Jeremiah stopped in his tracks when he found Gabriel in the yard, working alone with a quarterstaff, stripped to the waist. The weapon was a blur of motion as Gabriel worked. As he so often did when practicing alone, he kept his eyes closed. No one could move as fast or as true as Gabriel in battle. Jeremiah witnessed his lightning speed more than once. Sometimes, he was almost as fast as the Darklings.

Gabriel stopped once the forms were completed. He took a deep breath and eased his stance.

"Why so surprised, Brother?" he asked quietly, opening his eyes.

Jeremiah smiled. "I'm not so much surprised as delighted. Does this mean you're ready to rejoin the Hunt?"

Gabriel nodded and rested the end of the staff near his foot. "It's time. If I don't go out again, I may never."

"Are you afraid, Brother?" Jeremiah frowned.

Fear was acceptable, of course. They faced powerful and diabolical creatures, but a Hunter was trained to overcome and harness fear in the course of their duty.

Gabriel smiled at him, then laughed. "No, never that. I simply doubted myself. I couldn't reconcile my escape from three Darklings single-handed."

Jeremiah nodded slowly. "And now you have?"

Gabriel sighed, considering the question. "Not as fully as I'd like. I believe the Hunt will settle whatever qualms remain."

Jeremiah smiled at him as others arrived in the yard. Most greeted Gabriel with pleasure, happy to see him. Many watched him from afar, murmuring among themselves. He ignored these. He knew them to be among Thomas' cronies and gave their opinions little weight. Jeremiah called a start to their morning exercises then, and they all fell into lines to go through the forms Gabriel had just completed.

After working through the staff, swords, and hand-to-hand combat, they broke apart to go about their daily chores. Gabriel had none, as he was yet to be reassigned. He took himself off to the chapel. It was empty this time of day. Everyone else was engaged in study or busy elsewhere. He approached the altar and gazed up at the silver cross, suspended from the high vaulted ceiling. He always felt at peace here, but today he had questions.

Why would the Fathers teach them an incomplete truth, he wondered. How could so many carry a deception so far and so completely? And, he worried, just how deeply did the "fallacy of One Truth" run?

He knelt at the altar, bowing his head as he raised his hood, and tried to settle his spinning thoughts. He closed his eyes, breathing deeply to calm himself. Gradually, the pace of his thoughts slowed, and he began to look at all he knew very carefully.

The Darkling had yet to attempt to harm him. In fact, Gabriel realized, he perhaps was the reason he and Thomas survived the graveyard.

Myka knew Them in a way that would disturb Father Daniel. He kept relics that would draw the harshest of denouncements. Yet, Father Daniel did nothing.

Jeremiah possessed the same inherited ability to see Them, yet couldn't, because he could not see Them as living beings. He frowned, studying that last point further.

How, he wondered, in all these years, had he missed that glaring difference between him and his closest Brother? Was he so blinded by his devotion to the Order that such things were beyond his notice?

He tensed, hearing a whisper behind him. Under his cloak, his hand dropped to the pommel of his sword.

"Praying for forgiveness, I see."

Thomas had no idea how close he came to losing his head. Gabriel decided to ignore him. He was busy with more important things. He also needed to figure out why he felt threatened within the walls of Homestead, in the chapel, even.

"Father Daniel has only been waiting for you to recover," Thomas sneered, "before calling you to Question."

And there was the reason for his innate caution. Thomas' anger towards him was a living thing between them.

Gabriel withheld a reply. Responding would only give Thomas more reason to dislike him. He never understood his Brother's hostility. Thomas achieved the Cloak several months before him but acted as though he usurped him somehow. The reason behind it continued to escape him.

"I'm talking to you, Brother!" Thomas shouted, directly in his ear.

"Step away, Brother," Gabriel warned, his voice quiet and deadly.

Thomas snatched the hood of his cloak back. Moving on pure instinct, Gabriel whirled to his feet. He caught Thomas across the cheek with an elbow and dropped low to sweep his leg. Before Thomas could utter another word, he found his face pressed to the floor, and Gabriel's booted foot was on the back of his neck.

"How dare you lay hands upon me," Gabriel murmured with eerie calm.

"Let me go, damn you!" Thomas struggled and cried out as the pressure on his neck increased. He knew this position could cripple him. All Gabriel had to do was give a slight twist to his ankle and his neck would be broken.

"Since we cannot get along, we would do well to keep clear of each other, yes?" Gabriel suggested.

"I'll see you flogged!" Thomas raged, his words muffled by the rug.

"You may, at that," Gabriel agreed. His voice was distant and flat, sending a chill down the other Hunter's spine. "This is twice I've defied you. That decision, however, is not yours to make."

Thomas found himself free suddenly. He scrambled to his feet, but Gabriel was gone. The door of the chapel closing and his own harsh breath were the only sounds in the room.

"Fool."

Thomas reddened as Myka appeared. A curtain fell behind him as he moved into the chapel. He clucked his tongue, shaking his head. "You're no match for him."

"Begone, heretic," Thomas snapped, turning away.

Myka smiled at his retreating back, seeing him run a hand across his cheek. "Does it hurt, knowing if he had not gone back, you would be fodder?"

"Be silent!" Thomas growled, turning back to him.

"He saved your hide, and all you can do is become an even greater ass."

Thomas' face contorted in fury. "How dare you!"

"I speak the truth, boy. A truth your pride cannot bear. You begone. Your ignorance offends me."

Shocked to silence, Thomas could only watch Myka disappear behind the curtain again.

***

Gabriel was angry.

Leaving the chapel was the hardest thing he ever did. Gabriel wanted to snap Thomas' arm off and beat him senseless with it. A surge of heat swept over him, and he knew he had to get away from him. He fled to the bailey and went into the stables. He tore off his cloak and hung it over one of the stall doors. Most of the horses were out for exercise or grooming. He had the entire place to himself for a short time.

