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--donation bonus (day #23, post 2/5)--
Seven were now six, and they all sat in the front pews, interspersed between their wives and children, David being the odd man out in that regard. Of all his siblings, he’d been the only one to escape the pressure to ensure their bloodline live on. Ironically enough, he’d always felt that he might have been inclined to have children if that sense of “duty to his lineage” had never been forced upon him in the first place. Though, if he did ever meet a woman he loved truly, he would probably just run away with her, rather than risk subjecting her to his family.

The Abolishers were in attendance as well, though only five of them, and they concealed themselves beneath blue-and-gold clerical robes. He tried to keep a sense of where they all were, but they kept moving, creeping around and leaving him unsettled as usual. The absent two, he believed, were still resting. Before apparently hibernating, Desmond had met with David one last time, and the man expressed very little disappointment at having lost the King and considerably more relief at no longer having to “babysit the dull bastard.”

The other Abolishers were all in a tizzy, now. Belgrant Castle was completely empty of subjects to maim and torture for their amusement, and word had therefore spread around Sescoria about the monstrous people who’d been holding the building hostage. Word hadn’t made it into the news, of course, as that was still being monitored and suppressed, but it was progress.

As for this business about Hector Goffe being the one who killed Nathaniel, David didn’t believe it, partly because Luther was the one who claimed it so, and partly because David had already asked Hector himself. Granted, murder wasn’t a thing that many people would admit to, but David could see no motive for anyone other than Luther.

Though, if David was honest, part of him still wanted Luther to be innocent. Part of him wanted to think the man wasn’t that far gone yet. Foolishness, he knew. Luther had already betrayed Helen, nearly to the cost of her life.