The Zombie Reaper

Silence led them to one of the smaller training rooms and locked the door behind Brooks. Lynuel's mind was still trying to recover itself. He honestly wasn't sure what he was supposed to do anymore. How could they know? If he knew that than maybe he could start formulating some kind of plan of retaliation. At the moment, he just wanted to yell at all of the other priests. They were fools if they thought he was some kind of hero. He wasn't.

He was a monster.

"You're not a monster," Silence said as he eased him into a chair.

Lynuel looked up at the other man startled. He looked away and down at his hands which had clenched into tight, fists. "How do you know?" he asked. He wasn't even going to bother asking how Silence had known what he was thinking. He knew the other man wouldn't tell him that secret anyway.

Silence shrugged. "I know monsters and trust me when I say you aren't one," he assured him. "We all have things we've done that we aren't proud of," he continued. "That's normal. It's the way the world works actually. It's what we do after that defines us. You have a choice right now. You can draw into yourself like you're doing right now. You can become the monster you think that you are. Or," he paused for a moment, "you can chose to find a way to fight what you and everyone else seems to think about all of this."

Lynuel sighed and looked away. He knew Silence was right. But what was he supposed to do? How could he fight against the world around him? How could he change the opinions of people who seemed so utterly ignorant to anything beyond what they were told? "I don't know Silence," he sighed scrubbing a hand over his face. "Sometimes it just seems like it's all too much effort."

The priest flinched. The boy had that one dead on. Most days it was too much effort for the reward given. "A wise person once told me that the good things in life are worth an effort," Silence said. If only Lynuel knew that it had been Silence's own father who had told a younger Silence that. A Silence who had been afraid of his love for a human girl. He wished he could go back to those days. He wished he had never left her side.

She had been good to him.

She had been good for him.

Shaking his head, the priest managed a brief smile for a moment. "Besides, all of this gloom doesn't suit you. Leave it for me and Marcio. At the moment, you and I have some training to do."

Lynuel frowned as he looked up at Silence. "If you recall, I have an ankle that won't heal properly and an arm that hates my guts."

Silence snorted. "That bite barely broke the skin. You just have to learn to stretch through the pain for both of those injuries. Now, why don't we start with that. The Order teaches us more than fighting. Well it teaches us ordained priests more than fighting. All of you young ones however...well that is another matter entirely," the man teased with a hidden wink.

The red-haired priest looked at the other man stunned for a moment before he managed a little smile and shook his head. "As you will," he granted pushing himself slowly to his feet before he looked over at Brooks. His friend had remained in the corner, clutching the cane he had picked up to his chest. "Are you going to join us Brooks?"

Brooks straightened, eyes going wide for a moment before he nodded a little reluctantly and set the cane to the side. "Alright," he agreed stepping forward. "I-I'll warn you though, I'm not much of a fighter. I, well, when the ceremony comes, I'm supposed to be named one of the Revered Fathers."

"I'm not surprised," Lynuel admitted with a shrug. "You've always been good with medicine. I'll never understand why you didn't join the Order of Saint Camillus," he said shaking his head.

Silence crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head to the side, clearly curious to hear what Brooks would have to say. Looking between the two men, Brooks sighed. "It's a family thing. Everyone in my family has to join either the marines or the Order of Saint George. For the past three generations, they've all been joining the marines. As I have no interest in only fighting, I decided to go in the path of my great-grandfather Matthew and my older brother which was fine with my father."

Lynuel flinched in sympathy. "I know what you mean. I only joined for my mother."

Silence jerked his head towards Lynuel, tilting his head almost in confusion. "Really?" he asked.

His cheeks flushed and he looked away, shrugging. "Well, yeah," he admitted. "My mother always wanted to be a part of the Order of Saint Sebastian. But because she had me to look after, they wouldn't take her. So when I came of age, I decided that I wanted to make her happy so I applied to join the Order and they took me. You should have seen her face the day that they accepted me as an initiate. She was so proud that I knew I could never take it back."

"You're a good man Lynuel," Silence said nodding and relaxing. "Your mother should be very proud of you." Moving forward, he slapped Lynuel's good arm and pointed to the center of the room. "Now let's start these exercises. You should appreciate them just as much as Lynuel. You can teach them to your patients with injuries like Lynuel's and sometimes worse."

A smile lit Brooks face and he moved forward tot he center of the room now eager. "Well in that case, I suppose I might not be so useless after all this time!"