Inquisitor's Promise (Act One, Chapter Ten)
The opening of the ancient gate had been ominous. Down on Earth, young Inquisitor Aeneas Aquilanus was blissfully unaware that his life was going to change forever.
Chapter Ten: The Death of Anchises
Aeneas never liked the hospital. It was the location of his mother’s death. Now, it would be his father’s too.
“Lord Aquilanus,” a man said, approaching the young Inquisitor. He was the doctor who was tasked with keeping Anchises alive.
As Aeneas looked at the doctor, he couldn’t help but feel angry at him. Memories of his mother’s death returned to him. He aggressively put that thought out of his mind. It was utterly uncharitable for Aeneas to entertain such thoughts given that he was not even dealing with the same doctor. Nor was it even the doctor’s fault.
“Your father is waiting for you,” the doctor told Aeneas.
“Thank you, doctor,” Aeneas said before he walked into the room that held his father.
The room that Aeneas entered was not a very big one. Anchises laid on a bed, there was a large machine with tubes and wires that was attached to the older man from his head down to his legs.
“How you are you holding up, papa?” Aeneas asked. The young Inquisitor was hoping that it was not as bad as it looked.
“I’m done for, Aeneas,” Anchises said plainly.
Aeneas was shocked to hear his father’s words. “But you can’t give up.”
“Listen to me, Aeneas,” Anchises snapped. “By all rights, I should have been dead already. It’s only thanks to this contraption that I’m still alive. But it’s only delaying the inevitable. I have only an hour, perhaps a little bit more.”
Aeneas’ heart dropped. “But papa…”
“His Holiness Pope Peter Paul III had given me a very important mission,” Anchises continued on.
“The Pope?” Aeneas asked. “Is that why you spent so much time in Roma?”
“Yes.” If Anchises could nod, he would have done so. “It concerns the opening of the Lektros Gate. When he opened that gate, a portal to the Electrosphere had opened.”
“No way,” Aeneas said.
“That’s what I thought too, but I can confirm this myself. We were there when it happened,” Anchises elaborated.
“But what does this have anything to do with His Holiness?” Aeneas asked.
Anchises coughed uncontrollably but was able to find his words soon enough. “When the Gate was activated, we had unleashed the Grey Globe. It is moving towards Earth as we speak.”
“The Grey Globe,” Aeneas repeated. “It certainly sounds threatening.”
“You bet it is, Aeneas,” Anchises said. “The Holy League have sent entire star fleets at it, and they’ve been destroyed.”
“What?!” Aeneas cried in horror. “But I’ve never heard of this.”
“Given that the fleets were mostly of Venetian origin, I’m sure they’ve covered it up,” Anchises said. “Ask your lady friend, Giulia. She’d probably know about it.”
If the situation was not so dire, Aeneas would have laughed at his father’s joke. But Aeneas was more focused on what he had just learned.
“I think I know where you’re going with this, papa.”
Anchises laughed in response. “I’m glad you do, son. Because His Holiness had tasked me with uniting the Holy League in order to defeat the threat of the Grey Globe.”
The older Inquisitor then pointed towards himself.
“But as you can see,” he said. “I am in no shape to do it now.”
“And you want me to do it in your stead, right?” Aeneas asked knowingly.
“Indeed,” Anchises answered. “Promise me, that you will finish your old man’s last mission.”
Aeneas nodded. He clasped his father’s hand to his and took a deep breath, knowing that this will be a very important undertaking.
“I promise to unite the Holy League and protect the Church from the threat of the Grey Globe.”
“Thank you,” Anchises said before he coughed once more. “There’s one more thing I’d like to say.”
“Go for it, papa.”
“Take good care of Lady Galatea,” Anchises said. “I’m sure she’s a good match for you. She’s a hopeless romantic, just like your mother.”
“I will, papa,” Aeneas said. At this point, tears were flowing down his face.
“Now leave me! I have called for a priest to administer my last rites. He must be waiting outside right now.”
“Farewell, papa.”
Aeneas kissed his father’s head. It was the last time that he did so. Because that night, Anchises Aquilanus had breathed his last.
I'm very intrigued. "Unite the league." It sounds more and more like a king/concubine story. One strong man, 5 strong women. You're doing very well, Michael.