Inquisitor's Promise (Act Three, Chapter Twenty)
The Holy League had been united, but the Grey Globe continued to move towards Earth. Aeneas and the members of his inner circle knew they had much to do and little time to prepare.
Chapter Twenty: One Final Message
My name is Caius Aquilanus, Patriarch of House Aquilanus and Inquisitor of the Church like my father before me. My father is Marcus Aquilanus, the hero who crushed the Vampiric Revolutions. My mother is Freja Sindrisdottir, a felinid princess of Fjordsden.
In The Year of Our Lord 7026, I was sent to Mare Nostrum for my first mission. At the time, that planet was located at a remote corner of the Electrosphere. A pale blue dot in the electric cosmos, and a strange place to go for a rookie Inquisitor. Indeed, I had requested it.
Why? I wanted to get away from it all. From my father’s shadow and from the pain of losing Faustina, someone who was once dear to me.
My mission was to investigate the disappearance of an Inquisitor named Yossi bar Kochba. That mission had been on the backburner for ten years, that was how remote Mare Nostrum was at the time.
But while I was at the orbit of Mare Nostrum, my starship was attacked and destroyed by the agents of Malevith. Even to this day, describing who or what Malevith is remains to be difficult. He has to be a macrobe, that term that was recently coined by Dr. Luigi Ransom.
Barely escaping with my life, I crash landed on the planet. There, I met the woman who would later become my wife, Simona Koseva. It was love at first sight, for her. Though I will not deny that I was quickly enthralled by her. Many felt differently; they were unnerved by her unnaturally pink hair and her guardian, the reptilian dog-like creature Nineveh.
She brought me to her home village of Dunnich. There, her mother quickly warmed up to me. Made sense, she saw me as good marriage prospect for her daughter. It didn’t hurt that I helped the village militia drive off the lizardmen of the Perelandra floating archipelago; at the time, those pirates had been raiding the coasts of their home continent Reik for years.
But then Simona was kidnapped by a jilted suitor named Wilbur Wheatley. With Nineveh, I rushed off to save her. I thought I had rescued her until Wilbur transformed himself with the use of demonic powers.
I was mortally wounded, but Simona healed me back to health by fusing our hearts together. It was a strange and mysterious process, and one that Simona herself did not understand. But the powers I received allowed us to put an end to Wilbur.
From that point on, I went on an adventure throughout Mare Nostrum with Simona. I had other companions in this journey, their names can be found in the history books. One important one was my own father, Marcus Aquilanus who arrived with his ship the Shield of Orthodoxy and intended to take me out of Mare Nostrum.
My father the Grand Inquisitor had acted out of selfishness and cowardice. He believed that Mare Nostrum was doomed and wanted to save me, his only son. Thankfully, I was able convince my father to cease his design, not by rebellion, but by obedience.
As we traveled throughout Mare Nostrum, Simona and I fell in love. But I also discovered the horrifying truth behind Simona: she was a Nephilim, the daughter of the macrobe Malevith. She was sent down to Mare Nostrum to destroy it. As a baby, she was adopted by Inquisitor Bar Kochba who had lived in Mare Nostrum as Joseph Koseva.
But Koseva was killed, sacrificing his life to save others. And the rot in the heart of Mare Nostrum festered. I had discovered my missing Inquisitor.
As for Simona, it all made sense. From her unnatural hair color to her guardian Nineveh who shared the same look as the Perelandrian lizardmen.
And then, she was taken from me. We were ambushed, betrayed by Nineveh who was a servant of Malevith all along. We barely escaped with our lives, but Simona stayed behind to sacrifice her life to save us, or so she had intended. Instead, she was captured.
At that point, my inferiority complex had gotten the best of me. Was it all a lie? A fake? But my companions had convinced me to keep going and reclaim my beloved.
And so, I confronted Simona at a cave located deep under the World Sea of Mare Nostrum. She was convinced that she was better off dead. Our love was nothing more than the workings of Malevith, to find himself a king worthy of a Swarm Queen. My love had believed herself to be irredeemable.
But I knew it to be false. And I was able to convince her to abandon her ‘father’. Everything happened for a reason, as guided by Providence. Even our love, initially a sham started by Malevith, had been used by God for our good. What Malevith had intended for evil, God had used for a noble purpose.
We were even able to convince Nineveh to turn his back on his master.
Having reclaimed my love, we soon returned back to the surface. But the fight against Malevith was not over. Though we had reclaimed Simona, the macrobe’s fleets of biological ships had surrounded the planet. Meanwhile, the Holy League fleet was set to arrive in three months.
It was during this time period that I married Simona. A strange occurrence as virtually all the Patriarchs of House Aquilanus had married in Nepoli. But such was the situation.
As it turned out, the fleet would arrive in five months. But together, we were able to defeat Malevith and destroyed him for good. At least in the material realm.
We returned back home to Earth, back to Nepoli, and back to Prochyta. Simona was warmly welcomed by our family and by our people — at least at first. But then it became clear that she was different, as were our children.
I founded the City of Simona under Lake Tyrion for the deep ones who made their home on Earth. But the people of Nepoli began to grow weary of the undersea dwellers. It was at this point that tragedy happened.
My beloved Simona was murdered. Poisoned by those who wished to start a war between the surface dwellers of Nepoli and the undersea dwellers of Simona.
In my grief, I would have been the one to start that war, but before she died my wife had asked me to forgive her murderers. And so, I did. I have no doubt that she is in Heaven right now.
As for me, my time is short. That much is clear. I can’t wait to see her.
Everything else I have entrusted to my son. But this message I give to Nineveh, the Swarm King. For him to treasure.