerals. It’s a horrible, cold room filled with gleaming silver cadaver drawers and sharp instruments and an overwhelming smell of chemicals that Terzo has come to associate with death more than the smell of a rotting body. He’s been in that room exactly once in real life, but it makes an appearance in his dreams almost nightly.
He was relieved for a moment when Alpha didn’t lead him to the basement stairs, almost letting himself smile at the relief. Any other situation that had the two of them walking together like this, Terzo would have been elated. He would have used the opportunity to flirt, brush his hand against Alpha’s or the Ghoul’s arms or waist or shoulders in an attempt. Alpha would have tolerated it as he always did, walking closer to Terzo to make the “accidental” touches easier, loosening his posture so the shorter human could reach his shoulders easier. But every step forward brings a higher and higher ringing in Terzo’s ears and for once, he can’t even conceive of flirting.
“Alpha…” he doesn’t finish whatever he was going to say and even just the Ghoul’s name is hard to get out. He knows the path they’re walking, he’s walked it since he was young, since the day after Marika’s wedding when he and Secondo went to visit her new home. He knows this path and every step further down it makes him feel sick.
He thinks of being twelve, then. Of waking up from a nightmare and wandering into his eldest brother’s bed for comfort. Nihil had smelled like alcohol as he pulled Terzo close, but Terzo hadn’t minded. He had pressed his nose hard into Nihil’s chest, focusing instead on the smell of expensive cologne and laundry detergent that had always been what he associated with his oldest brother. Nihil had spoken, then. His words slurred and fingers clumsy as he ran them through the black hair that he and Terzo shared. He spoke of a father that Terzo didn’t know, didn’t even have photos of. He spoke of a nebulous eldest brother that Terzo had never heard of before, of a pretty sister in law and a nephew the same age as Terzo himself.
And then he spoke of fire.
He spoke of heat, burning and all-consuming. He spoke of fear, of people screaming and crying and begging. He spoke of grief, of loss. Not just of their parents but of everything they had ever known. He hadn’t noticed when Terzo started crying again, when the things he spoke of had only led to tears. Terzo had tried to stay quiet, gasping softly as he cried, and Nihil hadn’t noticed, simply holding him tighter, playing with his hair the same way he would on a normal day. Terzo swore he could hear a baby crying through the walls, but Nihil never mentioned it.
“Alpha,” Terzo says again, pushing past memories and forcing himself to focus on what’s going on. The Ghoul stops in his tracks and Terzo distantly thinks that he must have sounded even more miserable than he thought he did.
“Your Unholiness?” Alpha is overly formal now because they’re in public. There’s none of the feigned annoyance in his voice that he usually points towards the human. More than that, there’s concern.
“It’s not her,” Alpha says, his voice painfully soft. His hands are clenched at his side and not for the first time, Terzo wishes it wasn’t forbidden for Ghouls and humans to intentionally touch. He can play off his flirtatious touching as accidents if anyone saw them, but what he wants right now is for Alpha to touch him properly, to grab his shoulders and pull him close, to wipe the tears off his cheeks and out of his eyes. Alpha does none of that, though. He won’t risk the punishment of being caught touching a human, much less an Emeritus, and even if he was willing to, for all their friendship, Terzo surely wouldn’t be the one that Alpha would risk it for.
“Terzo, listen.” His name coming from Alpha is enough that he focuses. Any other situation and he’d be delighted hearing it. “It isn’t her. Your sister is safe, I promise. I promise, okay?”
“Okay,” Terzo responds, nodding shortly. Alpha nods in return and straightens his clothing, waiting for Terzo to wipe the tears from his face before they continue walking. Terzo lags behind now, walking just a foot or two behind Alpha, watching. There are marks in the shape of his claws pressed into his palms.
The rest of the walk is calm and by the time they reach Marika’s cottage, Terzo has composed himself as much as he can. He almost, almost breaks when he walks into the living room of the cottage behind Alpha and Copia is nowhere to be found.
