The Work of Angels

[Vigil]

(Closed to Silence Sei)

FOREWORD

The following letter was sent in August from an agent of the Catholic Mission* in Corone to whom many considered by the Irish to be the most prominent authority in the Church on Althanas. In fact, given that he was the only Bishop** on Althanas and ranking member of the Church under the given conditions, Bishop James Keane was.

As was practice between the agent and the bishop, the message was sent in a plain manila envelope and sealed in red wax with the official seal of the Catholic clergy. From the time it was handed to the pony express to when it arrived days later on the desk of the Bishop, it sat unread for several days. The message wasn't written in code for it wasn't necessary. Anyone who handled the mail of the Bishop, regardless if the person was Catholic or not, knew it to be a heavy burden. To lose or tamper with mail of a ranking member of the Catholic Church was considered a serious crime among the Irish, even in Corone, and was dealt with harshly in unofficial channels.

Days later, when matters of Church business were found less pressing, Bishop Keane tended to his mail. Letter opener in hand, the bishop tore at the envelope and broke the wax seal. Knowing who wrote it didn't concern him in the least, for this was another letter in a long line of reports sent to him from a priest many considered to be unpopular for his radical views.

However, it was Bishop Keane who had handpicked him for the assignment and regardless of how he saw the priest personally, his task was important to the interests of the Church. And Father Dennis Quinn, however radical he was, produced concrete results in many of his inquiries with unconventional and very cunning ways. So, putting on his spectacles and lazily sitting back in his chair, the Bishop read the letter and its contents with mild interest.

FROM:

FATHER DENNIS QUINN
HALL OF THE RELIQUARY
ST. SEDNA'S CATHEDRAL 431 BELHAM RD.
RADASANTH, CORONE

TO:

OFFICE OF BISHOP JAMES KEANE
ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL 272 REDDING DR.
NEW BELFAST, CORONE

August 15th, 1926***

Your Excellency,

This month, I have made the usual inquiries to funds appropriated by St. Sedna's Council from the Catholic Mission in Radasanth. On the surface, I could find nothing in the reports indicating funds being misspent or used for illicit purposes. However, when I examined the treasury records for a second time, I discovered something. The count to many of the appropriations being made are off. Only by fractions of cents, and tens of crowns. But it is at every level. I dug through my files for other treasury records from the past six months and found the same recurring figure of no less than 1,000 crowns have gone unreported every month. Looking back further, I found this to be the instance for every month for the past three years in all areas of the Cathedral's operations.

More then 7,556 crowns are missing from the 8th District Reclamation Project. Another 5,432 crowns are missing from the fund of the Ashbury Square Food Drive. 3,011 crowns are missing from the Clothing Appropriate Fund for members of St. Sedna's. The list goes on and on. A list of the reports, figures and my other findings are included in this letter. I went to the treasury office and obtained receipts from every purchase made from some of the cathedral's major projects, as notated above. I employed a clerk who checked my figures, the official records and the receipts.

The following was found; many of the receipts have been forged. The clerk eventually managed to follow the gold over the last couple of weeks to the Judiciary Affairs and Penal Office. Its chaired by Liam Duigenan. I am awaiting your word, your Excellency, in order to know what action to take with him over the fraudulent records.

If this weren't enough, I have found that although it has been my third month at St. Sedna's, many of the rumors that have circled around the Church are true or at least deserve further investigation. The council itself is benign to the Irish, converts and those of the faith. However, I have found their kindness and gratitude to be lacking to those who oppose their views. I have also done some digging and found many of the projects issued by this council to reach out to those in the city and further the Mission's influence to be half-hearted or not to exist at all. Outside of Ashbury Square, much of the sentiment among the city of our presence isn't favorable.

I took to the streets one day to test this theory and questioned many openly and asked for candid answers. I did so in plain clothes and did not reveal my identity after I had discovered previously that when it is learned that I am Irish or Catholic, the Coronians will immediately grow mum, lie and deflect my questions as if hiding something or to appease my interest.

