Luca sat calmly at a wooden table. It had been a few hours, and he wasn't as nervous as before.
Right now, he was at the church, in a special area hidden from the public. It had prisons hidden with people and the interrogation room he was currently in.
The major part of the interrogation had already been completed.
Before being taken to this place in the basement of the church, the knight called Haider had used a few more divine spells within his room. This had allowed him to discover the hidden compartments where Luca hid his money.
His explanation for why he did that earned him a weird look, but Luca didn't care. Only someone who had to wonder where their next meal was coming from would understand the sort of prudence and cautiousness Luca possessed.
He'd heard stories about these types of knights. They were trained from a young age and chosen by the Supreme, the Sun Father, Sol, to eradicate evil and madness from the land. However, what he'd heard was that these knights were ruthless.
They performed their tasks with maximum efficiency and didn't question orders. If you were suspected by one of them of heresy, they wouldn't hesitate to chop you down and ask questions later.
Although Luca could only wonder why that wasn't the case this time around.
'I guess I am kind of lucky, if you consider that luck.'
Seeing as nothing that could implicate him was discovered, he was escorted to the nearest church, which was the one down the street.
The bishop had a surprised look upon seeing him, but still complied with Haider's requests. After he arrived at the interrogation room, he was asked a few more questions, which he answered without any suspicion.
There was one last test that he needed to pass, however. Finally, the time came.
The door creaked open, letting the bishop and Haider in.
Bishop John stared at the young man in front of him with the same kind and warm smile he put on. However, he was inwardly wondering just how lucky the young man would be. He survived both a high-level mage's appearance and the suspicion of a knight from the Order.
Most people would already be dead. It could only be explained as the Father's light shining down on him. Perhaps He had other plans for the boy.
John put his hands up as if in prayer and started chanting. The words would be incomprehensible to anyone else, but they were imbued with a strange energy gotten from the Veil.
Whether it was himself, Haider, or even one of the evil mages, as long as they were altering nature and the material world, they got their energy from the Veil and the worlds beyond the Veil.
He would never admit that the priests were powered by the same thing as mages. No, that would be heresy and would weaken the faith of the flock.
But it was simply the truth of things.
John completed the chant, and a small wave of light spread out from his hands and hit the boy.
Eye of Truth!
A golden eye appeared, floating in front of his actual right eye. The eye wasn't exactly like the emblem of the church, but it was similar, as its iris also resembled a sun.
He then smiled again. "I'll ask a few more questions, and you'll be able to tell if you're lying. So don't bother,"
Luca nodded, and then the first question came.
"When did you find out about the woman inside your house?"
"Like I said before, when I entered the room after coming back from work, I saw her standing in the center of the room."
A faint green light pulsed from the eye, indicating truth.
"Good. Next question. Did you plan on reporting what you saw?"
Luca didn't need to think twice about that.
"Absolutely. She didn't seem to hear or see me, and I was about to leave when Knight Haider came to… heroically finish her off,"
The kid was good with words, John thought while giving a glance at Haider. Green light again.
"Alright, next. Did you know it was a mage?"
Luca hesitated slightly, but still answered truthfully.
"Yes, I did,"
Soft green light pulsed out of the ebbing Eye of Truth once more.
"Next-"
Before John could continue, Haider cut in, staring at the boy with a slight glint in his eye.
"Why did you hesitate before answering just then?"
"Ah, that's…" Luca realized he'd been misunderstood and rushed to clarify it. "I realized it was a mage because of the oddity surrounding it!"
He quickly explained the chain of deduction he'd used to come to his conclusion, which earned him impressed gazes from both Haider and John. They didn't press on with the matter.
The questions kept coming, and very soon he was done without lying about a single one.
"Looks like you're free to go, young man," Bishop John smiled, "We're rather sorry for the disturbance as well as the damages. The church will do well to compensate you for it,"
"Ah, it's nothing, it's nothing." Luca quickly raised his hands to deny the help, but inwardly, he celebrated.
"Nonsense! Humility is a noble trait, young man. I can see that one blessed by the Father, as yourself, will make it very far in life. We'll provide the compensation along with the coins that were confiscated from your room. I suggest you get a better place to stay."
"Thank you very much, bishop."
"You should thank the Sun Father, instead."
Luca didn't argue and quickly left the church with both his money and his compensation.
He didn't immediately find somewhere new to stay, but first stopped over at his former rented room. The two-story cottage was a mess. He went over to the room and stared at it.
There were no traces of blood or dirt on the floor anymore. The only way one could tell something was odd was the easily ignorable faded magic circle on the floor and the hole in the roof.
Either way, it didn't look like he would be staying here for a while.
Luca took in all of it for a while before turning.
Unbeknownst to him, the magic circle pulsed, and a dark light zipped out of the floor and buried itself in his back without drawing any attention.