A number of questions begged to be asked. He spoke the chief amongst them “Why?”
“Do you know what Penelope actually went through?” Shadows Fade asked.
“The Father told me Margaret was tortured and coerced.”
“But do you know what that means?”
“I don’t follow…” he said hesitantly.
“They put me in a cold room that drained me all the time,” Penelope said, her voice wavering as she spoke to the floor. “I shivered all day, every day. Then there were the demons, voices that taunted me almost constantly. And rituals that came overhead, played with my… with me. Mahrey, the witch, would come down and torture me with the same affects. And it was all to turn me to That Which Sins.”
“And you called on her when you could take no more?” Dust asked.
“Yes. That was when they arranged the final ritual.”
Dust blew air out through his lips. The Father had said the Vessels were tempted into deviance but he hadn’t appreciated what that meant at the time. He decided that he’d been a lofty asshole before he wore that Bond because he hadn’t even tried to understand.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” he said.
“Thank you. It’ll… it’ll take me a while to get over it. If I ever do.”
Dust hoped she would.
“But that experience makes me want to come with you, Dust. Shadows Fade tells me that the two of you killed every cultist in that temple and… and I think a lot of what happened to them might not have been their fault.” Penelope caught his eye. “I want to change how you do things. Both of you. Because I think some cultists aren’t to blame for where and what they are.”
“Did you see the battle we were in?” Dust asked, aghast.
“No but-”
“No. We were fighting for our lives. There wasn’t exactly time for interviews!” His tattoo flared at his anger, bright warm pain. He winced, realised he was being unusually emotional, then said “Sorry. That was harsh.”
Penelope’s hands and shoulders shook but still she spoke. “I’m not criticising you or the way you’ve been doing things because you didn’t know, did you? I could see it when I explained what happened to me. Just hearing it, though… I don’t think that’s enough. You don’t know what it was like. Almost no-one could withstand that pain. But you can pull the hatred and horror out of someone, correct their mistake as you did mine. And I want to help make that your usual practice.”
“Why? Most cultists are too far gone to survive it,” Dust said.
“Perhaps. But they would have died at your hands anyway. What about those who would have survived the process? Don’t they deserve the same chance I got?”
“If they even want to turn their backs on That Which Sins…”
Penelope shrugged. “Well, if they don’t, you kill them as you would have before. But you’ll be giving them a chance at getting their lives back. And you’ll be more likely to take people alive, let them make up for their mistakes, with someone else around. And, well, I haven’t got anywhere else to go now, have I? You said it yourself. Eleanor and her like have taken my life from me.” Her body stopped shaking as she balled her hands into fists. “I don’t want that to happen to anyone else. Never. Never ever.”
Penelope’s words and determination inspired a cocktail of emotions that Dust wasn’t too comfortable with. He had to admit she had a point; if she could be forced into worshipping one of the Triangle in four days, how many others like her had there been in that temple? Or in his previous missions? How many of his victims’ first and only crime had been not killing themselves before they’d given in? Hell, the scenarios were probably set up so they couldn’t end it first…
“What do you think about this?” he asked Shadows Fade.
“Which bit?” the warrior asked, leaning against the chapel. “That we may have killed dozens of innocent people or that she wants to come with us?”
“Both,” he said, noting the use of ‘us’.
The warrior looked toward the rising sun. “I still have a lot of thinking to do about the first point; I do not believe Resistance would have let us slaughter people who did not deserve it but it is possible we did not understand his desires. As for Penelope?”
The girl smiled up, hopeful and bright.
Shadows Fade smiled back. “I see something of myself in her.”
Dust looked at Penelope, examined her real close. He’d never questioned his ability to rid something or someone of the Triangle’s influence. But that was before, when he’d been a dull waste. It was possible Penelope had picked up on Resistance’s intentions for the power by actually experiencing it. He’d have to think that through over the next few days. More than that, her inner fire made him wonder if the gods didn’t use people as game pieces but instead tried to set things up so they’d work in their favour, like loading dice or stacking decks. If so, he reckoned Penelope was like a pocketed ace of hearts.