The Irish are not favored at all in this city, in fact they are feared. It is apparent that this Church has bought its way into a higher place in the social hierarchy. While often compared to the immigrants like the tribal Salvarians behind closed doors, we apparently hold sway with considerable financial and political power. Power that is being using for less then favorable purposes.

Upon this discovery late in July, I have made further inquiries into Liam Duigenan's office and the Council itself. It appears Mister Duigenan is out of the office much of the week, except for council meetings in which he is always present. He is always curt and since my tenure here he reads off his reports like he is glazing over the real facts of his business. In reality, I doubt he realizes that priests are educated men and I have sat through many of his reports, read them and found them to be incorrect and inaccurate whether by willful means or plain ignorance. It is my opinion that he has little if any legal experience at all, and many of his reports are written in the wrong language and often misused phrases.

I ask for further resources in order to look into Liam's affairs and permission to intercept his outgoing and incoming mail from those believed to be suspicious.

From a cursory glance, I have been watching one of his investigations. It has nothing to do with the legal affairs of St. Sedna's at all. Many of his investigations are unofficial and undocumented. But I have found that much of it, especially in this instance, pertains to the interrogation and policing of pagans, criminals and addicts.

An example. This particular investigation I am witnessing is tracking a group of Christian defectors, presumably Coronian, who have absconded with the name of Opus Angelorum****. How absurd that these men label themselves in our language. Regardless, from what little I have gathered, they have a strong interest in our Church and are reputed to have occult practices in the worshipping and calling of Angels. Their activity in the city is new and conception of their movement is recent.

As for actions taken and conduct of Liam and his people in this investigation, I conducted my own investigation by examining many of the hospital receipts of his men who have suffered burns of unknown origin, broken bones and many instances of near mortal wounds inflicted upon them by gunshot or blade. There is at least one instance I have found of a man who was put in the hospital for an unexplainable bodily necrosis similar to the onset of lepersy.

Before my time, I have even found records of men in this Church who were under Liam's leadership who have gone missing. Further inquiries will be made of this at a later date, but if these injuries and possible unofficial deaths of members of St. Sedna's are as bad as described, I can only imagine the body count of those on the receiving end of this unofficial inquisition of Liam's.

With this known, I have found Liam's methods of investigation to be unnerving. His practices, while not mentioned outside of the rooms he conducts them, are reputable by many to be violent. He has been known to coerce his men to enacting violence on the Church's behalf. I have found through unofficial channels that he has hospitalized at least three men in the last year who were admitted as guests of the Church, but it is my belief they were being interrogated.

Regardless, Liam is rabid and insistent in producing findings for the council which he only presents in meetings I suspect they hold without my knowledge. He produces these results by any means necessary. This, in turn, I believe he is using to appropriate these missing funds to do with as he wishes.

I am unsure of what is going on exactly, your Excellency. But I believe now that the organization running St. Sedna's Cathedral and managing the Catholic Church's interests are corrupt at every level. And Liam Duigenan and his office are their presence on the streets. This smells strongly of vigilantism in a positive light, and blatant criminal activity by corrupt officials in a darker lense.

I will post updates of the Opus Angelorum investigation as I obtain them to give you an idea of the goings on here, but I may already have a hook into it. Whatever this organization is and whatever they are up to, they have something Liam wants. And he is doing everything in his power to get it.

I am unsure of what it is, but I have never seen Liam this hungry for violence and ready to use his power to obtain whatever it is he is chasing after. I request permission to approach the Opus Angelorum if my investigations doesn't prove fruitful as a third party. Maybe I can find something incriminating in their testimonies. Because as of yet, much of this is still speculation and hearsay. Aside from the fradulent records, I have yet to find anything damning to prove Liam and this council to be corrupt in the eyes of the Catholic Mission.