He paced, trying to clear his mind of the terrible images of Thomas suffering. He'd never been angry that he could recall. This driving desire to harm another person was foreign to him. For the first time in his life, he was truly afraid.

"You should have made your point."

Gabriel sighed at Myka stepping into the stable. "Why didn't you stop him? Or better yet, stop me?"

"Why? Nature took its course. If someone pulled you away, you would doubt your self-control."

Myka puffed absently on a long wooden pipe. Even in the darkness, Gabriel could see it was intricately carved. The dark gray smoke smelled sweet and earthy as it curled around the other man.

Gabriel sat down, crossing his legs on the wooden floor. "How do I deal with this? This anger?"

"Feel it. And don't condemn yourself for feeling it," Myka shrugged. "It comes as no surprise. That was what he wanted."

"Even in the graveyard, I wasn't angry. I knew if we stayed the Darklings would feast on us."

"Daniel will be Questioning you very soon, my boy. I have no doubt Thomas went to him straight away."

Gabriel climbed to his feet. "So be it. I have committed serious infractions."

Myka frowned at that but said nothing more. He melted into the darkness. Realizing he was alone, Gabriel laid his cloak over his arm and returned to his room.

When the bells rang for the evening meal, he reluctantly took his place among the others. He didn't taste his food and only responded when spoken to. He shook his head when Jeremiah leaned close to inquire into his odd mood.

"But you've said almost nothing."

"I've not much to say, Brother."

Jeremiah watched him for the remainder of the meal. When he couldn't take the scrutiny any longer, he rose, taking his trencher to the kitchen. He left it there less than half-finished.

In the hall, a page approached him fearfully. "F-f-father Daniel summons you," the boy stammered.

Gabriel nodded and followed the page to the same chamber he came to that long-ago morning to be Questioned. The boy kept looking over his shoulder as if he expected to find some horror in his wake. When he reached the chamber, the doors stood wide. Within, Daniel sat at the long table with all the other Fathers. Such Questioning was rare and only happened when a Hunter's Purity fell into serious doubt.

Thomas stood gloating at one end of the table. Gabriel kept his face smooth as he walked down the long red carpet and knelt before the Fathers.

"I've come as called to be Questioned."

"Rise and be at ease, Brother," Daniel said. His tone and his face were grim as Gabriel stood. "We have called this Questioning to consider the matter of your behavior since your solitary encounter with a Darkling."

"I was Questioned immediately following that encounter," Gabriel replied, "and found Pure."

Daniel bent a sharp frown upon him. "You were, indeed. Your recent actions, however, have caused us to revisit the matter."

"My recent actions include retrieving a Brother from harm."

"You came back to kill me yourself!" Thomas accused.

Gabriel felt anger building again and closed his eyes. He decided against answering such an outlandish statement. It could only end badly.

"Be silent, Thomas," Father Simon snapped. He sat to Daniel's right. "Gabriel. Tell us why you insisted on abandoning your last Hunt."

Gabriel took a deep breath and opened his eyes. "We were delayed riding out and arrived later in the evening than was prudent. In my experience, it is wiser to face the Darkling as he rises. Before feeding, they are not such a threat to a great number of skilled Hunters.

"By the time we staged, it was nearing midnight. The Darklings were already about. They would return only near dawn, and only after feeding."

"They, you say," asked Father Matthew. He sat near the far left of the long table. "How many were there?"

"Three, Father."

"And how did you know this, if you hadn't seen them rise?"

"While we staged, Jeremiah and I surveyed their crypt. I saw the footprints of three Darklings emerging from the crypt, one behind the other."

"Did you bring this fact to the Commander's attention?" Matthew inquired,

"I approached Thomas and advised him to call the Hunt. I told him there was no hope of success so late in the night."

"And what did he say?"

"Thomas dismissed me. He said he was leading the Hunt, and I should learn my place."

"Did you speak of your doubts to another?"

"Only to my own Commander, Jeremiah. Thomas overheard us and asked if I had something to share."

"And what did you say to that?" Father Malcolm sat to Daniel's left.

"I told him what I saw at the crypt. I showed them the prints I found."

"Why didn't you tell Thomas before how many Darklings you counted?"

"Thomas would not hear me any further. I was dismissed. I had no wish to be insubordinate."

"Yet that didn't stop you later," Daniel pointed out.

If possible, Thomas gloated even harder than before.

"When Thomas again refused to understand what I saw, and what it meant," Gabriel continued, "I told Jeremiah to call the Hunt."

"Why Jeremiah?" Malcolm asked. "Why not press your case with the Hunt Commander?"

"Thomas would not hear me," Gabriel said again. "Jeremiah understood what I saw. I have spoken such things to him on past Hunts, and he listened to me."

"So, you circumvented the Command hierarchy," Daniel denounced.

"I took the necessary action to spare my Brothers a failed Hunt," Gabriel calmly corrected.

"You were offered command," Matthew remarked. "Why didn't you take it?"

"I see Jeremiah as one the others will more readily follow."

"Yet you often advise him against taking a course he's planned," Malcolm reminded him.

"I advise him as his Second," Gabriel confirmed.

Daniel folded his arms and sat back in his chair. "You took your time recovering from the Hunt."

"No one pressed me, so I did not press myself."

"Are you fully recovered, then?" Simon asked.

"Quite well recovered, thank you, Father."

"Drop your cloak, Gabriel." Daniel stood away from the table.

"I will have a Witness."

Daniel stopped at the end of the table. "A Witness?"

"Any Hunter under Questioning may have a Witness."

"It is his right," Matthew murmured.