“Copia?” His voice sounds small even to himself, especially as Marika launches herself at him and hugs him close. He’s shorter than her, he always has been, and she curls around him like she does her ward. She’s sobbing and the fear that Terzo feels in his chest is painful and overwhelming. He looks over Marika’s shoulder, meeting Secondo’s eyes. Secondo is sitting on the couch, speaking in a low voice to Psaltarian. He looks over at Terzo, feeling when his brother’s gaze is on him, and shakes his head minutely. Terzo keeps holding Marika tight, turning his gaze to Primo and Nihil next, who are speaking in equally quiet voices, the Ghoul at Primo’s side shifting anxiously and playing with the chain wrapped around its waist.
Nobody is answering his question.
“Where’s Copia?” Terzo repeats louder, rubbing Marika’s back as she sobs into his shoulder. When his brothers still don’t answer him, he looks to Alpha. Alpha looks to Chain, Primo’s personal Ghoul, and does something to get its attention. Chain nods and tugs on Primo’s sleeve just slightly. Primo nods in return and raises a hand that stops every conversation in the room. Even Marika releases him at the silence, stepping back. She keeps an arm around Terzo’s shoulder, though, and he keeps one around her waist, letting her lean on him.
“The child is in his room,” Nihil says eventually. Nihil has never liked Copia, for reasons that none of them are really aware of. Maybe it’s the fact that his eyes could point to a deeper familial connection than expected or maybe it’s just that Nihil has never been great with children. Terzo doesn’t know either way.
“And he’s--?” Alive is how Terzo wants to finish that, but he worries about how Marika will react.
“He found the body,” Secondo jumps in to explain now.
“He was covered in blood,” Marika says, her voice small and haunted.
“We believe he witnessed the murder,” Psaltarian continues. And that explains all the chaos. If it was just a Sibling of Sin dropping dead of natural causes, nobody would panic like this. For it to be a murder, it makes sense. “But he won’t talk to anyone. He’s completely in shock.”
Copia is family, yes, but this much attention from the sitting head family of the Ministry isn’t because of that. Copia may be Marika’s ward, but none of them have ever been close to him, nor does he refer to any of them but Marika and Psaltarian as aunt or uncle. This much attention surely doesn’t come from any familial care, which means there’s much more to this story than he thought.
“This isn’t the first body we’ve found is it?” Terzo asks, leaning equally against Marika as she is to him.
“Not in the slightest,” Secondo sighs, standing and brushing imaginary dust off his ridiculously nice suit. “We’ve found several, in fact. I’ve been investigating them for months.”
So that is what Secondo had been doing. All the times he’d complained of work being stressful in their phone calls since winter break, all the times he’d been too tired to actually talk and had just listened to Terzo speak. All of it was because of this? And nobody told him?
“Why didn’t you tell me? I could have--”
“Could have what? Come home from school early? Been just another sitting duck, not contributing anything?” Primo’s voice wasn’t unkind as he interrupted, and he made his way across the room with Chain’s help until he could grasp Terzo’s shoulder.
“There was nothing you could have done,” Primo continues, squeezing Terzo’s shoulder in a way that was clearly meant to be comforting.
“What am I doing here now, then?” Terzo asks, looking around the room. If the investigation - apparently led by Secondo - had been going on for this long without his knowledge, surely it would be fine to continue that way?
“Like Salty said-” Psaltarian glared at Secondo at the name. “-Copia won’t talk to anyone. You’ve always been a bit better with him than the rest of us, I was hoping you’d be willing to give it a try.”
“What would I even ask him?” Terzo looks over at Alpha then, hoping for some kind of reassurance that he’s not crazy for thinking this is insane, but the Ghoul gives no indication of a reaction.
“Just about what he saw,” Secondo explains, following Primo and Marika’s lead in approaching their youngest brother. “I’ll be there the entire time, fratello, and I’ll write everything down. You don’t even have to remember anything he says.”
“Okay,” Terzo agrees, feeling like he has no real other choice. And, to be fair, he doesn’t. Not in his mind at least. People are dying and if Copia saw the person who did it and isn’t telling anyone, then even the chance that Terzo could get him to would be immensely helpful to stop anyone else from losing their lives. Terzo looked around the room person to person for a second.