Respectfully,

Father Dennis Quinn

The Bishop sat there for a long while after reading the letter and took the time to read it again. For the rest of the day at that office he thought of his response to the priest. The old bishop shuffled papers, drank his coffee and finally got around to writing a response on his brand new equipment. It was called a typewriter and it was among the first he ever had. Although he was a young man when he was in Ireland, he remembered such items being introduced to the Church offices in Belphast before he left for Italy on that fateful day when he was ordained a bishop and given his assignment to the United States. A journey he never completed and with passengers he now called countrymen in Corone.

Placing paper in the typewriter and being the first time he used it since it arrived in his office this week, Bishop James Keane typed his letter. Typing and retyping it several times after misspelling many of the words, the bishop settled on his sixth draft when he finished. Placing it in another manila envelope, he addressed it and closed it, pouring hot red wax on the envelope and sealed it with his official stamp. He sent it to the outgoing mail the next day.

---

*The name 'Catholic Mission' was the name designated to the Catholic Church and its members on Althanas by the Irish. Being forced to operate in autonomy from the guidance and authority of the Vatican and with limited members of the Church who have been ordained and authorized by the actual Catholic Church to practice, the Catholic Mission operates as it otherwise would with the hierarchy of rank top-down. Church members who were aboard the ship and ended up stranded in the strange world were reluctant to form a church apart from that of the sovereign body (The Vatican), but the Irish community whose demand for tradition and ever growing religious fervor in the midst of the tragedy forced their hands. The Catholic Mission now operates as the Catholic Church's presence on Althanas and focuses on adhering to its strict moral code, system of goverance and rich tradition in order to keep as closely to that of the Catholic Church as possible.

** The Bishop is currently the only senior member of the Catholic Clergy who was aboard the Victoria during the transit. As well, there were several priests and clergy members, but in the present these members, many of them the Founders of the Catholic Mission, are graying and beginning to die out. It is a fierce political debate among the Irish of this generation that after Bishop Keane dies, the only actual person on Althanas legally able to ordain priests and clergy, who should replace him? And if so, in what manner should it be done in a way that best preserves the integrity and tradition of the Mission/Catholic Church? Popular belief leads many to believe that since there are too few actual members of the Church to form their own council and elect new members in the bounds of ethics and Church law, that the Bishop and his peers will eventually choose their successors. This monarchial solution is often considered by critics of the clergy inheritance proposal as the 'King James Declaration'.

*** All dates and chronology written and recorded by the Irish are under the assumption that they follow the same calender year as if they were still on Earth. Though there is no way to be certain of when exactly they are in the present (on Althanas), they keep their calenders current from its point of origin, March 3rd, 1872. This day marks the last calender day those aboard the Victoria were in the Atlantic and still on Earth before being shipwrecked and mysteriously stranding its passengers on Althanas.

****Opus Angelorum means 'The Work of Angels' in latin. It is the name of a legitimate Catholic splinter group being carefully watched by the Vatican today and whose origin of philosophy is the worshipping of angels as opposed to saints and the holy trinity. The Vatican warns that it is a cult and stops short at many times of branding them with heresy.

[Vigil]

One week later..

A small, stocky young man sat quietly on a park bench in the middle of the afternoon. It was a Tuesday. Muggy, hot and miserably sunny, this man dressed in the attire of a priest waited at Malthus' Run for his new contact. Right next to the big fountain dedicated to a magistrate whose name he could barely pronounce, Father Dennis Quinn sat patiently in the shade, with a bird's eye view in either direction of the dirt towpath, so he might have a clear view of his contact. Not that it would help him any, for the priest didn't even know what the man looked like. He only knew him by name and his reputation.

But it was the thought that counted.

However, the longer the priest waited for this man, the more uncomfortable he became. For despite Father Quinn's kindness, warmth and good-nature, many of the residents of the city who passed him by gave him an icy reception. He watched as the natives approached and waited for the same tired moment of recognition when they figured out by his attire, looks and cut of his jib of that which he belonged to. First came the uncomfortable stares from the elderly folks who fed pigeons on park benches far, far away from him. More then once, men and women would walk deliberately around the fountain and away from him rather then be anywhere near him.

