Chapter 19
A Hunter's Reckoning
The Church, having learned of Bishop Dark's increasingly unorthodox methods and the fallout from his recent actions, delivers an ultimatum. He must renounce his destructive path and adhere to strict Church doctrine, or face excommunication and the loss of his sanctioned hunting grounds. Bishop Dark stands at a critical crossroads, his loyalty to the institution that employs him clashing with his deeply ingrained sense of justice and his personal quest. His resolve is tested like never before.
Abbott Kale’s chamber was precisely as Bishop Dark remembered it: sterile, smelling faintly of old parchment and existential dread. The man himself, a study in ecclesiastical severity, sat behind a polished oak desk, his hands steepled in a way that suggested he was praying for the strength to deliver a particularly unpleasant sermon. Bishop Dark, meanwhile, occupied the single chair offered, his boots propped irreverently on the edge of the desk. He’d arrived, as always, with a faint scent of cheap ale and something vaguely coppery clinging to him, a testament to the previous night’s less-than-sanitized endeavors.
“Bishop,” Kale began, his voice dry as desert sand, devoid of any warmth. “We need to discuss your… methods.”
Bishop Dark grunted, taking a long drag from a cigarette that seemed to have materialized from the ether. “My methods get the job done, Kale. Last I checked, the Church wasn’t paying me to knit doilies for the undead.”
Keep reading "A Hunter's Reckoning"
Open the same story in AIBookCraft. Later chapters may require an active subscription.
Free on iOS & Android · No signup to read