Death of a Ghost, Ch 2
Gust of Fate
It was centuries ago when a report of an attack against the healers at Karu’s Heal Chapel in Sashero’s lands was brought to him. Ane, being a healer himself, was anxious to go and investigate; so anxious he left without the others.
“Why did he go by himself?” Sashero snatched his coat from the bedpost, “Doesn’t he get that he’s a target?” He briskly walked up the steps from his room to the main living room of the mansion nearly bumping into Kuaru, who seemed to be in a more desperate situation than everybody else. “Why didn’t you stop him? He’s your responsibility.”
Turning his back on his older brother, Kuaru headed toward the main entrance to the house, “I love him, not control him.”
“Is there a difference?”
Kuaru usually let comments like that pass. Usually. But when he was like that not even big brother Sashero was safe. “Sashero, I could spend the next hundred millenniums explaining to you the difference between love and control, but a being like you with your personality are fucked up because my friend, no one is going to love you, except this little brother of yours,” And left the mansion, leaving Sashero a little baffled at his brother’s outburst.
“You talk as if I was interested in it!”
“You might be one day,” Allen’s voice came from behind him as calm and rough as always. “You never know.”
Sashero and Allen, his right hand man and leader of the werewolves, set off to catch up with Kuaru, who by then had set a good distance from them.
When they caught up with Kuaru, the three of them reached Karu’s Heal Chapel, looking as gothic as it always did, but small. Enough space for teachers and five students in each lecture room.
Allen took a sniff at the air, “So, what exactly did the report say?” He stopped sniffing and stared at the great bronze doors.
Marvelous were these, representing Karu’s twelve ordeals of the gift over healing his young brother after being shot with a dark arrow; telling his parents and the village headman and being accused of witchcraft, sentenced to death; how his younger brother took his place (unknown to others due to the hood those condemned used) at the stake while Karu fled; his encounter with a shadowed being and Karu’s victory over it; his meeting with the Starlings when he was told he had the gift of life; how the Starling taught him the secrets of nature and its healings and dangerous effects; when he left he Starlings haven to set his own path; his meeting with a hurt girl and healed her, and this same girl (an Elemental) told him that in that same place he had start his teachings and help those who need him; when the school was attacked by demons and was defended by the great lord Jonay and healed their injured; when the pact was made for the school to be protected, this one featured Lord Jonay, Erin & Ruos (the master Elementals), Alaric, the demons’ lord back then and his eldest son, Sashero; when Karu’s life ended; and the last one, when the healers were informed they served a higher purpose.
“If I hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t believe it,” Said Allen still looking at it with a little disdain.
“You were there?”
Frustrated for not getting his recognition Allen growled at his younger half-brother, “Yes, Kuaru unlike what the door indicates, I was there with Sashero the whole time.”
Right when Kuaru started his next question, Sashero advised him not to, that it wasn’t a good subject with Allen.
The Chapel was dark and damp, something it never was, oozing tension from its brick walls and wooden chairs. Not a candle was lit in the main chamber, but traces of light were visible from the backrooms where the healers moved about.
Among the shuffle of feet Sashero could distinguish Ane’s busy footwork. He could tell he was moving from patient to patient, giving orders and instructions on which herbs and fruits were the correct ones to mix and make his potions.
“Kuaru, he’s on the backroom.” Said Sashero to his brother, who was already searching for his partner. A look from Kuaru quickly communicated his ‘thank you’ and left.
It would be good for him to be back there, he had been nervous when he heard the healers where attacked and Ane was nowhere to be seen. For Ane there was no better assistant in emergencies than the ever-alert Kuaru. It would make Ane calm down and feel confident. Though heaven knows why he needed someone to make him feel confident, when he was one of the few healers naturally born. Everyone trusted his capable hands, and more important his mind and heart. Even Sashero, though they always bickered, thought of him as a brother.
While Sashero looked around the damped chapel, he wondered since when exactly did he see Ane as family and a friend. He’d been living under their (being Kuaru and Sashero’s) roof for century, and for the last century it became home for all four of them. Though one was barely ever around, Allen, the eldest of the four; the lord of demons, Sashero; his brother, the leader of wolves, Kuaru; and Ane the Elemental healer.