“But Alpha comes with.” Secondo sighed at the demand but nodded, gesturing them all towards Copia’s bedroom down the hallway.
Terzo had never been overly close with Copia. After all, the boy was twelve years younger than him, and they only really spoke when it would be rude not to. But Terzo had helped with his schoolwork in the past, when Copia was younger and would struggle with languages or history, and the one that had always ensured they got along was a love for small animals. Though Terzo’s fascination lay largely with birds - he even had a pet cardinal, sitting in a cage in his room. He’d have to remember to give him extra treats today for interrupting their morning routine - and Copia’s with rats, they still got along quite well. Copia’s room was set up largely the same as the last time Terzo had seen it. It needed to be cleaned, of course, but he was a teenaged boy, so Terzo wasn’t surprised. He was actually surprised at how few clothes were laying on the floor, most of them seemingly neatly folded and hanging. His bed was made, stacks of books on the floor and nightstand next to it. He had his own TV in one corner, a video game console attached to it. Much of the room had a large rat cage filled with various toys. It had two areas on Copia’s dresser and desk respectively, one holding seemingly a bedding and play area, and the other food bowls and such, connected by tubes attached to the wall.
“You’ve gotten more since last I saw you,” Terzo says, peeking into the cage as he enters the room. There are five sleeping clumped together in the cage from what Terzo can tell, and a sixth is cradled in Copia’s hands, making small squeaking noises as he stares at it. Copia is sitting on the center of his bed, legs folded underneath him. He doesn’t even react to Terzo’s entry, not looking at him at all as Terzo crosses the room and sits on the bed in front of him. Secondo receives a similar lack of acknowledgement, taking a seat in Copia’s desk chair, notebook out. Copia only reacts when Alpha enters the room. It’s small, barely noticeable if Terzo hadn’t been carefully watching the boy for any change. Copia’s attention snaps to Alpha as soon as he enters the room, his eyes widening and his breathing picking up speed.
“Copia?” Terzo asks. Copia’s eyes are locked onto Alpha, though, and it takes the rat he’s cradling less than a second to jump from his hands to his shoulder, nuzzling against his throat in a way that is clearly meant to be comforting. Alpha looks first to Secondo and then to Terzo for what to do, clearly unsure what to make of Copia’s reaction to his presence.
“Copia, you’re okay, you’re safe here,” Terzo says, shifting a bit closer to the boy. Copia is still staring at Alpha, though; he’s still staring like he’s terrified. His breathing is getting faster and faster and Alpha steps forward like he wants to comfort the boy, but it does the exact opposite. Copia screams before anyone else can react, scrambling back on the bed. Alpha stares in shock, stumbling back slightly. Terzo lunged forward as Copia began to claw at his face, eyes wide with terror. Terzo grabs Copia’s hands, pulling them away from the boy’s face and then holding Copia’s head close to his chest as the teenager starts to cry.
“Shh, shh, you’re okay,” Terzo comforts, holding Copia’s head to his chest and running his fingers through the boy’s hair. He hears in the background Secondo shoving Alpha out of the room, shouting at him and demanding to know why he would take a step forward when Copia was so clearly terrified. Copia continues sobbing, his hands fisted in Terzo’s shirt.
“Sweetheart,” Terzo says, keeping his voice soft and gentle, not wanting to startle the poor boy even more. “Sweetheart, I need you to tell me what you saw last night, okay?” Copia nodded against Terzo’s collarbone and began speaking.
----
Terzo felt like he could still taste the bile in his throat and he’d brushed his teeth five times. He’d have to apologize to Marika for using so much of her toothpaste, but he couldn’t stand the phantom taste of blood in his mouth and, after that was gone, he couldn’t stand the taste of his own vomit. He’d gotten through Copia’s story without anything more than a few uncomfortable noises, determined to not scare the boy. He’d even gotten through the whole retelling to Secondo in front of everyone without anything. It was only after he’d told the story all over again, every detail Copia had shared committed to his own memory, and he had sat down to try and calm down that he’d been overcome with the urge to vomit. Marika hadn’t been any better off. She’d started sobbing into her husband’s shoulder as soon as Terzo had started speaking, his voice flat and inflectionless because if he spoke like that it made him feel less and less connected to the little boy who’s story he was telling.
