Plague of divinity

Chapter 13

Enrick paused, they... threatened Louisa? The sweet girl he had met only a couple of days ago?

"Why would they do that?"

"They were looking for a scapegoat for what was going on,"

Enrick narrowed his eyebrows "You two were the ones who helped someone to defile one of the statues in the first place, how did you end up blameless?"

"You don't understand! Louisa didn't actually do anything! It was my idea in the first place but they didn't want to harm me because I'm the sister of the town's last doctor so they placed everything on her instead. I was the one who came up with the ideas to cause trouble for the priests in the first place because of how badly they've been treating people, Louisa just came along because she didn't want to leave me alone, but now she's hurt because of me-!"

Despite the dim lighting, Enrick could see her tears glinting faintly.

"They've been horrible, I was just giving them what they deserved!"

Enrick felt a small pang of sympathy, it was obvious she really cared about Louisa. They must have bonded quite a bit when he'd been off on his journey. Truth be told, he could see where she was coming from, if someone had threatened to hurt somebody he cared about, he would probably be mad as well but... he had a responsibility as a doctor. If he had done what Mags had just done he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep well for many nights to come, especially not with those cries of help that had been echoing from within the flames.

"Mags, do you know what you've done?" His tone was low and serious. He began to shake, his eyes overflowing.

"Mags they're going to kill you!" His voice broke when he spoke as he grabbed her shoulders to try and emphasise his fear.

Mags wriggled out of his hands "Don't like a child! I'm a grown woman, I can handle myself and the consequences that come with it!"

"I know you can! But you haven't seen today what I have. That person you put up to vandalizing that statue? They're dead!"

She froze, taking a moment to process that information, before turning away from him and beginning to walk away. Enrick wasn't sure whether or not he should go after her, did she need some time alone?

After she turned the corner a wrathful pained cry sounded out accompanied by some smashing noises. Enrick looked at the spot she had disappeared, she obviously needed some time to process her feelings towards the priests. He slowly approached the corner.

"Mags?" He called cautiously, he didn't want to end up making her feel worse than she already did. She had sat herself on a low ledge.

"How could they do something like that?!" Enrick continued to approach as it seemed she was willing to talk "I knew they were awful but I didn't think they'd stoop so low as to actually kill someone for something like that-"

One of Enrick's eyebrows narrowed. She had just set a building on fire, damaging priceless artefacts and nearly killing a bunch of people herself. But he had to agree with her, he didn't realize the temple were actually willing to kill people. Not normal people like that anyway.

"Mags, you're in danger, you and Louisa. If I found that person dead, what's to say they wouldn't do the same to you?" He looked at her with worry in his eyes. He cared for her so much as his last remaining sibling. He didn't know what he would do if she were to end up in that field.

Mag's hands clenched into fists. "I'm not going to let that happen."

"My position can't save you from everything, if they think you're too big a threat to just brush off they're going to be looking for ways to remove said threat."

"I can't let them hurt Louisa! She was dragged into this because of me!" Mags took a moment before speaking up again "What... what if I took the blame for her instead?" she stood up suddenly.

"What?"

"You heard me. I was already going to be a target after what I've done, I might as well protect her in the process,"

Enrick paused, if she did this it would mean she would be in even more danger and it didn't necessarily mean the blame would 100% be removed from Louisa, as she still could be seen as an accomplice... but if she could get it to work...

"...Do you have a plan? You might be trying to protect her but I refuse to let you get hurt in the process."

Mags looked down "Not yet... -but I'll figure something out,"

Enrick walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her supportively "Don't you dare put your life in danger, ok?" before briefly letting go and beginning to walk inside, "Oh and by the way, you might want to come inside soon. It'd be bad news if they saw you anytime soon,"

He made his way inside and got changed before laying on his bed, only relaxing when he heard his sister close the front door behind her with a sigh. What an awful day. Between seeing the bodies and his sister causing a big conundrum he couldn't decide which was worse.

Rolling over he curled into a foetal position, bringing his knees up to his chest. He was worried for the people around him. His mother seemed to be coughing quite a lot recently, looking pale as ever and his sister was causing trouble, he didn't want either of them to end up like the corpses he had seen. Despite his tiredness from the events that day he could feel a tear wet his face, followed by another and another. He didn't want to lose them, he didn't have anyone else. He sort of lost touch with a lot of his childhood friends when he became busy studying to be a doctor, only really having time when his family dragged him away to hang out with them. He had grown close to the other doctors, but they couldn't replace the family he already had.

No, failure was not an option. Regardless of what would happen, he would do whatever he could to keep them with him.

To keep them alive.