writing_shadows

William moved his bishop two squares, the maximum, and tried to work out what would happen next. Inside his blood he raged for justice and revenge. The torment of the past month replayed in his mind; the agony of the crosses, the stake, the relics, the fire, the endless, endless torture. Every mark on his body that had healed, every second of his life that had been defiled by the heretics, every sanguine drop they had spilled would be paid for in kind.

The memories, he knew, would not heal. He could not have imagined such agony in the world existed, even after the acts he had seen at Evesham or Acre. And now the agony was his, rent open like a gushing wound. His to harness and heap upon his enemies.

Who were they? The inquisition. But how had they found him? He knew how they had infiltrated Dover… playing the events back, it was all too clear how they had skulked into the keep. The flaws could be resolved, the watch punished. He would see to it he was protected; perhaps even take a wife, if necessary. They were only human, after all. But how they had identified him… that was a mystery he needed to solve.

He knocked an errant pawn over, his knight gliding into position. Once he had secured his person, he must go on the offensive. The inquisition had ended, so they were heretics, and fair game. Once located, he would laugh as they suffered their impious deaths, condemned to the fires of damnation for their act against him.

And then there was the matter of Cainite politics. John had done nothing, had ordered him to do nothing. But a lord who refused to protect his vassal was not a lord worthy of the title. Action was required, flesh for flesh and pain for pain. And that meant Rochester would pay.

William did not know who the Ventrue was in Rochester, but he had marked him for an idiot already. Either he knew the inquisition used his castle, or he was inept. Either way, he was a cur. And either way, William knew he was entitled to compensation. It was his right.

And if John was too weak to realise this, he would find a powerful enemy in William FitzGilbert de Clare.