He examined the window above the altar and the shattered pieces of glass on the floor to calculate the strength of the harpies and it was well below average. He let his mind drift to his elder brother, who bythen had left the chapel and gone to the woods to investigate.
Allen was the leader of werewolves; one of the greatest armies there was, besides the bear, tigers and foxes (the cunning bastards were led by Kiba, the most arrogant being on this world). Sashero could not think of a time when the two referred to each other without using insults.
A piece of glass was tainted with blood. Sashero picked it up and put it in his pocket for later examination. The scent of the blood wasn’t from a harpy or a healer. There was something elemental about it, but what was intriguing was that the scent, though it was just a drop at the most, it was overpowering. It slowly crept up his nostrils and tempted his senses. Who’s was it? He’d never smelled it before. Which meant there was a stranger in his lands and hadn’t announced itself, and already wrought havoc.
He heard Allen walk in with heavy footsteps, “Nothing. Not even the small beasts want to talk. They’ve been threatened,” He was pensive for a moment. With a scoff he added “As if we wouldn’t help them.”
Scoffing was Allen’s ‘trademark’. He never really said much around strangers, and when spoken to he would only answer with a scoff. That’s what happened when people saw you as the big bad wolf and never gave you a chance.
This was the problem that werewolves had to confront all their lives. They were seen as monsters (even if sometimes they were, if you piss them off) but they really were loyal, mainly to each other, and their people, meaning wolves and other mutts.
Sashero couldn’t think of something that had happened to him that Allen didn’t know about and vice-versa.
“What’s that smell?” he asked sniffing around ending up close to Sashero. Allen looked at him quizzically, “Is that you?”
Sashero dug in his pocket for the piece of glass and held it under Allen’s nose.
“Who’s that?” he took another sniff, “I don’t recognize it.”
“That’s why I’m keeping it.” And put it back to its new home, the pocket.
Allen took a deep breath, “There’s something about it.” He looked up to the shattered window. “Something half-holy”
“Nothing is half-holy. You’re either holy, searching or damned.”
A small gust of wind flew in through the doors. It carried the scent of the blood on the shard; it was very strong. The owner was close.
Allen moved to the left of the chapel, moving chairs aside. Something called his attention, he bent on one knee and picked up a stone, transparent held by silver. The silver was shaped like a lizard with bird wings. The chain that would hold it around the owner’s neck trickled and, to the two wolves, it sounded almost like it chimed.
Allen turned around with the trinket showing it to Sashero, who stood in the center of the chapel staring at the entrance. That’s when he noticed that the small gust of wind had become more than that. Their coats were fluttering around them and the scent had become so thick if they moved they could feel it caress their faces. It wasn’t asphyxiating, more like cleansing, very alluring.
He took a look at Sashero, and saw that alluring was too soft a word for how he felt. He’d never seen him so transfixed, almost bewitched by it. A witch’s scent?
Sashero had stared at the open door, knowing that the owner of that marvelous scent would show up soon.
She touched ground and took a step, and then another for impulse and began running. She dashed by Sashero, sparing one glance at him as he stared. And the moment was gone. She looked straight ahead “Ane!” she yelled, “Are you here?”
He heard two sets of footsteps; one of Ane’s (these sounded closer) and the other set were of Kuaru, clearly following the older man. “Coming!” he yelled emerging from the door that connected the backrooms to the chapel’s main chambers.
They met halfway and she jumped on him fully. Ane simply chuckled, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. “I’m fine. You came right on time,” He comically stretched his arms in the air and wrapped them around her. She then planted a kiss on Ane’s cheek and set her feet on the ground.
“You’re bleeding,” Ane said while pressing a hand to her stomach. “Let’s treat that,” The scent had gotten much stronger than what it should be with the person close by. Sashero looked at the floor and there it was, a trail of blood that led to the door and outside.
The two of them moved to the back rooms, leaving three very confused demons behind. They looked at each other and followed.
Sashero was ahead of Allen, and Kuaru was right behind Ane and the lady that had just come in, that everyone knew (since all of the healers were doing the reverence of slightly touching between their brows with the tip of their right hand and bowed their heads) except the three brothers. Ane led the way to a separate room with a four-post bed not yet occupied.