“Your Unholiness?” Terzo wiped his mouth with a towel desperately before turning to Alpha, trying his best not to seem too shaken up by everything. It had taken hours to get the story from Copia after he’d been terrified of Alpha and only minutes for Terzo to recite it to the others. It was still early in the morning, barely past eight. The rest of the Abbey was sure to be waking up by now if they weren’t up already, beginning their duties for the day. Terzo already felt exhausted, like he’d been running a marathon since the sun had risen.
“Alpha, hello,” Terzo replies, trying for a smile. He wishes he could see Alpha’s expression to know if he succeeded or not.
“Has Secondo left yet?”
“Yes, your Unholiness, he left soon after you excused yourself.” Alpha’s language is overly polite, either because he feels awkward or because he’s polite enough not to increase Terzo’s shame at getting sick.
“Can I-- May I escort you back to the Abbey?” Alpha continues, his hands curling and uncurling into fists.
“Yes, of course.” Terzo waits for Alpha to move before stepping out of the bathroom. He has half a mind to say goodbye to Marika, but when he walks past Copia’s bedroom, he sees both her and Psaltarian curled around their young ward, the three of them asleep. With how exhausted they’d looked earlier, Terzo wouldn’t be shocked if it was the first they’d slept since the night before. He decided not to wake them and that he’d simply visit tomorrow to check on Marika and Copia.
“My other brothers?”
“Gone as well, your Unholiness,” Alpha answers, half a step behind Terzo as they exit the cottage. Terzo nods. He wants to say more, to talk to Alpha. To ask why he did step forward when Copia seemed so scared, to know what he and Secondo talked about while Terzo was listening to a teenager’s greatest trauma. He stays silent, though. He’s not sure how to ask anything, how to learn what he wants to know. They walk slowly and Terzo is glad for it, because he’s a little nervous that any too fast moment will make his stomach rebel again.
“Secondo thinks it was a Ghoul,” Alpha says randomly. Terzo stops in his tracks, looking at the Ghoul. They’re halfway between the cottage and the Abbey, away from anyone else in the world, that’s the only reason that Alpha is using Secondo’s name, Terzo knows that.
“Well, couldn’t it be?” Terzo responds, looking up at the Ghoul hesitantly. “Copia said that the attacker-- that he--” Terzo has to pause, slamming a hand over his mouth and doubling over while his stomach rolls. Alpha lurches forward, hands hovering over Terzo’s back, close enough that Terzo can just barely feel the heat radiating from the fire Ghoul’s hands where they hover, inches away from him.
“Your Unholiness?” Alpha’s alarm is strong in his voice, thick enough to cut with a knife. Terzo doesn’t want to say it, doesn’t want to have to repeat it again. It feels wrong. He’s twenty-six years old, he’s a grown adult. For all intents and purposes he should be able to speak about this. If Copia has to live with it in his head forever, Terzo can deal with having to say it over and over and over again.
“Why do you think it was a Ghoul?” Alpha asks. There’s more to the question, Terzo knows there is. Secondo said that things have been tense between the humans and the Ghouls, and there’s something in this question that he can’t voice. It’s said in the same tone that Secondo asks shopkeepers why they’re being followed around the shops, the same tone that Marika and Psaltarian use when asking why people are staring at them out in public.
“Because of what Copia said,” Terzo replies, feeling sure in his answer. Copia said the attacker was tall, much taller than himself and the victim. He said that the attacker ate her, that he ripped into her with only his teeth. Alpha hums, seemingly thinking for a moment.
“I’ll head back first, then, your Unholiness.” Is all the Ghoul eventually says. Alpha turns on his heel and walks off, faster than Terzo could catch up with even if he wasn’t stuck standing in shock in place.
He wants to call out to Alpha, to explain that he, of all people, has a reason to be scared of Ghouls. That he knows how brutal they can be, how dangerous. That he also knows that not every Ghoul is like that, that this one person doesn’t speak for an entire species. But he stays silent, watching Alpha’s retreating back.