Those who didn't recognize him in time were caught by surprise, whispering curses under their breath when they were sure their backs were to him while they walked quickly away. Some did double-takes; others made nasty comments to him if he attempted to broach the subject aloud. Despite the friendly smiles and cordial hellos, Father Quinn learned quickly that it was best under these circumstances not to attract unwanted attention.

Upon greeting one mother and her three children, she yelped with surprise upon noticing the priest for the first time and pulled her children savagely away from him. She walked quickly away, shushing her little ones from saying anything to the young man at all. And on one occasion, Father Dennis Quinn sat on a park bench, greeted an old gentleman and was spat on. And he too shuffled off.

But why?

Dennis Quinn was not an imposing man by any means. On the contrary, he was short, stocky and possessed a calm and friendly demeanour that he easily made friends. His kindness made him a good man and a great spiritual guide. His blonde hair and beard were neatly clipped, and he had an orderly appearance about him that was typical of young priests who were attempting so hard to be recognized as one of the flock. He had a scar above his right eye from where his brother had hit him when he was eleven. However, despite his gentle green eyes behind wire-rimmed spectacles and a warm smile with large dimples, Quinn learned quickly on that particular humid afternoon what it was like to be hated through reputation.

Whether it was because he was Irish or he was Catholic, it was the sins of his brothers that made him an outcast to these people. A pariah among strangers.

It was this reason and more that Quinn had vehemently hated his position at St. Sedna's. While he appreciated that he was doing a service for the Church, he could never have imagined it would be doing this. After years of education and prayer preparing him to be ordained to pass on the Word of God, Quinn never thought he would be used as an agent of the Church to root out and burn his brothers for straying from the path. At least, that's what he thought at first.

That was before he met Liam Duigenan and learned of his crusade against this city. Quinn found the cold, icy stare and wolfish features of that old Irishman to be unpleasant at best and unnerving at worst. For despite Liam's cunning, Quinn was beginning to turn over the rocks of what he was doing to these people. Criminal, pagan, degenerate. All of them were enemies in this old man's eyes. "A threat to our people, a danger to our home and a scourge in the eyes of God," Dennis had once heard the old man boast to him.

But, it wasn't the knowledge of the violent and savage things that turned Quinn's stomach every time he looked at Liam. Or the terrible things he did to cover it up, or the bribes he paid to make others look the other way to allow him and his thugs to do as they pleased. What bothered Dennis the most was when he looked at Liam and spoke to him lightly of the things he was doing, Liam looked back, quietly replied and with a warm, genuine smile he believed everything he was saying and what he did to back it up. In his life, Dennis had never met a murderer before, let alone a man who did it with conviction.

Trying to erase the old man's ugly toothy grin from his mind, Dennis dug in his coat pocket and pulled out the query the Bishop had sent him. Reading it again for the eleventh time, the priest hovered over his instructions over this meeting, his growing concerns over St. Sedna's, and his surprise of the priest's findings. However, every time the priest read the letter, his eyes always paused on the cordial warning the Bishop gave him, even if it was only in passing;

". . . Do not let Liam know you are on to him. Though I am sure he is aware that somebody will eventually begin to poke around in an attempt to uncover his sins, he mustn't know it is you. He is a very dangerous man and you more then anybody else knows what he is capable of. Despite your standing with the Church and my knowledge of this investigation, at this moment in time you are beyond the limitations of my protection and influence.

If he finds out what you are doing, Dennis, there will be nothing I can do to stop him from disposing of you. He will kill you.

Take extra precaution. Begin writing in code, find a trusted courier and leave nothing of sensitive information in the Cathedral or near prying eyes. ."

The warning was harrowing and it was something the priest took to heart, if a bit heavily. It was the first time, despite the progress of the investigation that someone of either party had finally laid out the stakes for him. For if he was caught and Liam knew of his reporting to the Bishop of his activities, it very well might cost him his life.

It was a heavy burden to bear, and the priest had already vomited once thinking about the possibilities.