The Healer sat her down on the bed and snatched her top off, which caused the three wolf daemons to quickly turn around and give her some privacy. Their efforts were thwarted when they realized that the door of the room that led to the main hall, and therefore to all the male Healers that were standing there were looking in, was still wide open. Allen gave them all a reproachful look, - and coming from Allen… it was fearful! - and closed the door non too gently. He turned around to face his brothers but quickly faced the door once again after noticing that Ane had then taken off more than just the lady’s top.
As the sons of Ileana stood facing the door, shifting uncomfortably in silence, knowing what was going on behind them, Ane spoke briskly “You could help a bit, the three of you.” It was one of Ane’s psychological abilities to make them feel like berated children somehow. “Kuaru. Get me the herbs I left on the table at the 2nd room. Allen I’ll need lots of water, enough to drink and draw a bath. Sashero, you can help him out on that.”
Kuaru quickly obeyed and left the room, once again leaving the door open. Allen and Sashero’s reaction was identical, they looked at each other - so not liking to receive orders from others - but sensing the importance and urgency of the moment, left the room. Once Ane felt the breeze in the room he shouted after the two, “Close the door!”
Once the three brothers were back in the room, each task completed (with much complaining from Sashero) the lady was being carefully put in the tub full of warm water - courtesy of Allen - in the washroom by Ane. While the brothers waited in the room, the Healer then poured in the water a jar of medicinal herbs for the pain and began washing her carefully.
“Long time no see,” Ane teased and gave her a peck on the cheek. He sank his legs up to his knees in the water behind her and sat on the rim of the tub.
She leaned her back on his legs and relaxed. “Sorry, I was checking up on something,” She flinched as he passed the sponge through her back and rubbed a few soft spots. Her voice had sounded weak, hushed.
Ane flinched at her flinching. “Sorry. But I have to clean on top of the scratches too. I don’t want anything to stick to them,” And continued with the washing. “Is it possible to know what exactly were you checking up on?” Like always she pushed herself to the limits. Each time she came back to him she was malnourished and exhausted to the point of passing out.
She smiled up at him, “I didn’t get these cuts from mere harpies.”
“I already know that.”
“I know.”
“I’ll rephrase the question. Why were you checking up on other Judges? You know what they’ll do to you if they saw you.” Judges hunting judges was a topic that Ane hated to discuss, but it was unavoidable when their lives depended on it.
She sighed and the light faded from her eyes turning the emerald eyes into black depths. “You know why I do it,” She sighed again. “I have to do it,” She was beginning to doze off.
Ane stopped scrubbing. “I know. If it’s too much, I’ll go with you next time.”
She turned around in the tub and faced Ane. She whispered, “They don’t like us when they think we’re separated… imagine the rage once they find out that their favorite Judges to kill are actually in it together. I’m not going to risk it.”
He was amazingly handsome; no one could deny it. Ane was a breathtaking being when he laughed as he did when he thought of what she had just said. “Yeah, that would be something.” He threw the sponge in the water, splashing her in the face. “Alright. Let’s finish with you.”
Once Ane finished bandaging her, he handed her a cup of water with herbs that left a nasty taste in her mouth. Something Ane hadn’t gotten around to fixing. The five of them were given rooms to sleep in, but only one was being used: the one the lady was in. Ane refused to leave her side, and Kuaru refused to leave Ane’s.
Sashero and Allen left to do the investigation by themselves.
“I still say we should have someone doing this job,” Sashero said as he walked around a massive tree of about 200 feet tall, its trunk was of almost 10 feet in diameter, and the buttress roots were almost as tall as he was. He’d spoken up to Allen who was perched on top of the tallest root this tree had.
Allen looked down at Sashero completely bored and irate with the investigation. “If you don’t want to do it just say so. Besides, I doubt very much that any of the creatures here will talk. Now, she…” He turned to look at Karu’s Heal Chapel, but referring to the lady in it, “could tell us what happened.”
Sashero had jumped up to the top of the buttress root halfway through Allen’s sentence, “Do you want to get through Ane to talk to her.”
“No,” Allen jumped off and looked up at Sashero, “You will.”
“Ane is going to bitch about it. Which means Kuaru is going to bitch about it too.” He sighed. “I hate this.”
They both began walking towards the Chapel much against their will. They were daemons walking into a chapel - self-explanatory. Though the world they lived in was ruled by daemons there were still beings that detested them. These beings were taken away from this world to another, but some refused to. This was The Covenant’s job; it was a major part of the balance they swore to maintain.
