Chương 155: 146. Enemy among us

"What's the worst-case scenario?" asked the cardinal. Everyone looked at me, some with expectation, others with clear suspicion.

"Let's follow the path for now," I said after a second of hesitation.

"You'll probably get it then." I would have to explain this to everyone else anyway. Since there were people in the know, everyone looking out for the creature was the better option. Miss Aiko went into the corridor and followed the direction that her stiff-necked little fox, poking out from her sleeve, showed. We followed her, lighting the corridor with spells. I snapped my eyes shut again, also using the light of magic to navigate.

The reason was simple—I didn't want to show any of my cards, and darkvision was a strong card to play underground. The glow of magic fell onto the stone corridor. But this one was different from the wide, decorated passage we'd walked before. It was much smaller, so tight that we had to go single file, with Darius, Helga, the Hussar, and the paladins scraping their shoulders against the walls. There were also no decorations—only runes etched into the stone, once again far too advanced for me to read.

Some sort of shielding or hiding enchantments, but that was all I could guess. The runic line fueling them with mana must have been broken, unlike the lines powering the gate. We moved slowly through the claustrophobic corridor until the first crossroads. The fox-thing pointed right, and we followed. Then left, and right again. It was becoming increasingly obvious that the passages were a labyrinth running around and under the existing rooms on this side of the gate. We finally stopped.

The furry creature turned its head toward the ceiling. To the side, there were foot and handholds in the wall. I pushed past the summoner and used the footholds to go up.

"Wait!" shouted one of the paladins.

"We don't know—" Before he could finish, I pressed upward, and the stone slab slowly moved, completely silent despite its weight. I knew exactly where we would end up. Some of the people in the back readied for battle, but there was no need. The moment the exit opened fully, a room could be seen—the same simple room, with the remains of shelves to the sides, where George had previously slept to heal his wounds.

"Oh, fuck," groaned the cardinal as soon as he climbed up the footholds.

"That's how George disappeared into thin air," William said, looking at the room. Once everyone was out, we closed the stone slab. It fit perfectly. Even without the blood and dust obscuring the floor, it would be almost impossible to see—practically a perfect fit. We all looked at the slab with sour expressions.

"How did you know?" asked the cardinal once again.

"Did you see the wall openings in the other room before the gate?"

"Yes, the shooting spots." I nodded.

"This entire complex wasn't originally military. The militaristic statue in the upper room before the staircase was installed after the Shattering, when the fish symbol became widely used. Judging by the number of storage rooms, servants' quarters, and the spy tunnels, these were meeting rooms used by the ancient church, with the hidden passages meant to spy on said meetings.

Later, those same corridors were repurposed as shooting or casting stations for the other room when the gate was put in place, and the defensive encampment was created."

"So you assumed the corridors were present on either side," Aiko said, petting the fox.

"I had my suspicions when the cardinal disappeared, but the body confirmed them."

"But why leave the body?" asked Ophelia with a deep frown.

"To buy time," I said.

"To have us go around looking for the key, and do our little investigation away from the other groups." I took a deep breath, my eyes still on the slab.

"Call the rest back. We need to talk." Each party was called back into the main room, and a small podium made from old shelves and cabinets was set up. I sighed, looking at it. I didn't like giving speeches, but I wanted to be the one to pass along the right information. I didn't want the church playing its games.

"If you could tell me what you want to say to everyone, I could help," a voice said. I looked to the side and saw Leo approach, escorted by two paladins. I smiled at his words.

"Tell me—whose idea was it to move the wounded into separate rooms?" I asked.

"Was it George's?" The man didn't even flinch at my question.

"Mr. Alhazred, if your point is to try to divide people in this situation—""You see? Even in 'this situation', you still try to keep information to yourselves," I said with raised eyebrows. He paused for a second.

"Yes, it was George. He said it was to thin out the smell of blood so that it doesn't concentrate and attract any of the singularity's creatures. It sounded reasonable." Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"It was reasonable."

"What does it have to do with anything?"

"How about you tell me why George had a key, why you had the second key and not the pope, and who has access to information about this place?"

"Mr. Samuel, it seems like you want to accuse the church of something."

"It seems like you're more interested in protecting the church and its image than in getting us out of here."

"I assure you, if there is anything we can do to help, we will. But anything to do with internal church business should be handled by internal church personnel."

"Hit the table and the scissors speak," shouted the Hussar, who'd been listening from the side.

"What?"

"I mean… he speaks like an asshole," the man corrected, dropping the idea of explaining the idiom. I chuckled. The pope gave a tight smile before turning back to me.

"If it were your people who got us here, would you let anyone else lead the investigation?" he asked with raised eyebrows.

"Would you share the information with the opposing leaders?" That gave me pause. The man was right. To an extent, at least. Protecting the clan was one of the most important rules.