Quietly, Dennis waited at Malthus' Run for his contact who was going to be acting as the mediator between the priest and the Opus Angelorum. The Bishop had specifically instructed that Quinn contact this man in particular because of his exploits, knowing he could be trusted and through reputation that he was incorruptible. It was only this man, the Bishop had said, that could be trusted with a situation of such sensitive nature and still be able to provide the protection the priest needed in order to keep his cover and avoid the wrath of the cult or Liam. However, despite the track record, and a few news clippings.. Dennis only had a name.

His name was Sei. Sei Orlouge.

[Silence Sei]

Sei Orlouge had never been one to be overtly religious. The Mystic's castle took in everyone from every walk of life, every alignment, and every belief. It was said that Ixian Castle was the only true tolerant place on Althanas. Sei himself had been ordained as a champion of the Thaynes, a title that Sei himself occasionally used to gain more clout, but such labels only stood to alienate Sei from the rest of Althanas when used in public. So naturally, when the leader of the Ixian Knights had received a request for aid came in the form of a letter, the youngest Orlouge brother jumped at the chance to help this 'Father'. Now he was here.

Sei watched Father Dennis from a distance at first, making sure that his presence here was not some sort of clever ruse. After a few minutes of watching the appalling way that the people of Radasanth treated this man, Sei had seen quite enough. His stroll was slow and calculating, each step somehow attracting more and more attention to his person. By the time the Mystic had finally reached Father Dennis, there were several pairs of eyes on the two. Sei smiled as he extended a pale hand out towards Father Dennis, the religious figure grasping the orange haired youths hand with his own. His grip was firm, perhaps an indication of his belief?

"Sei Orlouge, I presume?" Father Dennis asked the Mystic. His reply came in the form of the Hero of Radasanth nodding, a smile snaking its way across his features. The cool mist of the fountain sprinkled the two of them lightly, a welcome addition to the unusual heat of this Corone day. Father Dennis looked at the form of the Mystic up and down, probably expecting something else other than what stood before him. The eyebrows of the Father rose up in the slightest of ways, and the warrior was quick to catch the subtle motion.

"I assure you Father....Dennis, was it?" The Father's eyes suddenly widened at the voice talking into his head, "I assure you that despite my appearances, I am more than capable of fending off any would-be attackers." It took a moment for Dennis' eyes to rest back on Sei's form, but only now did he notice the deadly arsenal that Sei always had on his person. He had a thin string wrapped around his waist, the fragile thing supporting each of the two chakrams on either one of his hips. Tucked into his pockets were the handles that seemed to be decorative fans of some sort, the empty hand of Sei Orlouge sitting idly by the pocket. Two sword hilts stuck out on each side of the Mystic's head, something never truly noticed or admired by anyone until Sei was usually close enough to kill. Even if the Avatar of Alerar was not at all what he boastfully claimed, he at least had enough armaments to keep an army at bay.

"I.... hope it doesn't come to that," Father Dennis cautiously spoke out. Apparently, this young man of the cloth was not used to the idea of a telepath. Sei understood, respecting the fact that most men had secrets that should not be shared with anyone. Father Dennis was just going to have to trust Sei enough to believe that the mute would not go prying around in his head. "I suppose I should clarify on points that my letter was not clear on."

"There is a man in our society, Liam Duigenan. I believe that he is doing things that my faith would not approve of. I have not been able to find any concrete evidence of what he has been up to, but I was hoping that you could help me out in that aspect..." Dennis Quinn began to explain everything he thought Sei should know of the situation. The man's accent kept the mute enthralled for the entire time that every word left his lips. It seemed as though Father Dennis wished for Sei to act as a mediator to the good Father. From the way that the man made it sound, the mission was rife with danger, and there was a good possibility that Sei might not survive any encounter with Liam Duigenan. While normally such a thing would be better left to one of Sei's Ixian Knight Teams, the Father had personally requested the aid of the Mystic, andsuch a thing was Sei's specialty.

"Very well," Sei spoke, motioning for the Father to follow him beyond the fountain, towards the luscious green park a good stroll away, "I will help you. Is there anything else I need to know before we begin?"