It was centuries ago when a report of an attack against the healers at Karu’s Heal Chapel in Sashero’s lands was brought to him. Ane, being a healer himself, was anxious to go and investigate; so anxious he left without the others.
“Why did he go by himself?” Sashero snatched his coat from the bedpost, “Doesn’t he get that he’s a target?” He briskly walked up the steps from his room to the main living room of the mansion nearly bumping into Kuaru, who seemed to be in a more desperate situation than everybody else. “Why didn’t you stop him? He’s your responsibility.”
Turning his back on his older brother, Kuaru headed toward the main entrance to the house, “I love him, not control him.”
“Is there a difference?”
Kuaru usually let comments like that pass. Usually. But when he was like that not even big brother Sashero was safe. “Sashero, I could spend the next hundred millenniums explaining to you the difference between love and control, but a being like you with your personality are fucked up because my friend, no one is going to love you, except this little brother of yours,” And left the mansion, leaving Sashero a little baffled at his brother’s outburst.
“You talk as if I was interested in it!”
“You might be one day,” Allen’s voice came from behind him as calm and rough as always. “You never know.”
Sashero and Allen, his right hand man and leader of the werewolves, set off to catch up with Kuaru, who by then had set a good distance from them.
When they caught up with Kuaru, the three of them reached Karu’s Heal Chapel, looking as gothic as it always did, but small. Enough space for teachers and five students in each lecture room.
Allen took a sniff at the air, “So, what exactly did the report say?” He stopped sniffing and stared at the great bronze doors.
Marvelous were these, representing Karu’s twelve ordeals of the gift over healing his young brother after being shot with a dark arrow; telling his parents and the village headman and being accused of witchcraft, sentenced to death; how his younger brother took his place (unknown to others due to the hood those condemned used) at the stake while Karu fled; his encounter with a shadowed being and Karu’s victory over it; his meeting with the Starlings when he was told he had the gift of life; how the Starling taught him the secrets of nature and its healings and dangerous effects; when he left he Starlings haven to set his own path; his meeting with a hurt girl and healed her, and this same girl (an Elemental) told him that in that same place he had start his teachings and help those who need him; when the school was attacked by demons and was defended by the great lord Jonay and healed their injured; when the pact was made for the school to be protected, this one featured Lord Jonay, Erin & Ruos (the master Elementals), Alaric, the demons’ lord back then and his eldest son, Sashero; when Karu’s life ended; and the last one, when the healers were informed they served a higher purpose.
“If I hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t believe it,” Said Allen still looking at it with a little disdain.
“You were there?”
Frustrated for not getting his recognition Allen growled at his younger half-brother, “Yes, Kuaru unlike what the door indicates, I was there with Sashero the whole time.”
Right when Kuaru started his next question, Sashero advised him not to, that it wasn’t a good subject with Allen.
The Chapel was dark and damp, something it never was, oozing tension from its brick walls and wooden chairs. Not a candle was lit in the main chamber, but traces of light were visible from the backrooms where the healers moved about.
Among the shuffle of feet Sashero could distinguish Ane’s busy footwork. He could tell he was moving from patient to patient, giving orders and instructions on which herbs and fruits were the correct ones to mix and make his potions.
“Kuaru, he’s on the backroom.” Said Sashero to his brother, who was already searching for his partner. A look from Kuaru quickly communicated his ‘thank you’ and left.
It would be good for him to be back there, he had been nervous when he heard the healers where attacked and Ane was nowhere to be seen. For Ane there was no better assistant in emergencies than the ever-alert Kuaru. It would make Ane calm down and feel confident. Though heaven knows why he needed someone to make him feel confident, when he was one of the few healers naturally born. Everyone trusted his capable hands, and more important his mind and heart. Even Sashero, though they always bickered, thought of him as a brother.
While Sashero looked around the damped chapel, he wondered since when exactly did he see Ane as family and a friend. He’d been living under their (being Kuaru and Sashero’s) roof for century, and for the last century it became home for all four of them. Though one was barely ever around, Allen, the eldest of the four; the lord of demons, Sashero; his brother, the leader of wolves, Kuaru; and Ane the Elemental healer.
He examined the window above the altar and the shattered pieces of glass on the floor to calculate the strength of the harpies and it was well below average. He let his mind drift to his elder brother, who bythen had left the chapel and gone to the woods to investigate.