"Well then, I guess I'll make the speech," I said. The pope met my eyes for a second and then nodded lightly, going back to the small crowd. I went to the makeshift podium and sighed, seeing all the eyes on me. I hated public speeches. Well, I hated informative speeches. Offensive ones were fine.

"Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone else," I started.

"We have found ourselves in a rather… uncomfortable position. There is a skinwalker among us—wearing one of the people here like a skin-suit," I said loudly and clearly. Commotion broke out. I let them shout. Some looked at one another, searching for something on each other's faces. Others looked to me with accusation and suspicion. I raised my hand and waited for the room to fall into silence.

"Let me make the situation clear. We arrived here around seven hours ago. When we arrived, our wounded were moved into separate rooms to avoid the smell of blood attracting anything from those tunnels. Right after that, the skinwalker wearing Cardinal George went into the secret tunnels that ran all around this complex. There, it left the body it wore and returned through the same hidden tunnels.

It most likely used them to get into one of our wounded—or anyone who went to wash up or take a piss alone—and attacked." As my words fell on the crowd, tension rose among everyone. I observed their reactions, trying to read anything from them, but to no avail.

"From the limited knowledge I have of the creature, I imagine the first hours after assimilation are crucial. Reading others' thoughts takes time, and the creature can mimic a person to near-perfection. Let me be clear: we've most likely already lost those few hours. The enemy is among us. Don't let yourselves be alone with another person. In the hours that follow, we will see who was in the wounded rooms or who went out alone for extended periods. We will continue looking for the key, but in larger groups.

And anyone who knows others well—question those close to you, but… don't let paranoia overtake you." I finished my speech. Right after, Pope Leo jumped onto the stage and started a more "for the people" address, calming everyone that everything would be handled. I noticed some interesting points in it, delicately pointing out that everyone was a suspect, not just the church, but I stopped paying attention soon. New, larger groups were formed to look for the key—the key I doubted we would find.

Some people let others they trusted into their minds. Others asked private questions that only their closest could answer. But, to no one's surprise, we didn't get anything. I didn't pick up on any clues from my friends either. And as much as I didn't want to believe it, it was possible for the creature to wear one of them. I was unconscious, deep in the visions, for the six hours when the monster picked a new victim. The only good news was that, while I was out, the rest stayed in one group most of the time.

We then gathered reports from everyone about who was where, who went out alone, who was wounded, and who was in the main room at all times. And the news wasn't good. Basically, everyone could be the new carrier. At some point, anyone had gone either to change, to the toilet, or to check on the wounded. A few people could be reasonably excluded, though. Both popes went everywhere with an escort. Aside from that, maybe five people spent the whole time sleeping in the main room.

Then there were the cats, who should be too small to be worn by the creature. That left around forty-five possible carriers, myself among them. We tried checking, talking, scanning as much as anyone would allow without it turning into a fight—and nothing. For a few people, we tried scanning far beyond that, but it brought nothing but enmity to the group.

Especially since the people who got the rough treatment figured out it was their friends who had reported them as suspicious after they messed up on intimate questions. In the end, we were left with the same number of suspects, a few worsened relations, one divorce in the making, and many more accusations flying around. Afterward, we separated into bigger groups, making sure no one was ever left alone. Our group was joined by Astrid, who got the Oracle moving.

We spent three more hours going through the corridors and rooms, checking everything as far as mana allowed. And nothing. The key couldn't be found. This was not exactly a surprise. No—what I waited for was what came next. We gathered in the middle once again. The atmosphere wasn't pleasant. There was tension in the air, like a fight was about to break out any second.

"What now?" shouted someone from the crowd.

"Are we stuck? Are we gonna starve here?" he asked this time, looking at me.

"We will work on a solution," Leo started in his business voice, which was met with a less-than-pleasant reception.

"Oh, leave the soft words for soft people. You allowed an attack on the sabbath and then brought us into a trap!" roared one of the unaffiliated nobles.

"We are just as much victims as you are," Leo spoke up.

"The arcane faction had new leadership, some cracks—""With the new leadership, you were quite eager to take on a few of the popes' responsibilities—don't push the blame," Helga barked.

"That's not what I intended to do, I assure you."

"Maybe you are a traitor," shouted someone from D'Arc's faction. That talk slowly devolved into a shouting match, with everyone blaming the church for bringing them here. But I waited. William also looked over the crowd, most likely realizing the same thing as I did. Just getting us here was not the point. Who would organize something like this just to lock us in a room? And I was sure of it because of one thing: the man with the sewn mouth did his best to kill me.

If this were a death trap, it wouldn't have mattered. They didn't want me here for some reason. I paused my train of thought. Something about the fight itself wasn't adding up. I realized it as I thought about the man who almost killed me. But before I could concentrate, a shout broke the murmur all around.

"Listen!" Helga roared over the crowd and moved to the side, leaving the actual pope in the middle. Everyone turned to Clementus, who stood there slightly awkwardly.

"I—" He took a deep breath to calm himself before continuing.

"I think there might be a way." And there it was.