Allen was the leader of werewolves; one of the greatest armies there was, besides the bear, tigers and foxes (the cunning bastards were led by Kiba, the most arrogant being on this world). Sashero could not think of a time when the two referred to each other without using insults.
A piece of glass was tainted with blood. Sashero picked it up and put it in his pocket for later examination. The scent of the blood wasn’t from a harpy or a healer. There was something elemental about it, but what was intriguing was that the scent, though it was just a drop at the most, it was overpowering. It slowly crept up his nostrils and tempted his senses. Who’s was it? He’d never smelled it before. Which meant there was a stranger in his lands and hadn’t announced itself, and already wrought havoc.
He heard Allen walk in with heavy footsteps, “Nothing. Not even the small beasts want to talk. They’ve been threatened,” He was pensive for a moment. With a scoff he added “As if we wouldn’t help them.”
Scoffing was Allen’s ‘trademark’. He never really said much around strangers, and when spoken to he would only answer with a scoff. That’s what happened when people saw you as the big bad wolf and never gave you a chance.
This was the problem that werewolves had to confront all their lives. They were seen as monsters (even if sometimes they were, if you piss them off) but they really were loyal, mainly to each other, and their people, meaning wolves and other mutts.
Sashero couldn’t think of something that had happened to him that Allen didn’t know about and vice-versa.
“What’s that smell?” he asked sniffing around ending up close to Sashero. Allen looked at him quizzically, “Is that you?”
Sashero dug in his pocket for the piece of glass and held it under Allen’s nose.
“Who’s that?” he took another sniff, “I don’t recognize it.”
“That’s why I’m keeping it.” And put it back to its new home, the pocket.
Allen took a deep breath, “There’s something about it.” He looked up to the shattered window. “Something half-holy”
“Nothing is half-holy. You’re either holy, searching or damned.”
A small gust of wind flew in through the doors. It carried the scent of the blood on the shard; it was very strong. The owner was close.
Allen moved to the left of the chapel, moving chairs aside. Something called his attention, he bent on one knee and picked up a stone, transparent held by silver. The silver was shaped like a lizard with bird wings. The chain that would hold it around the owner’s neck trickled and, to the two wolves, it sounded almost like it chimed.
Allen turned around with the trinket showing it to Sashero, who stood in the center of the chapel staring at the entrance. That’s when he noticed that the small gust of wind had become more than that. Their coats were fluttering around them and the scent had become so thick if they moved they could feel it caress their faces. It wasn’t asphyxiating, more like cleansing, very alluring.
He took a look at Sashero, and saw that alluring was too soft a word for how he felt. He’d never seen him so transfixed, almost bewitched by it. A witch’s scent?
Sashero had stared at the open door, knowing that the owner of that marvelous scent would show up soon.
She touched ground and took a step, and then another for impulse and began running. She dashed by Sashero, sparing one glance at him as he stared. And the moment was gone. She looked straight ahead “Ane!” she yelled, “Are you here?”
He heard two sets of footsteps; one of Ane’s (these sounded closer) and the other set were of Kuaru, clearly following the older man. “Coming!” he yelled emerging from the door that connected the backrooms to the chapel’s main chambers.
They met halfway and she jumped on him fully. Ane simply chuckled, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. “I’m fine. You came right on time,” He comically stretched his arms in the air and wrapped them around her. She then planted a kiss on Ane’s cheek and set her feet on the ground.
“You’re bleeding,” Ane said while pressing a hand to her stomach. “Let’s treat that,” The scent had gotten much stronger than what it should be with the person close by. Sashero looked at the floor and there it was, a trail of blood that led to the door and outside.
The two of them moved to the back rooms, leaving three very confused demons behind. They looked at each other and followed.
Sashero was ahead of Allen, and Kuaru was right behind Ane and the lady that had just come in, that everyone knew (since all of the healers were doing the reverence of slightly touching between their brows with the tip of their right hand and bowed their heads) except the three brothers. Ane led the way to a separate room with a four-post bed not yet occupied.
The Healer sat her down on the bed and snatched her top off, which caused the three wolf daemons to quickly turn around and give her some privacy. Their efforts were thwarted when they realized that the door of the room that led to the main hall, and therefore to all the male Healers that were standing there were looking in, was still wide open. Allen gave them all a reproachful look, - and coming from Allen… it was fearful! - and closed the door non too gently. He turned around to face his brothers but quickly faced the door once again after noticing that Ane had then taken off more than just the lady’s top.
As the sons of Ileana stood facing the door, shifting uncomfortably in silence, knowing what was going on behind them, Ane spoke briskly “You could help a bit, the three of you.” It was one of Ane’s psychological abilities to make them feel like berated children somehow. “Kuaru. Get me the herbs I left on the table at the 2nd room. Allen I’ll need lots of water, enough to drink and draw a bath. Sashero, you can help him out on that.”
Kuaru quickly obeyed and left the room, once again leaving the door open. Allen and Sashero’s reaction was identical, they looked at each other - so not liking to receive orders from others - but sensing the importance and urgency of the moment, left the room. Once Ane felt the breeze in the room he shouted after the two, “Close the door!”
Once the three brothers were back in the room, each task completed (with much complaining from Sashero) the lady was being carefully put in the tub full of warm water - courtesy of Allen - in the washroom by Ane. While the brothers waited in the room, the Healer then poured in the water a jar of medicinal herbs for the pain and began washing her carefully.
“Long time no see,” Ane teased and gave her a peck on the cheek. He sank his legs up to his knees in the water behind her and sat on the rim of the tub.
She leaned her back on his legs and relaxed. “Sorry, I was checking up on something,” She flinched as he passed the sponge through her back and rubbed a few soft spots. Her voice had sounded weak, hushed.
Ane flinched at her flinching. “Sorry. But I have to clean on top of the scratches too. I don’t want anything to stick to them,” And continued with the washing. “Is it possible to know what exactly were you checking up on?” Like always she pushed herself to the limits. Each time she came back to him she was malnourished and exhausted to the point of passing out.
She smiled up at him, “I didn’t get these cuts from mere harpies.”
“I already know that.”
“I know.”
“I’ll rephrase the question. Why were you checking up on other Judges? You know what they’ll do to you if they saw you.” Judges hunting judges was a topic that Ane hated to discuss, but it was unavoidable when their lives depended on it.
She sighed and the light faded from her eyes turning the emerald eyes into black depths. “You know why I do it,” She sighed again. “I have to do it,” She was beginning to doze off.
Ane stopped scrubbing. “I know. If it’s too much, I’ll go with you next time.”
She turned around in the tub and faced Ane. She whispered, “They don’t like us when they think we’re separated… imagine the rage once they find out that their favorite Judges to kill are actually in it together. I’m not going to risk it.”
He was amazingly handsome; no one could deny it. Ane was a breathtaking being when he laughed as he did when he thought of what she had just said. “Yeah, that would be something.” He threw the sponge in the water, splashing her in the face. “Alright. Let’s finish with you.”
Once Ane finished bandaging her, he handed her a cup of water with herbs that left a nasty taste in her mouth. Something Ane hadn’t gotten around to fixing. The five of them were given rooms to sleep in, but only one was being used: the one the lady was in. Ane refused to leave her side, and Kuaru refused to leave Ane’s.
Sashero and Allen left to do the investigation by themselves.
“I still say we should have someone doing this job,” Sashero said as he walked around a massive tree of about 200 feet tall, its trunk was of almost 10 feet in diameter, and the buttress roots were almost as tall as he was. He’d spoken up to Allen who was perched on top of the tallest root this tree had.
Allen looked down at Sashero completely bored and irate with the investigation. “If you don’t want to do it just say so. Besides, I doubt very much that any of the creatures here will talk. Now, she…” He turned to look at Karu’s Heal Chapel, but referring to the lady in it, “could tell us what happened.”
Sashero had jumped up to the top of the buttress root halfway through Allen’s sentence, “Do you want to get through Ane to talk to her.”
“No,” Allen jumped off and looked up at Sashero, “You will.”
“Ane is going to bitch about it. Which means Kuaru is going to bitch about it too.” He sighed. “I hate this.”
They both began walking towards the Chapel much against their will. They were daemons walking into a chapel - self-explanatory. Though the world they lived in was ruled by daemons there were still beings that detested them. These beings were taken away from this world to another, but some refused to. This was The Covenant’s job; it was a major part of the balance they swore to maintain.